I have not played Mass Effect 3; in fact I have never played a Mass Effect game due todeciding whether I wanted to buy and Xbox or just start from mass Effect 2 on the PS3. The good thing is I don’t really need to play this game to talk about what’s been going on with Mass Effect 3.

What I’ve been able to assess is there is a certain group of gamers who have personally attacked the company and people who have worked on the game. These same people are also calling for Bioware to change the ending of the game. At this point Mass Effect has responded by saying they’ll be putting out DLC that will add content to the ending of Mass Effect 3.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and they are certainly entitled to complain to the creators of anything that they have paid for about things they did or did not like. What You’re not entitled to do is to personally attack people who’ve spent a long time creating a piece of art and I think you’re even less entitled to almost force someone to change the ending to a piece of art that you didn’t create.

I’ve seen a lot of movies, and television shows and I’ve read a lot of books. There were many television shows where I didn’t like the ending or books where I was left thinking WTF after reading them. Sure I didn’t like them, but I was able to respect that this was a work that someone created and it never even occurred to me ever that they should change it. I wish they would have done a different ending, but I’ve never thought that someone should really redo the ending.

I’m surprised that this is happening, but I’m surprised that this hasn’t happened with any other forms of entertainment. Video games seem to have the most outspoken critics or fan base. We’ve sort of gotten into our heads that we have a lot more control over the production of video games than we think we do. In fact things have gotten so bad that we’ve gotten it into our heads that we should have the right to dictate the ending of a game.

This whole notion seems ridiculous to me and as a writer and an artist, I would never entertain the idea of changing a set ending of a game or any work of art. I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed at Bioware’s response to this and that they’re possibly changing the ending or doing something with it. I have to reserve total judgment till I see the product, because it may just be filling in plot holes or maybe it’s something they intended to put out eventually, but that they’re rushing out sooner due to the backlash.

I’m more scared for the future of gaming in general. I’m scared this will set a precedent for other video game companies where creativity is somewhat taken from Video game creators and some of it is put into control of the audience. Will this lead to a type of trend where an ending is created only for another ending to be made to undermine the previous ending due to fan reaction. What about games like Uncharted that are linear stories with single endings. Will we be resorted to multiple endings forced into games to satisfy different gamers at once? What scares me is that the decisions that go into the story of a game will be more focused on pleasing everyone than what fits into the overall vision that was set for the game.

In conclusion I hope this doesn’t kill creativity in general and I don’t think this will due to this being from an obnoxious minor group of people. People have every right to complain and to voice their opinion, but most forms of entertainment aren’t about the ending and it’s more about the journey that it takes to get there. When it comes to video games this probably is most true due to the fact that you’re interacting and playing through most of the journey and almost never actually playing the ending. It’s okay to be mad, but don’t let your anger kill the creativity of future games that do have endings you do like.

It was probably nice for the writers to write for Chuck knowing that the show was ending for good this time. I liked this season, but it wasn't without its share of faults.

To me this season felt like it was separated into two parts. The first with Morgan having the intersect and then the latter involving Sarah losing her memories. When Morgan gained the intersect at the end of season 4 i remember groaning out loud, because it seemed like a very cheesy thing to do. The result of it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Morgan suddenly changing from the intersect was somewhat of a failure. I would have liked to see it go a bit farther and deeper with a storyline that meant a little more than what it came out to be. I enjoyed Bo Derek and I even enjoyed “douche” Morgan a little.

The best episode of the first half was arguably the Christmas episode with Shaw coming back. I think Shaw was awesome in this episode and I was able to buy into the whole way that he was able to escape from prison. I do think that Shaw might have made a better end villain than the one we got, but we can get to that later.

the second half worked well for me also. It felt a bit contrived having a villain that we’ve never heard of as the season ending villain, not to mention he also had a connection with Bryce. Even having a new villain worked due to the acting of Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski. It was pretty easy to get into it emotionally. I really have to give credit to Zachary levi who had to sell desperation and heartbreak of seeing his wife lose her memories and not knowing who she was and it really helped make it easier to ride the wave out to the series finale.

I thought Carrie Ann Moss was great this season. I liked a good majority of the stuff having to deal with Jeff and Lester. Giving Jeff his brain back might have one of the cooler things done this season. On any other show the character Lester probably would have stayed dumb until the show ended, but it was nice to see them pull the trigger and change him up a bit.

I’ve read alot of the feedback for the ending and it seems very split. some people are disappointed because they don’t believe that Chuck and Sarah ended up together and others think otherwise. The ending is a bit open ended and the opinion of what you think happened after the finale can be subjective. My personal take on it is that I thought it was done very well. I think that Sarah and Chuck did end up together, but even if the show had led me believe that they didn’t I think I would feel that the show ended great. i would be a bit sad about it personally, because I love these characters so much, but I still would have respected and enjoyed the writing.

