Two weeks from now will be my birthday, I generally disregard these celebrations of encroaching responsibility, adulthood and incontinence in that order but a birthday means a game from my loving parents which as you can imagine is very very welcome. Two weeks from now will also be a five day weekend here which as you can imagine marries ecstasy with jubilation into a glorious package of sleep, food, gaming and absolutely everyone in my nation of residence carting them and their families off to faraway places to escape the "island fever" and return to a proper country where they have more meat than rice on the plate and people don't ask you if you want suits/massages/taxis and/or certain unpleasant diseases.

But as with my decision to get inFamous 2 (which was my best decision in gaming since I went out on a limb with Bioshock 2) I really would value your input on what I'm going to ask of my parents for the second-last birthday under their roof/benefitting from their subsidy. inFamous 2 showed me that the (vaguely) objective views of glorious public were more helpful than any number of reviews, blogs and forums for assisting me in my decision.

The cards I have down on the gaming table are listed below with my justification for each, as you probably know I'm terribly insecure so a brutally honest order to purchase a game coupled with an uproariously amusing joke will seal the deal from one of you and when I post my "First Impressions" you will be lifted high on the shoulders of… well, me really.

The options are (all on PS3):

DiRT 3: I've bought every DiRT title since the first in 2007, these games have been great to me and I'm a huge supporter of burgeoning British developer Codemasters who have never made a bad racing game to my knowledge. Adding to this, the graphics blow literally everything on a console out of the water.

The Orange Box (PC): I want it back at some point, my discount PC copy died, my 360 is dead and it keeps staying out of my reach.

L.A Noire: Aussie developer that promises to make a Rockstar game that isn't really a Rockstar game? Colour me intrigued. I'm a sucker for period piece films and detective novels so this is right up my alley.

Portal 2: Yes I've played Portal 2 on a friend's 360 but I feel I'm obliged to own this one. I watched half a walkthrough today and I can literally remember nothing of the puzzles after my exams so it's a clean slate too. Plus, methinks it is time to test for science with some of you.

A new video card: yes this isn't a game but usually I get around $100 in cash for stuff and a game costs around $100 here (we don't have purchasing power here) and that combined with a little of my own money means a shiny GTS 450 to run SLI with my existing one. The 450 is actually one of the few DX11 cards that almost double in performance when you run two side-by-side

It's not that I can't make the decisions on my own but I feel that I spend plenty of time talking at you, forcing my opinions and experiences without really taking on what you think on the level that I would like. Keep in mind this is two weeks from now but I only have single week before I'm carted off in the name of "camp" to some tropical hell with more diseases than people.

Give me your thoughts. Which games do you have? If you have them then are you available for some online-ness because I still haven't managed much time playing with many of you. I have relatively absolute faith (an oxymoron I know) in your critical facilities and joke archives. You guys know what I value: quality content and lots of it if possible. I'll definitely be reviewing the game so if you want to read a review for a particular game then factor that one in.

This was adam1808 being democratic (loosely)