Daniel.Hjelmtorp.com

Now that 2010 have started and I have done a list of what I found was best in 2009, I have a new list of what I look forward to this year. As for movies and music its hard to say. Games on the other hand I have a few favourites that I look forward to play. Here are some of the titles I wait for:

• God of War 3
• Bioshock 2
• Mafia 2
• Final Fantasy XIII
• The Last Guardian

Also what I really hope for in 2010 even if its only an announcement it would be Warhawk 2.

And this list is only of the titles that I know of.

As for music I don’t know what albums will be coming out this year, I can only wish for new albums and great music from:

• Equilibrium
• Heaven Shall Burn
• Neaera
• Anterior
• Children of Bodom

Movie is even harder to predict. Don’t know many movies that will come out soon. I would like to see a new Harry Potter movie this year, but don’t think this will happen. One I know I look forward to is Iron Man 2, after viewing the trailer I had to watch the first movie and really liked it. Other than this not many movies I am excited about.

Now 2009 have come to an end. And its been a good year, I thinks so at least. Much have happened, and can’t remember everything. When looking back on it, many memories comes to mind. Travelling, holidays, parties, games, festivals and many more things. As with every year I like to do list of what was the best from the year that was in certain categories. I can’t talk about everything from 2009, here is my favourite Games, Music albums and Movies from 2009:

Games:

• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
• Assassins Creed 2
• Machinarium
• Resident Evil 5

Comment: It was a good year regarding games. My only problem was finding time to play them all. Still haven’t finished or started some that I am interested in. Some games lived up to expectations, some didn’t while other just surprised me. After much thought I must say that Batman Arkham Asylum was the best game of 2009 for me, due to the awesome game it was, and that it just came and blew me away!

Music:

• Threat Signal – Vigilance
• Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage
• Nightrage – Wearing a Martyrs Crown
• Five Finger Death Punch – War is the Answer

Comment: Here I really had to think hard. New music and albums this year was kinda weak and no album that really stood out. Many okey albums. Hope 2010 holds many nice surprises!

Movies:

• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
• District 9
• James Cameron’s Avatar
• Zombieland

Comment: As with music I had to think about this one. One movie was already in my mind, Transformers 2 that I really enjoyed and nominated to movie of the year for me. It isn’t the best movie in terms of story or so, but damn entertaining and COOL!

Other than this 2009 was a lot of work, were I really got into everything on GamersGate, and have felt how I have developed. I still have much more to learn (no we can never stop learning). Its been some frustrations, suprises and laughter. As life should be, a roller coaster.

As for the personal stuff, things have been really good, when I have had time for it. Maybe haven’t taken the time for myself or my friends as I would have liked. And definitely to little blogging… really feel that I haven’t had time or energy to work with this blog. Hope that I can find more time and energy next year.  But that can be improved in 2010!

The recent month have been very slow on blogging. Mostly cause I’ve been on vacation, and as always its hard for me to find time now a day to sit down and write. Also the subjects doesn’t just come to me the same way.

And now I also have a new interest, the stock and fond trading that have been taking most of my free time lately. Just learning how it works and then getting some practical experience.

Now that I am back at work we have much to do and plan. Later in August we will attend GamesCom in Köln, so we have much to do until then.

Now its been a while since I wrote something here, but we have had a really busy time lately. Specially at GamersGate that have been taking most of my time and energy.
Among all the new things we have rolled out is the new design of the site. It feels great and fresh to finally open the new design along with some new features. Check it out!

New GamersGate Design

Also we now offer Mac games for purchase and download. Something that I have been a driving force on the office to implement. I have long felt that we have to cature the Mac market and there are lots of great games for Mac available. We just need to find them and offer them to our customers and new customers.

Besides Mac games we released digital game strategy guides. We still have a lot of guides we need to prepare.

And this weekend we will attend DreamHack to promote our site and company. Hope to show some pictures next week.

Now that 2008 is at an end, I usually look back at the year that was and what was the best. Both in terms of Music, games and movies. And here is the list over the best albums, games and movies that was released this year. (This list may be updated, as I’m still haven’t played all the games I have from 08).

Music Album:

• Equilibrium – The Sagas
• Heaven Shall Burn – Iconoclast
• Bullet for my Valentine – Scream Aim Fire
• In Flames – A Sense of Purpose
• Sonic Syndicate -Love and Other Disasters
• Cafe del Mar – Vol. 15

Games:

• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Battlefield – Bad Company
• Gears of War 2
• Mirrors Edge
• Fallout 3

Movies:

• Cloverfield
• Doomsday
• The Air I Breath
• Speedracer
• Death Race

2008 was quite a good year in many aspects. And I hope that 2009 will be even better. We have many new projects to do at GamersGate, and I hope to get some time and energy to continue bloging as in 2008.

Happy new year to you all!

Yes, its been a while since I wrote a post. But my time and thinking mind have been occupied with other thing. Mainly my new job. Its been taking up all of my time, and I havn’t had the energy to blog. I will try to better myself. We have so much new interesting going on at GamersGate, and I miss some of my reflexing and thinking outside work.

I’m now into my last week at Kelkoo. Most of the time I will spend to end and hand over all my work tasks to my replacement. I will miss my workmates, but its allways exciting with changes. Looking forward to start working at the new place.

This week I have been offered and accepted a new job. The role as Product Manager at Gamersgate.com. I will start the 29 of September, and I’m really looking forward to this.

My work task will inlude

• Driving new web traffic and visitors to the site
• Follow up the statistic
• Contact with partners to get new and old titles
• Make sure the games are online and working
• Update and maintain the site.

I think this will be great!

Over the last couple of days I’ve searched and experimented with different Wordpress plugins to improve the blog. Its not really so much improvement to talk about, more fun experiments from my view on how to work with different new features. Almost all the changes/add-ons have happened in the sidebar widgets.

• The size on the text and menus on sidebar to the right have been decreased.
• RSS feed from my Facebook account have been added with automatically retrieve my latest Status change and displays it. (I’ve also connected my blog to Facebook, so every blog post published is noted and displayed on my Facebook profile page)
• I found a plugin that create a fairly good looking link to my LinkedIn account for people to go and view my profile there. (Now I just have to update and really look after my account which I’ve been lazy about til now…)
• I have wanted to find a good way to show books I recommend for a long time. An Amazon/Wordpress plugin have come to my aid. By simply enter the ASIN/ISBN number for a book, the widget retrieve the cover, title and author from Amazon.com and displays them.
• And finally… Ads! Yes, I’m not famous for believing in ads, but this I just wanted to try out to learn more about. By signing up on Google Adsense and creating and automatic Ad and inserting it on my blog, I can explore and gain more knowledge. I already work with Adwords, and here theres the option of allowing your ads to be showned on the Content Network, which basically means Adsense. This i more of a experiment than some new features or improvment.

So far I’m really happy with the improvments. Its always fun with some changes and something to spice up the site.

Finally! Now I have 2 weeks of vacation ahead of me. Feels great. Can’t remember the last time I had such a long leave all together. The only thing I have planed is a trip to Gotland, to visit some friend, maybe my old workplace, Gotlands Tourist Association. Besides that Im just gonna enjoy the summer!

Just hope I get some sun…

I also hope to take some time and write a few blog posts. Now that E3 will start soon.