Over the past few weeks, thanks in no small part to help from the philanthropic Crispy, I’ve picked up used copies of some of the games everyone is always shocked that I didn’t buy eons ago in the misty prehistoric dawn of last year, or whatever.

Soul Calibur and Shenmue were two of the most glaring absences - dating as they do back to well before I had a Dreamcast, and I’ve had one now for something like two years, although that’s not entirely my fault. I ordered a used copy of Soul Calibur maybe a year ago. When it arrived and I gleefully settled in to get down and dirty with Sophitia, the god damned CD wouldn’t play and I was too irritated to bother returning it and bitching the seller out to get my eight dollars back. Shenmue I’d played at the homes of wiser Dreamcast owners than I, and there’s really no excuse for it taking until 2003 for me to have a copy. I’ve played a little of each since I got back to Brooklyn last week and I think I’m a better person for the experience, although it’s always funny to me how cheesy Dreamcast graphics look now, when it wasn’t so long ago that they were just about the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

On the advice of Simon and everyone else in the world, I also grabbed a $17 copy of Silent Hill 2 when I spotted it while Christmas shopping. I didn’t get a chance to touch it until this week, and I have to say I agree with the general consensus that it might just be the creepiest game in the entire world. The camera is a little irritating and the graphics a bit dated but that doesn’t stop it from being deliciously eerie, and now I’m positively lusting after SH3.

Although not an embarrassingly old game, I’m also glad to have my very own Vice City, which might be the best Christmas present ever. There really is nothing better than giving the gift of organized crime and eighties music. Most of my New Year’s Eve was spent in the depths of Vice City, and it hasn’t been easy to tear myself away from it since, although SH2 is now competing for my PS2 time.

All in all, I think I’ve got enough to keep me busy for the remaining two weeks of winter break - and oh yeah, I have work to do, too. But I mean really, mid-semester vacations were made for sprawling around in your pajamas playing video games half the day. (Or all day.)