Poorly Timed Releases

Though I made initial headway into Far Cry 2 and Dead Space, since Fallout 3 arrived it has consumed all the attention I can spare. I'm about 38 hours into the game and have reached the level 20 experience cap (Which I didn't know existed until after I was at level 19) and I think I'm maybe midway through the main quest. But without the reward of further character advancement some of the combat and exploration has lost some of its appeal. I can understand why the cap is there; I have amassed quite an arsenal and I am already pretty much a walking death machine, I can only imagine how broken and imbalanced it would seem if I could continue to make my character even more deadly. Though I think it should be stressed that I am criticizing a game for getting a little stale after thirty-eight hours of playtime.
The release of Gears of War 2 today does not make things more convenient, neither does the release of Mirror's Edge in five days nor the full version of Left 4 Dead in ten days. I may hold off on Mirror's Edge until the PC version but found the demo that was released to be compelling, the controls simple enough that falling to your death or missing a jump will almost always be the result of poor timing and not control confusion or lack of responsiveness. By all accounts it seems that Gears of War 2 improves on all aspects, and I really enjoyed the original, but that's another game I may have to put off for a while.
The official demo for Left 4 Dead has been released a few days early to those that pre-ordered the game, and you would be safe to assume I was one of those. I'll have more to say about the game later, but I'll throw this up for now:



-K.