Nearwood: Collector's Edition (2013 - PC) 
If you like hidden object games with really pretty fantasy artwork, here's a good one that will keep you occupied for about 5-6 hours. Like most games in this genre, Nearwood is not very long or challenging, but it's so high on eye candy, almost every scene is worth a screen capture.
Nearwood does not have any "true" hidden object scenes in which you look for items on a list and only one or two become relevant or useful. The closest it gets to that are a few similar scenes that make you find all the parts to one single item. So, this could be a positive thing if you don't like hunting and pecking for stuff you'll never actually need, or it could be a negative thing if you specifically play HOG's for those scenes. I didn't mind it either way.
Like many HOG's, Nearwood has some dastardly puzzles, although I confess to looking up the solution to a sliding tile puzzle because I can't tolerate those. But what's perhaps more interesting is that (so far) it's the only HOG I've played that has final boss fights! While the main game's final boss is fought in a Simon Says minigame that can't really be lost (if you mess up, you just have to do the sequence over again until you get it right), the boss of the bonus chapter is actually possible to lose to. He's fought in a Match 3 game and you both have life meters. Too many wrong moves and you start the battle all over again. While it certainly isn't the most challenging boss fight in the world, it would be interesting to see more HOG's move in this direction.
There's also a secondary quest of finding hidden Totoro-like creatures on each scene, although it seems all that does is unlock a storybook about them that I didn't bother to read. The Steam version of this game comes with a free soundtrack, which is a definite plus because the orchestral score is really nice.
3.5/5
Futurama Volume Two (1999 - DVD)
I like this show, but I wonder if it hasn't aged as well as I may have hoped. Sometimes the characters feel a little "one-note". Almost all the jokes involving Zoidberg are "he's a giant crab/squid monster!!", and the show doesn't seem to quite know what to do with Amy. Sometimes the humor gets a little mean-spirited, like when the Omikronian aliens eat the orangutan and the hippie. While it's not as bad as American Dad in that regard, I kind of wonder if it was paving the way for things like it.
The consistency is sometimes off, too. At least three episodes this season made fun of the characters not knowing what a car is. But they should've learned after the first episode in which they drove one out of a museum. I thought that Fry not being able to drive was inconsistent with the series' pilot, but I just reviewed it and it turns out he rode a bicycle as a pizza delivery boy, so I guess it's not. But he should at least know what a car is, even if he can't drive one.
I laughed hysterically at Fry telling Bender, "There is no two!" (Uh, yeah, you'd just have to see the episode to know why.) But this season generally felt a little weaker than the first.
3.5/5
