I was most of the way through my backlog, and then my lady friend floated a bunch of albums my way, so I’ve been giving those a listen and rearranging my list accordingly. It’s going to be real, real fucking long this year. The less text-heavy nature is going to be my savior, because if I wrote 200 words about every single album, I’d probably give up halfway through and put a bullet through my head.

As something to tide you over, here’s a list of my favorite games from 2008. Bear in mind that I didn’t really play THAT many games. This is  just the stuff I dug out of what I played.

Rock Band 2

Yeah, well, I mean, duh, right? All absurd levels of bias aside, I still feel like Harmonix is the class of the music game genre. Yeah, I tried playing the other games. Not so much. I’ve put more non-work hours into RB2 than I have any other game this year, by a pretty wide margin. Between the insane amounts of DLC, the addictive Battle of the Bands, and the fact that I can put my character in a Masshole t-shirt, I feel like there’s not much more I could ask of a game I play fake guitar/bass/drums in (I don’t sing–ever).

The only other game that came close to taking up the same amount of my time was…

Burnout Paradise

My last review for GS turned out to be a good one. I know some people weren’t on board with this one because of the drastic shift it took from the standard Burnout machinations. But that exact shift is what made me fall so fucking in love with it. Paradise City is such a horribly addictive place to drive in, filled to the brim with shit to break, cars to wreck, and more stunt jumps than you can shake a fake Delorian at. The multiplayer is ludicrously fun when you’ve got a full slate of friends cooperating and competing with you. Plus when you factor in the shit ton of DLC support Criterion has thrown at this thing, it becomes a game you can come back to again and again for a very long time. Awesome shit.

Grand Theft Auto IV

The misadventures of Niko Belic reaffirmed that the Grand Theft Auto franchise is the class of the action adventure genre and is still capable of delivering some of the best crime fiction gaming has ever seen. An amazing cast of characters, tons of awesome missions, and a downright obsessive caricature of New York City that had me looking for notable landmarks I’ve been to time and time again made this an easy pick. So awesome.

Left 4 Dead

Co-op + zombies = Game Alex will play. I nitpick a few things about it here and there (I’m still not a big fan of kooky mutant “boss” zombies in any sort of zombie universe, though I get why they’re necessary in a game context), but the action itself is so viscerally satisfying that it doesn’t take long for me to stop caring. I played a system link four-player co-op game a few weeks back with my roommate and a couple of his friends that was probably the most fun I’ve had playing any multiplayer game in years. I play as Francis. I ALWAYS play as Francis. Because like me, he hates everything

Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix

The Street Fighter dork in me won’t allow me not to buy anything with the words Street and Fighter combined in the title, but it helps that this is the first worthwhile update of one of the classics. I still wish this was Hyper Fighting, but Super Turbo is a close second on my list of best SF games, and the HD Remix makes a wide variety of smart fixes and changes to an already excellent fighter. The graphics look superb, and I finally feel like the game balance is reasonable. Now I just can’t wait for SF IV to hit consoles…

Audiosurf

Take any song on your hard drive, plug it in, and watch a new game level appear. Audiosurf is pretty much amazing. It’s the kind of technology you could totally see going horribly wrong, but it instead creates compelling content out of music you’ve already got on your hard drive. Not every mode works well, but the ones that do are shit tons of fun to play, especially if you’ve got an especially lively taste in music, as I like to think I do.

Braid

It’s emo as fuck, but it’s also one of the most engaging and dastardly puzzler/platformers of all time. It does the time-shifting mechanic about as well as any game I’ve ever played, and the puzzles are legitimately clever across the board. And I don’t care what some people say, I think the art style is awesome.

LittleBigPlanet

The only PS3 game I’ve bought like, well, ever. As a platformer it’s solid, but as a social experiment in platformer design, it’s amazing. The absurd amount of awesome levels I’ve downloaded since picking it up has sold me on this thing for how ever many years Media Molecule and Sony decide to support this thing. There was a Silent Hill-themed level that pretty much solidified my belief in this thing as a way to do retardedly awesome shit. Also, it’s so goddamned adorable it makes a kitten in a ninja costume hugging a teddy bear in a bunny costume look like flaming puke.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

An engaging mystery wrapped in a lengthy series of brain teasers, or, otherwise known as the most perfectest game to take on the road with you ever. Seriously, this thing got me through so many long flights that all air travel since I finished it has felt about a bajilliondy times longer than it really was. Alex needs sequel badly.

NHL 09

I took the year off from Madden because, well, I seriously fucking needed a year away from football games. NHL 09 looked too good to pass up, though, and yeah, it was. Piled on the already awesome gameplay engine from NHL 08 were a suite of great online modes, as well as the utterly enthralling Be a Pro mode. I never got tired of getting my sports RPG on with my created hockey superstar. Think Madden’s superstar mode, only without all the retarded shit, and well-designed character progression. Totally amazing.

