It is a common thing for me when the year is about up I like to consider what has actually happened this year, and I discover that a lot more has happened than I give credit for. It’s times like these where I see the worth in keeping a diary, so I have a straight-forward list of things I did. I could look in my calendar, but I’m fairly sure Google deletes events after they’ve happened in order to save space, and I don’t want to take the time to check. So I suppose if I want to think about everything that has happened in the past year I should start with the mot obvious stuff and move on to the specifics. What happened this year? What would I give it out of ten?

I’ll start by thinking about deeply impersonal things. GTA for PC was supposed to be released in January and then was delayed, for the third time, until April – which is quite a delay – and the port still weren’t great if you ask me, and still isn’t. It’s playable, though, and I had quite a bit of fun playing it for a while, but my time with it was limited by the wondrous Witcher 3, released a month later in May.

I had no real expectations for this game – I played the Witcher 2 in January and quite enjoyed it – so I was pleasantly surprised when the Witcher 3 turned out to be literally the best game I’ve played in forever. Don’t underestimate, the Witcher 3 is stunningly good and I love it and will love it forever until something better comes along and I forget about it. In any case – the Witcher 3 is definitely the best game I’ve played for a very long time and by far my game of the year. It certainly makes up for the disgusting mess that was Batman: Arkham Knight (and I’m not referring to the PC port). Not a terrible game but a terrible disappointment. I have a post about it, read that.

It’s slightly strange to me that at the beginning of this year, we were all using Windows 8. Yes, all of us. I don’t care what you were using, I was using Windows 8 and so, therefore, everyone was. I never really had a problem with Windows 8, I’ve always felt that other people’s complaints were people either being stupid or pedantic. Most of the people I argued with about it seem to have been struggling with issues that could easily be sorted out if they applied their brain a little bit. I never understood why some people were using the metro Internet explorer app in desktop mode, and then complaining that Windows 8 is bad because Internet explorer is bad. That’s stupid and makes be frustrated. I’m getting frustrated just thinking about it. Anyway, I liked Windows 8 – once you get used to it it’s absolutely fine and quite easy to use, easier than 7 in some cases.

Anyway, in  late July of this year, Windows 10 was released and we all marveled at its brilliance. I like Windows 10, and I’m looking forward to promised future improvements. I sort of wish that some of these improvements were included in the initial release – particularly a Windows 8 style OneDrive system. OneDrive for Windows 10 is utter twaddle.

Windows 10 is also a landmark in that it’s the last of the versions of Windows to be released in this way. Microsoft is being terribly modern about Windows now, and telling us that if you have Windows 10 on your computer, it will be upgraded forever for free. Your computer will just update itself with new features and stuff without your notice. I wouldn’t worry too much about it; it’s not going to be things you’ll actively use most likely.

I suppose now is a good time to move on to me. What happened to me this year? That’s the question you’ve all been desperate to ask. I am of course the most interesting person in the world and all who know of me must be desperate to find out my every move. This year I passed my A-Levels and was accepted into University where I started working on a degree in software engineering. I’ve now gotten through the first semester with none of my student loan left, but that’s fine. I won an award in Photography from the ESRC, that was nice. And the most exciting development was this. This blog. I started this blog this year. It’s been somewhat successful. I’ve found it helpful to put some of my thoughts in some sort of a structured way. I’ve also found that I’m not so good at getting around to writing a post regularly when I’ve got other stuff going on, like university and whatever. Next year I’ll make a conscious effort to write more, an effort which will last at least a few weeks. I give it until half way through February.

What would I give this year out of ten? I’ll give it a solid seven. It’s been a pretty good year – back to the future happened, Star Wars was a thing and The Witcher 3 also occurred. That makes a positive year for me. Room for improvement, though. Let’s see what 2016 has for us.