Archive for the ‘Best of 2022’ Category

22 Dec

Best of 2022: Top 10 Disappointments

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2022, Games, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Another year, another increasingly personal and petty list full of stuff that upset me personally about the media I consumed in 2022. And in a year filled with more deeply upsetting stories about the people who work on said media, that is absolutely worth repeating more than ever: this list exists as a chance to whinge and complain about the end products that make their way into consumer’s hands and have a bit of fun getting a bunch of first-world problems off my chest. As a normally quite optimistic person, I wouldn’t bother to start this otherwise positive two-week-long celebration with a negative list if that wasn’t the case. And my oh my, were there some petty things to complain about in 2022. Time to dig in.

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VR BEST OF 2022 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. To agree with me 100% is as likely as avoiding MCU fatigue. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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10. No Hands on Deck Down Under

We are entering another golden age for dedicated portable gaming, roughly a decade after it was given its last rites across media outlets the world over. The Playstation Vita and the Wii U sure as hell didn’t save it from the threat of casual phone gaming, but the Nintendo Switch sure did – and now years later there’s a burgeoning handheld PC market bubbling up to fill the processing power gap left by the Switch’s ageing components. The golden child of this movement? Valve’s Steam Deck, which has been in the hands of enthusiasts and influencers overseas for over a year now. Every few months Valve announces a few more worldwide territories for the hardware’s launch, and every few months Australia fails to make the cut. Thank goodness for the AyaNeo range.

9. The Dinosaur Movie That’s Somehow Too Big

2022 was actually a really good year for movies; I personally found actual disappointments not only hard to come by, but vastly outnumbered by genuinely wonderful surprises. Alas, I can’t very well have this entire list be videogame-related, so I’m giving a dishonourable shout-out to Jurassic World: Dominion. Somehow a perfect fan-servicing cast and more onscreen dinosaurs than ever added up to an overblown, unfocused mess unwilling to pick a lane or convincingly land any punches. All-up there was probably one 2022 movie more disappointing than Jurassic World: Dominion, but this was still probably the least fun I had in the cinema all year.

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21 Dec

Best of 2022 Intro

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2022, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

So the curtain comes down on a year that, certainly as far as entertainment media was concerned, reminded us all a little of what life was like in the distant halcyon days of 2019. Videogame consoles and PC parts readily available to purchase and take home (eventually). Massive movie blockbusters that don’t necessarily need to feature comic book superheroes to draw proper crowds for a good, fun night out. Korean popular music that didn’t have to rely on a 1980s synth backing track to catch the ear.

Yet so much of the entertainment landscape still feels irrevocably influenced by the last couple of years, a phenomenon that seems oddly fitting as this site moves forward into its second decade. The gaping holes in the middle of the videogame release schedule this year are testament to that, as is the gentle wave of new films that draw direct attention to the interpersonal struggles of a post-2020 world. The arguably inevitable increase in prominence of solo artists within the K-Pop and K-R&B album space has also accelerated slightly as producers and performers take advantage of all those recently-developed introspection habits.

2022 was a year packed to the brim with games, movies and K-Pop worth discussing, and I’m going to do just that over the next 10 days. If you decide to join me for any of the next ten countdown lists, thank you for taking the time to do so, and I hope you enjoy. We kick things off tomorrow morning.

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VR BEST OF 2022 DISCLAIMER

These lists represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting them as I have. My opinion is not fact. To agree with me 100% is as likely as avoiding MCU fatigue. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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