Malone Dies

To cap off this weekend of logging, I had just enough time to squeeze in part two of Beckett's Three Novels collection: Malone Dies. Malone Dies is pretty similar to Molloy in both content and style, but thankfully I found it to be much better. The protagonist, Malone, is in a similar situation to Molloy- he's on his deathbed, very confused as to his past, and is faced with nothing but the tedium of waiting to die. Like the previous novel, Molloy eschews most of the standard literary techniques like plotting and character development, and is entirely made up of stream-of-conscious rambling. Luckily the rambling actually makes sense and is readable, unlike many parts of Molloy. Most of the story revolves around either the everyday life of Malone, and a story he feels the need to tell that may or may not be his autobiography. After reading two thirds of the Three Stories collection now, I can see why he's had a pretty big effect on the world of literature. Molloy and Malone Dies have both felt a lot like James Joyce's epic Ulysses (which I still haven't finished! Perhaps later it will show up on the Back-blog.) That said, I'm still not sold on liking him much myself. I'm all for a challenging read now and then, but this might be a little too far out there for me. I'm really struggling to find deep meaning in either of the stories, and it might be a futile search. Both of them feel more like experiments than attempts at an entertaining novel. Perhaps the final story, The Unnameable will tie the whole thing together, but I'm not counting on it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

In the quest to post 50 entries in the month of January, I hurried up my reading schedule, neglected my family who I came home to visit, and finished up the final Lord of the Rings Book, The Return of the King. Let me just throw this out there to start with, I really really enjoyed it. It was definitely my favorite of the the three books (four if you count The Hobbit which was my least favorite). Except for the rare parts (epic battles and dead armies) where the movie surpassed the book, I thought the book was awesome. The story starts in Gondor with Gandalf and Pippin. You follow Pippin as he explores Gondor, becomes a servant of the crazy steward, befriends guards, and watches a battle begin. The detail in this section brings more to the story telling experience, and you really feel the uncertainty that is alive in Gondor. In the first part of the book, we also follow Merry and the men of Gondor, most notably, a masked rider, Dernhelm. You also see Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and other rangers from the North venture into the eerie Path of The Dead. As exciting as their story was, Merry and Pippin make this half of the book. Merry was a bad ass battle against the Nazgul and Pippin was doing what he could in Gondor to save Faramir. The aftermath of the battle and the true devastation from stabbing the Nazgul is shown as well, and this is one of a myriad of times we see how awesome Aragorn really is. Then the troop regroups to create a distraction for Frodo and Sam.

The second part of the book was also great in its own way. To my pleasure, Frodo and Sam were only the feature characters in a few chapters. Samwise is basically the man and helps Frodo do everything. Mordor really is disgusting and creepy. Frodo is being overtaken by the darkness. And Gollum plays his part. As we know, all is righted, and the company meet again. The journey home is awesome. We see Galadriel again. We see the Ents again; Treebeard is honestly one of my favorite characters in the book always "ho humming". My only disappointment was that we did not see Tom Bombadil again. (Side not: Arwen (Liv Tyler) is a super minor character in the entire trilogy, which is great, as Steve discussed already)

Here is where things got a little crazy and the movie did not include. Gandalf leaves the Hobbits, and they return to the Shire only to find it "ruffians" inhabiting it, and all sorts of not so Shire-y things going on. The Hobbits feel like they've experienced too much to deal with all the crap at the Shire and tear through everyone who tries to stop them. Merry and Pippin (still being awesome) are warriors and lead the charge against all the bad people lead by "the boss" and "sharkey". Low and behold, it's freaking Sauruman leading all the ruffians and creating havoc in the Shire. Frodo, being all peaceful, banishes him from the Shire. To everyone else's joy, Wormtail ends up stabbing him in the back (literally). Frodo falls off the face of the planet, and Samwise uses his magical elf soil to make the Shire prosper again. Then Frodo and Bilbo and the three elf ring bearers (Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel) sail off to the sea, which seems like ...heaven on earth...?

Anywho, the book was great. It was super detailed, but there was enough going on in the story, that it didn't feel long or drawn out. (There was a long appendix which I decided not to read, but who needs those anyway?) It was a fitting end to an adventure following a magic ring!

Halo 2

Back to the shooters. The entire Halo series has been in my backlog for a while, and a few months ago when I was finally ready to return to it, I found that Halo: Combat Evolved was missing. It turns out, it was never actually mine in the first place- my brother had returned it to a friend. I searched a few Gamestops and asked a few friends if I could borrow their copies, but it just seemed like I couldn't get my hands on the game. Eventually, I decided it was time to move on. The series is a soldier shooting aliens, how much could continuity really matter? So I started Halo 2 with no intent to criticize the plot at all, as it was my choice to play like this. One could also argue that I hardly played the game. I didn't really feel like spending a lot of time on it, so I through the difficulty on easy and really just flew through the first half of the game like a strong breeze. Seriously, I'm sure I skipped tons of epic fights, but my strategy was to constantly keep moving forward and sprint through levels in as little time as possible. The second half of the game got more difficult with some instant-kill enemies, but I was still only focused on fighting when I was forced to. The second half of the game also had a couple glitches that I've never heard of before. First, one segment requires you to ride an elevator underwater and into another building. I got into the elevator and rode it for a few seconds, and then it simply disappeared and I was stuck walking around on the ocean floor. I looked around for some exit, but couldn't find one. When I restarted, the elevator worked normally and I made it to the building just fine. The second glitch came in the last two levels- certain times a screen would freeze for a second and leave a silhouette imprinted on the screen until the next movie or death. My brother seemed to be aware of this, but wasn't sure if this was a well-known glitch or just one unique to our copy. Either way, these didn't slow me down too much and I was able to finish the game somewhat easily. I guess I can see why it's such a beloved game, but it really didn't impress me- the fact that I was running more than shooting really emphasized how many times the only goal is to run from point A to point B or kill a room full of aliens before you could move on. I really remember maybe once or twice where some thinking was involved other than "shoot." At least the graphics and shooting were done well. Hopefully Halo 3 will be a little more interesting; expect my review soon.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

Finally, a game where I don't shoot things. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is the sequel to 2008's cult hit No More Heroes in which nerd/badass protagonist Travis Touchdown (that's seriously his name) slices and dices his way up a list of the top assassins in the world, all of whom conveniently live in the city of Santa Destroy. The sequel sees Travis returning to Santa Destroy after a three year absence, during which he has fallen from the number one spot to rank #52. Travis finds out that one of his best friends has been killed, and Travis seeks revenge by fighting his way to number one. The game is essentially a beat-em-up with a beam katana and various wrestling moves, but there's just so much more to it. The whole game oozes with style, from the great soundtrack to the retro 8-bit mini-games scattered throughout. The sidejob mini-games from the first game led to much criticism as they were pretty boring and needed to be played and replayed over and over again to unlock new levels. Desperate Struggle remedies this by making the jobs completely optional and exist solely to make Travis more powerful. The levels and bosses themselves are just as memorable as the first game, but my only problem is that there just weren't enough. While the game claims to have over 50 bosses, you really only fight something like 15. That's plenty of bosses, sure, but not really the over-the-top boss fight after boss fight number that I was hoping for. Also missing are the hilarious monologues that preceded boss fights- these bosses hardly have any personality whatsoever. They were still all fun and unique in their own way, but I feel like a lot more could have been done. The game still packs a hilarious punch though, from the effeminate gym trainer to the mini games to make your cat lose some weight, to Travis' obsession with the word "fuckhead." Its loaded with potty humor- even saving consists of Travis taking a dump behind some taste-fully placed toilet paper. Desperate Struggle definitely recaptures a lot of what made the original game great, but I felt like there was just so much potential for a game of the year here, but it just didn't pan out. Oh well. Time to get back to the shooters.

