Best New Gaming Console Features

In case I have failed to mention this I want to now for the record.

While it seems everyone has written off the Wii U as a failed game console I do not have a problem with it besides lack of support. What does come out it great but there are two features it has that no other console has had before that I adore.

1) The Gamepad can turn on the TV. This may not seem like a big deal but it is. I don't have to hunt for 2 remotes when I want to play something. I can pause and flip to a different input. I can adjust the volume. It is spectacular and simple and all consoles should have this feature.

2) I don't even need the TV. Sometimes I don't even turn the TV on. I like playing on the Gamepad straight up. I brought the Wii U up to my bedroom for a time so I could lay there and play Hyrule Warriors in my bed. The Gamepad screen displays Nintendo's HD goodness right there a foot from my face and it is glorious!

I hope the NX carries both of these features forward.

As much as I love these two features there is one thing that the PS4 does that I have not seen previously and it is even better (I think XBONE does this too). The system can save your spot in the game even after you are done playing and you power it down. I smile every single time I go in the living room, power up the PS4 and my guy is sitting exactly where I left him. It doesn't seem like a lot but not having to wait for boot up and load and select save game and all that is magical. When I want to play Witcher and Geralt is right where I left him, I love it!

I wonder what they can come up with for the next generation that will be this impressive.

Gaming Xmas 2014

Shadow Of Mordor PS4
This was my annual video game gift from my mother. I heard it was good even though it wasn't on my radar I figured let her get this for me so I don't have to take the risk. Boy was I surprised! This absolutely was the game of Xmas this year. I played it constantly in the time I was off for the holiday. It is so fun. It doesn't seem like it does anything super different than other open-world games but it really comes together here.

Lego The Hobbit PS4
I recently played and beat a few other older Lego games so I am putting this one on the back burner for now until I feel like it's time to play another Lego game. I'm sure it's great and fun and even an easy Platinum but I need a break.

South Park: The Stick Of Truth PS3
This was the other game I put in a ton of time in while I was off. I like the show and all (even though I don't regularly watch it) and this game was very well done but I didn't feel it was hilarious or anything. I may have chuckled a few times but never did I guffaw. I am happy I experienced it but now that it's over with I feel very meh about it. The butt probe part was insane and so was the battling a dwarf boss character on your parents bed while there were having sex. They definitely continue to push boundaries. I think they included pretty much every main character you can think of in this game. If you're a fan you definitely shouldn't miss this.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch PS3
I was holding off on this until I cleared off a few other games because I knew what type of game this was (because it took me so long to post this I have gotten to it now). Again I am surprised and pleasantly so at this game. The animation and story and fantasy aspects are breath-taking. I should have know though, it's a Level-5 game. If you know them that's all I need to say. I look forward to experiencing the rest of this game.

Super Smash Bros Wii U
I have been jamming on the 3DS version of this for a while now so finally getting to play this was not a major event. The HD is booooootiful and I like some of the mode changes they did to improve things. For the first time in series history I feel I have a shot at maybe getting all the trophies. Just imagine having all of them come out as amiibos. :O

Rayman Legends Wii U
I know we wanted to get and play this game when Wii U first came out but not wanting to pay $60 for it. I got it because it finally fell in an accepted price range but I really haven't played it yet.

Epic Mickey Power Of Illusion 3DS
Ale got me this after she saw it on one of her coupon deal sites. It was like $5-6 so you can't just pass that up. I like it but it is not entrancing enough to keep me playing.


Petz Bunneh Bunch DS Ale
I got this as a bunneh gift for Ale. I thought she would be like it but it seemed her interest waned very quickly. Poor Bunbun.

Fry Cry 4 PS4 Boy
This game was also not on my radar at all. The boy had a gift card from his birthday and I told him I could only compensate the rest if he got a PS4 game. Why buy an inferior PS3 version? He wanted Call Of Doodie at first but then he changed his mind to this. I watched him for a while before I played it but I like it. Open world, I like the 'hunting wild animals' part of it, the rest is just standard fare but good. It reminds me a lot of a next gen Just Cause,


2015

I want Zelda U. Obviously. Will pick up Majora's Mask too although without the awesome Skull Kid statue.

Also looking forward to Arkham Knight, Uncharted 4 and Metal Gear: Phantom Pain.

Witcher: Wild Hunt is on my radar but I have yet to commit.

Gaming Xmas 2013

Even though the PS4 was the main family gift of the season this Xmas the winner as far as I say is Wii U. Great games to play and we got a ton of add on content for Disney Infinity as Isaac got a ton of the missing figures he needed. If it wasn't for the Lego game (which I could have bought on Wii U but I got on PS4 for the trophies) we wouldn't be messing with the PS4 at all.

