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.

Songs are Sad in March 2014

Every now and then, there’s an appropriate time and place for a song, like at the funeral of someone who wasn’t particularly well-liked, or during a film when you want to give the audience a clue about what they’re supposed to be feeling.

This month we look at "That Thing You Do," "My Heart Will Go On," "I Dreamed a Dream," and other Oscar® contenders for The Higgs Weldon.

Next month, we'll take on whatever songs you suggest at songsaresad@thehiggsweldon.com

#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.

9 Fun Things to Do with a Million Dollars

If you're anything like me, you probably spend last week reading and re-reading my Higgs Weldon article 13 Hot Tips for Becoming a Millionaire. So now that you've got a million (1,000,000) dollars ($), what do you do with it?

Lucky for you I cover that in this week's article, 9 Fun Things to Do with a Million Dollars. I like it; I think it's good. You should read it, because it'll probably make your face all big.