10 December 2007
The Year in Consumption
Posted by Toner under: Gaming; Nerd Culture; Site Announcements; music .
End of the year wrap up time. Time to look fondly back at all the things I was addicted to in the past year.
Games:
Oblivion:
Kind of a stinker out of the box, crippled by a bizarre leveling up mechanism, Bethesda, did what it did best and opened the game up to the enormous commuinity of modders. Tricked out with enough mods, this became a fantastic game. Open ended, and everything a good RPG should be.
Medieval Total War II:
Another game saved by mods. With the “Lands to Conquer” mod and the difficulty set to high, this game is amazing.
Civilization IV (with Warlords expansion).
With the Visa mod, this game, which was not terrible out of the box, became even more amazing. Total stay up till 3am for one more turn kind of game.
Music:
Stereophonics:
Lanugage.Sex.Violence.Other?
Just an excellent, no frills, modern rock album. Love it. “Dakota” is an amazing song. Thanks Dave for the tip!
Imperial Drag:
Self Titled
I always loved Jellyfish, but, somehow missed out on this band made up of ex-members. Same sort of Beatles-meets-Blur goodness. “Are you a boy or a girl” should have been a number 1 hit. Thanks to Tom, for the tip!
Aberdeen City:
The Freezing Atlantic
How this Boston-based band manages to sound so British is beyond me. Described by Alternative Press as “what it would sound like if the Strokes and Interpol had a love child”. I don’t think I could explain it any better than that. “God is Going to Get Sick of Me” is worth the price of admission alone. Buy it!
30 Seconds to Mars:
A Beautiful Lie
Yes, I know, it’s the band that has Jared Leto in it. Yes I know how “giddy 14 year old girl” that sounds. And yes the album is knee deep in melodrama, but the boy has a set of pipes on him, and more importantly, can write a hook. Which is nice these days.
Books:
I probably led less this year than I have in ages. Which is surprising since now that my son is three and can play by himself for a while, there’s really a lot more time for reading… Hmmm… What the heck have I been doing? Me thinks too much TV…
The Rising:
Brian Keene
Zombies take over the world. I’ll pretty much read or watch anything with Zombies. A decent, quick, horror read.
I also hoped to start writing a little book of my own this year on the crusades so, subsequently a lot of historical stuff this round:
Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade
John France
Robert the Monk’s History of the First Crusade: Historia Iherosolimitana
Crusade Texts in Translation
And a load of stuff from my library at home on the same topic.
That’s about it. If you have any nice suggestions for the coming year, please send them my way…
Technorati Tags: Oblivion, Bethesda, mods, RPG, Medieval Total War II, Lands to Conquer, Civilization IV, Warlords, Visa mod, Stereophonics, Lanugage.Sex.Violence.Other?, Dakota, Imperial Drag, Jellyfish, Aberdeen City, The Freezing Atlantic, 30 Seconds to Mars, A Beautiful Lie, The Rising, Brian Keene, Zombies, crusades, John France