Batman Arkham Origins (Wii U)
I like this game. It's been a while since I've played the new Batman game at Xmas (2011). I understand it's a prequel. I'm okay with that. I see that it's like the same engine, same fighting system, most of the same weapons. I'm cool with that. I liked that before and more is better. There are some issues. The upgrade system seems totally worthless. I never know what to choose as they all are equally stupid. I feel although all the parts from the previous games seem to be here I still feel like there is something missing. The Riddler trophies seem to be slightly different too. I'm still working on it. I still like it. Not happy that it continues to crash my system. Happened at least 5 times now. The one day it doesn't say I played at all yet I played for over 6 hours. Not cool. 8/10

The Legend Of Zelda The Wind Waker HD (Wii U)
I played this game before. It's Zelda of course I love it but wasn't the big pitch back then that the cartoony style would make it ageless. Yet now they promote the new HD style. I definitely like the Gannondorf figure that came with it. Too busy playing everything else I got to get sucked into this yet. 9/10

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
I get to pick Luigi from the get go. Instantly the best game of Xmas this year so far. Fun, the cats are cool, the new map is cool and I like the stamps and Miiverse integration. 9/10

Playstation 4
Seems like this is going to be a killer system....someday. Not today. I barely could pick any games out that I felt deserved my money. The system itself is entrancing. I don't like that its not backwards compatible with PS3 and it seems like a major step back that there is no DCHP support. That better be in the first major firmware update. 7/10

Lego Marvel Super Heroes (PS4)
This game needed to be the best. I 100%ed Lego City Undercover. So far I can see the ambition but I'm not blown away as I thought I would with this cast of characters and history. I definitely like it and maybe it's still growing on me. I am planning on Platinuming this so I should see about all there is to see in the end. So far 7/10

Killzone Shadow Fall (PS4)
Pretty much the only reason I bough this game is because it was like the best of the worst that was the PS4 launch lineup. I"m confused. I don't know what this OWL thing can do for me. I haven't really encountered much shooting yet but I think I am only on chapter 2 so far. Between this, Battlefield 4 and Call Of Duty Ghosts was what I was able to narrow down my choices to and I knew I was going to be slightly disappointed no matter what. Still waiting for Watch Dogs and Infamous 4/10

Deadpool (PS3)
Fun shooter slasher. Have to keep my PS3 hooked up to play this. 8/10

Good Zelda Timeline site

I suggest reading this site which has a sweet Zelda timeline explanation. I wanted to post this so I don't lose it. Hopefully it gets updated when future games are released.

Rank the Zelda Games

Prima lists top ten Zelda games of all-time

This made me think of my own list

5. The Legend Of Zelda
4. Twilight Princess
3. A Link To The Past
2. Skyward Sword
1. Ocarina Of Time

Me and U, Wii U

November 21st 2012 my second full day of just me and U, Wii U that is. Ah days like this don't come along all that often anymore. Used to be every 5 years now it's every 6. The day when a brand spanking new video game console comes out and you get to spend all day in your jammies vidding out on the coolest new stuff they got to offer. Last time I got to do this was 6 years ago on Nov 18th 2006 when the Wii came out. The Zupancic brothers and me all slept out in front of the Greensburg Target all night. While an interesting event to be a part of, that was the week after I started the job I have now and I did get sick and miss the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Wii Sports and Twilight Princess kept me alive long enough to get better and return to work the next week. ;)

As much as I'd have loved sleeping out somewhere again I figure I can probably afford one-day shipping so that's what I did. I was waiting to get it thru Amazon but Gamestop did their preorderes first so I went with them. I got a Deluxe Set with New Super Mario U, ZombiU and Lego Undercover. I figured I could get the system and mess around with Nintendo Land for a day or so until the other games got there or I could just go out and buy them at a store. (This is what I did actually but Gamestop still shipped my other games even after I cancelled. Guess I'll have to fight to get my money back there.)

I had requested off Monday thru Wednesday this week but since I didn't know how the one day shipping was going to work I figured I'd save a day and go in Monday to make sure all was good. I even bought Assassins Creed 3 to throw in the mix. It figures that I get a text as soon as I get to work Monday morning saying the shipment was delivered. At least I didn't have to sit around all day wondering where it was.

I got home and all was good. of course the main thing everyone is talking about is that the moment you turn it on you have to download and install an update that take well over an hour. I wasn't happy about it but I know the PS3 does that all the time so it's not like I haven't had to suffer that before. I got a taste of how everything was that night by the time everything was ready to go.

November 20th was the day I got to sit around all day and play. Good times!

The Gamepad is so sweet. It's like having the best gaming Nintendo branded tablet thing. It's like having a huge 3DS, the top screen is your TV and the bottom is the touch screen in your hands. There is going to be some sick stuff taking advantage of this.

It took them a few days but the YouTube app is now turned on. You can do your searching on the Gamepad but it looks like you need the TV to watch the videos which isn't as cool as the Netflix app where you can bounce the video back and forth at leisure. Hopefully an update will fix it. At least it's working now. 

