The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Did you know that AVault reviews movies now as well as games? I had no idea. I stopped reading Avault a while ago but happened over there the other day looking for a KOTOR patch. I think it’s a pretty natural progression for a game site to also review other entertainment outlets like music and movies. Not a terrible idea, but man…looking at the movie review archive, the Avault likes EVERYTHING.

I mean check ths out:

Troy - 4.5 out of 5 stars (uh..)

Van Helsing - 3 stars (This should ge 0.3 stars)

Man on Fire - 3.5

The Whole Ten Yards - 3 stars

Walking Tall (The Rock’s movie) 4 stars

The Punisher 4 stars - (!!)

The lowest score I could find was Envy and The Alamo which received 2.5 stars.

I’m not writing this to lob cheap shots at Avault but to lead you in the direction of a great movie review site database called Rotten Tomatoes. I’m sure many of you are familiar with RT but I spoke with some friends last night who had never heard of it. So that’s my good deed for the day.

They also keep records of game critics; it’s only a year or so old (the game section) but they even allow you to search by critic. This Abner guy seems alright.

There is a rumor spreading around the Net right now that EA Sports is planning on offering up a multi-million dollar bid to be the only company to use the NFLPA in their games. This simply means that if you want real NFL players in your video games, you’re going to have to buy Madden. This would also spell the absolute doom to Sega’s NFL game. Dead. Kaput. Stick a fork in it.

I have not been able to confirm this but with a rumor this hot, I thought it was at least worth mentioning. Is this good reporting? Hell no. If I was a reporter I’d feel bad about helping spread such stuff.

Odd thing, I’m not sure what I think about this. I’m going to play the wait and see game first. If something actually comes of this, we can spend more time on it. I will say this: it would not surprise me in the least if EA tried to do it.

Oh, and if anyone else out there has some kind of confirmation let me know. I haven’t read anything concrete, just stuff in net-land.

***

Every once in a while my sport gets national attention. Thoroughbred horse racing is a 365 days a year sport, but most people only give it a cursory glance in May and June because of the Triple Crown. Well, Smarty Jones Fever has caught on; he’s a national star now and the spotlight is, for the moment, back on racing. I have no idea why that is. I mean, either you like the sport or you don’t, right? Just because Smarty has a serious shot at winning the TC (the first since 1978), is that reason for non racing fans to care? Or is it that people just want to be a witness to history?

I guess we’re all just programmed differently. I wouldn’t watch the Indy 500 if it was being raced in my backyard. I wouldn’t watch a tennis match if the Williams sisters were playing each other in the nude. I’m just not as fan of those sports, and the circumstance doesn’t change that.

Anyway, Smarty Jones has won the first two legs of the Triple Crown. Thing is, a LOT of horses have done that–many of them recently. Hell it happened last year with Funny Cide (remember him?). Here’s the difference–and even casual racing fans can see this: Smarty has “it”. Real Quiet didn’t have it. Neither did Silver Charm, Charismatic or Funny Cide. Those horses didn’t look like Triple Crown winners. You didn’t look at them and even consider them in the same league as a Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Citation, or Affirmed. Smarty is different. He’s undefeated; he’s toying with this crop of 3-year olds, and looks like he really has the stuff to be something truly special.

But the racing industry still doesn’t get it–the big wigs feel that Smarty Fever will help boost racing’s fan base. I don’t see it. If Smarty Jones loses the Belmont, interest in him will plummet outside of the racing circle. If he wins, he’ll be a worldwide superstar for a while, but it won’t make the person who doesn’t follow racing all that much to suddenly decide to drive down to Beulah Park and bet the late double.

Anyway, tune in and watch the Belmont in a few weeks–see if Smarty Jones can do it. If he’s healthy come post time, I think you’re going to be a witness to history. If you’re in to that kind of thing.

Well, I’m surprised Bill hasn’t chipped in about the Preakness. Folks, Bill is the only guy I know who will ICQ me and let me know that Gallop Racer 23 has made it stateside. Quite alright though, after all he humors me about soccer, so it all works out in the end.

