Last Blog Post of the Decade!
It seems that in the last blog post of every year I post something to the effect of, "Let's hope that the new year doesn't suck as much as this past year did".
But, every year seems to surpass the previous in pure crap-a-tude! This year was marred by a lot of people close to myself and my family dealing with some unfair sucker punches that life tends to deal out. Sicknesses, unemployment, bad investments, economic instability, car accidents and a whole plethora of corn filled crapolla has plagued many in our lives in '09.
So this year I'm hesitant to put down this past year and wish for a better upcoming year, because it seems to put some bad voodoo vibes out there.
Thus, the best I can come up with is this....
May 2010 be a lucrative, happy, rejuvenatory, healing year for us all!
Having said that, I do realize that not everything was totally poopville in 2009. Here are a couple of my favorite things that I either discovered or came upon this past year.....
Best Movie of 2009:
Star Trek
The newly revamped telling of the classic TV series that was directed by geek icon J.J. Abrams really put the Star Trek franchise back on the map after it was starting to disappear and dwindle into nothingness. The very clever storytelling, character development and cool as frell action sequences have more than made up for the last few Next Generation movies that Hollywood was drenning out! And bravo to Chris Pine for really capturing a cocky, young Captain James Tiberius Kirk so perfectly. You can read my review on the film HERE and you can watch the trailer for it HERE.
Best Comedy of 2009:
The Hangover
Ok, I'll admit it. There's a heck of a lot of bathroom humor in this tale of four guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party and after a drunken night of debauchery they lose the bachelor. The day after plays out like a real warped comedy mystery. There are scenes in this movie that will have you laughing out loud and then realizing what a disturbing person you must be for laughing at them. Zach Galifianakis was the stand out for me as the awkward, slightly off kilter future brother in law. The character harnesses the biggest laughs in the film with his dimwitted and a bit creepy persona (just why does he have a court order to stay far away from high school?) Check out the trailer HERE.
Best Book Read in 2009
Devil May Care
by Sabastian Faulks
I didn't read a lot this year. In fact I started about three or four different books, but only completed this one, thus, sadly, it's may favorite of the year...sigh. Actually it's not too bad and as a James Bond novel, it reads pretty fast with a lot of action in it. Faulks brings the characer of James Bond back to the cold war era to fight against another odd, megalomaniac arms dealer. Faulks adhears to a lot of the James Bond trappings that fans of the character really enjoy. Exotic locations, beautiful women and nasty villains are all handled quite capably here. And it is not a long grueling book to read through as some of John Gardner's novels were. It is quick, action packed and to the point. Though my favorite Bond novelist is still Raymond Benson, I'm hoping the Flemming estate will stick with Faulks for a few more novels. You can see a bit about it HERE.
Best Web Series
The Guild
This independent web series created by actress Felicia Day is about a group of online gamers who spend hours upon hours playing World of Warcraft. The comedy is more about their social lives (or sever lack there of) than the game itself. The episodes are short so it's a good "go to" if you've come home from a stressful day at work for a couple of hearty chuckles. Click on "The Guild" above to see episodes!
Best Haunted Attraction Visited in 2009
Hartford Jaceey's Haunted House
They've won over Terror on Rural Street for the 2nd year running. It's all about the ridicules amounts of attention to detail they put into the show.
And last, but in no means least....
Best Video Game of 2009
Borderlands
Last year Fallout 3 got the honors and this year I've been playing a heck of a lot of Fallout 3 also. But, I didn't want to be redundant and this year I was pretty addicted to Borderlands! In a nutshell, it takes place on a post apocalyptic planet called Pandora where bandits, mutants and renagades run rampant trying to find "The Vault", a hidden place with a possible alien cache of great wealth. You play one of three types of fighter classes you can pick from. From then on it's a wonderful cell shaded, open sand boxed, first person shooter that has a huge wealth of weapons and stash you can switch out and sell.
There's also a good dose of RPG character progression which adds to the already addictive amount of different fire arms that are all over the planet. It wasn't the most perfect RPG game created. Once you find "The Vault" it's not all it's cracked up to be and you find yourself up against a pretty nasty boss where you'll find the learning curve for defeating bad guys has gone through the roof. That last fight can be pretty frustrating. Once you beat the last boss, you're forced to watch the credits. Then after that you are able to go back and still play the game without any quests being given to you. You can still trudge about the world taking on bad guys and even go up against some of the minor bosses again.
Although it had over 100 side quests in addition to the main quest, the game could have been a bit longer and more epic. When you want to put an RPG video game out there, you'd better be ready to be compared to the big boys. Anyone who's played the aforementioned Fallout 3 or games like Morrowind and Oblivion have experienced truly epic games. Borderlands is kind of short in comparison. But it's addictive gameplay makes up for it. I see myself playing through the game again some point down the road. I had that much fun with it.
