Robot Claw

In the tradition of previous posts – and a bit late this year – it’s time once again for the year in review, game collection style!

I purchased a total of 102 games in 2009, spending just shy of $2200. Both of these totals were an increase from the previous year.

However other numbers decreased: the total number of systems for which I bought games dropped, as did the average cost I spent on each game. The dominant system was still the DS though, with outlier purchases on the Mac (WoW subscription fees) and the PS2 (a single game purchased in January ‘09, which I haven’t even played yet!). Here’s the figures in a handy-to-read plot:

^– The above is the % totals per system (games bought)

^– % totals per system, dollars spent.

102 purchases mean an average of 2 per week, but there is a notable increase in purchases after August. This is almost certainly due to cancelling my World Of Warcraft subscription, and playing more console/handheld games thereafter. There’s also a peak in May/June, corresponding to the Japan trip (on which I averaged one game bought per day). The system for which I bought the most games – the DS – is away and beyond the system for which I own the most games in total; 234 at last count.

It’s interesting to note I purchased far more PS3 games than Wii games and yet the dollar amounts are essentially identical. This is because I buy a lot of downloadable games from the Playstation Network, and rarely spend more than $5 for each. In fact the predominance of downloaded games this year (about 20% of purchases) coupled with the (typical) abundance of DS purchases is what drove the average spent per game (about $21) to the lowest value ever.

So a record year for amount of purchases (only in 2006 did I buy more games) but not even top five in dollars spent. What does this mean? I’d say I buy (and play) more (or at least as many) games as I ever did, only I try and be a bit more cost effective about the process.

And in those 102 games, what – you surely must be asking – was the best? What would get my medal for Game Of The Year 2009?

Here’s the answer:

A bit of a no-brainer actually, since it’s easily one of my favourite games of all time!

When I was in Australia, I forgot to attend a particular exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. It was about growing up in Australia during the 1980’s, and damn me for not going.

Because I’d love to be in the 1980’s again.

I wonder, does everyone – as they age – fondly reminisce about the decade of their youth? Is there an inexorable allure to the what-once-was, strong enough to wipe away any bad memories (not that I have any) and make one recall only the good times? It’s silly to suppose anyone would want to forsake the comforts of today, but it’s also very easy to believe that life wasn’t so bad without them as well!

The 1980’s were my formative years (ages 8 through 18) and were an era of great music, great movies, great TV and truly awesome video games. Almost everything I am ‘into’ now builds upon the foundations of the 1980’s, when anything that matters started.

I lived those days. I lived them well and enjoyed them as best I could, but I can’t help dreaming about how greater it could have been had I perhaps known how great those days truly were.

David Tennants Last Episode…

RTD reached a new height in absurdist writing here, but the madness of the first hour or so was alleviated by the heart-wrenching last twenty minutes. My biggest problem was not the shrugging off of the Time War, the diamond, the single reference by the Master to Rassilon (eh??!) or even the fact that Donna was, apparently, ok. It was that the Doctor himself did virtually nothing in the entire episode. RTD’s worst scripts are common in that they are ones where the Doctor at best reacts rather than acts and this was perhaps the worst ever.

But then, well then something silly happened and then David Tennant was gone and Matt Smith yelled “geronimo”. I can’t wait for his season to start

Gamebooks…

I returned from Australia with a shocking 36 different gamebooks in my bags – from 16 different series! And since then I have bought 14 more on ebay. I suspect I have developed ‘a problem’ here, with the only cure getting each and every one! Is it possible? Yes. Likely? Nope.

But I can try!

Games…

Anyone paying attention would know that 2010 is shaping up to be one of the best years for games in a long time. I still don’t have Bayonetta (although it’s on my birthday list) but next week both No More Heroes 2 and Tatsunoko vs Capcom is released. And within a couple of months we’ll have Monster Hunter Tri and Final Fantasy XIII as well…

I have, on my ‘games waiting to be played’ shelf, about twenty unopened boxes. And now this avalanche of gaming goodness begins.

