Week in Review, Jan 25 to 31

The Week in Video Games

Bioware sure knows how to make games that will completely take over my life. Last week (last month?) it was Dragon Age, this week it was Mass Effect 2. I knew Mass Effect 2 was going to be pretty damn good, seeing as the original Mass Effect was my favourite Xbox 360 game to date, but in many ways this sequel exceeds my expectation. Nothing has been lost in the quality of the storytelling, cinematics, or characterization. If anything, Mass Effect 2 tops the original in these areas. But I have not completed the game, so I don't want to judge the whole works too soon. Mass Effect's ending was killer, so the sequel has a lot to live up to there.

Not everything is improved from the original game, however. I'm in the minority here, but I miss the ridiculously elaborate inventory system from the original game. The RPG elements in Mass Effect 2 have been simplified and streamlined (or dumbed down), and that's a little sad. It hasn't really hurt the game; if the original had been like this, I would have loved it just as much. It's just a little disappointing in how much of the customization has been eliminated from one game to the next.

I generally don't play first person shooters on consoles because of the challenges in dual analog aiming (technically, Mass Effect is a third person shooter, but the point I'm going to make still stands), but Mass Effect makes this palatable by allowing you to pause the action easily, aim your cross-hair, and then fire off some bullets or an awesome power. You can play Mass Effect 2's battles without ever pausing if you choose, but for me, I pause as much as I paused Dragon Age's battles. Bioware made a lot of refinements to the battle system in Mass Effect 2 to improve play in real time, but I wouldn't enjoy the game nearly as much without the option to use that pause button.

But that's enough about Mass Effect 2 for this week. By next week's review, I will most likely have completed the game and will definitely have more to say about it.

While waiting for a tow truck that never came on Monday (long story), I had a lot of time to play Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box on my DS. It took me most of the day to finish the game, putting total play time to complete the story at over 15 hours, although I did tackle almost all available optional puzzles in that time. The story was full of typical Japanese craziness, but that was fine; it was always enjoyable in its craziness. With the story completed, just like Curious Village, I now have unlocked some of the toughest puzzles in the game in the Layton's Challenges area. Goddamn, some of these are hard! I am nowhere near done with this game just yet.

While drunk on Saturday night and in no condition to attempt dual analog aiming--even with pausing--I started a 10 day free trial of a certain ridiculously popular MMORPG that shall not be named in this post. The reason: I was drunk and curious and a friend mentioned his interest in the game. I don't know what will come of this, but I'll likely have more to say in coming weeks.

The Week in Movies

This section should have been in last week's post, but I somehow completely forgot that I include movies in these posts--probably because I see so few movies that I rarely do include movies in these posts. (I also rushed that post due to preoccupation with certain video games.)

So, anyway, last week I finally saw Avatar in 3D. And it was awesome. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

It's almost like I should've just not bothered including this section this week either...

The Week in Television

Monday, January 25th
Loved: Chuck (3x5)
Liked: Heroes (4x17)

"Chuck Versus First Class" was a terrific episode, my favourite so far of Chuck's strong third season. Chuck's first solo mission was an enjoyable romp from beginning to end. With Casey stuck at home, he found himself sucked into the Buy More storyline this week, and nothing makes a Buy More storyline more enjoyable than Casey. And, as someone that grew to hate Kristin Kreuk's Lana over the six seasons I watched of Smallville, it was nice to see her in a role where I felt her appeal once again.

Heroes rarely has an episode as good as "The Art of Deception." It's too bad that the episodes building up to it were so weak that it didn't have the impact it should have had with its twists and turns.

Tuesday, January 26th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x11)

Better Off Ted's "Mess of a Salesman" may be the last episode that ever airs. Sad day. (I believe that there were 13 episodes created for the second season, so the last two may only show up on a future DVD release.) This episode wasn't as good as the past couple of weeks, but I enjoyed Ted's brother and especially loved how Lem and Phil reacted to him.

Thursday, January 28th
Liked: Fringe (2x14)

Another week, another solid Fringe standalone episode. "The Bishop Revival" had plenty of good moments and a neat if thoroughly implausible case of the week, and provided more interesting character development for Walter. I'd have enjoyed this episode more if it wasn't the third standalone episode in a row (fourth, if you count the fucking out of order season one episode) and if there wasn't this crazy alternate universe villain on the loose just begging to appear again.

Friday, January 30th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x13)
Liked: Spartacus (1x2)

Dollhouse's series finale, "Epitaph 2: Return," was an even better episode than I was expecting. Continuing from where the first season's unaired finale, "Epitaph One," ended, this episode managed to satisfactorily and impressively tie up most of the series' loose ends. I have nothing but good things to say about this episode. The series may have been hit and miss, but the second season was pretty fucking good. Bring on the next Joss Whedon series!

