Fox Sunday Line up Premieres - Review Time!

So, last night was the premiere of FOX's "Animation Domination", their animated Sunday night line up which kicks off with The Simpsons, then the premiere of the new Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and finally American Dad, which I don't watch. But here are some quick reviews of the other 3.

I love The Simpsons. I've been watching the show for many of the 20 years it's been on the air. Yeah, not every season has been great, but I think it's recently started to find its stride again. So I was excited for the season premiere. 

The episode was co-written by, and co-starred comedian Seth Rogen, who I greatly enjoy in his various film roles. So I guess my expectations of this episode were a little higher than they should have been. Don't get me wrong, the episode still had plenty of funny moments - mostly because I'm a nerd and all the nerdy humor involving Comic Guy appealed to me - but it wasn't hilarious from start to finish. There was no secondary story, which was a little strange, and aside from Homer the Simpson's family didn't play much of a role. The beginning of the show was definitely the strongest part of the show - once Rogen's character, a Hollywood trainer to the stars, showed up, the show went downhill a little bit. The character he played was amusing, and they did a pretty good job of poking fun at Hollywood (they usually do), but they simply couldn't keep up the momentum they had built up at the beginning of the episode. 


What got me was the line that was bleeped out of the show - I think that's a Simpsons' first, if I'm not mistaken. It wasn't just the curse that bleeped out, but the whole rest of the line. I guess the FOX censors didn't want to take any chances with the FCC. It was odd, but still hilarious. There were also some great sight gags, of course, mostly involving some movie posters.


Overall, it was a solid episode. Entertaining, but not fantastic.

When I first heard about this show, I was like, "They're giving Cleveland a show? He is the most boring character on Family Guy!" Needless to say, my expectations were low. I just didn't see how they could create an entertaining show with such a dull secondary character.


Well, the show was about as boring as I anticipated. The show started off with some scenes with the Family Guy characters back home in Rhode Island before he left town intending to head for California, but once Cleveland and his son packed up their car and drove off they left the humor behind. I did enjoy how they used the Cleveland in the bathtub joke one last time - also, Stewie's line: "He's getting his own show?" probably summed up the thoughts of most viewers. I know it did mine.


What started with weak, lame theme song, continued with fifteen minutes of lame, boring characters and lame, boring attempts at humor. Maybe there's some potential with his red neck neighbor across the street, the other two neighbors, including a bear named Tim, just seemed uninspired sidekicks. As for the family, they were pretty dull - and I already can't stand the foul mouthed kindergartner. Also, what the hell happened to Cleveland Jr.? He goes from hyper-active 8 year old to fat 14 year old? He was another character that had me checking the clock, waiting for the show to end. 


The only laughs in the show aside from the beginning scenes were some the Family Guy like flashbacks.


So I guess in the end my expectations were met - The Cleveland Show was a boring show centered around a boring character. I know I'll be tuning out in the future.

That leaves Family Guy, which has been, in my opinion, declining in recent seasons. It tries to be cutting edge and offensive sometimes, going more for a shock than a laugh. Last night, however, the show was the clear winner, as the episode where Brian and Stewie found themselves in a variety of different universes was funny from beginning to end. I normally complain when a show uses certain characters too much - and that's certainly the case with Stewie and Brian, but in this case I don't mind. They interact so well, and are always entertaining to watch.


There was something to make me chuckle in each dimension the duo visited in the episode - including a dimension where Brian was a real dog and Stewie a real baby. There was also a dimension where everything was drawn Disney style - the animation was great, as was the accompanying song about pie - but I kept waiting for the scene to end badly and couldn't really enjoy it too much. Sure enough, it ended horribly, making me cringe. But that's Family Guy for you. Can't have an episode of Family Guy without it.


But overall I'm looking forward to what lies ahead for The Simpsons and Family Guy this season. As for Cleveland, I wonder if he'll stick around. And if not, will he return to Family Guy? I hope so. That'll always be his home to me.