30 Rock Season 3

I heard that there was a possibility of Back Blogged to set a new single month record so I did all I could to finish watching this third season of the hit comedy 30 Rock. As you may have noticed from my entries on season one and two this show had hit a high point, in my opinion, in the first season and had slowly gone down hill in the second. I had expressed my desire for some kinda of change in the third season. I can say that it was better than the second but still not as good as the first. The change that the producers delivered was an array of guest stars ranging from Alan Alda to Oprah Winfrey with many in between.

By the end of the third season the viewers have given up on the main character Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) ever finding love, they have realized that the twists involving Liz's boss Jack Donneghey's family will probably never end and show star Tracey Jordan's ( Tracey Morgan) crazy antics will never cease to amaze and amuse you.

The show is now more than halfway through its fourth season and I realize it is impossible for me to catch up. Instead I think I shall find the power to calmly wait for the fourth season to come out on DVD. Better shows would have pushed me to desperately search the corners of the internet for this seasons episodes. Point being the show is good but its not great.

I would also like to shoot a shout out to the loggery's newest member. Welcome Keith I am still looking forward to your first post.

Dead Space: Extraction

Speaking of fast ones, here's another game completed in a night. Not only that, but a game that really didn't feel like it took up my whole night. Dead Space: Extraction is a short rails shooter that Sheridan and I started at around 8 tonight, and even with a lengthy break in the action, here we are done at 2:30. But I'm complaining too much. Extraction was a fantastic game worthy of the Dead Space series and much better than the often compared game Umbrella Chronicles. Extraction is a prequel that does everything a prequel should do and more- it ties together many of the questions left unanswered in the first game, and often went above and beyond in terms of plot. While Dead Space sees a lone engineer trekking across a ravaged ship, Extraction lets you see the spread of the disease first hand. The "extraction" in the game's title refers to the actual extraction of a giant stone with supernatural properties by a crew of engineers, which sets up one of the most memorable introductions I can remember. Your character, Sam, is desperately trying to figure out why everyone around him is going insane and trying to kill him. He eventually begins to kill them off, until he is finally shot down and it is revealed that no one was attacking him at all; he was the one going crazy, flipping out and killing people. A nice twist that might end a game, and it's revealed in the first 20 minutes! I found the rest of the plot excellent for a video game- it works well as it's own story, and yet many of the choices made in Extraction have lasting effects in the original Dead Space. The game is a rails shooter, sure, but it really didn't feel limited at all- usually the direction the game took me in was the direction I would have gone in anyway. The combat retains that fresh feel that Dead Space had. The scares here were of a different, and in my opinion much better sort. While Dead Space often relied on jump scares and being severely outnumbered by powerful aliens with limited supplies, Extraction really has characters delve deep into madness. Hallucinations, voices, and general craziness added plenty to the element of fear. While I was stoic and heroic in the face of danger, Sheridan was definitely scared. Overall I'd say this is a must-play for anyone who has played Dead Space, and a should-play for those with a Wii, as it seems like the best rails shooter out there. But minor spoilers for the first game are revealed in Extraction, so play them in order of release. And of course, wait until you can find it cheap, I wouldn't drop 50 bucks for such a short campaign.

Wario Land: Shake It!

Damn did this one fly by. I didn't expect this platformer to be a long one, but twenty-one levels, five boss fights, and a two-phase final boss does not an adequate game make. Of course, I can't complain about brevity when I've got so many games on my plate. I bought this game just over a year ago on an impulse. It's my first Wario Land game, although Wario Land II is still waiting in the backlog. This game feels a lot like a throwback to the days of Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. The graphics were great and all, but gameplay was strictly two dimensional and evoked memories of classics like Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, and most of all Sonic the Hedgehog. Yes, believe it or not, big fat Wario emulated the speedy blue Sega mascot time and time again in Shake It. In fact, one boss fight felt almost exactly like a memorable boss fight in one of the Sonic games. I'm talking about the one where you're in a casino-themed level and you need to bombard Robotnik by catching some big air off of some bumpers. Oh, and Shake It's final boss - the aptly titled "Shake King" - even looked a ton like Robotnik. Bizarre. At any rate, the game was a pretty standard level-based platformer. Kill enemies and avoid hazards on the way to an ending goal or gate. The most unique part about this game, though, was that once you got to the "end" of a level, you then had to get back to the beginning of the level. Each level revolved around saving these strange small flying creatures. They reminded me of Gonzo the Muppet, only if he were a bat. Somehow I thought of Smurfs as well. Anyway, once you get to the cages in which each of these guys are held captive, an alarm sounds and suddenly you only have a specific amount of time to make your escape. Usually the game gave you new shortcuts and paths that weren't available going forward through the level. One memorable level, for example, involved running through a series of train cars to the engine. Once there, the Gonzo bat thing joins you and the train's roof is your means for getting back to the beginning. The levels were pretty straightforward and I never once died on one. The bosses were another story, but even they were very easy to get accustomed to. (As with any '90s platformer, it's all about the patterns.) My biggest complaint about the game is that every time you finished a world you had to pay a very large sum of money (coins) to get the map for the next world. Not once did I have enough money upon completing a world to buy the next world's map. So, each time, I had to go back and play beaten levels all over again. I'm not even saying they weren't fun - I intentionally chose some of my favorites to replay. It's just that, you know, this is a platformer. When one level is done, the next one should just be available. It's that easy. I don't want to compare the dozen "extra" playthroughs I did to the time it takes to grind out experience in some RPGs, but I mean, it's really the same concept at play. All in all, I'd call this game the epitome of a seven out of ten. Fun, enjoyable, and solid with scattered minor flaws, but nothing you need to play and probably nothing I'll play again. Good, but not great. The completion of this game leaves me with sixty unfinished ones. I'll take that semi-milestone and keep on chugging.