I mentioned last week already that it was Spartacus's second episode, "Sacramentum Gladiatorum," that convinced me that this series might be worth watching. Less slo-mo fight scenes and silly CGI blood, more talking, more quiet moments, more quirky Roman sexuality, and, most importantly, significantly increased screen time for John Hannah's Batiatus, clearly the character that this show's quality will hinge upon.

I still haven't watched Caprica. Damn Bioware.

Saturday, January 30th
Loved: Legend of the Seeker (2x10)

Legend of the Seeker continued their interesting Sisters of the Light/Dark story arc with "Perdition," another solid episode that I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, this was my favourite episode of the arc (I'd say "so far," but this was most likely the last episode of the arc). I was a little distressed by one character death that puts a real damper on the series borrowing some of the better later book storylines, but this series won't be on TV long enough to get to those later books anyway. Enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy it for what it is. That's what I'm doing.

Week in Review, Jan 18 to 24

When will it stop snowing? Fuck, you can no longer distinguish between my driveway and the huge piles of snow on my grass from three months of shoveling. That's not fair. I'm pretty sure my car is going nowhere tomorrow morning. The wind is blowing all the snow right up against my garage door.

The Week in Video Games

This was a good week for video gaming. Relief! I finally completed Dragon Age: Origins after 65 hours of play and Assassin's Creed II after 20 hours of play. Both games had satisfying conclusions; and both games need sequels stat. There is DLC coming very soon for both games, which: yay! I also made major progress on Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and will likely finish that off within a few hours. Getting all of these games off my plate was important for this coming week, because Mass Effect 2 is coming...

Now that I've completed Dragon Age and experienced only one of the many available endings, I am feeling the temptation to try another playthrough. Maybe after Mass Effect 2. Dragon Age, like many of my favourite games from recent years (Fable II, Mass Effect), offers a lot of flexibility in moral decisions throughout the game. I mostly played Dragon Age as a goody two-shoes character this first playthrough, although on two occasions I made deals with devils (that will hopefully come back to bite me in the ass in Dragon Age II) to avoid life-threatening confrontations. Entering into the final battle, I made a third deal with a devil to avoid having to sacrifice the character I had spent 65 hours developing. So, basically I was a bit of a weasel, pretending to be goody two-shoes to get into Leliana's pants. (What does the way I play a game like this say about me as a person? Sounds like a blog post--but I need to stop saying that and not following through...)

I've mentioned it before, but Dragon Age's conversation system was a bit of a letdown for me after Mass Effect's brilliant wheel (the same awesome developer, Bioware, makes both game series). One of the best parts of Mass Effect's conversation system was that it let me play Scott Shepard (who may or may not bear a striking resemblance to my fantasy image of myself) as a snarky, sarcastic asshole whom was still a goody two-shoes in moral choices. It was awesome. I have high hopes that this will continue in Mass Effect 2.

The Week in Television

Monday, January 18th
Liked: Chuck (3x4), How I Met Your Mother (5x13)
Meh: The Big Bang Theory (3x13), Heroes (4x16)

Chuck had another strong Awesome-centric episode this week with "Chuck Versus Operation Awesome." The episode lost a little of its momentum with the introduction of Agent Shaw and the shifting of Awesome to the background, but it was still very good throughout.

I didn't really like The Big Bang Theory's "The Bozeman Reaction." I tend to get annoyed when the show takes Sheldon way over the top, and that's what this episode was all about. How I Met Your Mother's "Jenkins" was a much funnier and entertaining 30 minutes. I didn't even care that it had nothing to do with Ted meeting his future wife.

Oh, Heroes writers, why? "Pass/Fail" was not good. There may have been some plot momentum at the end of last week's episode, but that went nowhere this week. Instead, Sylar had a heart to heart with Claire for some reason. And Hiro got stuck in his own imaginary time travel court. And Samuel got pissed when his girl wouldn't stay with him and destroyed an entire town. I can't wait until the gang takes Samuel down in some laughably contrived way like Hiro stabbing Sylar way back in the first season.

Tuesday, January 19th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x10)

Only one Better Off Ted this week. Sad. But "Lust in Translation" was another great episode, maybe even the best of this second season. Using Phil's voice on the translator was a stroke of genius.

Wednesday, January 20th
Loved: Modern Family (1x13)

Modern Family's "Fifteen Percent" was another excellent episode. Phil and Claire's battle over the user-friendliness of the universal remote control was great--I've been there. The highlight for me, though, was seeing Flight of the Conchords' Kristen Schaal as Manny's date.

Thursday, January 21st
Loved: Parks and Recreation (2x14)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x11), Fringe (2x13), The Office (6x14)

So, it's come to this: an Office clip show. "The Banker" had approximately 50% content and 50% clips from previous episodes. The new content was pretty good, mostly because of Toby's stonewalling, and the clips were obviously funny, because, hey, The Office has had a lot of funny moments.