Review ~ "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown

Say what you want about Dan Brown - the man can write a gripping and fascinating tale by weaving in art and architecture and history. Since I love all those things, I really loved both "Angels and Demons" and "The DaVinci Code". (I slightly prefer "Angels and Demons".) Anyway, when I heard his newest book was finally coming out, I snatched it up, hoping for another fast paced adventure that was hard to put down.

In "The Lost Symbol", Robert Langdon, the Harvard professor from the previous 2 books, finds himself running around Washington D.C. Someone is in trouble, and apparently Robert is the only one who can save him. It's hard to give a decent synopsis without giving too much of the book away.

The book was good. But I didn't like it anywhere near as much as I liked his previous 2 efforts. Since I'm a big American history buff, I thought a book set in our nation's capitol would appeal to me. But sadly the book does not really infuse art, history and architecture as much as the previous 2 efforts - instead it focuses mainly on the history and workings of the Freemasons, which is a famous organization I'm sure you've heard of. Well, they play a huge role in this book, and while there was still interesting history, art and architecture tidbits, it just wasn't much. It just wasn't the same. 

Aside from that, I found that while I cared about what happened in the book, I really had no trouble putting it down. Unlike the other 2 books, which I quickly devoured, I kind of read this one leisurely, over the course of a week. The story is good, but it's not quite as fascinating as the other two books. There are shocking moments, but I have to say only one really got me. The others didn't really do much to affect me emotionally.

And while all of this books have moments where you step back and realize how absurd the whole thing is, I've always been able to kind of overlook that in the other books. In this one, however, I found that much harder. I even found myself rolling my eyes a couple of things at the actions of Langdon and his comrades. And I didn't really care for the ending either.

I know it sounds like I'm being really hard on the book - if you're a Dan Brown fan, I still suggest reading it. It's more of the same, but I don't think it's up to the same standards. I was disappointed. In the end, I was hoping for more than the book delivered. But I think he had a lot to measure up to based on the success of his previous two books. It's not easy to always live up to the hype. He still manages to weave a good tale, and his use of mixing history with fiction is still pretty strong. 

If you've never read one of his books, though, I wouldn't start with this one. I'd start at the beginning - read Angels and Demons. Save this one for when you've got some time to kill.

Premiere - Modern Family

Last week, me, and probably every other person signed up to receive "news and special offers" from ABC got an interesting email. It invited me to watch the premiere of the new comedy, Modern Family, online - several days before it's actual broadcast premiere.

I had never heard of the show. And considering I spend a lot of time reading entertainment news, that's pretty unusual. But I was intrigued at the opportunity of being able to watch something early, so I kept the email.

A day later, and suddenly I had heard of it. People and several other sites gave the premiere rave reviews, gushing over how funny it was. Brian also told me he had heard it was supposed to be good. So I took the password of mystery ABC emailed me, and I watched the show, expecting great things.


And great things were delivered. Holy crap, this show is FUNNY. I don't really tend to laugh out loud when I'm watching something alone - I don't know, a weird quirk of mine or something, but there was one part where I was practically in hysterics. The show is a mockumentary (kind of like The Office where the people do interviews to the camera) that follows three different families: an older guy and his new, younger, wife and her 11 year old son; a 10+ married couple with 3 kids and a gay couple that just adopted a baby. It's a simple concept with tons of possibilities.


So, even though this show conflicts with Glee, (it airs at 9 EST tonight on ABC) I definitely plan on setting my TiVo and following these families. Very funny stuff.


...I can't believe how many new shows I'm watching already this season. I'm lucky if I pick up one new show, and usually it's one that's been on for a few seasons already and has already defined itself. Maybe they're finally getting some people who can actually write again.

The Emmy's! ...Meh.

So, Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmy's last night, and it was pretty meh. Not really his fault. The writing just wasn't that funny and some of the people who won... Well, we'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, the opening song just wasn't that clever - not as good as the one written for the Oscars. (Which took home an Emmy last night, actually. I didn't think it was better than "Motherlover", but the guy who accepted the award was a hoot.)

