Note to reader: I’m writing this in June of 2014, which is why the general tone of writing on this page is reflection.
2009 was another year of fluctuation, where I wasn’t really sure what to do, how to write or what the point of it all actually was.
I was also still a dirty pirate, so there’s that.
January
In January, I was all about World of Warcraft, but I somehow managed to squeeze in a couple of others. Funny how things work when you have nothing else in your life. I was working hard on leveling Larthas and deluding myself into thinking I wouldn’t be buying Wrath of the Lich King any time soon.
I gave Defense Grid: The Awakening a shot. Tower Defense was an emerging genre and I liked the idea of it, so when I saw a game that was tower defense but also had some higher-end graphics going for it, I was convinced it was the best thing ever. I abandon it within a couple of days.
MySims was about the same. Some people, including deKay, who I’m still an avid reader off, really enjoyed Animal Crossing. MySims was sort of like that and I thought I’d love it to. Nowadays, I’m not a huge fan of playing Animal Crossing and I’m absolutely positive MySims wasn’t nowhere nearly as good to add on top of that. Basically, there was a posting and that was it.
I started and finished Mirror’s Edge. It’s one of my favorite games ever. I loved the sound and the atmosphere of it. I especially loved the title song.
I was still devoted to trying to emulate a PS2 game from start to end, but I kept failing. I gave Soul Calibur 2 and Jade Cocoon 2 a try. Neither lived for long enough for me to get far.
I started and completed Call of Duty: World at War. I’m not at all interested in multiplayer in these games, but I consider the single player campaigns to be decent blockbuster style experiences, so I usually enjoy playing through them. These days, I pass on it, since the games are usually too expensive to justify the short single player experience.
February
February was more World of Warcraft, of course, but it started out with Pokemon Diamond. I don’t think I’ve properly completed many a Pokemon game until my challenge, but I sure did start a lot of them. This was another instance of me actually going quite far, but eventually giving up. I even did it on a proper console, my Nintendo DS, which is now broken.
As for World of Warcraft, Larthas was progressing and the way I’d succumb to the Lich King purchase was getting close.
I discovered Burnout Paradise and it was the first racing game after Gran Turismo that I really, truly enjoyed instead of just playing because it was cool.
At the end of the month, I started playing Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert, mostly because of all the actors that probably acted in other trashy roles, but I was now able to recognize them from all the TV shows I was watching at the time.
March
With World of Warcraft, the day of the Lich King was upon me. Larthas got to level 70 in March and I even spent some time maxing out skills and doing other things, but I knew it wouldn’t last long. I bought it on the 17th of this month.
Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert was completed early in the month to, after almost giving up due to some crashes.
I started playing Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, thinking I’d enjoy it as much as I did Challenge of the Warlords, but the hexagonal layout really didn’t work for me.
This somehow completely slipped my mind, but it seems I also completed Moreo! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2. I was convinced I never got past the first few levels in this game. It’s a sequel to Elite Beat Agents which never got localized.
April
I don’t think World of Warcraft needs further mention, but I’m doing it anyway. I got to 80 with Larthas, collected a large amount of achievements and started a new character, Sahtral, who was a gnome mage.
I also played through Wanted: Weapons of Fate in April. The movie was a hit and the game wasn’t half bad, albeit not very memorable. I remember the bullet curving mechanic was quite fun. I also remember it ending very abruptly.
Another surprise for me as I’m writing this recap is that I’ve started and actually completed Pokemon Platinum, meaning I have two sets of reports on me beating this game on the blog. If you’re following the link, note that it starts from the second page.
I also started Warhammer: Dawn of War II, and eventually completed it at the end of May. It was a great, unique strategy/RPG hybrid.
May
As I said, Warhammer: Dawn of War II this month. I also wrote a posting on World of Warcraft, but other than that, it looks like the blog was on hiatus again. With World of Warcraft, I was now doing heroic difficulty Naxxramans runs on a weekly basis.
June
June was barely keeping the blog afloat, with a total of three postings.
I started and completed Aztaka. It’s an awesome indie metroidvania that I have good memories of.
Larthas was getting even stronger in World of Warcraft, but the guild I was in didn’t have a great future ahead of it.