It’s official: I am addicted to Links for Xbox. Although I’ve been playing it for a while, I just started playing over XSN Sports. Wow, that is just like totally awesome, dude! I thought I was a good player with 64 skill points on beginner, but it turns out I’m a loser. I finished one tournament at 56 under (yes, -56) but came in 13th. Ugh. If anyone can give me tips on how to get 80 points on beginner, I’m all ears. How do you get more money after you’ve finished the career mode and what not? Do you have to keep playing online and keep getting those $250 chip in bonuses until they hit $400,000? If you have any tips, let me know!

Our ESPN Baseball league isn’t going as well as I hoped. Sniff. I like how over XSN you can play when you want and don’t have to wait. Always a plus — of course, Golf allows you to do this. You can’t play by yourself in say, NHL Rivals, eh?

Okay, off to work I go and stuff. Happy Monday everyone.

In one day we went from 0 players to 14 players. We need 17 more to make it a full field, help us out. Sign up here: http://www.xsnsports.com/Links/Group/?lgid=14139

I know I can really come off, at times, as this ultra negative guy that doesn’t even like games. That’s not true. I love games. I hate the business of games and it’s the business of games that is the reason the innovation of risk taking in this industry is at an all time low. Look at the sales charts — sequels and spin offs and Sims expansions. It’s sad but also inevitable. So when I rant and rail about this stuff it’s just out of frustration more than anythng else. The industry is operating with one hand tied behind its back. (I also hate the way the mass game media covers this industry, but since I’m part of that media and thus part of that problem…well, you know, glass houses and all that/)

But I do have something positive to say! Really!

I absolutely love the direction that the NCAA Football series is heading. Here’s a bit from the fact sheet:

Electrifying Stadium Atmosphere: Watch the visiting team fight crowd noise when calling audibles and hot routes— and feel the stadium rumble with controller vibration and shaking cameras. You can pump up the crowd to build up your home field advantage with your play—or make big plays to take the opponent’s crowdopponents out of the game.

(The sound of Bill clapping can be heard in the distance). This is good stuff, folks.

New Match-Up Stick: Track the crowd’s impact on each player and see if they have what it takes to stand the pressure, then exploit the match-up of the composed senior wideout against the nervous freshman corner.

Maybe this will mean fewer Frehsmen will see the field? Again, clap clap clap.

Top 25 Toughest Places to Play: Build your team’s stadium atmosphere to compete in the elite stadiums throughout the country. See, hear and feel the immediate impact from hostile environments like LSU’s “Death Valley”, “The Swamp” at Florida, Michigan’s “Big House”, and Nebraska’s “Sea of Red.”

F**K MICHIGAN. Ahem, sorry about that. Buckeyes have to do that; it’s written on our diplomas. But again, no gimmicks here folks. This is cool stuff. Crib this!

Deeper EA SPORTS Dynasty Mode: Monitor discipline levels and grades to ensure your program’s integrity while recruiting promising high school athletes and converting them into skilled position players. Keep players happy with playing time or risk them transferring to one of your rivals in the off-season.

Can you tell how excited I am to play NCAA 2005? If not, this is Bill very excited. It’s as giddy as I get people. This is it. If NCAA 2005 isn’t a great game I will be utterly and completely shocked.

New Gameplay Enhancements: Choose from new custom playbooks, offensive schemes, and defensive schemes that include the 4-2-5, 3-3-5, and the 3-3 stack. All new locomotion animations for ball carrier and non-ball carrier as well as strip ball wrap tackles, defensive special moves and over-pursuit tackles.

Again, I want to see this in action and I hope EA tweaked the physics a bit and also make the CPU run the ball more (another question I would have asked, but hey..) But still: Giddy!

I believe NCAA 2004 was the best football game to ever grace a TV screen and NCAA 2005, on paper, sounds great. No fluffy features (that I can see). No wasted development (OK the Mascot games are dumb as hell).