Blood Meridian

It seems that in my post-holiday haste to finish a whole load of video games, my booklogging has suffered. Well, no more, for I'm back in the reading game. Cormac McCarthy is best known for some of his more famous novels, including No Country for Old Men, The Road, and all the Pretty Horses. I decided that for my first foray into McCarthyism, however, I'd try out what's generally agreed upon as his greatest work: Blood Meridian. Blood Meridian is sort of an anti-western; it's portrayal of the wild west is pretty grim, and a far cry from the world depicted in John Wayne flicks and Spaghetti Westerns. It follows a nameless teen who leaves his Tennessee home to join the army and heads down to fight in Mexico. Shortly after he arrives, he's sort of forced into a gang of ruthless scalphunters. It's not really easy to relate with the character considering how easily he joins the gang, there really didn't seem to be much conflict there at all. The bulk of the book follows the gang around as they cut a path of destruction across Mexico and the southwestern U.S. While they start off hunting only those tribes who attack them first, the whole gang quickly reverts to heinous acts of depravity on innocent women and children. Eventually paranoia amongst the members leads to their own destruction, save for the kid and the bloodthirsty former judge who cajoled the members into killing in the first place. We're shown a few scenes featuring the two, years after the destruction of the gang, and the real heavy-duty questions are asked in these parts- questions about the nature of war, and man, and how the two connect. This part was very interesting to read, which I'm sure is why the book is so revered, but I can't say it was worth all of that long, slow build-up. I feel like a good deal of the gang's violence could have been cut out and still have the same emotional effect. Most of it was pretty dense, and after reading a plot synopsis after finishing the book, I realized that there were plenty of connections I had missed. Maybe Cormac McCarthy is an author who demands close attention for the best results, and I guess I can find out whenever I get around to reading The Road, which is also in my booklog. Until then, I've got a few more video games to finish.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

Around this time last year, slightly before my finding of the backloggery website, I saw the game Resident Evil 4 available pretty cheaply for the Wii. A friend of mine had once spoke very highly of it, and even though I hadn't played any of the previous entries in the series, I gave it a shot and loved every minute of it. I'd say it's one of the top 10 game I've played, and a must-play for anyone with a Wii. Just two months afterward, Resident Evil 5 came out for the 360, and while it didn't have quite the charm of 4, was still a very fun play. After finishing that one, I decided that I'd eventually like to get around to playing the rest of the series and see if they're as good. Although I haven't returned to the main series yet, I did manage to score a used copy of Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii, an offshoot game that revisits some of the old storylines and connects the series as more of a cohesive unit. Umbrella Chronicles is a rails shooter, which I thought would work well on the Wii- the motion sensing capabilities are basically the same as the ones you'll find in an arcade shooter. I decided to grab my wussiest video game loving friend, Sheridan, and give it a play a week ago. The opening few minutes have you gunning down zombies on a train- how this was set up, I don't really remember. It was a bit slow, and a few people watching us play seemed bored; I was starting to wonder if I had wasted my money. Sheridan and I blasted our way through the first level fairly easily, but in the second level the game really picked it up. Level 2 revisits the huge mansion from Resident Evil 1, and though it does a good deal of ret-conning, it was an awesome chapter and provided all the fun I was looking for. There were plenty more zombies, and the bosses got more and more ridiculous- a snake that must have been a quarter of a mile long, a man-bat- they're simple ideas that are almost cliche, yet they worked so much better than "generic strong looking guy who needs to be shot in the head," which have been used so many times. After the mansion came Raccoon City, which I believe is the location of Resident Evil 2. Raccoon City was the first level to really provide a challenge, and was right up there with the mansion in terms of fun. At this point we had put in something like 5 or 6 hours into the game, and I was ready for it to wind down with the last level, The Fall of Umbrella. Unfortunately, instead of the final level becoming unlocked, I had to go back and play some extra levels that were one-player only. What the hell? I bought the game with all intentions of being able to beat it with a friend, and yet just when we were enjoying it the most, I had to say "sorry dude" and solo it for a few hours? Not a great decision. I get that the stories for these levels would only work with just one character, but why not allow a second player to shoot anyway? This seems entirely doable in a rails shooter. The levels were fun, sure, but it could have been so much better with a quick tweak. Oh well. I finished them off, and with Sheridan back in the game, we finished it off tonight. The final boss was a little easy, but I feel like we improved our gameplay ability markedly over the past week. So now the entire two-player campaign has been beaten, but a few single-player levels remain. I'll call it beaten, not completed. A sequel to Umbrella Chronicles came out late last year, and I'm sure I'll get around to it at some point, but I've got no rush. Rails shooters aren't very deep, so I'm not exactly craving more. For now, I'll worry about getting back into the original series.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

