I thought I'd summarize what crap I've enjoyed the most during this year. The things in this list doesn't have to be this year's releases, more like what I've read/seen/listened/played even though they might've been out for a decade.
Videogames:
Machinarium - Now I'm a fan of old click adventure games and not that much of games where there's more brain puzzle sort of problems to solve, but I have to say Machinarium surprised me in that department. It's more about solving puzzles than combining items with different stuff, but how they pulled it off with the audiovisual department is simply stunning. The mood is top notch and how they represent the story with no dialog is a great accomplishment. My biggest whine would be the part where you have to beat a robot in tic-tac-toe with 5 in a row.
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal - There's a game I thought I'd never be able to finish as it requires too much work to learn the magic system and get comfortable to cope with the many pages of spell icons you have to go through. To my luck I had the pleasure of finishing the whole game in multiplayer with a friend who knew that aspect of the game like his own pockets. Even though I mainly focused on just whacking stuff dead (yeah, I played a barbarian) and not that much paying attention to the plot, the story of the game unweiled itself to be something that's actually pretty damn good. We had great fun with this game and it goes in the list of top games I've ever played.
Dragon Age: Origins - I'd put it like this, it's like Baldur's Gate 2 that I can actually beat without help. Maybe not as epic and hardcore, but it's overall a really enjoyable experience to me. The game offers good value to your used moolah with it's length. I've put 43 hours on it now and I still haven't beat it. I like how they've polished the rough edges in the UI department that usually lacks in rpgs. I'll complain about the downloadable content they push to the player though. I bought the warden's keep upgrade and I felt kinda like being ripped off. New armor set yeah, 2 new skills ok, the place itself was pretty cool... but I felt like they could've just packaged this with some more content or just give it free as an update. Still, great game.
Movies:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - One of the funniest yet touching movies I've seen this year. I'm pretty amazed how hardly anybody even knows about this movie. Bill Murray is slowly becoming my favorite actor since I tend to like a lot of movies where he is in. All the animals in this movie are made with stopmotion and it gives it a pretty nice style.
The Watchmen - I went to see this for the first time with just the right kind of people who enjoyed the same aspects of the movie as I did. We had a blast. Eventually I went to see it a total of three times in the theaters. Once more with my brother and the third time was with one friend of mine. I have read the comicbook a bit, but it doesn't have as much appeal to me as the movie adaptation. I might get crucified, but I'd say it's a good adaptation of the comic. It has the keyscenes in it and there's good thought put into the overall spirit to stay faitful to the original. JUST MY OPINION, MAN!
Rocky 1-6 - Well, I had never seen any Rocky movies, so I decided to uhm, "buy" them, which I eventually did though. The first and the third movie are my favorite, the fourth is still good, but the fifth is just bad. The sixth (Rocky Balboa) fixes the gap a bit that the fifth tore open, but not as good as the first 4 ones. Good movies, some parts good in a corny sense though.
City of God - I'm amazed I haven't seen this earlier. Good movie based on true events. Man, I'm not even sure how to describe it properly... Just see it for yourself, that shoud be enough.
Comics:
All the stuff the norwegian cartoonist Jason has done - I recently decided to buy as much of his work as I can and it didn't let me down. Sure his stories are pretty similiar, but I don't mind. His style is so nice and clean and he is one of those masters who can whip up comics with no dialog that are still rich with story. Some of his work is pretty hard to find though, maybe some day I can get rest of it.
The Horde, Baranko - A comic that sets in place in NeoMoscow where the current insane dictator (he has legalized all drugs and made the tyrants of the soviet ages saints) wants to resurrect the spirit of Tsingis Khan, the mongolian warlord. It has a lot of style, humor and very pleasing characters to a person like me. My favorite was this bald, mustached psychic officer who had gained his talent after being exposed to the radiation in chernobyl. I found this comic by semi-accident while on a trip to Stockholm.
Ontot Kukkulat, Petri Hiltunen - I'm a big fan of all sorts of trolls and the finnish comic artist Petri Hiltunen. Combine the two and this is what you get. It is a modern story of what happened to many ancient fairytale creatures and species, mostly it's just about the trolls. This one I can't really recommend unless you know finnish, tough luck.
Tekkon Kinkreet, Taiyō Matsumoto - Those who know me more personally also know that I hate almost all anime and manga. Well about a year ago I saw the anime movie adaptation of this manga, which is one of the few I've enjoyed. I decided to go through the original manga and it really didn't let me down. It surpasses the movie, which is not that uncommon when it comes to cinematic adaptations, but after reading it I can say that the movie is still really faitful to the manga. Great artstyle. It has some alternative feel to instead of that big eyed glossy eye crap most of the manga out there are.
Blacksad 1-3, Juan Díaz Canales - Great detective comics with anthro characters. Read too much and you become a furry! Just kidding, but I can guess how some furries will adore these comics for that aspect alone. I enjoyed the whole feel of them and the great character personalities.
Naaburger, Aapo Rapi - Originally published in parts printed on the Kuti magazine (finnish alternative comic publication). They're kind of like retarded humor strips about a fat dumb guy who has almost nothing else in his life than standing at a junkfood kiosk. Around the last Helsinki comic festival, all the strips were released in a single printed form which was reasonably well priced. The biggest surprise of Naaburger is that in the end, it's pretty touching. I really wasn't expecting that.
Music:
Neotokyo soundtrack, Ed Harrison - Even though the music can't be heard in the game, they had whipped up a hell of a soundtrack. Neotokyo is a pretty good cyberpunk mod to HL2, which I recommend. Even strongly I recommend the soundtrack. It has some really catchy beats and moody parts, simply perfect for the game's setting. Some of the songs can be found in the game directory if you have downloaded the mod, but if you want all of them, you have to throw in some money.
Whew, that's a lot of stuff. I wasn't even expecting to write this long, but yeah, those are the best time sinkers of the year. Not that many that actually came out this year though, but oh well. I recommend everything on this list.
Cheerio.
- Mood:
Pleased
Happy year 11111011010
Content
Pride
Stumped
Peaceful
