Allegiant, House of Hades, and Christmas 2k13

Look! I'm existing again! I'm pretty sure I haven't made a post in over a month. 

There are questionably legit reasons for that. 

But that's totally not what this is about. Instead we'll be covering the topics in the title one at a time? Got it? Good. Didn't get? Good. Moving on. 

 Allegiant. 

I finally got around to reading Allegiant over a month ago. 

There's a post I made some time ago that said I completely disregard anyone's opinion, doesn't matter where it comes from, about a book I'm reading or planning to read. The intent of that is to go in with a clean slate. No expectations. Of course, Allegiant being the last book in the series, I already had quite a bit of hype built up for it already. Especially after having to wait a year and a half for it. Based on the previous two books, my brain was saying 'dis gon be gewd!', but everyone else around me (bar Jasmine) was saying 'IT'S CRUD.' Enter aforementioned disregard to the opinions of others and a short phrase that sounds like 'Shut up, brain!' and I was able to go in with only slightly conflicting expectations. 

I'm totally not doing a full-blown review of the goddy thing because that takes effort. And frankly, I can't be bothered right now. There's more Darkest Minds waiting to be read, I need to shower, and I have to be up at six tomorrow. So I'm just going to vent my thoughts about it without any spoilers. This paragraph also applies to House of Hades. 

I'll just hide behind my flame shield before I say this: I enjoyed Allegiant, guys!

While it wasn't the best thing ever, it certainly wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. For me, I think the only things going against the book was its awkward pacing and Tobias making like he's trying to get him self nominated for the 'World's Largest Alpha Hole' competition. 

With the pacing: Several times throughout the book, there were apparently timeskips. Some of them lasting up to several weeks. It would be like, Tris would say something about having been 'there' [omitted because spoiler] for several weeks, and I'd be like, "But you've only been there for several days, Tris! Where has the time gone!" Eventually I got over it though. 

One thing I didn't get over, though, was Tobias. I'll let you guys judge his Holery for yourself, but *dang*, he's a jerk. 

Overall I'd give it a 73/100. 5-star rating systems are terrible. Remind me to do a post on how much I hate them later. 

House of Hades

After Allegiant I read House of Hades. Which took MUCH longer than anticipated because Finals suck. 

Anyway, time to splurge thoughts:

The end. 96/100. 

CHRISTMAS! It was, well... CHRISTMASSY! Of course. What did I want to say about this years' Christmas? I don't even remember. 

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Yep, I lost it. 

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OH YEAH. 

THIS GAME. 

I'm pretty much a die-hard fan of Sonic games. I love them. If one comes out that I can't get I cry on the inside. So I cried on the inside when Sonic Lost World came out in like October. I got to rejoice when we decided to get a Wii U for Christmas, so I obviously put the game high-up on the I WANT THIS list, which was a grant total of like... 4 items and 'book money'. 

The one thing about Sonic games that has me slightly irked is the fact that they keep getting so much... easier. Black Knight (which came out when people still thought waggling a stick around to make your character swing a sword was still a good idea) was beatable in like four hours, and if done right most of the bosses could be dropped in less than a minute. I still enjoyed it, though. Fast-forward five and a half years and Sonic Lost World is here! On Christmas day I popped that sucker and started playing it, breezing through the first third of the game in a really short amount of time. 

So I was like, "... Is this gonna be this easy for the entire game?"

I jinxed myself. 

The last two worlds (which is basically a third of the game) is completely hecktic and chaotic and HARD. 

IT WAS GREAT. 

I wasted dang near 30 lives EACH on several of the end-game levels. Good to see the people that make these games finally getting the hint that they've been making them too easy.

Yeah, then I dropped the final boss in about a minute or two. I think they just put that fight there because people ALWAYS like to punch Eggman. The stage before it, where you literally CANNOT slip up once or you die instantly and you also have to fight three of the six antagonist shown on the box in the same level and did I mention not slipping up once? The end of that stage, when the red and black dude the the middle gets all huge (after you beat him up some, and the times you fight him before this were already hard) and starts smashing the level and hoarfing flaming boogers at you seemed like more of a final boss. It felt like one. It had the music of one. It had the 'step-too-far-in-either-direction-and-you-die' feel to it. I did that, too. Several times. I think I entered that level with like 27 lives and came out with a flat 0. If I had failed one more time I would have had to do the entire hellish level over again because when you get game over your checkpoints reset.

I was very happy when I finally beat that level.

I think for the last two worlds, the developers asked themselves, "How can we kill the players?" and then used every idea that came up.

Rant over.

- Books are great.