Right. So I’m completely in love with the latest rachet and clank game. I got it a few days after its release a couple of weeks ago and have been playing almost every night. It’s basically perfect – balanced gameplay, a graphics engine tuned to PS2 perfection, and the right mix of platforming and satisfying shootemup action. If you have a PS2 and enjoy action platformers, you owe it to yourself to get this game.

It also got me musing about this console generation – this christmas is basically it on this generation, it’s at the height of its market power, and christmas is the height of the gaming season. They’ll still be selling games for the current console generation next christmas, but they’ll also be developing and marketing games for the next generation systems – xbox2 will supposedly be released by then, as will (possibly) the nintendo successor to the Gamecube, and Sony is making noise about making sure Microsoft doesn’t beat them to market (though most of the gaming journalists don’t believe them).

Anyway, even if NONE of the consoles make it out by next Christmas, what won’t be here next christmas is sequels to all the big games – those are all targeted at next generation consoles. This by no means indicates that no more good games are coming for the current generation – history tells us that some of the more interesting and innovative games come out at the end of console’s lifespans as the developers have basically perfected their tools – but it does mean no more (or very few) blockbuster titles are coming. This is it, they’ve spent their development load, so to speak, and are moving on to other platforms. There’s a side benefit to this – if you think this January/February is great for a huge library of discount priced games (sub-$20), just wait till next year. Meanwhile, enjoy it this year. Me? As soon as I finish Rachet and Clank I’m grabbing the latest Jak and Daxter game, which judging by the reviews is almost as good as Rachet and Clank.