(Disclaimer: If you haven't played Final Fantasy IV and RPGs just aren't your thing, you're going to want to skip out on reading this lengthy, rambling, barely coherent recap. Trust me.) Alright. Let me start out by saying how much I loved Final Fantasy IV. I first played the game on a Super Nintendo system when I was just five years old. I didn't even have any idea what a "role-playing game" was. I just knew Final Fantasy IV was totally unlike the simple platformers I'd played up to that point in my life. I never actually beat the game until something like eighth grade, but that's hardly relevant. It was never my favorite Final Fantasy, but it was such a monumental game in my childhood and adolescence nonetheless. So important was it, that its re-release on the DS with updated graphics a year and a half ago was the biggest reason I even purchased a DS at all. So when I heard, around the same time, that Square was making an episode-based sequel series, called The After Years, all I wanted was for it to come out in America. (It had been exclusive to Japanese cell phones for a while.) It was a foregone conclusion, then, that I would purchase the WiiWare title and every last kilobyte of downloadable content. And I did. And what follows is a lengthy, rambling, barely coherent recap of the game and its many chapters. The game is set 17 years later than its predecessor. The main story and conflict are complex and confusing right off the bat. Rydia's summons have all gone missing. Meanwhile, a second moon has appeared in the sky. Monsters have increased in number and aggressiveness. And a mysterious girl is wandering around the world taking crystals by force. Cecil starts going bonkers, much like the old King of Baron in the first game, and to an extent the game borrows plot elements heavily from FFIV. An unnamed cloaked figure plays a key role early on in stopping the alliance between Cecil and the mysterious girl, and even though the revealing of this man's identity is pretty cool, it's extremely (even embarrassingly) obvious who he is pretty much immediately. I won't spoil anything, but, I mean, come on. In fact, there's a second unnamed man who comes to the aid of the party. His identity, too, is obvious, but at least this time around the game doesn't pretend it isn't; he's revealed to be Golbez very quickly. At any rate, this "main story" comprises a prologue and two chapters: "Ceodore's Tale" and "Kain's Tale." It was a blast. Quick, nostalgic, and entertaining. Next came the downloadable content chapters; these were very much optional, and for a while last summer I almost considered thinking of them as separate games in my backlog. But after each one turned out to be brief (and for the most part boring) I figured I'd refrain from slapping you readers in the face with constant mundane After Years updates. Of course, that just means that now I need to go over each tale briefly. First up was "Rydia's Tale," in which your party consisted of Rydia, Luca (extant but unplayable in IV), and Luca's animate dolls Calca and Brina (bosses from IV, and particularly annoying ones at that). Rydia's Tale essentially covers the entirety of the underground from the Dwarven Castle to the Sealed Cave. It was entertaining and enjoyable. Next up was "Yang's Tale." If Final Fantasy IV had a "sixth man" (the party size is capped at five at all times), it was certainly Yang the martial arts master. In Yang's Tale, you mostly play as his daughter, Ursula (a newcomer) and explore a meteorite crash site. It's shorter and less exciting than Rydia's Tale, but was still a decent experience. Next came "Palom's Tale," and let me be honest with you - this one flat out sucked. Palom and Porom, of course, were the annoying twin kids that joined up with Cecil in the first game. They were always a package deal - why did After Years have to split them up this time around and give each their own chapter? Anyway, in this one Palom begrudgingly trains a girl named Leonora. You climb up a tower and then climb back down it. Boring! Awful! And what doesn't help is that your only characters are mages. No one can damage enemies without using magic, which drains MP and takes time to use. Tedious as fuck, this one was. It ends in the Dark Elf's Cave. We next check in with "Edge's Tale," in which four new characters with long Japanese names are introduced. This one was kind of cool. Edge sends each ninja out on a rogue assignment, and you get to play as each one individually for a period of time before all five ninjas meet up again in the Tower of Babil. This was one of the better chapters, but honestly, that's not saying much. Next came "Porom's Tale," and this was the one that really irritated me and put me over the line between "this game hasn't been everything I wanted it to be, but it is still fun" and "this game hasn't been everything I wanted it to be, and now it's just annoying." I don't even remember what Porom's tale consisted of, but Rydia and Palom were heavily involved even though each had their own tale earlier. Oh yeah, and Kain was in there too briefly. What the fuck? Another tale of mages meant another tale with long battles and an inability to do much damage. Also, part of it was told as a flashback. Don't ask me why. The penultimate optional chapter was "Edward's Tale" and it was the worst one of them all. Anyone who played even just the beginning parts of Final Fantasy IV knows what an annoying, awful character Edward was. Remember how I played the game when I was five years old? I didn't even know what a "fag" was, but I knew Edward was one. He fights with a harp and incessantly laments everything. Just awful. His tale introduced Harley, his secretary, as a playable character. Both were terrible. Nothing about this tale was fun or interesting at all. In fact, I fled from most battles just to get it over with as soon as possible. It should come as no surprise that Harley and Edward ended up as my two least-leveled-up characters, by a long shot, at game's end. Finally, we come to "The Lunarians' Tale," which thankfully didn't suck ass like the last pair of tales. In this one, you're Golbez (and briefly FuSoYa), and you're on the fucking moon. (Well, one of two moons... but more on that later.) Golbez starts out way stronger than any other titular character, but the trade-off is that he faces tougher opponents. He's also only capable of using black magic and physical attacks, so his only source of healing are items like potions which can only be found in treasure chests since there are no item shops on the moon. Naturally. Golbez ends up fleeing the moon as it begins to crumble, heading for the planet, on a spaceship shaped like a flying whale. (This wouldn't even sound remotely absurd if you played the original game.) And thus conclude the downloadable content chapters. Were they fun? Some were. Were they tedious? Some were. Were they a waste of money? For a huge fan such as myself, no, not at all - but I'd never recommend them to anyone for any reason other than a feeling of obligation to do so. We're left now heading into the final two chapters. At this point, I expected I was mostly done with the game; nine chapters had been played and beaten, and only two remained. I couldn't have been more wrong. The second-to-last chapter revolved around Rydia going around the world with Edge, Golbez, and Luca trying to regain her summons. I'm pretty sure it was strictly optional, for the most part, to regain any summons at all. But a Rydia with no summons is a piece of shit, so I made sure to regain each and every summon. It was a bit ime-consuming, but certainly worth it. Finally, it was time to play the final chapter. At this point, believe it or not, you're only about halfway through the game. Yeah, it's that ridiculous. It's "back to the moon" time to confront the mysterious girl, save Cecil, and see if you can stop a second, new moon from hurtling into the planet. Typical. Suffice it to say, the first moon dungeon is thirteen floors deep, and each floor took me roughly forty-five minutes to venture through. My characters were a tad inexperienced and many fights took a lot out of me. Also, there were eight boss fights in the moon dungeon, each of which was a previous memorable boss from Final Fantasy IV. I mean, these were boss fights for the sake of boss fights. Hadn't I already killed all of these people and creatures? And what were they all doing together on the moon? Never mind their resurrections - what the hell was going on? Still, I managed to slash and burn my way through these bosses with little difficulty (I had all the strategies down pat, having played through FFIV like half a dozen times.) Awaiting me on the final floor of the dungeon was Dark Cecil (yawn). Of course, only by killing him could I save real Cecil's soul. Apparently, depending on your party when you initiate this battle, you usually lose Golbez forever afterward as he dies to save Cecil. This would have been a just and poetic end to his redemption song, and the story would have been a lot better had I let him die. But fuck that - he was my sixth best guy at the time! I sacrificed a good story for a strong party, and I don't regret that choice. Now, after this very climactic (but scripted and straightforward) battle, the mysterious girl appears and invites you down into the depths of another dungeon. And that dungeon was like the first lunar dungeon on steroids and crack. Thirty floors! Sixteen mandatory boss fights! And the worst part of it was that these sixteen bosses were all taken from other Final Fantasy games. Come on. There's no reason to suddenly mix up the Final Fantasy multiverse. Sure, it was "fun" to see FFVI's Ultros the comedic squidlike thing once again, but utterly random and ridiculous. How did he get to this second moon? And some of the bosses chosen were real head-scratchers. The Phantom Train? Really? They could not have chosen a boss more out of context than that one. But I digress. After going balls to the wall on these floors and bosses for like a week (not the best way to start a new semester), I finally made it to the twenty-fifth floor where I had to fight the mysterious girl alongside Rydia's final (and best) summon: Bahamut. This thing kicked my ass. Several times. Only two days ago, I was almost totally disheartened and considered putting the game down for a while. But no. I was so close to finishing it! If I had to grind, so be it. So, grind I did. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be. I put in about three hours or so last night while listening to songs and podcasts, and that was all it took; today I beat the girl and the dragon on my first attempt and moved on to challenge the final boss. I'll give credit where credit is due - even though this game was for the most part absurd, things were actually tied together somewhat well in the brief dialogue that preceded the fight. The final boss was known as the "Creator" and he traveled around on his moon to various planets as he tried to document various evolutions of life. By connecting the scattered dots with leaps of faith, I suppose one could fathom that all of the Final Fantasy I, II, III, V, and VI bosses on this final moon dungeon were actually just science experiments made by the Creator after he had traveled to the different worlds of the Final Fantasy series. In a strange way, things were tied together unlike ever before, and a very lose continuity between the various games in the franchise was established at long last. The mysterious girl was his creation as well, but I won't spoil the somewhat shocking twist to her story's conclusion. At any rate, the final boss was four stages long and though I felt a bit unprepared I managed to beat it on my first attempt. Finally, I was done. So what did I take away from The After Years? Did it live up to the precedent set by the original? It's tough to give a straight answer. If you look at After Years as three separate entities - the main story in the beginning, the various character-based chapters, and the pair of lunar dungeons at the end - you can see that it was really all over the place. "Wow, this is exactly what I expected and wanted" gave way to "This is tedious and boring" which ultimately became "This is super-tedious, but I'm secretly having more fun with it than I'll admit to." It was certainly a bizarre sequel but in a number of ways it went above and beyond the original. Bigger, longer, more epic. Fundamental to the game were its SNES graphics charm and its loyalty to the characters and settings of FFIV. It sure was a beast of a game, but it isn't one I regret playing. I can't dissuade anyone else enough from doing so, though. I suppose what it all boils down to is your connection to the first game. If you never played it, or did but can't remember much of it, then this is not a game for you at all. At the very least, don't purchase all the bonus chapters. They were mostly pretty shitty. But if you're like me - a staunch fan of Final Fantasy IV - or, if you're just a glutton for punishment, then you should absolutely play this game for all it's worth. As for me, I may take some time off from logging for a little while. I'll still be going at it, but only in my spare time. At least for now. I need to catch up on some schoolwork (already) and some sleep (yeah, already), and I just can't dedicate the same amount of time as I'd like to be able to. Expect more sporadic updates from me, at least until I get a feel for this semester and my workload. Anyway, fellow Back-Blogged contributors - keep on loggin'.

