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.