I know I am a little late for Thanksgiving but considering I am not actually American, I hope you can please excuse me missing the date by a few days. However, I have been inspired by the holiday to think about and wonder what everyone else is thankful for as a gamer in 2009. Here is my list so far...

Great Sequels: 2009 is the year of the sequel and luckily there have been very few duds - Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 being the standout in that category. However, for the great sequels this has been a fine year indeed... 

Killzone 2 started things off with some truly jaw-dropping graphics for a console system. Assassin's Creed 2 practically made the first one seem like a tech demo and made me care about the franchise again. Uncharted 2 took us on another great adventure with some fantastic characters. Left 4 Dead 2 made advances on the formulae Valve proved last year and finally Modern Warefare 2 has broken so many entertainment sales records that Activision's CEO must have a swimming pool that would make Scrooge McDuck jealous.

All up, this has been a wonderful year for sequels and it seems developers are taking advantage of the opportunity to learn from the first game and make improvements for their various franchises. This is a big advancement from previous years where sequels were simply made to cash in one games success. Best of all, this trend will (hopefully) continue into next year. Which brings me to the next thing I am thankful for. 

Late Year Delays: Anyone who has read my first ever Bitmob post should know how challenging it can be to find the time for gaming. Especially at this time of the year when there is usually a spoil of riches for quality games. What seemed like a tragedy at first was actually a blessing in disguise as one after the other of highly anticipated games for 2009 were either delayed or dated into early next year.

Bioshock 2, Bayonetta, Mass Effect 2, Alan Wake and Splinter Cell: Conviction to name a few. Not only has this given us some much needed breathing room for the end of 2009 but it also makes early 2010 an exciting time to be a gamer; as some of these game could have easily been (and still may be) game of the year candidates. And speaking of game of the year candidates…

Finally, a good Batman game: Talk about your dark horses (or knight) that came out of nowhere and surprised everyone. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a both a great game and great Batman game. It had a fantastic story with an excellent voice cast; an easy to use but fun to master combat system and stealth gameplay that captured everything fun about the stealth genre with almost none of its' frustrations.

Hopefully we can expect a follow-up sometime in the next two years that will expand on what developer Rocksteady has delivered so far - maybe something that will open up all of Gotham city Assassin's Creed style? 

So what are the 3 things you are most grateful for as a gamer in 2009? Please leave you list in the comments below and for those of you in America I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.