Hidden Peanuts

Finally, a category where I actually had trouble narrowing down a list of nominations to a reasonable size Here they are:

• Braid (Xbox 360)
• Castle Crashers (Xbox 360)
• Resistance 2 (PS3)
• Little Big Planet (PS3)

Braid is a downloadable game for the Xbox 360, which on the surface appears to be merely a Mario side scrolling clone. You control the hero, Tim, who runs around levels jumping on enemies’ heads while pursuing a lost princess. A bit familiar, yes? But Tim also has access to a number of time-manipulation abilites which must be used to solve ingenious puzzles and eventually tie into the story’s themes quite nicely.

Castle Crashers is another downloadable Xbox 360 game. Made in the style of old-school brawlers like Golden Axe, CC features four player online co-op hack & slash play. There’s little subtlety in playing the game - button mashing succeeds more often than most carefully thought out strategies. But the game has a twisted sense of humor, and the hand-drawn animation is gorgeous to look at. Due to some unfortunate network glitches (which have supposedly been solved now, but it took months!) which rendered the game near-unplayable online, I can’t award it the trophy. But when it works, Castle Crashers is great old fashioned gaming group fun.

Resistance 2 is on the list solely for it’s co-operative online play. The main single player mode is capable, but didn’t blow me away. Co-op adds the dynamic of picking between three classes - medic, soldier, or special ops. Each has specific strengths and weaknesses, and without tight genuine co-operation and planning between all three you will fail horribly. Getting a decent squad together who understands this, who can communicate and function like a finely oiled machine, is a thing of beauty.

Little Big Planet makes the nominations for, again, it’s co-op play. Sensing a theme of what I like in gaming? Like Braid, LBP owes significant dues to side scrollers of years gone by. What it adds to the mix is an incredibly cute design aesthetic, as well as full level creation abilities. And when I say full, I mean full. Using in-game physics, I’ve seen levels created to house amazingly bizarre contraptions - like a fully functioning mechanical calculator. Your ability to create in LBP is limited only by your imagination. I don’t have the creative skills to come up with much on my own, but have really enjoyed downloading and playing through levels designed by others.

Best Video Game of 2008: Braid

Braid’s time-manipulation mechanic is integrated remarkably well into a genuinely touching and thought-provoking story. The twists are huge, so I won’t spoil them here, but the final level’s events are mind-blowing and completely alter the player’s perspective on all previous events. Tim’s adventure of self-discovery and regret and melancholy is a nice departure from video games’ usual “I’m a guy with a gun and I blow stuff up” stories. The puzzles require genuine thought and creativity to solve, and almost never feel cheap. I got a huge sense of accomplishment after I solved the more difficult ones. And it’s a minor detail, but I fell in love with the game’s background art - it’s like walking through a Van Gogh painting. Add in a haunting and catchy soundtrack, and I’m sold. Gameplay takes about 6-8 hours to complete, or less if you’re really really good at puzzles For now the game is available only as downloadable content on the Xbox 360 ($15), but a PC version is forthcoming in 2009.

Honorable Mentions:

Mirror’s Edge earns a nod despite the fact that I haven’t quite finished it yet. It does something radical: it puts a traditionally third person game (the platformer) into the first person. You see through the eyes of the protagonist, making insane Le Parkour-inspired jumps from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to deliver packages and evade the totalitarian Big Brother type government. The rush and sense of adrenaline from seeing the acrobatics from the eyes of the performer cannot be understated. But while a noble experiment in perspective, the game comes to a creaking halt whenever combat is involved. The controls for fighting are clunky and frustrating. If this element were removed, Mirror’s Edge would be a much stronger contender. Available on the PS3 and Xbox 360, I’m playing the PS3 version.

Left 4 Dead: Three words: Co-op Zombie Shooter. I have been waiting for this kind of game my whole life. Like Resistance 2, genuine co-operation is required among players to succeed. I haven’t had much time to play it yet, but from what I’ve seen I think I’ll really like the game.

I discovered a lot of new music this year, but very little was from 2008. That said, here’s my favorites from this year:

• Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns
• Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Flight
• Flobots - Fight With Tools

I caught up on Snow Patrol this year, somehow missing out them previously. Each of their albums is completely listenable from start to finish, and A Hundred Million Suns is no exception. I rarely buy full albums anymore, but don’t feel like I’ve wasted a penny on any of their tracks. I’m most fascinated by The Lightning Strike, a 16 minute track that manages to stay fresh the entire way through.

Frightened Rabbit is another of the long list of bands I discovered while listening to WBER. Their lyrics are remarkably well crafted, with different tracks like Keep Yourself Warm and The Twist providing interesting counterpoints to each other’s message. Again, I enjoy the whole album as a package. And in this occasion, I think the listening experience is actually enhanced by experiencing the whole album from start to end. (As an addendum, Keep Yourself Warm was used particularly [if censored for lyrics] well in an episode of Chuck this season)

I do not usually like rap. I do not usually like politically charged music. So Flobots’ Fight With Tools album is a rare beast for me - politically charged rap songs that I love. Handlebars was their big hit with radio play, but each song is layered and rewards careful listening. I had a chance to see them live a few months ago, and the energy the Flobots carry on stage is somehow even higher than what’s contained on the album.

Best album of 2008: Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Flight

This was a near impossible decision to make, I love all three albums completely. So I wimped out and simply made the award based on which album had the highest total play count stored in iTunes

I loved this book so much that it’s not even worth building a nominee list:

Best book of 2008: Anathem

Here’s my original review, which I still stand by.

Looking back, I really didn’t see a huge amount of movies in the theater this year. So, almost by default, my nominations are three of the six I can recall:

• Iron Man
• Wall-E
• The Dark Knight

Each of these movies is excellent in its own right. Iron Man perfects the idea of a pure fun superhero movie - a pure joy of a summer blockbuster. Dark Knight takes a more mature look at that genre, in the process providing the definitive take on the Batman/Joker matchup. And I’m just going to give Pixar a permanent slot on my movie nominations - they’ve yet to disappoint, and in fact I think Wall-E is their best effort yet. It’s lyrical, beautiful, thoughtful, and an artistic achievement. I own all three on Blu-ray, and each completely holds up to the theater experience upon home viewing.

Crowning one movie over the others is an extremely difficult decision. But ultimately, one film does edge out the others. In a way, more for the experience of the movie than just the hours spent in a darkened theater. I lived and breathed this movie up until release, completely immersed in the ARG created as a marketing campaign. All the minor plot points and major character development I picked up before I even set foot in the theater transformed what was already an amazing film into something above and beyond. My jaw was on the floor from beginning to end of Dark Knight, and I’ve discussed it with someone at least weekly ever since that first viewing. I couldn’t in good conscience give ‘best of the year’ to any other movie.

Best movie of 2008: The Dark Knight

I really don’t feel entirely comfortable proclaiming a single movie as the best of 2007, because I really just didn’t see very many.

That said, here’s my (revised) favorites of what I did see:

• 300
• Stardust
• I Am Legend
• Hot Fuzz
• Ratatouille
• Transformers

300 is a visual feast, but I really can’t recommend it to everybody. As a rule I tend to enjoy highly stylized art, and this more than fit the bill. But I can understand if the violence puts off a lot of people. I Am Legend almost took the top spot, until the ending… it is completely different from (and inferior to) the book, and even negates the entire reason for the title. I will not say more to avoid spoilers, but really… I was extremely disappointed. Hot Fuzz, a sendup of action movies by the guys who brought us Shaun of the Dead, was the funniest movie I saw all year. But again I don’t think it’s for everybody. Ratatouille is not Pixar’s best effort, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t excellent. I had a smile on my face the whole way through. Same thing with Transformers - if you want a Big Dumb Action Movie, look no further.

In the end, Stardust tops this list. I don’t think a lot of people caught this fantasy film in theaters, but now it’s on DVD so go catch up! It’s relatively lighthearted, and reminded me of a slightly less comic version of The Princess Bride. It stays pretty faithful to the original Neil Gaiman book, and the changes it does make really enhance the film. Stardust really has something for everyone: Comedy, romance, action, adventure, and strong characterizations. Walking out of the theater, my friends and I agreed: this is a rare movie, one that we can see ourselves watching over and over again and never tiring of.

And the nominees are:

• Super Mario Galaxy
• Portal
• Halo 3
• Rock Band
• Picross
• Bioshock

A few words about each:

As with other categories, each and every one of these games is worth your time. Super Mario Galaxy is the best Wii game I have played, bar none. The level designers have done amazing, mind-bending things, and unlike many other wii games the motion-sensing controls manage to not feel tacked on. Portal is a work of art, another example of brilliant level design, but also coaxes an in-depth plot out of minimalist surroundings. Halo 3, while still fun, somehow didn’t quite live up to my expectations. While the gameplay was fun, ultimately no sequel can live up to the original Halo’s story. Rock Band is an amazing party game, and once you get over the fear of looking (or sounding) silly it provides a brilliant gaming experience. Picross was a surprise, an addicting DS puzzle game that I’ve played almost every single day since I got it, for at least a few minutes. Bioshock’s art direction and storyline are excellent, bringing vivid life to a decaying underwater city. Unfortunately the storyline falls apart a bit near the end, but up until then it is one of the most genuinely mature and deep stories I’ve seen in a game. The much-hyped moral choices that a player supposedly gets to make in the game really don’t amount to as much as I expected, but how those choices are handled is brilliant. No game has ever managed to make me think about the very nature of choice in a video game before.

So, I really wanted to give the honor to Bioshock. It truly is a work of art. And, I admit, I am a sucker for anything with such a heavy art-deco visual style. But the ultimate whimper of the plot’s resolution gave me pause. Couple that with somewhat limited replayability, and I have to regretfully pass it over. Still, I don’t want to downplay the game too much. Go play it, I doubt you’ll be disappointed with the purchase.

Now on to the winner:

Rock Band

Almost two years ago, my friend Matt and I sat in his living room, playing the first Guitar Hero game and idly speculating how awesome it would be to have a game just like it, but with drums. And a microphone. And online play. Sure, brilliant idea, but naaaaah! It’d never happen! I was glad to be proven wrong: Now I own that game, and Matt and I played it together over Thanksgiving.

The day Rock Band was released, some friends and I played it for almost seven hours straight. And we’ve had a number of sessions almost that long since then. If that can’t justify a selection as game of the year, then I’m not sure what does. All other games have been pushed aside for us, and this is pretty much all we play right now. The track list is near-perfect, and the addition of downloadable content provides near endless replay value as new songs are added. I’m not sure I can fully describe why i love the game so much, largely because so much of that justification is based on intangibles. After finishing a song next to my friends, we all feel amazing, like we just accomplished something awesome. Sure, we aren’t really playing the music. But I will never be able to play these songs on ‘real’ instruments, not without more time than I have to put into practicing. Rock Band captures what I imagine is the full feel of being in a band, and concentrates it down into something the rest of us can experience.
I’m going to cut myself off before I over-gush about this game, (what’s that? Too late?) but I think this XKCD comic sums it up quite well:

If you can get over your fear of looking a bit silly, many hours of quality entertainment await.

Here’s a recap of the full nominee list:

• World War Z, Max Brooks
• Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
• Halting State, Charles Stross
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
• I Am America (And So Can You!), Stephen Colbert
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Each of these is worth a read. I was tempted to give the award to Harry Potter, if only for the massive societal upheaval and hoopla that the book’s release caused. I have never before stood in line to buy a book at midnight, and expect that I never will again. Pattern Recognition, while not a new release, connected with me on a fundamental level. I relate to the characters and the lifestyles they lead more than any other book I can remember reading. World War Z is pure fun, with fictional interviews of survivors of the first great zombie war. Alternately horrifying and thought provoking. The Invention of Hugo Cabret swapped back and forth between traditional text and large page blocks of gorgeous illustrations telling some segments of the story. The end result is a book that reads surprisingly fast for 544 pages, and inspired me to do some research into the history of film when I finished. I Am America made the list simply because Stephen Colbert makes me laugh so much. But, in the end one book just blew my mind:

Halting State, by Charles Stross

Set in a near future Scotland, the novel opens with a bank robbery inside an online game, and from there eventually spins into high level international intrigue and espionage. The entire book is written in the second person (”You enter the room…”, etc.), which while jarring at first is ultimately a perfect choice for a book so focused on gaming and its impact on our culture. All plot aside, Stross’ world building is extremely thought provoking. ‘Overlays’ on goggles provide constant streams of data to anybody who wants it, gaming is seamless with everyday life, pseudo-VR interfaces are ubiquitous, etc.
Halting State even manages to pull off a standard Big Dumb Action Movie cliche plot element, and make it seem semi-realistic and plausible. I won’t go into specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but I was more than able to suspend my disbelief around it.

If you are at all interested in how gaming will develop in the next few years, and the effect that might have on our culture, read this book.

The nominees are:

• Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
• Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
• Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

Keep in mind that I’m not claiming these are the absolute best albums of the year. They’re simply my favorites out of what I listened to.

The winner is:

Drumroll please…

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

This album blew me away, I really don’t know how I forgot to include it in my preliminary nominations. Year Zero is a concept album, telling the story of a near-future USA which is run by a totalitarian theocracy. The songs come from different points of view, from people on all sides. The album has something for everyone - radio friendly hit singles like Survivalism stand next to a number of quirkier pieces. Trent Reznor and the band are at the top of their games here, delivering an album that plays great from start to end. There’s not one dud on the entire thing.

On a meta-level, Nine Inch Nails did some fascinating things with their promotional campaign. The current issue of Wired has a feature about the related Alternate Reality Game here. I played along a little bit, and the associated websites (which can still be accessed) do a great job of fleshing out the album’s story. In addition, there’s a new remix album of the Year Zero (somewhat clumsily titled ‘Y34RZ3R0RMIX3D’), which includes the raw tracks for each song on a DVD, preformated for audio editing programs like Garage Band. Fans are encouraged to create their own remixes and upload them to an official website for sharing.

I feel like Year Zero is an important album. Not just for the message, but also for what it heralds about the future of interactive participatory marketing in general.

(now updated with links to the posts announcing winners)

Pretty soon it’ll be time again for me to write about things I liked this year. Books, movies, music, and games are up for grabs. In an effort to revive my somewhat flagging rate of posting lately, I’ll break each category out into its own post once I decide on the winners. I haven’t quite made those decisions yet, but here’s the nominees:

Books:

• World War Z, Max Brooks
• Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
• Halting State, Charles Stross
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
• I Am America (And So Can You!), Stephen Colbert

Movies:

• 300
• Stardust
• TMNT
• Hot Fuzz
• Ratatouille
• Transformers
• Stranger Than Fiction

Music:
(I didn’t listen to a lot of whole new full albums this year, so the list is a bit limited..)

• Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
• Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Video Games:
(This will probably be the most hotly contested category)

• Super Mario Galaxy
• Portal
• Halo 3
• Rock Band
• Picross
• Bioshock

You might notice that not everything in these lists was originally released in 2007. I like to make lists on everything I took in over the year, not just what’s new.

Can you feel the excitement building? I know I can

I’ll be posting the winners gradually as December winds itself up. See anything I left off the lists?

(Update) Links to the posts identifying winners:

Books
Movies
Music
Video Games

…but I’m still intrigued.

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