Clone High: The Complete Series

Consider this "part two" in a trilogy of one-season shows I recently purchased on DVD. Like part one, Freaks and Geeks, this show focuses on a bunch of high school kids. But this time around, the kids are clones of famous people from history. On the DVD cover, you can see the main five clones: JFK, Cleopatra, Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, and Gandhi. The whole thing is some kind of mixture - part "high school show" satire, part absurdist humor, and part typical cartoon sight gag comedy - that puts a unique spin on this thirteen-episode show. Bill Lawrence (of Scrubs fame) was behind this show, and several Scrubs actors made cameos over the course of the season (Zach Braff as Paul Revere, Donald Faison as George Washington Carver, and John C. McGinley and Neil Flynn as a random trucker and janitor - yes, "The Janitor" plays a janitor). Christa Miller, Lawrence's wife, lends her voice to main character Cleo. The majority of the rest of the voice cast is made up of people from MADtv, several of whom were Scrubs guest stars anyway. The show certainly did several things right. For instance, each and every episode is referred to as "a very special episode" by a smooth-talking narrator who gives recaps and previews. The opening music and cut-to-commercial theme reek of indie rock sadness, and the show (clearly a comedy) pulls no strings as it sets heart-wrenching "emo" tracks over certain scenes to add melodrama. Additionally, a number of history-based jokes exist in every episode and while it doesn't take a scholar to appreciate them, it's nice to see that the showrunners weren't afraid to mix in some subtle wit and intellectual jokes amid the slapstick and several tried and true "over the top animation" gags. Ultimately though, it doesn't feel like a "complete" show in many ways. The characters are entirely one dimensional and most background characters are brought up just once or twice for the sake of comedic historical references. Furthermore, while it's funny on several levels, Clone High doesn't seem capable of finding a solid base of a rung on the "genres of comedy" ladder. Is it a fast-paced, zany cartoon in the vein of Aqua Teen Hunger Force? A smart satire of high school shows like Dawson's Creek? A pun-filled homage to historical figures? I can't say. Fortunately, it doesn't really matter what the show is, because it no longer "is" at all. It's just another one-season series that was under-appreciated and canceled too soon. Oh well. Clone High was funny, and Clone High was clever, but it wasn't always funny in a clever way. Check it out if you feel like it, but good luck finding it. I'm not so sure that it's anywhere online and the DVDs aren't available in America. Yeah, that's right - I imported the shit out of this DVD set from Canada. Impressed? Don't be. Amazon.com did all the work.

Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series

When I was in eighth grade, I watched Judd Apatow's Undeclared, a show about freshman year of college. Now, in the latter half of my senior year of college, I went back to watch Freaks and Geeks, a show about high school. This one is a cult favorite and I could only hold out for so long. I think what shocked me most about it from the get go was the then-unknown trifecta of James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen starring as three burn-out high school kids. Along the way, several other recognizable people popped up in recurring roles and cameos. Among these were Rashida Jones (The Office, Parks and Recreation), Back to the Future's Biff Tannen, Jason Schwartzman, Samarie Armstrong (Anna from The OC), Ben Stiller, and a very young and hardly recognizable Shia LeBeouf. Even the four actors who composed the central Weir family - all unknowns to me - did a fantastic job. The casting and acting were superb in general. So too were the production value and musical selection. It certainly comes off as a show made by people who really care about what they're doing. No wonder it's lamented as overlooked. Despite its brief run, the series did manage to tackle all kinds of high school issues; underage drinking, young love, vandalism, making a band, getting picked last in gym class, class disparity, bullies, getting high, too-much too-soon relationships, bad driving, break ups, getting a little too old for things you used to do - all of these things, and many more, are explored in some depth (and typically in very realistic ways). The show is also set in 1980, giving it a nostalgic feel. Yet for a show that is ten years old and set thirty years ago, Freaks and Geeks didn't feel dated at all. I suppose teenage issues are timeless (well, at least in the past fifty or sixty years), but I was still impressed by the degree to which everything resonated with me, a high school student in the mid-'00s. As can be expected, the show focuses on two specific "cliques:" the freaks and the geeks. Main character Lindsey is an ex-geek turned freak and her little brother Sam is an incoming freshman, geeky as can be. Never having fully identified with a stereotypical group during my time in high school, I found myself relating easily to both groups (although I suppose that's the intent of the show anyway). The stand-out among the geeks was Bill (played by Martin Starr). While Sam and his friend Neal (the one of a kind Samm Levine) are woefully geeky and embarrassed by their uncoolness, Bill kind of owns his in a subtle but refreshing way. He was probably the funniest character in the show, yet rarely did he try to be. On the freak side of things, it seemed at first like Daniel (James Franco) would be the standout. He was an early crush of Lindsey's and seemed to have some kind of leadership role among the freaks. Yet as time went on, he faded more and more into the background as a one-dimensional character (angsty) while Jason Segel's Nick developed and blossomed into a very complex and interesting guy. Lindsey, the main character, was just well-meaning and naive enough to remain likable, and she was spared from being a cliche "well-off white girl gets bored in the suburbs and wants to run around with the wrong crowd" staple. She was at times a flagrant bitch and a terrible person, but at the end of the day she was very sweet and understanding of those around her, and I can't say that she did anything less than enhance the show. Now, in trying to answer the big question - is this show worthy of all the hype and praise? - I'll first point out that it's a good thing it was canceled. Truth be told, most of the memorable episodes came earlier on in the six-disc set. Latter episodes just weren't as good. Part of the reason for this, I assume, is that the well of "high school issues" began to run a little dry after big episodes like "the parents are gone; let's have a kegger!" came early on. I give all the credit in the world to the show for hitting the ground running, but the obvious trade-off was a dip in quality later on; no one can sprint forever. There were also a few budding plotlines that never came together and a few others that ended rather sloppily or abruptly. In the second episode, for example, it's made clear that Sam's friend Neal is infatuated with Sam's sister Lindsey. This never goes anywhere though. And that's a shame, because an episode partially devoted to a high school freshman wooing an older girl who doesn't even notice him would have been, in my opinion, a great one for the series. Similarly, Sam himself has a crush on a girl named Cindy for essentially the entire series. She's always portrayed as cute, fun, innocent, and extremely nice in general. Then finally in the third-to-last episode Sam starts dating her - only to have the thing go down in flames due to a sudden personality change on Cindy's behalf the very next episode. Suddenly, she's shallow, selfish, and boring. A tad sloppy, no? It's still lost on me whether or not the final episode was meant to be a series finale or just a season finale, but it worked very well as either one. Regardless, Freaks and Geeks is certainly a good and memorable series. It's nothing I'd say you need to see, but it's a great option and you wouldn't regret giving it a chance.

Metroid Prime: Hunters

A few weeks ago I was discussing the Metroid series with fellow backlogger Stan and another friend, Biron. It was agreed upon that the series had some great games, but Biron warned me that Prime: Hunters was a linear crapfest not worthy of my time. I was a little disheartened; after all, what makes the Metroid series so special is the great backtracking-infused level design and exploration. I started the game up shortly after with somewhat lowered expectations, and while the game is definitely my least favorite of the series, it still delivered what I wanted and was well worth the play. First, I don't get the "linear" criticism, world exploration in Prime: Hunters felt the same as always. The landscapes were a bit generic, but I feel like I can't criticize that too much considering the limitations of the system it was on. This time around, instead of searching far and wide for new abilities, the only items Samus searches for are 6 different gun types and 8 "octoliths," which are really just keys needed to unlock the final boss. Of course there are sub-searches and plenty of puzzles as well, but you're not going to find the double-jump or spider ball here. The controls were a bit difficult at first- movement and strafing with the D-pad, controlling the direction Samus is looking with the stylus, and shooting with the L-button. While I eventually got movement and jumping down fine, it always felt a little weird shooting with the left hand, especially during boss fights where hand cramps were almost guaranteed. That leads me to another small criticism- the bosses in most Metroid games are usually pretty creative, but the eight bosses here can really be boiled down to two different ones who get slightly more difficult as the game progresses. They were fun to fight, sure, but it's a bit of a letdown when you get to a boss and know exactly how to beat him already.The final boss was a pain in the ass, but that's to be expected here. So overall, the game is hardly perfect, but it never really got downright frustrating and should definitely be played by any Metroid fan.

The Return of the King

As Marissa (our newest member) just stated in her first post, I got her to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy over our winter break. When Webber heard about this, he began to talk about the books, and I was barely able to hide the fact that I had only read the first one. After having pressured my girlfriend to watch the movies, it only seemed right for me to finally finish the books. I finally did do today. If you read my Two Towers recap, you may recall that I found the movies to be pretty loyal to the books with a few exceptions. For the most part, these exceptions were timing, pacing, and story structure. The same is true this time around. Once again the action is heavily segmented. First we see what Aragorn and company have been up to, and then we cut abruptly to Frodo and Sam as they approach the Cracks of Doom. The movies certainly did a better job with parallel storytelling. It's also noteworthy that the final quarter of this book was almost entirely omitted from the film version. In fact, the ring gets destroyed with six whole chapters (of nineteen) still remaining. I mean, I was among those who scoffed at Peter Jackson for "dragging out" the ending of the movie for so long, but it sounds like he easily could have thrown another hour in there. One thing does confuse me, though, now that I've read all three parts of Tolkien's epic. In the middle of the second movie, for about ten or fifteen minutes, Jackson focuses on Aragorn and Liv Tyler the elf lady's love story. It was the most boring fifteen minutes of the ten-hour trilogy! And there was actually nothing like it in the books at all. It just seems weird to me that, out of every possible "creative liberty" to take with the films, Peter Jackson chose to bore us with superfluous romantic scenes. Speaking of romance, no review of this book would be complete without pointing out the "gay as hell by today's standards" dynamic shared by Frodo and Sam. I understand that Tolkien wanted to depict a deep companionship between the two, but did they have to kiss each other's foreheads and hands as often as they did? I'm no homophobe, and none of this offended me in any way; it just seemed very out of place in an epic tale about two guys saving the world. Why not just have them share stories and dreams with each other? Wouldn't that have connoted camaraderie much more effectively than having them hold hands when they went to sleep? I know the fifties were a different time, but man. Anyway, I suppose now it's time for me to wrap this up by comparing all three books to each other and the books in general to the films. The former task is impossible. I know it's a slight cop out on my part not to have a favorite book, but really, The Lord of the Rings was never meat to be three separate books at all. Tolkien wrote one massive tale and only split it up into three sections when his publishers told him he needed to do so (there was a paper shortage at the time or something). Thus, picking a favorite LotR book is like choosing which third of a movie you liked best; of course the beginning will be slower but more character-based, the middle part will be the most plot-driven, and the conclusion will have the best parts but also winds down to provide an ending. The same applied here. I will say, though, that this is a rare example of movies being better than the books they were based on. Purists may argue, but this isn't their blog. All in all, the Lord of the Rings series is not must-read material, but it's entertaining and classic enough to give you a reason to check it out. The series is, however, a must-watch trilogy of films. Just ask Marissa, who was a staunch opponent of the series just a few weeks ago.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

To my utter delight, I have finally been given access to join this fun "club", Back-Blogged. As an avid reader, sometimes video game player, and a lot of unwatched movies owner, I think I will do alright.

Over this break, out of chance, I stumbled upon Steve's sister watching the last 30 minutes of The Fellowship of the Rings. Even though I had labeled these movies as boring before seeing them, it seemed pretty awesome. So I flew through the movies and then hoping to get more detail, I delved into the books. Seeing as I wasn't a member of back-blogged during The Fellowship of the Rings I won't talk about it. Since Steve just logged this I won't go into a ton of detail. The Two Towers was my least favorite movie because it skimmed over important details in my mind, so I was excited to read the book. The book definitely succeeds where the movie lacks. I learned more about about the men of Rohan, discovered Faramir's compassion, and ventured through Entwood with Merry and "Berry".

However, where the book lacks, the movies make their most awesome parts. Like Steve said, Helm's Deep is a mere chapter. Also, the order of the book was quite different. Instead of flashing back to each of the company, they first part of the book is about Merry and Pippin's journey, the second part follows Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, and the third part (and longest) follows Gollum, Frodo, and Samwise's trek to Cirith Ungol. I was happy to hear more about Merry and Pippin, and to my dismay, Legolas and Gimli were not main roles at all (my two favorite characters in the movies). In addition, the book includes a lot of the third movie. Pippin finds the palantir (black gazing ball) and Frodo and Sam encounter Shelob. Also as an added bonus, Gandalf the White has dealings with Sauron at the top of the tower in Eisengrad which I believe foreshadows a whole piece of the third book missing in the third movie.

With that, I'm off to read the third book to find out what crazy additional antics the ring gang gets into.

The Last Kiss

Don't be fooled by this one's title or cover; this is no chick flick. And calling it a romantic comedy would be an error as it is neither romantic nor comedic. I saw this once, about two years ago, and was somewhat distracted as it unfolded. I was also convinced the entire time that an enormous twist would happen at the ending (Rachel Bilson is just a figment of Zach Braff's imagination - mindfuck!), and when it didn't, I had to reevaluate the movie but never gave it another chance. Until now. Yes, as it turns out, Rachel Bilson's character is very real. In fact, every character in this movie is exactly that - real. The film begins by introducing us to various couples, and all of them - young, old, married, new - are falling apart. Things get a little too simplified and stereotypical, as most of the men involved come off as unfaithful assholes while the women seem generally psychotic and insane. But the important thing is that none of them are perfect. They're human. And that's such a rarity in movies, if you really think about it. I won't share (spoil) the various conflicts and their resolutions, but this is certainly a movie where everybody's "in the wrong" to one degree or another but no one is really to blame. It starts out feeling like an all-out assault on marriage and monogamy but ends up being more of a commentary on what love and commitment really are. Make no mistake; this is no happy, touching love story. If anything, it's a film that'll make you question the actions taken by the characters and the policies of being in a long-term relationship in general. The movie wasn't flawless, but it was short and simple enough to never feel boring. Plus the cast was great. It's a pretty real (albeit bleak at times) movie that avoids Hollywood cliches for the most part. I do recommend it, but it's by no means a must-see.

30 Rock Season 2

Spite, a word that encompasses everything I stand for in life, is what has driven me to hurry my most recent addition to the Backloggery. I stand before you gentlemen writing about my most recent entertainment accomplishment, 30 Rock Season 2. Granted, I have all the time in the world and I could have allowed myself to savor each and every last episode but alas this was not my fate. Instead I chose the road of stupid, uneducated, self righteous spite. I speak of course of adding yet another post to the Backloggery when Keith has yet to contribute anything. I begged, on my hands and knees (well not actually but we all could have imagined me doing that) to get a chance to contribute to this most esteemed of forums and because of that I intend on posting as often as possible and from here on out as entertainingly as possible.

Keith "can eat my poo". I chose this statement for two reasons. Firstly because its true fuck you Keith. Secondly, I chose this statement for its relation to second season of 30 Rock. This line is a recurring gag in this season and to be honest it is one of the "funnier" gags that the show presented over its 15 episodes. Unlike season 1, I did not submit to actual fits of laughter. Surely I managed a few entertained smirks but that was the extent of my entertainment. The characters became stale and the plot twists predictable. In the end I only finished the season to spite Keith and also because I really had nothing better to do.

I will continue to watch season 3 hoping that season 2 was just like heroes predictable mid season bore fest during which they put forth episodes to fill time rather than to gather ratings. Hopefully my next post will be more upbeat and less spiteful (looking at you Keith).

I would also like to take a moment to nominate Marissa for Backlogger 2010 (or as the cool kids say oh ten). At least she would post and perhaps her feminine brain could open out eyes to new avenues of entertainment.

Quantum of Solace

It's pretty much a given these days that all games based on movies will be terrible. No matter how many times we've heard "this time it will be different," mediocre movie-based games keep making it to the shelves and likely get bought by people who don't know much about video games as gifts or something. One game in history stands apart from the rest, however- Goldeneye. Goldeneye was not only a great FPS for its time, but really the first one to get it right on consoles, proving that the genre was not limited to the PC. Hell, I didn't even have an N64, but I dropped plenty of hours of my young life into that game. So perhaps there can be an exception to the rule- Goldeneye not only didn't suck, but it was awesome. I played small parts of The World is Not Enough, and unlike the movie, it didn't suck either. So it seems that James Bond games are at least given a small pass- while they might not stand up to the top shooters of our generation, such as Halo or Call of Duty, there's still at least some fun to be had. This was the mindset I was in going into Quantum of Solace. It might not blow my mind, but I knew it wouldn't be terrible. And surprise surprise, I was right. While borrowing the Call of Duty 4 engine, Quantum of Solace delivered refreshing gameplay and helped relieve me of my FPS overload I've been on recently. The plot follows fifteen action packed scenes from both Daniel Craig movies Casino Royale, which I have seen, and Quantum of Solace, which I haven't. It's odd, I felt like there was much more of a focus on scenes from the former than the latter, yet the game's name stands as is. The shooting elements are basically the same as in the Call of Duty series, but unlike war veterans and space marines, James Bond is not known for being a walking gun. Hand-to-hand combat was integrated to great success and neither that nor gunplay felt much stronger than the other- everything depended on the situation. Bond isn't always trying to fight people either- stealth elements and free-running chases were used sparingly, as well as a nice groggy stumbling journey through a hotel to reach Bond's car, and more importantly, a defibrillator to kickstart his heart. The campaign was short, maybe even a bit shorter than Modern Warfare 2's, but just like MW2 this kept it from getting too long- straight FPSes always seem to drag towards the end more than most games. Overall, there's really no need to play this game unless you're a hardcore fan of the series, due to the fact that other games on the market really blow it out of the water, but it's refreshing to know that when people say all movie games suck, there's still an exception.

30 Rock Season 1

Admittedly I allowed hype to draw me in to watching this first season of 30 Rock. The plot of the show is a fictional tv show on NBC that is in actuality just Saturday Night Live under a new name. This twist was not very surprising considering that 2/3 of the show originated on SNL. The season started out slowly and at first I didn't find it very funny but as the season moved along and I began to know and love the characters I actually started to laugh out loud. I don't like to say LOL but actual laughter and sometimes even young lady type giggling. I truly enjoyed this season. I promised one of my fellow backloggers that I would take a step out on a ledge and rip something apart but unfortunately this is not the post I intend on starting that with. Nuff said!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Well that was quick. The Call of Duty series revolutionized itself and set a new bar for first person shooters with 2007's Modern Warfare, and just two years later Infinity Ward has upped the ante with the fantastic Modern Warfare 2. The campaign is sometimes criticized for being exceptionally short, but this is really the beauty of the game. By keeping things short, the game never gets boring for a second. The action is explosive- from the basic shooting segments made fresh by placing them on U.S. soil, to all of the new gimmicks that serve to intensify the experience- a speeding snowmobile segment, a hostage situation on an oil rig, and a chaotic boat race to finish the whole thing off, to name a few. I have to agree with Stan that the ending did leave me confused- as far as I can tell, the main enemy for most of the game was never killed, and was kind of forgotten by the characters. I'm willing to forgive that though, because that's really the only knock I have on the campaign. One could also argue that 60 dollars is way too much to spend for such a short campaign, but the reason most people bought Modern Warfare 2 was for online play, and hopefully with my backlog a little more cleared up, I'll be able to join them for some multiplayer. Until then though, I've got plenty more shooters to finish, and hopefully that means I'll get a little more skill and won't have to play these campaigns on easy.

Catching Fire

As I mentioned in my post earlier this week I picked up a book in the middle school that instantly grabbed my attention. I managed to finish the first book in just over a day and when I was finished I bit into the second book. Not knowing the length of the series I hoped that it would end with two books and at worst be only three. My worst fears were confirmed when I reached the end of the book to find that the story did not end there. To make matters worse when I looked online to find the name of the third book I was saddened to find that the third book is unpublished and still untitled. Fortunately, the book is scheduled to be released this year, specifically in August. This wait is shorter than I could have hoped for. At least the book will be out this year and with no delays I can have it read before summer's end. Catching Fire, book two of the Hunger Games series, picks up where the first book left off. The plot thickens and the odds against the main character become even more dire. Like Lost, this book ends with many questions unanswered and the future of many characters hanging in the balance. So much going on and so little patience on my part. I don't know what I will do to fill the void.

