This year has been an interesting one, a plethora of great games from all directions that was quite far removed from last year where it was a bit of a jumble and I had to start really expanding my boundaries to find the gems. Yet I struggled to gel with anything new for the entire first half of this year, I was playing games I knew were good but was unable to really muster up that genuine enthusiasm from within. Funnily enough the best games I played in the first half of the year were games I was LttP on from last year, they would've gone a way to brushing up my GotY list for 2011, looking back at these things always makes me see what I'd do differently now with hindsight.
Back onto this year I'm still in that spot where I'm not sure what game I think is my personal best, I find myself leaning more than ever towards gut feelings, the three games that dragged me out of my 2013 doldrums are gunning for those top spots right now and I'm okay with this angle seeing as my thoughts will likely change in a years time anyway. While I'm all for the in depth analysis of games to see what worked and what didn't when it comes games for this years list I'm likely going to stick with the celebratory side of things like why I enjoyed them in the first place and not focus on the weaknesses (Fire Emblem you should be so thankful, good thing Levyne already did that job for me on page 1 of the GotY thread no less) which should also make things easier on the content front, there was so much pruning of words last year so I could fit it all into a single post.
Now deciding what games sneak in at the bottom of the list, there's the real challenge for me.
it's been a good year, but there have been some disappointments too. i think i'm alone on this one, but i really disliked how segmented luigi's mansion 2 was. i was fine with paper mario: sticker star's structure, but luigi's mansion 2 rubbed me the wrong way... probably because i was called back always right when i was getting into a groove.
Shared sentiments here, I think it's a good game and that Next Level Games did a fine job but the way the whole game was structured removed a huge part of what I loved about the original, on top of that E.Gadd gained "The Issun Effect" where he keeps interrupting in order to tell me about something I just saw.
I've started to contemplate doing that (ie: short writeup + song selection), just because I glanced at my
shortlist and, uh, it's... long and subject to change if I find anything else from Nert's, Ghaleon's or others' lists.
I had to make two new Awards categories this year: Fan Arrange Album and [Official] Arrange Album. I usually do short writeups for those "awards" in my vote-proper, so I'll hold off on writing them for now (I usually include runners up). But all of those are awards are decided and now set in stone. They have been for a while until I listened to one arranged album yesterday and decided to split the category into two. In any case, writing all of this stuff up takes a long time. I generally do it before I fall asleep, so it is a little like work. Only they're essays I want to write instead of essays forced on me. :V
In fact, I might just work on it this weekend since I won't be home again and it's going to have freezing rain and stuff here.
I'm still doing LTTP soundtracks this year, too. That was super-fun to do since I wasn't obligated to do it. I just like how much free-reign I have in the soundtrack thread as opposed to the GotY thread in terms of formatting.
Poor Sonic, not even shortlisted, Lost World's soundtrack has grown on me quite strongly I have to say, I hope people give it more of a chance as in a sense I kind of feel like the games own mediocrity might've dragged the perception of the music with it.
Not that i'm saying that's your reason or anything.
Much like my games of the year I don't have any definitive winner so far, just three in mind that might as well be sharing the same tier.
With that in mind I want to try and pay more attention to soundtracks I haven't heard this year in the thread itself, while I don't quite click on the same level with soundtracks from a game i've yet to play (guess I'm one of those who takes the music alongside its application in game) I'm hoping I stumble across some good stuff.
I think I'll be taking some extra pages out of your
book tome, LTTP soundtracks and the arrange album are on the cards If I can muster up enough musical musings, our very own Sonic song of the day thing has shown me that I can only do this in short bursts.
SPEAKING OF WHICH...
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #84
Christmas Week!
Song: Snowman
Game: Mother
Album: Mother 3+
Composer: Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka
Arrangement: Shogo Sakai
I didn't hear this theme until it was previewed on the Smash Bros Dojo before Brawl's release (or was that the love theme? snowman might've popped up alongside Bramble Blast in the stage creator update), I still need to get around to Earthbound now it's actually available in PAL land, I'm just kinda RPG'd out for the time being.
As for this here version of the snowman theme, well i'm a sucker for when environmental effects like wind are applied well to a track even if it's a bit strong here, the sudden explosion into a livelier loop caught me off guard. Not one of my favourite Snowy themes but this is the best version i've heard.
Now i'm off to roam through the rest of this + soundtrack.