The best show this Thursday was easily Parks and Recreation. "Leslie's House" was actually quite brilliant, a very smartly plotted episode with numerous hilarious moments, including notably our first glimpse of said house. It's impressive how this show's writers have managed to take a main character that was abrasive and annoying only one year ago and make her funny and relatable now. 30 Rock also had a good week with the aptly titled "Winter Madness."

Fringe stuck to standalone territory again this week with "What Lies Below," a good dramatic episode built on a rather overused story concept. As is always the case, Walter and Astrid stole the show again.

Friday, January 22nd
Meh: Spartacus (1x1)

New show! Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Gladiator by way of 300. Created by Steven S. DeKnight of Buffy and Angel fame. Although only the pilot aired on this particular Friday, I had an opportunity to see the second episode this week as well. Seeing the second episode helped me forgive the major flaws of the first. In the pilot, which was basically one slo-mo fight scene after another, the CGI blood was overused to ridiculous extremes. The second episode slowed things down and let characters talk, thus letting us get to know them, and was therefore much better. Neither episode was great, but the series has potential.

I forgot to watch the two-hour pilot of Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica this week, so I will have to cover that one next week.

Saturday, January 23rd
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x9)

"Dark" was Legend of the Seeker's attempt to tell the main storyline of the 1000 page Stone of Tears novel in 42 minutes. It was about as successful as you would think. To be fair, it was an above average Seeker episode. It was enjoyable and interesting, dealt with Richard's headache problem efficiently, and provided plenty of the WTFness I expect from this series with the Zedd, Kahlan, and Cara B-plot. We were also introduced to Jolene Blalock as Sister Nicci, who goes on in the book series to be one of the most important and interesting characters. Next week also continues this storyline somewhat, so that's cool.

Week in Review, Jan 11 to 17

The Week in Video Games

This week in video gaming continued to be almost all about Dragon Age. (More accurate: this week in general continued to be almost all about Dragon Age. Addicted, remember?) I fit in a little more Assassin's Creed II time, and also completed the Lego Rock Band story, but there is nothing I spent more hours on this week than Dragon Age. And I'm still not done with the game. Getting there, though.

On my Friday day off, I completed all of the available DLC quests and finished the Mages Tower and Brecilian Forest storylines. Over the course of the weekend, I completed the long Orzammar storyline. Since reducing the difficulty to Easy, I haven't had much trouble with the battles, and since adding golem Shale to my party, I haven't had a single Your Journey Ends screen. (I think Shale might be invincible on Easy difficulty.) The game is much less frustrating and much more enjoyable when you aren't constantly dying. My main interest is in experiencing the story and characters, both of which continue to be top notch in their presentation, but in the Normal difficulty level, the dying was getting in the way of the experience.

The Week in Television

Monday, January 11th
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x12), Chuck (3x3), How I Met Your Mother (5x12)
Meh: Fringe (2x11), Heroes (4x15), House (6x10)

This week I watched my first How I Met Your Mother in real time. And it was an excellent episode to start with: the 100th episode, "Girls Vs. Suits." Actually, I knew this episode was coming, which is one of the main reasons I marathoned the shit out of this series over the holidays. The obvious highlight was Neil Patrick Harris's musical moment, but I really enjoyed the progression in Ted's storyline as well. (I realize, sadly, that it'll probably be another 10 episodes before we get any more progression there.)

I also really enjoyed The Big Bang Theory's "The Psychic Vortex." Both storylines were quite strong. In a storyline that was played pretty straight, other than brief interjections of craziness from Howard and Bernadette, Leonard and Penny had a realistic conflict about Penny's belief in psychics. Most of the episode's comedy came from Sheldon and Raj's storyline, where Sheldon somehow met the perfect girl for him. I hope we see more of Martha, but I suspect we will not.

Chuck's third season has been great so far. "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muerte" was very entertaining, awesomely featuring Awesome prominently. Also awesome: no time wasted in the Buy More this week.

"Close to You" was an okay episode of Heroes. The gang is finally coming together to do something about Samuel, so that's good, I guess. It's too bad so little of this makes any sense. Parkman was back after an extended absence, but considering what went down last we saw him, he should be in jail. After borrowing his mother's power to see Emma's ugly future, Peter smashed Emma's cello, without considering that her power probably works with any instrument, or that his smashing of the cello leads to the very future he was trying to stop. Stupid, stupid Peter. Hiro and Ando rescuing Mohinder from the asylum was pretty funny, but so, so stupid in so, so many ways. And Noah was just spinning his wheels when he could have just talked to his daughter. Oh, Heroes, when is NBC going to fucking cancel you, already?

Fringe's "Unearthed" wasn't a bad episode. It was actually a pretty good standalone story. However, it was an episode from the first season that was not previously aired for unknown reasons (and was also not on the first season DVD set... WTF?), and Fox just aired it in the middle of the second season on a random Monday night without explanation. It was especially jarring because of the presence of a certain dead character. WTF, Fox, WTF?