What is a man to do?

I’m heading to the airport in a couple of hours. Since I’ll arrive in Albany just prior to midnight this may end up being the longest day I’ve ever lived (I estimate January 19 will be about 37.5 hours long for me).

Right now I am finishing up packing… distributing the weight and making sure everything is secure.

Here’s a photo of some astounding sausages:

I’m not looking forward to the jetlag. And I have to teach about 9 hours after landing

My last full day in Australia.

I got up with the winds this morning, and left Adam’s apartment before 8. Bernard flew home today, so we said our goodbyes. It was wonderful to see him again, and I truly hope our next meeting will not be as many years apart.

My ultimate goal today was to ride the ferry to Manly, but I wanted to go into the city early so I could stroll the botanical gardens as well. I had to visit my old foxy friends, who I’ve said “Hello” to on each and every one of my trips here since 2000…

Judging by the cacophany, I suspect I was happier to see them than they were me! The clan seems to have grown in size as well. Thousands of them cluster in the trees. I’m not sure I believe the sign about removing them. It’s been 21 years now and they have become (as far as I am concerned) an integral part of the botanical gardens.

The bamboo-graffiti shot was also taken in the gardens, as was the ibis. These ibises (ibi?) are – to me at least – another signature of Sydney. While the city has pigeons, they are not as ubiquitous as they are in New York. Almost equally common are these ibi, not to mention the mynahs, seagulls and common sparrows. But the exoticness of the ibi draw the eye, and although many dismiss them as pests now (recall one strolled into a foodcourt on one of my earlier days here) I still enjoy watching them.

Around 9am I hopped on the 30-minute ferry over to Manly, which is a seaside suburb on the northeast side of Sydney Harbour.

I love riding any ferry on the harbour, but I particularly love this one since passing across ‘the heads’ (the opening where the harbour meets the ocean) sometimes means passing through choppy water which can throw the boat around quite a bit. On todays trip over, the sea was calm and we barely felt it. Happily, when I returned around lunchtime the wind had picked up a great deal and so had the waves, so the boat was rocking back and forth quite impressively

The top shot just above is the view back toward the CBD from the ferry. The right shot shows how few people head *to* Manly at 9am on a weekday

You may have noticed from all these shots that weather today was superb! 26 C and barely a cloud in the sky! Manly beach was similarly beautiful.

I walked from one end to the other (about 20 minutes) and then removed my shoes and walked back in the edge of the surf.

There were a great many swimmers and surfers and canoeists out already, but the fellow with the paddle was a bit of a curiosity. He looked like he was on a malibu (a very long surfboard) and was always standing, using the paddle for propulsion and to assist balance. When he rode a wave, he did so high up on the wave, rather than on the front face. He was very skilled as well, and I watched him for a while.

Walking in the water was glorious!

Around lunchtime I headed back over to the city. I had some last minute shopping to be done (in Chinatown) and I wanted to ride this:

What can I say? I’m a sucker for ferris wheels…

As it turns out I purchased almost nothing today. It turns out I’ll be leaving with notably fewer ’souvenirs’ than ever (gamebooks aside), so I hope my loved-ones aren’t disappointed!

Lunch was Oporto (maybe not the last time… they do have one at the airport) and I bought and binge-ate a massive cherry ripe bar at the same time as well! During todays travels I drunk 2 600 mL Lift bottles, and just now back at Adam’s I’ve put away 3 200 mL mini-cans. My best estimate of the trip total so far (and there will be more tonight) is somewhere around 45 Litres of Lift drunk. Virtually every single drink I have had has been Lift (I drunk one Solo and one Fanta, as well as 3 strawberry milks). That’s probably something to be embarrassed about but I hold my head high with pride! The sugar has kept me going for three weeks now – my daily step average this trip (according to the software for my pedometer) is an impressive 22,500 steps!

< Pride personified

So I have one more night, and then I’ll be taking off tomorrow afternoon for the long and tedious slog home. Hopefully I can squeeze in one more entry before then.