First off, the highlights of my year.
Outside life:
I've gotten 2 more semesters of university under my belt, still striving to be an accountant for some reason that even I don't fully understand. It's not easy, or fun, or fulfilling, but I'm sure doing it for the rest of my life won't be too bothersome. It's either that, or start over as something else, or become an old hermit who lives in the woods and eventually becomes so lonely I start talking to trees for company, so unless I find something I actually enjoy there's not really anything I can do about it. It's really pretty surprising how uneventful my normal life is. In the past year I've made no new friends, nor have I gained any new experiences except for the university part and learning how to cook for myself. So really this year has been a pretty big waste. (if this seems familiar that's because it was copied and pasted from my end of year blog from last year....but it all still applies pretty well)
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Christmas came and went in a disappointing fashion this year. I don't know why it happened, but it never really felt like Christmas this year, even during the part where we were opening presents. I wasn't expecting much this year, but I still made out pretty well. I got....
-A toolbox
-Socks
-2 tires
-A wheel
-Windshield wipers
-Some Gift Cards
-and the following games
I then used a gift card and some cash to buy
So for now at least I'm swimming in games. I already beat Arkham Asylum and I think I'm close to beating Uncharted 3 as well. I have a week and a half left until school starts so you can bet that I'll have some more done soon. Probably Ratchet and Clank next and then Bioshock after that.
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As for internet life, meh. I've been around more than I've been showing. I just haven't felt like posting much and for a while all I would do while online was read manga nonstop. Now that I stop and think about it I've been pretty lame this year. Last year I at least had 4 achievements, pathetic as they were at least they existed. This year I feel like I've done nothing.
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Anyway, before people start chanting "bait and switch" I should get on with what the title implies this blog is about.
Starting with the big one, Game of the Year. And I'd like to note that because I don't have nearly enough money to play all the newly released games from this year, I don't give the awards based of of their year of release, but instead all the entries are the games that I beat for the first time over this past year, so without further ado...
Game of the Year: My game of the year this year is Uncharted 2 Among Theives.
There really was no competition for this spot even though I've beaten quite a few high scoring games this year. The funny dialogue, the gameplay (even though there are a few tweaks with the cover system), and the amazing music and story all make this game one of my all time favorites. The dynamic scenes that occurred while moving about really gave a sense of urgency and suspense to the entire game so you're pretty well kept on the edge of your seat the first time through which really makes the game seem longer than it is. There is a ton of replay value to this game too, which, in my opinion, is an important quality in games, and you can spend weeks going through the game again and again, trying to nab every piece of treasure and trying to unlock everything in bonus shop.
Other good games that I think should be mentioned include
-Devil May Cry 4: I was pretty skeptical at first and I didn't like Nero much, but he eventually grew on me. The music was good as always and the fighting was fun too. The only problems I had were that the plot seemed too anime-ish and there weren't any real innovations when it came to fighting as Dante.
-Batman Arkham Asylum: I might be a bit biased on this one because I only just beat it an hour or two ago so I haven't properly digested the content yet. I'll just say that I liked the story, the combat, and the riddles, but there wasn't much behind the music and I don't like how you end up spending 90% of your time in detective mode instead of looking a the game's actual graphics.
-Assassin's Creed 2: The Desmond story was especially great and it really sucked you in. The Ezio story wasn't quite as good, but it was still interesting. The combat was a great improvement over the first game and just running across rooftops was fun too. By far better than Brotherhood and AC1 in my opinion (but I haven't played revelations yet). Probably the best part of the game was the story. There was a constant curiosity about what was going to happen and it just seemed to never end. If there is any flaw in this game it is that by the end of the game you're tired of fighting. It just starts to feel tedious eventually because it's always the same. Sure, throat slitting counters are cool the first 200 times, but they quickly lose their appeal around the 205 mark. And of course you can theoretically switch things up by using other weapons, but it's not worth losing the efficiency of the hidden blade counter.
Anime of the Year: This was a difficult one to decide on because I've seen a lot of very good anime this year but none of it was really outstanding.....and now that you're all so hyped up from that entrance speech I give you this years winner....season 2 of Kaiji.
Poor lance, if only I'd kept my promise then the winner might have been a certain space opera.....but back to our winner, Kaiji seems to be a lesser known title so I'll give some background. There's a guy (Kaiji) who cosigns a loan and ends up owing a huge debt to some bad people. How do you pay off a huge debt? Through gambling of course. Kaiji is about a guy who gambles to pay off his huge debt. Not normal gambling mind you, but through super difficult and mind meshing types of gambles. Lots of twists and turns, and TONS of suspense. Worth watching, even though I don't really consider it to be outstanding. (note that I have high standards in considering something to be "outstanding" so please take that into consideration)
Manga of the Year: This one was even more difficult to decide on than the best anime, but for the reason that I have read SO many great manga series this year. Great manga series such as One Piece, Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, Hikaru no Go, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Death Note, Dragon Ball, and FMA. It really wasn't easy to pick from these series and they're all worthy of praise, but the series that I've decided to crown the winner is Naruto.
It may sound weird because the anime sucks so much lately, but the manga is incredible in nearly every conceivable way. It's emotionally moving at times, it has a good plot and a fair few of plot twists (without going overboard with them like other series that will not be named), there are lots of great characters, and the action is pretty well drawn too. My only beef with it is that it refuses to let it's characters die. People will have greatly done death scenes and then turn out to not really be dead (either that or they'll come back to life somehow)....kind of pisses me off. Aside from that though, this is the best manga I've read all year. You all know what it's about so I'll skip the summary.
Other manga titles that were seriously considered were
-Fullmetal Alchemist
-Death Note
-Rurouni Kenshin
Movie of the Year: Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.
The basis of this movie series is the same as the series that it's based off of (creatures called "Angels" attack the planet and our only defense are the Eva mechas), but the actual story is different so don't just assume it's a retelling of the NGE anime. The first movie of the series was a great movie, but the second was much better. You really develop some strong feelings towards the characters and the plot developments of the second movie were impressively done. All in all, a very good movie that I would highly recommend to just about anyone....above the age of 10.
User of the Year: You![spoiler] Would have been ikhzo if he'd made a new blog. [/spoiler]
Song of the Year: I heard a lot of new and good music this year, but still the winner is Afutadaku....no clue what anime it's from or who sings it though. I only ever managed to find it through random itune store searches. It's apparently an obscure song because neither Youtube nor Google Search are leading me to the song.....so instead please enjoy Jumper by Third Eye Blind.
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Guess that does it for awards....can't think of anything else to do.
So til next time.
~swimmer 
HAPPY NEW YEAR