My top 15 favorite video games of all time. Part 2: 5-1

I apologize for this post being posted later than usual, but circumstances beyond my control conspired against me in the past few days that prevented me from posting it on time.

Last week, I wrote the first part of a list of my top 15 favorite video games of all time. This week, we finish that list, as I unveil the top 5. As I mentioned already, WoW is within this part of the list, but it is not number 1.

5. Rock Band
Guitar Hero II was a game I really enjoyed, so when I found out they were making a full band version, I got excited, to say the least. This was the game that cemented my Harmonix-fanboyism in the Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero debate. It's difficult to verbalize what I like about this game so much, for it's not like any other game on this list, so suffice it to say that it took everything I loved about the original Guitar Hero games (being able to experience the music in such a direct way, having a more physical way of playing the game than controller-based games, featuring rock music) and made it full band. It was also a drastic improvement over the gameplay interface of the original Guitar Hero games, and one I liked more than the latter Guitar Hero games' interface.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Rock Band 2 almost as much as Rock Band 1, and I think it improved upon its predecessor in several ways. Rock Band 1 was pretty easy on guitar and bass guitar, and extremely easy on vocals, while being very challenging on drums, and Rock Band 2 corrected all of these balance issues. It also made the general gameplay interface easier on the eyes, added hyperspeed for those of us who need it, and had a better menu for selecting songs. So why does Rock Band 1 get higher billing on this list? For one, Rock Band 2 wasn't all that different from it's predecessor; it was more of Rock Band 1.5 than anything, so it doesn't stand on its own in my memory as much. I also think that, as small as it may have been compared to recent games, Rock Band 1 had the best song selection out of any rhythm game I ever owned, a category which includes quite a few volumes, including Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Yes, it was heavy on the soft rock and light on other genres, but so much care went into choosing each song that it ended up being an amazing setlist. Rock Band 2's setlist has much more variety, but that combined with its size means some of that polish in the selection is lost. Truth be told, before I bought Rock Band 3, I played my Rock Band 1 exported songs just as often as the on-disk songs on Rock Band 2

4. Dance Dance Revolution (any of the PS2 iterations)
Ah, Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR, as well call it in certain circles. This was my first rhythm game, my first game that involved an unconventional controller (the dance pad), and my first game that required something other than typical button pushing to play. I really enjoyed this game, to the point where I played long enough to become good enough to beat some of the hardest songs on the highest difficulty. I'd say I played this series regularly for about five years before losing interest, and I had some very good time with it. Though I have good memories of all of the games, Extreme 2 and SuperNOVA were my favorites based on setlist alone. Though I don't play frequently anymore, when I go to an arcade, I'll often play and find that I haven't lost much of my skill, for I can still play on Heavy, the game's highest regular difficulty.

3. World of Warcraft
You knew it was coming, but WoW is without a doubt one of my favorite games; if it weren't, why would I write this blog? As it stands, I have been playing WoW for more than five years, making it one of my longest-running video games, soon to be the longest, for it is only behind DDR by a few months. I probably don't need to tell you all of the reasons why WoW is a great game, but one of the reasons I like it so much is that it is constant changing, evolving, improving, to meet the desires of the playerbase. Many mandatory addons have been integrated with the game's default interface in simpler versions, like Omen and QuestHelper. Each round of content (solo content, at least) has improved as Blizzard has gotten better at designing engaging and enjoyable quests, and the changes to Azeroth coming in Cataclysm show that they aren't afraid to admit that something they've already done needs to be changed. I also enjoy just how many things there are to do in game, and even if I get tired of them all, I can roll another class and do them again in a different way. Suffice it to say WoW has provided me with a lot of hours of entertainment, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. In fact, I once did the math and found that for every dollar I have spent on WoW, I have gotten about three hours of play time. No other game I have played comes even remotely close to a ratio like that (though Minecraft looks like it might... but that's a story for another time).

2. Guitar Hero II
This game will always hold a special place in my heart. In addition to being the game that got me into instrument-based rhythm games, this was also the game that got me into rock and roll for good. I listed to rap mostly before playing this game (it's not something I'm proud of), but Guitar Hero II opened up a whole new genre of music to me in a way that was very much suited to my tastes: video gaming. Rock and its sub-genres have taken the primary spot in my musical tastes, and that might not have happened without Guitar Hero II.

