Autumn is a big time for gaming. All of the Triple-A releases come out during those three months, with the occasional title jumping early like Oklahoma settlers, hitting the last two weeks of August.

The last two years, Autumn has made for a bunch of tough decisions for me. Last year especially.I had so many tough choices to make (as detailed here and here) that I had to cut a bunch of them out. I've picked up three of them this year (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Rage and Crysis 2) and will be buying the Skyrim game of the year edition when it eventually comes out. 

Game Informer recently published a list of games coming out this Fall, though, and I have to say that I'm not going to have that problem this year. First time in a while.

That's not to say that any of these are bad games. I know there's a bunch of interest and anticipation for Halo 4, Darksiders 2, and others. But for me?

Colour me underwhelmed.

Last year I limited myself to four titles among a huge list. This year, I can only find four titles that I am actually really anticipating. So my choice is easy. And one of them wasn't even on my list until recently.

I'll take these in scheduled order.

Borderlands 2 (September 18)

(Thanks to Loud-Mouthed Gamers)

I loved the first game, though I did find that single-player got a bit tedious and repetitive after a while. I may have to do this one co-op a bit more often. Anyone getting this on the Xbox that may want to do that?

It looks like it has tons of personality, and as the trailer says, bazillions of guns! How can you go wrong with that?

Bad Guy: "Is that a rocket launcher in your pants or are you just happy to see me?"

Bandit: *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Bad Guy: "Ouch. Guess that was a rocket launcher.* (said as he splinters into 50,000 pieces)

XCom: Enemy Unknown (October 9)

(Thanks to GameFreaks)

Ever since I read the Game Informer preview of this game, I've been greatly anticipating it. I love turn-based games, giving a rest to my twitch reflexes (get your mind out of the gutter). I never played the original XCom games on the PC, but I've heard enough about them that I'm stoked for this one. Everything in Game Informer's preview just added to that feeling. 

Here's Game Informer's hub of articles about the game.

I'm anticipating this one as much as I was my first date in college. Then again, a second date never happened, so I hope this one has better results.

Assassin's Creed III (October 30)

(Thanks to Gaming Bolt)

The next evolution in the Assassin's Creed series! I'm interested to see what two years (or is it three?) of development by the original Assassin's Creed II developers will bring us. I'm intrigued by the Revolutionary War setting and how much of the action is going to be out in the wilderness. I've been a big fan of the series, and while Revelations was mildly disappointing (I did enjoy it, but it's the worst of the last three, definitely), this one promises to take the franchise in a whole new direction, and I'm really anticipating it. 

I'm also greatly anticipating the new story with a new protagonist. Ezio was cool, but he was getting old (both figuratively *and* literally...he was so spry!). This is the kind of game I have been getting for my PS3 (I try to avoid FPS games on the PS3 and get other types of games instead, with a couple of exceptions), but since I've done all the other ones on Xbox, I'll probably do that for this one as well.

I'm waiting for the first review panning the game that starts out with "Playing Assassin's Creed III was like taking a tomahawk to the head: eye-opening."

CoD: Black Ops 2 (November 13)

(Thanks to Gaming Blend)

This is the game that I was going to leave off my list. I still enjoy the franchise, but I'm finding that I'm playing less and less of the multiplayer with each iteration, and I figured there would be enough Fall titles that I would rather want instead. Turns out not to be the case.

Even if it were, though, I may still have been getting it. I love the promise of things like branching storylines, extra missions whose success or failure will affect the story, and things like that. It will be interesting to see how they end up implementing all of this, as well as the multiplayer. They've got me on board for at least one more iteration of the franchise.

(Cue the CoD haters' gnashing of teeth in 5.....4......3......2......1)

BINGO!

And that's it. Nothing else is screaming out at me to buy it early. I may very well end up buying Far Cry 3 and Dishonored later, maybe in the new year, depending on reviews and maybe depending on what I have time for (Bioshock: Infinite, potentially The Last of Us (does that have a release date yet?) and the likely Grand Theft Auto V may inhibit that).

So after last year's anticipation, I find myself not bothering that much this year. I am really looking forward to the games above, but no hard decisions are having to be made this year.

My wallet does not share my laid-back attitude, of course. It's spending as much as it did last year, so it's not happy.

How about you?

(bonus points for those of you who understand why one of the tags was included, but you may have to be "of an age" to get it)