Archive for December, 2007

End of year lists are, as we all know, both passé and vaguely narcissistic. So, with that in mind, here’s an end of year list, in no particular order.

Battles – Mirrored
Their earlier EPs were interesting, precise and showed a faint glimmer of humour, but I don’t think anyone expected the album to be such a volte-face. If anyone had told me my favourite album of the year would feature bouncy glam rock beats, alien vocoders, heavy prog tendencies and more than a little tongue in cheek, I’d have bought them a Smiths album and shown them the door.

The National – Boxer
Ah, that’s more like it. A moody lament about twenty-something corporate angst, loneliness and obsession. A perfect autumn album, close, intimate and, despite the subject matter, surprisingly hopeful in places – reminiscent of Turn On The Bright Lights both in scope and sound.

The iPhone
Time’s Gadget of the Year. I still think some of the fanboyish attention it gets is unwarranted, and frankly I’m sick of people asking for a go. But it’s wonderful having internet all the time, everywhere, and I find myself using even the gimmicky bits (calculator, maps) regularly. A triumph of interaction design.

BarCamp
In short, geek weekend get-togethers, complete with sleepovers, pizza and beer. Both BarCampLondon3 and BarCampBrighton were great experiences and a great chance to learn about new developments and share enthusiasm with others in my field. That said, they’re quite a lot of effort to attend (both in sleep deficit and preparation) and I may limit my attendance somewhat in 2008.

Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
Always considered them too daft until this album which, although exceedingly daft in places, finally showcases their obvious talent in a more structured way. Unremittingly happy and curious, always interested in exploring the answer to ‘what would happen if…’

All Tomorrow’s Parties
Went to two of them, and enjoyed the one I didn’t think I’d like more. One of those rare events where the atmosphere just seems to click, possibly because the line-up was so ‘tight’ that everyone was there for the same reasons. And I like the new venue, even if others don’t. Still trying to sort out groups for the next two, if anyone’s interested.

The Orange Box
See previous posts. The best game of all time bundled with the best game of the year and some other neat stuff. Rather enjoyed having my Xbox 360 this year, seems to suit my gaming needs down to the ground (i.e. nothing too demanding of my time, but something I can get stuck into on a rainy Sunday).

Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity
You can always rely on Deerhoof to come up with stonking tunes and an almost complete disregard for how bands should sound. No pigeonholes here; they’re as squeaky, as funky, as noisy, as quirky as ever. Just avoid that last track.

The Lives Of Others
Moving to London has made me very reluctant to go to the cinema – why should I pay £8-10 for a ticket when I can buy the DVD later for £12? So I think this may even have been the only film I paid to see all year. But, wow, what a film. Deeply intelligent and moving.

The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumn & Fifteen Winters
There does seem to be something of a mini shoegazer revival, which can only be a good thing as far as I’m concerned. The Twilight Sad, however, were one of few bands to actually stretch beyond their obvious influences and create something that retained the expansive volume of the genre but avoided the dreamy psychedelic bullshit.

[Bonus pick: London
Cheesy, yes, but it's been my biggest change of the year, and one I don't regret at all. It's been everything I thought it would be, in both a negative and positive way. At times lonely and stressful, at others an exciting affirmation that I'm part of something. I'm glad I finally gave it a chance to prove itself.]

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All I want for Christmas…

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Been busy working on exciting things (I’ll post them when they’re done), drinking Christmastide pints, and watching Pitchfork’s Top 50 music videos of 2007.

It’s not that I’m opting out of Christmas. I’m just doing it my own way. A little selfish, yes, but really all I want to do this year is relax, walk around North London on Christmas morning, and spend some time in a quiet office working on interesting ‘big picture’ stuff (thus saving myself time off for when it’s hectic and stressful).

I also plan to catch up on my blogging and guitar playing, two things I’ve rather neglected this year. Still haven’t recorded Letter From Don Quixote To Dulcinea Del Toboso, still haven’t posted my thoughts on the new BBC site (in short, a good effort given the undoubted politics of that organisation). All in good time.

Some stocking filler links:

Assessing your team’s UX skills
The nine most badass Bible verses
Portal: a feminist subversion of the first-person shooter genre? (see previous post)
50 Cent: Filesharing doesn’t hurt artists (who knew he had a brain?)
How much punishment can a robotic dinosaur take?

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This was a triumph

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

I realise I’m a little late to the party with Portal, but I just don’t play games as much as I used to. My free time has collapsed of late and, as a veteran from the ZX Spectrum days, I’m sick of the industry treading the same paths over and over again.

So nowadays I have one or two favourites that I put decent effort into (Forza Motorsport 2 is my current long-term squeeze), and then have quick flirtations with the few quirky games that interest me and break the mould a bit. Quirky games like Shadow Of The Colossus, Vib Ribbon, Animal Crossing, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. Climbing up gigantic monsters, picking flowers, dancing over loop-the-loops, defending clients against miscarriages of anime justice.

And now I can add Portal to that list. Shooting holes in the space-time continuum and jumping through them.

Portal is a little sidegame bundled with Valve’s The Orange Box (Half-Life 2, plus two bonus episodes). HL2, while absolutely marvellous, is pretty standard first-person shooter fayre: pick up guns, shoot people, save the day. Portal takes the same mechanics, removes the weaponry and bad guys, and gives you a device that fires portals. Shoot two and they become linked, so that you walk into one and emerge from the other. Your goal: get to the end of each increasingly tricky level.

This changes everything. Suddenly you can access any point you can see. Up becomes down becomes left becomes right. A shoot-em-up becomes a multi-dimensional puzzler.

Clearly this could be completely unplayable without a well-designed learning curve, but luckily one of the things Valve Software do brilliantly is to progressively reveal complexity. Advanced concepts (shooting portals underneath gun turrets so that they fall onto another turret) are introduced steadily, the levels are designed beautifully to give that perfect mix of experimentation – affordances galore – and guidance.

And it’s funny. Genuinely funny. I’ve never found a game funny before. Admittedly I’m a sucker for passive-aggressive malfunctioning robots, but even the gun turrets say “No hard feelings” in a Bambi-ish voices when you destroy them. Swoon. And an inanimate metal cube with hearts on it has developed more of a cult following than any humanoid ass-kicking hero.

Anyway, writing about games, to paraphrase someone or other, is like dancing about architecture. If you get a chance, play it. It warmed the cockles of even a jaded gamer like myself. If you need any more convincing, watch the end credits (spoiler-free):

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Archive for December, 2007

Two new songs

The Urge

Popular Classics

10 most excellent things of 2007

All I want for Christmas…

This was a triumph

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