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.