Tuesday, January 12th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x8/2x9)

I feel a little like I'm repeating myself when I say that Better Off Ted had another two great episodes this week: "The Impertence of Communicationizing" and "The Long and Winding High Road." The misspelling of the first episode title is deliberate, as the story was about the fallout from a typo in an official memo. There were numerous hilarious moments throughout both episodes. As far as I'm concerned, the cast and crew of Better Off Ted can do no wrong.

Wednesday, January 13th
Loved: Modern Family (1x12)

"Not in My House" brought back my Modern Family love. I especially appreciated the absurdity of the dog butler statue. And Phil's talking head moments are always gold. I didn't get much out of Mitchell and Cameron's storyline this week, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the show.

Thursday, January 14th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x9/4x10), Fringe (2x12), Parks and Recreation (2x13)

What? No Office this week? Why? Instead, we got two times the 30 Rock, so I won't complain too much. Both episodes of 30 Rock were pretty good. "Klaus and Greta" was better than "Black Light Attack!" for me. But Parks and Recreation had the best 30 minutes of the night with "The Set Up." where Leslie was set up with one of Ann's horrible co-workers (Will Arnett!). We also got some more movement on the super cute (pretend I didn't just say that) Andy and April front.

The first Fringe episode this week was arguably a better standalone story than Thursday night's "Johari Window," but, well, I already ranted about that nonsense above. This actual second season Fringe episode told a decent X-Files-style "town with a secret" story, while also providing some excellent character moments for Walter.

Friday, January 15th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x12)

"The Hollow Man" was effectively the season finale to Dollhouse's second season, tying up all of the season's storylines with a bang--or two. This episode didn't feel as rushed as last week's, but there are definitely elements that I would have liked to have seen more of (for example: Boyd), if the series had been given more time to tell this story. The next episode, airing in two weeks--is it insensitive of me to whine about a Haiti telethon?--is the series finale, "Epitaph Two: The Return." I can't believe that Fox never aired the first season's awesome "Epitaph One," really undermining (for fans that didn't buy the season one DVD set) the impending doom that season two was all about.

Saturday, January 16th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x8)

It was around this time last season that the writers of Legend of the Seeker brought us "Denna" and "Puppeteer," two of the rare episodes of this series that actually (half-assedly in the case of "Denna") follow key plotlines from the Sword of Truth books. Now there's "Light," which introduced the Sisters of the Light and Verna to the series. Richard's ordeals in the Palace of the Prophets is my second favourite storyline in the entire book series, so I'm a little worried... but that's next week's episode. For this week, we just got Richard and Verna traveling, and Richard getting distracted on the way by another village needing his help. And there was a bunch of weird stuff with Zedd and Denna, and Kahlan and Cara--but who cares about that? Verna! Sisters of the Light! Don't screw this up, writers of Legend of the Seeker!

Week in Review, Jan 4 to 10

I had to go back to work this week, which really cut into my gaming and TV marathoning time. In fact, there were absolutely no TV marathons this week. There was no shortage of marathon gaming sessions, though. No all-nighters this week, but numerous late nights, including work nights. Sleep is overrated. The more times I stay up late playing video games (the only way I can stay up late), the easier it gets...

The Week in Video Games

I was worried this would happen. Ultimately, the problem with my mouse's scroll wheel that kept me from playing Dragon Age for quite a few weeks was just an easy excuse. I was really avoiding playing Dragon Age because I knew that once I started I would get hooked and then wouldn't be able to do anything else. Yep.

In the last post, I mentioned that I was struggling with the Tower of Ishal, but I conquered that challenge the next morning. I did resort to patching the game, which was supposed to slightly reduce the challenge of the Normal difficulty, but I don't think that's a big deal. It was a bigger deal when I found myself getting destroyed by a group of dogs in the Redcliffe castle basement and had to resort to decreasing the difficulty level to Easy. Easy is significantly easier than Normal, not only because the enemies are weaker, but also because there is no friendly fire damage from magic. Avoiding friendly fire was always a challenge in Normal, but now I can spam fireballs right in the middle of battle and not worry about destroying my own party. Now that the battles have become a lot easier--still challenging, mind you, just not fucking ridiculous anymore!--I am enjoying the game a lot more, and thus: addiction.

My travels in Ferelden have taken me to Lothering, Redcliffe, Denerim, Haven, and the Circle Tower so far. My elven mage, Tosc (get it?), is now level 12, specializing in evil, dirty Blood Magic. The quality of the storyline so far is incredible, with plenty of surprises and intense moments, very detailed histories and backstories, and the characterization of the NPCs is very strong. The gameplay has some annoyances, because the interface is somewhat clunky, the dialogue tree feels like a step back after Bioware's Mass Effect, and I spend way too much time micromanaging inventory because it is constantly filling up; but that's mostly nitpicking. As there should be in any good RPG, there is a ton of flexibility in solving many of the game's conflicts. Multiple playthroughs are definitely encouraged, especially because of the different origin stories, but because there's always some new game that needs to be played (Mass Effect 2 is next), I doubt I'll be doing multiple playthroughs. But I'll surely enjoy the hell out of this one playthrough.

