The Year in Awesome 2009

I have been a bit remiss with Games of State of late. My post-graduate course is leaving me with little time for socialising away from books, let alone sitting down to blog regularly. Hopefully 2010 will see my post rate pick up again, but with the taught part of my course not ending until the end of March, it’s unlikely that posts will be any more then sporadic until then. Of course, at that time, it is likely that there will be other drains on my time keeping me away from my hobbies and the inevitable challenge of job-hunting. I am going to contine aiming to update at least once a month – target I’m just about making just now.

Anyway, to the meat of this post. 2009 was a good year for many things. Admittedly, the economy went further down the pan, the world is still facing enviropoclypse and the humanity still refuses to play nicely with each other, but there were a few good books at least.

Fantasy Book of the Year – Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
Pratchett remains on top of his game despite his ongoing battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Basing a book around football (trans: Soccer) was potentially a risky business, with fantasy fans not generally known for their love of the ‘beautiful game’. Thankfully Pratchett creates an interesting story and manages to avoid reliance on established characters, who seem to be there to provide colour.

Sci-Fi Book of the Year – Transition by Iain Banks
Transition was much hyped as Banks’ attempt to combine his mainstream fiction and his sci-fi into a single book. It accomplishes this artfully, creating a product better then his recent sci-fi or mainstream fiction novels. It has been criticised for being similar to his earlier works, but this is also one of the best aspects of the novel – it has the polish of an established writer with the dynamism of a 20-something Banks.

RPG of the Year – Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader
I have raved and hyped Rogue Trader repeatedly. I reviewed it in more detail back in November.

Videogame of the Year – Dragon Age: Origins
2009 wasn’t a great year for videogames, with several big titles being pushed back until 2010 due to changes in the market. One game, Dragon Age: Origins, really stands out however. It largely came out of nowhere, with media hype about it only appearing shortly before it’s launch. Despite this it is very probably the best quality game ever produced by BioWare, featuring a gripping plot, a good combat system and a high degree of replayability. It also demonstrates that the buy-over of the company by EA has not compromised production.
Honourable Mention: Assassin’s Creed 2

Film of the Year – Star Trek
I wanted it to be bad so it wouldn’t sully my DS9-centric love of Star Trek and so I could bitch about it. Unfortunately, it was pretty damned awesome. I didn’t like it enough to see it more then once in the cinema, but it certainly seems to carry on the work that Gene Roddenberry started, albeit with some niggles (too much brewery, not enough Scotty).
Honourable Mention: Paranormal Activity

TV Series of the Year – Torchwood
5 days, 5 episodes, 4 cliffhangers. Torchwood utterly gripped me for a week during this summer. I’ve never been quite so creeped out by a five episode TV series, chanting children or a fishtank full of dry ice.
Honourable Mentions: Mad Men, Doctor Who

Blog of the Year – Stargazer’s World
I read a lot of RPG blogs, but Michael’s work really stands out for me. He delivers a wide variety of varied content, of consistently high standard by himself. If that wasn’t enough, he also contributes extensively to various roleplaying communities and is developing his own rules-light Noir system. Top quality work and highly recommended.

And that’s pretty much my highlights of 2009. It was a pretty good year overall, so here’s looking forward to 2010.