As ColdForged has noted, there are a lot of games hitting the shelves now-ish, just in time for the holiday season.

Desiree picked up Zoo Tycoon 2 over the weekend (which, oddly, appeared as though it had a “stealth” launch) and it seems to be good if you were a fan of the original.

Today there’s that little obscure indie game, Half-Life 2, plus its brother-in-technology Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. (If you were wondering, I’ll probably get Bloodines before HL2, now that I know the only multiplayer component for HL2 is Counterstrike: Source.) The expansion for Joint Operations, Escalation, also hits shelves today - which, given the competition, might not have been NovaLogic’s smartest marketing move. My brother-in-law loved Need For Speed: Underground so he’ll be happy to know that the sequel also goes on sale today.

If you never plan to have any interaction whatsoever with Sony’s customer support (or enjoy the sensation of sharp, heated objects being inserted in unpleasant places), then you might be excited that Everquest II is already shipping; otherwise, if you’re a fan of MMORPGs where the live team doesn’t hate the players, then you’re more likely to care that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft launches simultaneously for Windows and MacOS on November 22nd.

Finally, there’s even a new RTS to get excited about… EA’s The Battle for Middle Earth will be released on December 8th.

Don’t forget the new ATI drivers (or nVidia ForceWare drivers) while you’re checking the Windows games out.