I did manage to sneak some more Assassin's Creed II playtime in this week, mostly before getting hooked on Dragon Age, and this game just gets better and better. I was really happy when the game unexpectedly introduced a new climbing mechanic. The new battle mechanics have been terrific, especially dual hidden blades, but that jump climb maneuver is awesomely helpful. I estimate that another six to ten hours of playtime will be required to complete the game, but then I will still have a lot of secrets to track down for achievement points. I could write a whole blog post about the Xbox 360's achievement points--and I probably will.

And I've been playing a few puzzles from Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box most nights in bed before falling asleep. As expected, it is every bit as good as Curious Village. I wouldn't describe it as better just yet, but I'm only (estimating) a quarter into the game.

The Week in Television

Monday, January 4th
Liked: Heroes (4x13)
Meh: Heroes (4x14)

Heroes recovered a little from its last 2009 episode with "Upon This Rock," the first of two episodes aired this week. My favourite scenes featured Hiro finally reuniting with his sidekick Ando, and deaf girl Emma learning what her true powers were. Unfortunately, Hiro and Ando were left out of weaker second hour, "Let it Bleed," an episode that was more concerned with Sylar's return to his body--boring! Throughout both hours, Peter dealt with the loss of Nathan and Claire tried to learn more about Samuel's carnival, with both storylines offering bits of good stuff including a well done funeral sequence.

Tuesday, January 5th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x6/2x7)

Another two terrific Better Off Teds this week: "Beating a Dead Workforce" and "Change We Can't Believe In." Both episodes had numerous laughs and many great character moments. One of the highlights was Phil and Lem's struggle with reporting directly to Veronica.

Wednesday, January 6th
Liked: Modern Family (1x11)

Modern Family's "Up All Night" was not one of my favourites, mostly because it was inconsistent in the funny department, and none of the three storylines were particularly strong when compared with previous episodes of this series.

Friday, January 8th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x11)

Dollhouse's "Getting Closer" is an interesting example of accelerated storytelling. It is easy to picture the many important plot moments in this episode being played out over a multi-episode arc or even a full season, but circumstances have forced Joss Whedon to play his hand early. This did lead to some logic gaffes in this episode necessary to expedite the plot, mostly regarding the complete lack of security in the Dollhouses and Rossum's headquarters. However, none of that mattered in the least, because this episode was awesome! There were two moments in this episode that blew the freakin' minds of Dollhouse fans everywhere. How many series give you two mind blowing scenes in one episode? Not many.

Saturday, January 9th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x7)

Legend of the Seeker's "Resurrection" had some great moments and some questionable moments. Denna vs Cara had potential, but it never really lived up to that, mostly because neither actress is that great--hot, yes, great actors, no. Pretty impressive battle sequence to start the episode, though; I never get tired of seeing Zedd tossing out wizard's fire.

Sunday, January 10th
Liked: Chuck (3x1/3x2)

During the first season of Chuck, I thought the show was okay. Goofy, silly, cute fun, mostly. However, something changed halfway through the second season when this show became must see TV. I'll attribute my increased interest mostly to the well plotted Orion storyline and Ellie & Awesome's wedding. At the end of the second season, it looked like the show would be canceled, even though the second season finale had ended with a clever cliffhanger. But, here we are: Chuck season three. I will be shocked if there is a Chuck season four, so I will enjoy this ride while it lasts.

The first two episodes of the third season, "Chuck Versus The Pink Slip" and "Chuck Versus The Three Words," were pretty good. Chuck's new Intersect 2.0 powers are appropriately ridiculous, but Chuck is still Chuck and still bungling his way through missions. Unfortunately, these episodes pretty much restored early season two status quo: Chuck and Sarah's relationship has been effectively reset and the original Buy More gang is mostly back together. This is not really what I was expecting from the game-changing episodes at the end of season two, but that's TV for you: got to keep giving the fans the same show they always loved.

Week (and a bit) in Review, Dec 24 to Jan 3

It was only a matter of time before I readjusted these Week in Review posts from Thursday to Wednesday to a more sensible Monday to Sunday. Now is that time.

The Week in Video Games

Video gaming was a huge time killer this week. I received three games for Christmas: Lego Rock Band, Assassin's Creed II, and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Lego Rock Band is Rock Band with the goofy sensibilities of Traveller's Tales Lego video game series. I still plan to do a full post about the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises soon, so I won't write much about this game here, other than to say that I have enjoyed it quite a bit. I have not finished it yet, which is unusual for me with a game of this type, but I had a lot of games to play this week.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is very similar in structure and execution to Curious Village, which is great because Curious Village is my favourite DS game. I haven't put a lot of time into Diabolical Box yet, because I don't really feel the urge to play DS games when in my house with an Xbox 360, Wii, and PC available to play, but what I have played has been excellent. Now I need to travel somewhere with my DS.

