A pending Happy New Year to those of us locked into the strict structure of the arbitrary Gregorian calendar.

We're ending the year with a bang, meaning the introduction of a new writer to Gamebits: Ethan Deneault. His first review, that of Gladius, is up. I hope to have more from him… someday.

In addition to two reviews, I've posted two other articles today. One is a summer guide to what in June I predicted to be the most popular games of the season. There's little purpose other than archival to be making it available online now, but the article's original publisher had a contractual six-month exclusive which expired earlier this month. The other article is a review of the film Terminator 3, which I wrote to coincide with the film's DVD release last month. This article marks my first official review of a movie not based on a video game. If that's not cause for celebration… well, it isn't.

E3 registration is now open. I don't remember such ever occurring the year before the show.

Game Informer recently previewed Fable, an RPG version of "This Is Your Life" or something. In the article, they hailed the graphical quality, noting that opaque windows is something gamers have tolerated for far too long, and their transparency in Fable is long overdue.

Am I the only one that thinks such superficial gushing is symptomatic of the video game industry progressing down the wrong path? As pretty as I'm sure Fable will be to look at, I have never worried much about peeking through my virtual neighbor's windows. If Fable proves to be as engrossing as it is foretold to be, then it should be praised for that, not some graphical minutia. Attending to such detail in lieu of gameplay, content, and storytelling will not evolve the medium or the market, and suggests a shallow audience satisfied with shallow games. That's not us… is it?

Happy December. Oh, the holidays - what madness! Alleviate the confusion with Gamebits' annual report on the best games of the year.