Anyway, here's the full winner's list.

No complaints about the Drama awards - the only drama I actually watch is Lost. Michael Emerson won and I was happy. He is awesome on that show. But...

It's always bothered me that the same person can win for the same part year after year after year for as long as the show it on TV. It gets kind of boring. For instance, there were several repeat winners this year, including Bryan Cranston and Alec Baldwin (who I love on 30 Rock, but I'll get to that.) Sometimes I wonder if the same person should be able to win unlimited times for the same role. On one hand, it gets kind of boring at after awhile to watch. On the other hand, with TV the actors have new challenges to deal with each season. So should someone be able to only win twice for the same part on the same show and then be retired? How many times can you be told you're great playing the same part? I don't know. I'm pretty torn on the issue.


Comedy categories... Okay, I watch a lot of comedies. 30 Rock is a great show. Totally deserved to win. And I watch many of the shows that were nominated this year. The ratings for 30 Rock aren't that great and it's really a shame, because it's one of the smartest, funniest shows on TV. If you're not watching it, you're depriving yourself. Alec Baldwin is hilarious on it - I just love him. And Tina Fey...well, I greatly admire her. She's just so talented.


Having said the word talented... JON CRYER?! REALLY?! REALLY?!


Can I tell you how much I HATE Two and a Half Men? It consistently has the best ratings of any comedy, and that just makes me sad. I'm sorry, but I just think the show is juvenile, with one dimensional characters and easily predictable jokes. A monkey could write it. Oh no. That's mean. I'm sure the monkey could write something better.  


I can't believe he won over the likes of Neil Patrick Harris and Rainn Wilson - hell, anyone in that category deserved it WAY more than him. Anyone could play that stupid part. Ugh, everything about that show just grates me in the worst way. There's always something in every award show that pisses me off and this is the winner for this year.

Plus, what was with the sweater vest? He looked like a bee! (Speaking of fashions, here's EW's Best and Worst list. And AOL's. My favorites: Drew Barrymore, Sandra Oh, Alyson Hannigan, Jenna Fischer, and Vanessa Williams And least faves: Sarah Silverman, Kristen Wiig, Hayden Panettiere, Kyra Sedgwick, Patricia Arquette - ugh! Jane Krakowski, and Christina Applegate)



And Toni Collete? Really? That show is horrible. She's okay in it, but...come on, people.


Here's a list of the Best and Worst moments from the broadcast. Some thoughts:

• Loved the colorful commentary provided for the winners by the guy who plays PC in the Mac commercials. (Especially since Mac, Justin Long, was there as Drew Barrymore's date.)
• Kristen Chenoweth! Love her. Wish I watched her show. I heard it was good. Better late than never - I hope it's on DVD.
• I have to admit that Neil's reaction to his loss was funny.
• I don't often think Jimmy Fallon was funny, but his musical bit was hilarious. 
• And thank you for showing Bea Arthur as Maude and Dorothy. She'll always be one of my favorite comedienne's of all time. RIP Bea.
  

Oh, but the best part of the night?









This should have won an Emmy.

Must See TV... Kind Of.

So last night was the season premiere of The Office. I can't believe they're on their 6th season already. I'm a big fan of the show, but I didn't love last season so much. Very hit or miss. I was especially disappointed with the season finale. Not enough to make me stop watching the show, of course.

So, it premiered last night with an episode called, "Gossip". And I really enjoyed the episode. I heard it was more classic "Office", and I felt that was an accurate description. The ending was a little...strange, but overall I'd say it was a solid season premiere. Not as good as last season's premiere, "Weight Loss", (which was probably one of the best episodes of Season 5, if not THE best.) but still good. I laughed out loud, which isn't such an easy thing. Got me excited to see what's in store this season for the Dunder Mifflin crew.

I also tuned in for Community, which was a brand new show that premiered last night after The Office. I had heard good things about the show, the previews looked appealing, and I like Chevy Chase. And while I didn't it laugh out loud hysterical, I found it to be a good, solid first episode that introduced the characters well and amused me at the same time. I think the show definitely has potential. I'll be tuning in next week again.