Chuck is a show that should have never had five seasons, but I am very thankful that it did. Chuck did a lot right this season and I think this might have been the most emotional season out of the five. So I’m grateful to NBC for allowing it to stay on for these last five seasons and I come away from Chuck with very fond memories and a good sense of closure for the show.

To be straightforward, Dexter wasn’t good this season. There were bad writing decisions. This season of Dexter fell victim to some of its own rules that ended up working against them.

Dexter started off disappointingly this season. Dexter created this rule about how they’re seasons would be self-contained meaning that every season would take place months after the finale and none of the storylines and apparently even some side characters wouldn’t carry over. This was apparent here when Officer Manzon somehow disappeared this season when she was so prominently displayed last season and had actually screwed Debra over. This season felt like it was starting new, which makes it easier for them to make changes to relationships without too much of an explanation.

Our villain of the season was the Doomsday Killer who was committing murders based on religious text that was supposed to lead up to the end of the world. I remember reading Press interviews and the general consensus amongst cast and crew of Dexter was that this was going to be the darkest season of Dexter. It was not. Season 5 was a lot darker dealing with Lumen and her past. This season wasn’t really dark as much as it was Goofy. We were led to believe that Professor Gellar was committing these murders with Travis as his prodigy. It became apparent to me at least that Gellar was something that Travis was imagining. I would say that I’ve watched enough TV where yes, I’m probably slightly more aware then the average Television viewer, but even watching episodes there were  too many obvious moments where even people that I was watching with who aren’t avid TV watchers were seeing it coming too. The “twist” could have visually been done a lot better. None of the characters on the show, but Travis ever acknowledged Gellar and there’s moments where Travis and Gellar are out in public and nobody is acknowledging him. The sixth sense is the perfect example of how to do this right. I watched that movie recently for the first time knowing that Bruce Willis’s character was dead already. When I watched it, I was starting to think that people had lied to me, because they implement the character into the movie so well where it’s really hard to tell that Bruce is dead.

Once we realized that this was all Travis doing, I feel like the show went farther down hill. One reason is because I feel that Edward James Olmos actually made a better villain than Colin Hanks. I didn’t buy Colin Hanks as a serious villain, in fact I’m sure if you put all of the main villains including Doakes inside of a cage that Travis Marshall would totally get his ass kicked. It was even more annoying to see Travis personality change after the “twist” and see him transform into a plain killer.

The character Dexter himself is starting to bore me. I don’t hate him, but his inner dialogue might be starting to wear on me. After six seasons, it’s just starting to become repetitive to hear Dexter question whether he’s capable of love. The audience is aware Dexter is capable of human emotions due to the numerous relationships he has or has with people such as Deb, Rita, Lumen and Brother Sam this season. It’d be nice to see Dexter come to accept who he is and possibly move on to some other issue; However, I did enjoy everything involving Brother Sam.

Focusing on something positive, I did enjoy most of what was done with Debra up until her startling “revelation”. I enjoyed her promotion and the earlier part of season was nice watching her come to terms with her new job and how it affected the relationships around her. It was also very fun seeing Deb’s unprofessional dialogue work its way into some of the press conferences that La Guerta was so good at talking around things.

I thought I’d save Deb’s “revelation” towards the end since it seems to be the most controversial subject of the season. I didn’t see the last two episodes until about three week later, so it was ruined for me before I actually saw it. I’m not as disgusted by it as most people, but it was a horrible writing decision and I can’t imagine what the writers were thinking. If anything highlights that this is the darkest season of Dexter this would probably be the only thing that you could give as an example.

The problem with Deb realizing she’s in love with Dexter comes from left-field. The writer’s have defined both of these characters very well. They’ve done a great job for the most part, so good in fact that viewers have always viewed Dexter and Deb as brother and sister. The fact that we know so much about them makes it impossible for us to believe that Deb would have feelings for Dexter. There was a line of dialogue inserted into the show where the psychiatrist makes note to Debra that her and Dexter aren’t blood related; almost as if the writers know this is kind of wrong, but wanted to justify it to themselves and the viewer. It doesn’t fit with the character at all. The only thing that would make this worse is if Dexter returns these emotions; I guiltily liked the scenes of Deb acting weird and Dexter being all freaked out.

There was one more shocker at the end of the final that had Deb finding Dexter killing Travis Marshall. After watching that scene I remember thinking well I guess better late than never to pull that trigger. The scene would have had a better impact had they decided not to tease it last season or had actually pulled the trigger last season when they had the chance. Instead the scene came off as the writers realizing they might have screwed up last season and trying to fix it; it does make me excited for the possibilities of next season.

