02 Jan 2013
We often bemoan the encroaching invasiveness of the modern digital age. Services like Facebook and Google are pretty notorious for collecting all kinds of data on us. The amount of information that they know about a single person can be a bit creepy. There’s a fair amount of faith required to trust that they will respect our privacy, and it’s clear that some are better at this than others. But there are times when I really appreciate my digital footprint. I like being able to explore my memory with the aid of some automatic stenographer in the cloud. It’s with this help that with a quick run through of Xbox and BoardGameGeek that I can tell you exactly what I played in 2012.
So, if you didn’t already know it, I’m a gamer. Hello. It’s pretty irrefutable when you look at these lists below. I enjoy games at some fundamental level. I love learning. I love skill mastery. I love interactive narrative. I love the breath of experiences that games can often.
As various publications out there are putting together “game of the year” lists I feel like this is a good time to reflect back on my year of gaming. Outside of Bastion I didn’t make any game-related posts in 2012 (finishing the Music Made Me project took at the words out of me). I’m not going to be able to comment on this entire backlog, or cough up some grandiose meta-editorial last minute. But I can list them; that seems like a thing I can do.
So here you are: the games that I played in 2012, analog and digital, arranged by platform, then in reverse chronological order.
Xbox
- FEZ
- Guardians of Middle-Earth
- Rock Band 3
- Borderlands 2
- Dead Space 2
- Rock Band Blitz
- Darksiders II
- Magic 2013
- Trine 2
- The Walking Dead
- Halo 4
- Mark of the Ninja
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- Dance Central 3
- Minecraft
- Awesomenauts
- Spelunky
- Dance Central 2
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD
- Geometry Wars Evolved 2
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Rayman Origins
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations
- Mass Effect 3
- Alan Wake
- Brutal Legend
- L.A. Noire
- Lara Croft: Guardian of Light
- Dungeon Defenders
- Clash of Heroes
- Half-Minute Hero
- Renegade Ops
- Orcs Must Die!
- Bastion
- Gears of War 3
- Halo: CE Anniversary
- Insanely Twisted: Shadow Planet
- Epic Dungeon
Windows Phone
- Wordament
- Feed Me Oil
- Carcassone
- BulletAsylum
- Mush
- de Blob Revolution
- Parachute Panic
- Fragger
- Bug Village
- Revolution
- Katamaridamacy
- Breeze
- Tanks
Windows RT
- Jetpack Joyride
- Wordament
- Fruit Ninja
Windows
- FTL
- Guild Wars 2
- Artemis
- Lord of the Rings Online
(no automatic tracking here, so these are by memory)
Web
- Frog Fractions
- Highgrounds
(I don’t have any ability to track these automatically, so what you have here are a couple that I remembered)
Board Game
- Escape: The Curse of the Temple
- Seasons
- Cards Against Humanity
- Go Away Monster!
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
- Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre
- Small World
- Ascension
- Infiltration
- Tsuro of the Seas
- King of Tokyo
- Super Dungeon Explore
- FITS
- Elder Sign
- Race for the Galaxy
- Castle Panic
- Penny Arcade: The Game - Rumble in R’lyeh
- Sheepland
- Power Grid: the First Sparks
- Incan Gold
- Dungeon Command
- Zpocalypse
- 3012
- The Adventurers: The Pyramid of Horus
- Nuns on the Run
- Carcassonne
- Small World Underground
- Zombie Dice
- Sentinels of the Multiverse
- 7 Wonders
- Cargo Noir
- The Red Dragon Inn
- Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
- Pandemic
(I manually log all my board game plays at BoardGameGeek, because I’m crazy like that)
27 Apr 2012
September - Earth, Wind & Fire
We celebrated Jessica’s thirtieth birthday with a disco house party. We’d warmed up with a number of excellent New Years Eve events, but this disco party was where the house dance floor really hit solid gold. People dressed up and really got into it. Of course, disco is genetically engineered to speak directly to the booty, so there’s no denying it.
1901 - Phoenix
There was this song on the radio that kept getting stuck in Jessica’s head. She would try to sing it to me, but I had no idea what she was talking about. What the hell is “Lisztomania”?
She found the album on Zune and downloaded it in time for our trip down to Portland for my friend Carlos’ wedding. So at last I was able to hear this catchy tune. But wait, what’s this next song… “1901”?
