You read gaming websites. You are up to date on the latest news, you know what's been announced, what's going to be announced (and the developers hate you for it) and what you need to buy day 1. This is a hobby, this is a routine, and put simply, awesome. Keep it that way.

I was the same way, and suddenly I fell out of the loop. I'm not sure why, but I went from knowing everything and being able to participate in interesting discussions on which was actually a more appealing system for a certain type of gamer, or what console had a better gaming lineup out now and upcoming...then one day I realized I hadn't gamed in forever and knew nothing about anything.

I logged on to Destructoid and found a bunch of titles I knew nothing about...and I got pissed!

Not seriously pissed, of course. Like, I wouldn't punch a wall or scream or anything...grunt, sure, but not scream. But it's frustrating, I loved playing games, I had fun keeping up on the gossip and politics of it all, and it was a daily routine. So how did I fall so far out of my hobby?

The fucking iPhone.

I don't have one anymore (I've either seen the light or fallen to the dark side, your pick), but I became consumed with iPhone games. Bought a handful a week, was desensitized into thinking it's "AAA" games like Modern Combat (lol) and Gangstar were actually good, and completely shunned my 360 along the way. I never even realized it was happening.

So now I'm back. I just picked up Modern Warfare 2, and while I'm a little flaky (the rumors are true, being awesome at MW1 or W@W does not, in fact, translate to insta-skills in MW2) I'm working on it. The issue now is I feel annoyed that I have no idea what games people are all drooling over in the near future, and have the backlog from hell. I'm mostly relying on Metacritic (not so much for the scoring but for it's release order) to see what I missed, and I'm going to need to spend some time on things like Halo:ODST (or is it OSDT? see!?), Brutal Legend, Dragon Age, some RPGs I was interested in and some lower-budget-but-still-might-make-a-fun-rental things like Velvet Assasin.

So my advice to you, dear reader and fellow gamer, is don't allow yourself to drift away from anything you really enjoy. It can be a little frustrating to realize how far out of the loop you've gone, and how much you've missed out on. I don't want this blog to be taken more seriously than I intended, I stopped playing games and keeping up with news and now I feel like I'm without a paddle jumping back in (I'm not losing sleep, I just really want my paddle back), but this could apply to anything you enjoy, and making time to catch up is a bitch.

S now, my question to you, what are a few of your favorite gaming experiences on 360 or Wii for the passed few months? And is there any crazy news brewing (like "Microsoft developing a motion controller!?" Pre-Natal announcement status)?