When I look over the whole season it feels very throwaway. The villain of the season wasn’t very interesting and this is the first season where it felt more procedural and where the crime wasn’t personal to Dexter. There are minor things to grab from this season that were enjoyable, but I would only say that the last two episodes are must watch and that’s only because of what happened, not necessarily that the two episodes were good. I had more issues with the season, but they’ve been covered in most reviews. This wasn’t easy to write, because up until this season, Dexter was in my top 5 favorite shows and to see it drop in quality so dramatically is disheartening. I used to be able to fully recommend Dexter to everyone, now when I recommend the show I have to say except season 6.

I spent this weekend catching up on Glee episodes for the season. Glee is a show that I highly praised in season 1 and tried to push on everyone I know. Then something happened by season 2, it became a huge phenomenon. Season 2 isn’t awful, but the storylines weren’t consistent and the character development kept going around in circles. I also took issue with the musical numbers on the show, because it felt like the musical numbers for the season became a bit too modern; listening to Rebecca Black’s Friday might have been my breaking point. Now we’re in season 3 and even though we’re only about a quarter into the season, I have to say the show is starting to come back around.

The season isn’t perfect. The show actually seems to be doing too many storylines. Some of the storylines don’t go from one episode to the next. So it can be annoying to end an episode on a cliffhanger only not to pick back up on it until two episodes later, like Puck and Shelby kissing, only for them to not even bring it up in the next episode. The characters seem to know who they are this season and I like that this season isn’t focusing so much on the Rachel and Finn relationship.

For the most part, I feel like the musical choices are better than last seasons. The best performances have been the classic Broadway numbers and while they do touch upon modern songs, the season doesn’t feel oversaturated with them like season 2.

Glee probably will never have another season like season 1, but it’s evident that this season the writers took some of what made season 1 work and put it in for this season. This Glee season isn’t perfect, but I’m finding it to be better…and hey they still have good 15 or so more episodes to win me over some more.

The Walking Dead Season 2 premiere

When I watched the season 1 premiere it was awesome and it was something new on TV that I hadn’t watched in a while. Season 1 as a whole, I thought was pretty good with the exception of Merle. Now almost a year later, I’ve actually read The Walking Dead Compendium. The Walking Dead Comic book is pure awesomeness, but after reading it, I made the decision to try to treat the show and the source material as two separate entities and try to judge the Walking Dead as a show based off it’s on merit and so I did that watching this first episode. The season two unfortunately left me disappointed. I have high hope for what’s to come, but after almost a year waiting I wish it was better.

It’s been a while, so I had forgotten what the feeling was like watching The Walking Dead. This show does a good job of showing us just how lonely it is out in this world that the group lives in. I enjoyed the scene where the zombies came and they all had to hide under cars. It’s these moments that I like the most where they’re hiding and we’re waiting to see whether they’ll be noticed or not. The scene where Amy had to take out the zombie in the RV was a good one too. I also enjoyed a lot of the dialogue in this episode and it’s really cool to have Daryl on the show who has become my favorite character on the show and he’s also showing to be one of the more useful ones in the group.

It’s unfortunate, because where the episode starts to go down south for me is when we hit the plot point that the whole episode is based up and that’s when Sophia goes missing. First it annoys me that she left her spot. I hope that’s explained, but we go a whole hour and fifteen minutes looking for her. These spots where we’re looking for her are what bored me. I also had a problem with the Zombies. I found them to be a bit too intelligent. The first example of this is the zombie looking underneath the cars. The worst example in my opinion was when the Zombie walks into the RV and we actually see him look around and observe his surroundings practically. It threw me off, because I don’t remember seeing signs of intelligence like this back in season 1. Watching some of the zombies walk was puzzling too, the two that Rick confronts in the woods seemed like they were walking pretty fast…well it was more like a hobble, but still.

So yeah I’m bit mad that we spent the whole episode looking for this one girl who should have stayed put in the first place, but the episode wasn’t that bad. I loved Amy’s anger at being saved by Dale. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone give a speech like she did and after she was done, I think I was actually on her side and slightly angry at Dale for doing that. I’m starting to come around to liking Shane again. It made him come off dickish, but he was actually doing a good thing by being rude to Carl. There were more good examples of why the show was good, but most of it involved the humans and watching them interact with each other which are when I feel the show is at its best.

So if you’ve read the comic books, we all know where they’re about to head off too next and I hope Sophia is there, actually It would be interesting if she’s not there, but I’m pretty sure she will be. I look forward to seeing what happens here and I’m excited we’ll be meeting other people, because to be honest some of the people in Rick’s group bore me. So anyway it was a good episode, but after a year waiting, I think it could have been better.