Today I finished Burnout: Revenge, a crummy sequel to one of my favorite non-Mariokart racing games, Burnout 3: Takedown. I think it took me maybe twelve hours to complete?

Also: it wasn't challenging or particularly interesting. Meh.

Meanwhile, I'm a few hours into my $4 copy of Deus Ex: Invisible War and I have hopes.

Other than that, there are maybe three Xbox games I still have to try in order to exhaust this system: Obscure, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. And really, that's already scraping the bottom of the barrel.

(Oddity: the last two feel like "summer" videogames to me. I don't really know why they should, because I'm indoors either way. But there you have it: no superhero videogames after Labor Day.)

After that, I suppose there are a few games on Jenna's PS2 I might like to check out. My only qualm is that the logistics of playing a game on someone else's system can get a bit complicated.

Yes, there are still other barrels, those shiny new barrels everyone has been talking about.

However, as a solo gamer, I'm not sure a next-generation console would be worth getting even if I had the money. The Wii and I have some major philosophical differences — at least until someone comes up with an appropriate drinking game — and neither the Wii nor the Xbox 360 has enough interesting games right now for me to justify spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

We're talking about marginal utility here!