Top of the Scots 2011 | An Introduction

Well then, 2011... what have you got to say for yourself?

Quite a lot, as it happens!

I very nearly didn't notice, but it's been another year. Come and almost gone as of the time of this writing, in early December. There's still a month to go before we can officially declare 2011 over, and 2012 - only the year everyone's been waiting for - begun...

...but you didn't think a little thing like that would stop me, did you? :)

Early December might seem an odd sort of time to start counting out the best movies and books and video games of the year, but what can I say? This is how we do it hereabouts; in Scotland we start drinking on Wednesdays because the weekend's only two work days away, and other such slurs on my country.

Anyway, we'll start the celebrations in earnest tomorrow, with a look at my favourite video games of the year, but before we get to that: this. Some ground-rules.

In each category, I aim to select five favourites from the maddening crowd of contenders, as well as a couple of runners-up. I'll also be awarding several special honours, or not, as I did in Top of the Scots 2010. Among those, there'll be sections dedicated to the year's biggest disappointments, any particularly glaring oversights of mine, and a place for me to burble on about books and movies and video games I read or saw or played this year that aren't, strictly speaking, products of 2011.

So the schedule, as it stands: tomorrow, as I was saying, we're going to kick things off with a run-down of my favourite games. On Wednesday we'll talk movies, and on Thursday, not before time, we'll get to the year's best books. Come Friday, I aim to round up the creme de la creme, and breathe a massive sigh of relief that this strange practice of declaring one great thing greater than other great things over for another twelve months.

Now I've been working away at these lists for the last few weeks, and catching up on a few particularly promising specimens I'd managed to miss in the erstwhile, so as of today, I'm pretty sure of what I'm going to say.

That said, I haven't read all the books, or seen all the movies, or even played all the video games - try as I might! - so please, allow me a little leeway. And please... as and when I overlook something crucial, I'd urge you to set me straight.

But never mind my opinions for the moment. In fact, let's limber up for the fun to come with a quick question: what have some of your favourite experiences of the year been?