Ramblings 13: Things I found agreeable last year!

2013 is a year that happened! During this year that happened just a few days ago I found a few pieces of art, entertainment and other good thingies enjoyable! Here is a summary! HUZZAH!

Video games that rely on twitch reflexes and get the blood pumping!

The two key examples I have for this is Metal Gear Rising: Revengence and DMC: Devil May Cry. As well as having awesome use of colons both of these games scratched that fast, high octane, smash shit up really rapidly and feel/look totally awesome whilst doing it itch. MGR deserves props for coming out at all, but then Platinum Games just went and made it freaking awesomely fun to play. They do that; Platinum Games.

Stiletto wearing cyborgs are awesome but demonic All Saints models may be just as awesome! The new Dante design never bothered me in fact I'd say DMC has some of the best art direction of the last generation. Not incredibly challenging but if you go back and play the original games it's at about the same level. It's not Bayonetta but it certainly makes you work for your high rating. A solid combat system, amazing level design, fun bosses.... Yeah call this a win!

Video games that relay of kicking my arse until I'm good at it!

So I rebought Dark Souls and found it harder than when I first played it! I also picked up Virtua Fighter 5, Spelunky and Cloudberry Kingdom. Obviously not all these came out in 2013 but that's when I played them and it was a great year for hard but fair gaming on my 360.

VF5 gets props for being the first arcade fighter I've played in recent memory that feels like it's not all about combo memorization or thumb dexterity and more about timing and strategy.

Cloudberry Kingdom

for making me enjoy having my arse kicked over and over with it's charm and awesome soundtrack.

The best thing about these games was I failed over and over but I never felt cheated. Well except with hackers on Dark Souls PVP but there you go... people are dicks.

Good new horror films!

I saw both The Conjuring and Insidious 2 in cinemas this year against my better judgement and both turned out great. The Conjuring is certainly the creepier of the two whereas Insidious 2 has the more interesting premise. Insidious 2 could be creepy as hell as well, the whole "He's got your baby!" bit still gives a shiver when I think about it but nothing got me more than the witch on the wardrobe in The Conjuring. And the scene where one daughter can see a ghost in the corner but the other one can't was creepy as hell. And the washing line bit following by the floating above the bed bit! And the hanging from the tree bit! And that doll! And when the doll escapes! Fantastic horror was fantastic.

Djanjo, The Hobbit, Gravity and Filth were all excellent too. A great year for film and I missed most of them!

Glen Duncan!

Found this author called Glen Duncan and I read two of his books. The Last Werewolfa book, spoiler, about a werewolf.... the last one. It's excellent, told in the first person, very poetic, excellent prose, memorable characters, brilliant dialogue. It's sad, funny, satirical, erotic, extremely explicit in violence and sex.

It's a knock out and it lead me to buyI, Lucifer a book, spoiler, about Lucifer! For the atheists among you that's what the Devil's mum calls him when she's pissed. I, Lucifer is a autobiography of sorts written, again in the first person, by Satan. It details the fall from Heaven, the Garden of Eden, the temptation of Christ (or Jiminy Christmas as he's referred to by Lucifer). Again it's poetic, sad, erotic, funny. Compelling. Original. Outstanding.

I've bought another one by Duncan called Weathercock but am yet to read it. But this guy is setting up to be one of my favourite authors if his quality maintains and I found him in 2013.

Awesome, melodic, Metal!

I started listening to three bands this year. They are Hell, Twilight of the Gods and In Solitude. I'm a total metal head, I love death metal and grindcore and black metal but from time to time I long for the sounds mastered by Dio and Judas Priest. I saw TOTG at Leeds Damnation Festival in November. I heard two songs. I immediatley went to a the merchandise table and picked up the LP Fire on The Mountain right away. I also picked up Sisterby In Solitude and Human Remains by Hell. All three of these are packed with classic heavy metal anthems to the brim. They vary somewhat with TOTG having a more Bathory/Manowar style, In Solitude are channeling Mercyful Fate by way of The Cure. And Hell... well Hell sounds like Hell. They formed in the early 80s and they sound like it. They also having some of the best lyrics I've ever heard in heavy metal:

No, no, no - nobility's no sanctuary

Flee, flee, flee - the rat's bubonic flea

But the sourge is everywhere, England weeps in her despair

And in misty eyes a cure cannot be seen

When that chorus gets stuck in your head there's no shifting it. 2013 was pretty alright entertainment wise. I enjoyed it anyway :)

Man I interpreted that sentence about colons way wrong at first.

@king_bonzo Happy new year, mate!

Some thoughts on your ramblings, because why not?

I haven't gotten around to playing Metal Gear Rising, but I will because I adore pretty much everything Platinum do. It looks kinda Bayonetta-ey and oh God, do I love me some of that.

The elephant in the room though, is The Wonderful 101. I'm prepared to bet you still haven't bought a Wii-U, and you really should fix that ASAP, young man. Seriously, W101 is great if you're into Platinum. It's got a steeper learning curve, looks really messy until you learn to decipher the chaos, does a flat-out terrible job of explaining its many nuances and has some really faffy controls, but once you get around that it can be really satisfying. Like, really!

Shame I didn't get around to seeing The Conjuring at the cinema with you. I've seen it since and thought it was a blast. Not gotten to Insidious 2 yet, but I will soon enough, I'm sure.

My favourite horror film of 2013 but saw it for the first time this year goes to Grave Encounters. I thought it was way better than it really had any right to be. Due to it's premise, it provides a real sense of 'something could happen at any moment' the entire way through, and that really worked for me. Some really great moments in there. If you haven't already seen it, see it.

I really disagree with The Hobbit being excellent, personally. For me, it was alright at best. I have the extended editions of Lord of the Rings on Blue-Ray in a nice box set, but I was clock-watching after a couple of hours of The Hobbit at the cinema. Even with the extended version of Return of the King (which I really like) clocking in at about 4hrs, The Hobbit felt needlessly long to me. I really regret not seeing it in 50fps, though - I was a bit late getting to the cinema, unfortunately.

I'm starting to think that I'm just not cut out for long-haul films at the cinema. I think my numb arse puts a dampener on the whole thing. I'll probably give The Hobbit another shot at home and see how that pans out.

Easily, easily the best metal album of 2013 for me was Yoshu Fukushu by Maximum The Hormone. In fact, it's pretty much my favourite metal album of any year ever. I know you're not averse to listening to j-music, so I have no problem in recommending it to you. It's punky, poppy, a bit rappy, and very very heavy.

Have a listen to this, this, and this one too because linking only one song would do a grave injustice to how all-over-the-bloody-place and awesome that album is.

We should get a decent film in the cinema calendar soon!

N