I realize in most of the rest of the free world Thanksgiving isn’t that big a deal. Here in the States, it is, and not just as a celebration of people managing to make it to the country where we now live without getting themselves killed, but as a chance to take time out to be thankful for what we have and to be with friends and family. So in that spirit, here is a list of things we are thankful for this Thanksgiving:

Mark Lampert, Sound Designer: I’m thankful to be in good health and working here on games like Fallout 3 and the Elder Scrolls series. It’s a lot of responsibility and folks here have seen fit to leave me at the wheel, so it’s an honor.

Jared Angus, QA Tester: I am thankful for my good health, my great job, my supporting family, and most of all my beautiful wonderful fiancée.

Nathan McDyer: I’m thankful that after almost 2 years I’m still on my first 360.

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I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for the long weekend. In the words of comedian Kevin James, Thanksgiving, man! Not a good day to be my pants.

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For a couple of weeks now, there’s been plenty of new games hitting the market that have had the office abuzz. Last week it was Call of Duty 4, and now this week we’ve got Super Mario Galaxy and Assassin’s Creed, which you’ll see folks are pretty excited about. Not only that, Ash and a few other guys have already started digging into Bioware’s Mass Effect. Earlier this week, a bunch of members from the team headed into the theater to get a peak at the game.

Speaking of games hitting early, there’s rumors that some guys at the office will be rocking to a new game very soon…

Chris Esko, Systems Programmer: Mass Effect (thanks, Microsoft!), Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero III

Ashley Cheng, Producer: Mass Effect

Jennifer Noland, QA: Super Mario Galaxy.

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For a number of folks at the office, the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been hugely anticipated. When a local GameStop got the game a little earlier than expected on Monday, I noticed plenty of guys fleeing from their desks at lunch. I hope they have plenty of time to play it this weekend, because with the holiday season in full gear, time is precious.

Here’s how we’re spending our weekend… 

Tim “Visor” Lamb, Associate Producer: Call of Duty 4

Aaron Mitschelen, QA: LotRO, Soul Nomad and the World Eaters, World in Conflict, Jean d’Arc, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, GrimGrimoire, Persona 3, Hellgate: London

Michael Lattanzia, QA: Way too much Hellgate: London, Team Fortress 2


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Yes Halloween won’t return for another 364 days (it’s a leap year), but Ricky Gonzalez and Fred “Fizzbang” Zeleny aren’t ready to put their costumes away just yet.

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If you read our “What we’re playing” blog posts that come out on Fridays, you’ve probably caught on that people at the office are in love with playing The Orange Box. There’s plenty of value, variety of gameplay, and yes, it even promises cake…so who wouldn’t love it.

While the Orange Box is probably most associated with Half-Life, many of folks here think the darling of the box is Portal. In fact, one of our Level Designers, Daryl Brigner, has created his very own level for the PC version of Portal, entitled Ren Test2.

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