Posts Tagged ‘Year’

24 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Songs

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Lists, Music. Tagged: , , , .

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Merry Christmas people!

When I envisioned writing this year-end list way back at the start of 2012, I did not expect it to look like this. The amount of albums I did not pick up in 2012, that I fully expected to when I was looking forward to the year ahead, is a little embarrassing. I also barely touched the radio this year. Just about every mainstream airplay hit that I listened to came through dodgy work speakers and was repeated way too many times to allow me to appreciate. There was also that whole K-Pop thing. As a result of these factors, this list is being drawn from an alarmingly small pool.

Having said that, there were some real musical highlights for me in 2012 anyway. From upbeat tracks to soaring ballads, I did enjoy plenty of tunes throughout the year, and my top ten favourites follow. As I said in my first proper blog post on Vagrant Rant, however, the nature of music as a highly subjective thing probably makes this list the most personal of them all, so don’t expect too much common ground.

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VR BEST OF 2012 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. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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10. Ladykiller – Maroon 5

Stuck in a pretty misfiring album, Ladykiler sees Maroon 5’s Adam Levine putting his trademark falsetto into overdrive to the steady, medium tempo beat of an unusually low-energy yet persistent song. The combination begets a surprisingly refreshing result. Overexposed tries many different things that stray from the classic Maroon 5 sound, and most don’t play out so well, but with Ladykiller the album strikes something worthwhile.

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23 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Annoying Videogame Experiences

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Games, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , .

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For all the gaming highlights of 2012, there were quite a few moments of frustration, at least for me. They came in many irritating forms. Some were due to glitches in games, some were caused by basic design flaws and/or oversights on the part of developers, some were directly related to my own stupidity or incompetence. All sucked.

There isn’t too much more to say about this list; really, I just want to get it out of the way. It’s not bringing back very pleasant memories.

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VR BEST OF 2012 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. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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10. “Why am I trapped in the water?” – Sleeping Dogs

Barely seconds into my first opportunity to explore Hong Kong during Sleeping Dogs, I ended up at the docks. It wasn’t something I intentionally aimed for, but my open-world gaming habits, honed during hours of fun with Just Cause 2, dictated that I should explore as much of the game world as possible. Assuming the region was my oyster, I jumped gleefully into the sea, before discovering that ten minutes of aimless swimming were ahead of me. There was no place from which I could get back onto dry land, at least anywhere I could catch a glimpse of. The docks themselves weren’t much better, as I discovered when I finally did get back on land. There weren’t even any people out there; just a maze of crates and a jumping glitch that froze me in midair.

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22 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 15 K-Pop Singles

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, K-Pop, Music. Tagged: , , , , , .

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It’s been a crazy year for Korean pop music, mainly because of one man: PSY. His story has been told to death, though. There was quite a lot of other stuff going on in the world of K-Pop in 2012, of course, and though I only started listening to the genre this year, I was fortunate enough to be able to ingest plenty of it. So here’s my third VR Best of 2012 list. For my wider thoughts on K-Pop, check out this post.

This one is a top fifteen rather than a top ten to make up for a later list that is only going to appear as a top five. I’ve taken a number of things into consideration with each single, such as the music video, the dancing (if any), the presentation of the song etc., because such things are definitely important in the K-Pop industry, but above all I’ve tried to prioritise the way the song sounds as an audio-only product when it comes to ordering the list.

Note how I’ve titled this list “K-Pop Singles”. If I included album-only tracks, of which there were plenty of highlights in 2012, we’d be here for days. Also, for the sake of narrowing down the impossible selection, I’ve gone ahead and ignored every 2012 K-Pop single released in Japanese or other non-Korean languages. So no Flower Power, Dazzling Girl or Like Money. Dem’s the breaks.