Of course, while my personal reasons for liking this game put it high on this list, it wouldn't be this high if it weren't a great game, as well. The soundtrack, though comprised mostly of covers, was excellent (besides, at that time, we were alright with covers), but the gameplay itself was what really drew me into the game. The simulated guitar playing really was a revolution in music gaming that allowed us to experience the music more directly while still playing something that was very much a video game, and a fun game to boot. I also progressed from easy to medium to hard to expert in my time while playing this game, so many of my most satisfying memories of beating challenging songs come from this game. I have often heard people say that this game is the best game ever released in the instrument-based rhythm game genre, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

1. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Resident Evil 4 was, in my mind, a perfect game. I couldn't tell you a single flaw that game had, because I didn't think it had one. The action was tense, the game was quite challenging (even on normal difficulty), and the way the combat system was set up left the game open for many different ways of going through an encounter, whether you wanted to run in with guns blazing or wait on top of a ladder and pick the enemies off one by one. I also liked the fact that the game rewarded ammo conservation and resourceful playing--which is something that comes natural to me--much more so than the "more dakka" method of play, which would drain your ammo quickly. The game also rewarded exploration, something else that comes naturally to me, in that careful examination of your environment would often reveal treasures that could be sold to the merchant in the game for money to upgrade your weapons. Add to that the imposing bosses, the tense atmosphere, and the fact that the game was just plain fun, and you have one of the best games to ever come out on the GameCube.

Now, I've been talking about Resident Evil 4 all this time, so you might be wondering why I put the Wii-remake on the list instead of the original game. I put it here simply because it is better than the original in every way. The control scheme, which uses the wii-remote to aim your gun, is much more fluid than the control scheme in its GameCube counterpart, and the lack of the inherent shakiness of your gun (present in the GameCube version) meant aiming was much more about how steadily you could hold your own hand, meaning shots were often easier to make. The Wii-make also added all of the extra features that had been added in the Playstation 2 remake, like the new costumes, weapon, and extra mode. The Wii Edition of Resident Evil 4 took everything I loved about one of my favorite games of all time and added things to improve it even more. Even considering how many times I played through the original Resident Evil 4, I still enjoy playing through the Wii-make, and its incredibly rare that an updated re-release can hold my attention anywhere close to as long as the original held it. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition did just that.

So there you are, my top five favorite games of all time. I don't have a satisfactory way to conclude this list, so let me just say that if you have been curious about any of the games on this list but never tried them, do give them a shot. They're all excellent in their own way.

My top 15 favorite video games of all time. Part 1: 15-6

A turn of events that took place over the course of this weekend lead me to consider what my favorite video games of all time are, and since I am at a lack of topics to write about that I don't want to save for another day of the week (considering my posting schedule) I decided to write about my favorite video games of all time here. I have been a long time video gamer, since the days when the original Playstation and the Nintendo 64 were the big consoles on the block, and thus I have a lot of good memories relating to games. The best, though, are the ones detailed below. These are the games I played and replayed, learned all the secrets of, sometimes completed, and just thoroughly enjoyed. Think of this as a spiritual sequel to my lists of my top 25 favorite songs and my top 5 favorite movies. To answer the inevitable question, WoW is very high on this list, but it is not number one.

15. Super Mario Sunshine
This is an interesting entry. You see, I was pretty young when I first played Super Mario 64, which many consider to be one of the best games of all time, so my memories of that game aren't as vivid as my memories of Super Mario Sunshine. That said, my memories that I do have of Super Mario 64 aren't as fond as my memories of Super Mario Sunshine, so I don't feel guilty putting it on the list instead. Super Mario Sunshine was one of the first games I ever played on the GameCube, and it is still one of the games I remember best. The atmosphere alone made it a great game, for the game took place on a tropical island paradise. The environments, the characters, the music, they were all designed to support the feeling that the game took place in tropical get-away. It worked so well that even after I had beaten the game, I enjoyed just exploring the environments, seeing what I hadn't seen before, finding the little secrets of the game, because playing this game actually felt like going away on a vacation. The gameplay was also very fun, with the FLUDD (Mario's water-squirting accessory) adding a new dimension to the game's already fun Super Mario 64-based control mechanics. It was just a joy to play, simply put.

14. Super Smash Bros Melee
Suffice it to say that I have a lot of good memories associated with playing this game with friends. My character of choice was Sheik, and I got quite good at her. In addition to playing the regular melee mode, I also enjoyed a game some of my friends and I would play on Venom, where we would restrict ourselves to one side of the stage and fight each other only by throwing Pokéballs on the other person's side, which were set to spawn often. Before Rock Band came around, this was the party game among my friends, and the one that motivated me to buy my three additional GameCube controllers. Considering that the fun to be had in this game was mostly based on the interpersonal interactions it created, it's hard to pin down what made it such a great game, but it was certainly one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, I like Brawl too, but Melee will always hold a special place in my heart.

13. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Like Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker is a game that is often overshadowed by an installment in the series that came before it: Ocarina of Time, considered by many to be the best game ever. That it may be, and while I did enjoy playing it, it was another one of those games that I was pretty young when I first played, so it didn't stick in my mind as much as Wind Waker, which I played later. But I digress; Wind Waker was a great game because of its art design and it's scope. I know the cartoony art design was a polarizing facet of the game, but I thought it brought a lightness to game's overall tone that prevented it from getting too serious. It's scope was also huge in that the game took place on the open ocean, with the major actions taking place on the islands in the ocean. There was a lot to be found between these islands, and the art and music made traversing the ocean a joy, rather than a pain. It was also the first Zelda game to feature a sword fight with Ganondorf (the series' main villain) as its final boss. How can you go wrong with that?

12. Animal Crossing
A rather unique game, Animal Crossing had no obvious completion requirements, and was a game where you largely had to make your own fun. Of course, the game gave you multitudes of ways to do that, from fishing to decorating your house to changing the landscaping of the town. It was nice change of pace from games where there was pressure to do something specific; in Animal Crossing, you did what you wanted to do. The fact that the town changed with the year also gave the game a nice flair to it. Like Super Mario Sunshine, this was a game where you felt like you had been transported to another world, a more relaxing world where you wouldn't mind spending a few hours.

11. Tales of Symphonia
This was an interesting game: an action-RPG with a story that could get convoluted at times, but certainly kept me invested in the game. But what made the game great was its gameplay, which combined RPG and action-game aspects beautifully to create something that was just plain fun. The fact that the random encounters were also somewhat avoidable, depending on your skill at avoiding them (it was something you became practiced with) was also an appreciated aspect of the game. Like Wind Waker, this game was especially massive in its scope, and you didn't truly appreciate that until you got the means to fly through the overworld. Once that option was open to you, you realized just how big of a world there was out there to explore, and there were plenty of reasons to explore it, too, from bonus bosses to bonus storylines that told you more about your characters. Definitely not a game for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it.

10. Metroid: Zero Misson
A remake of the classic NES title Metroid, brought up to date with improved controls, items that had become mainstays of the series, and an expanded world to fit it all into. This game was everything I loved about the game Metroid Fusion and more, with more precise controls, a better sense of progression, and a faster pace. There was also a lot of potential for sequence breaking in this game, and I sequence broke the hell out of it, skipping items and bosses for fun, but usually using the sequence breaking to get items early, making challenging parts of the game easy. I must have played through this game dozens of times, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out I played through it almost a hundred times. It's just a great game, and probably the hand-held game I enjoyed the most.

9. Pokémon Gold Version
Who doesn't have fond memories of their first Pokémon game? Pokémon Gold Version was one of my first games, as well as the game that taught me the mainstays of the RPG genre: random encounters, leveling up, elemental weaknesses, those damn slippery floor puzzles where you could only move in the four cardinal directions, you kept moving until you hit something, and you had to find the exact path through (did anyone really enjoy that?). My dedication to this game was such that I had a level 89 Meganium (the final evolution of the starter pokemon I picked), who took down Red, the game's final boss, on his own. It's hard to pin down exactly what I liked about this game, because I played it so long ago, but I know I enjoyed it.

8. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
All of the Metal Gear Solid games hold a special place in my heart (except the fourth, but only because I haven't played it yet), for the three Metal Gear Solid games are the only video games that have ever made me cry. The third was no exception, and though I won't spoil what plot twist made me cry, suffice it to say it was a good one, and thinking about it still brings a tear to my eye. It was also a very fun game, with the camouflage mechanic complimenting the stealth mechanics the series is known for very well. However, it is not the original Metal Gear Solid 3 I place on this list, but the remake. Why? Because the remake took the series' typical horrible camera and replaced it with a significantly better one, one you could actually control and move to make exploring your surroundings easier, making the whole experience much more fun.

7. Metroid Prime
The Metroid franchise's jump into 3D was a risky move that could have gone wrong in many ways, but Retro studios did a fantastic job with this game. The combat is fun, the world is beautiful and expansive, and the little tidbits of lore provided by the scan visor really make the whole experience very immersive. What's nice about the way the plot is revealed through the scan visor is that it means that you never experience more of the plot than you want to. If you just want the action without any backstory, you can have that by just not scanning anything. If you want every little detail of the world around, then just scan everything and you'll get that. The game also boasts impressive graphics, even by today's standards, and a higher frame-rate than most games I have played, which is a pet pleasure of mine.