Transporter 3

This may have been the best of the three Transporter movies. It was not as boring as the first one and did not insult my intelligence as much as the second one. Still, overall, it was yet another typical PG-13 action movie. The only thing notable about this one was that T-Bag from Prison Break played the main villain. Of course, he didn't use T-Bag's Southern gentleman accent so it was hard to tell that it was him at first. Overall, I'd have to call the Transporter trilogy a big bust. I bought these movies for my girlfriend for Christmas (along with Shoot 'Em Up and the Crank films) because she loves over-the-top action movies. She didn't want any of them and since I bought them from various places I opted to keep them myself over returning them. We ended up settling my "debt" when she also returned a pair of boots I had bought her and upgraded to a more expensive pair of boots. The lesson here? Don't buy my girlfriend something and expect her to keep it. Now, the Cranks and Shoot 'Em Up were very much her loss. But I can't blame her at all in hindsight for not wanting the Transporter films. She watched the first one with me, and while she didn't speak ill of it when we were done, there was clearly no desire on her part to see the next two. Anyway, the completion of this film makes me capable of counting the movies (not TV seasons, but movies) remaining in my backlog on just one hand. Not bad, huh?

End of Winter Break Report

Another winter break has come and gone for me, and as always, this one felt shorter than the last. At least this time it's because winter break actually was shorter than last year's. A full week shorter, in fact. Still, I think I managed to enjoy my break. I didn't travel anywhere or do anything exceptionally out of the ordinary, but I sure did work hard. And I'm not talking about putting in hours at an actual job or making any headway on my senior thesis. I'm talking, my friends, about all the logging I did.

One month ago, as I wrote up my "end of semester" report, I had 28 books, 68 games, and 17 DVDs remaining. I made it a goal to have progress in each field in spite of the yearly Christmas haul. Alas, despite logging something just about every day this break, I now find myself with 29 books, 61 games, and 26 DVDs. At least my one region of progress was the most challenging one to get through in addition to being my largest.

Why did I fail? Perhaps I just didn't try hard enough. But I feel as though every "break" from logging that I took was well-earned and much-needed. I wouldn't have wanted to sit in front of a screen or series of pages for an entire month, especially since this was (hopefully) my last full month without school or work until the day I retire. So I will not apologize for spending several nights drinking or simply hanging out with friends. And I don't regret the time I spent with my family in the least. The only alternative to not trying is making too many purchases. But this can't be the case either, as I have only bought four DVDs - and no books or games - since making my new year's resolutions to control my backlog influx.

Those resolutions, by the way, seem to be coming along very well. The first one - commit to finishing video games after starting them - isn't really measurable, but my high success rate at game logging should reflect on success with that one. Resolution two - complete two items from any medium before purchasing one - is also going smoothly. I already mentioned my four DVD purchases, but I have watched thirteen so far this year, technically giving me a "two and a half" purchase cushion. Lastly, I promised myself to make progress in every category in every month. I've already done that in January, going -9 on DVDs as I've already mentioned while also netting two books and five games.

And what better way for my break to end than with a day in which three separate Back-Blogged members posted five separate entries spanning two movies, a TV show, a book, and a game? It was a fitting end to a winter break defined by logging. Now, a new semester begins for me - hard to believe I've finished seven others already - and after that looms an era of uncertainty. I've officially accepted a full time job that I'll begin this summer, but that hardly means I know where I'll be a year or two from now. A return to school is always an option, but so is relocation. How long will it take me to find my own place? Where will that place be, and who else will live in it? What will I be doing from nine to five each and every day? Many questions cloud the not-so-distant future for me, but I know that whatever happens to me, I'll always have this silly little quest to chip away at on weeknights and weekends. Consider it my constant.

Earlier tonight, I watched Pixar's latest, Up, on DVD. It was my sister's movie, so no logging occurred; this was just a good old fashioned case of watching a movie for the sake of the movie. It was beautifully bittersweet. What Saving Private Ryan's first twenty minutes were to war movies, Up's first twenty minutes were to tales of love and loss. The movie sadly fell apart quickly and overwhelmingly, as talking dogs who flew planes became an integral part of an unnecessary plot, but the final few scenes were heartwarming enough to tug at heartstrings and make eyes water. The beauty with the love story was its simplicity, and without spoiling anything, I'll say only that its aftermath involves a lonely old man finally setting out on a grand adventure he'd been meaning to take for his entire life. Now, I mention Up and its synopsis because I want to draw a parallel here. No, my "quest" to complete my backlog isn't nearly as poetic or romantic as the old man's journey to a faraway land. But it's a goal nonetheless. Only, whereas the old man realizing his dream was beautiful and uplifting, my goal - sit around and look at screens and book pages - would be a downright waste of my final years. (Of course, some would counter that it's a waste of my youth. Let's face it - it's a waste in general.) I'll always love movies, books, and video games - who won't? But if I don't buckle down and get this done, I'll be no different than that old man, resigned to dying without ever having completed what he had aspired to do for such a long time. Yes, Up, ladies and gentlemen, was downright inspiring. I will not let this thing die. It will end on my terms, and my terms are simple. There can only be none!

And now, onward, to my spring semester.

Mass Effect

I recently realized that even though I am by no means even decent at shooting games, a large majority of my 360 backlog is taken up by shooters. Well, it's time to make a dent in this group. First up came Mass Effect, a third person shooter made by Bioware in 2007- a game that conveniently enough has a sequel coming out at the end of the month. I won't bore you with many details about the game play. It's really not much you haven't seen already in the Halo and Gears of War series, but that's not the reason people loved this game. The truth is, I can only recommend playing Mass Effect on the strength of its highly customizable plot. Not only do you design your character's face and body at the beginning of the game, but you can also select from several personality types and backstories, all of which are subtly brought up at several points throughout the game. The customization continues throughout the game, most notably in the conversations. Almost everything your character says can be chosen from a list of responses, and they have real in-game consequences as well. For instance, when you're given orders to destroy a lab that may house a cure for a notorious disease, one of your team members demands that you go against your orders. What do you do? Try to reason with him, and see if he reluctantly falls in line? Perhaps agree with him and leave the lab alone? I chose neither and demanded his cooperation. When he drew a gun, I shot him, and just like that I lost one of my six team members. Situations like this popped up all the time, and I found that depending on how many people were watching me play the game, I acted very differently. When alone, I often did the right thing and would be more passive. When a friend watched me play, I was much more aggressive and chose the "asshole" options. It made for some interesting plot development, and I honestly found myself hoping the action sections of the game would finish up so I could have more of these conversations. Of course, I have to finish up this review with a mention of the often hilarious relationship sidequest. After each mission, you're given the opportunity to talk to the members of your crew, and the questions can often delve into the personal. At first I hit on the human, but then tried to have an alien woman on the side- big mistake! I was caught and forced to choose between the brash human soldier or the shy alien researcher. The alien and I were from two different worlds, it just never would have worked out. After going with the human, a sex scene was shown shortly after. I am both curious and scared of what would have happened had I chosen the alien. Well, I guess the reader can find out for themselves if they really want to play it, but something tells me the sequel's just going to improve on the original in every way, so I'd hold off until then. A fun play, but hardly a must-play.