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Was there a Franklin gag that I just missed? (Picture by Tom Trager)
I went to three baseball games this week, one graduation party, and one father’s day dinner. There wasn’t much time for anything, but I still got some gaming in.
Movies
Nope.
TV
Arrested Development – Partway through S4 I realized that this season was just a giant puzzle box meant to be deciphered as you went along. Either you like to do that or you don’t. Either you like the season or you don’t. Also, I’m not the only one who thinks Arrested Development is like One Hundred Years of Solitude!
For the record: I really enjoyed it, but I would rank it either equal with or below S3 depending on how I’m feeling on a given day. While we’re talking about S3, I can’t believe more people think Charlize Theron was the thing that worked out the least. Graft vs. Host is the reason why I can’t stand the season at times.
Music
Sweet Valley has another weird album called Jenova. As always, it’s completely free. Check it out.
<a href="http://sweetvalley.bandcamp.com/album/jenova">Jenova by Sweet Valley</a>
Books
Does thinking about One Hundred Years of Solitude and Arrested Development‘s connections count?
Video Games
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – I won the Bug Off! Also a weird space octopus moved into my town. Cool stuff.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Just a few more short puzzles
The Last of Us – My LP started today and I’m really digging this game. It’s got a way more serious and grim tone that’s just fascinating to play.
Rayman Legends – Min and I may have gotten a gold cup on one! Lots of fun.
Everyone else gets the coolest neighbors. I’m stuck with Bubbles and Opal…(Photo by Abriael)
It was a pretty busy last week and this one promises to be just as action-packed.
Movies None!
Arrested Development – I like to think of S4 as a giant puzzle box that’s slowly unraveling, revealing its secrets to us. There have been some solid laughs in the second half of the season and I’m enjoying the show rather thoroughly. Just finished the Maeby episode, so we’re down to the home stretch. One of my favorite things about the show is the way that the family continually makes the same mistakes because they’re all composed of self-centered fools. It’s like a comedy One Hundred Years of Solitude!
I heard Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” approximately 20 times this past weekend. Enjoy!
Not any of these either!
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Daily puzzles is where it’s at. I love the land/territory ones.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – About 3/4 done. Animal Crossing is definitely gonna slow down how much progress I make here…
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Giant Bomb made the latest Animal Crossing release sound so charming and cool that I couldn’t resist downloading it Sunday around 0100. I’m happy to say that it is perfectly charming and it really gets its claws into you somehow. It scratches the Harvest Moon itch too…maybe that’s it.
Katie was out of town, so I spent most of the weekend mainlining Dead Space 3 with David and not seeing these weird soldiers because, I dunno, video games! (Photo by GameXpect)
The funny thing about this list is that it was mostly generated over the weekend when Katie was out of town. The rest of week I spent watching the second best baseball game I’ve ever seen and hanging out with her and Kara.
Guys…I just want to see Star Trek. Why haven’t I seen it yet?!
Veep – I hadn’t even thought of the comparison until I read it on The AV Club, but it’s fascinating how some photo memes turn into viral, badass things and others are just embarrassing.
Community – Finally saw the body switching episode. I guess the Troy and Britta thing never really worked or gelled in the non-Harmon era, but I don’t know that I buy that Troy would handle it that way considering how much he struggled to get Abed to confront his feelings last year. Not a bad episode otherwise.
Happy Endings – Best line of the four (or so) episodes I saw: “If I met you today, we would not be friends”. I wish the show hadn’t gotten rid of Pete, but it remains as funny as ever. The news that ABC won’t pick up this show (and it’s questionable status as a TBS or USA pickup) saddens me greatly.
Here’s a great track by Thundercat, “Oh Sheit It’s X”
Uh…I swear I’m not an uncultured animal. I swear!
Monaco – Holy crap, Min, Dave, and I are just stumped by the museum level. We need a fourth who’s very good at the game, methinks…
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – Still moving along slowly. I thought I was gonna beat it last night, but I chose to Monaco it up with Min and Dave instead.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Mostly playing the daily puzzles and not even touching the story. I’ve got two games to beat before I get to it anyway, so get off my case!
