I started Whiskey Pie along with CJ at the beginning of 2008. Though he dropped out of the site for various reasons, I think I speak for both of us when I say that my only goal was to try to stick with something for once, to update it fairly consistently, and not to give up. I don't want to get too self-congratulatory, but throughout 2008 I was able to post at least a couple times a week on top of the other writing I was doing; not only that, I'm genuinely proud of some of the writing I did this year.
Anyway, I'm going to take this chance to look back on Whiskey Pie in 2008 and link some of the posts I was particularly proud of. Also, I'm going to Cleveland for New Year's and will take the rest of the week off, so new Whiskey Pie posts will start on this upcoming Monday (coincidentally, I'm starting a second job that day, too).
Look-A-Likes: When Whiskey Pie began, I was still getting back into the swing of coming up with something to write every week, but this feature was an idea I had had for some time. It might even have dated back to when I was still in college and writing for the paper. Anyway, I think my look-a-likes are pretty on the mark.
Super Mario Galaxy: I don't do a lot of videogame stuff on this site, mainly because I don't play enough games to feel truly confident in my critical faculties for the artform. But I feel like everything I wanted to say about this game I managed to squeeze in without doing the boring consumer report style review.
Bukowski On Film: Barfly Vs. Factotum: I'm a huge fan of Charles Bukowski, so it was interesting to finally see the movies he wrote/are based on him. I thought this came off pretty well.
A Guide To World of Warcraft Classes: I really enjoyed writing this article because I was heavily into WoW at the time. Now it just seems like a bad attempt at a Something Awful post. Still, I think the pictures are kind of funny and I don't do as much overt attempts at humor on Whiskey Pie anymore.
Video: Tom Waits- God's Away On Business: OK, I just wanted to get people to go watch this video because I think it's badass.
New Pornographers- Challengers: As I say in the review itself, I find it hard to write negative reviews but I think I did a decent job with this one.
Album of the Week: Spoon- Girls Can Tell: I try not to get too digressive or background informationy with my reviews and I think I achieved a good balance here while still digging into the album itself.
Why I Quit World of Warcraft: Maybe I should've let this article stew for a week or so while I made a few more edit passes at it. As it stands, I managed to get down everything I wanted to say as coherently as possible.
Primer: Beck Part 8- Guero: When I begin writing any of my Primer entries on bands, this is the kind of 'review' I strive for. Something that places the work in the context of the band or artist's discography but doesn't devolve into a constant series of "this isn't as good as" or "this is better than" statements with hardly a mention of the album itself.
Shadow of the Colossus: If I could write something like this everyday, I would be pretty damn happy with myself. I so clearly remember editing this post and thinking it was one of the best critiques/re-evaluations of something I had ever written. I'm still really proud of it, too.
The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy: Sometimes in writing a review, I'm working through my feelings about the album as much as I am trying to write a competent critique of it. I go into it without a clear positive or negative slant in mind but in the process of writing and thinking, I end up with something like this.
The Sincerest Form of Flattery: This is one of those critical think pieces I do from time to time. I know a lot of people don't bother with these since they are like reading someone thinking out loud, but I find them a healthy by-product of the critic's diet. Or maybe that should be 'the critic's masturbation.'
Halloween: Film Round-Up 1: In case you couldn't tell, I love Halloween and had a blast doing all the Halloween-y content throughout October. This was the first batch of mini-film reviews I did, and it was probably the best. Starting this series caused me to begin watching way more movies than I had been, thereby reigniting my love for film in general.
Primer: Phish Part 6/Album of the Week- Billy Breathes: While I was writing the Primer entries on Phish, I was making a conscious effort to balance the music critic part of me and the mindless fan part of me. This was probably the point where the two were most equal.
Album of the Week: Elliott Smith- Either/Or: It was only after I finished writing this review and began editing that I realized I hadn't said very much about the music or the songs. Yet as someone who commented on this review said, I still managed to capture the feel of the thing. This is the same as the Shadow of the Colossus post, because I wish that every time I sat down to write something like this came out.
