Earlier this week, we brought you some of our favorite and best video games of the year. We’ve got a bit more to get to, including Glitch of the Year, Most Addictive, and even the penultimate Game of the year. Here we go!

Glitch of the Year – Fallout: New Vegas – The Spinning Head

Games will have glitches. It is expected. With millions upon millions of lines of code, it is impossible to hammer out every minute detail. Thankfully with internet connectivity, these can often be fixed even the first day of a game’s release with a patch. One of the most surprising glitches to make it to retail however is the spinning head from Fallout: New Vegas. What makes this glitch most shocking is how early in the game it takes place. It is a sad mistake on the part of the normally expert team of Obsidian Entertainment who normally puts forth such high quality games. While some glitches add some humor to a title, this one is just plain weird and completely unnecessary.

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Last year, we took a more traditional approach with our Best Video Games of 2009 article with categories such as Best Music Game or Best Action Platformer. This year we are going to depart from the traditional and give what we think are categories that truly deserve to be rewarded their due.

Best Use of Zombies / Best Downloadable Content – Red Dead Redemption “Undead Nightmare”

The ultimate “What If” scenario brought forth to one of the best games of 2010, “What if the undead invaded the old west?” And the answer doesn’t just involve a lot of people dying. There are horses of the apocalypse, big foot, some hard choices to be made and people turning on or abandoning their fellow man left and right.

This awesome story told over the revamped look of Red Dead Redemption using characters players have already grown to know, love or despise makes Undead Nightmare not only the best zombie game of 2010 but also the best exmple of DLC for the entire year as well.

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Every once in a while, Chris and Matt go off and gallivant, leaving their hosting duties in the dust for a brief period of time. That may be the case this week, but we didn’t want to leave you hanging.

In it’s place, we present to you a short list of some great classic episodes of The Flickcast to hold you over until next week, when we return with a brand new episode. Check them out, and be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes!

The Flickcast – Episode 73: Waiting for Superman

The Flickcast – Episode 67: A XXX Parody

The Flickcast – Episode 34: Avengers Assemble

The Flickcast – Best of 2009 Special

The Flickcast – Episode 42: Absolute Justice

The Flickcast – Episode 54: First Class

The Flickcast – Episode 49: Go Go Godzilla

The Flickcast – Episode 17: Comic-Con or Bust!

The Flickcast – Episode 16: The Quest for Peace

The Flickcast – Episode 11: Beyond Cyberspace

Rather than tell you what I think I should, I decided to come clean on this list. For instance, I am aware that A Serious Man might technically and artistically be a cut above some of these, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. I’ll also preface this by saying since I was covering most of the main-stream movies this year, there were a lot of independent movies I didn’t see, so they may not appear on the list. The film title links to a review when applicable.

Up In The Air – Buoyed by a trio of fantastic actors, I found this movie to be utterly charming. Directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno), the movie is touching, prescient, original, and funny. Vera Farmiga, George Clooney and Anna Kendrick all received Golden Globe acting nominations.  George Clooney’s depiction of a traveling man who keeps any type of human interaction at arm’s length is effortless, and is a joy to watch.

A Single Man – This film is still in limited release, so many people have not seen it, but I was absolutely blown away by designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut. He brings an artistic eye to the story of a gay man in 1962 who has recently lost a live-in companion. Heavy stuff, and Colin Firth gives a truly amazing performance that will break your heart.

Julianne is a stunning aging beauty who longs to have a relationship with the emotionally unavailable George. Universally relatable to anyone who has ever been in love, or experienced unrequited love. Seamlessly shifting from sepia, black and white, and color, the film is gorgeous. Beautifully scored by Abel Korzeniowsky as well.

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In the first half of The Best Video Games of 2009, we saw Best Portable, Wii, Playstation 3 and XBox 360 Exclusive titles. Now things are ramping up on the way to the Game of the Year.

Best Music Game

Tie – The Beatles: Rock Band and DJ Hero

The Rock Band / Guitar Hero formula has been done to death at this point. Players play songs in a set list to unlock more music. Repeat as many times as needed until all songs have been unlocked. But it was 2009 that the music game genre took two big steps forward. As loved as Metallica is, their Guitar Hero installment couldn’t hold a candle to the weight of the legacy that the Beatles would bring with them in The Beatles: Rock Band. For the first time, there was a career spanning take on the legendary act with amazing and unique visuals attuned to the songs being played out.

With the addition of harmonies for the first time in any music game, The Beatles: Rock Band stepped up the feel of being in a full band to another level. Along with the unrivaled set list that only the Beatles could produce, the game has a shelf life that can outlast the pop-centric songs of current game releases.

A little over a month later, music gaming took another leap but this time into the unknown. Many people grow up hoping to become famous musicians at one point in their life but nowhere near as many look to become famous DJs. DJ Hero from Activision brought in masters of turntablism with the likes of the original hip-hop DJ Grand Master Flash to DJ Jazzy Jeff to electronica legends Daft Punk in the ultimate mashup collection.

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2009 was a huge year for gaming. With some games not living up to lofty expectations, others took the reins set before them and ran with them further than many expected. Batman: Arkham Asylum proved it was possible to make a great game based on Batman, though it took the video game industry over 25 years to figure out how to accomplish that.

Wolverine: Origins proved that games based off movies didn’t have to be bad and in the eyes of many surpassed the quality of the film that inspired it. Legends were reborn as the Beatles were featured in their own Rock Band game. Yes, it was a momentous year for gaming which leads us to proudly present these awards for the Best Video Games of 2009.

Best Playstation 3 Exclusive Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was easily one of the best early releases for the Playstation 3. But the problem is no one knew about it who didn’t have the system. A fantastic game, it fell victim to the lack of Playstation 3′s being in consumers’ homes. Knowing the gem they had their hands on, Sony made sure to give Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a spotlight at this year’s E3 along with a strong marketing push when it was released this year.