Dead Space 3 – Played just…hours and hours (like 8 this week) of this over the weekend. Dave and I are nearly done and having a blast recording it for the channel. Hopefully we get good views from that, but even if we don’t we’ve had fun. My favorite part: fighting Necromorphs for 10 minutes while David tries to figure out what to do in hallucination-land.
EDIT:
Somehow left off…
DmC Devil May Cry – Beat this sucker and the Vergil DLC over the weekend. I never played the original games, but the attitude and fun of this version is rather tongue in cheek and very funny. It could easily have been too self-serious and boring, but they 100% avoided that.
I bet that’ll be fun to service later.
David was in town for the weekend! DAVID! He’s never in town. Stupid Iowa!
I tried so hard to get David and Min to watch Star Trek or Fast 6. Neither would agree. Stupid David and Min.
Arrested Development – Got about halfway through the Netflix season. I think it’s at least on par with the latter half of the third season. I’ve definitely had some gutbusting laughs and it hasn’t felt like a total mishap. I want to see how it all turns out with each of the character vignettes, but so far I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.
The Venture Bros. – To be fair I only watched 5 mins of the first episode (I didn’t remember any of it from the last time I watched it).
The Americans – Season 1 complete. I don’t think it’s as groundbreaking as some are saying it is, but it was an absolutely enjoyable season full of much better acting than I expected from the principals. I’m eager to see where they go from here, but it looks like I’ll have to wait a whole year!
Veep – Season 2! Finally cracked into it and I’m delighted to say that it’s also busted that gut of mine. Just some deliciously funny insults, lines, and situations. I feel like Catherine is going to be a larger part of the season, which is fine by me. I like seeing that side of Selina. Julia Louis-Dreyfus does a great job of showing a completely different aspect of her personality from her ass-kicking VP persona.
Vampire Weekend’s latest continues to be awesome. Here’s a fun track for people who like Biblical allusions and veiled Outkast references. The song is called “Ya Hey”
Sadly, no. Maybe this week.
Rhythm Heaven Fever – The girlfriend litmus test was in full effect as I had Katie try out one of my favorite games ever. She kind of dug it. I kind of dig her.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Just more daily puzzles to kill time. Still fun.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – Slowly moving the story along. I’d say I’m about halfway done.
Rayman Legends – More daily challenges, but this time with David! I think we got a silver on one day, which is pretty boss.
Castle Crashers – Man, I hadn’t played that game in forever, but Dave, Min, and I were looking for something co-op. Kind of slow and didn’t age well, if you ask me.
Spelunky – Speaking of co-op, I think Dave, Min, and I did more of this than anything else. Our quest to hell almost came true, but there were just too many obstacles, not to mention weird bugs resulting from playing multiplayer. Maybe next time that David’s in MD.
DmC Devil May Cry – I think I’m on the final level or at the final boss. Made serious progress Monday morning and I’ll probably finish this weekend while Katie’s biking. I’m interested in the conclusion, but also fairly confident that Vergil is going to double cross me.
The characters don’t actually look this good, but this game is super fun with multiple people.
There was a point this weekend where I thought I was gonna clean to prepare for David and Kendra’s visit this weekend. Then I ended up playing Monaco with David and Min, Borderlands 2 with Yin and Lee, and Dead Space 3 with Dave, not to mention all the Poker Night and Bioshock Infinite I played on my own. Oh well…I’ll get a chance to clean later this week, right?
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – The release of the new color hardcover version of volume 3 made me want to watch the movie for a third (fourth?) time. This was also the first time Min had seen it after reading the comic. I think it went over a lot better.
The Amazing Race – Watched the season 22 finale that took place in WASHINGTON, D.C.! So cool! I wish that Team Youtube hadn’t been eliminated, but I thought the season was a lot of fun to watch.
Parks and Recreation – Pretty solid finale. Everyone’s got a great cliffhanger for the next season and it was plenty funny. I know many of you read this blog and don’t watch this show. Skip season 1 and start watching this because it’s the best comedy on tv.
The Americans – I’ll admit that not sleeping through part of the episode makes it a little more interesting. Only one episode left to catch up and watch and I’m genuinely excited to see how it ends.
