To The Moon isn’t a much of a game, but a story about human relationships; bonds that are fragile but sometimes bound by a common destiny. It’s expertly written, funny, utterly heartbreaking but also uplifting.  An excellent piece of narrative, regardless of medium.

It’s my personal game of the year, surpassing even Portal 2. You can purchase the full version on Freebird Games’ website for about $15.

★★★★★

As the end of the year is shortly upon us, I’d like to wish all readers a Merry Christmas and happy New Year — or, more broadly, happy and peaceful holidays. I’ll continue posting during the holidays, albeit less often than usual.

There wasn’t really any contest: the original soundtrack for Supergiant Games’ Bastion (by Darren Korb) is excellent. If you haven’t heard Setting Sail, Coming Home, you’re missing out.

Obligatory entry. Here’s last year’s one.

Stunning images; I particularly like #25.

That’s a new world record for data transfer.

The rate is equivalent to moving two million gigabytes per day, fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks-each with a complete movie and all the extras-in a day.