Other Noteworthy Releases

Geometry Wars 2 - So many smart updates to an already incredible shooter. The mere act of putting your next highest friend on the leaderboards on the screen while you play has lost me hours of sleep playing this.

Boom Blox - Multiplayer’s kind of weak, but the single player can be wicked fun. Cute as hell, too.

Wipeout HD - It’s Wipeout, but supremely hot looking. I’m all for that.

Castle Crashers - This would have been an easy top 10 pick if not for all the bullshit online issues. Still a great brawler.

Civilization Revolution - A strategy game I can actually wrap my head around. That’s an achievement in and of itself.

Lux Delux - This is entirely the fault of Lux Touch for the iPhone, which is a simple version of Risk that you can play while sitting on a train for 20 minutes at a time. Lux Delux is the PC/Mac version that comes with a shitload of maps and AI settings, as well as online play. If you like Risk-style strategy, it’s a must-play.

Games I Know I’ll Dig, But Haven’t Played Yet

Dead Space - Seems tailor made for me, given my love of both sci-fi and horror. I’m just a total pussy with horror games, so I’ve been reluctant to pick it up. I’ll probably check it out at some point.

Ninja Town - The lady friend loves it, and it looks all the way adorable. Seems like something I could get way into.

World of Goo - Everyone says it’s the best Wii game of the year. I’ll probably just get it on Steam at some point.

No More Heroes - I’ve played a little of this, but got busy and sent it back to Gamefly before I could finish it. I already know it’s awesome, I just need to complete the awesome.

Fallout 3 - I’ve messed with it at press events, but haven’t sat down to really give it the business myself on a retail system. I know it’s going to be awesome, I just don’t know that with my jet-setting lifestyle, I have the time to dedicate to something this time-intensive. Still, the allure of the post-apocalypse is too great for me to ignore this forever. I’ll play it.

God of War: Chains of Olympus - I don’t know why I haven’t played this. Oh, wait, it’s because I still don’t own a PSP. Yeah, that’ll do it. I’m sure I’ll give it a go before GoW 3 comes out.

Patapon - See above.

Mega Man 9 - I have bought and downloaded this already, but just haven’t played it yet. I just haven’t felt masochistic enough, yet.

Games That I’m Sure Are Awesome, but I Have Zero Interest In

Metal Gear Solid 4 - I don’t fucking like Metal Gear. I never have. I don’t care how incredible this game looks, and if they did finally fix the broken ass gameplay of the previous iterations, I have no investment in these characters or this universe, so I’m just not going to waste my time.

Gears of War 2 - Gears 1’s single-player never really grabbed me, and the multiplayer was only fun if you were playing against friends. Any random-people matches resulted in myriad of screaming 8th graders shrieking about how you chainsawing them to death was cheap and calling you a faggot. Yay. Gears 2 doesn’t seem like it’s really fixed any of that, so I’m just going to pass.

Resistance 2 - Probably a great shooter, but I didn’t play the original Resistance, and I don’t have much desire to do so now. Pass.

Mirror’s Edge - I’ve been sufficiently convinced by friends and co-workers that this is just flawed enough for me not to bother with it. Shame, because it looked neat, but having watched some people play it, I think it’d just drive me crazy.

Prince of Persia - Looks neat (and legitimately beautiful), but my general done-ness with this franchise, coupled with labored use of Sigur Ros in the TV ads (sorry guys, Dead Space beat you to it) make me not terribly compelled to check this out. Maybe it’s great, I dunno. I just can’t bring myself to care.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - I don’t like Smash Bros. Never have.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe - Sorry guys, I like my MK good and M-rated. As much as I want to support Boon and crew, I just can’t get into this.

The World Ends With You/Persona 4/Crisis Core/Every other JRPG released this year - I don’t like role-playing games. ‘Nuff said.

The Colossal Bummers of 2008

Soul Calibur 4 - I used to like this game when it was called Soul Calibur and was on the Dreamcast. I can’t say I’ve ever really dug any of the sequels. SC4 did little to change this. But hey, the boob physics are top flight! And by that, I mean ludicrous and creepy.

Mercenaries 2 - Sometimes hilarious and entertaining, sometimes fucking awful and frustrating. It leans hard enough toward the latter to where I gave up on it about four hours in.

Army of Two - Should have been awesome, but the rock-stupid plot and sometimes painful gameplay sucked a lot of the fun out of this good-looking shooter. Next time (if there is one), more Wu-Tang-related dialogue, less bro-ness.

TNA: Impact - Should have been a contender to the SmackDown throne, but it just didn’t do enough to remain compelling past a few matches. Looked nice, played dumb.

Animal Crossing: City Folk - OK, it’s not quite a “colossal bummer” but it is a pretty big rehash. I still like some of its cutely-mundane activities, but not enough to really care about playing it much.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - I’m not sure there’s a “meh” big enough to dictate how I truly felt about this tech-demo turned mediocre action game. As Ryan Davis put it, it’s the video game equivalent of “stop hitting yourself!” with storm troopers. That’s fun for about 20 minutes.