See gameplay HERE.
Star Trek
The newly revamped telling of the classic TV series that was directed by geek icon J.J. Abrams really put the Star Trek franchise back on the map after it was starting to disappear and dwindle into nothingness. The very clever storytelling, character development and cool as frell action sequences have more than made up for the last few Next Generation movies that Hollywood was drenning out! And bravo to Chris Pine for really capturing a cocky, young Captain James Tiberius Kirk so perfectly. You can read my review on the film HERE and you can watch the trailer for it HERE.
Best Comedy of 2009:
The Hangover
Ok, I'll admit it. There's a heck of a lot of bathroom humor in this tale of four guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party and after a drunken night of debauchery they lose the bachelor. The day after plays out like a real warped comedy mystery. There are scenes in this movie that will have you laughing out loud and then realizing what a disturbing person you must be for laughing at them. Zach Galifianakis was the stand out for me as the awkward, slightly off kilter future brother in law. The character harnesses the biggest laughs in the film with his dimwitted and a bit creepy persona (just why does he have a court order to stay far away from high school?) Check out the trailer HERE.
Best Book Read in 2009
Devil May Care
by Sabastian Faulks
I didn't read a lot this year. In fact I started about three or four different books, but only completed this one, thus, sadly, it's may favorite of the year...sigh. Actually it's not too bad and as a James Bond novel, it reads pretty fast with a lot of action in it. Faulks brings the characer of James Bond back to the cold war era to fight against another odd, megalomaniac arms dealer. Faulks adhears to a lot of the James Bond trappings that fans of the character really enjoy. Exotic locations, beautiful women and nasty villains are all handled quite capably here. And it is not a long grueling book to read through as some of John Gardner's novels were. It is quick, action packed and to the point. Though my favorite Bond novelist is still Raymond Benson, I'm hoping the Flemming estate will stick with Faulks for a few more novels. You can see a bit about it HERE.
Best Web Series
The Guild
This independent web series created by actress Felicia Day is about a group of online gamers who spend hours upon hours playing World of Warcraft. The comedy is more about their social lives (or sever lack there of) than the game itself. The episodes are short so it's a good "go to" if you've come home from a stressful day at work for a couple of hearty chuckles. Click on "The Guild" above to see episodes!
Best Haunted Attraction Visited in 2009
Hartford Jaceey's Haunted House
They've won over Terror on Rural Street for the 2nd year running. It's all about the ridicules amounts of attention to detail they put into the show.
And last, but in no means least....
Best Video Game of 2009
Borderlands
Last year Fallout 3 got the honors and this year I've been playing a heck of a lot of Fallout 3 also. But, I didn't want to be redundant and this year I was pretty addicted to Borderlands! In a nutshell, it takes place on a post apocalyptic planet called Pandora where bandits, mutants and renagades run rampant trying to find "The Vault", a hidden place with a possible alien cache of great wealth. You play one of three types of fighter classes you can pick from. From then on it's a wonderful cell shaded, open sand boxed, first person shooter that has a huge wealth of weapons and stash you can switch out and sell.
There's also a good dose of RPG character progression which adds to the already addictive amount of different fire arms that are all over the planet. It wasn't the most perfect RPG game created. Once you find "The Vault" it's not all it's cracked up to be and you find yourself up against a pretty nasty boss where you'll find the learning curve for defeating bad guys has gone through the roof. That last fight can be pretty frustrating. Once you beat the last boss, you're forced to watch the credits. Then after that you are able to go back and still play the game without any quests being given to you. You can still trudge about the world taking on bad guys and even go up against some of the minor bosses again.
Although it had over 100 side quests in addition to the main quest, the game could have been a bit longer and more epic. When you want to put an RPG video game out there, you'd better be ready to be compared to the big boys. Anyone who's played the aforementioned Fallout 3 or games like Morrowind and Oblivion have experienced truly epic games. Borderlands is kind of short in comparison. But it's addictive gameplay makes up for it. I see myself playing through the game again some point down the road. I had that much fun with it.
See gameplay HERE.
Consider that my review of Borderlands I've been promising.
I got Dragonage: Origins and Sacred 2 for X-Mas and I'll let you now how they play out. The next big game I'm looking forward to is Mass Effect 2. It comes out not too far off from my birthday, so I think I know what some birthday money is going to buy.
I'm not promising anything, but several posts back I've alluded to my Buddy Bruce providing us with a review of this past summer's DragonCon '09. Well, his computer did some serious crashing, but things are back up to normal now and he actually hopes to have it ready soon!
That's it for the posts of 2009. Remember to stay safe tonight and stay vertical.
Until next year, see ya.
Zangz.
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