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VR BEST OF 2012 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. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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15. Sherlock – SHINee

It’s fairly widely agreed upon that SHINee is one of K-Pop’s best and most consistent performers when it comes to making tricky choreography shine (forgive the pun). Though their main Korean hit of 2012, Sherlock , arguably doesn’t quite hit the heights of previous efforts as a song (it’s essentially a mash-up of two other tracks), it certainly does as a dance. The asymmetrical moves picked up even more awards for the talented quintet this year and it isn’t hard to see why.

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21 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , .

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The movies of 2012 brought with them an avalanche of memorable characters, whose exploits stuck in our minds for a range of reasons. Some made us laugh, some made us cringe, some made us quiver and some just made us want to stand up and applaud. For my second Vagrant Rant Best of 2012 list, I present my top ten favourite movie characters of the year.

The characters on this list need not be brand new creations; fresh interpretations of other material, recurring players in a series and even depictions of real-life people were all fair game when I was putting it together. Regardless of what other people may have been saying about them, I have not included any characters from movies I did not see in 2012. So, sadly, those amazing Boxing Day Australian releases (The Hobbit, Wreck-It Ralph, Les Miserables) are out of the picture.

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VR BEST OF 2012 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. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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10. Sid – The Descendants

The Descendants, released at the very beginning of 2012 here in Australia, is a truly heartfelt triumph on many levels, but its many facets would not come together quite so effectively without the comic relief provided by the female lead’s dimwitted boyfriend, Sid. Nick Krause’s performance lends the role just the right combination of idiocy and believability, with a hint of something poignant thrown in. This ensures that, despite the film’s many character interaction highlights, you just aren’t likely to forget his exchange with those two seniors. Not at all.

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20 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Game Cases

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Games, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

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Time to kick off my ambitious goal of presenting ten top tens of entertainment media in 2012. This is going to require an unprecedented time management effort, but hey, hopefully I’ve grown enough this year to meet the requirements. First up, something I’ve always paid perhaps a little too much attention to: videogame cases.

We live in an age where games are available as full digital downloads more readily than ever, but physical production is still plenty relevant. When you look at a game on a store shelf, a lot of things go through your mind, whether consciously or (more likely) subconsciously. Is the cover eye-catching? Does it stand out from its brethren? Does it give you an adequate idea of what the game will have you doing? Does it do something other than feature a man looking straight at you while striking a badass pose? All these things and more churned around in my mind before I could spit out this list of my top ten favourite game cases of 2012.

But the list doesn’t just take into account what the front cover of a game looks like; I’ve also considered the back, the spine and, where applicable, even the inside of the case. All facets of physical presentation have been accounted for. Yeah, I’m definitely a cool guy.

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VR BEST OF 2012 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. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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10. Assassin’s Creed III

Case_Assassin's

When compared to the cover art of the first four Assassin’s Creed games, one thing immediately stands out about the front of the ACIII case. Connor, the newest member of the Brotherhood of Assassins to be introduced to series fans, isn’t simply standing in an ominous pose with a hood over his head. No, he’s actually doing something, and something rather violent at that. That redcoat he has in his very capable grasp is not going to be breathing for much longer, or so the implication stands. The motion-blurred battlefield depicted in the background, complete with prototype American flag, adds to the kinetic excitement of the image, suggesting a history-rich experience well worth playing through.

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20 Dec

Best of 2012 Intro

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012. Tagged: , , .

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2012 has been the best year of my life thus far. This is mostly due to reasons that have no place on Vagrant Rant (as well as, indeed, the existence of Vagrant Rant itself), but there’s no denying that a quality selection of entertainment media played its part. If you had told me at the start of the year that I would be playing three new games consoles by its end, that The Avengers would out-perform The Dark Knight Rises at the box office or that a thirty-something Korean pop star would be nominated for TIME’s “Person of the Year”,  I would have looked at you with stunned disbelief.

Yet here we are, sitting less than a fortnight out from the end of another year (and on the eve of the supposed end of the world), getting all reflective and stuff on what has gone by. What better way to celebrate than with ten top ten lists? Well, I love that idea. In fact I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.

Let’s go.

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