So there ya go. Bill’s excited.

(Giddy even!)

Just in case the ESPN MLB league wasn’t enough, a friend of mine is running a Links Tournament. It’s going to be a lot of fun and you can play without waiting for others. Click here to check out the XSN Sports Tournament for Links. Space is filling up fast!

Being confined to the couch for most of the day the past 2 1/2 weeks has allowed me to use my Xbox like never before. I finished Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Crimson Skies High Road to Revenge in that time. I review games for a living and even I don’t play games that fast. Maybe your average PC game is longer than your average console game? I dunno. Anyway, both games are worth buying, especially if you can’t leave the couch. No idea what my next game will be. I go back to therapy today and if I still need to keep my foot elevated, I’ll need another game. I guess I should try one of those Splinter Cell games everyone seems to love. I’m still not back in sports gaming mode and as much as I enjoy ESPN Baseball…I gotta admit I don’t find myself itching to play it or any other baseball game that is not OOTP.

***

The love fest that is E3 is almost over and I’m not sure what to think of this year’s crop of sports titles–at least based on what I’m reading. Of course according to websites every game at E3 is AWESOME. I hope you all know better than to believe everything you read about E3 (in how the media covers it). I won’t ramble on again about that here but you really should try to read between the lines. You know the best thing to do when reading E3 coverage? Find the fact sheet for a game and ignore the prose of the preview. The people writing previews of games at E3 are simply rehashing what the producer/developer tells them and they are not going to tell the press guy that, “We think this part of the game sucks.”

Let’s look at Madden 2005. I’ve never been a huge Madden-ite, I much prefer NCAA to Madden but I can certainly recognize how good Madden is, I just never fell in love with it like a lot of others. Maybe this year will change that?

The Fact Sheet tells us that:

New Hit Stick: Use the right analog stick to deliver the big hit. Time your hit right, and you can cause the key fumble. The Hit Stick can change the complexion of the game, paying off with new visual and audio elements as well as big time animations that will only occur with Hit Stick tackles.

New Defensive Playmaker Controls: Use Playmaker Controls on defense to modify the assignments for any or all defensive players on the field, including receiver jams, blitzes and QB spy calls.

Is it me or does this sound a whole lot like the new ESPN Maximum Tackle thing? I actually like how the developers (from both companies) seem to be focusing more on defense since that side of the ball has always been watered down in every football game to date. All I want from this stuff is for ratings to matter more than the gamer’s arcade prowess. I mean if Earl Little (Browns safety that couldn’t tackle me–even with the hurt ankle) is slamming running backs to the ground because I’m good at this tackle stick doo-hicky then this feature will suck. Make the ratings matter, I’ll be happy.

Storyline Central: Tony Bruno hosts a weekly radio talk show, discussing current stories regarding your team and the league to make Franchise Mode deeper and more compelling. You can also view hundreds of stories regarding team personnel and league events in local and national newspapers, giving you key information to act on. Check your e-mail for important news from your coaches and staff. When your star player goes to the papers to complain he’s not getting the ball enough, trade him or make him happy—it’s your call.

Franchise Mode Enhancements: The all new in-season progression system rewards players for their performance during the season. Name team captains, tag players with the franchise tag and sign away restricted free agents to build your team.

Franchise tags! Well I’ll be damned it only took them five years to add that but hey…beggars can’t be chooses I guess. I’m just glad EA knows that franchise tags exist in football. I was starting to wonder about that. OK in all seriousness this sounds pretty cool. Again though it sounds a lot like ESPN’s franchise tweaks so maybe these guys are exchanging notes or they attended the same “how to improve your yearly cash cow” seminar?

But for the love of God, Tony Bruno?

New Create-A-Fan: Create your favorite team’s fans by customizing your fan appearance with thousands of possible options for clothing, hats, face paint and wild team specific items. See your fans come to life in new in-game fan scenes.