I also started Light of Altair. This is a unique strategy game about planet colonization. The unique part was that it had a very interesting sci-fi story behind it, which kept me trying to beat it for a while, but I eventually gave up in July due to the difficulty. I told myself it was due to college.
I still thought Spore was amazing, so I gave Galactic Adventures a try. It really opened my eyes. It didn’t go past the first posting.
July
Other than giving up on Light of Altair, I started and completed Trine and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I beat Guitar Hero on medium difficulty, which is an achievement for me, since I suck at dexterity games. The reason I did it was because the fourth game came out and it kept crashing on my laptop for some reason. As for Trine, it’s an amazing game about which I wrote very little, mostly due to playing it and the sequel during the dead blog periods.
In World of Warcraft, I started yet another character. This time, it was Hastral, the gnome warlock. Larthas was getting even stronger and due to guild issues, I started looking for options.
I started and completed Prototype. It was OK and it looked cool, but it got really annoying and repetitive towards the end.
Finally, I started playing Overlord II at the end of the month. That one was great.
August
August was the month of the completionist.
It started with me getting through Overlord II. Again, it was an amazing game.
Then I moved on to The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. I’ll be honest here, I used a walkthrough. I still loved every moment of the game, though.
After that, it was Half-Life 2 followed by Half-Life 2: Episode One. I believe this was the first time I played through these games. They’re pretty good and I got back to them on occasion, even though shooters aren’t really my thing.
In World of Warcraft, the guild gave it their best to try and keep afloat, but it would soon all go away.
September
With 11 postings, the blog finally woke up. Luckily, it wasn’t as brutal a wake-up as the few I had in 2008. I dread the thought of going through another 50 postings.
September started with me starting and beating Braid. It was fun enough and I can see it’s a good game, but these days, it definitely doesn’t seem like something I’d go out of my way to play. Back then, I loved it, because I loved every game I played. I had to justify it somehow.
In World of Warcraft, Eternal Myst finally broke up and I joined with Burning Aether. I don’t play World of Warcraft anymore, but last I checked, they’re still going strong on Azuremyst.
I beat Wolfenstein. It was great, but I had to use cheats to do it. I somehow managed to skip on getting a power that was required to beat a boss, so I had to edit it into my save.
I started and broke Mini Ninjas. It wasn’t that fun to begin with, so I wasn’t and still aren’t very upset due to abandoning it.
I gave Majesty II an honest try, but the game was simply too difficult for me. The first one was hard as well, so I wasn’t surprised.
I also started Drakensang: The Dark Eye and I still have no idea why I ever abandoned it. From what I remember, the game was pretty great.
October
The blog died here again. I mean, it really died. There was not a single post in October.
November
And then it came back to life.
The month started with me playing Warcraft 3 again. By the end of the first week of December, I got all the way to the end of the Frozen Throne. I just wanted to look at the story of both games from the perspective of someone who played World of Warcraft. It was an interesting new look at it.
I started and beat Risen, the best Gothic game since Gothic, in my opinion. That being said, I never played Gothic 2 properly, so I can’t be absolutely sure.
I started Eufloria, but wouldn’t beat it until three years later, on a second attempt.
I went back to Majesty II to give it a second try and failed again.
I also started and immediately abandoned Batman: Arkham Asylum. It would take me 5 years to get back to it and beat it properly.
December
As I said, I’ve beaten Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne at the start of this month.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was beaten in a single afternoon, as it usually goes with these blockbuster games.
I started playing Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story on train rides and got quite far with it, but eventually gave up for some reason. The last posting was in January of year 2010.
I also started Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins. It would take me up until next year to beat one and abandon the other properly. Dragon Age was actually something I got for my brother in law and then fell in love with (metaphorically speaking) when I saw him play it. I didn’t see it coming.
And that’s it for the year 2009
Conclusion
I think the blog in 2009 was slowly moving towards the shape it has today, but it would still meander around a couple of times over the years. If there was a recap written for the year 2009, it looks like I’ve since deleted it. In all honesty, it’s for the best.
The original idea was for me to use this blog to complete games, not because I have to, but because they were meaningful. What happened was that I started forcing myself to beat games I didn’t really enjoy. These days (2014), that doesn’t really happen anymore, or at least that’s what I tell to myself. Back then and especially in the next year, it happened a lot.
