As the end of the year draws in I thought it would be a good idea to look back and reflect on some of the things that interested me or that I enjoyed in the year gone by. It’s been quite a difficult year for me personally with the loss of my Gran, and lots of work related issues, but at the same time there have been many enjoyable things in the year gone by. I have made some great new contacts through social media apps, established friendship with some great new people, developed the blog & podcast and been involved in several interesting and rewarding projects. I have broken the listing down into sections and have discussed briefly my thoughts on each category. Let me know your thoughts on what you have enjoyed in 2009!!

Video Games

After a somewhat lackluster start to the year video games offered some fantastic experiences in the past four or five months. The lull up to that point resulted in perhaps my biggest video game down time period yet, there simply wasn’t anything that interested me and for several weeks I barely turned either of my consoles on or spent any time playing games. I have to admit I became a little disenchanted with the medium, something I guess that all lovers of any form of media go through with prolonged exposure. Thankfully with the arrival of Batman Arkham Asylum in August my faith was restored, video games were once again all kinds of awesome. Since then there has been quite a few quality titles released; I really enjoyed this years FIFA – providing perhaps my most played online game this year. It offers nothing particularly new to the franchise but is perhaps the most perfect iteration of the game since it’s development.

The FPS genre has become somewhat stifled of late, failing to really provide anything unique to it’s admires. Enter Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising, a tactical and realistic if not flawed masterpiece. For the first time in ages I loved spending time playing video games, the sense of squad based missions, the mission structures, decent visuals and range of possibilities really impressed me. AI glitches and the need to play with real life squad members can limit the fun a little bit but it still made for many hours of enjoyment for me. Definitely a game I want to finish over the holiday period. Speaking of FPS games I may as well get COD MW2 out of the way, yes I am one of the few people that consider the game to be a let down. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great features, the game looks amazing and the story is well developed and interesting. In saying that it is extremely short, feels gimmicky and seems to throw you from one staged set piece to another with no real regard for significance. The airport scene sparked some controversy but if you don’t intend playing the MP for endless hours, which I admit is the reason a lot of people buy, you could be advised to look elsewhere.

Sequels should try to improve on what has gone before and that is certainly the case with Left 4 Dead 2. If you enjoy slaying endless hordes of zombies with your mates then you probably can’t go wrong here. Valve have taken an already winning formula and tweaked it with the addition of some new enemies, weapons, mechanics and stagings to make a pretty damn impressive co-op shooter. I guess my one gripe here is that it all stinks a little of glorified expansion pack, couldn’t this have been made available for 1200 MSP?

So that brings us on to my Game Of The Year and really it is a very hard choice to make, the contenders of which there are two both deserve to hold the title but in the spirit of the concept I will pip for one. Both Assassins Creed II and Dragon Age Origins represent the pinnacle of what the medium is about in my opinion. They deliver stellar story, great characters, interesting and fun game mechanics, look breath taking and provide unique memorable experiences that I will not forget in a hurry. They are games I will be talking about years from now. Assassins Creed takes what the first game promised to deliver, adds additional content, refines the whole concept and cranks the funometer up to 11 – the definitive representation of what follow up’s should be. Dragon Age Origins is without doubt one of the best RPG’s I have ever played, the only thing that even comes close is World of Warcraft. Lush visuals, great party system, well developed game mechanics, tons of lore and character development and big kick ass dragons!!

My Top 5 Games of 2009

• Assassins Creed II
• Dragon Age Origins
• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising
• Left 4 Dead 2

Games that also deserve a mention: Halo 3 ODST, The Saboteur, Ninja Blade

It really is hard to decide here and on a different day I would probably go for the other choice anyway, my advice is to go buy both right now. But I said I would decide so I will. My Game Of The Year 2009 goes to…. Assassins Creed II

I hope to have a feature of the game available on the blog very soon.

Applications

2009 was a very interesting year for me on the computing front, although I spent half of it with my traditional PC setup, back in July I switched to the Mac platform. While the PC served me quite well over the past decade or so, my last few months with the platform were perhaps the most painful of my tech life. Frequent crashes, hardware problems, loss of date – you name it and it happened. While that did influence my decision to take the leap toward Macintosh it wasn’t the only driving force. My brother has been using the platform for some time now and has had nothing but good things to report, furthermore I have been using Macs more at work and my own inquisitiveness and geek nature has just matured me to the change. I think it’s fair to say from the outset that I have no intention of ever going back, everything about the Mac is vastly superior to the PC platform in my personal experience so the applications discussed here are all Mac based. Sorry PC enthusiasts, you may find some that are cross platform but otherwise you need to look elsewhere.