Half-Life: Again, even though I don't write a lot about videogames, I think I did a great job of talking about this game on its 10 year anniversary without devolving into "the graphics were good, the sound was OK, the controls are too loose, etc."
David Lynch's Inland Empire: Every single time I had seen Inland Empire before writing this I ended up drunk by the end of it. So it was enlightening to watch it during a drying out period and to know that it still doesn't make a lot of sense if you're stone cold sober. Still, I enjoyed writing this review and I think it helped me collect my feelings about it and Lynch's work in general.
Stephen Malkmus- Stephen Malkmus: I try to avoid concept reviews because they tow a fine line between smarmy/pretentious and fun/intelligent. Hopefully you think, as I do, that I ended up with the latter.
That ended up being a lot more posts than I thought. Well, Happy New Year everybody. Here's hoping I have as many highlights when 2009 draws to a close...
Showing posts with label 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Best Albums of 2008 Part 2
8) Stephen Malkmus- Real Emotional Trash
Call me a super fan. Say that I have a man-crush on Stephen Malkmus. Whatever. Much as I love Pavement and wish Malkmus would get the boys back together, I'm not a fool. Those days are gone and Malkmus is wisely following his own muse from album to album. Real Emotional Trash takes Malkmus's flirtations with guitar heroics and the jam scene to its inevitable conclusion, adding ex-Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss to level out the bottom end. The result is less Phish or the extended moments of Led Zepplin than it is the Malkmus-ian aesthetic we've come to love but with even more emphasis on guitar-led improvisation than Pig Lib. The lengthy title track was one of this year's best joyrides.
7) Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
I think I said it best in my review: "It's always easy for me to forget albums like this when I'm discussing my 'best of the year' lists with the other music nerds and obsessives. These kinds of records, well, they don't change the world, create new genres, or instantly make scenes and sound-alikes sprout up in their wake. No, For Emma, Forever Ago is a familiar but fantastic pleasure, like spending a day off with a pot of tea, a new novel, and a rainstorm. The environment is well known but the novel is not. So it is with this album. It's one of the 2008's best (though technically it was self-released in 2007, so...) and a low key, strongly human piece of loss, pain, and recovery."
6) Portishead- Third
While I mostly fixated on the "comeback of the year!!" aspect of this release, one thing that's been sticking in the back of my mind has finally come out. Third reminded me of why I love electronic music. If accused of favoring rock above all other forms of music, I would concede the point. But albums like Third drop into my lap like a needy cat and whaddya know, I love electronic music, too. Using the tried and true "drum/synth loops with a vocalist" style as set in stone during the trip hop era, Third takes everything in a darker, more overtly synthetic direction while still remaining true to the band's feel and way with a song. Darker, more dissonant...it's like the soundtrack to Children of Men.
5) Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer
I wrote a really clumsy, music critic navel gazing kind of review for this album, but I think my point still stands: this album is every bit as good as their debut if you give it enough time. At Mount Zoomer seemed to be a pretty divisive release and while I fully understand why, I still think it's great if taken on its own terms. It doesn't have any songs as immediately stunning and memorable as 'I'll Believe In Anything', but it's got more variety and takes more chances. That counts for something in my book.
4) Sun Kil Moon- April
Had I ever listened to a Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon (or even a Mark Kozelek solo release) album before April, I'm not sure I would have thought this album was so good. Maybe it was his worst release?? Well, having now gone back and picked up a good deal of Kozelek's work under those various monikers, I can safely say that April is still one of my favorites of the year. There's just something about his voice, his way with words, and the Neil Young-esque combination of skeletal acoustic ballads and extended guitar rockers that I can't get enough of. That the album is so long and I don't get bored halfway through speaks to its quality.
