2014 Gaming: Broken Age, Threes, and more

More of a Media Monday today, let's talk about a few of the videogames I've finished so far this year.

- Broken Age (act 1) - ★★★★☆
The art and the dialogue are terrific. I had some real gripes with the puzzle-y parts early on, when I had the right idea for something on Vella's side and wasn't allowed to do it until I collected the hints first, and Shay has a super convenient object for no discernible reason, but I got on board a little more when the worlds opened up. Felt clever about having a prediction re: the act break.

- Cook Serve Delicious! - ★★★★☆
A steam sale purchase. I had a good time with this, collected platinum star rating, and most of the achievements except, like, serve 15,000 meals, since the whole story section only took about 7,500. Tips: You can serve a cooked item while preparing something else, and nobody ever complains when you give them extra ice cream.

- Sound Shapes - ★★☆☆☆
I think I grabbed this two Christmases ago, just finished it up now to make room for new downloads since I've joined PS+. It's an okay little platformer and all, but kind of a chore to play. I finished the campaign, but I don't care about trophies enough to work on the challenge levels, and the interface for the beat-maker thing looks like a terrible way to spend an evening. Replicating drum machine beats might be more fun in an iOS game.

- Threes - ★★★★☆
I didn't find this quite as addictive as the popular opinion. It's nice to sit and fold numbers while watching TV, so i'll still play from time to time, but right now I have the highest score of anyone I know, 27,783, and whenever I have the best score in one of these things, that releases the hooks. I don't have to play it again until it turns out someone has beaten me.

#1,993: All Hail the King

Movie Monday!

Kick-Ass 2 - ★☆☆☆☆
It's easy to see how the producers tried to take a look at the first one to see what people liked about it, and expand on those elements. This movie is jam-packed with terrible scenes that prove they got the what, but not the why. Unencumbered by any hint of fun or character development, all that's left is a snoozy, repetitive plot.

Her - ★★★½☆☆
The promotional stuff I'd seen for this really looked awful. So, I liked it more than I expected. My favorite things were mostly the implied future. Future technology, future elevator decorating techniques, future public transit in LA. Glad that they eventually addressed questions that the beginning prompted.

I guess the ending was inevitable, but a little unsatisfying. I'm not sure what I would have liked better though. Maybe if Theo made a choice?

Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay - ★★★☆☆
What can you do? If it's a movie full of tricks and demos, then it should be a concert film. If it's a movie full of explanations of the man's past and methods, then it's like being told how the ice cube got on the table, and the answer to that is probably going to be, as Jonathan Creek says, "mind-numbingly banal."

This was interesting, but not TOO interesting...

Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King - ★★★½☆
We had a little marathon of all the MCU shorts, mostly punctuated by wondering why there can't be more, and why Agents of SHIELD can't hold a candle to these.

In particular, I liked how this one both undoes a little continuity damage and maybe sets us up for future flicks.

#1,989: American Hustle

More Movie Monday!

Changeling - ★★★½☆
My expectations for this were based on a trailer that I was not remembering correctly at all. I thought it was going to hinge more on whether or not she was right or crazy, and maybe that she thought the boy was an impostor, but her husband didn't. Watching the trailer now, they spell the whole thing out pretty well, so I guess I'm glad I had that wrong.

I think she'd never agree to go on a date with the guy that made her work the day the son was taken.

The Pianist - ★★★★☆ (Rewatch)
I’d forgotten a lot of this since seeing it in theaters. I remembered bits of the ending quite clearly, but not the opening optimism in the face of impending doom that I can imagine feeling myself if it were to happen today. It's easy to see how you might just assume things will work out, how hard it would be to imagine needing to flee your country.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - ★★½☆☆
I was on board with the first half of this movie. Then a switch is flipped and everything went from interesting to easy. Jack is suddenly great at everything and there's no more danger.

Seems like the theme for reboots now is 'how about this character, but with no flaws?' We'll check it out again next month with the sleek new, acrobatic and google-enabled Robocop.

American Hustle - ★★★☆☆
I don't know. Everyone's acting so hard! I'm not sure what it's trying to say. It was fun, but might have been more fun to see as just a movie, without the context of all the nominations.

It's kind of like the A Knight's Tale of 70s crime movies.

#1,985: Premium Rush

Movie Monday!

Blue Jasmine - ★★★☆☆
Kind of like Young Adult, ten or fifteen years on. I suspect this movie may have been a little funnier than it seemed.

Captain Phillips - ★★★½☆
Really wish I could have seen it without trailers and buzz and previews and everything that it got for months and months - felt like I'd already gotten the whole story in advance, but still more engrossing and generally better than I expected.

I think this was the first Greengrass movie I liked.

Don Jon - ★★☆☆☆
Don Jon is what a Kevin Smith movie would be if he had gone to a better, or maybe just more pretentious, school. Julianne Moore was good though.

Premium Rush - ★★★★☆
Mechanically, this works like Hurt Locker. Almost every scene is an exciting street chase.

It's neat how this movie could sustain so much chasing, in contrast to something like a Matrix or Bourne sequel and their boring chase set pieces. Maybe it's because it seems like a bike messenger could get hurt.

#1,981: Prisoners

Let's do a movies post!

This Is the End - ★½☆☆☆
I was surprised that so many people I knew were into this movie, so I checked it out. They were especially enthusiastic about the first 20 minutes or so, and when I was watching it, I couldn't really figure out why. But then I saw the rest of it. I figure they must have just been nostalgic for better times.

The Wolverine - ★★★½☆
We need to think of a third superhero movie plot. I'm not inherently opposed to the origin story or the powered down story, but this wasn't even an especially good version of the latter. Wolverine didn't do anything different from how he would have if he were in normal condition.

Still, some rad fights and action scenes, and the teaser for the new one was surprisingly exciting. Especially since I don't really want to see the next one.

Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 - ★★☆☆☆ ` Been meaning to watch for a while, but it was not at all what I expected. Bleak. Plot a little familiar to some other recent watches (The Bletchley Circle, The Fall), although some choices seemed baffling. Not sure if I want to see the next two.

How Videogames Changed the World - ★★★☆☆
Perfectly nice and well made, but nothing especially new or thought-provoking to someone paying attention to the topic. A general primer that can't devote enough time to any one era to really get into what makes it interesting.

I'll say though, I had no idea the pac-man ghosts behave differently.

Prisoners - ★★★★½
Suspense! I liked not knowing exactly how it was going to turn out all along. Maybe my favorite ever Jake Gyllenhaal? Either way, it still fits in with my Theory of Jake Gyllenhaal.

I’m pretty sure the pieces fit together pretty well. A day after watching, I keep thinking up different angles on the events and it turns out the movie had those covered.

I liked it.