One of the first things I had to do upon acquiring me MacBook Pro was research and quickly establish what tools were available to support my daily work flow. I had already developed a pretty established way of doing things but that got turned on it’s head with the change to the new platform. Office productivity was first on my list and so Microsoft Office 2008 was one of my first purchases, I have long admired the suite of office productivity tools and saw no real need to change. Microsoft Word is still my word processor of choice and the 2008 version adds lots of great features such as integrated templates, sync with Office Live and the usual quality of layout I have come to expect. To a lesser extent I use Excel for some data management and that works fine on the Mac too. My main point of contention with Office has always been PowerPoint, it’s an adequate piece of software but every conference or presentation of any standing that I have attended has featured Keynotes. My interested sparked and with an opportunity to explore it wasn’t long before I downloaded the trial for iWork 09. It was even less time until I upgraded the demo version to the full retail, Keynote 09 is worth the price of admission alone. I could spend an entire article explaining what makes Keynote better than PowerPoint but I’ll save that for another day, take from someone who presents information with a high degree of regularity in my profession at a lecturer Keynote 09 is the best presentation software available. I’m less convinced by Pages and Numbers but Keynote 09 is all kinds of great.

From there I proceeded to investigate applications that would support the development of e-learning materials. My research lead to the discovery of several great application including:

• ScreenFlow
• PlanBook
• Teacher Studio
• ScreenSteps
• Audio Hijack Pro
• ProfCast
• VideoCue
• RapidWeaver
• PDFPen
• Final Cut Express
• Things
• Blender
• Forklift
• Wiretap

Some of these have been discussed on the blog in the past and have also featured in the podcast but I will highlight some of the core applications here. ScreenFlow is the definitive screencasting application on the Mac – creation of video tutorials, assignment feedback, communication of concepts, cover classes, ScreenFlow has provided me with so many uses since purchase. The recent release of version 2.0 has added some great new features such as video transitions, audio ducking and direct YouTube export. PlanBook and Teacher Studio are fantastic education planning tools that I would struggle to live without. PlanBook allows for the creation of lesson plans and effective time tabling, catering for the production of reports based on such information and public sharing via online publication. Teacher Studio allows for student management, tracking of attendance and grades as well as for management of lesson content. In conjunction with Moodle which I use as my VLE of choice they provide a very solid platform for delivery of e-learning content.

ScreenSteps and ProfCast both allow for the development of e-learning materials in the form of step by step guides and video productions of my Keynote presentations respectively. The addition of these tools to by daily work flow has significantly improved by productivity as well as aiding in the production of first class education content. My students have commented on the quality of both in the past. Aside from e-learning specific tools I have also found more general Mac applications which have made various projects more successful and enjoyable. RapidWeaver is quickly becoming my web development editor of choice, offering a range of complex and robust features and endless expansion via plug-ins. Already I have put in place a framework for the distribution of video content and I am presently researching the concept of an online store which I hope to have live before the end of the year.

Speaking of video the Mac platform has provided me with so man great video editing applications, VideoCue provides a great solution for the GCNN project which is currently in development. It includes an industry standard teleprompter and for the capture of iSight video for distribution to blogs, YouTube or self-hosted solutions. The GCNN should launch before the end of the year also. Keeping on top of all these projects is a complex task but one which I just about manage thanks to Things, my new favourite task management applications. Things allows for the management of a very busy schedule, tracking tasks, reminding you of when things must be done, providing functionality for project management. I love the application so much that I also have purchased it for my iPod Touch and love the ability of synchronising between that and the MacBook Pro.

My Top 5 Apps of 2009

• ScreenFlow
• Final Cut Express
• ProfCast
• Things
• RapidWeaver

Other Apps worthy of mention: Skype, WriteRoom, PS3 Media Server, Audacity, MyDiary

Everything Else

Rather than break other things of interest down into separate categories I am going to collectively discuss my top ten other things of the year. Hardware, gadgets, people, websites – the things I have enjoyed most or thought great over the last 12 months.

• Podcasts – Tekzilla, Hak5, X-Play, Attack of the Show, Gametrailers, G4 Feedback, WordPress Weekly

Podcasts have become a weekly feature in my life, I listen to them while working, driving to and from work, at night when relaxing – just about everywhere. The great thing about them is that they are free, usually produced to a very high standard and cover topics that other mediums find difficult due to costs and distribution restrictions. Some of my favourites focus on technology and gadgets – Tekzilla, Hak 5 – while others deal with video games – X-Play, G4 Feedback and Gametrailers. Regardless of topic or whether it is audio or video content, podcasts have become an established and important source of information for my generation and this year more than ever before I have embraced the medium with vigor.

• Pakuma

The acquisition of my MacBook Pro and the general need to transport “cool stuff” from home to work and everywhere else I go, meant that I needed to look at a stylish and functional way of doing so. I didn’t take me long to pick up the Pakuma K1 17″ Messenger bag prior to my MacBook Pro’s arrival. Sturdy, multi-pocketed and oozing style the bag is my one stop shop for geek transport.

• Music – NIN, The Kills, Monsters of Folk, Conor Oberst, Radiohead

This last year I have been listening to music quite a lot. Mainly it has been new music from some of my old favourites in the form of NIN & Bright Eyes but I have also really enjoyed new material from Monsters of Folk.

• Morgan Webb

I have been a long term admirer of Ms Webb, her professional attitude to her career, devotion to everything video game, enthusiasm and wit all make her one of my favourite personalities. Her work on X-Play and G4’s Feedback have been some of my favourite Internet TV of the past year and although Webb Alert is sadly no longer with us, it has inspired me in the creation of GCNN.

• Gadgets – iPod Touch, Blue Snowflake, MacBook Pro, HP C4780, PS3, Xbox 360

Without doubt my favourite gadget of the year has been my MacBook Pro. I would go as far as to say that it is quite possible the best gadget I have ever purchased and one that has changed my life for the better forever. My recent purchase of the HP C4780 is also worthy of note, my first wireless printer is proving a very sound investment indeed. Of course the PS3 & Xbox 360 have provided me with hours of entertainment, in particular Play TV & media playback on the PS3 and the Xbox 360 for quality gaming experiences.

• Web – BBC Online, YouTube, WordPress, Twitter, Moodle, Telestream, Electronic Frontier Foundation

This past few months since starting to work on the Mac I have become more conscious of social media applications and have made extensive use of Twitter and WordPress over the past six months. Indeed video sharing sites such as YouTube and concepts such as BBC Digital Revolution have made for consistent enjoyable viewing. Telestream have also been a regular place I check out, both for communication and software. Blogging and social interaction through software is something that characterised 2009.

• Kate Beckinsale

Little changes in my consideration of who is the most talented and gorgeous female on the planet. Kate Beckinsale was crowned the sexiest woman alive by Esquire magazine and I for one agree. I have yet to see Kate looking less than drop dead gorgeous and as her Esquire photo shoot clearly shows, she is definitive of sexy.

• Food – Subway, Pizza, Lucozade, M&S Apple Juice, Enchiladas

I really like my food, I think anyone that knows me can testify to that. I’m also a creature of habit so my tastes have remained somewhat consistent over the past couple of years. I still find Subway sandwiches to be some of the best available, a steak cheese melt is the perfect end to a hard days work. Lucozade original remains my beverage of choice – best drink on the planet – fact. It goes without saying that Pizza is acceptable at any time of the day or night

• Books – Secrets & Lies, Assassins Creed Renaissance, World War Z

Books are something I have probably read less this year than I ever have previously, work pressures and other development projects have left little time for recreational reading. I still have enjoyed the zombie filled World War X and I am currently reading Assassins Creed Renaissance.

• Publications – The Times, Guardian, Develop, Edge, Mac Format, Esquire

The Times and Guardian are daily purchases most days of the week, the Guardian in particular has some excellent pull out sections each and every day. Edge remains one of my favourite subscription magazines and what I consider to be the definitive video game journalism in the UK. Mac Format is a magazine I have only recent begun reading but I find it comparable in many ways to PC Format which I would have bought religiously in the past. Esquire magazine also deserves a mention, the US import version that is, quality journalism each and every month targeted at a male audience. It get’s bonus marks for it’s recent Kate Beckinsale photo shoot and related HD promo video.

So there you have it, my summary of the good from the year gone by. I probably have forgotten one or two things but it should give you some insight into the things I have really enjoyed in 2009. I was going to support this post with a podcast but I think I may focus that on what I am looking forward to in 2010 instead.