Chance the Rapper’s got a sweet mixtape you can pick up for free at his site. Here’s a solid track from the tape.
Unless you count reading the hardcover Scott Pilgrim (I don’t), then no.
Borderlands 2 – Not sure if this would be half as fun without three buddies, but it’s fun to just chill and shoot up baddies, so I’m cool with it.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Been doing daily puzzles during off time. So addictive! I need to finish the previous games…
Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine – The “prestige” pickpocket levels have a great narrative twist and are hard enough to make things interesting. I still love having like five hacker things following me around.
Rayman: Legends – Just as good as Origins and almost better with Murfy. Gotta remember to do more daily challenges, but otherwise awesome.
Bioshock Infinite – The debut Dan Plays episode of Infinite posted today and it was recorded in March. It’s been that long since I last played, but I got a solid session in and…I like Elizabeth. A lot. Great addition. Columbia feels equally silly, but the story has a lot more intrigue to it for me than Bioshock vanilla did.
Dead Space 3 – Man, take any game and put co-op in it and I bet it turns out a ton better. Playing this with David for my channel has been a real riot. I can’t wait to get more time in, but I’m most likely gonna have to wait until David gets back to Iowa. Bummer!
I don’t know about being the most beloved, but it was very nice.
Took an overnight train to Boston to catch a game in Fenway and that was pretty awesome. Check another ballpark off my list!
Not this week.
The Amazing Race – Almost done with the finale. I was pretty bummed to see Joey and Meghan go, but it’s still been a pretty fun season.
Parks and Recreation – I really enjoyed the putt putt episode. Amy Poehler does a good frustrated even if it all seemed a little incidental and a little overdone. It was pleasant.
FZ: Side F (and Side Z, with a slight helping of E). Decent remix albums of Fez music. Here’s Side Z.
Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas – Finished out these essays and I rather enjoyed them. Uneven in quality, sometimes, it was still a pretty great little observation of a great show.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – Got some time during the train rides to get a little further in the game. I’m at the weird phantom vampire city now and I have no idea where this game is headed.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Bonus puzzles have been stacking up, so I pushed through a few just to pass some time before my train got back to Baltimore because my allergies were killing me.
Poker Night 2 – Still haven’t finished that last unlock. So close! Also have to make it to a million in winnings.
Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine – What a neat little narrative. I’m interested in seeing how the epilogue plays out since it looks like competitive multiplayer.
My mom’s dog is so cool! I miss hanging out with her.
After a long, tough week in Florida and a long, busy week in MD I’m looking forward to a little downtime…
Iron Man 3 – A new director means a brand new feel for the movie. Stark isn’t in the suit that much and it just all feels…different, but that’s not bad! I really loved the movie. Good times.
The Americans – Caught another episode of this with Katie. Fell asleep partway through, but it’s not the show’s fault. Still loads of fun and addictive to watch.
How about some classic salsa? Take it, Celia
A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas – The essays vary in quality, but it makes me want to rewatch the show so much!
Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine – This game is bananas. Getting three people together and watching the chaos…so fun! Reminds me of Bonanza Bros.
Tomb Raider – Finished the game. I won’t spoil too much since I know some of my readers watch the LPs I do, but maybe next week or in a deeper post.
Nothing says “I’m in Florida” like Zephyrhills water. It’s not the best stuff, but I miss it some days.
Not a lot of stuff going on this week because I went home to see my family.
Oz the Great and Powerful – Not my favorite movie, but it was passable. It was fun to see Zach Braff again, but the movie was decidedly low stakes and, I think, hamstrung by having to set up The Wizard of Oz
Oddly enough…nope. Mostly watched baseball.
I’ve already posted Vampire Weekend’s “Diane Young”, haven’t I? I don’t care. I love this song. Can’t wait for the new album.
One Hundred Years of Solitude – One of my favorite lines from the last bit of the book: “…they were all identical, sons of the same bitch”. Marquez’ epic novel was incredibly entertaining, beautiful, and amazing. Quite possibly the best book, pound for pound, that I’ve ever read. Just gorgeous, detailed, irrelevant, and damn near perfect. I don’t love what happened to all the Buendias, but it was amazing to read about.
