Interesting list, funny how you can overlook something as horrific as the ending to Fallout 3 and still give it your GOTY, ah well, each to their own, I'm not really one to talk, it's my number 2 plus everything else in that game is borderline perfection. I can't wait to get into Condemned 2, but I've decided to wait til I finish the first one. Have a good new year man!

Looks like you didn't like some of your GOTYs too much. And some of them you didn't evne play.

Not a bad list at all, though.

Gawd, I feel horrible...

Cactus, happy New Year! The ending was terrible, but it was my most enjoyable game of the year overall. And since so much of the appeal lies outside the main quest, I found it pretty easy to forgive the ending, and the story in general.

Foolz, I should have made it clear that the list is "games I've played from 2008", rather than "best of". I've only played 10 of 2008's games, and Alone In the Dark was unacceptably clunky, so I had to use Braid and MGS4 to get to 10. Also, I'm finding myself less and less tolerant of stupid flaws in games. When I was younger, I would have tolerated them without much thought, but I've become much more critical. And besides, it's kind of fun to pick things apart. I feel that I'm meant to work as a grumpy critic when I grow up. Either games, movies or music would do....

Crap! I just remembered FIFA09... Ah well, it looks like Dead Space wasn't destined to be on the list after all...

.... So how was your New Year's? I went to a fancy dress (futuristic) party, but wore no fancy dress. Since I didn't know anyone there except my friends, I didn't feel like I had to follow the rules. However, I started to feel weird for looking normal. So when a guy wearing goggles and tinfoil hat started to talk to me about his existential issues, I knew it was time to get out of there. (PARAGRAPH END)

We stumbled to a club called "Glasshouse", but the line-up stretched out further than I could see. We tried to get into a nearby pub, but were refused entry for apparently looking drunk. So we went to the beach, where we met some kind strangers who plied us with beer. We sat there til 3.30 until one of my remaining friends picked up a girl and left. Another friend caught a taxi, after a vicious phone fight with his girlfriend, which left me to stumble home alone, slurring "Happy New Year" to every non-threatening person I came across. (PARAGRAPH END) And there you have it. Not one of my most adventurous, I must say...

My New Years consisted of sitting home, playing games til midnight, talking to my girlfriend on MSN, then saying Happy New Year to her and then going to bed.

A quiet one, eh? I dunno, I always feel left out somehow if I don't go out on New Year's. This year, I didn't really feel like going to the stupid fancy dress party, but the alternative was sitting here and drinking by myself. So I went out. Had a decent, though not spectacular night. It annoys me that I didn't even pick up a girl. I must be losing my mojo. Too much GS.....

Haha, I don't know if GS is the thing doing that to you...unless of course you spontaneously and unwittingly started talking about Fallout 3 to a chick

Haha, no, I was careful to keep Fallout 3 out of all conversation. I was talking to a girl called KATARINA for much of the night, and everything was going well. I liked her, and she kept hanging around. However, I was drunk, cactus. I kept forgetting her name. Finally, there were no friends around to remind me, so I said to her "Sorry, what's your name again?" after already talking to her for about 6 hours. It didn't go down well. Her face became clouded over with disappointment and annoyance as she quickly said "KAT". Then she just kinda disappeared, and I didn't see her again.

I screwed up, cactus (cry)...

Damn, that's never a good thing to do, ah well you can perhaps take solace in the fact that whatever may have happened may have been hampered by your inebriation and thus could have been more of a let down. Not implying anything, just that's what usually happened to me when I tried to get anywhere will drunk, I work better with a sober mind.

But I'm sure you'll succeed again soon, there's plenty more out there

The thing is, alcohol usually agrees with me. I become Mr Cool when tipsy. None of that agression or retardation for me. But of course, it's all a question of quantity. I probably did go a bit overboard, as evidenced by nearly falling over 3 times on my way home. Anyway, this bugs me more than usual, because this chick was pretty damn cool. I missed a golden opportunity here (sad). Ah well, maybe I'll see her some other night. I don't think I'll ever forget her name again...

What do you think Turbo did to get suspended this time? I think it must have been for implying that Americans are stupid on System Wars. I could see it wasn't gonna end well as soon as I saw his post...

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Sorry about the late reply, had to go to work.

I was wondering where Turbo got to, that sucks that he got suspended, I'd reckon it was something like that, he's seemed a bit more irritable these last few days, perhaps touchy. Don't know why.

I know, I noticed that as well. He has been a bit grumpy lately. Meh, I guess he's a moody person by nature. All that stalking and hobo killing will do that to ya...