3) TV On The Radio- Dear Science
If Return To Cookie Mountain was the breakout release that Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes should have been, then Dear Science firmly entrenches TV On The Radio in the upper echelons of the indie rock world. The album is poppier, more polished, and more accessible than previous releases yet none of these are knocks against it. If anything, TV On The Radio have improved their way with vocals and their trademark hard-to-describe production, mixing hip hop, electronic, experimental, jazz, and indie rock textures, melodies, and rhythms into a magnificent soup. There's something quintessentially American about the band, at least the "classless, colorless" America that I hold as an ideal; between these guys and Barack Obama winning the election, this suburban white boy is happy to see that this country isn't as racist, conservative, and racially divisive as I thought.
2) Deerhunter- Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
Yes, I haven't reviewed the "bonus album" that comes with Microcastle. But that doesn't change the fact that Microcastle itself is an incredible achievement for the band. As with the above TV On The Radio release, it polished and opened up the band's pop influences while still being very Deerhunter-y. Were I a lazy critic, I would say that all the pop songs ended up on the album while all the psychedelic/shoegazer stuff ended up on Weird Era Cont. But that's not entirely true. Weird Era Cont. is more like a midway point between Cryptograms and Microcastle. But I digress. As a one-two punch, the twin release from Deerhunter is brilliant noise pop and 2008's best bang-for-the-buck.
1) Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes (and the Sun Giant EP)
While Deerhunter officially paired their two releases from this year, the Fleet Foxes indirectly paired their EP with the self titled debut. As good as Sun Giant is, it can't help but feel like an appetizer for the album. I'm trying to keep my hyperbole in check here, but Fleet Foxes is the most fully formed and brilliant debut in recent memory. We're talking Surfer Rosa "fully formed and brilliant debut" territory here. If this were 2003 or 2004, Fleet Foxes would have been lumped in with the psych-folk movement. As it is, the band's phenomenally gorgeous vocal harmonies (here comes the Beach Boys comparison...!!) recall the old masters the Beach Boys while their music gathers from old Americana staples like folk and country as well as the tried and true classic rock and singer/songwriter soundscapes. Yet for as many reference points as you might have for the band, it doesn't change the fact that these songs are good beyond description. Well, there's that hyperbole sneaking in. So: album of the year. The end.
Call me a super fan. Say that I have a man-crush on Stephen Malkmus. Whatever. Much as I love Pavement and wish Malkmus would get the boys back together, I'm not a fool. Those days are gone and Malkmus is wisely following his own muse from album to album. Real Emotional Trash takes Malkmus's flirtations with guitar heroics and the jam scene to its inevitable conclusion, adding ex-Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss to level out the bottom end. The result is less Phish or the extended moments of Led Zepplin than it is the Malkmus-ian aesthetic we've come to love but with even more emphasis on guitar-led improvisation than Pig Lib. The lengthy title track was one of this year's best joyrides.
7) Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
I think I said it best in my review: "It's always easy for me to forget albums like this when I'm discussing my 'best of the year' lists with the other music nerds and obsessives. These kinds of records, well, they don't change the world, create new genres, or instantly make scenes and sound-alikes sprout up in their wake. No, For Emma, Forever Ago is a familiar but fantastic pleasure, like spending a day off with a pot of tea, a new novel, and a rainstorm. The environment is well known but the novel is not. So it is with this album. It's one of the 2008's best (though technically it was self-released in 2007, so...) and a low key, strongly human piece of loss, pain, and recovery."
6) Portishead- Third
While I mostly fixated on the "comeback of the year!!" aspect of this release, one thing that's been sticking in the back of my mind has finally come out. Third reminded me of why I love electronic music. If accused of favoring rock above all other forms of music, I would concede the point. But albums like Third drop into my lap like a needy cat and whaddya know, I love electronic music, too. Using the tried and true "drum/synth loops with a vocalist" style as set in stone during the trip hop era, Third takes everything in a darker, more overtly synthetic direction while still remaining true to the band's feel and way with a song. Darker, more dissonant...it's like the soundtrack to Children of Men.
5) Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer
I wrote a really clumsy, music critic navel gazing kind of review for this album, but I think my point still stands: this album is every bit as good as their debut if you give it enough time. At Mount Zoomer seemed to be a pretty divisive release and while I fully understand why, I still think it's great if taken on its own terms. It doesn't have any songs as immediately stunning and memorable as 'I'll Believe In Anything', but it's got more variety and takes more chances. That counts for something in my book.
4) Sun Kil Moon- April
Had I ever listened to a Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon (or even a Mark Kozelek solo release) album before April, I'm not sure I would have thought this album was so good. Maybe it was his worst release?? Well, having now gone back and picked up a good deal of Kozelek's work under those various monikers, I can safely say that April is still one of my favorites of the year. There's just something about his voice, his way with words, and the Neil Young-esque combination of skeletal acoustic ballads and extended guitar rockers that I can't get enough of. That the album is so long and I don't get bored halfway through speaks to its quality.
3) TV On The Radio- Dear Science
If Return To Cookie Mountain was the breakout release that Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes should have been, then Dear Science firmly entrenches TV On The Radio in the upper echelons of the indie rock world. The album is poppier, more polished, and more accessible than previous releases yet none of these are knocks against it. If anything, TV On The Radio have improved their way with vocals and their trademark hard-to-describe production, mixing hip hop, electronic, experimental, jazz, and indie rock textures, melodies, and rhythms into a magnificent soup. There's something quintessentially American about the band, at least the "classless, colorless" America that I hold as an ideal; between these guys and Barack Obama winning the election, this suburban white boy is happy to see that this country isn't as racist, conservative, and racially divisive as I thought.
2) Deerhunter- Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
Yes, I haven't reviewed the "bonus album" that comes with Microcastle. But that doesn't change the fact that Microcastle itself is an incredible achievement for the band. As with the above TV On The Radio release, it polished and opened up the band's pop influences while still being very Deerhunter-y. Were I a lazy critic, I would say that all the pop songs ended up on the album while all the psychedelic/shoegazer stuff ended up on Weird Era Cont. But that's not entirely true. Weird Era Cont. is more like a midway point between Cryptograms and Microcastle. But I digress. As a one-two punch, the twin release from Deerhunter is brilliant noise pop and 2008's best bang-for-the-buck.
1) Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes (and the Sun Giant EP)
While Deerhunter officially paired their two releases from this year, the Fleet Foxes indirectly paired their EP with the self titled debut. As good as Sun Giant is, it can't help but feel like an appetizer for the album. I'm trying to keep my hyperbole in check here, but Fleet Foxes is the most fully formed and brilliant debut in recent memory. We're talking Surfer Rosa "fully formed and brilliant debut" territory here. If this were 2003 or 2004, Fleet Foxes would have been lumped in with the psych-folk movement. As it is, the band's phenomenally gorgeous vocal harmonies (here comes the Beach Boys comparison...!!) recall the old masters the Beach Boys while their music gathers from old Americana staples like folk and country as well as the tried and true classic rock and singer/songwriter soundscapes. Yet for as many reference points as you might have for the band, it doesn't change the fact that these songs are good beyond description. Well, there's that hyperbole sneaking in. So: album of the year. The end.
Friday, December 26, 2008
The Best Albums of 2008 Part 1
16) Beck - Modern Guilt
While he hasn't been releasing flat out bad music, Beck's cache has been muddled in recent years by a series of merely good albums with few surprises. Though it wasn't on the same level of the return of Portishead, Modern Guilt was one of my main surprises of 2008. The album sounds fresh and new, borrowing from modern day hip hop and 60s pop/rock and producing a concise, polished album of great songs.
15) and 14) Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster.../We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
While I haven't gotten around to reviewing these yet, Los Campesinos have, with the two albums they released this year, proven themselves to be as consistent and catchy as indie pop bands twice their age. The band deftly walk the indie rock line between sincerity and irony: song titles like '...And We Roll Our Eyes In Unison' may read more like titles of bad MySpace poetry but in actuality are damn good songs crammed with ideas and hooks. Fans of Belle & Sebastian and Architecture In Helsinki need apply.
13) The Dodos - Visiter
You initial point of reference for this album will probably be Animal Collective circa Sung Tongs, but The Dodos are much less psychedelic and drone-y and much more energetic and buoyant. The songs match intricate acoustic guitar to spastic, flailing percussion that recalls all sorts of exotic African/non-Western influences. All of this is more impressive because The Dodos are only a duo yet produce full bodied music ripe with dense production.
12) Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who See But Cannot Feel
While Deerhunter gave their noise/pop a restraint and polish with their album from 2008, Bradford Cox explored the electronic, ambient, and dream-pop headspaces with his 'solo' work under the Atlas Sound moniker. Let The Blind... makes for a hell of a headphones album, all glistening synthesizers, looped guitars, and longing, pained vocals. While not as immediately impressive as most of the albums on my list from this year, this one has been a return pleasure for me since its release very early in 2008.
11) Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Deerhoof get better with time just as much as they stay good. Offend Maggie wisely adds a second guitarist to the line-up after an album with only one, bringing the band back to their 'classic' sound circa Milk Man and Runner's Four while still adding new wrinkles and twists to their now established sound. I suspect this new line-up have something even better ahead of them, but Offend Maggie is a damn good new beginning.
10) No Age - Nouns
Bands like No Age are the reason I haven't given up on music or hung myself. What I mean is, if you had asked me who No Age were at the start of 2008 I wouldn't have had a clue. Yet here I am, a few days before 2009 begins, and a band I had never heard of is on my list of best albums of 2008. This is why I love music: that endless discovery of new, great bands. That rush of new-ness coupled with excellence. Nouns is such a succinct, effortless slab of noise-pop that it's easy to underrate it in the grand scheme of things. My Bloody Valentine may never release another album or if they do it might be crap, but that's OK. Bands like No Age ensure that noise-pop will always have a future. And, err, a present.
9) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
It's odd to revisit this music in the middle of winter because it's so quintessentially made for the warmer months, when you hear about breezes instead of wind chill factors and at the very worst you might have to wear jeans instead of shorts. Nevermind that this was one of the most hyped up and talked about releases of the first part of 2008. Nevermind all the comparisons to Afro-pop and Paul Simon's Graceland. Mind, though, how infectious and addictive this album is.
While he hasn't been releasing flat out bad music, Beck's cache has been muddled in recent years by a series of merely good albums with few surprises. Though it wasn't on the same level of the return of Portishead, Modern Guilt was one of my main surprises of 2008. The album sounds fresh and new, borrowing from modern day hip hop and 60s pop/rock and producing a concise, polished album of great songs.
15) and 14) Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster.../We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
While I haven't gotten around to reviewing these yet, Los Campesinos have, with the two albums they released this year, proven themselves to be as consistent and catchy as indie pop bands twice their age. The band deftly walk the indie rock line between sincerity and irony: song titles like '...And We Roll Our Eyes In Unison' may read more like titles of bad MySpace poetry but in actuality are damn good songs crammed with ideas and hooks. Fans of Belle & Sebastian and Architecture In Helsinki need apply.
13) The Dodos - Visiter
You initial point of reference for this album will probably be Animal Collective circa Sung Tongs, but The Dodos are much less psychedelic and drone-y and much more energetic and buoyant. The songs match intricate acoustic guitar to spastic, flailing percussion that recalls all sorts of exotic African/non-Western influences. All of this is more impressive because The Dodos are only a duo yet produce full bodied music ripe with dense production.
12) Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who See But Cannot Feel
While Deerhunter gave their noise/pop a restraint and polish with their album from 2008, Bradford Cox explored the electronic, ambient, and dream-pop headspaces with his 'solo' work under the Atlas Sound moniker. Let The Blind... makes for a hell of a headphones album, all glistening synthesizers, looped guitars, and longing, pained vocals. While not as immediately impressive as most of the albums on my list from this year, this one has been a return pleasure for me since its release very early in 2008.
11) Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Deerhoof get better with time just as much as they stay good. Offend Maggie wisely adds a second guitarist to the line-up after an album with only one, bringing the band back to their 'classic' sound circa Milk Man and Runner's Four while still adding new wrinkles and twists to their now established sound. I suspect this new line-up have something even better ahead of them, but Offend Maggie is a damn good new beginning.
10) No Age - Nouns
Bands like No Age are the reason I haven't given up on music or hung myself. What I mean is, if you had asked me who No Age were at the start of 2008 I wouldn't have had a clue. Yet here I am, a few days before 2009 begins, and a band I had never heard of is on my list of best albums of 2008. This is why I love music: that endless discovery of new, great bands. That rush of new-ness coupled with excellence. Nouns is such a succinct, effortless slab of noise-pop that it's easy to underrate it in the grand scheme of things. My Bloody Valentine may never release another album or if they do it might be crap, but that's OK. Bands like No Age ensure that noise-pop will always have a future. And, err, a present.
9) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
It's odd to revisit this music in the middle of winter because it's so quintessentially made for the warmer months, when you hear about breezes instead of wind chill factors and at the very worst you might have to wear jeans instead of shorts. Nevermind that this was one of the most hyped up and talked about releases of the first part of 2008. Nevermind all the comparisons to Afro-pop and Paul Simon's Graceland. Mind, though, how infectious and addictive this album is.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Games of 2008
As someone who doesn't own a 360, PS3, or PC capable of running anything cutting edge, I mostly watch and follow the videogame industry from the outside. While I can't give personal accounts for the majority of the big games that came out this year, I can attempt an overview and retrospective.
There was a lot of talk toward the end of 2007 about how it was one of the best years for gaming in history. Certainly it was a strong year, with titles like Super Mario Galaxy, The Orange Box, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, BioShock, Mass Effect, the Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Persona 3, and Assassin's Creed all garnering strong sales and interesting critical discourse. Yet 2008 has been equally strong: Grand Theft Auto IV, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Gears of War 2, Mirror's Edge, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Dead Space, Soul Calibur IV, Left 4 Dead, Persona 4, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Prince of Persia, and No More Heroes all came out this year. Now that we're effectively two years into this console cycle, all the big titles are starting to flood in.
The thing that most immediately sticks out in my mind about 2008 is how few of the 'big' titles of the year were original IPs. It's true that this is the case for most years, but 2008 moreso than others. Look how many numbers are in that list. Even Smash Brothers and Prince of Persia, despite lacking numbers, are sequels. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but one could argue that if 2007 wasn't a stronger year, it at least had more originality. Portal and BioShock alone were amazing and new, unlike anything we had played before. At the same time, the industry is growing both in terms of breadth and depth. It really is starting to resemble the movie industry with each year, such that you get mass market games, family games, triple AAA blockbusters, and hardcore niche games that resemble the small budget/indie film scene.
Whatever the end of this generation is like, I feel like 2008 was the year the Playstation 3 began to come into its own and the Wii to wane, at least from a hardcore gamer's standpoint. With three excellent exclusive titles--Metal Gear Solid IV, LittleBigPlanet, and Valkyria Chronicles--the PS3 is finally shaping up to be a system worth owning. At the same time, the Wii has hit its peak with the releases of the inevitable Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing sequels. But all of them are barely different from their Gamecube incarnations. Thus the dilemma of Nintendo: they do such a good job of making sure that they release a title from their major franchises on each new platform, but they rarely take any chances with them or establish new IPs. With games/non-games like Wii Fit and Wii Music coming out this year, and Wii Play still being one of the top sellers for the console, one has to wonder why anyone would bother developing for the Wii. Original games aimed at the hardcore like No More Heroes and Zak and Wiki do alright, but looking forward to 2009, there isn't much to devour. MadWorld, sure, but what else??
As for the 360, Microsoft continues to do their best to diversify the lineup. Even if they aren't selling as well as the Wii, you have to hand it to the company for doing much better this time out. Yes, the Red Ring of Death continues to be a problem, and they still ought to make Xbox Live free...but gamewise, they're hitting it out of the park. Starting with the original Xbox they've done fantastic with courting PC developers to focus on the console experience and so a lot of the exclusive titles would, in another lifetime, have been PC only or console ports. Meanwhile, Microsoft has tried to win a foothold in Japan with RPGs of relative quality like Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey. And both the classic and indie titles released on the Live store have been like love letters to the hardcore gamer, from thought provoking original titles like Braid to much-desired ports of classic games like Rez, Ikaruga, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, and the original Soul Calibur. Meanwhile, they're also trying to appeal to the Wii crowd with things like Lips and the New Xbox Experience, with its Mii-aping Avatars and NetFlix. The 360 may suffer at times from this "we need to appeal to everyone at the same time" approach, but that strategy worked pretty well for the PS2.
I don't have much to say about the PC or PS2. I broke down and bought The Orange Box two weeks ago and am loving that, but otherwise I'm out of the loop. The PC as a platform has been going through a strange period of change, with the Steam download service leading the charge into the new era of digital delivery and not using DRM. The PS2 is nearing the end of its life but seems to still get at least one gem per year, with Persona 4 being a surprisingly quick sequel and one of the year's most unsung games. That it is probably the best jRPG of the year says a lot about how slow Japan has been to embrace the 'next gen' consoles.
On the portable front, the PSP is still a dumping place for ports, but 2008, as with the PS3, saw the handheld getting exclusives like God of War: Chains of Olympus, Patapon, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The DS has an excellent back catalog of great games but spent most of 2008 coasting on good will and excellent ports. Still, it had a slew of either excellent new IPs or sequels, such as Professor Layton and the Curious Village, The World Ends With You, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Space Invaders Extreme, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. And you can't be mad at a system that had ports of Dragon Quest IV and Chrono Trigger in the same year.
The last thing I want to talk about is the ever evolving arena of games criticism. I don't know that, score-wise, people are getting tougher on games. But overall, critics are doing a better job critiquing both the minute details of games as well as the big picture aspects. It's no longer unacceptable to say you don't like big new titles like Mirror's Edge as long as you can intelligently explain why. Sadly, this is something that most often only comes through on podcasts, personal blogs, and streaming video shows, but at least it comes. Gone are the days where everyone would give every new Final Fantasy or Zelda level title a near perfect or perfect score and no complaints or misgivings would be aired. As the level of an artform increases, so must criticism and a thoughtful response to said art. I not only look forward to 2009 games like Heavy Rain, but I look forward to what critics will have to say. Cheers.
(Note: throughout the remainder of 2008, I'll be posting a handful of retrospective articles like this. They'll all have the tag '2008.' I'll be on vacation for a bit toward the end of the year, so I'll probably just post an article or two looking back on the first year of Whiskey Pie at that point)
There was a lot of talk toward the end of 2007 about how it was one of the best years for gaming in history. Certainly it was a strong year, with titles like Super Mario Galaxy, The Orange Box, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, BioShock, Mass Effect, the Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Persona 3, and Assassin's Creed all garnering strong sales and interesting critical discourse. Yet 2008 has been equally strong: Grand Theft Auto IV, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Gears of War 2, Mirror's Edge, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Dead Space, Soul Calibur IV, Left 4 Dead, Persona 4, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Prince of Persia, and No More Heroes all came out this year. Now that we're effectively two years into this console cycle, all the big titles are starting to flood in.
The thing that most immediately sticks out in my mind about 2008 is how few of the 'big' titles of the year were original IPs. It's true that this is the case for most years, but 2008 moreso than others. Look how many numbers are in that list. Even Smash Brothers and Prince of Persia, despite lacking numbers, are sequels. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but one could argue that if 2007 wasn't a stronger year, it at least had more originality. Portal and BioShock alone were amazing and new, unlike anything we had played before. At the same time, the industry is growing both in terms of breadth and depth. It really is starting to resemble the movie industry with each year, such that you get mass market games, family games, triple AAA blockbusters, and hardcore niche games that resemble the small budget/indie film scene.
Whatever the end of this generation is like, I feel like 2008 was the year the Playstation 3 began to come into its own and the Wii to wane, at least from a hardcore gamer's standpoint. With three excellent exclusive titles--Metal Gear Solid IV, LittleBigPlanet, and Valkyria Chronicles--the PS3 is finally shaping up to be a system worth owning. At the same time, the Wii has hit its peak with the releases of the inevitable Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing sequels. But all of them are barely different from their Gamecube incarnations. Thus the dilemma of Nintendo: they do such a good job of making sure that they release a title from their major franchises on each new platform, but they rarely take any chances with them or establish new IPs. With games/non-games like Wii Fit and Wii Music coming out this year, and Wii Play still being one of the top sellers for the console, one has to wonder why anyone would bother developing for the Wii. Original games aimed at the hardcore like No More Heroes and Zak and Wiki do alright, but looking forward to 2009, there isn't much to devour. MadWorld, sure, but what else??
As for the 360, Microsoft continues to do their best to diversify the lineup. Even if they aren't selling as well as the Wii, you have to hand it to the company for doing much better this time out. Yes, the Red Ring of Death continues to be a problem, and they still ought to make Xbox Live free...but gamewise, they're hitting it out of the park. Starting with the original Xbox they've done fantastic with courting PC developers to focus on the console experience and so a lot of the exclusive titles would, in another lifetime, have been PC only or console ports. Meanwhile, Microsoft has tried to win a foothold in Japan with RPGs of relative quality like Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey. And both the classic and indie titles released on the Live store have been like love letters to the hardcore gamer, from thought provoking original titles like Braid to much-desired ports of classic games like Rez, Ikaruga, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, and the original Soul Calibur. Meanwhile, they're also trying to appeal to the Wii crowd with things like Lips and the New Xbox Experience, with its Mii-aping Avatars and NetFlix. The 360 may suffer at times from this "we need to appeal to everyone at the same time" approach, but that strategy worked pretty well for the PS2.
I don't have much to say about the PC or PS2. I broke down and bought The Orange Box two weeks ago and am loving that, but otherwise I'm out of the loop. The PC as a platform has been going through a strange period of change, with the Steam download service leading the charge into the new era of digital delivery and not using DRM. The PS2 is nearing the end of its life but seems to still get at least one gem per year, with Persona 4 being a surprisingly quick sequel and one of the year's most unsung games. That it is probably the best jRPG of the year says a lot about how slow Japan has been to embrace the 'next gen' consoles.
On the portable front, the PSP is still a dumping place for ports, but 2008, as with the PS3, saw the handheld getting exclusives like God of War: Chains of Olympus, Patapon, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The DS has an excellent back catalog of great games but spent most of 2008 coasting on good will and excellent ports. Still, it had a slew of either excellent new IPs or sequels, such as Professor Layton and the Curious Village, The World Ends With You, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Space Invaders Extreme, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. And you can't be mad at a system that had ports of Dragon Quest IV and Chrono Trigger in the same year.
The last thing I want to talk about is the ever evolving arena of games criticism. I don't know that, score-wise, people are getting tougher on games. But overall, critics are doing a better job critiquing both the minute details of games as well as the big picture aspects. It's no longer unacceptable to say you don't like big new titles like Mirror's Edge as long as you can intelligently explain why. Sadly, this is something that most often only comes through on podcasts, personal blogs, and streaming video shows, but at least it comes. Gone are the days where everyone would give every new Final Fantasy or Zelda level title a near perfect or perfect score and no complaints or misgivings would be aired. As the level of an artform increases, so must criticism and a thoughtful response to said art. I not only look forward to 2009 games like Heavy Rain, but I look forward to what critics will have to say. Cheers.
(Note: throughout the remainder of 2008, I'll be posting a handful of retrospective articles like this. They'll all have the tag '2008.' I'll be on vacation for a bit toward the end of the year, so I'll probably just post an article or two looking back on the first year of Whiskey Pie at that point)
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