2012 In Review
Well, the world did not end. That was the sentimentality the people felt when 2012mania would end up dying down after December, though people felt concerned for the future. On the one hand, the economy's recovery was pretty sluggish with some nations better than others faring. Some noted that nations did have more pro-active governments and the nations with slower recoveries had nations who did not invest as much. Canada's faster recovery wasn't entirely surprising though what was is that the Canadian dollar would come to reach near-equal levels to that of the American dollar due to increased consumer buying along with government investments in renewable energy, especially with surveys and scan showing massive geothermal promise throughout all of Canada, all of which is spelling out plenty of positive favors for Prime Minister Jack Layton, who has also been working on reforming the Canadian healthcare systems, namely through better unity of the provinces' own along with the inclusion of the coverage of pharmaceuticals and more humorously, working toward the legalization of marijuana. Other nations have been working to try and deal with it though with varying levels of success. The discussions began looking for more fault in this and the rising tide was in the incompetenance of the European Union thought others floated non EU nations were tanking as well and some pointed out the failures of neoliberal economic policies in resolving the crisis.
Meanwhile, while the economic troubles were casting doubt into the systems so cherished and restoking the fires of suspicion at the top tier individuals and organizations, foreign affairs were a more positive matter. The Middle East was seeing some real stability as Iraq and Syria met their end in the latter's civil war leading to the former to declare war. A coalition of their neighbors came about (excluding Turkey and Saudi Arabia) to bring order and in the process, managed to do surprisingly successful nation-building, albeit mainly by exploting the desire for peace and stability while working to improve themselves and get along with their neighbors. Iran enjoyed their new position of power and the influence was bringing a political shift from the result of the successes of the Reformers. Cultural conservatives found less to hold onto and more cast aside as liberalization was becoming more accepted and cast in. Meanwhile, the situations in Africa were being watched over in the event of any more trouble, but the main story was mainly Azawad. After several military conflicts against the Islamic extremists, there was an operations to restore the original government back into Mali rather than deal with the "new guys" in charge. Azawad would be considered for sovereignty though only if they were to consider full human rights and equality, especially for females. Talks and discussions would continue over into the next year as a result of this. People were torn of this in regards to what to do as the UN discussed matters and how to approach it.
With the situation looked pretty mixed, it's unsurprising people were turning now more to pop culture and this year turned out to be quite excellent for the film industry. Lord of the Rings returned in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, while Skyfall marked 50 years of James Bond and Men In Black III being a surprise hit. The Twilight saga saw its end with the second part of Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 and various others. However, perhaps the biggest was in superheroes. The Caped Crusader capped off Nolan's trilogy with the confirmations that he won;t have that much involvement in future affairs, but looking to see what DC will make. Caped Crusader was quite a surprise for the inclusion of Dr. Hugo Strange as the villain, acting as a Moriarty to Batman's Sherlock, especially since he was portrayed none other than by Robin Williams. Williams stunned audiences with a masterful performance as the ruthless psychologist who is obsessed with the Dark Knight and the other criminals. Batman must outsmart him with the help of Catwoman, who is being coerced by Strange and wondering what connection he may have had with the Joker. They chose to cast Williams after being inspired from his appearance in Law and Order. Marvel meanwhile proceed ed to wow everyone with the long-awaited Avengers film. Serving to sum up what is being dubbed the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (or at least the first phase), the movie brought the heroes introduced of the various films and assembled into a team: Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor and The Hulk. The antagonist turned to be none other than Loki. Returning to Earth when SHIELD trying using the Tesseract (doors open both ways), he comes in to use the Tesseract to make a device to create a portal for his new army, that of the Badoon, a conquering vicious race from another part of the Milky Way. The film had many climactic moments such as The Hulk crushing a ship, Tony intimidating Loki, the Captain leading the NYPD and National Guard and various others, concluding with the portal being closed and Loki being taken in by Thor. The film became a massive hit to everyone and moreso with the