I asked for Assassin's Creed II for Christmas, despite having never played the original Assassin's Creed, because the reviews made it sound like something right up my alley (I also fucking loved Ubisoft Montreal's 2008 game, Prince of Persia), and because every reviewer made a big deal of pointing out how much better II was than I. And it is; more on that later. But before I dove in to II, I decided that a playthrough of the original would be a good idea, at the very least to get some familiarity with the Desmond storyline (no spoilers here!). So, late in the day on Boxing Day, I braved the crowds to pick up a copy of Assassin's Creed for $15. And then on the 27th, I played Assassin's Creed for nearly 20 hours straight, staying up until 4AM on the 28th.

I am nearly 33. I don't do all-nighters. I am too old for that shit. I am tired at 10PM most days. When I started my marathon play session of Assassin's Creed, I had no intention of completing the entire game in one day, but I just kept going, and going, and going, and it happened. When I thought I was nearly done the game around midnight, it made sense to just keep going and finish it, but then the end sequence was much longer than expected...

Anyway, Assassin's Creed is pretty awesome. I don't play a game for 20 hours in a row if it's not. I understand the complaints that many people have with the game, but the mechanics of assassination and the storyline are so good that the slogging through civilian rescues didn't bother me much at all. And Assassin's Creed II is even better, removing the slogging, and introducing some even cooler new mechanics. I'm still pretty early in II, so I haven't yet experienced the exhilaration of some of the sweetest assassinations from I, but I have no doubt that that is coming.

I ended the week by finally putting in some awesome quality time with my Dragon Age elvish mage Tosc. In six hours of playtime, I completed the origin story for the character and then fought my way through the Wilds. In that short time, I have already learned to not get attached to party members, because Bioware is not afraid to fuck with your expectations. I stayed up late on Sunday night trying without success to fight my way through the Tower of Ishal on Normal difficulty. I have heard that the first patch for the game actually makes Normal difficulty easier, but I haven't resorted to that just yet.

The Week in Books

Although it would seem a natural fit for me, I am not a comic book geek. I know enough to converse with comic book geeks in general terms, but my comic book reading has been limited to major graphic novels like Watchmen and a couple projects from favourite authors like Neil Gaiman (The Sandman).

But in the last year, I've been reading an above average amount of comic books, thanks to the ongoing Buffy Season 8 and Angel After the Fall series. Not to mention a couple Serenity/Firefly comic books and Fray, Joss Whedon's story of a future vampire slayer. Many of these comic books are written by members of the writing staff from the shows in question, including Joss Whedon himself, and all of them pick up where the TV series left off. Rather than making frequent visits to comic book stores to pick up the newest issues, I have been waiting for the compilation books to be released. Each compilation book typically includes five issues of the comic series.

This week I read Angel Aftermath, the fifth volume from the Angel After the Fall series. In general, I have enjoyed Angel After the Fall much more than Buffy Season 8, and these five issues continued the trend. These issues were the first created without the input of Joss Whedon or After the Fall mastermind Brian Lynch, instead entirely written by Kelley Armstrong, but the storyline is still strong and still feels faithful to the series. My only problem with Angel Aftermath was the artwork: Franco Urru pretty much nailed the look of every character in the first four volumes, but Dave Ross's illustrations look nothing like the actors in question.

The Week in Movies

I haven't gone to see Avatar yet. Really, I haven't left my house much at all this past week. Starting to feel like a hermit. Too much stuff to do right here!

I did watch one awesome movie this week, though. I love everything Pixar creates, with the notable exception of the only pretty good Cars, but for some reason, I haven't gone to see their movies on the big screen since The Incredibles. I was six months late in watching Wall-E last year, I was six months late in watching Ratatouille in 2007, and this year I am six months late in watching Up. Ratatouille and Wall-E are both amazing, but Up might be my favourite Pixar movie to date. I would rave about this movie for the unexpectedly touching and adult introduction to the character of Carl alone. The fantasy storyline that follows is also right up my alley. And talking dogs!

The Week in Television

Although the all-nighter with Assassin's Creed was the craziest thing I did all week, it wasn't the only crazy thing I did. I've always been curious about How I Met Your Mother. Look at the cast: Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segal, Alyson Hannigan. But I never watched it for an unknown reason... although it was probably the retarded title and premise that turned me off. That changed this week in a big way, because I managed to watch the whole fucking series to date (four and a half seasons worth!) in only few days. Marathoning TV is something I do a lot, usually only one or two days at a time once in a while, but this was a sustained multiple day marthon of epic proportions.

