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!