post-credit scenes. One in which the Tesseract is cracked, with inside being revealed an Infinity Stone (specifically the Space Stone) while another has the team eating schwarma after the fight, with one of the heroes asking who was the one who beat up all the forces in Queen, with the team unsure. This answer would be set up in the new The Amazing Spider-Man film. Starring Logan Lerman as the titular character, the film takes place before the Avengers. Starring a Peter Parker entering university, he grapples with his new life and responsability, having it been two years since he lost his Uncle Ben and became Spider-Man. The film is on themes of self-discovery as Peter struggles who he wants to be as a man and as superhero, corrleating it with life as a college student and his first serious romance with Gwen Stacy (played by Emma Roberts), a scientific minded young woman wih a sharp disposition. Emma noted that she wanted to go from playing "good girl" types to sharper and more abrasive characters to avoid being typecast. She chose be Gwen Stacy partially because the character fit between the two (described as a sharp but nice girl). The antagonist surprised everyone with it being Miles Warren aka The Jackal. Adopting elements of the "The Clone Saga", Warren serves as a biochemist professor embezzlig fund in unethical genome engineering experiments and seeks to clone Spider-Man. The conflict has Peter fight a mutated monster based off of his DNA (codenamed Spidercide in the script) and uses his smarts to defeat him with Gwen's help. The film ends with Peter confiding to Gwen who he is along with regaining a sense of conviction of being Spider-Man along with wanting to help others out. However, Warren seemingly escapes as seen in a post-credits scene and recruited by an unknown benefactor. Many were rewarded with a post-credits scene of Peter fighting Badoons while savign civilians (including a show of superstrength) in the Battle of New York, over in Queens, distinctly apart from the Avengers while wondering what's going and noting like he's missing something.
Meanwhile, over in video games, news of the Nintendo Wii's successor console being delayed was confirmed. In the meanwhile, this did not stop new waves of games coming out for the various consoles. Animal Crossing New Leaf for the Nintendo UDS granted players mayorship of their towns, giving them creative freedom to customize their towns as they wished. Additionally, Fire Emblem Awakening came back to revive the franchise with new ideas and renewed interest and other games appeared for the UDS. Pokemon followed up on Pokemon Black and White with Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. Despite rumors of Gray, the two games were maintained as such in order to keep the duality theme of the games. They were delayed a few months for the holiday season, but with the benefits of adding more to the motifs, such as save data from the previous games affecting gameplay, events and so on. Other games was on how Paper Mario 64 Ultra would come out; originally planned to be an original game, the allocation of different resources and delays for the Wii's successor led to differing projects being considered. However, the revamped game possessed more variety of enemies, expanding the dungeons along with more extra content. Rare confirmed Banjo & Kazooie for the UDS was in development and to coincide with the release of Skyfall, they released 007 Golden Ultra, a remastering of the N64 classic Goldeneye 007, though with more emphasis on the multiplayer campaign, online play and more characters, including multiple Bonds. However, there is a single-player campaign with a form of story mode, namely Bond undergoing virtual missions, with the levels being recreations of the best places from past Bond films as an homage. Sony would begin trying to recover with games like Gravity Rush, Far Cry 3 and many others. Of course, Mass Effect 3 was the big one. Having been delayed by several months out of concerns of sales, they worked to implement everything and maintain quality and the hard work paid off in capping of a masterful trilogy. People began having more faith in Sony ad they hoped to capitalize on this with Persona 4 Golden, a revamped version of the original game on their new handheld, the Playstation Vita. However, when Atlus was asked if it would be exclusive, they remained quiet on the answer, fueling speculation on releases on other consoles. For the Xbox 360, they were also having fun with their various releases: NiGHTS into dreams and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed were among there along with some others. Phantasy Star Online 2 was the big thing for them though as it would be released for Microsoft games and annouced the game would also come out for the successor of the Xbox 360. Other games were appearing in regards to MMOs. World of Warcraft got their update on Mists of Pandaria introducing a new race along with new lands and the new Monk class. 2012 also saw the massive rise in indie games coming out on various consoels and computers such as Skullgirls, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Fez, FTL, Hotlight Miami and many other. Overall, the year has been one of highlights and reflections.