A few new games and TV shows have struck me as outstanding, so I decided to list my favorite in each category, sometimes with honorable mentions. Note, this is a list of things that have been released this year and consumed by me, rather than just consumed by me but released any time.
Favorite game:
Gunpoint - What, not GTA V? No, because as far as I'm concerned, that game did not meet expectations. Gunpoint however, did. It's all kinds of wonderful - character dialogue that makes me laugh, hilarious moments such as setting a circuit that inadvertently smacks my character down, plenty of witty achievements unlocking for doing standard things without even looking for them, a charming soundtrack, and a development story that could inspire anyone.
Favorite film:
This was quite tricky, scrolling back through my Trakt history of films I've watched this year constantly thinking "there really wasn't anything new that stood out". Honorable mentions go to Pain & Gain, 2 Guns, Side Effects, Gangster Squad, and Now You See Me, but my favorite is The Place Beyond the Pines. it wasn't the film I was expecting it to be, and it was a fascinating emotional ride.
Favorite TV show:
The Bridge (the FX version), Ray Donovan, and Trophy Wife. But, I must pick one. I think I'm going to have to go with Ray Donovan, as as great as all three are, it is just that tiny bit better, though I must admit I haven't quite caught up on The Bridge yet. If you're looking for any other great shows that have been running a while and are returning in January, check out Justified and Archer on FX - if you have enough free time in the, there's just enough time to catch up.
Favorite album:
I'm not a huge music fan, and that's not to say that I don't listen to a lot of music, because I do, but I'm never seen frequenting Pitchfork or NME. I'm torn between Foxygen's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic and Fitz and The Tantrum's More Than Just A Dream, but based on how many tracks I've rated 5 stars in iTunes, the winning artist has to be Foxygen. Links to the album are in the description of this video. If that track doesn't pique your interest, listen to the first four tracks on the album.
Favorite book:
It pains me to admit that I don't read nearly as much as I used to. Therefore my book of the year must be Dan Brown's Inferno. I know people the world over hate his style of writing, but they're quite simply enjoyable and relatively lengthy books.
Favorite new piece of technology:
I don't buy terribly much, so going on what I've actually bought it'd have to be the 2013 13" MacBook Air (i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage) - until I upgraded parts of my desktop machine, this powerful slice of portable computing was the only machine I used for the vast majority of all computing tasks. In terms of what I'd most like to get, is the Fitbit Force, but that isn't released yet in the UK, so perhaps it can sneak into this spot on next year's list.
Favorite new piece of software:
Software comes in many shapes and sizes, but my pick of the year has to be Media Browser 3. Without it, I'd be constantly manually checking in on Trakt and losing my files all over the place. With it, consuming media has never been easier. After using Media Browser Classic for a rather long time, I eventually decided to jump towards the rather more server-centric MB3 and have certainly not regretted it. if this doesn't get you excited, nothing will.
Favorite Tumblr:
"I don't always use Tumblr, but when I do it's just to while away a few minutes with amusing images" My favorite new Tumblr is this, which has a combination of already shocking property photos but with the addition of drôle captions.