Eric’s 2024 in Review: Big Changes

What have I been up to? Well, this and that. My life is in a complete different place than it was a year ago. I left my job and started a new career. Fell in love. Moved apartments. Learned guitar. Bought a car. 2024 has been a monumental year for me and my personal growth. It’s been hard, but hard is good. Hard makes diamonds.

I am sure that somewhere on this site is an article of me bemoaning missing out on the original wave of Lord of the Rings sets. I got two and no more because I A.) was a child and B.) had no disposable income. Well, those are no longer true!

So I bought a big tower.

Like, big big. This thing is almost three feet tall. I put it on my bookshelf so that Sauron peers down at all my guests and makes them really uncomfortable. 

A lot of large LEGO sets look cool but are God-awful to build. Repetitive. Mind-numbing. Not Barad-dur. Every bag is something new. 

There are so many references to LOTR in here, tucked away in secret spots along the tower. I will never see them again once the tower is built, but that’s okay. They made me smile while I was building, and that’s plenty for me.

This is the largest LEGO set I own and one that I am completely satisfied with. 

Is it worth $459? For me, 100%.

I broke my pinkie finger playing this game. Seriously. I got so mad at this game that I punched the floor. 

On paper, Sifu is simple: five levels, five bosses. When you die, you give up years of your life to continue. Get too old, you restart. Simple.

But not easy.

As you play, you will unlock a bunch of moves and combos to the point where you’re flicking around control sticks and punching buttons at the speed of light. 

Palm strike into flurry of blows into leg sweep into a face punch – OH! – someone throws a bottle at you so catch the bottle and throw it at someone else then kick a stool and knock someone over then parry another attacker and take his sword and…

You get the point.

Only Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice can compete with this game for its combat flow. When you are in the zone, you are in the zone. When you’re not…you break a pinkie.

In the third level of Sly Cooper, I said, out loud: “They don’t make games like this anymore.” The PS2 was perfect for action platformers like Sly Cooper. It easily sits among its peers Ratchet & Clank and Jax & Daxter.

Every level introduces a new mechanic, and every level includes an unlockable move (or upgrade). No points, no shop, no skill tree – just find all the hidden bottles and open the safe.

It’s so perfect in its simplicity. So much of the fat is trimmed away, save for the last few levels, which is when I said, out loud, in a different tone: “They don’t make games like this anymore.” 

Annoying hitboxes, janky physics, and awkward camera controls.

Do those damn Sly Cooper? Not one bit. It is an absolute treat to play, and a refreshing break from the graphics-pushing, mechanics-full games of today.

Perhaps the above sentence is a criticism of RDR2. Perhaps. 

I should hate RDR2. It is sluggish. Slow. Obtuse. I’ve never been motivated by graphics or story. If the game isn’t fun, why would I play it?

I…don’t know. I wondered that often. I wondered that while sitting at a campfire and carving notches into my bullets, one at a time. I wondered that while turning through magazine pages looking for a holster. I wondered that while dying in combat time after time because the aiming…sucks!

And I finally discovered: RDR2 has the juice. Or, as videogamedunkey recently said, the slickness.

It’s badass to be a cowboy. It’s badass to fight off a bear. It’s badass to build a house for your wife and son. Simple as that.

It ain’t gotta be anything more.

I’d like to thank my girlfriend for introducing me to some really great horror movies. Late Night with the Devil stands above all of them.

It’s a failing late-night talk show where the host decides to bring in some supernatural types to spice things up. And spice things up they do. A little too much.

You know going in that things will go wrong. But you can’t wait to see it unfold.

Almost everything in the movie is played straight, like a live broadcast of, say, The Tonight Show. You’re seeing what viewers of the show would see.

The core concept is so fun, so engaging, and so unique that you will be glued to the screen. It’s a wild ride that any horror movie fan needs to watch.

This is a Christmas movie that I watched four times this year. None of which were in December.

I really cannot say more without saying everything, and that would take up a lot of space. 

If you want to have your soul warmed and your heart broken, then you need to watch The Holdovers.

Just trust me. It’ll change you.

Is this the only book that’s been on one of these year-end lists? 

I avoided Stephen King for a long time. To me, he was the book equivalent of Quentin Tarantino: the director all the annoying kids at my film school lauded.

But then I read Stephen King’s book Carrie and I got it. Turns out that King’s fame is not overrated. Turns out this guy know how to write a really damn good book. I know, the popular writer is a good writer. Surprise.

The most unbelievable part of Carrie is that it is Stephen King’s first novel. His FIRST! King has such confidence and conviction in his plot and setting that you’d think this would be his magnum opus.

But nope. Most lists don’t even put it in the top 5.

Amazing.