Wow. It's been a pretty fucking crazy year. I'm not really sure how to sum it all up in one blog post. But I guess if there's ever a time to try it's now, as there's currently one hour and forty-three minutes left of '08.

A lot of huge stuff happened in my life in 2008, outside of the usual movies/music/games. I'll go through the media stuff later, but, like a famous prince, my life kind of got flipped-turned upside down this year, and we did some things in one year that some people don't do in a lifetime, let alone one year. First of all, buying our first house. That was a pretty huge step, but we managed to get an awesome home for a fraction of the price it would cost in a lot of other places, and all we had to do was move to Wales, which isn't so bad at all.

The reason we bought the house is probably the biggest thing to happen to us this year, and really, most years; the birth of my son, Logan. If you sat me down like three years ago and told me by this time I'd be A: married; B: owning my own home; and C: having a child, I would think you would have some sort of brain disease. Yet, it happened. Logan is awesome, and I wouldn't change what we have for the world, no matter what hardships we have gone through/will go through.

But yes, as well, there have been a ton of good movies/albums/games around. It's been a crazy year, what with the return of Batman, Indiana Jones, and Metallica. Celebrities have continued to have public meltdowns (Amy Winehouse, I'm looking at you) to show us how much better off we unwashed masses are, and the credit crunch/recession has ensured us that we can no longer have spontaneous trips to Woolies. My football team, a.k.a. Newcastle United, is on the brink of relegation instead of revolution, and is once again trying my patience in supporting them. But there's been some good things, people. Good things.

MOVIES

Well, the long-awaited return of Indiana Jones to the big screen didn't go entirely as planned. I liked INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL okay, and it didn't enrage my wrath the way it has done with a lot of geeks, but a combination of poor marketing and poor scriptwriting made it damn sure that this was certainly not the year of Indy. Not helping his cause was IRON MAN, which I am actually going to watch tonight (late starter as always), which was commercially and critically lauded, but everything was blown out of the water by near-TITANIC beater THE DARK KNIGHT, which, by the way, is a fucking amazing picture as you should already know. Heath Ledger is sadly no longer with us, but jesus, what a performance to leave as his last. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN showed me that the Coen Brothers can do amazing things when they want to, and that Javier Bardem is one scary motherfucker. I was also surprised (pleasantly) by the very good KUNG FU PANDA, which chalks up as the first Dreamworks CG animation I have actually even gone so far as to like. Well done.

MUSIC

I suppose the big story is the return of two fallen giants of hard rock/metal to the scene, each with varying efforts. Metallica's DEATH MAGNETIC showed us you can go home again, but you must have Rick Rubin by your side. However, it was by no means a MASTER OF PUPPETS or ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL beater. Guns 'N' Roses (well, Axl Rose) finally brought us CHINESE DEMOCRACY, and for all its fanfare and years of anticipation, it's just not very good at all. I have a feeling Axl pricked off all of the good musicians before they had actually finished tracks, and just filled in the blanks using ProTools and Adobe Soundtrack. Still, the surprise of the year for me comes twofold: first from Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip, who convinced me there is good UK hip-hop outside of the utter gash that is The Streets with ANGELS, while the best record comes in the form of Those Dancing Days and their enchanting debut IN THEIR SPACE HERO SUITS. A bunch of teenage Swedish girls singing doo-wop tunes with 80s pop influences? Yes man, yes!

GAMES

There have been some pretty awesome games this year. LEFT 4 DEAD is the zombie-massacreing game George Romero never made, FIFA 09 is finally a PES beater, LEGO INDIANA JONES was more fun than the film, STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED was frustrating, but still a hell of a good play, and GEARS OF WAR 2 was a huge disappointment. But we got a 90s throwback in the form of the blister-forming SUPER STREET FIGHTER II HD REMIX. My thumb still hasn't recovered.

On to 2009!