6. Sypro the Dragon (the original trilogy)
Spyro 2 was my first video game, and this series was my first video game obsession. I completed all three of these games way back when and enjoyed every minute of them. Granted, I may be wearing rose-tinted glasses due to my age at the time, but I really just loved these games. The platforming was superb, the obsessive pursuit of every last gem in every level kept me coming back until I had finished the game, and the characters were downright entertaining (to my young mind, at least). It's a game that will probably always be locked in the vaults of nostalgia for me, but hey, maybe that's a good thing.

Due to time constraints and to avoid this post becoming too long, I'm going to stop it here and save entries 5-1 for next week. So stay tuned for My top 15 favorite video games of all time, Part 2: Revenge of the Rhythm Games next week.

My top 5 favorite movies

Well, considering that I was the one who suggested this shared topic, I suppose I need to write about it, don't I? A while ago, I wrote a post about my to 25 favorite songs of all time, and I enjoyed writing it so much that I suggested on Blog Azeroth that other bloggers try writing similar posts. As such, I would like to write a follow-up post to that last one, in which I detail my top 5 favorite movies of all time. I know I said in my to 25 favorite songs post that my tastes in movies aren't diverse enough for me to write a post like this, but I have decided to write it anyways. Before we begin, I just want to say that this is not a list of what I think are the greatest movies of all time; this is a list of the movies that I enjoy the most. As such, there will likely be a movie or two on here that will make you say, "Ugh, why did he put that one on here?" Also, as a relatively young person without much experience with "classic" films, most of these movies will be relatively recent releases; that's just the way the cookie crumbles. So, with that out of the way, let's begin.

5. Dogma
Kevin Smith can make some truly great films, and this is one of them. The plot revolves around two angels who have been banished from heaven but managed to find a loophole to allow themselves back in; however, in doing so, they will destroy existence, because existence is founded on the fact that God's will is absolute. Because of this, an abortion clinic worker (seriously) is tasked with stopping them. In addition to the typical comedic mainstays, the film also takes quite a few jabs at people who take religion in the wrong direction and use it in the wrong ways, while still being respectful of religion in general. As someone who is an atheist but is still respectful of believers and thinks there is no reason that believers and non-believers can't get along, I love the film for this reason. It's a real shame that Kevin Smith will probably not make a sequel to this film, because if any of his films deserve a sequel, it's this one.

4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Do I really need to explain this film? Either the plot, or why I like it? Now, I'm sure there are some of you out there who can't stand this film because it is over-quoted, over-referenced, etc., etc., but it is still, in my opinion, one of the funniest movies out there. If you really don't know the plot, it's Monty Python's take on the classic tale of King Arthur. If you don't know who Monty Python are, they are a British comedy troupe that had a long-running TV show (Monty Python's Flying Circus), as well as three movies, and Holy Grail is frequently considered to be the best of them, for good reason. It is, quite simply, a classic; the jokes are hilarious, the writing is superb, it is simply the Pythons in full form.

3. the Saw series
Yes, the Saw series (the sixth film is probably my favorite, but I like them all too much to just put that one up here). I have gotten a lot of flack from my friends for liking these films, but I will always stand by my like of them. For those who don't know, the Saw films are about a serial killer called the Jigsaw Killer who puts people in "traps," mechanisms in which they must hurt themselves in some way or else be killed in an even more gruesome way. The traps are usually designed to in some way reflect what Jigsaw perceives as the victim's crimes or flaws. For example, one trap in the first film featured a man who had cut his wrists for attention. He was trapped behind a maze of razor wire, which he was given two hours to find his way through before being trapped in the room he was in. According to Jigsaw, the irony was that if he wanted to die, all he had to do stay where he was (for he would eventually die of starvation), but if he wanted to live, he had to find his way through the maze and "cut himself again." Yep, they're pretty gory (though the first film was surprisingly tame by horror standards), and as you may expect, very psychological.

Now that you know that, you may ask what possible redeeming qualities these films could have that would make me like them. For one thing, I have a penchant for poetic justice, and the traps of the Saw films are based around poetic justice. There's also an unexpectedly good plot behind all of this torture porn (as the genre has been come to be called). I especially appreciate how five sequels later (soon to be six), the series still takes itself seriously. It keeps a cohesive plot and doesn't just hand-wave events of the past films away to allow the plots of the new movies to happen, and it doesn't resort to cheap gimmicks to keep the films interesting (unless you count gore as a cheap gimmick). The movies also use flashbacks liberally, allowing important characters to continue to be a part of the plot without using cheap plot devices to bring them back. I could go on, but I doubt I'll manage to sway those of you who have already rejected the series as potentially being good, so I'll just say that I shamelessly love these movies will continue to do so.

