Somewhat shamefully, when I first played Irrational Games' 1999 classic System Shock 2, I didn't complete it. That was common for me during that era--it was when I was starting to think critically about games, but before I had really gotten into them as a "primary" hobby, and I rarely dedicated enough time to absorb the full experience. (Coincidentally, Thief, which shares a number of developers with Shock 2, was one of the most important games in the development of my thinking about the medium, along with its contemporary Half-Life.)

A few weeks ago, as BioShock 2 approached, I decided to rectify this particular partially-incomplete part of my repertoire. Yesterday, after about 15 total hours of play, I finished System Shock 2. It took a bit of fiddling, but I was able to get it up and running on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine. I eschewed mods for this playthrough; maybe I'll swap in altered textures and mechanics during a future excursion.

I'm sure just about anything I have to say about the game has already been said, it being a decade after its release, but it made enough of an impression on me that I'm going to say some things anyway. The first section is about design, and is spoiler-free, but if you haven't played through the game (and you should), don't read the latter parts, because they've got a lot of spoilers.

This week, Mr. Evan Lahti of PC Gamer US asked me to fill a guest slot on his fine internet audio broadcast. As a satisfied subscriber to that publication, I was honored by the invitation and took him up on his offer. As it turns out, this week's show included Game of the Year discussion, and we each spent some time discussing one of our highlights from 2009. There were several other topics covered as well!

Go ahead and check it out! And consider subscribing to their magazine. I promise they didn't pay me to say that. Even in this era of declining print relevance, I still honestly believe that physical periodicals are, on balance, a better way to stay informed about most topics. You end up reading about more things you might not otherwise have sought out, there are fewer obnoxious flashing distractions, and there was probably at lease one copy editor who did a pass on the thing. [Edit: Unlike here, where I misspelled "least."]

Plus, especially if you're a longtime PC gamer, their all-time top 100 list in the February issue -- compiled collaboratively with the PC Gamer UK staff and folks from fine internet establishments like Rock, Paper, Shotgun -- was easily one of the most interesting and enjoyable to read "top 100"s I can remember. And I don't even usually like lists.

Finally, look out for a tantalizing tidbit of Idle Thumbs information during the podcast!

As Gamasutra's resident PC gaming nerd*, I was again tapped to provide our PC-specific Best of 2009 awards. Since I'm not sure if Idle Thumbs is going to bust out another GOTY.cx this year, I figured I'd let you guys know what I thought of this year's offerings by way of my Gamasutra rankings.

The more I reflected on the list, the more I remembered that although this fall has been fairly unremarkable for the PC -- lots of competent but expected multiplatform games, mainly -- the first half of the year was jam-packed with amazingly interesting and unique PC games, many of which were exclusive, with an impressive range of indie to high-budget experiences.

Along with the digital distribution price war really kicking into effect, it's been a fantastic year for the platform. My opinion that the PC is not the place for mainstream triple-A action game experience was solidified; people looking at the platform through that lens (which is understandable, as it's how the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are sold) are likely to come away feeling the PC is comparatively anemic, but those willing to broaden their horizons and examine a more diverse array of genres and scopes will better perceive the true strength of the format.

Here's a quick alphabetical list of all the games I highlighted:
AAaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Dejobaan Games)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Dawn of Discovery/Anno 1404 (Blue Byte/Related Designs)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Empire: Total War (The Creative Assembly) (Confidential to Nick: Ha ha.)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve Software)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap Games)
Risen (Piranha Bytes)
The Sims 3 (Maxis)
Tales of Monkey Island (Telltale Games)
Torchlight (Runic Games)
Trine (Frozenbyte)
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (Relic Entertainment)
Zeno Clash (Ace Team)

The full Gamasutra article has the Top 5 ranking as well as justifications for each choice. As with other blog posts, we still have no comments, so feel free to discuss in the forums.

*My colleague Kris Graft, who joined this year, has fortunately doubled our staff's PC gaming ranks.

You know what you must do.

(There are other great things on sale as well.)

As you can see over in the sidebar, Space Asshole from Idle Thumbs 48: In Space is now available for MP3 download. In stereo!

Nick also went out of his way to create this accompanying video showing the space asshole in action. It's worth noting that the vast majority of this video was comprised of footage he simply had lying around after some FRAPS capture sessions of Reactor Zero's PC version of Volition's Red Faction: Guerrilla, before this song existed--this game is so wonderfully conducive to space assholism that there was little need to consciously sync it up.

And be sure to watch to the very end. Some of you may have seen an earlier, shorter, version of this video that the internet somehow found. This one's the real deal.