This is… perfection. I don’t even know where to start. This song just drives the whole way through, taking you on an expertly crafted journey. I have no words for it. I’m completely in love with this song.
Later we’re at the wedding venue, but it’s the day before. We’re hanging out in the pool outdoors, and another wedding is going down nearby in the place where Carlos will be married the next night. I remember them playing another song off that Phoenix album we’d listened to on the ride down: “Girlfriend”.
Okay, it was settled. I had to explore this band for real. Upon returning from the trip I completely absorbed myself in Phoenix’s discography. Was. Not. Disappointed.
Intro - The XX
This is one of my all time favorite album intros. It’s exactly how you should prepare someone for the musical journey that follows. Simple, building, ear catching, but not overwhelming.
And what a solid album it is. A distinct point of view, and a refined sound. Generally super relaxed, but also completely capable of getting things moving in its own way. My only complaint with this album is that it’s the only one. I demand more.
Underneath the Sycamore - Death Cab For Cutie
I find that I paint best when I have music on. So when I sat down for the crazy task of painting every day for thirty days, I needed a lot of music. Which made it a great time for a new Death Cab album. I don’t think I would have listened to this album so much in immediate repeat if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was spending hours painting every single evening. Not because it isn’t excellent, because it is. I just generally try to space out my album listening more.
And at last we have caught up with the present. Thirty of years of my life, defined by the music I was listening to. 140 tracks in total.
It seems odd to just trail off here. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Now that I’ve started this… it won’t be done until I’m dead. Who knows what music the next thirty years will bring?
25 Apr 2012
Yes - Morphine
After nine years of courtship, I finally married Jessica. We had met so early in life, neither of us expected to find such perfection by then. So we felt no need to rush. Maybe we overshot a bit, but I’m much happier that we made our own decision on our own schedule, and walked into our wedding more confident and loving than ever.
We walked down the aisle to “The Nearness Of You” by Norah Jones. And we walked out to “Yes” by Morphine. Not a typical choice, I know. But a song by a band we both loved that chanted “yes, yes, yes” seemed like the perfect song to start our marriage.
Moondance - Michael Bublé
We’d been ballroom dancing for a number of years by this point. There was zero interest in half-assing our first dance. So months before the wedding we started working on our performance. The final number had foxtrot, swing, balboa, lindyhop… seriously, we went all out. I had a spreadsheet to block the whole thing out. It was probably the only thing I was nervous about on our wedding day. I mean, that whole wedding ceremony was obviously going to be fine… but could we pull off the dance?
The dip and kiss happens at 3:30, in case it isn’t obvious.
Slow Dance - John Legend
Before the wedding Jessica’s aunt Donna gifted her greatest piece of wisdom: play this song. I don’t think I had ever heard it before. Which is a shame, because that’s too many years without this absolute treat of a song in my life.
We played it immediately after “Moondance”. The idea that was that people would join us and start the dance floor. We’d even seeded certain people in advance to set up the whole transition. But in that moment far too many of them lost their nerve. Apparently dropping a dance number like that wasn’t good for convincing the general crowd that it was time for them to dance too. Oh well, their loss. Great song.
Our love is…
Our love is…
Our love is… slow dancing together.
Loud Pipes - Ratatat
Oh hell yes, Ratatat. This was an introduction from Jevan. One of the awesome things about working on music software is how talking about music is just part of the culture. There was truly a love for music there.
Another Zune Arts video brought me Ratatat earlier, but it was so short I didn’t dig deeper into the music. I didn’t even make the connection that I’d heard the music before until a year later. But seriously, those videos are awesome. I highly recommend watching all of them.
Ratatat filled a void that Daft Punk had left empty. Instrumental, tightly mixed, conceptual but hard hitting and rhythmic. And like Daft Punk, I’m always left wondering why there isn’t more of it.
Your Touch - The Black Keys
I first heard the Black Keys while tooling around on Zune looking for new music. I believe I started with Attack & Release, since it was the new release, but it was when I traveled back in time that I found what I was looking for.
Discovering The Black Keys felt a bit like unearthing one of my dad’s old records. The band just doesn’t sound like something from this era. Clearly this can’t be music from the year 2006? What sorcery is this?
Raw simple blues rock. No tomfoolery. Heartfelt, pure, and oh so good. There are times when I find a new album, and there are times when I find a new artist to delve into completely. This was most definitely the latter.