--Outside of Metal Gear Solid 4, Braid, and Williams Pinball, last year was a pretty big disappointment for me in terms of gaming. For one reason or another, I expected much much more from Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, and Star Wars: Force Unleashed. Even games I expected to like but not love (Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Guitar Hero World Tour) just didn't seem to grab me.

Not so much this year. Earlier in the year, Infamous and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars turned out much better than I'd anticipated, and things really kicked up recently. The last month and a half alone has seen The Beatles: Rock Band, Trials HD, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Splosion Man all launch and exceed my expectations. From what I've played of the Xbox 360 Williams Pinball Hall of Fame (in HD with leaderboards and three fantastic extra tables), that's another shoe-in for my personal Best of 2009. Then there's Scribblenauts, which I get more excited about every time I see it.

And there's still potential for a ton of holiday releases to add to the considerable list of 2009 highlights. I could see Demon's Souls, Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, Borderlands, Half-Minute Hero, Tekken 6, and Assassin's Creed II all being great games, and you've probably got a few more you're surprised to not see mentioned there. And once we get to 2010, there's all that delayed goodness!

I can't for the life of me remember the last time I was this excited by gaming's imminent future. It might have been when the Dreamcast launched.

--Kudos to the Beatles and their families for being a notorious pain in the ass for all licensors when it comes to preserving the band's legacy. You only have to look at the debacle that is Kurt Cobain singing Bon Jovi in Guitar Hero 5 to see why this sort of oversight is necessary.

While it's frustrating to pay extra for their albums and not be able to download anything from iTunes, playing The Beatles: Rock Band makes me realize the upside of all that hands-on concern. No offense to Harmonix, but there's no way this game would be as polished or show as much loving care and attention to detail if the Beatles' rightsholders didn't insist on it. This game is special, and Activision should be embarrassed for churning out its superficial band-specific Guitar Hero mods.

--Speaking of The Beatles: Rock Band, the Xbox 360 edition of the game comes with a code for a free Avatar T-shirt bearing the logo. I need someone to grab that, then get some screens of their Avatar shilling The Beatles: Rock Band on-stage in Guitar Hero 5. This is important, people.

--This week's PlayStation Network update features George Takei as a downloadable character in Pain. When Resident Evil 5 came out, I joked that Capcom should have sold downloadable races so people could customize their game's zombie ethnicities to match their own narrow-minded prejudices. I don't think there's anything wrong with Pain or anything sinister behind the developer's decisions, but I do wonder if a few people might be buying these extra characters for all the wrong reasons.

--The ESRB rated a Data East arcade game collection! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!! I've been waiting for one of these for years. Bad Dudes and Burger Time are confirmed. Now I'm holding out hope for Karate Champ, Fighters History, Two Crude, Bump 'N Jump, Midnight Resistance, Breakthru, Tag Team Wrestling, Lock 'N Chase, Kung Fu Master, Boulder Dash, Ring King, and maybe even the never-released Mortal Kombat rip-off, Tattoo Assassins.

My dream collection would include Captain America and The Avengers and Robocop, but stupid licensing issues will keep those from ever seeing the light of day again, I wager. Bah.

--While we're at it, Konami needs to release a comprehensive arcade collection, primarily for Sunset Riders and the assortment of Gradius-style shooters. But beyond those (and the somewhat moldy titles in Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits on the DS), there's a ton of interesting-looking titles in the company's arcade past, like Gaiapolis (anime-styled scrolling fighter), Haunted Castle (a sweet-looking arcade installment of Castlevania), Mikie (in which you play a high school vandal breaking property and yelling at teachers), forgotten fighter Martial Champion, and Mystic Warriors (a Sunset Riders-style game with ninjas). (The Simpsons and X-Men games get left off for the same irritating licensing issues mentioned before.)

I don't particularly care if an arcade collection has a bunch of games I remember fondly or even want to play. I love arcades, they're dying, and I want to see and play everything they had to offer while I can. You really don't need to do much to sell me on them. Make sure there's at least two legitimately great titles on there, make sure the emulation is enough to run the games in a playable state (arcade-perfect not a requirement) and beyond that pack in as wide a collection of fodder as you possibly can.

These are like museum pieces to me. I like to watch the evolution of arcade games and the publisher itself unfold as I play through them. I'm fascinated by the miniscule innovations brought to the table by even the most shameless of knock-offs, and by realizing what "classics" never warranted the title while finding obscure gems that deserved better fates.