Last week was finals week. I had real things to do. This week I don’t have real things to do.

Madden NFL 2002 (GC): Eighth Appearance, Fourth Straight Appearance

ughhhhh

UGHHHHH

AUGHGHGAHGVHAGHGHGHHAGHGHHGHH

MADDEN 2002 IS HELL

LOS ANGELES IS HELL

LIFE IS HELL

I can’t describe how and why everything goes to shit when I play Madden 2002. I’ve tried to record the next week’s episode three times now and I’ve either broken down or had to do something else each time. Next time will be better, I keep telling myself, but deep down I know that’s false. I’m doomed to sit through a season of losing on increasingly dumber and dumber ways. The next series I’ll start up will probably either be NCAA Football 2003, NBA Live 2003, or ESPN NFL 2K5, but I don’t know.

Suikoden (PS1): First Appearance

I listen to a number of video game podcasts, and once Suikoden 2 was released on the Vita about a month or two ago, I kept hearing the praises of this series. I’ve always wanted to get into JRPGs, so a game that was generally described as “Shorter and more accessible than most other JRPGs” would be a good place for me to start. I’m only about an hour and a half in, and I’m enjoying it. It’s a good game to play on a long car ride or when you have a few minutes to spare, the story can be experienced in segments fairly well.

As with most games, I’ll be better versed in this next time once I’ve played it some more. I’m liking it so far.

NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (32X): Fourth Appearance, Last Appearance 5/19/14

Never let anyone tell you that I don’t care about the Monday Update because I definitely just looked up a game that I vaguely remembered playing at some point last year, and I was right. For whatever reason I keep playing NBA Jam against people who have never played it before. This time, it was my sister, and I lost to her. This would make a terrible e-sport, yet a very enjoyable one to watch. I would pay to watch very serious players get angry because the game decided to gift Alonzo Mourning with a 3-quarter court shot with five seconds left in the game, then promptly clanking a would-be Hakeem Olajuwon game-winning dunk off the back of the rim.

Granted, that’s basically the premise behind the competitive Tecmo Super Bowl scene, but Jam is far less predictable and way, way more cheap. At least in TSB you can run out of bounds to avoid fumbling, but in Jam there’s no getting around lenient goaltending calls and Anthony Peeler randomly blocking David Robinson.