So, can it be true? Is there 2 new shows this season that I like? (First Glee, now Community) I can't remember the last time this happened...if ever. There's a first time for everything, I guess.

Final Fantasy Dissidia ~ Thoughts and Complaints

So, I'm basically a Final Fantasy whore. I'll pretty much any game featuring those two words. ("Final Fantasy's economics textbook adventure? Sweet!") However, I am also notorious for being critical on the games. I thought 10, 10-2 and 12 were all gonna suck. I loved them all. So I tried to keep an open mind about Dissidia, even though deep down I wanted to use the word suck so bad.

Well, I had to be right eventually.

Okay, let me correct that. The game doesn't suck. It just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not a fan of fighting games as it is. Not from my experience with Final Fantasy that aren't RPGs, this isn't necessarily enough to turn me off. In fact I beat and rather enjoyed Dirge of Cerberus, even though it's a shooting game, which I hate even more than fighting games. But I think Squarenix went wrong in several ways before I even got my hands on the game:

1. It's on the PSP.  Seriously, is there a worse system to put a fighting game on? Usually with a fighting game you want to play against other people. The PSP being a pretty expensive handheld system, with not too many great titles on it, I only know a small amount of people who own one. And while Brian and I each own a DS, there's only one PSP in the house. They should have put this out for PS3 - or at the very least make downloadable on the PSN. That way at least all you'd need to play with a friend is a second controller.
2. The character line up. So, with all the characters Squarenix has to choose from in the Final Fantasy games, they chose only to use the main hero and villain from each game. Well, kind of. I hardly call Jecht the villain of X. Seriously. Seymour would have been better. But I digress. No one gives a shit about half the characters in the game. I don't think anyone saw the character choices and thought, "Man, I can't wait to play as the Warrior of Light!" And you know what, I could have stomached the line up of losers from the games that time forgot if they had some decent unlockables. But no. There is a total lack of that as well. No kicking ass with Auron or Cid for you. 

  Top Line: 1. Warrior of Who Gives a Shit. 2. Random Guy #2. 3. Character so pointless they don't have a name. 4. Cecil. 5. Kid Icarus. Or Bartz. Or something. Who can tell. 6. Terra
2nd Line: 7. Cloud. 8. Squall. 9. Zidane. 10. TIDUS! It's Tie-dus! How does that look like Tee-dus in any way? I refuse to call him that! You try and make me! 11. Are you fucking kidding me? 12. Cosmos, or something.
Villains, 1st Line: 1. Ugly guy. 2. Crazy hair. 3. Skanky boobs. 4. Golbez. 5. X-DEATH THE ELIMINATOR 6. Kefka, the scariest clown in existence. 
2nd Line: 7. Um...it's on the tip of my mind...uh...oh, I don't know. Seph...something. 8. Ultimecia. 9. Kuja, the oh so fabulous one. 10. Jecht, who's suddenly evil. 11. Seriously?!?! Does that game even count?! 12. Super McEvil Dude.








 With all the potentional they had, they kind of screwed up from the beginning. The idea of a Final Fantasy fighting game, even for a non-fighting game fan like me, was appealing. Who wouldn't want to see some of your favorite characters go head to head against a friend? Well, for that the game would actually have to have some favorite characters. And I hope your friend has a PSP.

Other things that suck about this game:

• Level design. Holy crap. With all the locations to choose from, they instead chose to do either boring plains of non-existence or walls upon walls of colors so brain numbing they must have been conceived during an LSD trip. And way too many cliffs and bottomless pits. Why do so many fighting games have that? These people should fight somewhere a little more stable. Anyway, they should have gone the route of Super Smash Bros. and given us some more levels that were actually relevant to a game, instead of a monkey on mushrooms could have programmed.
• The story is awful. Now, admittedly this is not a strong suit of fighting games as whole, but I think I could think of something less lame in about in about 2 seconds, as could the monkey on shrooms I previously referred to. It's something about crystals and friendship and other gag inducing crap I zoned out immediately. Can I play as the villains now? They're trying to destroy all that, right?
• Overly confusing systems. Well, that's Final Fantasy for you, one could say. And you'd  have a point. And I'm sure if I spent a lot of time with the game I'd get the hang of it at some point. But I shouldn't have to read every single tutorial to shed some light on what the hell's going on.

