Gamertell

After the mad rush of the holiday season, with so many of the year’s biggest guns (ahem, Gears of War 2, LittleBigPlanet, Left 4 Dead, need I go on?) behind us, it’s understandable that you’re probably a little bored right now. January and February have traditionally been a pretty slow time for releases, and that means you’ll have to get a little bit creative in order to keep things interesting in the meantime. But getting a little bit creative is what we do best, so we threw together a few tips that should keep you happily amused until March, when the trickle picks up again.

Throw a gaming party

I don’t mean just inviting a few gamer buddies over - throw a real party, and invite non-gaming friends too. Kotaku recently posted an excellent feature on how to throw a successful (and reasonably well-mannered) gaming party that will appeal to friends of all tastes (and genders.) Among the highlights:

“Do: Serve things that can be eaten quickly with one hand – usually during a loading screen (pizza rolls, hard candies, gamer grub).
Don’t: Serve anything that will leave stains on your controllers or splooge all over the floor (Cheetos, pizza, mochi ice cream balls).” And “Do: Make it a point to talk to everybody.
Don’t: Secretly hope that this will be the one day “that guy” doesn’t whip your ass in Halo and then do a victory dance around the living room. Because he will, and you invited him – so in a way, you’re just asking for it.”

Have a LittleBigPlanet design competition
This is a game that was absolutely built for longevity, and we all love a little competition among friends. Gather a group of buddies, appoint a judge, pick a theme (say, best recreation of Jurassic Park, or best interpretation of the infamous “Leroy Jenkins” battle - the wackier, the better), and let the building begin.

Play Through That giant “pile of shame”

Every gamer has a few (or a few dozen) great games that they always meant to play, but never got around to it. Now is the perfect time to pick up Psychonauts (hey, I finally played it during a lull last summer and it quickly rose to my all-time top five), or even a few golden oldies on the Virtual Console - Sin and Punishment, anybody?

Of course, you can always attack the games of last season - considering how long it takes to get through everything in Fallout 3, you may just be in that boat as well. Either way, here’s to a fun gaming season.

Read [Kotaku] Read [Giant Bomb]