leomund: So my wife and I had a baby a few months ago, and as much as I love gaming, I am finding it impossible to get more than a half hour block of time. It makes it tough to really get into games with lots of quests, dialogue since you pretty much forget what was going on and lose the "immersion". I think what I need is something like UT2004 (maybe I'll even get it again since I lost my play discs) which I used to just play against the bots for a quick reality escape. My dream game would be some kind of an arena where you might be able to add on equipment / abilities as you won duels that don't take too long. I never followed shooter games too much being more of a TBS guy so maybe I missed something - is there anything out there like that? thanks
Try Puzzle Quest. There is a quest line, but it's very easy to pick back up where you left off, with handy pointers on the map that say "go here next." Plus, there's the Quick Match option, which basically is "fight random opponent from list of those you've already faced."
Short matches? Check.
Add/change equipment between battles? Check.
Turn-based? Check. (You did say you're a TBS fan, and not heavy on shooters.)
No XP/gold loss penalties for dying, so if you have to quit in the middle of a match it's no big thing.
Plus you can pick up a hard copy from Amazon for about $8. Probably less on Steam or D2D.