There was something I liked about the game - the chocobo. He was pretty cute. Oh, and the help menus. They feature characters from past games and it was kind of cool to see them. But if the best thing about the game is the Help menus, you know there's a fucking problem.


Overall, I think this game is a disappointment. Even seeing Sephiroth without a shirt could not save this game for me. I think you have to like fighting games to enjoy it - Brian, who does enjoy fighting games, seemed to really enjoy it. This game is not enough fan service for Final Fantasy fans in general. I hope if they choose to do another one they take some of my complaints into consideration. (Because you know Squarenix is sooooo reading this.)

 

Yup. Not even worth it for this.

Self Promotion

[Warning. This post is shameless self promotion.]

So, I love podcasts.

And I love video games.

And yet, I could not find a video game podcast that appealed to me. I couldn't find one that featured men and women, discussing game topics in a way that was both informative and humorous.


So why not do it myself?


I thought I'd have trouble rounding up people to do it with. Nope got it. Check!


Then I thought all the work to put it together would be overwhelming, and something would fall apart there. Yeah, it was a lot of work, but nothing I couldn't handle. Check!

Recording the show itself would ultimately be our undoing. Something would go wrong and we wouldn't be able to record anything decent. Well,  the first time we went to record, things didn't go so well. But we figured it out, pressed on and recorded a good sounding first show.


I wouldn't be able to find affordable hosting. This was the biggest pain. But I found PodBean, and I'm very happy. No complaints.


iTunes would reject our ass. Nope! We are up and listed!


So if you're looking for a different kind of video game podcast, check us out! We're Gamester's Paradise. We've got a blog, a Twitter and a website. Right now I'm promoting all I can, since I worked really hard to get this up and running! 

If you give us a listen, I hope you enjoy what you hear!

< / end shamless self promotion >

Squeal of Glee

So I finally sat down and watched the 2 episodes of Glee that have aired so far. I've heard many great things, and I thought the show looked great from the commercials, so I was really expecting to love the show.

I'm happy to report, I was not disappointed.

Usually I don't like shows right off the bat. Usually they have to have at least half a season (if not a whole one) under their belt, because it takes me a few episodes to warm up to the characters. This is true with a lot of shows that I love: The Office and Arrested Development come to mind. But I found myself attracted to the characters. 

A big thing about Glee is that it's so different - it's not just another sitcom. It's not really laugh out loud funny - but it's thoroughly entertaining because it's smart. It's not some stock characters and a laugh track. The characters are real but quirky at the same time. They're truly endearing. And have I mentioned that the music is fantastic? (As is the cast.)

I definitely suggest everyone give this show a try. If you're looking for something on TV that's different from the usual crap - you've got it right here. I'm really looking forward to see where the show goes over the rest of the season.

Glee airs Wednesday nights @  9 EST on FOX.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

So I got this in my email yesterday:

We're proud to present a 70th anniversary celebration of the classic movie The Wizard of Oz later this month in New York City.

We're hosting a free outdoor screening of the movie in Central Park, preceded by a free, live concert featuring special performances of songs from the movie by: Jennifer Hudson, Julianne Hough and ?uestlove of the Roots.

Date:	Tuesday, September 29th
Concert:	7:30 pm
Screening:	8:30 pm
Address:	Rumsey Playfield
	Central Park, New Yor

For more details please visit: www.netflix.com/wizardofoz

As part of the celebration, Netflix will also be inviting the general public to instantly watch The Wizard of Oz for free online on Saturday, October 3rd, at the website noted above. Be sure to tell your friends not to miss this classic movie and try out the Netflix service.