2. Fight Club
There's a reason Chuck Palahniuk (author of the novel version of Fight Club) has said that he considers the film version an improvement. Between the great performances of the actors, the great dialog and quotes (many of which are taken verbatim from the novel), the excellent editing, the issues it address, and the great plot, there's plenty to love about this movie. I especially like how faithfully it is adapted from the novel; sure it takes some liberties with the plot and changes the ending, but so much is unchanged that reading the novel is like seeing an alternate cut of the film, and seeing the film is like reading an alternate draft of the novel. Fight Club follows an unnamed narrator who is generally dissatisfied with his life of consumerism and working as he fights his insomnia and his general dissatisfaction with life. His life changes when he meets a man named Tyler Durden, who helps him take his life in a new direction. I'd explain more, but this is such a great movie that I don't want to give anything else away. Trust me, just see it some time if you haven't already.

1. V for Vendetta
To be honest, the second time I saw this film, I actually thought to myself, "I want to watch this film until I am sick of it." Luckily I didn't, and V for Vendetta remains my favorite film of all time (thus far). The film, like Fight Club, shines because it is so well done. The dialog is well written (with the exchange between Evey and the fingermen in the beginning of the film remaining one of my favorite conversations in all of film), the shots are well choreographed, the music matches the scenes perfectly, etc., etc. The film follows the lives of a woman named Evey, who lives in a dystopial vision of England, and a freedom fighter named V, who fights to change that dystopia. To be honest, this film is a little bit of a guilty pleasure for me because most of the things that make me like it are the kind of devices that directors put in movies to make people like them more without needing to improve the substance of the movie, but hey, they work. To me, V for Vendetta is a lot like Casablanca; there's nothing particularly noteworthy about it that makes it remarkable, but everything about it just works, and it works so well that it is my favorite movie of all time.

There you have it. I know this list is a good deal shorter than my list of my favorite songs, but writing that list was made easier by the fact that I keep a playlist of my favorite songs in iTunes, so all I had to do was copy the list and put the songs in order. I didn't have the same convenience here, and because I didn't have the time to watch each of these movies before writing this list (as opposed to how I was able to listen to each song before writing my previous list), I had to write from memory, so I was only able to write about the movies I really like. But, regardless, I hope you enjoyed reading this.

My top 25 favorite songs. Part 2: 10-1

Here's the second part of my list. I did this list in two parts due to time constrains. Here's the first part if you haven't read it yet. Without further ado, lets start the home stretch.

10. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
What can I say about this song that hasn't been said before? I first started listening to this song one summer when I took up walking as my main form of exercise. As such, I listened to it mostly while walking, and thus found the lyrics about finding one's path through life to be quite appropriate. I also enjoy the slow buildup from the relaxed intro to one of the best rock and roll outros of all time. Ah, hell, it's Stairway! Do I need to explain it?

9. Nemo – Nightwish
Unlike many of the previous songs on the list, this one doesn't have a special meaning for me because of its lyrics. I actually first heard it when I watched a video of an all druid raid taking down Onyxia back in the days of vanilla WoW, and then raiding the horde capital cities afterward. That said, I don't actually associate this song with the awesomeness of the druid class; I just like it because it is a great song. It's a symphonic metal song that slowly builds up from a mellow beginning to a more energetic conclusion without ever loosing its mystic mood. That, and Tarja's voice is just beautiful.

8. Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins
I don't know why, but I really love this song. The lyrics don't mean much to me, but perhaps its the fact that, like ...And Justice for All, the various instruments on this track all have a similar rhythmic structure. Meh, it's a mystery to me. I just know that I like it now as much as I did when I first heard it, and a song that I can describe that way gets major points in my book.

7. 18 and Life - Skid Row
Sure, the lyrics to this song a pretty good, but I think the reason I like this song is the mood it creates. It starts out sad to match the protagonist's sad life, then gets angry as his anger at the world grows, but loses its angry edge when our protagonist kills someone. It's a sad song, without a doubt, but its deeper message about how there are no victims in the world of drunken townies and that everything that happens to them is pretty much their fault means that the flip side is that, if you make smart decisions, bad things won't happen to you. To be honest, I never liked this song because of the lyrics; it's just a good, slow rock-out song.

6. Going Under - Evanescence
Remember how I said that I interpreted My Immortal to be about two parts of yourself, one of which you were trying to let go of? I interpreted this song as the other side of that story. I saw it as the story of someone recalling their descent into this "other" part of themselves. This was actually a repeating theme I saw in their songs, whether it is there or not, and that's probably why they meant so much to me. I also really like how the songs melody complements the mood of the lyrics: sad, but not the saddest it could be, meaning the worst is yet to come.

