Our panel of two sat down for an epic virtual discussion of our absolute favorite things of the year, in every category we could think of, and why each one made the list.

PLAYING

Best Video Game

Brian: Last year featured so many jaw-droppers (Bioshock, Mass Effect, Half-Life 2/Portal, Call of Duty 4), I was still catching up well into this year, so in comparison I wasn’t as wowed. I enjoyed GTA4, but it’s a grown-up version of the game we’ve already played, with some good additions (player choice in character deaths) and some bad ones (having to go on man-dates with your friends). I’m going out on a limb and saying the game that a) impressed me the most, b) I enjoyed every minute of, and c) will probably go back to, has to be Braid. Great visual style and music, smart puzzles, thought-provoking narrative. It’s short and simple and artsy, but it’s really the only game this year that makes you think, not just about how to beat it, but also about what it meant. I absolutely loved it (read more in my original review).
Spencer:  I’ve been bad about playing video games (which might mean I’ve been good, in general), with my Xbox sitting in my closet and collecting dust for most of the year.  That said, one of us has to give this award to Grand Theft Auto IV and it looks like it defaulted to me.

Best Downloadable Game

Brian: I won’t double-crown Braid here, but go with my number two: Penny Arcade Adventures. As I mentioned in another review (god, Brian, stop plugging), I wish there were 10 times as many games that came in nice manageable chunks, were this enjoyable to play, and also outright funny. But there are zero others on Xbox right now, where I do most of my gaming, so they’re the clear winners. Plus, you got to kill hobos in one chapter and mental patients in the next. That’s some good shit.
Spencer:  Despite the fact that Xbox Live stands head and shoulders above its competitors, the Wii’s little downloadable arcade has really posted some strong classics from the past, including my vote for best downloadable game, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.  You suck at first, but then you start regaining your old skills, and pretty soon, you’re typing in 007 373 5963 like it’s never gone away.

READING

Best Contemporary Book I Read This Year

Brian: Close race between three choices, but David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (amazing) and Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End (hysterical) lose out by a nose to Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude. Hard to believe a story about a dorky kid in a big city trying to find himself would appeal to the type of person who does best-of lists on a website, I know. But it hits so many great notes over the course of childhood into adulthood dealing with race, sex, family, friendship and career, it’s a complete, and completely moving, package.
Spencer:  Aw man, I know for a fact you read the one I’m giving it to, Junot Diaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (which also focuses on a dorky kid in a big city trying to find himself, I might add).  This is the sort of book that comes along and just blows you away: enough said.

Best Classic Book I Read This Year

Brian: I try to catch up on a few from the canon each year to stay well-rounded, and this year, prompted by the coming film (and my girlfriend’s suggestion), I picked up Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. You will never read a better-written portrait of suburban malaise, guaranteed. You’ll alternately despise, pity, and identify with its characters as they deal with false hopes and unrealized dreams. It’s so good, I don’t know where this book has been all my life. I also just caught the movie, which is still powerful, but missing the  internal battles you get from the book, so don’t skimp and settle for Leo.
Spencer:  Although I’d read the original barebones version before, I really enjoyed Leslie Klinger’s edition of The New Annotated Dracula.  The lawyer who last annotated all the Sherlock Holmes books double-dipped on his Victorian knowledge and did the same meticulous work on the world’s most famous horror novel.  Even more interestingly, he takes the premise that everything that happens in the novel is real, maybe to try to make it scarier, maybe because he likes Pale Fire; I’m not really sure.

Best Book Of The Year That I Haven’t Read Yet

Spencer: Surely we all must concede that Roberto Bolano’s 2666 is, quite nearly, an objective masterpiece.  Translated into English and released in America in November, it has received raves from every critic and media outlet; but not from Under Culture, because, frankly, we haven’t read it.  I pre-ordered it based on the glowing Slate review, and it’s been sitting on my shelf as the on-deck “book in the chamber” for a while. It’s not like I haven’t read anything since then, but excluding The Wordy Shipmates, it was all comparatively lighter fare like Jack Reacher novels. Meanwhile, 2666 has just been sitting on my shelf waiting to be absorbed and celebrated — like a bright, nerdy kid stretching his hand up who the teacher just won’t call on. Anyway, based on its ubiquitous presence on other lists, I’m pleased to award the deceased Mr. Bolano with this highly coveted award.  You’ve beat out Nixonland, Dangerous Laughter, and whatever Philip Roth put out this year.
Brian: My backlog of books to read is so long I’m lucky if I get to read a single book in the year of its release. I’m hesitant on 2666 because I already got burned by Bolano’s Savage Detectives; his book about poets was like I imagine hanging out with poets would be – occasionally profound but mostly tiresome. I’m not holding out too much hope that Chuck Klosterman’s first novel Downtown Owl will be on par with his superb essays either. Both Netherland by Joseph O’Neill and Child 44 by (the awkwardly named) Tom Rob Smith sound promising. But I’m most looking forward to Lush Life by Richard Price, especially after hearing him tell a story on This American Life and finding out he wrote for The Wire.