A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas – If you’ve never seen Friday Night Lights then you might not understand why someone would read a book of essays talking about how awesome the show it. It’s a good show.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – Just a puzzle or two as I met up with Flora. I need to sit down and crank through this game.
Poker Night 2 – Far better than Poker Night in structure, dialogue, and design, but it’s a bummer that you can’t change the poker AI difficultly or the frequency of comments. On the plus side, no more luck-based achievements. Take that straight flush or four of a kind achievements!
I couldn’t really think of a new, appropriate photo for today so here’s a picture of dogs in my family
Nothing really big going on this week. Played a lot of Tomb Raider and edited a bunch of episodes to prep for some dry times ahead.
Not quite this week. Hopefully this one, but I’ll also be fairly busy.
Parks and Recreation – The most reliable Parks and Rec laughs for me nowadays come from the way everyone (Leslie included) mistreats Jerry. Top notch pair of episodes this week, guys.
The Mindy Project – The Santa Fe episode was pretty good. Not amazing, but I laughed.
Community – So tired of the Chang stuff. Don’t really care…The episode itself was passable. I chuckled a few times.
The Amazing Race – Man, I was so worried about Joey and Meghan getting eliminated in Switzerland. So glad that didn’t happen. S3 is shaping up to be fairly interesting too, so I dig that.
The Americans – So far they’re doing a pretty good job of ramping everything up, but I think the FBI stuff feels a little thinner without a partner.
FZ: Side F – Disasterpeace’s collaboration remix album has some interesting tracks and interesting interpretations going on. Neat album for sure.
<a href="http://disasterpeace.com/album/fz-side-f">FZ: Side F by Various Artists</a>
Not this week either.
DmC Devil May Cry – I’m really suspicious of Vergil. I think he’s a bad guy. Poor Kat. Still enjoying the game and I’m digging all the new weapons too.
Tomb Raider – I feel like I’m getting reasonably close to the endgame. There’s a lot more gun battle sections and that’s kind of boring, but at least the plot’s also moving along nicely. Still haven’t run into the Oni again, but the way they’re all hyping it up we’re gonna have a fun confrontation.
If you’re thinking this movie looks to be overstuffed…it most definitely is. (Photo by Han Cinema)
I actually had a really busy week considering how little media I consumed Mon-Wed. So much baseball too…
The Thieves – I enjoyed The Thieves, but it had a fundamental issue of elevating every single subplot to maximum import. It was just a little too overcrowded and it wanted to have its cake and eat it too. Still a pretty fun movie. I’m also a big fan of how Korean movies just blend in multiple languages seamlessly. There was Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English all represented in the movie.
The Amazing Race – Burned through the rest of S3 and, damn, Flo was edited to be really shrill. I’m still glad that she won over Terri and Ian, but Ken and Gerard would have been super fun.
New Girl – Gotta say that they’re doing everything they can to really make Nick and Jess awkward. It’s funny, but tough to watch sometimes. Their characterization of Winston and Schmidt is a little inconsistent though…
Archer – The Sea Tunt episodes lacked some of the oomph of the space station ones from last year, but it was still a fairly hilarious hour of television. The wait for new Archer always feels so long!
Community – The puppets all sounded muffled, but I enjoyed that episode a little more than the dance one. Well…except for the Brie Larson part. I love that girl. She was adorable in the episode.
I don’t have anything really new, so how about my favorite song by The Clash?
Nope. Sorry!
Poker Night at the Inventory – Those Four of a Kind and Straight Flush achievements are, well, luck-based. So frustrating! Pumped for the sequel!
Digital: A Love Story – A quick little quasi-visual novel. It’s best quality is how well it emulates the old BBS internet and net behavior in general.
don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story – More conventional as a visual novel. Mostly interesting for how accurately it captures high school drama, high school social media behavior, and as a parable about privacy and sharing in the modern world.
Tomb Raider – The shooty bits are coming a bit more frequently. Good thing I’m so great at them, right? …Right?
DmC Devil May Cry – Spending time away from character action games makes them tough to play. I forgot how much I enjoyed that game. Gonna have to go back to it. It’s also great since I don’t film it and I don’t have to worry about casting at the same time or editing.
PS:
