Above the Sea and Fog But Still Perpetually Obscured.

Sorry about the extreme lack of updating, university has taken most of my time, but here’s a quick list of what I’ve been up to.

• Got a Starcraft II Beta code.  Awesome, awesome game except I can’t finish a match because I always get dropped.  :(
• Been working on some game ideas.  Two of them will have short treatments soon.
• LOTS of uni work!  Seriously, I don’t really get much of break any more.
• Watching all of The Big Bang Theory!  Yes, that’s where all my breaks went!
• Taking tonnes of pictures with Hipstamatic.

That’s all I can think of really.  But have some of my Hipstamatic pictures.

So, I wanna try and get some serious stuff done next year and I might as well share it with the world. No, these are not News Years Resolutions because they always fail around me. I guess it’s something about them being called that.

Anyway this is what I want to have accomplished or be >70% with by 2010 year end.

• Get a whole proper year of uni done.
• Record at least 2 songs (I have about 60 ready to record)
• Lose some sort of weight.
• Save a good deal of money for UK/France trip.
• Develop a rough draft of my two game ideas.
• Post regularly on here.

Hell, I think that’s about it.  There is probably more but if can’t really remember it, then it’s probably not that important.

Yep. That’s right.  End of the year means top 10s galore and of course, I shall be providing mine, like last year.  Last year was a bit crappy but this year has been a real pleasure with awesome releases throughout the year.
Shall we begin? Excellent!

Top 10 Albums.
Obscura – Cosmogenesis
Immortal – All Shall Fall
Swallow The Sun – New Moon
Wolves In The Throne Room – Black Cascade
Alexander Rybak – Fairytales
Cain’s Offering – Cain’s Offering
Nile – Those Whom the Gods Detest
Clint Mansell – Moon OST
Dark Moor – Autumnal
Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions

No surprises there apart from the two non-metal albums, Alexander Rybak’s Fairytales and Clint Mansell’s amazing Moon soundtrack.
Dark Moor’s Autumnal started the year and Nile’s Those Who The Gods Detest closes it. Cain’s Offering’s eponymous debut album was mine (and I think my fiance’s) most anticipated of the year and it blew our expectations right out of the water.

Top 10 Games.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Braid
Trine
Borderlands
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Dragon Age: Origins
The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena
Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood
Overlord II
Empire: Total War

Once again, pretty obvious but with some things missing and a couple of indie games in there. I’m quite certain Forza Motorsport 3 would be in the list but I don’t yet have it. Actually, I think Assassin’s Creed 2 would be as well.
I must say that Trine is easily one of the best small dev games I have played in a long time. Borderlands somehow keeps eating my time (still haven’t played co-op yet!!). Batman: Arkham Asylum was amazing. Why? Because it was classic, fucking, Batman and not the modern Nolan/Bale bastardisation of it. The rest of the list are just amazing games and I’m sure some people out there disagree with me.

Top 5 Movies.
Moon
Watchmen
The Hangover
A Christmas Carol
I Love You, Man

I could only think of 5 awesome movies this year. Moon is my favourite film of the year. It almost takes out 2001: A Space Odyssey at being my favourite science fiction film of all time. It also establishes Duncan Jones as a great director. For those who do not know, he is the son of David Bowie.

Well, there it is. My favourites of 2009.