It's that time of the year when the marketing machines of game companies start moving in to a higher gear again after the holidays - the result is a lot of events to attend.

I spent last Thursday and Friday in the company of Paradox Interactive as they kicked off the year with their annual convention. Tomorrow, I'm taking a look at EA's free-to-play titles and Friday sees me looking at Mass Effect 3 and Syndicate. In between, I'm visiting a couple of independent developers and Monday has been pegged for a Prototype 2 event.

Lots to do, but lots of fun. Naturally, Mass Effect 3 has me giddy with excitement, but there is a lot more to be excited about during this stacked first quarter.

Events are typically somewhat force feeding us with your typical PR spiel, but sometimes video interviews are a way to get away from that. It's harder to just repeat PR lines when you're asked a question with a camera filming you and a mic shoved in your face. Not that we're trying to unearth any dirty secrets, but getting relaxed and honest answers are often desirable for all parties involved. Anyway, you can look forward to a lot of stuff coming online over the next couple of weeks.

Pictured: Yours truly hunched over his laptop at the Paradox Interactive Convention outside of Stockholm.

A new year brings with it the opportunity for a fresh start and a chance to review your path in life, or so they say. I don't think you need to get a new calendar to do those things, but fair enough, it's always good to reflect. And I think a week or so off work for the three of us on staff here at Gamereactor UK will provide plenty of new ideas and improved ways of doing things we do day-to-day.

I haven't spent all that much time playing games, but I've probably put another 20 hours or so into Football Manager 2012 and Skyrim over the break. I'm actually thinking of going for a perfect gamerscore with Skyrim, it's not that difficult (albeit time consuming) and hopefully I won't tire of it before it's done.

January also means a lot of planning. On a personal note I'm moving to a larger apartment, but as far as Gamereactor goes it's the perfect time to look over what events to prioritise for this calendar year. As I spend a lot of time making sure GRTV gets the best possible interviews, and the changing winds as events like PAX and Comic-Con grow in importance are being noted. Hopefully, we'll attend both of those events this year. Nothing beats E3, of course, and Gamescom and GDC always provide us will solid amounts of content. How will TGS play out this year? Who knows... we'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, I hope all of your breaks were just as refreshing as mine - and now I just need to shake away those lingering mementos from the new year's eve party and I'll be back to full strength.

PopCap Games have been making some adjustments to their Bejeweled offerings on AppStore. The old trusted Bejeweled 2 + Blitz has been removed (you can still play it if you've got it), and replaced with Bejeweled (based on Bejeweled 3 with three modes - classic, zen and diamond mine) and the free and micro-transaction based Bejeweled Blitz.

Blitz is a favourite game mode of mine - use crazy multipliers to get the highest possible score in 60 seconds - and the free app is essentially the same version of the game as it was previously. Some tweaks have been made, and for some reason I can't reach stats through the app (maybe it's kept on Facebook or something?!?).

As far as the new Bejeweled goes, I'm not that much into Diamond Mine anymore, even if it is a well crafted game mode. Hopefully, PopCap will bring out some other modes from Bejeweled 3 to AppStore down the line. I'd love to see Lightning for instance.

The headline pretty much says it all. Games make great gifts, and if you're well informed you can pick up great gaming gifts on the cheap this time of year. While, most parents canvass the latest releases for fitting gifts, I'm the uncle who spots one or two older but brilliant games that may very well steal some of the attention away from FIFA, Modern Warfare, Battlefield, Halo and all the usual suspects.

I just picked up Deus Ex: Human Revolution and L.A. Noire for £10 each at Play.com's seasonal sales. Great gifts. And there is more. Got a kid looking for a racing game? Don't go the latest Need for Speed, but rather look for last year's Hot Pursuit - it's a better game and you will find it at a better price. We're at that point of the generation where there's an abundance of great slightly older games available.

But there are also digital gifts. Picking up a few extra copies of games on Steam and gifting them to friends at Christmas is a great way of getting your friends in on multiplayer titles they would otherwise overlook (while at the same time reminding them you care).

There are lots of options, but games are just a perfect fit for the holidays as people have plenty of time to experience them. And giving a game to someone who was expecting something entirely different can also be a great thing (although a bit risky).

Anyway, canvass the online shops for good deals on great games (there are plenty of cheap crap as well, so steer clear of that) - and stock up.

Got tasked with writing another blog entry today, and quite frankly forced myself into writing about something other than Skyrim. I'm still enjoying that frozen frontier tremendously.

But my other addiction this winter is Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2012. I've managed to keep a lid on my addiction the last couple of seasons, but I'm already closing in on a hundred hours for FM2012. I'm at 38 per cent achievements unlocked, even if I'm not really setting my sights on completing all of those.

Anyway, I'm mainly playing as the manager of my favourite Swedish club AIK - and this is where I've noticed some weaknesses in the concept. Since, the Swedish league is something of a backwater league it is hard to keep players happy even if you're having reasonable success in Europe and you have the money to pay what they feel they deserve. Therefore, I'm pretty much stuck in an eternal loop of constant rebuilding as the stars I've fostered go for a bigger challenge (even if it that means joining a club we just sent out of the Europa League). In a way it is realistic, and the real issue here is that I'm playing the game as if I was the club, not the manager. Having achieved success in a smaller country realistically I should be looking abroad for a bigger club to manage.

It's an interesting dilemma, and one that often hits sandbox type games. How do you present interesting content and challenges to a player who may not be driven by the same motivation as most? The solution in the case of FM2012 is simple - go into the data editor and raise the reputation of your favourite small time club. But that's also cheating...