So, obviously it turns out that I like How I Met Your Mother. TV marathons only happen when I am addicted, and I was addicted. I'm not saying that I love the show however. The premise and title were a misguided attempt to provide an unusual hook to a pretty standard "group of friends" sitcom, and the lack of progress in the meeting of the mother in four and a half seasons is ridiculous. But the show has clever editing, unusually strong continuity, and is pretty damn funny most of the time. Most importantly, the characters are not caricatures, except maybe Neil Patrick Harris's Barney. I think the main reason I connected to the show so quickly was because I can really identify with and relate to these characters. They feel like real people. Many of the situations they encounter--this is a situation comedy after all--are silly and forced, but the reactions still seem realistic somehow. And the show has real drama. In a way, we know how things are going to end for Ted, but I'm still frequently surprised by the journey. Too bad the journey is so damn slow, and these surprising dramatic moments occur only once or twice per season...

I also watched the last few remaining episodes of Warehouse 13's first season this week. This is not a show that I would recommend to many people, because it is a borderline guilty pleasure. It's very derivative, and very, very cheesy, but I love it despite itself. Wonderfully and frustratingly, the season ended on a ridiculously awesome cliffhanger.

Friday, December 25th
Meh: Doctor Who

Christmas Day in the UK featured part 1 of "The End of Time," the final Doctor Who special for David Tennant and showrunner Russell T Davies. Part 1 is pretty much a complete mess. I honestly had no idea what was going on most of the time, although part 2 did resolve some of the confusion, but more problematic was the fact that I didn't really even care.

Tuesday, December 29th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x4)

The first of two great Better Off Teds this week, "It's Nothing Business, It's Just Personal" introduced a red lab coat, a tiny office, and a magician named Mordor, all with hilarious results.

Friday, January 1st
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x5)
Liked: Doctor Who

The obvious highlight of Doctor Who's "The End of Time, Part 2" was David Tennant's final 20 minutes. My first Doctor Who was Christopher Eccleston, but David Tennant was easily my favourite. Matt Smith has some big shoes to fill, but judging by his first minute or so, he's going to do fine. More importantly, Russell T Davies is out and Steven Moffat is in as showrunner. Oh, as for the rest of "The End of Time:" it was okay. Part 2 was solidly better than part 1, but that wasn't hard, and Bernard Cribbins was terrific as the Doctor's companion.

Poor Better Off Ted: nobody wants to watch you, and now you are being burnt off by ABC on random days like New Year's Day, and then two episodes will air on each of the next few Tuesdays. I guess I don't mind, because I'll get to see all of the episodes sooner rather than later. I'm not really sad about the cancellation, because it didn't make sense that this awesome but super low rated show got a second season at all... hm, that all sounds very familiar--oh, right, Dollhouse! Anyway, "The Great Repression" was another great episode, but that's nothing new. There is nothing funnier than sexual harassment!

Blogging about 2009

It's been 2010 for a whole day now, so it's time for Year in Review 2009. I will start by personifying 2009 for a second and stating for the record that this past year was a bitch whore.

This is not going to be a look back at the year's TV or movies or music or video games. I spend more than enough time writing about those things every week. This is something different. This is a look back at my life in 2009.

The main reason I might not look back fondly on 2009 is obvious: my marriage ended in the middle of the year. To be fair, the first half of 2009 wasn't terrible. It just was. Time passed with little of note occurring. The second half of 2009 was like nothing I have experienced before nor want to ever experience again. Not that there weren't good things happening. As much as possible, this post will focus on the good things that were happening.

Pets

The year 2009 started on a downer. We had to put down my favourite cat Pumpkin just before Christmas 2008. However, by the end of January, I had stumbled upon beautiful long-haired Furlicity in Pet Smart and adopted her.

The other big addition to the family in 2009 was Duke's niece, Daisy. As she frequently did when dogs were involved, my ex-wife completely ignored my numerous objections to adopting another dog. Because of this, Daisy and I got off to a rough start. I guess that worked out okay in the end.

With separation plans in play, one of the big tasks for summer 2009 was to find new homes for our little dogs, Pip and Max, because neither of us wanted to take custody of the poor little guys. (There are numerous reasons that I won't go into here.) Max's first new home didn't work out so well, but he's now happily living with my ex-wife's brother. I can only assume that things are going well for Pip in her new home, because we haven't heard otherwise.

My cat Squeak had an interesting 2009. With numerous health problems threatening her life, and some personality conflicts between her and Fritzy, we decided to move her out of the basement. At first, this meant that she lived in the main floor bathroom, which was a terrible situation that just made things awkward for guests. Eventually she was allowed to roam free and claw the shit out of my furniture, but by this time in the year I couldn't care any less about furniture damage. However, her freedom in the house led to a frightening attack by a dog that we were looking after, and a panicked trip to the 24 hour vet. Despite everything, somehow Squeak is still doing fine. But her nine lives have long been squandered, so it seems highly unlikely that she'll survive 2010. But I thought the same about 2009, so who knows?