See you in New York.

–Your friends at Netflix

Doesn't that sound amazing? Too bad I can't go - going to the city on a Tuesday night is not exactly feasible for me. But I would love to see that concert and enjoy watching the movie outside in Central Park. I love, love, love The Wizard of Oz. Not just the movie, but the book, too. I have a gorgeous hardcover edition with full color pictures and I've read it numerous times. I'm not sure where the book came from - I've had it ever since I was a little girl, and it's my most treasured book. 

I think the amazing thing about the film is how it holds up no matter how many years go back. The movie is from 1939 - 70 years ago, and yet children still enjoy it. Goes to show what a great movie it is, not only story wise (Classic. Timeless.) but production and casting wise. Who can't love Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale? She's just darling. And Margaret Hamilton as the witch - she'll be delighting audiences for 70 plus years to come. And the music...the music is iconic. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is quite possibly one of the most recognized and beloved songs ever made for a movie. What little girl doesn't want their own pair of ruby slippers? (I know I did... I still do...) And no matter how many times I watch it, I'm always captivated when Dorothy steps out of her gray fallen farmhouse and into the colorful world of Oz.

So I urge you to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the movie by watching it. And hey, pick up the book if you've never read it before. It's different in many ways from the movie, but I've always been able to enjoy each for what it is. Even though it's missing a lot next to the book, the movie still a great adaptation and captures the heart of the story - after all, there's no place like home.

(And I urge you to check out the movie trivia on IMDB. Fascinating stuff!)

It's Gonna Be Legend...Wait For It...

So you know who's hosting the Emmy's this year?



He made the Tony's watchable again. I am so in. Plus he's a nominee. Has a host ever been nominated before?

And here's a list from Entertainment Weekly of stuff that should have been nominated, but wasn't. I have to say I do agree with some of these - especially Psych. That's a great show you're not watching. And if you are...10 points.

REVIEW ~ Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

 The best observation this detective ever made.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

I very much enjoyed the first Professor Layton game, so when I heard about the sequel, I was stoked. I expected more of the same - puzzles, mystery, a guy in a huge ass hat - and I wasn't disappointed. Plus there were a few improvements along the way.

(You must excuse my blurry pics - most were taken in a car with an iPhone. I did the best I could. I actually went and retyped the dialogue so it would be easier to read.)


Just like in the previous game, Professor Layton and his "apprentice", Luke, set out to solve a mystery. This time they're trying to find out of this box really killed Layton's mentor. (I will not make a joke... I will not make a joke...) This time they get to explore several different areas and once again meet a slew of colorful characters. Along the way you solve puzzles to move the game along. (There are 138 in the story, but you don't have to solve them all to beat the game.) There are also a few minigames you'll want to complete, but we'll get to that.

You don't have to play the first game to enjoy this one - it will help, because there are several characters that carry over, but if this is your first adventure with the Professor, you will not feel like a kid who starts coming to class in the middle of the semester.

The great thing about the game is the story draws you right in from the beginning and it's hard to put down. Once the Professor and Luke start adding up the mysteries, you won't want to put the game down until "SOLVED" is stamped across all of them. The gameplay operates as it did before - point and click to move and talk to people. It can't possibly be more simple.

Animation, music, voice acting - all great. I wish there was a little more voice acting, but there was a decent amount of cut scenes, and they are limited by the size of a DS cartridge.


The puzzles are pretty diverse. You might be moving blocks or pancakes, filling every piece on a chess board, finding the area of a garden, dividing estate or answering a riddle. You won't get bored with the variation. Once again you'll find hint coins scattered around that you can spend for a clue if you need one. The hints aren't always the best, but for the most part they steer you down the path to the answer.


