The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 41,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

2013, eh? That’s just under twice the number of views of last year, so I must be doing something right. Or I’m just getting better at clickbaiting.

Game of the Year

It turns out that, during 2013, I never actually played anything from 2013. Well, some of Dishonored‘s DLC might have come out early in the year, but that doesn’t count.

Sure, I played a lot of things that were new to me — legendary so-called classics like System Shock 2, Anachronox and Daikatana (I am particularly pleased with that write-up) hoovered up for cheap from gog.com (along with more conventional duds like Omikron: The Nomad Soul, notable only for its inclusion of David Bowie, and Torchlight which I got for free). Just nothing actually new.

Even so, it’s the modern age that takes the biscuit this time around (the horror!), and I have to give mega-props to Fallout: New Vegas. I spent 60 ours strung between the main game and its four DLC packs, and while I felt the central plot was a little bit stunted, the world was alive with tangled side quests and was tremendous fun to explore. There was also a hint of delicious irony as I played Oblivion-With-Guns-2 without guns as a melee-focused character.

Probably got to give a shout-out to latecomer Borderlands 2, mind you. Endless shooting and all the Claptrap you could ever wish for!

No, wait, I did play one thing from 2013 — StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Aww, there goes my street cred.

Album of the Year

In a stunning departure from this entry, here is an item that was actually released this year! Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s English Electric is not just the best album of this year, but it stands tall as one of the best albums of their entire career, right up there with Dazzle Ships — a mix of sumptuous pop and experimental perfection, it’s impossible to fault this album and it’s now firmly part of the RDZ Industries sound-board.

The crop of B-sides that accompanied the album, all available as part of the Night Café single EP, are also incredibly special. All in all, a suite of music that is absolutely not to be missed.

It would be remiss of me to leave without giving a mention to Marsheaux’s Inhale. In any other year, Inhale would have been the clear winner — it is a stonker of an album, but unfortunately it’s up against the stiffest competition this side of the new millenium in English Electric (that’s such a high bar that it’s not even close to an insult). Inhale is another one that is not to be missed, with highlights Secret Place and To the End perhaps the finest songs Marsheaux have yet produced.

Film of the Year

I first saw John Carter last year so it couldn’t win, despite appearing on DVD this year. No, the prize has to, without a shadow of a doubt, go to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time — which was a rip-roaring swashbuckling adventure with all the good stuff.

I think the fact that The Ostrich Race Lego set now adorns my desk in the Edinburgh office says it all. Yep, I actually managed to get Lego of it — despite said Lego being more than three years out of print. Oh, the wonders of the Internet!

More Stats

The busiest day of the year was August 9th with 592 views. The most popular post that day was This Wreckage.

Well, there’s a god damn surprise. It’s not the most popular page every year now, is it?