Work

2009 was the year that I topped out in my salary range. Unless/until I change jobs, I can no longer get raises (other than cost of living adjustments). This, combined with my depression issues, really destroyed any motivation I may have had to strive for excellence in my job. Not that there was much of that to start with. There is never any danger of being fired, which is key.

2009 was also the year that I did absolutely nothing of note at work. No projects whatsoever. If there were any consequences that could come of doing nothing for an entire year--but there aren't!--I might worry about my yearly performance review. But it wasn't really my fault that I was never given anything to do. I could have complained and asked for work, but I was in no mood to do anything of that sort.

Booze

Goddamn, I was drunk a lot in 2009. Saturday brew days, ALES club meetings, a bachelor party weekend, a September camping trip, four weddings (but no funerals), curling, Christmas, a Wednesday brew day, New Year's--so much booze.

I had my first ever blackout in 2009, and then had a couple more for good measure. Blackouts are especially hard for me to deal with. I'm sure no one likes waking up and wondering what happened last night, but I take it to the next level: panicking about what I did or said and feeling like complete crap for days afterward because of the loss of memory and control. So you'd think I'd stop drinking so much that I have blackouts, right? Yeah, you'd think.

Despite the increasing frequency of blackouts, Saturday brew days are typically the highlight of my week. We are consistently making excellent beer, but that's just the pretense for everyone to get together and have a great day. 2010 will surely be a great year for Saturday brew days, especially once I am able to walk the line of buzzed vs fucked.

Money

A funny thing happened in the last half of this year, as I struggled to keep my debt level under control due to new financial obligations: I stopped caring about spending money. I'm not being stupid about it, but my priorities have changed significantly.

Rather than maintain a restrictive budget for the purposes of paying down debt as quickly as possible, I am trying to enjoy my life as much as possible, which means eating/drinking out with friends frequently and buying things that I want when I want--but again, not being stupid about it. My new rule has become a simple one: as long as I'm not spending more than I am making (in other words, as long as the debt isn't growing), it's all good.

With the marriage breakdown, my main purpose for saving money--to travel the world with my wife--has been set aside, so now I'm focusing on the now. I have no intention of traveling by myself, and finding a new travel companion will not be an easy task, so I have some time. I continue to pay down debt, just at a much slower rate than pre-separation.

Friends

Although I (figuratively) lost my best friend, 2009 was still somehow a good year for friendship. Some newer friends became best friends and some old friends became friends again.

In a great cosmic twist--if I believed in a higher power, I'd say, "Good one, big guy!"--within a couple months of my marriage ending, my last three unmarried friends got married. Congratulations, guys! Not bitter at all, here...

Dating

2009 was of course the year that I started dating again. But not really. Trying to date is more accurate. Being open to dating. Online dating.

I haven't written much on this blog about my recent experiences in online dating. Not that there was much to tell. I knew there was a good possibility that someone could Google upon this blog, and so the last thing I wanted to do was screw up a potential relationship by blogging about it.

Ultimately, I had one date with a nice girl that I thought might lead to something more, but it hasn't and probably won't. We have communication issues--largely due to me, I'm sure. I'm not a good communicator.

When I met my ex-wife through online dating, it was immediately obvious that there was something special there, and communication was never a problem. I guess I'm hoping to find that exact same thing again, which I know is incredibly unlikely.

To start 2010, I am backing slowly away from online dating. I'm not taking my profiles down, but I'm retreating to the less frustrating stage one. Stage one was where I sat back and waited for people to show interest in me first. I spent the last three months in the much more active stage two, and I need a break from that. I've read every profile, most of which were terrible, and emailed every interesting person, most of which were ignored. A break from that will be nice.

I don't do New Year's resolutions--because: come on!--but 2010 will have to be the year that I get out there again. Before I met my ex-wife, I had pretty much completely given up on online dating ever working, and so I was trying to meet people the old fashioned way: out in the real world. Here I am again. I'm not talking about bars... although maybe I should be. Being back out on the curling ice is a start, but I'm not exactly meeting new people there. I'm not sure what I'm going to do; all I know is that I have to do something.

It's tough to meet new people, to date, when you spend all your socializing time within the same small social circle. And when you work in a small office with a bunch of engineers. And when you don't really like meeting new people, nor like most people in general. So, my challenge for 2010 is to figure out where I go from here.

Family

Some people might be wondering how this past Christmas season was for me. And the answer is a surprising, "Pretty damn good." My family came through in a big way for me. As they always do.

It's interesting to think that this Christmas would have played out pretty similarly even if the separation had not occurred. My ex-wife always had a trip to Costa Rica with a friend planned for Christmas 2009, so I would have been sitting at home alone anyway. Obviously there are differences, mostly in my mental state, but the events would have been the same.

2010

I don't exactly have high hopes for 2010. I expect that it will play out much like the last few months have. That's how life is. However, life can also be surprising. I'm not expecting the unexpected, but the unexpected would not be unexpected. And the unexpected would be very much appreciated.

Stay tuned!