Everything in this world has its Grinch.

The community has Shane86, the staff has Shanghai “I need more articles” Six, and SG as a whole has Rothbart.  But you know what’s been Saint Mantooth’s Grinch this Christmas season? Demon’s Souls!

Demon’s Souls stole my Christmas!

See what video games Demon’s Souls threw out along with the 3-year-old fruitcake this holiday season…

On October 7th, I took a huge leap of faith when I purchased Demon’s Souls.

I remember hearing about the game months prior to that and how it was being received rather well in Japan.  Fast forward to the beginning of October, my brother asked if I was going to pick it up.  Up to that point, I had completely forgotten about the game.  After watching a couple of YouTube videos, I decided that I was going to pick it up.  After searching every video game retailer in my area and fighting for a week to secure a copy because it was selling like hot cakes, I finally got my dirty little hands on it.

Three words: A-Maz-Ing.

This game had me hooked from the very first minute.  The game play is fun, the bosses are wicked, and the game is unforgiving.  I had been waiting a long time for a game like this to come around.  Something that could fill the empty void in my life, to resuscitate the dead gamer that I had become.

But I think it’s gone too far.

I’ve sunk about 60 hours into the game so far, which to some people is not that much at all, but to me, where I’m a family man working full time, going to school full time, raising a family, and working on getting my own business up and running, video game time is scarce.  It’s all I ever play when I have time to turn on my PS3.  I can’t stop.  It’s a sickness. I have two new games I’ve acquired since I purchased Demon’s Souls, one of which is still in the plastic wrap and the other saw about 1 hour of game play before I went back to Demon’s Souls.

So, how is this ruining my Christmas? Here’s a list of games that earlier in the year I was very excited for their release, yet once they came I haven’t given them the attention I was planning on, all because of this one game.

• Dragon Age
• Assassins Creed 2
• Modern Warfare 2 (I at least rented this one..)
• Uncharted 2
• FIFA 2010
• Borderlands

All of these games were last quarter releases, all candidates for Christmas presents… yet I’m not going to bother with any of them.  I don’t want them.  I know that if I purchase Assassins Creed 2, it’s going to sit in my game cabinet untouched.  Modern Warfare 2… what’s that? I bought Uncharted 2 and have a whole multiplayer world to explore and enjoy, yet I can’t find the desire within me to do it.  Every time I grab another game to play, I find myself stopping in my tracks and going back to my ever faithful Demon’s Souls.  Because of this, this will be the first Christmas in years that I haven’t received a video game as a gift.

Demon’s Souls stole Christmas.