I should also note that most of the screenshots, art and whatnot below were used for my own amusement value rather than as representative samples. (And was then further delayed by my completion of Uncharted (Too easy) and Ar Tonelico (also too easy) and then even further delays by Street Fighter IV). Well this was meant to go up a week or two ago but was tragically delayed by me playing Persona 4 which pushed little big planet out of my video game Top 10. And the less said about comics (and by comics I mean American or English titles) the better. There has been some good stuff in 2008 (Blitzen Trapper, The Gaslight Anthem, etc.) but I don’t think I could compile a top 10. I’m still listening to a lot of 2007 stuff (mostly Boxer). While some of it is ok for background listening or one or two plays very little of it has made it into “heavy rotation”. With music though it’s simply that this year has been, well, shite. In regards to books the size of my “to read” pile is rather obscene so it’s probably not the literary world’s fault. I’ve left out a list of both top ten books, comics and albums because frankly the output in those sectors hasn’t really wowed me. I suppose in the interest of transparency and accuracy I should note that not all of the items listed below were created/released in 2008, some of them I simply only came across in 08 or are still being released in 08. Because just like your mother I know best. Needless to say if you have not experienced any of the things listed below then you should go out and do so. I think for the purposes of this X shall be 10.
But that seems like a) a pain in the arse and b) the content of another post. I suppose I could go over every item that I bought, played, read, watched, etc. That’s why I haven’t numbered the various entries. Even worse as my likes and dislikes tend to be mercurial these positions are likely to change. I never really do well at these kinds of list as I find it hard to make the kind of discrete judgments between, say, 5 and 4. So, as it’s my first weekend in work in a while, and a saucy mixture of apathy and self-loathing means I’m still working in “da phone” I think I might make some attempt at compiling my own Top X lists for 2008. Though I suppose “Top X” has always been shorthand for “Most Popular X” rather than “Best X”. On the flip side this means they’re an indication of popularity rather than quality (as only the naive believe the two are inseparable). The one advantage of public Top X lists is that they have at least the pretence of objectivity as they’re based on public votes. For the rest of us it’s an experience all too often filled with bewildering disbelief that some idiots voted item X above item Y even though it’s clearly inferior or why poltroons who engaged in voting entirely forgot about item M. I think only the lucky or the terminally un-opinionated actually fully enjoy reading Top X lists.