Monday, May 28, 2012
Dogma, Skylanders, Buffy & Sherlock
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Games: Haven't had much free
time in front of the consoles lately, but what little time I have had has been
going into Dragon’s Dogma.
I finally finished it off earlier
this evening (more or less. maybe less.) and the endgame is fairly strange... I didn't get much dramatic
buildup before the final encounter, so I was a little surprised when it came. I
am happy to report that going toe-to-toe with the Dragon was even more epic
than I had hoped for, though. Skyrim’s reptiles look utterly pathetic compared
to the leather-winged badasses in Dogma.
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| Shoot 'im in the eye! |
After the Dragon, well...
let's just say that some pretty interesting stuff happens that will keep
you playing after the Dragon has been turned to dust.
Overall, it's a very unusual
title in many ways and I'm going to do my best to reflect that in the review I
just started writing.
Did I like it? Absolutely, but there's no question that
certain aspects of it are in dire need of help. It's not going to be a game
that clicks with everyone, and players have to overlook a certain amount of
roughness and bad decision-making in order to enjoy what's there, but when the
game comes together... wow.
Look for my final evaluation
coming soon.
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Games: When not playing
Dogma, I was able to get a little more time in with Skylanders in co-op… my 3yo
loves messing around with it, and the wife and I have been making progress bit by
bit when I’m between reviews.
It's funny to recall the first time I saw it at PAX last year, and I have to
admit that I didn't get it at the time.
To be fair, it was set up at an
unimpressive kiosk and there weren't any PR reps around to explain what made it
so special, so I had little reason to think it was anything other than a
standard kids’ game nestled in between the other crap that Activision was
hawking.
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| Bash is a powerhouse! |
And now? I've been playing
it on and off for the last six months, gone through it twice, and I'm only two
figures short of a complete collection. Who knew, right?
I'm planning on doing a late-to-the-party
review for it fairly soon. Although it's a solid enough dungeon-crawler, it's
a fantastic kids/family game, and the amount of work that went into each of the
characters is pretty impressive.
I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel,
Giants, coming later this year -- With all the cash I've invested in the franchise, you better believe I want to get some more use out of these figs!
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Games: If you're on
Twitter, then this is probably old news but there are a ton of iOS games that
are free/on sale right now. Hop on over to Because We May for a complete list.
There's some really great stuff on there for cheap, so don't miss out!
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Music: If you're a Kirby
Krackle fan like I am, then you might be interested to know that they've just
released a free single over at Bandcamp. It's a cover of Izrael Kamakawiwo’ole’s
version of “Over The Rainbow”, so check it out.
Also, I have to plug Chairlift’s
“Something” album just one more time. I've been listening to it pretty continuously
and it really sucks that I've only met one other person who's even heard of
this group, let alone this particular album. These guys are good!
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TV: So a while ago, I had mentioned
that the wife and I were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I never watched it
when it was on, so I figured that since the entire series was on Netflix, I’d
give it a try. We got hooked immediately, and we watched the first four seasons
pretty much back-to-back.
At that point, we took a break to catch up on some
other shows, and we just started watching season five... and then... we stopped.
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| You came from where, exactly? |
I don't know what happened
exactly, but the writing in season five has been absolutely terrible, and the
introduction of Buffy’s “sister” Dawn was a really hard thing to swallow.
Apparently there's an explanation for it later (we only watched the first
two episodes in the season) but I have to say that neither one of us is very
motivated to keep watching.
It sucks to have lost all enthusiasm since we are
such big fans of the show up until this point, but it's just bad. Bad bad bad.
What's not bad is season two
of Sherlock.
I think the second cluster of episodes was really solid and didn't have a clunker like the Asian-themed episode was in the first season. This is some great TV, and I
highly recommend it if you haven't already jumped aboard.
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| That season two ending... ! |
I've gotta say, the quality of the show is a
bit galling, though -- it's so clever and tightly-scripted, yet the same person
behind Sherlock (Steven Moffatt) is the same guy who ran Doctor Who into the
ground with all of the endless Amy Pond/River Song bullshit. It blows my mind
that the same person can make one thing so great and make one thing so wretched… What gives?!?
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Posts
Dude, you have to keep going with Buffy. There is a HUGE lull for about 10 episodes or so but then things go batsh*t and people start dropping like flies lol
Well worth fighting on through!
Actually, it's probably best to stop with episode seven of season 5. There the show has said all it has to say, IMO. Not to say that there wasn't good material afterwards, but Whedon's attentions were elsewhere getting Firefly read and the whole thing came apart at the seams.
Unless you can shout fire, ice and wind OUT OF YOU MOUTH, then I'll have no part in Dragon's Dogma.
You should give Buffy season 5 another shot. It definitely ramps up pretty quickly after episode 5. It also has some of the series' very best episodes. I remember Dawn being a very divisive character among fans when the show first aired, but I personally found she got more interesting as the season progressed. I urge you to keep watching, it does get much better!
Season 6 and 7 on the other hand ... are probably worth skipping (especially 7).