I just watched the credits roll on the game. Thoroughly enjoyable. I really loved “The Curious Village” and this sequel lived up to my expectations.

The game is made up of about 150 puzzles and riddles plus several fun little mini-games as well as a little mystery story to move the adventure along. The difficulty level of the puzzles range from tricky to I-don’t-know-if-I-want-to-spend-all-afternoon-on-this. However, you only have to complete maybe 90 of the puzzles to finish the game.

In my opinion, the story is maybe almost, but not quite as good as “The Curious Village,” but it was still great. Like the last game, it skirts the edge of the supernatural, but comes up with a thin, but ultimately plausible explanation for all of the strange events of the story. The animation in the cut-scenes continues to be attractive.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves a good riddle. I can’t wait for the next one!

I found this game to be surprisingly addictive. It reminded me just a little of the adventure games I liked so much as a kid. King’s Quest, Space Quest, etc. The game play is not all that similar, but it’s the same sort of corny humor and cartoony graphics. The game gave me a warm, familiar feeling.

You play a brand new defense attorney. There are 5 cases. Each one moves along in a couple of modes. A sort of investigation phase where you visit different locations, talk to people and search for clues. Then a much more formal courtroom phase where you use the evidence you collect to try and prove your client innocent.

This is not normally the kind of game I really ever play, but the story hooked me right away. I also liked that I could save and quit instantly, so it’s a nice game to take on the go.

Certain parts of the game dragged a little and sometimes the way to move forward in the game was frustratingly vague as you sort through all your evidence and examine every little thing to look for the missing clue to advance the story.

Recommended if you like point-and-click adventure games, mystery games or even riddle games like Professor Layton.

A beautiful game, not like any I’ve ever played before. It totally breaks the formula for any comparable game. Most other games like it, you defeat monsters along the way through a “level” or “dungeon” of some kind, then fight the “boss.” Such conventions are not observed here. Sometimes you have to do a little puzzle-solving to find the Colossus you’re hunting for, but on the whole, you’re just exploring a beautiful world, and periodically fighting a seemingly impossible to defeat creature, David vs. Goliath style.

I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys action RPGs like Zelda. The only downside is the game is relatively short and can be finished in about 8 or 9 hours. However, there are lots of replay modes to present various new challenges and easter eggs.

This was a pleasant little book. It’s interesting that Diterlizzi is pursuing writing now when he’s had such a long and successful career as an artist. The book does showcase a bit of his art, but it’s mostly writing here.

A quick read. Nothing astounding or surprising about it. I think most kids would enjoy it.

I received this as a birthday present. I enjoyed the movie, but with some reservations. The book I enjoyed quite a bit.

This graphic novel follows the original short story very closely. Which is to say that it differs from the movie in almost every detail. It is a bittersweet story, but it is not really a love story in the way of the movie. It is simply the story of a man traveling backwards through life, physically, mentally and emotionally.

I really enjoyed the sepia tones of the art. The style is well-suited to the humorous, but melancholy story. I really cannot find a flaw.

I believe the book would be most appreciated by people who enjoyed the original story and those who enjoy slightly philosophical, whimsical stories. There is a possibility that if you really loved the movie, you might be disappointed with the graphic novel because it is entirely different in both tone and message.

This is quite possibly the greatest board game ever. Really, it’s a work of genius. A genuinely cooperative game. The players must work together to defeat…the board. Your opponent is the selection of randomly drawn Mythos cards at the end of each turn. Over and over again, you watch as all of your cooperative efforts seem to be working, then the Mythos has its turn, foiling all your efforts.

I love this game because the balance is perfect. You are not likely to win this game without teamwork and skillful play. When you do win, it feels like a genuine accomplishment.

There are a lot of elements here that could draw in a lot of different people, even ones who don’t think they like board games. The strategy aspects are nicely done. The best part, though, is the story the game tells while you play. You aren’t just rolling dice and moving pieces. A plot with twists and turns is being revealed. It almost leaves you with the feeling the game knows exactly what it’s doing as your investigators get chased by monsters and sucked into portals to other realms.

The game has the following cons:
-It takes hours to play. Maybe 20 minutes to set up and generally about 4 hours to play, but as many as 8.
-There are a lot of pieces. If small children or clumsy people get hold of this, they may well make it unplayable after losing important tokens and cards.
-You need a BIG table to play. By the time the board and tokens are all laid out on my long dining room table, I sometimes have to get out TV trays for players to put their stuff on.
-As others have said, it takes a while to learn. You’ll probably want to set the game up in advance and sit with the manual and play a practice run through.
-Somewhat expensive. Especially if you obsessively collect all the expansions, this could turn into $100+ boardgame.

I received this game for Christmas and have logged about 12 hours on it so far. I’ve really been enjoying it.

Monster Lab has loads of kitschy monster movie ambiance and Halloweenie vibes. It also has really great, addictive gameplay.

The game is essentially a collection of mini-games, somewhat like the Wario game, Smooth Moves, but less random. You build a monster from a small collection of parts then go out completing quests and mini-games, and also fighting other monsters to get ingredients to make more parts. Each part you create (heads, arms, legs and torsos) requires you complete a usually pretty fun mini-game themed to what you are building. (Tossing brains into a skull to build a head or wrestling an arm under a grow light to make an arm, etc.) There are loads of combinations to create the various parts and it’s a lot of fun to see what you’ll get.

Oddly, though the mini-games are always timed and sometimes a little stressful, combat is turn based. No button-mashing is required when you get into a fight, just decent strategy.

Potential turn-offs are that the story is simplistic and the humor is corny. However that seems to fit the game, somehow.

I’ll write an actual review when I finish it, but I wanted to write a little about it now because I’m enjoying it so much.

Another great episode in the comic continuation of the show. Very much keeps to the spirit of the show.

I really enjoyed the show and I’ve really been enjoying the comics. They capture the personality and character of the show perfectly. Even better it feel less…restrained. As if, by doing the show in this medium the creators are able to do things they couldn’t get away with on TV. Not to say it’s turned into porn, but it’s definitely more bloody. You also really get into the characters’ heads.

Anyway recommended if you like either Buffy or good comics.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Extremely interesting reading. I enjoy Bill Bryson because he writes very well and with a lot of wit. This one is not nearly as humorous as his other books and in fact seems to be full of more than a little doom and gloom. Still there is much to be learned here.

My only criticism is that the book focuses entirely on the discoveries of western culture. Many of the historical discoveries described here were actually made first in the East and Middle East, but no mention are made of them here.

Still, it really puts the fragile place we hold in the universe in perspective.