The Blog for the Sports Gamer

I’m sure most of you all know about sports and New England. New England fans are very passionate about their sports. So, needless to say it was very unusual to see that pretty much no one was watching a Celtics playoff game last week. Sure, the Bruins were around, and the Red Sox, and the weather was great, but this playoff game got a whopping 0.5 rating. According to the Boston Globe, the Revolution soccer game (a home game mind you), drew an 0.8 rating. Yes! Let soccer rule! Take that NBA.

In other news, I’m still waiting for my Xbox. Hoping it’ll show up this weekend. I’ll play NHL and MVP for the PC in the meantime….

Whew, mine is. Check this out and married guys will certainly be able to relate to this. My wife is currently in New York setting up networks and interviewing people for the NY office. So she gets home Friday afternoon.

It is at that time that my weekend kicks into over-over drive. I get to go shopping for an anniversary gift for my In-laws…that should take me to damn near dinner time. Then we go out to eat and I’ll get home around 9′ish. Doesn’t sound so bad, right?

Ah….but you forget that Saturday is NFL Draft Day. That’s supposed to be a 10 hour orgy of football talk and another chance for me to see how loopy Butch Davis is when he drafts some unknown guy in the 2nd round or a LONG SNAPPER in the 5th round. Yep. I’m a Browns fan. A tortured soul.

Anyway, Saturday is also the Ohio State Spring Game. Columbus is Buckeye crazy obviously, so much so that the Spring Game (a spring scrimmage) is televised on local TV complete with announcers, the works. OK so that gets Tivo’ed. I can watch it later.

But I’m just getting warmed up. I can’t watch the entire draft on Saturday. I may only see 2 rounds max. At 5PM I get to hop in the car and drive an hour to a surprise party for the in-laws (this is where the gift from Friday’s shopping excursion comes in). So while the NFL Draft is gong on, I’ll be in Danville, Ohio going insane. My father should be calling the cell phone every 30 minutes with any draft updates that are worth hearing so I won’t be totally out of the loop. But..argh! I can see it now. Mary’s parents are there with the family, talking about…whatever they talk about and they hear this loud booming voice from the other room, “WE TOOK WHO!? DAMN IT BuTCH! NO! THIS IS BULLSHIT!” I’m going to really struggle with this.

Just a side note: that was my reaction last year when we took Chaun Thompson from West Texas A&M in Round Two instead of Mike Doss from Ohio State. I was not a happy camper.

So we’ll hopefully get out around 9. I hope. I drive back home HOPEFULLLY in time for the Klitschko/Sanders heavyweight fight on HBO. After the bizarre end to the other Klitschko fight, I kinda hope big briother lays the wood to Sanders.

Now all of this is going on while my best friend is driving in from Philly this weekend., I have no idea when I’ll have time to see him and his wife. Maybe Sunday? Oh, did I mention that this Sunday is my 6th wedding anniversary? Of course I have NO chance to see day two of the draft. Barkeep, whiskey please.

Um, see ya Monday. Wish me luck.

1. I was wondering, have any of you purchased (40GB) (WASTE OF MONEY) (UNSUPPORTED BY SONY) (FOR PLAYSTATION[R](TM)[C]) 2?

2. I just got selected for G-Mail! woohoo. Google Mail, and I have my priceless name. Yeah, I’m awesome.

3. Very sad to no longer see the Orioles in First Place.

4. Should I buy OOTP 6?

5. I’m still pretty bummed about MLB 2005’s bunt thingy. Many of you have reported the same thing. What a downer.

6. Wireless controllers are cool.

7. My Xbox is now at the repair center. I’m hoping they get it back to me really quick.

8. If you like Alias, the game Alias makes you feel like you’re in the show.The game itself isn’t that great, but it sure feels like you’re in the show. Definitely a rental.

9. Ever since I started soaking cork, I’m the most popular girl in school.

10. 24 sure is a good show.

11. So is The Shield.

12. Before Passing Gas I look behind me.

12. I sleep now.

Some very important notes can be found here. Enjoy.