5. Turn The Page (Live) - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
Now this is a perfect rock song. The lyrics, though specific to the theme of being a rock star, are truly about needing to put up a front when people expect you to be more than you can be, and how torturous it can be to keep that front up. Thus this song can have meaning to anyone who has ever pretended to be something they aren't. It also has, in my opinion, some of the best build-up of any song I have ever heard. It starts out mellow but intensely sad, and though the song gains more of a hard rock feel as it continues, it never loses that sad melody. It's just a really great song. 'Nuff said.

4. Through the Fire and Flames - Dragonforce
I'm probably going to get a lot of flack for putting this so high on the list, but I really do love this song. No matter what mood I am in, this song gets me pumped up, and few songs can do that. In fact, I'd say this is the best song for that purpose that I know. It also has a lot of meaning to me because I have tried dozens of times to beat this on Guitar Hero 3 and failed. (My best time is 83%.) But regardless of that, this song is the epitome of power metal, and Dragonforce deserves all of the fame that this song brought them.

3. Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
And back to the sad songs. Though some people have interpreted this song to be about abortion, I see as being about the depression that comes with the loss of childhood innocence and the fact that even with all the pain we may be feeling, we still try to put on a happy face for others. Both of these themes resonate with me strongly, and the minimalist structure of the song helps to facilitate the somber mood the lyrics create. Corgan's pleasing vocals are the one happy thing about this song, but they are enough to make me able to listen to it and not cry every time. Really, it's that sad. If his voice was depressing as well, the song would be too sad to listen to.

2. Zombie - The Cranberries
Oh boy, where do I begin with this song? I first heard this song when I heard a snippet of it in some commercial for some album collection. It stuck with me after I heard it, and when I finally figured out what song it was and downloaded it, I was really glad to have finally found it. Its bass riff is right up there with the one in Rhinoceros as one of my favorites of all time, and every instrument on the track can be heard distinctly, something I love. The lyrics never played an important role in this song for me, but they are still great; though they are technically about the Troubles in Ireland, the lyrics could be applied to any situation where a group is fighting for control of your thoughts, something our culture seems to do all the time... but that's neither here nor there. In the end, I love this song. Dolores O'Riordan's vocal work is fantastic, the instruments all work really well together; I just can't say enough good things about this song.

1. Lithium - Evanescence
Ah yes, the song that defined my childhood. Before I transferred all of my songs to my new computer, this one had more play counts on my old one than any other song; at least fifty more than the next one on the list, and quite possibly a hundred. (That's no hyperbole; I loved this song that much.) So, what is so great about Lithium? Like many of my favorite songs when I was young, it was a sad song, but Lithium went beyond sad. The lyrics, the mood, the tone of Amy Lee's voice, the melody, everything about this song was meant to convey a feeling of deep depression, and I loved every second of it. However, even more importantly, the lyrics really spoke to me back then, and looking back on my youth, they speak to me even more now. In Lithium, Amy sings about how she is very sad, but finds a sort of ironic comfort in that sadness, and as such, the sadness is too familiar to let go off. If literally interpreted, the song is about a failed relationship that Amy refuses to leave, but as you can tell by now, I wasn't big on literal interpretations of Evanescence songs. Anyways, every line of the song speaks somehow to the theme of finding more comfort in the familiar emotion of sorrow than the unfamiliar one of joy. As sad as it is to say, that sentiment defined my childhood. I was not a happy child, and even when I was finally able to be happy, sorrow was too constant of a companion for me to let go of. It took me a long time to finally let go of my constant sorrow, and until I did, this song was the song that epitomized what I was feeling. To this day, this song still brings back memories of that dark place. It's haunting, really.

Honorable Mention: In Bloom - Nirvana
Nirvana is a great band, but I didn't put this on the main part of the list just because I don't like this song as much as I used to. I still enjoy the layering of the various instruments and pleasant melody the song provides, and Cobain's mysterious lyrics still boggle my mind to no end, but the fact that the song slowly speeds up over its duration always ticked me off a bit. The song has, in my opinion, a perfect speed at the beginning. Why they needed to speed it up was beyond me. Still, I won't deny that this is a fantastic song, because it is.

Well, there you go. I certainly enjoyed making this list, because I had to listen to all of these songs over and over again to put them in the order of how much I like them, and I hope you enjoyed reading it, at least a little.

