Culture Clash

While watching "The Fountainhead" on my HDTV through my Xbox 360 today, I realized the inherently ridiculous nature of the setup. There's something about watching an old black and white movie, full of its flickering errors, bits and pops, on a DVD upscaled on a big, clear screen. What made things even worse was that in the middle of the movie, my 360 popped up with a message informing me that "NHL2K7 Demo download is complete" - old meets new.

I'm working on my Best Albums of 2006 list, along with a Best Songs of 2006. While the list is limited to releases in the calendar year 2006, the album I probably listened to the most last year was "Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike" by Gogol Bordello. Do I expect that you'll like it? Maybe. I've really only met a handful of people who had a taste in music that has significant overlap with mine - most people either they really like the indie stuff and hate the punk, like the punk but hate the rap, love the rap but hate the rock, can't stand opera or classical but love pop - and though I've come to the realization that I'll probably never meet anybody who likes all the same stuff I do, I don't mind it at all. Just as long as my friends (and if I weren't so ridiculously single, girlfriend) are willing to put up with my diverse taste in music.

2006 was a fantastic year for video games. While I don't have a Wii (damn you, launch day woes!) as of yet, I did pick up 4 new consoles and ditched 1 in the last calendar year. I happily ditched my PSP on eBay en route to buying a new laptop as I never played the damned thing and didn't like the games anyway. The highlights for me were picking up a 360 and a DS, both of which have given me a great number of great gaming experiences. The best game I played all year, by a close margin over Gears of War, was Psychonauts for the original Xbox. It's a hilarious, fun adventure game that you can tell was written for smart people with a good sense of humor to enjoy. I am not one of those guys who strives for 100% completion of a game - to get every little bit and piece - but Psychonauts drove me to that. It was that good. Other games, when I finish them, I put them back on the shelf and pick them up later - this game I sat through over a series of days and knocked out all 100%. Go ahead and chalk Psychonauts in my all-time Top 5.

This is not to take away from the ridiculously superb Gears of War, which achieves the oddity of creating the environment of beautiful carnage. Sure it's a game full of fast-paced action, where you practically bathe in the blood of your foes - but its hauntingly beautiful. I'm not trying to get all artsy, but the game truly was an experience different from just about every game I've ever played. I've never played a Resident Evil game (even though I own one for the Dreamcast) and I've heard that Resident Evil 4 instilled many of the same emotions, but I can't comment on that. I can say that the closest that any game I've ever played has come was Eternal Darkness back on the Gamecube - which is also in my all-time Top 10 games list.

Okay, enough mentioning it, here's my Top 10 Video Games list as-of-right-this-second which of course, is subject to change at any moment:

1. Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
3. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
4. MegaMan 2 (NES)
5. Psychonauts (Xbox)
6. Metroid Prime (Gamecube)
7. Gears of War (Xbox 360)
8. Beyond Good and Evil (Gamecube)
9. Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)
10. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube)

The close calls: Zelda: Wind Waker (Gamecube), Mario and Luigi (GBA), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Ikaruga (Gamecube), Final Fantasy VIII (PS1), Secret of Mana (SNES), Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)

I'm not going to get into the 2006 GT football season. I'll miss Calvin.

Oh, and feel free to go to Half.com and buy my stuff. Because I really have too much stuff.