My complaint only really complaint concerning the puzzles is that I wish there were less that involved math. To me, a puzzle that asks me to find the radius of a circle, and then use that to find the area of this weird quadrangle area is way too much like school for my taste. If I need more than a simple calculator to figure out the answer - forget it. This is a video game, not a final exam. (Can you tell math was never my best subject?) I'd also like to see an "undo" feature - that would have helped me quite a few times. Sometimes all you want to do once in awhile is take back a move instead of starting the whole puzzle over.


New to this game was the memo feature you could activate during a puzzle. Although it's not really a lot of space to write, it was usually all you needed to jot down a thought or a number. What I also liked was that you could go back to look at the puzzle and then return to your scribblings - whatever you wrote on the memo screen didn't disappear unless you cleared it.

 

Using the memo feature for something totally nonconstructive.

Were there a few puzzles that I thought were kind of ridiculous? Yup. But those were few and far between. I wouldn't say it affected the game at all.


There are 3 mini games that you can access throughout the game. You don't really have to do any of them, but 2 are definitely worth completing. The other...eh. We'll get to that.


The first involves putting a camera back together. You find pieces as you do puzzles. Once you put the camera together, you can take pictures of certain locations and find the differences between the actual location and the picture you took. Once you find three, you'll be able to find a hidden puzzle. I thought putting the camera together was interesting, but finding the differences in the photos was certainly a highlight.


The second involved playing personal trainer to an overweight hamster you get to name. (I named mine Rocky.) As you solve puzzles you get various toys you use to lead your hamster around the board, trying to get him to take as many steps as possible. As he meets his goals, he slims down and once he's lost all his excess flab he'll be a big help to you. The only drawback to the hamster is his voice - he sounds like some cranky stereotypical New Yorker. (I can say that, because I'm from New York.) I cringed every time I heard his voice, but otherwise I thought the training was pretty fun and definitely took some planning and thought.

 

Youz guyz betta go easy on me, or you'll be swimmin' wit' the fishes!

Finally...there was the tea. Oh, the tea. First of all, who carries around a full tea set? Second of all, where the hell are they heating up this tea? I'm scared at the amount of equipment Layton is making Luke haul around. I hope he'll be willing to spring for the chripractor.

So, as you solve puzzles you get tea ingredients. You can mix 3 and try to create one of 12 different tea recipies.

This part of it is okay, if you can overlook the logistics I pointed out. It does get frustrating to create cup after cup of "bad tea" that the characters then passive aggressively mock you for.

I think Layton is covertly brewing poisons, judging by the skull and crossbones.

Trust me. That whole crying thing isn't even the worst of it. I think the game's goal was to get you to cry. Anyway, once you finally concoct a blend that's not gonna kill anyone, people around town will starting whining about various problems. Tea is apparently Layton's drug of choice, 'cause he's pushing it like he's makin' a profit. (To even get someone to request tea, you often have to enter and reenter areas numerous times. It wasn't so bad that you were waiting several minutes or anything, but it was kind of annoying.) Anyway, you'll next have to choose which kind of tea you want to serve them. And it better be the right one.

I found that often it was kind of hard to choose exactly what tea the person wanted, and had to try several before I chose one they wouldn't throw back in my face. And if you want to unlock every puzzle in the game, you better like to play tea time. Because you'll have to serve a successful cup to everybody in order to unlock them all. I just found this whole game silly and often frustrating. The logic behind the whole thing was also just too much for me to accept. Seriously - Layton's investigating something kind of important here. I understand a gentleman is always nice, or whatever, but come on. You don't have time to be brewing tea for everybody in town - especially if you're building a fire to boil the water, which is the only marginally reasonable explanation I can think of - especially when you're pulling out the cups and crumpets in the middle of a forest. Also, I don't know where Luke's parents are, but I don't think they'd want their son to be your tea toting pack mule.


Now that I've torn that mini game apart, I feel better. That's really the only gripe I have with the game, and it's not even a big one, really. There's so much to like about this game that one low light really falls into the background. Even after you complete the story there are more puzzles to solve - you can even download a new one every week by connecting to the online network. 

So I highly recommend this game if you enjoy a good puzzle and a good story...perhaps with a nice cup of tea. I just hope you actually have a stove.