And I just assumed he's been suspended, because he's always online without ever posting, and the post I was talking about has been removed by the mods. Ah well, screw them, turbo! You just said what I would have been thinking if I was very annoyed. But System Wars fails to move me in that way now. I avoid posting there because the responses just bore me. They're so damn predictable. Anyway, I hope it's not a long one...

Indeed, I don't even go there anymore, it's pointless. Hopefully he's back soon, he's ALMOST as essential as you are to the boards.

I couldn't celebrate New Years because of early work the next day, couldn't celebrate Christmas with drinks because of early work the next day, tomorrow I have work early and work all day, I haven't picked up in about four months.

This will hopefully change when I go on vacation with friends soon.

But I do have quite a lot of money.

4 months... Quite a while between drinks my friend.....I kissed a girl about 2 months ago, but haven't had... proper relations... in over 6 months now. Waaay too long. Whatever, my star is surely on the rise in 2009! 2008 was entirely forgettable, so things can only pick up, right? Well, one can hope...

Are you going overseas with your friends? I don't know much about Asia, but Europe's always good for the ladies and... drought-breaking. Especially Paris. Almost as good as Melbourne. But Melbourne's the best in the world for this sort of thing. I feel like a rock star whenever I go there...

We're just headed up to the beach, about fifteen of us in one house, for a week. It'll be fun.

I can't really imagine going overseas with my friends, but if we did I'm almost certain their choice would be Thailand. Nothing really wrong with that, but I'd prefer to go to Europe.

Also today was my last day of work for a while so now I'm going out to get smashed for the first time in ages. Hooray! (expect 5am drunken Ulysses update)

Music chapter = completely awesome but i didn't even realize that Bloom was narrating until about halfway through.

Also the narrator himself becomes aware in that chapter and keeps playing on the line "Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish..."

Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. I can remember that line!

I will have a headache tomorrow.

Hey Cactus. Read Ulysses!

Hey Streak. Ulysses, I'm completely blown away by what I fail to understand. Which doesn't make sense but by God I love this book and oh my god at times it says things that make me like majorly understanding.

ON TOPIC: Finished Fallout 3. I beat it and the "you die or don't die but either way you can't continue either way" was a sick, disgusting, bad piece of crap, but I DID enjoy the end recaap of your character.

ALSO STREAK PLAY ETERNAL DARKNESS ALREADY IT IS GAMING'S ULYSSES.

Yep, I too was blown away by things I couldn't understand. James is a genius. Shakespeare's the only other writer I know of who even came close to that kind of elevated, intoxicating rhythm of language, where just discovering the unusual, labyrinthine construction of sentences and ideas ends up being more rewarding than deciphering the actual meaning or plot. It's pure literature. Read Hamlet, by the way! [PARAGRAPH END] You really make me want to read Ulysses again. It's been a while, so you really test my memory with these random bits. Anyway, Cactus, he's right!!! You need to read Ulysses. It will help you with your next book, which will turn out to be your masterpiece (only if you read Ulysses, though). And anyway, your Streakification won't be complete until you've read it. Suede's a good start, but you still lack Dog Man Star, and know nothing of James Joyce. So get started on it!

The montage at the end of Fallout 3 was terrible, in my opinion. In Fallout 2, the montage shows every single town or settlement you'd visited, and shows what impact your actions had had on each. In Fallout 3, it's just an unsatisfying, short scene, which doesn't even change a whole lot depending on your actions...

I would love to play Eternal Darkness, but I really don't wanna get another console. If I were to get a Gamecube or a Wii now, I'm scared that I'd start purchasing games compulsively, like I do for the damn 360 now. I'd have to get Killer7 as well, and a Mario game, and Okami Wii.... NO!!! Too many games, and nowhere to put them. But Eternal Darkness looks excellent. I've been wanting to play it for a long time now...

I think what I meant to say with "and at times it says things that make me like majorly understanding" is that I get a warm feeling inside when I manage to interpret something in the book that's among all the difficult, twisted sentences. My last post I was obviously drunk but I pretty much feel things about this book that I've never felt over any other book - to put it as less sappy as I can.

Yeah Cactus, read it. You've got this incredible best book ever just waiting for you and so does everyone else and they haven't even heard of it. It's kind of sad that hardly anyone today knows about the best book of our era (or one of...) but it's also kind of cool for the exact same reason.

Apologies for turning a GOTY blog into Ulysses discussion forum, but I don't know anyone else who has read it and damn it I have things to say! I'd just be met with blank faces if I said to my friends "Hey dude, don't you get a warm feeling inside when you interpret something in Ulysses?"

