The tops

Rather than post a list of my top 3 movies, albums, books, etc. I am instead just going to post my favorite things released this year. I contemplated including anything new to me, not just newly released, but I felt that would do this year an injustice.

 

Favorite Movie
Hugo
 - There was a lot of movies that moved me this year. Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris both made big impacts when I saw them. That being said, nothing captured my imagination and heart as Hugo did. 

 

Favorite Album
Florence + The Machine – Lungs
    The introduction of Spotify to the states has changed the way most everyone I know listens to music. Now I can listen to entire albums before deciding to purchase them. Even though I don't quite agree with a lot of Spotify's practices(mainly their close association and dependency on Facebook, but that's a discussion for another day) I can't argue with the results they provide. Free music is something I won't turn away. All that being said, Lungs, was the album I continued to replay all year.

 

Favorite Indie Game

Limbo

I've said it before and I'll say it again – I'm a sucker for beautiful game art. I can't tell you the number of times I have purchased some game because it had gorgeous art only to find the gameplay lacking. Part of me expected Limbo to be the same way, but silhouette is one of my favorite artistic styles. When I sat down to play it, I was immediately swept away. This game provides you no story, no help or hints, no text at all. Instead you have to navigate this world entirely on your own. I encourage anyone and everyone to take advantage of the Steam sale going on right now and purchase this for $5. As a mate of mine said "I can't help but be drawn to this game and terrified all at the same time."

 

Favorite image in the Media

Christian's protecting Muslims protesters.

As Time magazine showed, 2011 was the year of the protester. All over the world people are rising up to fight for their beliefs. This display of love brings tears to my eyes.

 

Favorite vacation spot

Bend, OR

 

 

 

So many wonderful things happened this year. I can't wait to see what 2012 brings.

Adventures in gaming: Skyrim

Released in November, Skyrim is the 5th addition to the Elder Scrolls library of games. Bethesda has yet again proven they are masters of unblieveably immersive worlds. Similar to it's precessors, Skyrim places you in a fantasy world where you are free to do as you see fit, this time in the north country. I was glad to see that some of the almost expected elements had been changed up somewhat. The Thieves, Fighters, and Mages guild have all seen better days. In actuality, only the Theives guild remains, but I'll leave it up tp you to find out why 🙂

Another change from the previous installments are a lot of the components to the character builders. Rather then choose a profession, skills, bonses etc, Skyrim just has you choose a gender and a race. Rather then choose one of the three base "professions" – Fighter, mage, thief – you are free to build your character as you see fit.While the races each offer a little bonus that is usually predispositioned towards one of the three archtypes, it in no way locks you in. If you desire your axe wielding, heavy armored orc to have a strong lockpicking skill you are free to do so. I am glad to see that I have succeded in creating a character that blurred the lines.

Visually, Skyrim is astounding. I can't tell you how many times I have just stopped and stared at some of the mountian top vistas or night skys. This usually holds true for every Elder Scroll game, and Skyrim is no exception. I had initially worried that, being set in the north, the majority of Skyrim's landscape would be snowy tundra. I'm glad to say the landscape is quite diverse. 

With all thats great to be said about it's supurb immersion and atmosphere, Skyrim is not without it's flaws. Even through they continue to add more and more voice actors, I still feel that they are way over used. It may sound trivial, but when guards across the country side all sound alike, it starts to great on you. The game engine is full of bugs galore, even after 2 sets of patches. For me, nothing game breaking so far. The biggest annoyance has been dealing with some of the conversation interfaces. Getting the selection I want to highlight always ends up being more work then it should. I have the suspucion it was designed with a console joystick in mind rather then my mouse. 

As far as story and plot go, theres plenty of that to go around. Unfortinutly, little of it is compelling me to follow the plot. I find myself playing through plots and quests just to simply get the reward rather then enjoy the story. I'm not saying all the quest lines are like that. There have been several side quests that have been very compelling pieces of story telling, but as a whole the main quest and the largest side quest dealing with the civil war both seem very vanilla to me. I am provided with no strong reasons to join either side of the cival war other then the basic case stated to me in a few sentences of dialog. 

However, all Bethesda lacks in great story telling, they make up for two-fold in creating an amazing ambient setting. Whether its running along side a fox through a forest, catching butterfles and picking herbs to mix into a potion, hunting vampires and werewolves, exploring old dwarven ruins, hunting dragons, solving murder mysteries, saving caravans from bandits, becoming a bandit yourself, discovering shipwrecks, or getting married there is something for anyone and everyone.