My top 25 favorite songs. Part 1: 25-11

Warning: This post contains one instance of PG-13 language (for those outside of the US, that means vulgar language that is fine for most teens, but may be inappropriate for younger children). Hide your infants and tweens.

An internet comic whose material I quite enjoy recently put up a video where he talked about his twenty favorite movies, and I thought I'd do the same for my favorite songs. Why make such a list? Because it gives you an insight into who I am, but it is more fun than writing a biography, which serves the same purpose. Why not movies? Because my taste in movies is pretty limited, but my taste in music is diverse enough that I can make such a list. Why twenty five? Because I narrowed it down to 25 and couldn't pick five to kick off of this list.

I should tell you now that I do not necessarily think that all of these are good songs, and this is not meant to be a "greatest songs" list. This is just meant to list the songs I like the most. Some of them have special meaning to me because of when I heard them, while others speak to me on a really deep level. Also, these are not my 25 current favorites, but 25 songs that I have continued to like long after I heard them, so there aren't many recent songs on here. In fact, only one has been released in the past few years. So, without further ado, let's begin.

25. ...And Justice for All - Metallica
Although this song doesn't draw out the same level of emotional reaction from me that the other songs on the list do, it does have something I am always a sucker for: during the breaks and the verses, the vocals, drums, and guitar all have similar or near identical rhythms. That earns big points in my book, and it is the main reason ...And Justice for All is on this list. Actually, there's an even longer story behind it, but I'll give you the short version. I bought Guitar Hero 3 and liked One. I bought Rock Band and was disappointed by Enter Sandman. After months of trying to figure out how to do it, I finally hooked my XBox 360 up to the internet to download songs for Rock Band and downloaded the Metallica pack, and I loved it, especially ...And Justice for All. Since then, this song has continued to please me just as much as when I first heard it.

24. Killing In the Name - Rage Against the Machine
I suppose I may be a bit biased about this one. I first heard this song in Guitar Hero II, and the cover of it was so abysmal that when I heard the actual song, I was blown away by the raw power of it. I also have to say that Zach's "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me," sounds a lot better than the lyrics Guitar Hero used to replace them, "(Now you're under control) I won't do what you tell me." The fact that the lyrics overlapped took away a lot of this song's power, so the song wowed me to no end when I first heard it. That said, the repetitive nature of the lyrics has made me like it less than I used to, but I still love this song.

23. Bulls On Parade - Rage Against the Machine
Like Killing in the Name, I first heard this song in Guitar Hero 3, and I really liked it. Though not very fun to play, this song's raw power had the same appeal to me that Killing in the Name had. After I heard this song, I tried getting into Rage's other songs, but they were more rappy than the songs I had heard, so this song stands out in my mind as the last Rage song I ever loved.

22. Angel of Death – Slayer
I can't put my finger on what I love about this song. The lyrics aren't terribly good, the guitar is fast but not complex, and ditto for the drum beats. I don't know, its one of those mysteries that I'll probably never figure out. I like it just as much as I did when I first heard it, and that's quite rare among songs I listen to, especially metal songs, so I put it on the list

21. Painkiller - Judas Priest
I first heard this song in Rock Band 2 (are you noticing a pattern yet?), and like Run to the Hills before it, it was the hardest song in the game, and that probably contributed to me liking it so much. I also have a soft spot for songs with a male singer that sings in a high octave, and this song definitely fits that category. Seriously, listen to it some time. No man should be able to get his voice that high. It's also just an all around great metal song, with every member of Judas Priest in full form. It has two guitar solos and two drum solos in the span of six minutes. Can you think of any song that tops that?

20. The Camera Eye - Rush
As great as this song is, it is very long, which can make it a bit tiring on one's patience. That said, the length could be what makes this song so good. It allows for the song to go through many different parts with different melodies, and each one is very enjoyable. The amazing thing is that the song is structured like a normal, regular length song. Despite being eleven minutes in length, The Camera Eye never feels like it could be split up into more than one song, like many other songs of great length. This never ceases to amaze me, and it's one of the many reasons I love The Camera Eye. Also, the chorus, as short as it is, is one of my favorite moments in music. Everything about it is just perfect and incredibly enjoyable.

19. Sabotage - Beastie Boys
This song has a special place in my heart because I heard it while I was going through my rap phase. I liked rock and roll before my rap phase (though it was more popular rock than genuine rock, but not pop-rock by any means), but once I entered my rap phase, I stopped listening to rock and roll. This song's hybrid nature between the two genres made me consider listening to rock again, and it was the first step on my road to recovery. (If you are curious, the second step was Guitar Hero II. That pretty much did it for me.)

