End of Year Review 2014

Howdy ladies and gents, it looks like 2014 is well and truly over and so now its time for my annual END OF YEAR REVIEW! And this year is 4th edition on WordPress. 🙂 It seems like 2014 has flown by even though it felt long while it was happening, but today is New Year’s Eve, so let’s look back and talk about it. As with previous entries, I will talk about the year as a whole from my perspective, breaking it down into sections and then concluding with a summary. You ready? Cool, let’s go!

Video Games

When it comes to gaming I can say I’ve had a better year than before, while at university I had the chance to play a lot of games on Steam with my mates and while not many of them were new, I did have a lot of fun playing them. In terms of new games, I’ve played Trials Fusion, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Goat Simulator and recently Mario Kart 8. As for the other games, I’ve played I Fire Emblem: Awakening, Kid Icarus: Awakening, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword being the main games I’ve messed around with. Something tells me that I’ve played more than what I’ve listed but this is the main stuff and hopefully if I get more money next year I’ll be able to play more new games.

Films

When it comes to films, 2014 I would say was a pretty good year for films, not the best but certainly better than last year for sure. Sure we had to endure films like Transformers 4, Horrible Bosses 2 and A Million Ways To Die In The West, but then we had good stuff like The Raid 2, Get On Up and Interstellar. This year definitely had more hits than misses and I certainly had fun in the cinema especially when it came to some of my IMAX experiences.

So now I give you my top 10 films of the year. Technically I already did a blog about my top 10, but for those who haven’t seen it I will list it below and as usual, I’m only counting films released in 2014, films originally released in 2013 that only got a UK release this year DOESN’T COUNT! Okay here’s my list:

Top 10 Films of 2014

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. Gone Girl
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
5. Nightcrawler
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past
7. How To Train Your Dragon 2
8. Godzilla
9. Edge of Tomorrow
10. The Imitation Game

Honourable mentions:

• 22 Jump Street
• Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Get On Up
• The Raid 2: Berandal
• The Maze Runner
• Begin Again
• Noah
• The Grand Budapest Hotel

Television

Oh and then there’s the television. My god 2014 has been probably my most hardcore year for watching TV shows. I’ve watched so much stuff on TV and streamed a lot online, I think I had an addiction for sure. I had to say goodbye to one of my all-time favourite shows in the form of Boardwalk Empire (sad times). And I also got to enjoy the continuation of some of my other favourite shows like Game of Thrones, Grimm, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Regular Show, Arrow, The Walking Dead and Castle. I also got into a good few new shows like The 100, The Flash, Gotham and Constantine. And finally, I’ve also been revisiting old TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sonic Satam and Hotel Babylon.

Overall its been a good year for TV and 2015 only looks better with new shows and the return of currently airing shows too.

Music

When it comes to music I haven’t listened to that much new stuff, that’s what I do every year as I haven’t cared for new music since 2008. This year the radio has irritated the hell out of me with the horrible mainstream music that today’s kids consider ‘cool’. The only song I’ve remotely liked because of its addictive nature is Charli XCX with “Boom Clap” That song’s super happy and charismatic nature won me over.

Otherwise, I’ve just been going back in time for music mainly in the 90’s and early 00’s. I’ve gotten into more Anberlin, listened to a lot of Jack White, Janelle Monáe, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lenny Kravitz and A Tribe Called Quest.

Top 3 Song of 2014

1. Lazaretto by Jack White
2. Gust of Wind by Pharrell featuring Daft Punk
3. Next to It by Lupe Fiasco

My Experience

Oh 2014, what a year it’s been. It feels like the year has escaped me once again without me even noticing, I can remember so many points in the year when I was ready for 2014 to be over, but now that it’s here, it feels very surreal. I can’t say that this year has been the best, I’ve had to deal with so much drama, but at the same time, I’ve had so much to be thankful for so I can’t really complain that much.

Let’s start with the bad stuff. 1) I would say that financially I’ve had my fair share of lows due to not enough hours at work. 2) I have had some really shitty work experiences in both the hospitality and warehouse industries to the point where I just wanted to have nothing to do with having a job ever again. 3) Within my close friend circles, I had to deal with so much unnecessary drama and some of my friends drifted from me, possibly forever. And 4) I swear this was the year when a lot of my work colleagues just wanted to piss me off as I have had to deal with very mean, annoying and two-faced people across several of my different jobs this year. And I think that’s the main things.

Now let’s talk the good stuff. Continuing from last year, this was a year being more adventurous and daring. I met Stan Lee, volunteered at the Children’s Media Conference, got to go to two video game concerts for Zelda and Final Fantasy, I went to three music gigs, had some hella fun times in the cinema, finished and graduated from university, got more into my artwork, got to work in an animation studio, I made a lot of new friends and I finally got a Wii U! I would say that counts for a positive year experience.

With all the good stuff that’s happened this year I can only hope that it translates into the next year, 2015 feels like a game-changer for sure.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would say that 2014 was a pretty good year for the most part. For all the suffering and bullshit I had to endure, I have gotten to do so much and accomplish goals that I never would have been able to do before.

If you made it to the end of this post, I have to say thank you all for reading it all. So how was your 2014? Please leave me a comment below and let me know. And finally, whether you are a regular reader or new one, have a happy new year and I hope you’ll join me in again in 2015. Peace out! 😀