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With 2009 coming to a close, the challenge was to pick and rank the 10 best comics from the entire year. I’ve estimated reading approximately 1,500+ issues over that time frame, so obviously it wasn’t the easiest task to complete. Still, after much deliberation, these are my picks for the 10 best comics of 2009.

1. Jonah Hex #50
DC Comics
Writers: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Originally reviewed on December 3, 2009

Perfection. Defined as the highest degree of proficiency, skill or excellence, perfection is near impossible to achieve, especially when every comic ever printed is subjective in nature. You know, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and all that jazz. Still, when I thought about all the comics I’ve read this past year, this issue of Jonah Hex kept coming back to me. While not perfect (frankly, what is?), it’s pretty close.

A wonderful done-in-one tale following our “hero” as he diligently goes about his day job, in this specific case while hunting down 50 various bad guys who had it coming to them. A fine story on it’s own. Now add a dash of romance – or the bounty hunter’s version of it – to the mix, sprinkle in a little personal vengeance, and top it off with a jolting reminder of how cruel life can be, and you’re left with a portrait of a man who makes no excuses for who he is or what he does, life expectations be damned.

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2009 has been a great year for TV. Everyone’s favorite shows like The Office, Lost, Weeds, and True Blood continued with some killer seasons, new shows like Trauma, Castle, and Lie to Me caught audience’s interests. We’ve got a list for you of our favorite TV shows of this year, including some of the latest and greatest of 2009 as well as some old favorites.

Glee – Fox

Glee has stolen viewer’s hearts this season not just with its love triangles and intense drama, but also the song and dance that the students in William McKinley High School’s glee club perform. The mid-season finale just aired, and it surely made “gleeks” even more anxious for the rest of the season, which will air beginning April 13th.

Not only has Glee swept the nation’s TV sets, but also it’s iTunes playlists. The first soundtrack to the season has already gone gold, while the second soundtrack is climbing the charts in the top 5.

True Blood – HBO

Where the Twilight series fails to thrill audiences, True Blood succeeds. Just finishing its action packed and hair-raising second season, the show, based off Charlaine Harris’ vampire mystery series continues to confuse us, surprise us, and make our blood boil with such storylines as an anti-vampire cult, a love triangle, and flying Eric, all in this season alone!

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Today’s Wednesday Western comes to you courtesy of a namedrop by the big man himself, Clint Eastwood.  If Eastwood casually says The Ox-Bow Incident is a really good Western,  you have to drop what you’re doing and watch it.   (Considering it’s only one hour long, it’s pretty easy to find some time to do it!)

I can see why Eastwood likes Ox-Bow.  There are shades of Hang ‘Em High and Unforgiven in it. It’s the kind of film that reminds me why I was so eager to explore this genre. We all tend to classify Westerns as rousing shoot-em-ups and masculine swagger, but there are a lot of dark, bitter stories hidden among the John Ford panoramas. Even this film is often billed as a Henry Fonda movie about cattle rustlers, giving the impression that it’ll be a classic horse opera.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is a haunting morality play that takes the glamor out of posses and deputies, emphasizes the danger of a mob, and makes you think twice about rooting for Wild West justice.  While Eastwood has been credited as “killing” the Western with Unforgiven, I think The Ox-Bow Incident should have done it back in 1943.

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This is only the second installment of Western Wednesday, and I believe I have already seen the messiest and strangest film that ever boasted a horse, a pistol, and a sunset: Mad Dog Morgan. It was a toss-up between Morgan and The Ox-Bow Incident, but I had a thirst for some Ozploitation, and Morgan is a pretty legendary piece of Australian filmmaking.

It also seemed like a good idea to expand the cinematic frontier early on in this feature, and visit a place that has a remarkably similar history. Americans tend to think that the myth of the Wild Wild West is theirs, and theirs alone – and it certainly is, but Australia enjoyed a settlement experience that was just as violent and lawless as our own. They just had kangaroos instead of buffalo, and convicts instead of hardy pioneers.

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I used to hate Westerns.  I live in the wide and rugged expanse of Colorado, grew up in the shadow of the Rockies, and see cowboy boots on a daily basis. Heck, I even did a volunteer stint at a western museum. I couldn’t stand watching films that were basically set in my own backyard, even if the days of gunslingers and posses were long gone.

Later, I finally came around. I can’t say when this shift happened — probably upon my first adult viewing of Lonesome Dove, or maybe even as recent as James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma. But I suddenly found Westerns to be a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed going back and watching all John Wayne and John Ford offerings that I’ve missed due to my snobbery.

Because I’m the type of girl who overshares everything, I thought it would be fun to chronicle this obsession, and encourage others to ride along with me. Thus, Wednesday Westerns was born. Every Wednesday, I’m going to explore this dusty and acrid genre, finding the good, the bad, and the ugly examples along the way. I hope you’ll watch and discuss along with me — and I’m going to try and make as many selections from online streaming options to prevent you from putting off the ride.

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If you’re an astute reader, which we know you are, you’ve probably noticed a few new reviews popping up on The Flickcast over the past few weeks. For the month of October, in addition to our regular film, TV and DVD reviews, we’ll be bringing you lots of reviews of horror films to commemorate the month as well.

We’ll be bringing you a few new Horror Reviews each week, of both new theatrical releases, as well as new films on DVD. We’ll be doing this all month long so be sure to check out each horror review as they hit. Or, you can check out our most current list of reviews at the site by clicking on the link at the top.

Finally, on October 30th (Devil’s Night for those in the “know”), we’ll list all of our reviews and let you know which films to watch to get into the Halloween spirit. So, be sure to check back here frequently for all your horror film review needs.

Happy Halloween!