Album of the Year; Spike VG Awards

I know what my album of the year is. Unless something monumental happens in the next six weeks, it's pretty definite for me. It's taken over my life. It's the only thing I've been listening to for the last month. When it first came out, I listened to the first four tracks a lot but never got very deep into it. It's been out for several months, but only within the last one has it really solidified its place in my mind. Every track has well over thirty plays on my iTunes, and the entire album is represented in my top twenty-five most-played tracks.

I won't say anymore... all will be revealed upon the ending of the year. I shook up my top five a bit... what I previously considered my top album is now #3, with the second one maintaining its place. The previous third and fourth albums both moved down a slot... number five got ousted, sorry. Yes, I really do think about this kind of shit. Very often. I can't tell if it's a music thing or a journalism thing... it's likely a combination of both. Music journalism often relies on lists, and I think that's something that I pounded into my head ages ago.

The other topic I wanted to talk about was the revelation of the winners of Spike TV's 2005 Video Game Awards. Gamers consider the show a joke. Reasons? Maybe that some of the games nominated haven't even come out yet. Not to mention below-average games like True Crime: Streets of L.A. have won awards in the past. This year's show was taped tonight, and much to my amazement, the right games won in most catagories. Despite the silly nominations, the outcome wasn't as rediculous as I'd anticipated.

Resident Evil 4 on GameCube won game of the year, which I absolutely approve of. I beat that game in a weekend... it took me 22 hours. I just don't game like that... ever... but this game captivated me like very few others. Certainly the best in the series, by far. Niche games like Guitar Hero and We Love Katamari were honored for their soundtracks. Lumines beat out Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Nintendogs for best portable game, another move that I applaud. I've talked at length about GTA in this blog, but Lumines is definitely the game to have on the PSP. I must've played that game for at least thirty hours, likely many more.

Those are just the ones I chose to point out, but I'm also pleased with many of the other picks. I highly doubt that I'll bother to watch the show this year (I haven't in the past), but I'm glad to see that they took the awards a bit more seriously this year. It speaks highly to the evolving nature of an industry where adults are now gaming as much as kids seem to be. Once we start respecting gaming, other people will.