Lost: Via Domus - I didn’t even have expectations for this one, but it still bummed me out. I love the show dearly, but this shit is so bad even the writers of the show refused to consider it canon.

Insecticide - A DS adventure game from people behind LucasArts’ slate of classic adventure titles sounds great. Too bad the adventure puzzles are lackluster, and the shooter levels tossed in for no discernable reason are god awful.

Look for music postings soon. List is nearly finalized.

Yes.

It will be far less text-heavy than perhaps some are used to, but it will be a list. Look for it in a few weeks.

…yet.

Bloggers are supposed to…well, blog, right? Yeah, I guess I haven’t been doing much of that.

To be fair, if I really wanted to do this blogging thing, I probably shouldn’t have gotten a job. That whole freelancing, sitting around at home twiddling my thumbs with no pants on thing? MUCH more conducive to the blogging lifestyle. Working your ass off at a major game developer? Less so.

Not that I’m really arguing with the job, mind you. I’m pretty much in love with what I do and Harmonix as a whole. Stupid shit happens, just like at any company, but for I think the first time ever, this is a situation where I think the stupid shit fails to outweigh the awesome shit by a pretty wide margin. I work with awesome people, and we make awesome games. No amount of stupidity can negate that kind of awesomeness.

My job is already affording me some opportunities to do exceedingly cool shit. On Monday, I’m off to Germany for the Leipzig Games Convention. After five years at GameSpot, you’d think I’d have gotten to go to that thing at least one year. Nope. Two and a half months at HMX, and I’m already packing my bags. Yeah, EFF YOU old job!

I may do some road blogging from Germany, now that I have my fancy new iPhone and the WordPress app. Or maybe I should just finally bite the bullet and get a Twitter account.

No. Fuck that. I still have a modicum of dignity.

Another cool thing that I get to do now and again is attend various Rock Band nights at local watering holes and whatnot. A bar just down the street from the HMX offices called River Gods does a monthly RB thing, and I got to staff it a few weeks ago. Granted, that pretty much consists of me standing around a console, periodically taking and giving guitars to people and asking what difficulty they want on vocals, but it’s still a wicked good time. Though Christ almighty I can’t wait for RB2 and no fail mode. Bar patrons and Rock Band do not make for good technical playing.

Another good one was the RB night at the Coolidge Corner Theater down in Brookline. It’s an indie movie theater that decided to have a big, honking RB competition, and have the game hooked up to the big screen in the main theater. It was, as you’d expect, fairly kickass. Something like 12 bands competed. Each picked a song to compete with, and then they had to pick a second song which was a “mystery track” chosen by the staff. The part they didn’t know was that the second song would be from the RB2 track list, and we, in fact, gave the public its first taste of RB2 with the E3 demo. Remember that scene in The Wizard where they first debut Super Mario Bros. 3 and everyone goes apeshit? Yeah, it was kind of like that.

The first big public test is going to be at PAX, which is, much to my ability to sleep’s chagrin, immediately following Leipzig. I’ll be out there helping to demo the game at our little station of rock. You’ll also likely see me hovering around “The Rockening,” which is a panel being given by several longtime HMX staffers on the history of the company. That should be pretty rad, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Oh, and I’m also doing something with those jackbags from Giant Bomb. I have no idea how that’s going to go. I’m guessing somewhere between retarded and awesome, or perhaps a delicious blending of the two. We’ll see. I’m looking extremely forward to it, regardless.

On the music front, I got to go out to NYC a couple of weekends ago and see Rock the Bells, a big ass hip-hop festival featuring, among others, Nas, a reunited A Tribe Called Quest (which really might as well have been called Q-Tip, featuring those other dudes from ATCQ), Method Man and Redman, Mos Def, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, De La Soul, Murs, and a bajilliondy other people. The best thing about going to a major hip-hop festival in NYC? Every fucking rapper in the goddamn world lives there, so the sheer number of cameo appearances was staggering. Busta Rhymes came on during Tribe’s set and did Scenario, as well as Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See; Jay-Z floored the whole crowd when he ran up during Nas’ set and did Black Republican; Taleb Kweli did about half of Mos Def’s set; Biz Markie, Slick Rick, DJ Kool, Pharoah Monch, Black Sheep, and EPMD…the list just keeps going. It was a ridiculously good show.

Lastly, yes, I know, I am yet again overdue for a music post. The whole “prepping for two weeks of nonstop travel” thing has kind of fucked up my ability to really hunker down and check out new music, so you’ll just have to wait a little longer. Plus, all you really need to know is that Ice Cube has a new album out. I don’t know if it’s any good or not. Frankly, I don’t think that even really matters. It’s Ice-motherfucking-Cube. Support the Don Mega.