Or I'd be asked what Ulysses is.

My friends are very receptive to my literature recommendations, as i have rarely let them down. So I got a few of them to start reading Ulysses, but none got past the first bit at the lighthouse. They just said it was too hard. Annoyed me. However, Joanna came along, and was also very receptive. I was excited, because I could feel that she was gonna get it, and I'd finally have someone to talk to about it. Alas, she hated it even more than my friends, calling it "nonsense for nonsense's sake". You can understand why I broke up with her just a few months later... So yeah, Ulysses is a lonely obsession. You're the first person I know of who's not only willing to read it, but who seems to like it as much as me. For this, I will dedicate tonight's glass of Karloff vodka to you, dave003!!!

Please don't apologise for going off-topic. I welcome and encourage off-topic comments in all my blogs and threads. The GOTY thing's just a pretext, and anyway, no-one seems to have anything to say about it. Besides, there's nothing I hate more on here than some boring-ass jock butting in with "now now, let's please keep this on topic (or the board will implode?)". I swear, some mother****ers treat their threads as deadly serious business. In mine, anything goes!

On Ulysses, I'd say it's definitely the most impressive book I've ever read. It took me like 6 months, but by god, it was worth it! It made me excited to check out Finnegan's Wake, but I didn't tolerate that nearly as well. I found myself on page 40 without any clue as to what was happening and with no motivation to continue. I tried to start it again the other day with no success. Ulysses might be difficult, but it's never boring. The first part of Finnegan's is beyond tedium. Still, it starts mid-sentence, which is a cool little effect, I guess. Try to read Finnegan's Wake. I'm interested to see if it was just me that couldn't stand it for whatever reason, or if it really is a very disappointing effort after Ulysses...

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S'pose I should give some thoughts on the chapters I've read since my last drunken little update

Cyclops (the bar) - I loved the narrator's obvious dislike for Bloom and how he continues to become frustrated by his pragmatic approach to the conversation. There was something in there along the lines of "you could tell Bloom 'this is a straw' and he'd be able to talk to you for about two hours" which made me smile. I don't know whether a man can actually receive an, uh, lengthening of his member upon his hanging, or whether it's some kind of joke I'm not getting. The fantasy interludes were interesting, especially the one about the man being hung, but the long lists of names were a pain in the ass (these also occur in Oxen of the Sun, which was just a pain in the ass altogether). This chapter marked the second time in the book where I felt sympathy for the characters, the cause being when the Citizen yells anti-Semitic remarks to Bloom and the two seem intent on beating the crap out of each other. Interesting tidbit - I read elsewhere that the narrator is supposed to bear similarities to Joyce's father. Also, why does he say "gob" all the time? How do you sound that out and what does it mean?

Nausicaa (beach, Bloom plays with himself) - I already knew Bloom did this because in researching the book a little before I bought it the Wikipedia entry was keen to add this information. But even knowing that it happened, and that it happened in this chapter, I skipped right over it. I mistook it for happening when Bloom falls to sleep at the end (it actually happens when the fireworks go off, and, in retrospect, all the "O! O! O!" should've been a dead giveaway). I love the parodying of sentimental style (I figured that out without looking it up!) and how Gerty pictures Bloom as a mysterious foreigner who she is in love with...and then, when perspective shifts to Bloom, he's only thinking that he's glad he didn't know she was lame while he was watching the fireworks. This chapter was the first time in a while where the narration returned to Bloom's stream-of-consciousness. That's when the writing is at its best, I think.

Oxen of the Sun - Okay, so I read the first paragraph and recognized that this was from that blog you made a while ago. And that's okay. But then I realize that almost the whole chapter seems to be like this and is sixty pages long (okay, it does get a little easier). This chapter seems wholly catered to literary experts, because never in my lifetime would've I figured out that it's supposed to represent the gestation of the English language. It was a pain, but I still liked some of the things I could follow, like Stephen being drunk and becoming frightened by the lightning and the bar scene at the end.

Circe (scripted chapter) - I genuinely loved everything about this chapter. The hallucinations are hilarious (Bloom as the leader of Ireland, Boylan sleeping with Molly while Bloom is permitted to watch, Bloom as a slave woman...I really liked all of them but these were probably the best). Stephen's hallucination of his mother was creepy. It isn't particuarly important I suppose, but why aren't Stephen or Lynch at least a little bit concerned that Bloom followed them? They don't even seem to acknowledge it. I could go on and on about how great this chapter is but this will do.

So now I've reached Act III and have 3 chapters to go. I'm looking forward to the second last one with the question-answer style. That's it.