Feature: cheap ways to spice up your gaming life during the slow months

After the mad rush of the holiday season, with so many of the year’s biggest guns (ahem, Gears of War 2, LittleBigPlanet, Left 4 Dead, need I go on?) behind us, it’s understandable that you’re probably a little bored right now. January and February have traditionally been a pretty slow time for releases, and that means you’ll have to get a little bit creative in order to keep things interesting in the meantime. But getting a little bit creative is what we do best, so we threw together a few tips that should keep you happily amused until March, when the trickle picks up again.

Throw a gaming party

I don’t mean just inviting a few gamer buddies over – throw a real party, and invite non-gaming friends too. Kotaku recently posted an excellent feature on how to throw a successful (and reasonably well-mannered) gaming party that will appeal to friends of all tastes (and genders.) Among the highlights:

“Do: Serve things that can be eaten quickly with one hand – usually during a loading screen (pizza rolls, hard candies, gamer grub).
Don’t: Serve anything that will leave stains on your controllers or splooge all over the floor (Cheetos, pizza, mochi ice cream balls).” And “Do: Make it a point to talk to everybody.
Don’t: Secretly hope that this will be the one day “that guy” doesn’t whip your ass in Halo and then do a victory dance around the living room. Because he will, and you invited him – so in a way, you’re just asking for it.”

Have a LittleBigPlanet design competition
This is a game that was absolutely built for longevity, and we all love a little competition among friends. Gather a group of buddies, appoint a judge, pick a theme (say, best recreation of Jurassic Park, or best interpretation of the infamous “Leroy Jenkins” battle – the wackier, the better), and let the building begin.

Play Through That giant “pile of shame”

Every gamer has a few (or a few dozen) great games that they always meant to play, but never got around to it. Now is the perfect time to pick up Psychonauts (hey, I finally played it during a lull last summer and it quickly rose to my all-time top five), or even a few golden oldies on the Virtual Console – Sin and Punishment, anybody?

Of course, you can always attack the games of last season – considering how long it takes to get through everything in Fallout 3, you may just be in that boat as well. Either way, here’s to a fun gaming season.

Read [Kotaku] Read [Giant Bomb]