Games

This year
has been a good year for games for me. A lot of it has been sparse
with releases. I don’t think there was a single game out that I was
looking forward to (Cataclysm, maybe).
However there were two games that stuck out for me,
Batman: Arkham Asylum and
Mass Effect 1+2. Batman came out at
the start of the year and I had basically seen or heard nothing
about it until I read the PC Gamer review. After downloading the
demo I rather liked it. Playing the full game led me to loving it.
I’m not a huge Batman fan. I mean I like the films and I watched
the TV show as a kid, but I don’t read much DC stuff so the
character isn’t the reason I love the game. The main thing that
makes it brilliant is the fighting system. For me it’s the first
game that’s aced hand-to-hand combat. In addition to that it’s a
very Zelda like game with you coming across puzzles/areas you can’t
access until you unlock new gadgets later in the game. The only
other game I can think of that has come out of the blue and
impressed me so much was Deus Ex. I can’t think of a better
compliment than that. Next up are Mass Effect 1 and 2. As
previously mentioned here and elsewhere, I had ME1 sitting on my
shelf for a couple of years largely unplayed. I think it was my
third attempt at tackling it that got me hooked. It’s not wholly
original stuff, but it’s well executed in both story and gameplay.
ME2 ups the stakes in all areas, both games making you feel like
the best hero in the galaxy. In addition to that the
Steam sales have been impossibly
brilliant. Just this past week I’ve picked up a dozen games for
pennies. It will take me months to seriously tackle them and I look
forward to it, they’ll see me through game droughts.

Music

Music…music…hmm. It’s not that I’ve
lost interest in music, it’s that I don’t expose myself to new
music these days, mainly as I no longer listen to the radio. I do
pick up new albums from favourite artists and there are certain
songs that get through to you by people linking them on
Twitter/Facebook. I can only really think of one stand out track
this year and that’s Cee-Lo Green’s
“Fuck You“. Catchy as hell, and uses
the best of all the swear words.

Books

After a
very bookwormy year last year, I’ve not read much this year. I
think the only thing I read was Peter F
Hamilton’s conclusion to the Void trilogy,
Evolutionary Void. So I guess book of
the year automatically goes to that, though it is well deserved as
I very much enjoyed it! Sadly I’ve had the new
Alastair Reynolds book,
Terminal World, since release but have
yet to muster the enthusiasm to read it. Which is odd as he’s my
favourite author and I normally read his stuff as soon as it’s out.

Comics

I’ve stuck to my usual diet of
Captain America,
Invincible Iron Man, and
New Avengers (though after
Siege I switched to
Avengers and Secret
Avengers). I have to say none have overly thrilled
me this year. Captain America is usually my favourite but since
Bucky Barnes took on the mantle as Cap I’ve lost interest. Having
said that, the last couple of issues have been more entertaining
and I think the series will get back to it’s greatness. I have a
feeling Bucky won’t be Cap for much longer given hints in the main
Avengers title. Overall I have enjoyed Secret
Avengers the most, it’s got an interesting mix of
heroes and my personal favourite, Steve Rogers, is in charge.
Special mention should go to The Walking
Dead. I had the first four volumes collecting dust
on my shelf for a couple of years. After really enjoying the TV
show I got back into it and am now up to volume 6. The comics are
really brutal, there seems to be no such thing as a safe character.
I’m loving the comics and will keep working my way through the
back-catalogue. The only thing that’s limited me is my wallet.

Movies

(EDIT: Yes as my wife pointed out to me, Star Trek was 2009 not 2010. I have received a formal warning from Geek High Command. I apologise profusely)

I’ve seen a fair few movies this year.
The one I was most looking forward to, Iron Man
2, was very enjoyable. Not quite as great as it
could have been though. Tron: Legacy
was visually brilliant but average on the story, pretty much what I
expected. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but it’s between
Star Trek and
Inception. Star Trek was brilliant
because it was fresh, funny, exciting and yet still Trek. My
wife isn’t really into sci-fi but she was in hysterics and we both
came out grinning having really enjoyed it. Inception was great
because I had no idea what it was about. Going to see a movie
knowing nothing about it is pretty hard these days with movies
being hyped and spoiled sometimes over a year before release. I had
managed to avoid reading anything about this and was pleasantly
surprised. Simple idea well executed.