18. My Immortal - Evanescence
A very sad song, no doubt, but those were the kinds of songs that spoke to me in my youth, as evidenced by all of the Evanescence on my list. Although I am usually not a fan of vocals+piano numbers, I think what made me like the song was its lyrics. Though the lyrics could easily be interpreted as being about trying to get over an ended relationship, my interpretation was that it was about trying to let go of a part of you that you have held on to for too long. Perhaps it was a part of you that hid the real you because you were afraid to be who you really are. Perhaps it was a part of you that you hid behind because the world was too scary to face head on. Either way, even though you want to move past that part of you, even though you want to let it go, it has not left you. That message speaks to me even more now, which is why this is truly one of my favorite songs of all time. That said, the style is one I am usually not a fan of, which is why I put it so low on the list.

17. Rhinoceros - Smashing Pumpkins
The meaning of this song still eludes me, but I find the first half very relaxing, with one of the best simple bass riffs I have ever heard. I also quite enjoy the second part of the song, though not as much. That said, I love the solo, which perfectly complements the transition from a more chilled out alternative melody to a more hard rock melody. It just sounds good; there's not much else I can say to explain it.

16. All the Things She Said - t.A.T.u.
Despite the fact that their lesbian relationship ended up being fake, t.A.T.u's story about forbidden love speaks to anyone who has ever felt guilty about something they knew couldn't be wrong because it felt right. It doesn't even need to be a relationship; it could be something that breaks gender stereotypes. It's also a good pop-rock song; not much else to be said.

15. Pretty Noose - Soundgarden
I really don't know why I like this song so much. It could be that I am a sucker for songs where every instrument is distinct and clear, and this song definitely fits that category. The lyrics, about a bad idea that looks good from the outside (according to Wikipedia), are also applicable to many of life's situations. The guitar solo is also great. Eh, what can I say? I like this song now even more than I did when I first heard it, and that rarely happens with any of the songs I listen to.

14. Nobody's Home - Avril Lavigne
Alright, now before everyone crucifies me for listing an Avril Lavigne song in my top 25 songs list, know that I used to be a big fan of her music, but this is the only song of hers that I have continued to like, and if you listen to the song, you can see why. The theme is a timeless one, for Nobody's Home tells the story of a girl who feels abandoned and, because of it, can't seem to find a place she calls home. Try as she might, she is so jaded by the world that she sees no redeemable qualities in it. I know I have felt that abandoned before, and this song helped me see that the world was not worth rejecting. It's also a very beautiful pop-rock song. The melody is sad at its core, with not hint of any happy emotions, but it is not quite sad enough to be considered depressing. As such, the melody itself implies that life may be bad, but it could always be worse. And you know what? This song may have my favorite line of all time from a song: "She's lost inside." She is lost in the world around her because she herself is lost. That is true poetry.

13. Viva la Vida – Coldplay
This is the only song my list that has been released within the last few years, but I think it is one of the few truly great songs to have come out of this era of music. The lyrics are about the darker side of being a king, although they could be applied to any position of power. The melody, which is grand and sad at the same time, fit this theme quite well. It's just an all-around good song.

12. Today - Smashing Pumpkins
In case the lyrics don't make it obvious, this song is about suicide. Yep, it is a happy song about suicide. This songs speaks to me in two ways. It reminds me that many times in my own life, I felt like I had a lot to be sad about, but life itself was still good, just like how the song's lyrics are very sad, but the mood is very happy. It also reminds me that a life may look pretty from the outside, but everyone is fighting their own battles. The song also just has a great melody that really carries the listener through the whole song. And it's just a little touch, but I love the signature drum fill of this song, the one where Chamberlin starts by hitting the snare and the floor tom along with the beat of the song, then does a roll on the snare.

11. The Only One - Evanescence
As much as I love the dark yet hopeful nature of this song, the lyrics are what really made me like this song. They spoke to me when I was growing up and felt abandoned by the world. The lyrics talk about how people who feel abandoned by the world often feel alone, but there are many other people in the same situation as them, and what they need to do is band together and fight back against the force that made them feel alone in the first place. The song also seemed to me to end with the singer confronting the force that made her feel abandoned. It really is a very hopeful song, and the hard-rock influences of its nu-metal style means that there is almost a hint of vengeance in the singer's intentions. Like many of Evanescence's songs, this one spoke to me at a very personal level, and Amy Lee's ambiguous writing style means that this song and many others of theirs will continue to mean a lot to me, since that meaning can evolve to apply to whatever I am facing in my life.

Unfortunately, I had a very busy weekend and couldn't finish the list. Expect part 2 next week.

Edit: Here's the link to part two for your convenience.