In an hour, it’ll be December here on the East Coast, and I’m amazed. I guess I say this every year, but 2008 in particular really seems to have flown by, and it’s hard to believe that it’ll all be over in just thirty-one days. It’s been another wonderful year in videogames, with such top-tier releases as DMC 4, GTA IV, MGS 4, and L4D (that’s a lot of fours!). As I said earlier today, there’s one more to go -- Prince of Persia will be out on Tuesday, December 2nd here in North America -- and then, the requisite Game of the Year frenzy will officially begin.

Of course, we here at Destructoid will have our very own year-end shenanigans, including Gaming Icons from Jim and all kinds of listmania from Chad (among a number of other features). Be sure to keep an eye out for them all!

Oh, right, this post is supposed to be about the games we played this week, not the turning of the calendar (I just needed an excuse to post a picture of Keeley Hazell -- sue me). Hit the jump for that junk.

Brad Rice: Final Fantasy Tactics, since I’m never in the house ’till 2am.

Colette: The Last Remnant, which you can expect a review for soon, but let’s just say that it continues a disturbing trend of releasing broken games, and some PixelJunk Monsters and Mainichi Issho to unwind. I got Chrono Trigger DS, but I haven’t had time to dig into it yet!

Nick: Been pushing through the PlayStation 3 version of Prince of Persia, which I can’t say too much about until Tuesday. Also have been playing Castlevania Judgment, Sonic Unleashed, and Tomb Raider: Underworld. I don’t know what else I can say without giving away things I’d say in my reviews so ... pork chop sandwiches.

Samit: I finished the Beat and Fill Trainers in Rock Band 2, though I only got a Trophy for the latter -- I’ve got to go back and complete a few of those beats. Otherwise, it’s been all NHL 09, all the time, except for Friday night; a bunch of us were hanging out at a friend’s house, where we took turns playing Uncharted (I remembered how much I love that game), the Mirror’s Edge demo (fun!), and the Dead Space “Dismemberment” demo (holy crap, it’s hard!). My friend also popped in Valkyria Chronicles to show me what it’s like; though the game’s not for me, it certainly looks unbelievably amazing (art style-wise), and I’m sure it deserves all the praise it’s been getting.

Dale: Persona 4. I am in RPG love.

Jonathan: Spent a lot of time with fighting games this past week. Castlevania Judgment is a lot better than I thought it would be, but that’s not saying a lot because I thought it was going to be garbage. On the flip-side, I’m fairly disappointed with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. I appreciate the effort, but this game just looked better when it was sprite-based. Pixel-based images and handmade drawings require vastly different animation methods when put into motion. This is a fact that the developers of SSF2THDR just couldn’t work around, resulting in a game that looks great in stills, but like crap when you play it. Still, it’s Street Fighter, so it’s got that going for it.

Also playing Animal Crossing: City Folk, which should have been called Super Animal Crossing 2 Turbo HD Remix. Should have the review done for early next week.

Orcist: I wrapped up Ninja Gaiden II for the second time, and spent a lot of time playing FIFA 09 with my brother. Oddly enough, Fable 2 Pub Games is kind of fun at a party. You get a lot of people telling you how to bet, cheering when you win big and laughing at you when you bust.

I also played a lot of XBLA DRM -- that game sucks. Also, the Castle Crashers erase-all-your-data glitch mini-game doesn’t really add much to the core experience -- seems a little superfluous to me.

Jim: I have been allowing Left 4 Dead to grow on me. It left me kind of cold at first, but I’m really getting the swing of it now. Playing with Grim and Brad and a bunch of others this week was cool. I also finally was able to play my old review copy of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit now that I have an American Xbox 360 to play it on. I’m not going to review it, but I will say that the word “darn” is used an amusing amount of times.

Otherwise, it’s mostly been Sonic Unleashed. As my review states, it does so many awesome things, but way too much of it is broken for the good stuff to stand out. It’s a real shame because Sonic Team proves it can make a good game, before ruining everything.

Oh, and I played some Assassin’s Creed. I think it put me into a short coma, it was so boring.

Justin: Just a bit of Yggdra Union and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.

Husky: Now that I’m out of my World of Warcraft grind to 80, I suppose I can contribute to this thread in a productive manner, even though the games I’ve been playing came out the same week as Wrath of the Lich King. Mirror’s Edge has done a good job of consuming most of my spare time, although I accidentally shot a gun and my pause screen no longer informs me I’ve never shot one... even though I shut off my console immediately after the alleged shooting... I’m not too happy about that. I’ve been playing Gears of War 2 on and off, but I’m looking to find somebody I can play co-op with, as playing that game alone never really appealed to me.

Grim: I’ve pumped a few hours into Left 4 Dead every day since I bought it, and it’s still not boring ... yet. Why only two of the four campaigns are playable in versus is beyond me. The other time-waster for me this week was A Kingdom for Keflings, which is way more fun than it ought to be.

Chad: Ah, the best gaming weekend of the year. I actually take playing videogames on Thanksgiving weekend so seriously that I plan far in advance which games I am going to play -- only the best of the best make the cut. In the past, the luxurious four-day weekend has hosted classics such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Psychonauts, and Half-Life 2. What did I play this year? The honor goes to ... *drum roll* ... LittleBigPlanet and Fallout 3. Two great games, one fantastic weekend!

Jim: Chad, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve been watching Drawn Together and you look and sound exactly like Xandir.

Chad: Hahaha. I do have all of these outfits. :)