New Commentary from John Madden and Al Michaels, joined by Jill Arrington: Get in the game with advanced analysis from the top announcing football booth including Game Story where they will set up the key match-ups and critical factors; Player Profile, where John gives his thoughts and opinions of today’s greatest athletes as you control the action; and Franchise Commentary, where John and Al know the playoff implications of every game. Get the latest updates from the sidelines with new announcer, Jill Arrington.

Call me a curmudgeon but this create a fan thing sounds silly and another waste of development time. Fix the physics engine, please, enough with worrying about the friggin fans in the stands. Hmm…unless I can create the super fat guy that lives in the Dawg Pound.—oh the possibilities! (sigh)

OK we finally get some nuggets about the gameplay. A bunch of new “systems”…but that doesn’t tell us too much so we’re gonna have to go out and get dirty and scan a few previews, to use as a supplement to the fact sheet.

Let’s start by looking at one of the websites I review PC games for, GameSpy. Ahem, ok, well, that preview doesn’t say a thing about these new passing and running systems so ah…let’s try another. Before we do, if my buddies at GSpy are reading this (love ya!) I was counting on you guys to tell me more about this stuff and now I have to go read another website.

IGN’s preview tell us….nothing..what..so…ever that you can’t fund in the fact sheet. Ever diligent, let’s proceed. GameSpot? Help?

And…strike three. OK so the three biggest websites all reported on Madden from the E3 floor and none of them decided to ask about the “all-new balance based running system, an all-new pass blocking system, custom packages, custom hot-routes, formation shifts, playbooks with option routes and improved AI make the game look and feel more realistic than ever.”

People, this is the GAMEPLAY. THE MEAT! ASK ABOUT IT! I’m sitting in my damn den in Columbus, Ohio with my entire foot covered in ice with Dora the Explorer on in the background while my three year old eats a popsicle and I know as much about this as you do! And you’re at the show!

Have I mentioned recently how much I dislike E3?

Okay, so listening to XM Radio as I often do on my day job, I heard this song called “Game Over (Flip)” by Bun B, L’il Flip and company. Now I will be the first to admit, I’m more Manchester UK mid-80s than hip hop late 90s, but this tune is kinda catchy becuase instead of old school songs being sampled, it’s old school video games–Pac-Man specifically. It’s definitely worth a listen, but I should also mention it has explicit lyrics for those who want to play it for the kiddies.

In other news, GameSpot has posted a review of ESPN MLB. The review is basically the 3 page Xbox review with another page that mentions how the PS2 version is better than Xbox. Yup, you heard me, PS2 is better than Xbox. Well, aside from the horrible load times and graphics aren’t as good, at least in HD mode. I guess I’ll have to go get the game and find out.

Speaking of baseball, I have to say, I’m using the right analog stick a lot more than I thought for manual sliding in MVP. That is quite the feature. Kudos to EA. See, and you thought I always wrote them off. We need the gameplay of ESPN MLB, the fun factor of MLB 2005, the minor leagues of MVP, and we’d have a great baseball game. Or High Heat 2002. LOL.

So it turns out the MASSIVE SEGA ANNOUNCEMENT was the Matrix. Big f’n deal. I kinda wish I was at that party. Back in 2000, Sega had a great party at this place. It was an open bar and the band Filter (hey they were popular then) played a set. Throughout the bar, there were tons of Dreamcast games. They showed how you could play NBA 2K1 online (back then, it was huge). And mind you this was very little lag over dial up. It was impressive. Now, we get The Matrix online. Personally, I enjoy an MMORPG like I enjoy a government audit, but it does have Monolith doing some of the work, and their past work has been pretty good…so maybe there’s hope.

There’s also hope of me getting some sleep now, so good night.

Let us discuss the EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW of ESPN Football 2005 at IGN. (How this is exclusive…I have nary a clue but we’ll run with it anyway. I mean they say it is and who am I to claim horseshit, ya know?) Now IGN is no different than any other major online/print press that covers games at E3. They want you to REALLY be interested in what they have to say and Sega REALLY wants IGN to care about the game that they show.