I settled in to play a nice game of MLB 2005, continuing my play with a 4-1 record. I pitch 7 1/3 solid innings, leaving with a 2-0 lead before Carrasco blows it. I can live with that but here’s where it gets bizarre:

Bases are now loaded with Cleveland in the 9th inning with 0 out. The batter bunts. I’m thinking “ohhh, what awesome AI,” catcher picks up the ball and won’t run to tag home plate. Can’t throw the ball anywhere. Run scores. Next batter, 0 out bases loaded. Bunts. Same thing happens. Next batter, 0 out bases loaded, 2 runs in. Batter bunts. Guess what happens. Aside from this freak show, I liked the game, now the jury is out, which is too bad because I got a no decision in the game. For the first time in a long time, I cursed out loud “this f’n game” and turned it off. Yes, I’m not a prize winner of the FIFA Fair Play award. Sue me. Does life have a reset button? I could use one….

Ah yeah one last thing before I call it a night , watch The Shield, 24, and collapse in the bed…

The OOTP6 patch should be released tomorrow, according to the developer.

It fixes the reported bugs, and also adds some nice stuff:

- Refined player development

- Added an options to list all players in the amateur draft

- The option to display the play-by-play at the bottom with a bigger font

- The pitcher endurance is no longer hidden when playing with hidden ability ratings.

No real news from me today other than that 3 hours of basketball reminds me that I’m not 20 anymore. Anyway, here’ s a link to a screenshot of an upcoming ESPN Baseball Editor for the PC. Cool, eh?

Boy, oh boy, that hockey game was a massive downer, eh? The Bruins, led by Captain Joe Thornton (who had torn cartilage in his ribs and played anyway) played excellent, but were beaten by a better Canadiens team. The Montreal-Boston rivalry in the NHL is on the same level as Yankees-Red Sox. Basically the Canadiens always get the upper hand. Ugh. It’s annoying. What’s even more annoying is when I flipped channels this morning, I landed on CKSH, the French Canadian station, which, like we do in the US when our team wins the World Series, etc, showed lots of people with Habs uniforms speaking drunken French. I’m thinking to myself, my gawd, they only one the first round of the playoffs and look how happy they are. We’d never settle for that here — maybe they have the right idea.

I guess I’ll go get drunk and scream now that the Orioles are still in first place.

In the sports realm, I’m still looking for an MLB 2005 league for the PS2 while i continue to be Xboxless. Anyone interested? Game is good, really, I’m not making this up…..

I assume most have seen this incredible trade (link) giving Corey Dillon to the Patriots in exchange for a second round draft pick. How the hell did the Pats pull this one off? Truly amazing. I guess here in Patriots nation, we can see how the Yankees felt when they got A-Rod. Of course, unlike A-Rod, we here in Pats land expect Dillon to produce. LOL. (Hey, A-Rod, great hit this afternoon, that’s what 1 for 2309432049? bwhahah).

Okay, being without an Xbox sucks. Just wanted you to know that. Luckily I’m watching Game 7 of the Bruins to keep me occupied….

Well, as mentioned in my earlier post, the non stop disc read errors during Toca 2 and ESPN MLB made me do some digging, and I found out that I’m not alone with the disc errors. I went out to Wally World (Wal-Mart) and picked up a new Xbox. I took it home and found out that it had the same drive of death. I took it back immediately for a refund and called Microsoft.

Based on what I had heard, I was expecting a fight with MS. I never had registered my Xbox, nor had I paid for an extended warranty. I registered the console over the phone and it turns out my Xbox is still under warranty (wink, wink). So for $20 shipping, I should receive a fixed Xbox within 10-14 days after they receive it. I’m hoping its my current xbox with a new DVD drive as then I wouldn’t lose my save games and what not. And $20 is less than $149, so I’m happy!

Anyway, because of these technical glitches, I’m Xboxless for the next two weeks at a minimum, so I can’t do a league unless it’s MLB 2005. The league will be on hold until I get the Xbox back. Sorry to all who are interested, but we’ll do a league, really!

No one enjoys a message from Microsoft more than me. Whether it be Office’s “It looks like your writing a letter” or “You have a new Xbox Live Message,” it’s always a lot of fun. My current favorite has to do with the xbox. Pretty much every game I now play says “There may be a problem with the disc you are using. It may be dirty or damaged.”

