Week ending 12/31/13

This week’s GADD feels like it should be a proper return to form due to Christmas game restocks and the XBox year end sale, which prompted me to plug in my 360 minutes after I finished writing last week’s GADD. However it will be shorter since I had to go out of town again at the end of the week, which also explains why it’s late. Sorry guys.

Wednesday

Peggle
Yep. Peggle dawg. You know what Peggle is. Everyone knows Peggle. Turns out it’s still pretty fun. Bought both this and Peggle Nights during the XBox sale for 99 cents each. It’s been years since I last played Peggle, but since I was never really all that good at it, my skill level didn’t drop off that much.

Wii Play U
As the name would obviously suggest, it’s the Wii U followup to Wii Play, which has already been discussed in this column before. Maybe it’s because it’s fresh and new, and I haven’t played all the minigames a million times yet, but I think I prefer this one so far. Just played the board game style of game in here and didn’t really go into any other modes.

Fight Night Champion
Got this during the XBox sale as well. $5 I think? I really enjoyed FN Round 3 and never played Round 4. The big differences in this game are that it’s M rated and that it has a full on story mode, so basically it means they get to say “fuck” a lot during the story. The game just throws you right into story mode when you boot it up, with you already down on the mat and needing to get up to continue your first fight (in prison. seriously.) After that it then allows you to go back to the main menu or keep going in story mode. Screw it. I’m here for the new shit, let’s keep going in story! The fights still control like basic Fight Night, except using the analog stick and using the buttons to punch are both in the SAME control scheme (instead of having to switch back and forth between the two schemes like in other games in the series) so now I can’t figure out how to uppercut somebody in the nuts. This is REALLY depressing news guys.

Thursday

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Also bought in the XBox sale. I know this game has a ton of hype around it, but I literally played for less than 30 minutes before I decided I couldn’t handle the controls (one analog stick to control one brother, one analog stick for the other) and turned it off. I hope I’ll go back to it again sometime later.

Fight Night Champion
Got a bit further into the career mode. I think I’m like 5 fights in or so. It’s fun but I can’t play it in long stretches. Also I’m not good at it.

Friday

I played a rousing rendition of Drink the Beer. I successfully finished it.

Peggle
Then I played some drunk people in Peggle multiplayer and kicked their ass. They didn’t know what hit them!

 

 

 

WARNING! THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT BEYOND TWO SOULS NEED TO SKIP THE NEXT TWO DAYS! I TALK IN DETAIL ABOUT END GAME STUFF HERE!

Saturday

Wii Play U
Played some more of this, as far as I can tell the best game mode in this is just a simple Wiimote Twister. You set down a few Wiimotes and the Tablet controller on the floor, and everyone you’re playing with is tasked with working together and holding down the buttons it tells you to hold down. Really simple, but fun and addictive.

Beyond: Two Souls
I was starting to feel like my prophecy of never completing Beyond was going to become true, so I forced myself to sit down and play some of it late at night. I didn’t get a whole lot of playtime in today, but I got until Jodie got kidnapped by the CIA and essentially forced to go to Madeupistan because they also made their own eye of Sauron into the otherworld. It’s very obviously near the endgame, but it was late so it was time to go to bed until I wound up playing everything and not getting any sleep.

Sunday

Beyond: Two Souls
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?! There are plenty of times when this game doesn’t even like when you have direct control over you own character, and now I’m driving a goddamned submarine?! Not with particularly good controls mind you, but it’s still shocking that it’s in there period. Oh god now I’m in a fuckin Samus suit? The endgame in this is fuckin nuts. Also..FINALLY Willem Dafoe’s character turned into the bad guy. I mean, duh, no shit he’s gonna eventually be a bad guy, it’s Willem Dafoe. …….And I have now beaten the game! I like how at the end the game beat you over the head with HEY! These are the choices that actually matter! Think about it for a second! I want to know what endings everyone else got. I chose to go back to living instead of going into the beyond, and chose to make Jodie be alone instead of being with Zoey, Ryan or Jay. Speaking of Jay…WHO?! Who the shit is Jay?! What am I forgetting here? Apparently he’s this super important character, but I have absolutely no recollection of who he actually was. My ending basically had Jodie crying a whole bunch about losing Aiden, until he reappears and writes a message in the mirror to let her know he’s still there. Then she has a dream about Terminator. That’s basically it. Oh and she walks down streets and has ghosts creepin on her. Overall the game had…something that I can’t define that made me keep playing it, but I don’t know if anywhere in the entire stretch of me playing it that I would call it a good or particularly fun game. It was just kinda….there, and I was too lazy to plug in the 360 for the majority of the time I played through this game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THOSE WHO HAVE SKIPPED MAY NOW RETURN TO READING! HOWEVER, THERE MAY BE MORE BEYOND SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!

Monday

Nothin. Went out of town for continued Christmas stuffs.

 

Tuesday

Nothin. Still more out of town.
So now that my obligation to Beyond has been finished, I have a whole bunch of games to get back to. This week was mostly a return to form for GADD, but who knows? Maybe next week will really kick shit off.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

Am I the only person left who still prefers wired controllers for consoles? I understand the convenience to wireless, and not having a giant clutter of wires in whatever room you play games in, but I still prefer wired due to less latency, not having to worry about batteries dying, and not losing your controllers cause you always know they’re plugged in to the console. Am I a relic? Are there others out there like me?