Best Comic/Graphic Novel I’ve Read This Year

Spencer: A late entry. I bought The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames as a Christmas gift for my brother, and I immediately stole it and couldn’t put it down until I finished it.  The novelist brings his usual array of binge drinking, sexual frustration, and rehab to life in the graphic novel format, with a hilarious bildungsroman about a young teenager who becomes a balding writer with addictive tendencies.  Ames’s previous novel, Wake Up, Sir! is the litmus test: The Alcoholic covers a lot of the same ground, although it feels more autobiographical and the artwork by Dean Haspiel obviously adds another dimension to the story.
Brian: Can you steal that one again so I can read it too? For my pick, I’d almost but not quite give it to The Joker by Brian Azzerello and Lee Bermejo. They leave out Batman almost entirely and focus on the violent, demented comeback tour Joker goes on after leaving Arkham Asylum. The art is gorgeous and disturbing, and it’s more a crime story than a superhero one. However, I had never read The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland — one of the greats as far as Batman stories go — and this year I finally corrected that little problem. The central premise of ‘Would one horrible day turn someone like Commissioner Gordon into someone like the Joker?’ gives it more punch than just a good detective story. I didn’t read a ton of comics this year, but even if I had read five times as many that one would still probably rise to the top.
Spencer:  The Joker was another one I gifted to my brother.  By the end of Christmas Day, every male in our house had picked it up and read it, ranging from my 24-year-old brother to my 92-year-old grandfather.  Truthfully, my Grandpa was probably just trying to find out exactly how fucked up our generation is, and The Joker probably did a great job of showcasing that for him.
Brian: [laughs] Well said. The cover scared my mom so much she couldn’t even watch me read it. If that’s not a recommendation, I don’t know what is.

Best Political Journalism

Spencer: A lot of sites had extremely detailed and thought-provoking coverage and a ton of page hits from me, including Slate, Salon, and 538.  But the best political journalism in 2008 goes to Rolling Stone/Alternet/Real Time political correspondent Matt Taibbi.  His unique blend of terror, “What the fuck?” outrage, and unbelievable pitch-black sense of humor perfectly capture the emotions (namely, anxiety) I suspect we would all feel if we actually analyzed our government and the lunatics steering the ship.  Topping it off was the hardcover release of the brilliant The Great Derangement, Taibbi’s sociological analysis of the sheer unbridled insanity of this, The Truthiness Era.
Brian: You turned me into a Taibbi fan too, but speaking of truthiness, I’ll stand by my longtime favorites on Comedy Central. The Daily Show/Colbert Report was the perfect combo. One has mastered the art of editing the talking heads’ nonsense to reveal hypocrisy and small-mindedness, the other’s satire cuts to the bone of the “Go America!” crowd’s bullshit while still being one of the funniest things on TV.

Best Site or Blog I Started Reading This Year

Brian: This is getting pretty nerdy, but I’m picking a game blog called Versus CluClu Land. A super-smart (and pseudonymous) guy reflecting on video games through a prism of philosophy and literature, art and architecture. Freudian implications of the survival horror genre, Hobbes’ theories as demonstrated in open-world games, etc. The gamer and intellectual in me both love it no matter how pretentious it may sound.
Spencer:  Street Boners and TV Carnage, started by Gavin McInnes (co-creator of Vice Magazine).  With great contributors like Lesley Arfin, David Cross, and Nick Thorburn of Islands, there’s usually something worth reading every day.  Plus you get 3 or 4 “Do’s and Don’ts” and the comments are totally inflammatory and ridiculous.  Warning: not for the faint of heart or those with bosses who care about what you’re looking at during work hours.

Best Paperback Thriller for an Airplane

Spencer: Bookended by Robert Crais’s weakest novel (2006’s The Two Minute Rule) and the weakest installment of his venerable Elvis Cole series (this year’s Chasing Darkness), was the best paperback thriller of the year, The Watchman.  At some point in our psychological maturation, we have to give up on the visceral thrill of superheroes swooping around metropolitan areas in tights and retreat to more solid literary ground.  Specifically, charismatic but sociopathic Vietnam vets who are not afraid to flout the law and stack up dozens of bodies in their quest to aggressively bodyguard someone, or uncover whatever cover-up is occurring that week.  The Watchman is Crais’s first novel from the perspective of Joe Pike, and every element fires perfectly.  The Paris Hilton-inspired damsel-in-distress is the perfect superficial character in the perfect superficial thriller, and I genuinely mean that as a compliment.
Brian: I can honestly say that I haven’t read any real genre page-turners this year. Shame on me for being so scholarly. Funny you should mention giving up superheroes for more literary ground though, because of the books I did read this year, Soon I Will Be Invincible was the best light airplane fare. It’s a funny behind-the-mask story of both an aspiring superhero and an aging supervillain, with both reflecting on their childhoods, insecurities, and the absurdity of being a costumed metahuman. Clever and quick, with a take on comic heroes you don’t often consider.

Keep reading for the Best in Music and a few special achievement awards…

Pages: 1 2 3