Videogames. Let's talk about them. More specifically, the videogames that happened this year. I truly wish I had time to play more of them, but such is the conundrum of having no time for videogames because videogames. But, I did manage to still play an okay amount of titles this year, and of those I put together a list of my personal top ten favorites.

I really slaved over this list, and even still changed a couple things around once again while writing this, but I think this list is the final version. Let's do this.



10. Halo 4

It really felt like Halo, and then a lot of times it didn't. As a closet Halo fanatic and known Bungie superfan, there's a lot of things that bothered me about Halo 4. I also thought it was pretty crazy how deep 343 went into the canon (which was a good thing). To make this short, it was a quality title, and a bold debut from the team at 343. Whoop whoop, videogames.



9. Persona 4 Arena

Fucking look at Teddie. Look at that motherfucker. Holy shit.



8. Retro City Rampage

You know, you see this avatar everyday in a serious manner from your editor with him asking you do to things and whatnot. Then this game comes along and changes all that. Amazing.



7. Rayman Jungle Run

Have you played this? Okay, then you know why it's on this list.



6. Adventure Time: Hey Ice King, why'd you steal our garbage?!!

This game is perfect. And no I'm not biased because Adventure Time is my favorite thing ever. Ever.



5. Uncharted: Golden Abyss

I pop this game in all the time, and I really can't believe this is running on the Vita. This could have launched on the PS3 and no one would have batted an eye. Maybe it won't sell you the system, but if you own the handheld why in the hell have you not picked up Golden Abyss?

Also: VITA HAS NO GAAAAAAAAAAEMZ



4. Sleeping Dogs

Never in a million years did I think a sandbox game would make it into my top-ten. Sure, I play them all and enjoy them quite a bit. But Sleeping Dogs is different in how it captured the atmosphere of a city and presented it to you. That, mixed with the always fun martial arts combat, interesting plot, and stellar voice acting make this easily one of the best titles of the year.



3. Hotline Miami

Wow, Hotline Miami. I absolutely cannot remember the last time I bought a game and beat it that very day all the way through, because I simply could not stop playing. This game just has a way to suck you in, and then make you think and think about your time with it well after you've finished it. Not just the replayable score-based gameplay that could play out in hundreds of ways, but also just the very nature of the narrative and how it fucks with everything you thought about videogames and why you play them. And that soundtrack, man. Holy willies.



2. Sound Shapes

This was a tough one for me. See, I loved Sound Shapes so much that if my #1 pick didn't happen, this would have been it. Easily. It mixes music and conventional gameplay mechanics in a way that's never been done before, all through a beautiful art-style. It's basically a music sequencer you can take anywhere, and then creatively spread out the song you've crafted through a platforming level that fits the tone of that track. I've actually seen videos of people who recorded whole sets of themselves making/playing music, and not even actually playing the game. How awesome is that?



1. The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead came out of nowhere and blindsided us with characters that we fell in love with, and made us deeply care what they were doing and what was going to happen to them. Staying true to the source material, you just always knew what was going to happen in the end, and what was going to happen to each character. But you didn't want it to. You pulled for these characters, and even when things looked bleak (when didn't they?), you always thought it couldn't get worse. But it does. And what a hell of a ride it was to follow the story through all five episodes throughout the year.

I'm not going to talk your ear off on why it is you should be playing this game. If you follow any videogame outlet, you know why this is the best title of the year, bar none. It's nothing else.

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I also thought I'd throw in my list of honorable mentions (or a list of games that I loved and wished I played more of, but couldn't justify putting them on the list because it didn't feel right or I simply just hadn't played enough of them).

In no particular order:

Dishonored
Gravity Rush
Kid Icarus: Uprising
LittleBigPlanet Vita
Lollipop Chainsaw
Lone Survivor
Lumines: Electronic Symphony
Mass Effect 3
Max Payne 3
New Super Mario Bros. U
Persona 4 Golden
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Xenoblades Chronicles
ZombiU

So, since N7 did this, I thought I might as well continue it. Watch and see how I did!


Spoiler: it tasted horrible

Well. It's been quite awhile, hasn't it? How have you been? That's good. Oh, I'm doing well, thanks for asking. Just been getting along, man. So, I see everyone is doing one of these "10 Things About Me" blogs and, well, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon too. Because why the hell not?



Hey look, it's me! :D Now, let's move on to the list or something.

10. I am a Contributor for the Front Page

I thought I'd go with an obvious one for number ten. I write things and they are on the front page! Been doing it here for Dtoid since July of last summer, and sometimes I still have to pinch myself because I can't believe it. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

9. I co-host a live show with Caitlin Cooke on Destructoid's official Twitch.tv channel



Yup, every Saturday at 12 PM Pacific, you can catch Cait and I's new show Weekend Escape. It's been a thing for four weeks now, and we do full playthroughs of games with a focus on co-op. Our first game was Portal 2 and last week we played some Minecraft. It's probably my favorite part of the week. You guys should come watch. :) We will not be on this weekend though. But the week after you should come watch.

8. I am only 18

This will probably surprise you the most. I don't know. It seems to take pretty much everybody by surprise. People are convinced that I am in my mid-to-late twenties. I'm here to tell you, no, that's not the case. I'm the resident baby at Destructoid so, you know, make fun of me for that or whatever. It's all good though. YOU GUYS ARE OLD, SO, HA.

[Edit: Just remembered this, and it's relevant. Frogboss made this for me. Thought you guys could appreciate it.]


