Last Years Geek - A Review From Laziness
/2015 has come and gone and with it a number of experiences. And since I have been sparse in my writing as of late I am going to start 2016 with a recap of my 2015.
Movies (Possible Spoilers)
Movies for geeks have been releasing in larger and larger quantities each year. Marvel has moved forward with their grand cinematic plan keeping us wanting more and more. 2015 saw the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man in which the close of Marvel's Phase 2 plan happened. In Age of Ultron we were introduced to not one, but two of the Infinity Stones and seen some forward movement in Thano's plan to rule the universe. Then in Ant-Man we were introduced to the newest non-shield superhero to enter the Marvel landscape. Both movies were great experiences and a ton of fun.
Then we saw a return to the most ludicrous idea to make money ever, Jurassic World. Despite the first parks failure, and a T-rex running rampant in San Diego it was decided to open up a new park on the original island. And this works for some time becoming wildly successful. Until they decide to make up their own super smart raptor based dinosaur that escapes and kills tons other dinos and people. Chris Pratt played a great role in the movie and we saw how fast someone can actually run in heels. Lastly we all fell in love with Blue and understood a raptor can be the hero.
There were even family moves that drew me in. Minions was released showing how those nearly invincible and apparently immortal little yellow creatures came from. Then Inside Out was the latest masterpiece from Pixar. And as usual Pixar managed to bring grown men to tears with a imaginary friend.
Then lastly, but definitely not least, we say the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This movie came out in the last few weeks and has broken tons of sales records, even beating out Avatar for highest grossing movie ever. This has also returned Star Wars fever to those that lost it due to the prequels.
Video Games
Admittedly I did not play as many games as I would have liked over the past year. For games that I did play it started out with The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. A great remake of a game that I long ago played the N64.
Then there was Batman: Arkham Knight, something that managed to get reviewed as both great and horrible at the same time. Despite fun gameplay even with the shoehorned Bat Mobile they managed to earn more infamy due to the horrible problems with the PC release. This (to my recollection) was the first time a game was released and then pulled from digital shelves. This is supposed to have been fixed, but reports are mixed.
Other games that I have played were Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Fallout 4. While admittedly I have not made it far in any of these games, they have been fun. Halo 5 so far has that nostalgia factor from playing it long ago. Rise of the Tomb Raider is so far very similar to Tomb Raider that came out a few years ago. Then Fallout 4 has been a literal time sink for me just running around avoiding the main quest.
Of the games I have not played so far I am currently only regretting The Witcher 3. I have not been able to get into The Witcher games thus far, but this one is supposed to be the best and did earn game of the year from a number of places. Guess I should get on that.
Travel
My day job has had me traveling more. I went to 15 different cities in 2015. As a result I have also been to a number of different game and comic stores. One of my favorites was River City Hobbies in downtown La Crosse, WI. A multistory store that had a main level filled with game, comics and more with a lower level that was filled with tables for games and events. Then in Harrisburg, WI was That Game Place. Finding this place was easy, but it was not obvious. The store was inside an old warehouse that gave it a certain charm.
In theory the travel is supposed to continue this year. So here to exploring the geekiness of other cities for the coming year!
So Whats Next?
Over the next year year what is coming? Well I am going to try and cover more cons. Try and play more games, and start including more anime in my wright ups. Heck, I plan to get back to doing more articles. So here is to 2016!