Played a bunch of videogames lately.

• Mass Effect: One word: Awesome. Best CRPG I have played in a long time, only topped by its sequel.
• Mass Effect 2: Beyond awesome; an absolute must.
• Solar 2: Beautiful. Kind of cool. But also a little too hard, and fairly pointless. A toy rather than a game. Buy it cheaply.
• Civilization 5: Good evolution of the franchise, way too buggy. Wait another year, then buy a discount version when the glaring stability issues have been fixed (hopefully).
• Dwarfs! Very fun but a little on the simplistic side. Again, buy it cheaply.
• Plants vs Zombies: One of the best Tower Defense games ever. Must have.
• Universe at War: Earth Assault: Very fun, but crashes so often it is a definite “do not buy”.
• Nexus: The Jupited Incident: Old game, looks like publisher is defunct. The game is a space strategy sim a little similar to Homeworld. Very fun game so far.
• Torchlight: Fun Diablo clone. Buy it cheaply.

Of these, you absolutely must get the two Mass Effect games. Play part 1 before the sequel, even if the sequel is vastly superior: Many of your choices in ME1 will affect quests and conversations in ME2.