It's November now, and that means the Christmas game avalanche has succeeded in overrunning our wallets and weekends. Throughout the year, many licensed games are released based off the latest Disney or blockbuster film, but it's that time of year where the rest of the licensed games are rushed out for the oblivious soccer mom. Many non-casual gamers consider getting a licensed game as a present to be a bit of a nightmare, as they have a reputation of being, well, crap. Part of this is because their development timelines are squished to make sure the game is released either at the same time as the film, or for Christmas.

So as a celebration of the season of licensed games, the First Hour will be playing a lot of them. Some will be good, and some will undoubtedly be bad. Not all are based off films though, there will be an interesting mix, I hope we can surprise you with what's been released over the last few years.

Paul will be kicking it all off with three first hour reviews of three different Lord of the Rings games. The films were monstrously popular so the games licensed from them were inevitable. You may be surprised to know that The Fellowship of the Ring game was not based off the film, but the Tolkien novel. This is where licensing can get a bit complicated, if not intriguing. But I'll save those thoughts for another day.

Enjoy the month of November at the First Hour, and stay away from those licensed games! Well, most of the time at least.