A Lego Rose.

 Based on a design by Joe Meno / Given to someone rather lovely.

10 Songs I Liked This Year

Again with the end-of-year wrap ups. In a year where a lot of time has been spent with Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Cut Copy, i'll be honest, i'm a little behind. That aside, here's a nifty little Spotifty playlist of the songs released this year that I did like, in no particular order. 'Course, give me a few months to catch up with this year's "big thing" and it'll probably change, but hey, at least it's honest.

The entirety of last weekend was spent devoted to one game, and one game only; Batman: Arkham Asylum. After months of non-interest and general disregard for the game, the recent demo won me over completely and after a few weeks of waiting, last Friday I went and sought the game out, wanting more.

It's a game that's seemingly come from nowhere despite the long development process, but better than that, it's a game that certainly seems to have met or bettered whatever expectations people had for the game in the first place. Both licensed and superhero tie-ins have always had a bad history with videogames understandably, but Arkham Asylum is one example where everything just works- satisfying both the gamers and the comic fans, ticking all the appropriate boxes. 

Here, you really are Batman rather than some visual representation, and the game mechanics and concept really matches that. Developers Rocksteady have captured the very essence of the character and his work methods- hiding up above watching the goons down below and picking them off one by one, startling and disabling them one after the other. Batarangs, grappling hooks and ziplines,  thankfully, also play a huge role while a long history of villains (yay Scarecrow and Poison Ivy!) and backstory are also lifted/inspired/tweaked from the comic history.

The game's entirety is spent on Arkham Island, inside the Asylum, Sewers, Medical Buildings and then some environments certainly "between places". Both the need and desire for a sequel set in Gotham itself, starts here.

The stealth mechanics and concept are surprisingly effective throughout and indeed rival the MGS series on occasion, while combat was a joy. The story produced a few surprises too, but the less said about these the better- there's some really good moments that will stay with you forever, honest. I'm not a die-hard comic book fan, but for me as a gamer, the game was easily one of my favourite gaming experiences of the year so far, 100% complete by Sunday but that says more about my enthusiasm for the game rather than it's actual lifespan.

While licensed tie-ins and videogames have undoubtedly had a shoddy, horrible relationship with each other in the past, Batman: Arkham Asylum is definitely one of the few examples that is the exception to the rule, and more to the point, hopefully the kind of bridge we can soon come to expect from videogames and any license.

It's unfortunate this probably won't be the case.

For the last week i've been using Spotify to listen to music. As ever, i'm late (fashionably so?) to the party, but the premise is simple- download the program, stream the music you want and pay for it every few songs by listening to an advert or promotion, generally only a few seconds long.

Following a mountain of both last.fm and more personal music recommendations over the last few years, Spotify's meant that I can try out new stuff -be it bands or genres- easily with no consequences. Once again there's the issue of digital vs physical music, but what i'm finding more and more especially as of late that i'm not too bothered- I don't care if I own the CD, because chances are, i'll never play or actually use it.

It's been an ongoing triviality, especially for me, but I think Spotify has finally put this argument to rest. Without gushing too much, I have enjoyed listening to music this week more than, well, ever, so it must be doing something right.

As a result of not having any internet these past few weeks, i've spent a lot of time offline, cleaning up and digging around in and about some of the stuff saved on my hard drive. Frankly, it was all a mess, and not as exciting as it a) could've been, and b) you're probably imagining, but there was surprises, and plenty of nostalgia.

Of interest to my geeky pursuits and the five Lego fans reading (is there five of you or more?) was a number of old catalogue and instructions scans from the 80s and early 90s. A lot of them are from Peeron and indeed my childhood, but I remember spending hours looking at these very images and displays when I was younger. No, really. 

I was always excited not just at the way the sets were laid out and linked, but invariably the numbers of figs or pieces in the scenes one would have to be a true collector to amass. Though older, this is still a frustration fifteen-plus years later. These images not only marketed and promoted the products though, they inspired, encouraged and most of all, excited, something they still do.

In the preceding years The Lego Group would abandon these images for more digitally manipulated efforts; products often super-imposed on a background with little or no character and imagination. I'm sure it's something they still do, and again, something that probably continues to annoy AFOLs everywhere.

Besides the changes in marketing and promotion, what these images show most of all is the actual change in Lego itself as a product. Things are much simpler and basic, interestingly, without losing character. To today's younger fans this might not be the case, but to many of the older fans, it is these sets that are the better ones. Nostalgia depends on the generation and the people of it, and i'm pretty sure there's plenty of older Lego fans out there who see my choices and enthusiasm here as "new" Lego. Even now however, i'm pretty sure there's plenty of us out there who would kill for some of these sets MISB now.

This is what i'm wearing. Well, clothes and all that shit too, but only because society would frown otherwise. It's been too wet to wear them these last few days, but hopefully that'll be coming to an end soon.

And that's it for this post. No, really.