Television

There can only really be one winner
for TV and that’s Lost. Yes a lot of
people hated the finale. I loved it. It felt extra special as it
was airing simultaneously in the US and UK. I had Hannah stay over
with my Mum so we could get up early and see it before going into
work. I wrote a lengthy review of it on my Lost website and won’t
repeat it here but basically it was brilliantly written and acted.
Played havok with my heart strings. Very closely behind is
Misfits. I only discovered this
recently due to the buzz amongst my Twitter friends. I remember
seeing the trailers for it when it first started and thinking it
was just about a bunch of chavs. Which it is. But it’s chavs with
super powers! The show is vile, funny and brilliant in equal
measure. Despite only 6 episodes in a series it still manages to
blow the vast majority of sci-fi out of the water. This is
Heroes done right. Another close
runner up is Fringe. I got the first
season cheap on DVD, was instantly hooked and rented S2. I’m now
all caught up and it’s my favourite show on TV. John Noble is
fantastic as Walter Bishop. It’s a crime that he hasn’t been
showered with awards yet.

Winner of 2010

The
best thing about 2010 is my iPad. Yes
it’s expensive. No I didn’t need one. But I wanted one so bad it
was like a need. So I sold my trusty Macbook and opted for the 32Gb
3G model. It is the most amazing piece of technology I have every
held. As someone that consumes a large amount of digital media and
spends a lot of time online this device is essential. It’s my
one-stop-shop for digital needs. RSS feeds, social networking,
video, music, comics, books it does them all. Yes it’s not perfect
and no it can’t seriously compete in business applications. But as
a personal window into the digital world it’s as close as you can
get to perfection. I can’t say a piece of technology has ever made
me feel like I live in the future before but this one does. It is
the PADD from Star Trek dialled up to 11.

Onto
2011

So 2011 is looking good. An
Avengers film directed by
Joss Whedon? It still feels like I’m
dreaming every time I read that. Then there’s Captain
America, Thor and the
final Harry Potter film to look
forward to. Games wise there is Deus Ex: Human
Revolution and Portal 2
to look forward to. Plus new
Misfits,
Fringe and The Walking
Dead will continue to make me not totally abandon
the TV.

For Christmas I got my wife a little book of promises I’ve made to her. I won’t list them (some may make you blush and/or vomit), but the general gist of it and the reason behind it was that with the arrival of Hannah, she has dominated our lives, so for 2010 I have promised to be a better husband, to focus more on ‘us time’. Hannah will always dominate our lives, and rightly so, but there’s no reason we can’t plan to do more couple-y things!

So they are my promises, and here are my ‘aims’. Things I aim for in 2010.

Work: Little and often. It is the habit of a lifetime that I shall never break, but I can try and make a dent into it. It has always been my nature to work on things last minute. I actually perform better under pressure. My job doesn’t help things. With school holidays never more than 7 weeks away at any time, the temptation to leave work until then is great. And of course, without fail, once those holidays do arrive I don’t want to do any work at all. However, if I just did about 30 minutes a day and perhaps more at the weekend, I’d probably easily keep up!

Gaming: I have already started to, but I need to try more things! I play WoW to death and miss out on some great indie games. I also have the terrible habit of buying a game and then not playing past the first couple of hours. I need to get round to doing those games! Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and Dragon Age stare at me with sad eyes from my shelf every time I fire up WoW.

Blogging: More of it. I like writing. I think I am good at writing. Not in the creative sense. I’d struggle to write a story. But I just like composing letters, emails, posts etc. Trying to perfect them. I also miss the glory days of being well known in certain online communities. Those were fun days, but those sites are now dead or dying, so I guess I miss the ‘audience’. I know few people in life with my interests, and I can count how many of those I actually see in person on one hand, and of those that I see more than once a year on one finger, so an outlet for my interests is needed, even if these words fall on blind eyes. Were things in life not as good as they are and I had never met Kat, if I hadn’t decided I want to be a teacher, the idea of being a games journalist/blogger (delete as appropriate to your snobbishness) is a fun one. A dangerous one, I don’t think I could live the freelance kind of life. But it’s fun to imagine what it would be like.  So I think I’ll post more on things that interest and outrage me and just pretend there is an audience.

Lottery: Seriously, I really need to get round to winning the jackpot. I need to stop buying these faulty tickets, they just don’t ever win.

That’s it really! So, imaginary audience, what are your promises and aims for 2010?