I thought they would expand on the Activity Log app they started on the 3DS but it seems to me it's been cut down greatly and that is disappointing to me. If you don't get trophies or a score of whatever for your overall game play it's nice to at least know how long you've spent playing each game and be able to do all kinds of cool reports and comparisons on that. Doesn't seem to be the case here. You get daily and monthly totals by user. That's it.

I'm also disappointed the system can't recognize a media server. If Nintendo wants this to be the center of my entertainment then it should be able to play all my stuff everywhere.

If you want to save everything off you old Wii you are forced to perform a strange ritual. Lots of sd card swapping and downloading the Wii Transfer program twice and internet connection tests, it's a real mess but it at least seemed to work for me. It goes and gets all your licenses for all the games you purchased off the Wii Shop Channel and all your game saves and Miis and moves them all over to your Wii U. This wipes your Wii clean. There is a channel on the main menu that just makes the console go into Wii mode. The Wii U just reboots itself as a Wii and there you go. It seems like they could have done that a little cleaner but I can't see myself using it all that much anyway.

QUICK IMPRESSIONS:

ASSASSIN'S CREED
I'll admit that I have yet to really play a game in this series. I played a tiny bit of part 1 but didn't get into it. A lot of watch a cut scene, get control back long enough to walk out of the building then back into another cut scene.I like the weird effect of seeing glitches in the Matrix interface. I do not know what you'd call that.

ZOMBIU
The twist here as you've probably heard is that the character you play is a random citizen of the UK and when being chased by zombies he/she happens to run by the right place and the guy in the panic room controlling all the the cameras shows you his hideout. You start with missions and if you ever get overwhelmed by the undead you wake back up in the hideout as whoever the next random citizen he saves is and so forth. If you find prior (now zombie) you, you can kill them and get your backpack with all your stuff you acquired back. That is a cool mechanic, different at least. The gameplay is typical fun adventure, search ruined city, buildings etc on this guys mission to turn on more cameras and eventually find a cure for the virus. Sometimes I find a room with so many zombies in it, it takes me 4-5 survivors to clear it all out. It's not fun to waiting for loading to go thru all these boards to get back to where the action is only to finally get there and get killed by the first zombie only to have to wait to do it again. I'm still not clear on when they can jump you. Sometimes it seemed like a had a lot of health left but they took me anyway. My record I think for 1 guy is about 2hrs. I have no idea how many survivors you go thru affects anything. I could imagine a gold trophy for winning the game on your first guy but Wii U didn't pick up on trophies. It's an original game I support it. It's fun and it uses the Gamepad well.

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS U
I just played thru New Super Mario Bros 2 on 3DS not a month or so ago so I thought I night not be as thrilled with this as I could have been. Wrong. This game is awesome. This may not be the next level Mario game but it totally satisfies me as far as new Nintendo system launching with a Mario game. Same formula, got thru the stages and each one has 3 big coins you eventually need to come back and collect to fully beat the game. The over world is like Super Mario World but next level. Everything interacts with each other. Plenty of secrets and challenges. Do not miss playing thru this one.

NINTENDO LAND
I didn't get this one at first. The interface was off putting to me. I eventually got it and we've since had some mega awesome multiplayer matches. It's fun. It shows you interesting uses of the Gamepad. Just buy the Deluxe set so you get this for free.


We're now waiting for Lego City Undercover. Hopefully it will be available by Xmas. Can't wait to see what else they come up with soon.

PLATINUMS

2021/01/23 Watch Dogs Legion
2021/01/10 Bugsnax

2021/01/05 Immortals Fenyx Rising

2020/12/14 My Name Is Mayo 2

2020/12/08 Astro's Playroom

2020/08/22 Ghost Of Tsushima

2017/06/07 Lego Marvel's Avengers

2016/12/26 My Name Is Mayo

2016/07/31 Lego Batman 3

2015/06/07 Lego The Hobbit
2015/01/10 Infamous: First Light

2014/12/21 Pac-Man And The Ghostly Adventures
2014/12/16 Lego The Lord Of The Rings
2014/11/28 Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7
2014/08/24 Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
2014/04/14 Infamous: Second Son
2014/04/06 The Lego Movie Game
2014/03/02 God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta
2014/02/22 God Of War: Chains Of Olympus
2014/02/16 God Of War 2
2014/02/13 God Of War
2014/02/03 Trine 2
2014/01/15 Lego Marvel Superheroes

2013/09/07 Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time
2013/02/24 Darksiders

2012/03/31 Alice: Madness Returns
2012/03/10 Sly Cooper And The Thievius Raccoonus
2012/01/29 Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
2012/01/28 Saw

2011/09/10 Infamous 2
2011/03/10 Just Cause 2
2011/01/30 Cars: Race-O-Rama

2010/11/28 Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time
2010/11/03 Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow
2010/08/01 Dead Space
2010/05/16 God Of War 3
2010/05/02 Heavy Rain
2010/04/14 Infamous
2010/03/08 Dante's Inferno