My rating: 88 out of 100.

Friday, 9/4/09 ~ News and Junk

Definitely more this week than last week.

TV

>> It's a boy for Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs! Congrats to them.

>> Looks like Danny Gokey is getting an album...wonder how many people will actually shell out money for it.

>> TV Guide Lists the most anticipated shows of the Fall. Glee was on this week, and I missed it, of course. 

>> Looks like SNL will be getting 2 more female cast members.

>>And more promos for The Office:

MOVIES


>> In case you care, The Final Destination was #1 last week. In taking a longer look at the title, I can't help but notice it does say THE FINAL Destination. So it really gonna be THE FINAL one? After being #1 at the box office, (Halloween II was third), I doubt it.


>>John Krasinski directs and stars in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Check out the article and trailer - it looks awesome. Plus Will Arnett is in it. I'm there. It comes out on the 25th of this month.

>>Aaaaaaand it looks like Warner Bros. is set to win the summer. Harry Potter, Terminator, and The Hangover are the movies they have to thank for it. 


>>Oh, and Disney's gonna buy Marvel. Who the hell saw that coming?


>>In Theaters Today:

• All About Steve (I have a friend named Steve. It's not about him.)
• Extract (This'll be on my Netflix queue in a few months. I love Jason Bateman.)
• Gamer (Young men will flock to this one.)

 

VIDEO GAMES

 

>> That "Hot Coffee" crap is still going on?! They shouldn't have to pay a dime, in my opinion. Ridiculous.

>> Wii games are getting better according to critics. That's good to know - though looking at the shelf of the local game store is still depressing for people not looking to dress up pets or play games with some creepy, soulless looking character.

>>A bunch of games that I could care less about but I know tons of other people will be excited for are slated to be out by next July. Some wives and girlfriends might wanna start bracing themselves now.

>>Nintendo is going to release a cooler version of Wii Fit, now that everybody already owns it.

Vide Games I've Beaten - Part Two

I'm just gonna stick to two systems this time and make this rather short.

N64
I bought this system specifically for one game, and only ever purchased one other game for it. I got distracted with the Playstation. (Which I'll tackle another day.)

Donkey Kong 64This was the game I bought the N64 for. Great game. I keep waiting for it to come out in the Wii store so I can download and play it again. Another game worthy of its own blog post.

Kirby and the Crystal Shards 
...And this was the "other" game. I normally love all things Kirby, but ugh. I think this game was seriously made for 5 year olds. I've actually blocked most of it from my memory.

Super Mario 64
I think almost everybody who had an N64 played this. I borrowed it from my cousin. Moving Mario around in 3D took a lot of getting used to. There were too many places to go - how would I ever find my way around? Those first 3D games were quite a system shock, weren't they?


And now we come to another short list... Most of the games I owned for this system were remakes, and therefore not worthy of my list.


GBA

Castlevania Aria of Sorrow

Great game - one of my favorites of the series. I got every single soul you could get...some of those took forever. But I had no life back in those days. Because you definitely need to have a lot of time to kill in order to complete a lot of games fully.

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonence
Because you can kill Dracula AND tastefully design a room. You go, Juste Belmont.

Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Probably my least favorite of the Castlevania titles I've actually beaten. This game is so hard! And the card system...yuck. It's one of the few games I put down for a long time and actually picked up and finished without starting over. I was not about to go back and deal with all that level up bullshit again.


Next time...I'll tackle the Playstation. And the RPGs are gonna start coming to town.

Video Games I've Beaten - the Video Companion

Time is bit short today, so I thought I'd share some great videos involving the games I posted about yesterday. Enjoy!

This is the famous video where the kid beat Super Mario Bros. 3 in 11 minutes - it's totally not legit, but still neat to watch anyway.

Here's a 9 minute-ish speed run through Maniac Mansion. You rescue Sandy, kids!


And finally, here's the last few levels of the Barbie game - including that horrible level with the moving floor I was telling you about. And the bone chilling last boss.