Worst Moments:
5. Miami Heat Hype
The unbelievable hype for the new-look Miami Heat has been unbearable. Starting with Lebron James simply not trying in the 2010 playoffs, then his stupidly egotistical hour-long show just to announce he was "taking his talents to South Beach," and finally the opening day loss to the Celtics. What makes this moment even worse is that after nearly approaching .500 with consecutive losses to much better teams, the Heat, well, caught on fire. Ever since then, they have literally been the hottest team in the league torching down opponents now that they finally have chemistry. The amount of unfairness if just ludicrous with this team; three of their players alone average 20+ PPG. If the Miami Heat win the NBA championship, it will be the death of the NBA.
4. Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Revolver was acclaimed for taking the Grand Theft Auto model and turning it into a Western genre game. With better writing and better acting, Red Dead Revolver was an instant PS2 classic. It's sequel, Red Dead Redemption, is not a classic. It's more or less just a rehash of Revolver but with "better" graphics. I don't know what's wrong with Rockstar, but they seem incapable of making games with impressive visuals, resorting to making games with sub-par graphics. What makes Redemption one of the year's worst moments is how short the game is (100% Completion in under 15 hours) and yet continues to get massive praise.
3. Unveiling of PlayStation Move and Kinect
When the Wii was revealed, the (few) naysayers said the console would fail because of its "waggle controls." Five years later and the Wii is one the best selling video game consoles ever. Over time as the PS3 got better games and better online features, the PS3 sales started to gain up on the 360 until eventually it got dangerously close to outselling a system that was release a year and a half earlier. Then, Move and Kinect were announced. PlayStation Move is basically a knock-off of Wii Motion Plus (it even has an "optional" left hand controller with an analog stick on it) while Kinect is a controllerless system very similar to the Playstation Eye except more sophisticated. What got these announcements on the Worst list is the Move was another horrendous idea from Sony and Microsoft wasted Kinect's potential on the 360 rather than on PCs.
2. M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender
Holy shit what the fuck was that shit? Avatar: The Last Airbender was an extremely popular show on Nickelodeon about a young boy named Aang who is the titular last airbender, a race of people able to control air. He is discovered by two siblings of the waterbending tribe, who discovers that not only is Aang the last airbender, but he is also the Avatar, a being who can (potentially) bend all four elements. The show chronicles their journeys to teach Aang to bend the four elements while staying on the run from the Fire Nation who have declared war on the other tribes. Avatar was excellently written, animated, and acted. Being a successful Nickelodeon property of course led to a full-length feature film being made. While many speculated it would be an animated film taking place after the end of the series, it ended up being a live action film that would chronicle the first season, or Book, of Avatar. Because James Cameron's Avatar had been trademarked first, the film would have to be called The Last Airbender. To many peoples' disgust, M. Night Shyamalan was chosen as director and many people started to see parallels to what happened with Dragonball: Evolution. Shyamalan made the controversial decision to cast backwards races, casting the Eskimo looking waterbenders as Caucasians and the Caucasian Fire Nation as Hindi. The final straw came at extreme liberties with name pronunciation, casting newcomers in several roles, and re-arranging plot elements. The biggest reason above all that-that this giant piece of shit deserved to be #2 is that the film was not filmed in 3D, but rather converted to 3D (an extremely controversial process) without compensating for the darkness in film. Most people complained not about the horrible acting or butchering of the story, but because they couldn't see shit and what little they saw were horrible 3D effects.
1. Joe Quesada Keeps Fucking Up Spider-Man
A few years ago, Joe Quesada, the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, decided that Spider-Man was no longer a superhero that comic book fans could identify with, despite Amazing Spider-Man not only being the top selling Marvel Comic property, but the best selling comic book character, period. Quesada decided to retcon Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson by having Peter make a deal with the devil in order to save Aunt May's life and erase peoples' memories that Parker unmasked himself during Civil War. The reason for the couple never getting married was never explained and everything went on as if nobody ever knew what happened. In 2010, Quesada finally decided to write (and draw!) the retconned background story. In it, it was revealed that before their wedding, Spider-Man ran into a crook that was freed by the devil and while chasing him, shot a web at a loose brick and fell to the ground, giving himself a concussion. Parker missed the wedding and May Jane soon after broke up with him. The sound effect when the web pulled the loose brick is the now infamous THWOOPS. THIS STORY IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT. Peter and MJ had been dating for years and she was very understanding of his life as Spider-Man. For her to break up with him over a concussion is ludicrous! What makes this the worst story though, is Quesada wrote, pencilled, and inked the entire comic himself. Quesada is normally a brilliant artist, but this time he decided to draw Peter Parker to look suspiciously like himself. Want proof? Here it is!
Best Moments:
5. Inception
Inception is my pick for film of the year. Brilliantly executed with a fantastic cast and script, Inception is worth seeing at least twice (at least to make better sense of the ending) and purchasing on blu-ray. I highly recommend viewing this instant classic.
4. Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3, and Mass Effect 3 All Release Q4 2011
I don't need to go into much detail here, just look at my earlier post detailing why 2011 is sure to be the biggest year in video games.
3. Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 is the clear winner for Game of the Year. No other game featured as much as ME2 did in ANY department. Mass Effect 2 had the best voice acting, the best story, the best gameplay, and the best replayability. What can I say about this masterpiece that hasn't been said before? I was pumped for Mass Effect 3 the instant I completed ME2.
2. The San Francisco Giants Dominate the 2010 MLB Postseason
Going into the 2010 season, if anyone would have claimed the Phillies and Yankees would both lose in the NL and AL Championship Series, they would have been looked at as out of their fucking mind. How could the two previous World Series champions lose to the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers? The answer was simply vastly superior pitching. In the off-season, the Phillies traded away Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Roy Halladay, hailed a genius trade for a younger pitcher of the same caliber for less money. Eventually the Mariners traded Lee to the Rangers and he nearly single-handedly led them to the playoffs. In the AL, the Rangers beat the shit out of their opponents, utterly embarrassing the Yankees organization. In the NL, the Giants were never the favorite to win in any of their series, beating the Atlanta Braves quite easily and defeating the unbeatable Roy Halladay. When the World Series rolled around, many still thought the Giants would lose because until that point, Cliff Lee was unbeaten in the postseason. The Giants responded by pitching two shutout games, beating Cliff Lee twice, and tying the record for most strikeouts by a single pitcher in a World Series clinching game. No other team in all of 2010 sports deserved their championship more than the Giants.
1. Nintendo's E3 Press Conference
This was just the work of sheer genius. After two years of rather lackluster conferences, 2010 saw the welcomed departure of Cammie Dunaway as the E3 presenter and a return to the badass of badasses, Reggie Fils-Aime. While previous conferences showcased the more casual side of the Wii, Nintendo decided to spice things up in an E3 mostly about appealing to casual gamers. The amount of games Nintendo announced was absolutely ridiculous. When Nintendo's new Zelda game is NOT the biggest announcement, you know something is going to be epic. At the very end of their conference, Nintendo formally unveiled the Nintendo 3DS, a handheld 3D system that would not require 3D glasses. Just to make fans orgasm even more, a list of games in development were shown, mostly by the biggest names in the video games industry. But of course, this is Nintendo we're talking about. Everyone knew for a few months that the 3DS was real, just none knew it would not require 3D glasses. The biggest announcement was the trailer for Kid Icarus: Uprising, a 3DS launch title with graphics comparable to that of the Wii. The Nintendo E3 Press Conference was by far the biggest, best, and most unexpected moment of 2010 (in the topics this blog covers anyway).
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