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 On 10/28/2015 at 03:14 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
What's ya gonna do in 2007? Hear some music? Read a book? Watch a tv show? Naw, it's all about the gaming. Some really big series, still very relevant today, got their start in '07. But I got some things to say about the rest of the media. Here's it all.
In music I got Soundgarden's singer Chris Cornell's album Carry On for the song used in the Bond movie Casino Royale, You Know My Name. The rest of the album was ok, but that song is a standout. I got the obligatory Rush (Snakes & Arrows) and They Might Be Giants (The Else) albums. Then there was the Halo 3 soundtrack. Ever since the first game, I've been getting O'Donnell/Salvatore's music. Then I saw the movie of the animated tv show Aqua Teen Hunger Force and noticed a new song by Mastodon in the opening segments and had to pick that soundtrack up. On that were songs by the characters in the film and songs from bands I never heard of. Overall a fun soundtrack.
This was a banner year for video games. So many great series started this year like: Bioshock, Mass Effect, Uncharted, Crackdown, Overlord, Earth Defense Force, The Darkness, and Puzzle Quest. I got the third generation, 40 GB, PS3 that Fall when the price hit $400. I wanted to play co-op action RPG Untold Legends Dark Kingdom and the dragon flying game, Lair. Both were kind of a bust in the end, but I got to play Uncharted and Pain in '07, and Pixel Junk Monsters a little latter in Jan of '08. Just a year ago, I handed off that PS3 to my friend and got myself a 5th generation, 250 GB, PS3 Super Slim. I was still waiting for Dell Computers to have Wiis available. I wouldn't get one until Spring of '08. My favorite game this year was definitely Crackdown. Playing this solo or co-op was so much fun. It was like my Halo 1 for 2007. Mark and I played it pretty regularly all year long.
In books I was reading Star Wars comics and the latest Halo book, Halo: Contact Harvest. It was written by Bungie dev Joseph Stanton and I'd say it's the second book you should read in the Halo series after Fall of Reach. Chronologically Contact Harvest comes before Fall of Reach [after reading this: Halo Canon Order, the two books overlap and cover some of the same dates], but that book by Eric Nylund is so good, Contact Harvest has to be second. Contact Harvest is about humans' first meeting with The Covenant, a coalition of alien races. You get into the heads of the various aliens and see how they think. I also love the details concerning the various artificial intelligences that control space stations and ships. It's how I got my moniker on gaming systems, AIwithWarpDrive. I figure those two technologies are key to space travel in Halo and possibly our own universe too. I also hit my height of Halo fandom when I collected 7-Eleven Halo 3 cups and got a Halo 3 custom Xbox 360. I wanted those McFarlane painted controllers too, but I was getting a little too crazy and had to dial it back. It was all downhill from there.
Finally film and TV. I didn't see a whole lot of memorable movies that year. Most of the good ones I missed and saw later like Hot Fuzz, Stardust and Superbad. I did like Bridge to Terabithia. It's about two kids who invent a fantasy world that comes to life. Their real life issues are reflected there and they explore it. There's a surprise in the story I won't spoil, but it was a good one. In TV I missed the debut of Big Band Theory, which I still can't get into, but I watched Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and found Tim and Eric Awesome Show, a skit comedy show with a very bizarre twist. It's an aquired taste to be sure, and I aquired it. Plus both Tim and Eric are from PA near where I live.
And that be my 2007. Kinda thin in most ways but gaming. That's why it's gaming heaven.
Oh, we're getting close.
2007 was kind of thin in the game department to me. It was the year of sloppy shooting mechanics yet confident storytelling in AAA games, and of interesting smaller scale projects. You really see the tide start to turn towards western dominance of the console space in this year. Nothing that blew my skirt up yet, though.
I think I was looking to downloadable games a bit more this year with games like Puzzle Quest and Carcassonne on XBLA and Pain and PixelJunk Monsters on PSN (technically '08). I don't think I was aware of an Indie scene yet though.
2007 was a rough year for me because that was the first full year at the job I hated (and I still work there). I'm surprised I even lasted that first year. Family life was rough, too. Nothing really bad or dramatic, but deifinitely more stressful.
Like I said earlier, 2007 was the year I got an Xbox 360. There were enough games on it I wanted to play by then, with promise of more to come. Pac-Man: CE was the final straw that made me cave in. The 360 ended up being my favorite console of last generation, and I still play it today!
I named my Game of the Year in 2007 Super Mario Galaxy, but I really wanted to give it to Portal. But, it was part of the Orange Box, which I didn't want to pay full price for since the other two games on it I had no interest in. But once the game got down to 20 bucks in early 2008, I got it. I wish I would've gotten it earlier, as Portal and its sequel ended up being one of my favorite games of the last console generation. I REALLY like Portal games!
Thanks for reminding me to put Portal 2 on my play list. I wanna play that.
You Know My Name is kinda dull to me, especially as a Bond song. But then there are times I really like it. It corresponds with my feelings about the movie pretty well in those regards actually.
I remember you liking Crackdown a lot. Always wanted to play that one, since it seemed like a guilt-free GTA (since you were the good guy) and it was cel-shaded. I eventually played some Uncharted and Bioshock sequels like, very recently thanks to PS Now, but I wasn't hooked on either. Both seemed promising though. Mass Effect 2 is a game I would have bought on Steam were it controller compatible. I liked the demo a lot more than I thought I would. For some reason, I thought it'd be turn-based combat.
Hot Fuzz is my favorite of the Cornetto Trilogy and I liked Superbad as well.
I've seen bits of Bridge to Terabithia on cable and I liked what I saw.
Still don't get the problem other nerds have with BBT. It's just a good/decent/ok sitcom imo. A lot of super-nerds I work with like it, so I don't get the "they're not REAL nerds!" criticism and if I did I still wouldn't care. Not exactly a minority that gets enough shit for me to shed a tear over and I'm in the minority FFS.
My stoner friends loved Tim and Eric. Anti-humor I believe it is called. Never saw it.
I find that I like sit coms that have something to do with my life, I think. If I was an IT guy, like my friend Mark was, I'd probably like it like he does. Party Down, however, is like my life completely. I like weird stuff too like The Mighty Boosh and Strangers with Candy. I guess BBT just isn't f'ed up enough for me.
I get that completely. Spider Man was my favorite hero growing up cause he was the most like me.
I was way into Spider-Man and Justice League (called Super Friends then) on TV as a kid.
I don't think I made the jump to PS3 yet. I know I had the PSP, and the PS2 so I didn't get to try all the fun new games until years later. I didn't know games like Uncharted was released during this time, but I'm sure podcasts I was listening to were talking about them.
I couldn't tell you what I was listening to in 2007. Maybe it was The Game, but I was into a couple of websites that created their own "mixtapes" of indie stuff I would download, burn to disc and play on my way to work.
I have a very vivid memory of my friend Mark and I playing PSN game Pain over the holidays. We both still quote one-liners from it all the time.
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