Today is Friday. There are songs dedicated to this fact. Today is also the first day of the month of Shameless Gaming.

To kick the month off, let’s have a look at how I shall try to approach this month long gaming marathon.

By my (probably erroneous) count, there are twenty-five games in my pile of shame. They range from Sonic and the Secret Rings to Valkryia Chronicles to Lego: Batman. Some may consider that an excessive amount of unfinished games, others might think that it is a insignificant mound compared to their colossal collection.

Really, that’s not the point. It isn’t the size of your pile of shame that matter but what you do with it. More specifically, what you manage to remove from it.

Having fun is optional, although recommended.

Completing all twenty-five games in a month may take a better man than me, especially if I plan on still having a job at the end of the month.

Being more ambitious than I probably have any right to be, there are five games that I will focus on playing first before moving on to the rest of my pile of shame.

The first of these is Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves (PS3). I said that I would kick this month off by playing a game from start to finish in a single marathon session and sought the opinion of the masses. The masses decreed that I play Uncharted 2.

So tonight, I shall attempt to make myself both very comfortable and very caffeinated, so that I can see if this game could possibly as good as the reviews suggest.

Also, it’s an excuse to say “Dude Raider” many times, who can pass up on that?

Next on the list is Darksiders (360), a game that seems to be an amalgamation of Legend of Zelda, God of War, Prince of Persia and every other Action/Adventure title of note from recent memory. It even has a Navi-esque character played by Mark Hamill. How could it possibly not be awesome?

To try and get a head start on this month, I started playing Darksiders earlier this week. It isn’t cheating because the rules for the Shameless Gaming month are deliberately ill-defined.

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC/Mac) is also one of the games that I have been playing recently. Someone, somewhere linked my to Husky’s YouTube channel and from there it became inevitable that I would play this. After about a week, the inevitable happened and I found a copy of Starcraft 2 in my possession.

Shortly after reviewing Trauma Center: Under the Knife, I stumbled across a used copy of Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) just lying there begging to be purchased. This was one of the games I was eagerly awaiting before the release of the Wii. Shiny new motion sensing technology being showcased in a remake of one of my favourite games? How could I not buy it immediately?

Well, the answer is simple. It took too bloody long to be released in Australia. By the time it reached our fair shores, I had lost interest in the Wii and simply wasn’t interested in playing doctor. Time to correct that mistake.

The final title that I have decided to focus on is Dead Space (360). There isn’t any particular reason this game is getting more attention than others in my pile of shame, I just want to play it.

That’s the level of reasoning actually required to make this sort of decision.

Now that you know some of the games that I’ll be playing, feel free to let the world know of what games you’ll be playing in the comments.