It's the end of the year again, and that usually means a couple of things: cold weather, way too much eating, completely over-done Christmas decorations everywhere, lots of alcohol and yearly review round-ups. This site is obviously no exception, and since I will not put up any Christmas decorations or will post how drunk I've been the last few days, I'll just post some reviews of the entertainment industry.

Film of the year
Winner: The Dark Knight
Runner-up: WALL-E

No surprise there. 2008 was a pretty mediocre year for films, if I have to pick the two summer blockbusters for best film of the year. But on the other hand, the quality of these films was so good they absolutely deserve the title. I've chose The Dark Knight before WALL-E due to the superb acting of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, and the slightly more adult themes.

Game of the year
Winner: Mass Effect
Runner-up: Fallout 3

While 2008 has been a pretty bad year for films, it was an absolutely brilliant year for video games, especially the second half. With gems like GTA IV, Far Cry 2, Call of Duty: World At War, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway and Red Alert 3 being released gamers all around the world had more than their heart could ever desire. However, two games were in a completely different league than the others: Mass Effect and Fallout 3. Both games feature a large a freely-roamable world and will allow you to develop your character any way you see fit. But there can be only one winner, so I've chosen for Mass Effect. Even though the world is smaller, the story and the characters are much, much more developed, and at least it doesn't feel as if there are only 5 NPC models in the game. But dear developers, try to learn from each other: if you take the best of the two games, you'll probably end up with the best game ever.

TV show of the year
Winner: Chuck
Runner-up: The Big Bang Theory

There are quite some TV shows I'm following at the moment, and most of they I pretty much enjoy. Some of them I absolutely love, like the two winners in this category. Some of them I'm starting to slowly dislike, for example Lost, Prison Break and CSI. Even though the two winners are both in their second season, they're still fresh and funny and I enjoy watching them every week. In fact, the choice was pretty hard to make, since I really like both shows, but I have chosen Chuck as the winner since, being a 1-hour show, there is a little more room for character development and (most importantly) geek humour!

Album of the year
Winner: The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
Runner-up: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Selecting a winner for the best album of the year was also quite a no-brainer for me. Ever since I heard Great DJ for the first time on the radio, I was completely hooked on the duo from Manchester. Now, with the following singles That's Not My Name and Shut Up And Let Me Go, I'm still as big a fan as I ever was. Too bad their concert in Brussels was sold out so quickly... Choosing a runner-up was a bit more work, since quite some albums to my liking were released this year, but in the end I settled for newcomers MGMT.