Tech2

If the weather, calendar, and bevy of "PLEASEGIVEMEANOSCAR" movies didn't give it away, surely the title of this article does: 2012 is pretty much history.

In the pages of Sound+Vision (both the digital and analog variety), we've covered some interesting trends, products, news, and more.

So here are some highlights and lowlights, some contrast and brightness, some tweeters and some woofers, some increasingly lame metaphors, some... well, you get the point.

It has been an excellent year for video games, as Geoff discussed in Gaming Moments of the Year. 

But even among some all of those amazing games, there were three stand-outs, one of which is our Game of the Year.

It’s weird for a 50-year-old audio writer to be reviewing a product that’s targeted at people half his age or less. Guys my age like products labeled “audiophile-grade” or “reference,” not “Nuke” or “Boom.” Meaningless as such marketing terms are, though, you gotta figure Behringer did something to make the iNuke Boom Junior iPod/iPhone dock earn its badass moniker.

It's that time of year again when those of us who review stuff, rank said stuff in some order that says what stuff is better than what other stuff.

This year, instead, I figured I'd do something slightly different. Not too different, I definitely have a Game of the Year in mind (more on that in a few days).

Instead of giving out awards for this and that, I thought I'd talk about some of my favorite gaming moments of the year, why they were special, and why the games that caused those moments are worth your dollar (or in some cases, just the time to download them).

With the HD-capable Wii U, Nintendo has finally caught up with Sony and Microsoft. While the PS3 and Xbox 360 have had their share of faults, Sony and Microsoft have managed to address most of those over the past six and seven years of their respective console's lifespans.

It seems the latest trend in gaming is a lengthy open beta, where interested players can experience the game during the development process. Ideally, their voices and opinions are heard by the developers in a way that benefits the final product. Final, in these days of ongoing updates, being a relative term.

So with other open betas recently I’ve been cautiously optimistic, careful not to judge rough edges but take look for the inevitable potential.

With MechWarrior Online, I’m still looking.

Master Chief always seemed like Heinlein's ideal of a soldier: You never felt like he needed to sleep - just give him his ten thousand–mile check-ups and dust him off occasionally. In the opening scenes of Halo 4, Spartan 117 goes from sleep to trigger in a few moments, but that's enough to begin his journey to becoming human again.