This is a game that leading up to its release I could not have been less excited about playing. this is partly because before August I was not paying any attention to 360 games due to not owning the console myself but partly because super hero movies tend to be daft. The one exception I have played to this rule being Spiderman 2 which was fun for web-swinging aimlessly around New York city.
Then the game came out though and I got to watch more footage of the game, the way it controlled and the cut scenes and I changed my mind.
The votes are in. Four of the nine shortlisted films failed to garner a single vote, these were:
Juno
Atonement
Wall-E
In Brugges
The Dark Knight and The Bourne Trilogy were next receiving just 9.5% of the vote each. This leaves the top 3 films of the ‘noughties’ as voted for by you.
I thought a blog post would be a good place to explain why I like the sports people and teams that I do. The reasons are often illogical or slightly daft.
Denver Broncos
The strangest pick has to be why I support the Denver Broncos as my main NFL team. During the time that I have supported the team they have done approximately nothing of great worth nor have they had a great quarterback. Meanwhile the other NFL teams I like all have relatively sensible reasons (New Orleans: Rally after Hurricane Katrina that transformed them from one of the worst to one of the best teams, Seattle: Lofa Tatupu, Indianapolis: Peyton Manning, Baltimore: That defense). But no my support of Denver hinges on this:
I apologise for the ‘thats a huge bitch’ line at the beginning
This last decade saw us grow up, when it started I was 12, this means my memories of the previous decade are slim, the ‘noughties’ then will be the decade that film took over my life. The last ten years saw Cathy and I doing degrees in the subject, neither of us are now working with anything to do with the industry but we both still have a love for the medium. Certainly the overblown special effects that have come in this decade have often come at the expense of plot but that is not to say that there have not been some great films. Film is an entertainment medium and the fact that 8 of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time came out in this decade shows that audiences have been entertained. Our lists are not ordered by preference but chronologically. My wife could not pick 10 and so has 11 instead and the nominees for film of the decade will be voted for by you from that shortlist.
Having sent a call out to my usual partners in crime I did not know what to expect from their top five films of 2009. In the end I managed to get three out of five of the opinions I hoped for. This year has been an odd one with no huge standout film that blew people away… until December when Avatar arrived.
Jonathan:
5. Avatar
4. Up
3. Star Trek
2. Gran Torino
1. The Wrestler
So to the list of sporting achievements of the decade. Again by Trefor Little and again in no particular order here are the athletes who shone in their chosen fields.
2009 has not been the best of years for video games in my opinion. Modern Warfare 2 seems largely to blame for this in that it gave developers an excuse to postpone and tighten their news games. Therefore the first three months of 2010 are going to be pretty manic. That being said though, there have been plenty of very good games this year and now that I have an Xbox 360 I have experienced my first taste of HD gaming… and it is good.
I asked my resident king of sports knowledge (I say king meaning he knows more than me) Trefor Little (aka my dad) to write down the top 5 sporting achievements of 2009. In no particular order then:
England winning the ashes
Andy Murray reaching Number 2 in the world rankings
Jenson Button winning the world championship
Usain Bolt breaking the 100m and 200m world records again
Manny Pacquiao becoming the first man to win seven different titles at seven different weights
Come back on the 4th for his list of the top 5 achievements of the decade. What do you think?
5. Kept my job – While lots of other people were made redundant by the credit crunch I have thus far kept my job… I also started earning a little on the side with my web design and hosting becoming partially self employed
4. Built a computer – Before December I had never built a computer, now I have and the sense of accomplishment is strong (nerd)
3. Center Parcs – Having not been since I was a lot younger I was worried it would be a little rubbish. It was not and I had a great time.
On the 27th December eleven of us intrepid drivers turned up at the track in Crawley for a race to end 2009.
The afternoon started with five minutes of practice session and ten minutes qualifying. The practice session went by with barely a yellow flag shown with everyone taking their time learning the track. The ten minute qualifying session though ended with a flurry of yellow flags as drivers pushed to try and get up the grid. Several drivers therefore ended up lower down the order than they expected. It was also noted that a number of drivers who had been before (we had three rookies at this event) complained of a lack of grip. 11 drivers on a 400 metre track also led to traffic issues as it proved to be difficult to guarentee a clean lap. With that said the grid was thus:
