Best of 2013

With the onset of the new year and the end of the old David and I decided that we were going to spend some time reflecting on 2013. There were some great things that happened in 2013. We saw some great movies, read some great books, and played some amazing games. David and I decided we wanted to share some of our best of 2013. Now these are all things that we experienced for the first time in 2013, this does not necessarily mean that they came out in 2013, but that is because with books and comics we are not always the best about keeping up with current trends. David will be sharing his opinion tomorrow, but here is my best of 2013.

Movie

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

There were some pretty good movies that came out this year. I enjoyed Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Much Ado About Nothing, and more. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took a book that I loved and really brought it to life. The arena is amazing, the acting was incredible and it was one of the few times I thought the movie might be better than the book. They pulled off bringing the book to the big screen flawlessly and made it enjoyable for people who have not read the book.

TV Show

The Blacklist

So there have been a few new TV Shows and a couple of shows that David and I are still watching. Out of all of them The Blacklist has fully held my attention. I have read from some people that do not like it, but I do not care. I am loving the show and it has definitely held my interest. I am so intrigued by Raymond Reddington as a character. He is not evil, but he is not exactly a good guy. He is a complex character that plays by his own rules, but we are still not sure what rules those are.

YouTube Channel

Sourcefed Nerd

David and I enjoy watching a few YouTube channels, although it can be difficult to keep up with. One of the channels that I absolutely love to keep up with is Sourcefed Nerd. They do great comments and opinions on all types of popular media. Two of my favorite segments are on comics and anime. It is great to see news about geeky things from people who love what they are talking about.

Book

Leviathan (Trilogy)

I actually listened to this trilogy on audiobook as read by Alan Cumming, which was fabulous. Alan Cumming brought the characters to life and the story and world are so great. You want to dive right in and understand the characters and the world they live in. It is also so intriguing to have a book written around World War I instead of World War II. The steam punk elements of it just make it so much fun. I have loved everything that I have read by Scott Westerfeld and this is no exception.

Comic / Graphic Novel

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction

I wrote about Hawkeye earlier this year and it is my favorite comic that I read this year. I am really bad about keeping up with my comics, but Hawkeye by Matt Fraction was so easy to read. It has humor and action and a little bit of irreverence. When you have a lot of serious things happening it is great to read a comic that is just laugh out loud funny.

Music

Lorde

David introduced me to Lorde and I was not sold at first. Then I started listening to it in my car and have not been able to stop. I think some of it is that her music relaxes and calms me. Obviously Royals is the most well known song, but the whole Pure Heroine album is brilliant. It is amazing to think how young she is and that she got started when she was 12 years old. I do not know that I would care to see Lorde in concert, but she can keep making music.

Video Game

Single Player – Tomb Raider

There were some pretty good games that came out this year, some of which I have not gotten to play yet. My favorite that I did play was Tomb Raider. It was a game that I enjoyed every minute of and loved the experience of playing. The story was good, the little secrets that you discover were great as an archaeologist. Lara Croft’s comments about the items she finds are partly what’s interesting. Then using recordings to tell the story of the mysterious island that they crashed on. The combat system functioned really well and never felt that a task was too hard or too easy.

Coop – Lego: Marvel Superheroes

Lego games are such great coop experiences. There have been a couple of other coop games this year that we have enjoyed, but for me the best was Lego: Marvel Superheroes. It did a great job of bringing together the large set of marvel heroes and then letting us play them. The great part was that the abilities had such a range on them and many of the puzzles took a couple of different abilities to get through. It took two people working together to move forward and the characters that they bring together just make it such a fun time to have as two people.

Board Game

Smash Up

David and I love to play board games. We have the physical board games as well as board games on our iPads. One game that we got this last year was Smash Up. It is a game that has a lot of replay ability and a level of ridiculousness that is hard to beat. You are playing a combination of two different armies, ninja / pirate, zombie / robot, wizard / dinosaurs, etc, trying to conquer different bases. The abilities that each faction can do are very appropriate and make it easy to mix up the abilities. We have gotten a couple of expansions which add some interesting new elements to play with.