Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the States, which means we’re taking a break for a couple of days—but not before we open up our weekly thread for the discussion of weekend gaming plans and recent gaming glories. Like a lot of folks, including our own William Hughes and Nick Wanserski, I’ll be trucking through Nintendo and Game Freak’s latest Pokémon adventure. It just so happens to be a perfect Thanksgiving break game. It’s a portable and powerful time sink, useful for anyone who’s traveling home for the holiday, and if you’re lucky enough to have some like-minded family and friends around, it’s a wonderful social experience. I’ve been playing alongside my girlfriend, and beyond the obvious trading and battling, we’ve had a great time just swapping war stories, critiquing the fantastical new monster designs, and laughing at each other’s vocal frustrations over how stupidly hard it is to catch an Abra. Seriously, I walked around in circles for at least 90 minutes trying lock down one of those stupid things.