_Sometimes, getting free time to play games is a distant dream. Ironically, now that I work in the game industry, I find myself playing games far less than I want to. I'm around games all day, but making games and playing them are completely separate activities and copious overtime hours during crunch time ensure that I'm always left wanting.

Luckily, I've been able to adapt my play style to suit my long work hours in three easy steps!

1) Play more handheld games.
Handhelds are great because they give you the opportunity to game on the train, in bed before you fall asleep and even when you're watching a show or movie. Most handheld games these days are designed to provide fun in short bursts. Having a game that you can easily set down and pick up later for a quick session helps me satisfy my gaming itch.

2) Stick with a single game (Or as close to a single game as possible).
When you only play games for a few hours each week, it's best to keep things simple. Getting involved in too many games will ensure that you don't have enough time to fully appreciate any of them. Instead of starting a plethora of games at once, as I would if I had more time, I try to stick to one or two games until I've seen them through. I've resigned to the fact that there are way too many good games out there and I simply won't get to experience them all. I just have to stick with the games I'm currently playing and try to resist the call of every great game I have yet to play. It's not easy, but it's paramount in enjoying the little game time I have.

3) Sleep less! (But really... Don't follow this step)
This is the easiest step. If you want more time, sleep less! I'm an eight-hours-a-day kind of person, but I find that I can squeeze in an extra hour at night here and there without wearing myself out. In fact, getting less than 8 hours of sleep on some nights refreshes me. I end up getting too little sometimes, and I have yet to find the perfect sleeping rhythm, but I'll get there!

As you see, even when working overtime, there are ways to maximize your game time. I'm always working on my writing in my free time as well, so it's hard to balance everything, but actively planning out some time for games and coming up with your own methods of utilizing your time wisely will insure that you don't have to completely give up doing the things you like!

It's Cole's job to save a new city from being destroyed by the beast that he unleashed, but have his powers evolved enough to make Infamous 2 fresh? Check out the Infamous 2 review by clicking the link or pic.

2011 was an amazing year for games. The fall lineup alone was enough to keep gamers busy through the next year with an avalanche of excellent games like Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Dark Souls, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Batman: Arkham City, etc. Even without considering Dead Space 2, Portal 2, The Witcher 2 and all the other great games released earlier in the year, this was undoubtedly a high watermark in the history of gaming.

With the release of the 3DS, Nintendo sought once again to bring their unique flavor of games to the hands of gamers on the go. While the console had a rough start, games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 have finally begun to make it worthy of the DS name.

With so many great games released this year, it's hard not to wonder how next year will live up. Mass Effect 3 will no doubt start the season off right and Blizzard and Valve will be releasing multiple games each, an exciting prospect. Gamers will most likely be more worried about finishing the games they've started than waiting for the next big hit.

The PSVita promises to carve out its own space in the handheld market with its home-console visuals and robust PSN offerings (fingers crossed). It's off to a slow start in Japan, but, just like the 3DS, once the good games start hitting, it could be a runaway success.

What will E3 hold this year? If rumors are to be believed, we may see the unveiling of the next generation of consoles from Microsoft and Sony. The time seems right, but who knows what the giants of the industry have up their sleeves?

As great as last year was, 2012 will be bringing the heat. We're now in an age of diminishing downtime. With every platform offering an online store to buy frequently released bite-sized games, there's no longer a fear of waiting until the holiday season to be entertained. With the huge number of games coming out during the holidays, many are pushed back and moved forward, creating a more even distribution or releases throughout the year. The indie market is flourishing and driving creativity forward.

Whether 2012 fully lives up to 2011's gargantuan proportions or not, we're sure to see the industry moving forward in interesting ways.

It's been happening for years, but lately, the re-release of games from the past has become somewhat of a  trend. With an easy avenue for bringing retro games to gamers on the PSN and XBLA, game developers haven't been shy about giving their classics another go in the marketplace. Mobile devices like the 3DS, smartphones, and soon, the PSVita, have become viable platforms as well, capable of spreading remakes out to even wider audiences.

_The recycling of old games is a great way to expose new gamers to the landmark games in the industry's past. Providing additional incentives to play old games in the form of trophies, updated visuals, and additional content keeps everyone grounded in the history of the industry and allows those of us with a touch of nostalgia to revisit our past without cringing at outdated visuals or keeping twenty ancient systems stacked haphazardly on the entertainment center.

It's great that slightly less-played titles like Beyond Good and Evil and Oddworld: Strangers Wrath are getting a second chance in the market. Developers that simply slap a thin coat of paint on an old title and kick it out the door aren't to be commended, but many HD collections contain the definitive version of a game or compile a series of games into one package.

Movies are re-made and books are re-released, so why shouldn't games be updated for a new generation? It may seem like a simple way for developers to squeeze a quick buck out of an old franchise, and it does require less effort than developing an entirely original game, but it's hard to argue that revitalizing old classics is a bad thing, when done right.

As long as excellent packages like Ocarina of Time 3D, The Ico Collection, and The Metal Gear Solid Collection set the standard for re-released games, I'll spend money on my favorite games reborn.