Hello again, old friends. It appears to have been over a year since I posted a blog, and probably over half a year since I was seriously involved with the community or my old unions, so I'm unsure how many people will be reading this or how many remember me, but with a new year coming, I figured it's time to get back into the swing of things around here.
So the real question is, how did 2012 work out for everybody? Was it great? Horrible? The same old? I'm not sure about you (though I'd like to hear) but mine was great, possibly the greatest year I've ever had. So great, that I'm bragging about it to a bunch of people I've never met and who probably don't care too much. 
It has been a year of many things for me, some good, some bad. But overall, it's been a cracking experience. I've met who feels like the love of my life (and she's a beau,) tried new things that I should've done a long time ago, and some I shouldn't. I made some great friends, went to a party where I woke up in Ohio (note: I live 300 miles north of Ohio) and accidently blew up my basement (and no, I don't cook meth down there.) I adopted new lifestyles, discovered what I want to do in life, and some hardships aside, had a blast. The future has never looked brighter, and I hope it's the same for you.
And of course, a blog on a gaming website wouldn't be complete without the mention of games. Sadly, I don't have much to say on this topic. I've grown a bit detatched from gaming and the community, partly due to lack of time, and have only played three new games this year: Mass Effect 3, Spec Ops: The Line, and Borderlands 2. One of which was bought for me, and another one was rented. So while I don't have much to say overall seeing as the debates over Mass Effect's ending is long past, there is one particular thing I wish to talk about, and that would be Spec Ops. It's far from perfect, and objectively, the worst of the three games I've probably played this year. The shooting is ho hum and run of the mill, a lot of the setpieces are unoriginal, and it's crushingly short. However, it was by far my favorite of the games I played. Why? I think it shows that games have the potential as another medium to tell a story, and that they can do so in ways other games can't. ME3's entire story felt cheap to me. It set up a number of moments I felt were supposed to be emotional, but even though I sort of grew an attatchment to many of the characters, these moments never pulled on any heart strings. I felt Bioware tried to hard. The piano music and epic last stands just didn't do it for me. But it wasn't just Spec Ops making me feel bad or showing me horrors of war that did it for me. It was how they did. Without spoiling anything, one of the more memorable moments of the game ends by making you feel like **** And although the game made you do it to proceed, it tricks you by using old tropes and things standard in most shooters to make you forget that there are people on the other end of your sights, not just targets (well, they're not actually real people, but you can use your imagination ) and it ends up hitting hard. The game forces you to look at your actions, or lack of, and accept them. And for a change, it does so in a way that only a game can. And while the industry is still overall far behind in the story department compared to novels and movies like Of Mice and Men or Apocalypse Now, I really thing this game proves we're getting closer, and can bring something new to the table. There's so much to talk about the game, I really do think it's a sleeper masterpiece. So I guess if I had to choose out of the three games I've played, Spec Ops is my game of the year.
And that's about all that's on my mind at the moment, but I'd like to hear about yours. What was your GOTY? How'd the year go for you? Or do you havy any resolutions for 2013?