I didn’t understand why the hell this error kept coming up. Sometimes it would show up in the middle of a game I was playing, like Toca 2. Other times it would just come up as soon as I turn on the game with Splinter Cell or ESPN baseball. It didn’t make any sense.

Then, I perused the Xbox forms (the official ones at forums.xbox.com). It turns out I’m not alone. Apparently a lot of people who bought their Xboxes at launch have a “Thompson” drive, which I believe is made by RCA/GE. Apparently this drive is a big POS. See this picture to see what kind of drive you have. They’ve even given the symptoms a name: the Thompson DDE (dirty disc error). At this point, even though the thread says you may be able to get your almost 3 yr old console under warranty, I might just go grab the new Halo box. We’ll see. Either way, it’s pretty frustrating!

I think I’ll make this a Sunday habit. If you had to rank the following sports in order of how well they have been simulated into a computer and/or video game, how would you rank them? (I’m not including text sims here, so stuff like OOTP and CM don’t count.)

Football

Basketball

Soccer

Hockey

Baseball

Golf

I’m not including auto racing of any kind, because I have no idea how well they’re simulated. Readers of this blog need to remember one important factoid: Bill doesn’t do car racing games. Sorry to slip into 3rd person, but hey..

Feel free to start a forum thread on this if you like. I’m really curious to see how people would rank them.

***

I am resigned to the fact that the PC sports market is going to be pretty much the haven for text sims and EA Sports. I’m finally accepting this fact. And, truth be told, I’m OK with it. I used to loath console games back in the PS1 days, but the “next gen consoles” have made me a believer…sorta.

Games like OOTP allow me to flex my sports geek muscles. While I bitch and moan about the fact that I can draw maybe 1 or 2 walks max per game in most arcade baseball games, in a good text sim this stuff in a no-brainer. I strongly advise that any serious baseball gamer give OOTP6 a look to find an online league to join. OOTP multiplayer is really the only way to play it and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t do much online gaming. But this is different. Mathcing wits and not reflexes, OOTP online is just a flat out blast.

Of course, I’d be crazy not to use this time to promote my own league, the NCBL. In fact, I have an open slot as thw ownewr of the Capital City Pioneers had to resign this week. So drop me an email if you want to join. Fun stuff. Dan used to play in this league but he quit because he’s an idiot. I think he’s used to this kinda of humiliation.

***

My ESPN sliders are ready. I continue to use snate’s base slider set:

Legend

Custom Sliders ON

CPU Run Aggr. 55

All CPU throw strikes at 45

Everything else at 50

The only change I made was to boost CPU Pitch to Corners (or whatever that’s called) to 65. If you are having trouble hitting, don’t use this tweak but if you find yourself scoring 6 runs a game, try it. It forces you to aim more than the old sliders.

And Dan is starting an ESPN online league, check the forum for details.

Really sorry for the lack of banter here the past few days. I’m super busy with real life stuff and with the release of OOTP6, that’s been eating up a lot of my playing time. So….I’ll try to post some stuff on OOTP6 ASAP on the QT, OK? Lots to talk about there, and I think it’s my civic-sports-gamer duty to get everyone that reads this blog to try out a good baseball text sim.

Okay, I haven’t played this game much yet, but if you like your racing games with a challenge, variety and a lot of fun online, go out right now and buy Toca Race Driver 2. Very, very cool stuff. I’ll give more detail later, but I’m wasting time talking and not playing…

I spent most of my free time on afternoon Friday messing around with OOTP6 and listening to the Reds game (argh!).

Thus far, I like the new stuff. A new ratings system, and a lot of new franchise/financial rules all playing underneath what is supposedly a better sim engine. So far so good. The OOTP5 league conversion worked (as far as I can tell) without a hitch but we’ll need to actually run a season to make sure all is well.

Of course I’m not about to abandon ESPN Baseball, which I think I can firmly say will be my “arcade” game of choice this baseball season. As promised, I’ll post some slider stuff as soon as I can. I didn’t get a chance to fire up the game at all Friday, and today I play basketball from noon to three. So hopefully tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night I’ll be able to get some PT in and post the tweaks. If you have any slider settings you want to share, feel free to send an email. I hope the tweaks that I want to do work because I’m still seeing too many pitches over the middle of the plate, even on Legend. So we’ll see. But again, it may have been the terrible staff I was facing…