New Years Resolution: Top 3 Albums

The second instalment of my 2009 Top 3 Stuff series of writing continues today with my Top 3 Albums of 2009, as decided by what I keep going back to week after week. Unlike my selection of games, I chose to only select albums that were actually released this year, as I thought it was more important, because I could've easily just picked all Beatles albums and what not, so I figured we'd keep it current for the highest possible amount of relevance.

Music is a huge part of my everyday life… I listen to music while I'm going to work in the morning, I listen to music while I'm on my way home, while I'm at work, while I'm on the computer playing World of Warcraft, and finally, I listen to music while I lay in bed falling asleep. It is a giant part of my life, and I listen to a lot of it, so it was difficult to narrow down three choices for this top three. I tried to use what came to mind first, and tried to pick the albums that I've gone back to for months.

Number 3.
Chali 2na - Fish Outta Water (Hip Hop)

I don't listen to a lot of hip hop, more often than not, I find it difficult to relate to the lyrical content, but Chali 2na's Fish Outta Water stands out as an amazing album, featuring smart lyrics and fun songs. Some of the songs that stand out the most are International, Lock Shit Down, Don't Stop and Gun's Up (a song of revolution featuring two of the Marley brothers).

Number 2.
Thrice - Beggars (Alt. Rock)

Thrice has been around for a long time, about eleven years, but this is the first album from them that I've ever listened from start to finish, over and over again. It's slightly short, but there is such a dark, emotional feeling to the album, it's difficult to explain. You can just feel these songs, they have atmosphere and depth, and it's something you really don't hear very often - it's a beautiful album. Song of my favourite songs from the album are The Weight, Circles, Doublespeak and In Exile, and I really recommend you check this album out if you have any interest in music at all.

Number 1.
Emery - In Shallow Sea's We Sail (Post-Hardcore)

The most important album to me this year had to have been Emery's In Shallow Seas We Sail. It was a king of 'return to form' for Emery, having changed musical styles on their last album to a softer, pop-ier sound, this album opens up with an emotional, scream filled introduction to a passionate, powerful, but catchy album. My favourite song on the album is Butcher's Mouth, and other notable songs are every other freaking song on the album. It really is an awesome piece of art, and I think that most people could relate to it, and find something of value from it. I will probably continue to go back to this album year after year, and I look forward to whatever Emery does next.

Some honourable mentions for the year are Mind in a Box's Crossroads from 2007, AFI's Crash Love, Sense's Fail's Life is not a Waiting Room from 2008 and music from Pomplamoose. I also listened to Sufjan Steven more than anything at all this year, much like last year, but I mean, I can only write about him so many times.

That about wraps up my Top 3 Albums of the year, and the next in the series will be my top three TV shows of the year, so you can look forward to that.

Quick

Today I pretty much just played games with Ben... we played World of Warcraft, Modern Warfare 2's Spec Op's mode, and then had dinner, then played more World of Warcraft, all while talking on vent.

That's about it haha, kind of a lazy day, but at the same time, I did the dishes, had a nice dinner, and had fun, so there!

Tomorrow I've got to go into work, but instead of leaving for work at 10:35 to get there for a 12:00 shift (Sunday busses), I figure it's worth $14 to sleep in an extra hour and a half, not wait in the cold and take a checker. I can sleep in a bit, have a nice breakfast, and leave for work only twenty minutes before having to be there, instead of an hour and twenty.

I'm going to head to bed now, as I don't want to be too dead tomorrow... I have no idea what I'm heading in to... it could be sunday brunch and a huge wedding and all this crazyness, or it could be just brunch, nothing special, no boss, just relaxed, who knows.

I'm not sure of my days off next week, but I think I get two in a row, and I asked for next week off, so who knows if that'll happen.

Time for bed!

New Years Resolution: Top 3 Games

I mentioned previously that in the new year I would attempt to write more often - every day if possible, and I've been thinking about what I should write about, or how I could go about doing just that. I decided to kick it off by talking about my favourite things of the last year: games, movies, television, music; All of the things that had a serious impact on my life, and I'll write a bit about why I chose them, what they meant to me, and so on.

I figure I'll break it up into several parts as to not make this a novel, because no one wants to sit down and read a webpage for too long.

Today I'm going to be starting with my top three favourite games of 2009. Let me first clarify by saying that the games I've selected don't necessarily had to have come out in 2009, only that they were played the most, enjoyed the most, and so on, in 2009.

Number 3.
Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)

To be honest, I went into Resident Evil 5 with quite a bit of scepticism, I was worried that it wouldn't come close to living up to my expectations set by the amazing Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube, which I played through numerous times. I had downloaded the demo, and was not impressed with the controls, or feel of gameplay, and I had followed the game through the press and podcasts, and people had mixed opinions on whether or not the game was good. The game was actually bought for me by Ben for my birthday, because we had talked about getting it to play through, since the entire game was built around the idea of playing it with a friend, basically it was a single player game built around the mechanic of it being a co-op game.

Ben and I spent the majority of the summer playing through the game. We started by beating it on the normal difficulty, followed by the hard difficulty, only to unlock the most difficult setting and playing through it on that. In fact, we played Resident Evil 5 so much, that I am only missing one achievement from the game, and to get that, I'd just have to play the last chapter one more time.

It has to be the best co-op experience available, and being able to purchase upgrades to guns, earn and spend money and see actual improvements in gameplay are really what elevated this co-op game above the rest (like say, Army of Two). It really took over my life for awhile, and I'm glad that it did. I don't think the game would be as stand-out if there was no co-op… if the game was a straight up single player experience it would probably fall a bit flat.

Number 2.
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

Trying to think back through the year, I think that Batman: Arkham Asylum might have been the only single player game I played all the way through, from start to finish. It was not hard to do that with this game, it sucked me right in from the start, and again, I didn't really know what to expect from the game. I knew it would be cool, but I didn't realize that it would be one of the coolest games of the generation.

The game was dark, mature, smart and very immersive. The story was fun to follow, the characters were interesting, and I always wanted to keep playing a bit more. The fighting system was fun and addictive, and so was the platforming and running around on the island. Being able to grapple up places, jump up and glide around really made being in the world fun, and the collectables spread throughout the world added yet another reason to continue playing.

I'm excited to hear that they are currently working on a sequel to the game that takes place in Gotham city, so I can only expect bigger and greater things.

Number 1.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC/Mac)

Yes, the game is five years old now, but it was still the game I got the most out of this year, for good and bad of course. If we think of WoW as a 'career' for a second, I went from being a no one, unemployed loser, to getting a job, going up the ranks and becoming one of the most important people in the company, to quitting, to being on welfare, to getting a good, secure job, and … well, I'll stop there. There have been many highs and lows, I've made many friends, lost touch with friends, and some very unique experiences that I've been convinced couldn't exist without WoW.

I did quit World of Warcraft for about three months this year, but for the rest of the time, I pretty much played every day, even if it was just for an hour, and that makes it a pretty significant part of my life, for good or bad. It's a culture I enjoy being a part of, and I think I have positive experiences not available to people that don't participate. I like feeling like I belong to something larger than myself.

In the future, I'm going to write an entire piece on my career in World of Warcraft, my experiences, what I've done and been a part of, and try to explain what it means to me, but that'll have to wait, because I think that would take a bit of time and planning.

World of Warcraft has been the most important game of the year for me, and it will most likely continue to be so.

So that wraps up my three favourite games of 2009, if you're reading this and have a blog of your own, I'd love to read about your three favourite games of the year, or if you don't have a blog, leave a comment with the info.

Next in the series will be my favourite albums of 2009, with write ups and information.

Until then, have a good new year.