And, We're Back!

Welcome to 2009, everyone! Hope all had a lovely holiday break. I did work a little bit over the past two weeks, but largely it was the most time I've ever spent away from the computer in months, a concept all of those who are as constantly plugged-in as I am would surely understand is incredibly relaxing.

My year-end feature at Kotaku chose three New Year's resolutions I'd like to see us make as gamers -- and three that I dearly hope the industry will resolve to make. It's idealistic of me, of course, but isn't that the point of New Year's resolutions? Last year I resolved to try and go one week without gaming, if you recall -- and failed.

If you missed Gamasutra's Best of 2008 lists, over the break we compiled all of our year-end bests into a handy feature, with our favorite games, developers, downloadable titles, top trends, controversies, surprises and more. Catch up if you missed it!

I also rounded up a summary of the year's major news events by quarter, covering January-March, April-June, July-September, and October-December. In our biz, sometimes keeping current from one day to the next can get so overwhelming that you forget what happened yesterday, let alone throughout the year, so hopefully these'll help if you'd like to review 2008's events.

Finally, have you been checking in with Ben Fritz's Cut Scene blog at Variety? Ben, Chris Dahlen, Tom Chick and I have been listing our personal ten favorites from the year, along with games we feel were a bit overhyped or disappointing (which, to read the comments, means we despise all that is good and holy and should be disqualified from ever reviewing again!).

My number one choice deviates me from the norm a bit, but is no surprise if you know me. My number two choice, however, is a very close second. I spent the break marathoning and completing that number two choice, and I haven't simply loved a game this much since I was a child. I immediately started a New Game Plus with hardly a pause.

Yes, I'm talking about Persona 4, which I can't wait to write more about. Meanwhile, I've got something of a holiday present for P4 fans: I made ringtones of some of my favorite themes from the game. If you can't get "Every Day's Great At Your Junes" out of your head, do what I did and have it ring your phone.

The first link is in iPhone ringtone format (m4r), and the second one is regular Quicktime audio (m4a). iPhone users shouldn't have trouble just dragging these into iTunes, but in the event you need a program to get it to work, I hugely recommend Efiko's iPhone Ringtone Maker. It gives you a free trial and it's cheap to register. I get miles of use out of it making hugely nerdy game ringtones, and I tend to be pretty disabled about anything gadget-related.

If you don't have an iPhone, you should still be able to make ringtones using the m4a format, and then send them to your mobile using a service like Myxer or something similar.

Ringtones:
"Your Junes" (m4a)
"Battle Victory" (m4a)
"Your Affection" (m4a)
"Main Theme" (m4a)

Bonus Present: Properly-sized Persona 4 iPhone wallpapers 1 and 2.

Hope you enjoy! Okay, year reviewed, resolutions made, gifts exchanged -- so with that, let's kick 2008 out the door and look ahead to the new year! How was your holiday? Made any gaming-related resolutions? Got predictions for 2009? Let's hear 'em.