Fall is always the worst for me.  I usually have about 3-4 MMO’s I am playing or beta testing at the same time, in addition to all the new PC and console games that come out before the Christmas season – my plate is pretty full in the Fall.  But it seems that this Winter I am going to be very busy on my Playstation 3, so I hope you all have your PS3′s in top form, because they are going to get a lot of use starting today and leading into spring.  Five HUGE games, starting today with the release of Final Fantasy Origins for the PSN and culminating with the release of Mass Effect 3 on March 6th, are going to keep us all very well occupied – and give you a great excuse to stay indoors on those cold Canadian winter nights!

Final Fantasy Origins - January 10th

Finally coming to PS3, are the games that started it all, some fifteen years and thirteen games ago.  The classics Final Fantasy I and the original Japanese Final Fantasy II (remember, the North American FFII is actually FFIV), have been repackaged as Final Fantasy Origins.  The updated versions sport new and improved graphics and sound and some CG movies interspersed in the game-play.  For any fan of the series, you may already have these titles in another format, such as PSP, but playing it on your big screen is enough for me to buy this right away.

Soulcalibur V – January 31st

The classic fighting game Soulcalibur returns with Soulcalibur V and sees the return of some of your favorite characters from past games, and the introduction of some new ones.  Certainly the coolest addition to this edition of Soulcalibur is the addition of Ezio Auditore of Assassin’s Creed as a playable character in the game.  Along with new characters comes a slight re-vamp to the guard systems.  This is a go-to game for fighting fans and is a title that sells well every time out.  If you are a fan of the genre, this is another must buy for the winter.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 – January 31st (pre-order this NOW from Future Shop!)

After a generally disappointing showing, Final Fantasy XIII is getting a second life if you will with the introduction of Final Fantasy XIII-2.  Set a number of years after the conclusion of FFXIII, XIII-2 is the story of Serah and her new friend Noel, as they set out to find her sister Lightning, who is missing.  With the game, Square Enix sought to improve on some of the more obvious deficiencies of the previous title by making the game less linear overall and introducing a number of features that people have come to associate and love about Final Fantasy titles such as Chocobos and (gasp!) towns.  Players are able to travel through time, both as part of missions, and in general to explore and re-do missions.  As a result of finishing a mission differently a second time, the player may also change the outcome of future events in the game.  The game has been out for a few weeks in Japan already is a hit seller.  In my opinion, this is the Final Fantasy XIII we were waiting almost 5 years for – its just a shame we had to wait another 2 after the original FXIII to come out to really experience a great Final Fantasy on the Playstation 3.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – February 7th (pre-order this NOW from Future Shop!)

There were two games that utterly blew my mind at E3 in 2011.  One was Skyrim, the other was this title: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  The first title to be developed by the Curt Schilling owned 38 Studios, Reckoning boasts an all-star lineup of developer talent to be matched with the fabled teams from Bioware, Square Enix and Bethesda as one of the top in the industry.  The head writer is none other than the legendary fantasy writer R.A Salvatore, the lead artist is Canadian Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame.  If those two names weren’t enough to get any RPG fan flocking to pre-order, the lead developer is Ken Rolston who was the lead designer for arguably two of the greatest open-world RPG games ever: Oblivion and Morrowind.  This game features combat that is strikingly similar to a God of War style, with quick, action based moves and fast-paced combo attacks.  There is also a robust crafting and character development system and of course incredible graphical detail and animations.  To make what seems awesome even better, Reckoning is just the beginning of a much larger picture that 38 Studio’s is cooking up, with an MMO in the works based on the same story.  If Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is not a front runner for game of the year in 2012, I will be completely stunned.

Mass Effect 3 – March 6th (pre-order this NOW from Future Shop!)

Believe it or not, I wasn’t a fan of Mass Effect 1.  I’m not 100% sure why to be honest, and I haven’t had the time to go back in re-play it to see if my mind has changed.  My dislike of 1 though, did not stop me from playing, and absolutely loving Mass Effect 2.  The game-play, the story, the choice, the world and travel, all made ME2 pretty much my game of the year in 2010.  So with that in mind, I am very excited for ME3 and the continuation of the Mass Effect story.  I am also excited about the addition of a multi-player mode to the game – I think this will bring a lot of people into the series and add a whole new dimension of replay-ability to the game.  If there is any game that will give Reckoning a run for its money for game of the year, it will have to be Mass Effect 3.