If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know that one of my New Year’s resolutions is to write more reviews. I really should try and write a review for each game I’ve played, or at least round ups like this one (just a bit more often than every half a year though).

I think the main reason though of why I don’t write reviews for just one game is that I mainly play oldish games; I rarely play games that have just come out, preferring to wait until they’re the price I’m willing to pay for them. And then I just don’t get around writing about those games cause there’s no hurry in writing a review for something that came out ages ago…

Mass Effect 3

The Mass Effect 3 multiplayer is the number one reason why there aren’t more games on this list. I already put this game on my 2012 January – June list, but I had to mention it here again. The multiplayer is a lot of fun, especially when you’re playing with a group of friends. Since they’ve launched Bioware have put a lot of time into making the game even more addictive.

Back in October they introduced the new Challenge Awards which is pretty much a specialized in-game achievements system, with a ton of challenges tied to weapons, power and character usage. It made me actually want to play with different characters each time and try out different ways to combine weapons and powers. Plus in the 8 weeks leading up to Christmas they released a new character each week. And the only way to unlock new characters is to play more, earn credits and buy packs (which may or may not contain a character). Anyhow it’s turned out to be waaaaay more addictive than I initially expected it to be.

Mass Effect is currently £17 on Amazon.co.uk for both Xbox 360 and PS3.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I played Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune earlier last year and wasn’t super impressed with it, mainly cause I was playing it 5 years after it came out. The story was fun though, so I was curious to see how its sequel would be. Uncharted 2 again has a fun story and it enjoyable to play, but… I can’t put my finger on just quite why, but there’s nothing in either of those games that makes me go “awesome awesome awesome best games ever”. Is it cause I’m just playing them some years after they came out or are these games just not for me?

Uncharted 2 is currently £16.98 on Amazon.co.uk.

Darksiders

This was the first game I played back in 2009 when I finally got myself a PS3. I actually didn’t like it all back then, mainly cause I sucked at the battles and kept on dying and dying. Fast forward to 3 years later when I tried it again cause the sequel was coming out, and turns out it’s a whole lot of fun. I really enjoyed the balance of puzzles, battles and item hunting, and love the design of the worlds and the characters.

Darksiders is currently £13.99 (PS3) and £14.99 (Xbox 360) on Amazon.co.uk.

Bioshock

I somehow had this idea that Bioshock was massively creepy and scary, which was why I was a bit hesitant to play it. Sometimes though you want to get that creepy, scary experience though, so I finally sat down to play it last month. And got hooked instantly. Turns out it isn’t even that creepy. The levels right at the start of the game are slightly creepy with dark corridors and creatures popping out at you, but as you progress that starts to lessen (although come to think about it: does it really start to lessen or are you just less likely to be creeped out?).

The game is set in the 1960s when your character crashes in the middle of the ocean and discovers Rapture, an almost-abandoned 1940s style underwater city. I loved the style of the game, and the story complements it completely. I definitely wish I had played it sooner.

Bioshock is currently £17.90 (PS3) and £24.99 (Xbox 360) on Amazon.co.uk.

So those together with these games (Game Reviews: Janaury – June 2012) are all the games I played last year. 2013 is already off on a brilliant start: I’ve already play bits of Bioshock 2, Assassin’s Creed 3 and Darksiders 2. So what games have you played recently, dear readers?

I normally don’t like floral patterns, but today’s dress has one that is abstract enough for me to really like it. I love the elegant cut of the dress and the painted feel of the flowers. You can get it for £65 at Joy.

A new year, a new recurring blog series! In Coming Soon I’ll write about upcoming movies that I’m really interested in seeing. I kept loosing track of which movies were coming out when, which ones I wanted to see and then completely missing when they were in the cinema. What better way to keep track of those then here on my blog? So what movies are on your list for January?

Gangster Squad

I loved Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in Crazy, Stupid, Love and it’s great to see them working together again. In Gangster Squad they’re joined by John Brolin, Nick Nolte and Sean Penn in a story set in 1940s Los Angeles. The style looks great and I think this could be a lot of fun.

Release Date: Thursday 10th January (UK)

Les Miserables

As I’ve said in previous blog posts, I can’t wait to see this! I love some of the songs from Les Mis and I’m super curious to see how they’ll work in a movie. I still haven’t actually seen the musical yet, but I’ll be getting tickets to it this month as one of my Christmas presents. The question remains what to watch first though: the musical or the movie?

Release Date: Friday 11th January (UK)

Django Unchained

It’s been almost 3 years since Inglourious Basterds, so high time for another Quentin Tarantino movie! Django Unchained looks awesome. It’s about Django (Jamie Foxx), a freed slave who travels across America with bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christopher Waltz) to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from an evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Release Date: Friday 18th January (UK)

Lincoln

The West Wing + American History 101 = Lincoln. That’s how I’ve heard some people describe it, and if it has half the awesome monologues and dialogues from The West Wing I’m definitely in!

Release Date: Friday 25th January (UK)

Zero Dark Thirty

This is the only movie on this list that I’m not super interested in, but it’s one that’s rumoured to be nominated for quite some Oscars so I want to see it in the cinema. It’s directed by Kathryn Bigelow and is about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Release Date: Friday 25th January (UK)

Other Movies

And here’s a quick list of some other movies that are coming out in January:

• The Impossible – Tuesday 1st January
• Playing For Keeps – Tuesday 1st January
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D – Wednesday 9th January
• Monster Inc 3D – Friday 18th January
• Movie 43 – Friday 25th January
• The Last Stand – Friday 25th January

Happy New Year, everyone! I had a great New Year’s eve at a friend’s place, celebrating with board games, champagne and general awesomeness. I know I’m one day late with this blog post, but I still thought I should do a short post with some New Year’s resolutions.

1. Book Buying Ban: It turns out I’ve still got more than 100 books on my To Be Read “pile”, mainly cause last year I ended up buying quite a lot of second hand books. So this year: a book buying ban. For the next year I’m not allowed to buy any books of new series/authors. I am allowing myself to buy some books though: 12 books, all 12 of which need to be specified within the next week and need to be books of existing series.
2. Read 52 Books: Looking at my GoodReads stats of the past year, I only read a measly 26 books. Not too bad, but at that rate I’ll finish my TBR pile in 4 years… I also should put away the books I absolutely can not get into; maybe not necessarily get completely rid of them, but at least put them in a box to revisit in a few years time.
3. Watch 26 “Old” Movies: I’ve got some serious gaps in my movie history. There are some great movies out there, that I’ve managed to miss completely and I really should catch up on them. I tried doing a 52 movies list  a few years back, so I thought let’s make it a bit simpler this time around. I’ll do a blog post later this week which movies I’ll be doing.
4. Write more Book/Movie/Game Reviews: I read/watch/play quite a lot, way more than what I write about here on MissGeeky. I should do at least one proper review per week, and a roundup post at the end of each month covering whatever I couldn’t write about individually.
5. Work Out More: An obvious one. I started running again at the end of November, but with all the Christmas stuff and cold weather I kind of stopped with it. I should really try to run at least once a week. Plus I want to go trampolining again!
6. Blog more about recipes: I love some of the recipes I’ve been using lately, most of them tweaked in my own special way. Who wants to try out my katsu curry recipe?
7. Visit Seckington: I’ve been living in the UK for almost 6 years now and I still haven’t visited the town Seckington. Who’s up for a day trip?

Sounds doable, right? Did you make any NY’s resolutions? Let me know in the comments.