Happy New Year ! Today’s the start of 2013, sure, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up on 2012 just yet. There were a number of wonderful and amazing things released this past year. From video games to movies, comedy albums to comics, 2012 was chock-full of lovely creations to occupy our time . That said, there were certainly a select few that stood well above the rest. Each of us here at Geekosystem has provided three picks from 2012′s lineup that we think everyone else would be foolish not to check out.
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1. FTL: Faster Than Light
FTL: Faster Than Light first showed up on everyone's radar early in 2012 with a fantastically successful Kickstarter campaign. Even though it looked promising from the start, the question remained whether the developers could actually deliver what they were promising: A spaceship simulation that also happens to be a roguelike.
The gameplay focuses on managing the minutiae of everything needed to run a spaceship. Engines, shields, weapons, and piloting. It's all there and needs to be powered, kept repaired, and manned. While compiling this list, I decided to include only a single game in my picks. Of all that 2012 had to offer, FTL: Faster Than Light is the video game I will likely continue to play going forward. - Rollin
2. Parker: The Score
Through two full-length adaptations and a selection of short works, Darwyn Cooke looked like he could do no wrong adapting the coal-dark crime thrillers featuring author Richard Stark’s oddly honorable master thief Parker. This summer, Cooke continued his hitting streak with Parker: The Score .
I can't say a bad thing about any of these adaptations, which see Cooke at the height of his powers, simultaneously capturing the noir style of the original stories and giving them a razor-sharp modern update for new readers. Well, they probably ultimately made possible the upcoming Jason Statham/Jennifer Lopez Parker film, which looks for all the world like a thorough stinker, but you can hardly lay that at Cooke's door. I blame society. - Ian
3. Sleepwalk With Me
The story behind comedian Mike Birbiglia's film Sleepwalk With Me is one he’s told many times, across many forms of media, so a movie about the time he jumped out the second-story window of the La Quinta Inn in Walla Walla, Washington might seem a little late to the party, but it’s actually really great.
Beyond the story of Birbigilia's near-fatal sleepwalking incident, the film also chronicles a fictionalized account of his early comedy career, which isn't something accurately portrayed in a lot of movies. Short of signing yourself up for a few months worth of open-mics, watching this movie is probably the best way to understand what a stand up comedian goes through. - Glen
4. Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers
It all started with this phrase: “We have to get bigger.” Facing threats from every conceivable corner as well as an unfavorable public opinion of the Avengers, Iron Man and Captain America believed that the only solution to these issues and more was to expand the team roster. Though at this point, “expand” is a formal way of saying “the Avengers just got frigging huge!” With Jonathan Hickman now at the helm of Avengers -- Marvel Comics’ flagship title under its Marvel NOW! semi-relaunch initiative -- he and a rotating succession of top artists are taking Cap and company on missions and journeys they’ve never seen before, finding them facing down omnipotent foes like the embodiments of creation and destruction. Yeah, it’s pretty heavy stuff to be dealing with, but the way Hickman is writing his stories makes Avengers accessible without losing any of that epic grandeur a team of Marvel’s greatest heroes lends itself to. Featuring top tier characters as well as unknowns you’ll grow to love, Avengers is the top Marvel title of 2012 you should be reading -- especially for fans of this past summer’s blockbuster! - Steven
5. Looper
It's been a stellar year for science fiction movies. Sure, Prometheus was kind of out there, but we still had wonderful gems like Looper hitting theaters.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis are the same person, but Willis has been sent back in time so that JGL can kill him. Yeah, it's more complicated than that, but that's what the movie's about at its simplest. Luckily, the film focuses not on the time travel, but on what it means to be selfless.
It's wonderful, and I only hope that 2013 brings more of the same. - Rollin
6. Tig Notaro - Live
On the heels of her mother's death, a bad breakup, and her diagnosis with breast cancer, no one would probably have blamed stand-up comic Tig Notaro if she had decided to cancel a show earlier this year at L.A.'s Largo Theater. Instead, she took the stage and delivered the performance of the year: A hilarious, heartfelt, introspective, and raw like sashimi show that you just have to check out if you haven't yet. This show is as close as you’ll see to a comic literally laughing down her own doom, facing a living nightmare, and using it to raise her already significant game to its highest level. If you're at all interested in the craft, the art, and the power of stand-up comedy at its best, you owe it to yourself to get a load of this show, simply titled Live , which is available through a number of Internet venues for just $5. - Ian
7. Steve Martin: The Television Stuff
Steve Martin is one of the greatest comedic minds of all time, but a lot of his early television work was difficult to find until September of this year when Steve Martin: The Television Stuff came out. It could have been considered a shame that it took so long for these recordings to be released, but we choose to look at it as an advantage. It’s as if Martin suddenly released a host of new material, and that’s wonderful.
The three-disc set includes both recordings of Martin’s stadium-filling stand-up show, his four NBC specials, and a collection of his other work. Some of the material is admittedly dated, but most of it holds up, and it is still tremendously funny. - Glen
8. Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim
Is it possible to make an otherwise endless game like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim endlesser? Horrendous and intentional grammar aside, such a thing is possible with downloadable content, but that isn’t a guarantee that the content we get is anything to write home about. Obviously showing signs of development fatigue, Bethesda’s first two DLC offerings -- Dawnguard and Hearthfire -- were about as well-received by some fans as contracting a case of Bone Break Fever, especially when we had all been eagerly anticipating expansion packs for Skyrim. Given another chance to remedy their previous screw-ups, though, Bethesda hit the nail on the head with their third entry: Dragonborn.
Taking players to an entirely new map on the island of Solstheim, Bethesda finally heard our nerdy pleas and served up new dungeons, enemies, and other surprises that made the entire experience feel like a game in its own right rather than just superfluous add-ons to an in-game world we were tired of treading. - Steven
9. Saga
When Steven recently recommended Saga to our readers, it made me very happy. Why? I love Saga too, and so should everyone else.
Writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Fiona Staples have together created a series for Image Comics that's equal parts Star Wars and Game of Thrones : There's love, space, gore, and magic.
Vaughn's previous efforts include the wonderful Runaways and Y: The Last Man . If that doesn't immediately sell you on Saga , then I don't know what will. - Rollin
10. V/H/S
Weaned on shows like Tales From The Crypt and The Twilight Zone , I've retained my deep and abiding love for anthology horror into adulthood -- or as close to that I am now, anyway. Maybe it's the variety of subjects, or the plethora of styles that can be displayed in the oft-maligned format. Fine, maybe it's just my abysmally brief attention span.
Either way, V/H/S features excellent shorts from some of the finest young horror directors working, including Ti West (The Innkeepers , The House of the Devil ) and Adam Wingard (You’re Next ). Even more impressive is the fact that every short offers a fresh, frightening take on the often tired “found footage” horror conceit. That feat alone makes the collection worth checking out. - Ian
11. Across from the Adonis
Chip Chantry is a comedian based in Philadelphia that I've had the pleasure of performing with a few times. He's a funny comic and a good guy, and I consider him a professional friend. I only mention that because normally when you’re a comedian, and another comedian friend of yours sends you the CD they recorded of their comedy, there’s a real sense of dread attached to listening to it.
Sometimes comics try to skip steps and get to the next part of their career by recording and releasing an album before they’re ready. Even great comedians have lackluster first albums, but Chip was ready. Across from the Adonis is genuinely hilarious. It isn't just a guy used to middling trying to stretch his material for an hour. To borrow a rap term, it has flow.
I listen to a lot of stand-up albums, and I’d put Across from the Adonis up there with the best ones that came out this year. - Glen
12. Batman: Death Of The Family
For many comic book writers and artists, being honored as one of a particular title’s many memorable creative teams requires that the two have years of quality work under their belts if they ever hope to receive this prestigious accolade -- unless, of course, you happen to be the artistic visionaries behind DC Comics’ New 52 Batman series. In a few issues time, Batman super scribe Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo were hailed by critics and fans alike as the next great dynamic duo in the history of comics starring DC’s Caped Crusader. From their seminal “Court of Owls” story arc, Snyder and Capullo made themselves household names among while also leaving many wondering how they would top such an enthralling story. Simple-- they brought back Batman’s perennial foe and very antithesis, Joker, in the next great story arc, “Death of the Family.”
In the arc, Joker blames Batman’s family of sidekicks for turning his nemesis into a soft and weak shadow of what he once was, systematically going after each of them one by one, ensnaring them in lethal traps and scenarios of his own insane design that push them all to their mental and physical limits. Every bit as nauseating and frightening as it is disturbing, Snyder and Capullo have turned the Clown Prince of Crime into a psychopath sure to give even the most hardened of Batman fans nightmares. If you can, run to the comic stands now and pick up back issues to say you closed 2012 reading “Death of the Family” ! - Steven
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