In other news...

Sigh. Has anyone noticed that the older you get, the quicker time passes by?
When you're a kid, days lasted FOREVER, the summer holidays felt like a life time, and everything was measured in days and not weeks.

Then suddenly you're all grown up, have a job, and bills to pay. That's when things get fucked. You start measuring time by weeks, and months. You look forward to a few days holiday, a few months down the line. Your birthday starts coming quicker and quicker, and all of a sudden, without you knowing it, the year has gone and you've achieved almost nothing.

Does it ever slow down? When we're all old and incontinent, does time suddenly go really slowly just like before, and we have tons of shit to keep ourselves amused with? I hope so.

Anyway, rant aside, 2007 was a funny old year. I became 30, I got engaged, friends got married, others got pregnant, others had their first child. Some died, some got killed. Facebook became an international why-didn't-I-think-of-that-first phenomenon, and the three big names in gaming released their beasts onto the salivating public. And it's also the year that Nintendo reclaimed the gaming crown it lost so many years ago to a certain Playstation.

It's also the year that the UK medical system broke to pieces with the introduction of a nationwide disaster called MMC, leaving tons of junior doctors like myself in limbo about whether we had a job or not. It's still just as shit, and we all have no idea whether we've got a job or not come August. Sucks.

We watched quite a few movies last year, 30 to be exact. Pan's Labyrinth being the best thing to come out of Mexico since Corona Beer, my love for it is well known to almost everyone I know. Not all of you agree mind you, but still, it'll remain one of my top films of all time. I saw Oldboy last year too, an Oldfilm (Pun intended!) but an excellent piece of cinema. Violent, beautiful, and cruel in an unimaginable way, the only film to date that gives me goose bumps just thinking of it's story.

Honorable mentions go to Children of Men for it's vision of a violent near future, Stranger Than Fiction for the great Emma Thompson character, Grindhouse for the shere madness of the whole experience, Apocalypto for it's beautiful colours, gory and violent story of The Mayans, L4yer Cake for having one of the most unexpected endings in a film ever, The Number 23 for Jim Carey's great paranoid role, Transformers because they rock, Ratatouille because Pixar can't go wrong, Stardust for being a great adult fairytale, Beowulf for it's nobrainer visual delights, Shoot 'Em 'Up for making fun of every action film ever made, I Am Legend because of Will Smith's Oscar-worthy show, and finally Atonement for having a sad and very sobering ending (if you don't mind watching 2 hour English dramas then watch Atonement, but prepare to be very upset).

The biggest disappointment had to be Paprika. This Japanese anime from the creator of Akira had to be good. The trailer is just amazing. The film sucked. Confusing, weird, and nothing like it could have been.

Gaming last year was a mixed bag. There was a massive summer drought, then suddenly at the end of the year the number of AAA titles that came out was too much to handle. A torrent of gaming goodness descended upon all followers, and I for one am still struggling to catch up. I still haven't even put Super Mario Galaxy in the Wii, even though I've owned it since October. Still, the more games the better, and I'm sure I'll have loads to do to cover the coming dry months. Here's a list of what we did manage to complete:

Wii

Metroid Prime 3 - Corruption (A fitting ending to one of the most innovative and fun trilogies on any console. Well worthy of the price of a Wii alone!)
Super Paper Mario
Excite Truck
Kororinpa
Legend Of Zelda - Twilight Princess

PS2

ICO
Shadow of the Colossus (The amazingly crafted story of love and sacrifice, a sad and moving tale of one man's mission to save his love. Not just a game, an experience)
God of War
God of War 2 (Both God of War games are nothing short of excellence. Pure fun and action, great puzzles, great music, great cinematics, and set pieces worthy of Hollywood)

PS3

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Heavenly Sword (Slightly disappointing God of War clone, but the cinematics and voice acting both deserve Oscars)

360

Crackdown
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
The Darkness (From Starbreeze, the makers of Riddick, and the guys behind the legendary FT2 (for those old enough to remember!). An immersive FPS with the coolest starting level of any game last year)
Halo 3

PC

Titan Quest - Immortal Throne
Darkstar One
Tomb Raider Anniversary
BioShock (Andrew Ryan's underwater utopia "Rapture" went horribly wrong, providing one of the most immersive and satisfying FPS games of last year. To not like BioShock is to admit poor taste in anything gaming related. It is that important)
Portal (Clever? Check. Fun? Check. Original? Check. Absorbing? Check. Geeky? Check. Short? Check. Best ending of any video game ever created? Check. Do we want more? Check. The Cake is a Lie? well I won't ruin that one...)
Half-Life 2: Episode 2

NDS

Dragon Quest Heroes - Rocket Slime
Trioncube

And there you have it. If you're still reading this post I extend my warmest gratitude and thanks, I was half asleep while typing it, so reading it must have been very taxing. You are a patient being.

2008? Well let's hope it'll bring just as much joy to us all. More importantly, it is the year where we will play so much Team Fortress 2 that we'll have to legally change our middle names to Dustbowl. Loving every second of it, and hoping that one day the dream of all of us getting together on one server will come true. We nearly managed it one glorious night on Quake III, so perhaps this year we'll actually do it. Who knows.

Until then, SoB out. Keep playing people.