7. I am a Computer Science student

Because I'm 18 I am indeed in college. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, to be exact. I do Computer Science things here, and that's really about it. I'm not sure what else to say about school because, I'll be honest, I absolutely hate it. I don't know if it's the wrong school, the wrong area, the batshit insane professors, the fucking retarded students, or the fact that maybe school just isn't for me. Maybe it's a combination of all of them, I'm not sure. But it sucks.

6. I FUCKING LOVE PANDAS

Giant pandas or red pandas; it doesn't matter. JUST LOOK AT THEM HNNNNNNG






5. Music is my true love

I don't know what it is about it, but music is the biggest part of my life (even more than videogames, seriously). However, I don't like talking to people about music or writing about music. There's just something about music that has a deep, hardwired connection inside humans' brains that make music universally appealing to everyone, while also being extremely personal. That's why I don't like the idea of writing or talking about music. It's too personal, you know?

Maybe I'm weird for thinking that, but whatever. I played the trumpet for six years, and, like any teenager, I then switched to guitar and taught myself to play with the knowledge of music I had from playing trumpet. People say I'm good, but I think I'm alright. I might do some recording someday, but as of right now I have nothing to show. Except my guitar.


Beautiful, huh? :)

4. I've never had a broken bone, ever

This may not be too interesting. I think it's interesting. Well, it's interesting because of the fact that I can't believe I've never had a broken bone. There is one significant example I can think of. When I was either 6 or 7 (not that it matters) I was helping my mom carry groceries into the house from the car. When she grabbed the last of the bags, I closed the trunk. As I tried to walk away, something held me back. I had shut the trunk on my pointer and middle fingers. I fucking screamed, man. But you know what? Not a single bone was broken. Crazy.

3. I've never had a paying job

It's embarrassing for me to admit, but I have never, ever had a paying job. That includes my current Contributor position. Now, in High School I did try to apply many times to various pizza places and game stores. Those were the only jobs I wanted, so that didn't exactly help me any. I eventually gave up when one of the local game shops I called said they ripped up my application because I was still in High School. I was heartbroken. I also never went back to that fucking store again. Assholes.

2. I own a Zune HD and Windows Phone 7

I can't live without them.


1. I am my worst critic

Whenever I do something, I always think I'm doing it wrong. I have pretty big anxiety issues, but I'm really good about hiding them and keeping them inside so other people don't worry. If something goes wrong and it's my fault, I can play it off like it's no big thing. But inside, it's killing me. I also take any criticism very seriously, and use that to improve whatever I'm doing for the next time. I guess that's why I am the writer I am today, and I find that it's always for the better. You can't ever get any better without fucking up and falling on your face at least once, right?

So, there you have it! Ten sexy facts about me, Brett Zeidler of the Internet. I love all of you equally. <3

It's been far too long, I know. But here's the debut of Episode 2 in all it's glory! This week Daniel Starkey and Abel G. join the dynamic duo of Liam Fisher and Victoria Medina. Sounds like a good time, eh? Listen in on their conversation of vidja games and them talking a bit about themselves as well.

Redshirt Podcast: The Bloodening
Hosts: Victoria Medina, Liam Fisher
Guests: Daniel Starkey, Abel G.
Intro song provided by the amazing Alphadeus. He's too good to us.
EPISODE 2 RIGHT HERE

Again, subscribe to us on your choice of media outlet..thing. Yeah. Anyhoo, we like those numbers so be sure to do that.

Episode 3 is now imminent. Our hosts will be joined by Alex Bout and a mystery guest this week. So mysterious. So yeah, we absolutely love getting those questions you might have! Just ask away and it'll totally be answered on the 'cast!

Thanks for listening. :)

Hello hello! A couple of weeks ago I said me and some fellow interns were all getting together to shoot the shit for your entertainment. Now, it was called Awkward First Sex for a reason as it took us a good while to test the waters and get used to each other. As time went on we got all deep and intellectual about them vidja games I hear the kids like these days. Topics ranged from me ranting about Metroid's 25th Anniversary, Catherine, Shadow of The Colossus and our favorite sammich.

Redshirt Podcast: Awkward First Sex
Hosts: Victoria Medina and Liam Fisher
Guests: Brett Zeidler and Steven Hansen
Song provided by the ultra-talented and equally generous AlphaDeus! <3
CLICK FOR SEXINESS
You should also be able to subscribe to us on iTunes. But I wouldn't know because, you know, Zune.

So on to Episode 2! It will again be hosted by Victoria Medina and Liam Fisher with guests Daniel Starkey and Abel G. For this week I will again ask for your questions, but this time we'd also like to try something a little different. What topics would you guys like them to talk about? Just sound off in the comments and we will get to whatever burning questions you guys have!

Thanks for listening! <3

Yup, you heard right. A new podcast is imminent and this time it's from us new faces. For the time being the formula will go like this: Victoria Medina and Liam Fisher will be the regular hosts while they rotate two new faces in every week to talk about a variety of things. We have a list of potential topics and activities; it will vary depending on what the hosts/guests want to do. It'll keep things interesting. We are mostly doing this so you guys can get to know all of us new faces better. Having all this commotion all the time is scary, but we're a fun bunch. Promise.

This week Steven Hansen and I will be the two guests and we need your questions! We also received an intro song from the magician himself, AlphaDeus, and here's the logo for our podcast [created by Liam]:


So yeah, exciting stuff all around. Again, we need your questions so feel free to ask us whatever you like for a chance to be answered on the 'cast!