So.

They dish out EXCLUSIVE press kits (usually a folder with a fact sheet, press release, demos, screens, some cash (kidding), and maybe a T-shirt (not kidding). I mean, after all, nothing says “cool” like a video game t-shirt.

I’m going to try to decipher this for you as best I can, with some John McCain-like straight talk.

From the start:

“As the replay ends, Berman kicks it down to Suzy Kolber for a postgame interview. In the background, you can still hear the chanting crowd: “J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!” and the Jets runner gives a few shout-outs before sprinting back to the locker room.”

So the game has post game quips. It’ll either get repetitive very quickly or will be a neat little tidbit. Most players will want to fast forward through this stuff after a few games, most likely.

Thrill Meter says: eh..

“While this scenario seems like any typical Sunday, it isn’t. In fact, it could be any day of the week. All you need is an Xbox or a PS2. That’s right. This is exactly what’s going to happen in ESPN Videogames’ new football title, ESPN NFL 2005. Only thing is, it’s not the real Boomer, Suzy, or Martin, it’s their virtual stand-ins. Polygonal representations of a situation that happens after every game in real life, but has never been replicated in a video game…until now.”

This paragraph does not impact the Thrill Meter whatsoever. It’s a post game quip, not a feature worth spewing that much over. The writer has no idea of these post game things will be good or annoying. He most likely saw it once, MAYBE twice on a running beta. OK, moving on..

“Now let’s head back into the studio of The Franchise Show as Boomer hands-off to Trey Wingo who’s here to talk about all of the week’s news, including trades, signings, cuts, and retirements. If you want to know about something that happened in this week’s franchise, Wingo is your man.”

Pretty cool if done right. If all Wingo does is read the news, it’s a waste. Hell, I can read the transaction page. If he COMMENTS on them, then that’s really cool. Of course the preview doesn’t tell us this.

Thrill Meter says: eh…

“Using 100’s of portraits of NFL players and blending them together, ESPN 2005 will put faces to the names of fictitious rookies about to enter the draft, and Mel Kiper is the man to help hype and sort out the ballers from the fallers. Every rookie will have his own face and name that Kiper recorded, so the virtual Kiper will break down the draft by position during The Franchise Show. He might start pumping up some running back named Bill Johnson from Ohio State or wideout Jon Hopkins from Stanford, and after you continue hearing how great these guys are for weeks, you start to get pumped up to add them to your team. Mel will even beak down what happens at the rookie combine and how each player performed, giving you, for the first time, a real reason to draft these made-up players, and turning the draft into more of the spectacle it is in real life.”

OK we’re four paragraphs in and we’ve hit a super cool feature. If this works as advertised…woo.

Thrill Meter says: Mel! Mel! Mel!

“You check out the scouting report on your next opponent, then decide what film needs to be watched by your coaches and players.”

Hmm…

“If playing as the 49ers, for example, you can tell your assistant coaches to watch film of the opposing defensive backs, either by players or formations. You can then bring in individual players like Brandon Lloyd to watch film on a specific corner, or you can bring in your entire wide receiver corps. You then train this group or player through exercise/training programs to help increase their attributes. You can even choose whether or not you want to give your players a day off. Everything you do not only takes time off of the clock, but affects player attribute points. Heading into a week where you know you’ll need a big passing game, you can actually increase a player like B-Lloyd’s attributes by up to six points”…yadda yadda

This sounds like feature creep to me. I love my football hardcore, believe me. But do you want to do all of this stuff? Assign a WR to watch film on a corner? Is that really…important? I LOVE the idea of flucuating attributes week to week. EVERY sports game needs that, but all of these options may overwhelm people.

Thrill Meter says: Let’s wait and see.

I do take issue with this bit:

“And if you think this won’t affect gameplay, imagine the difference between a player with a rating of 90 versus a 96, or even an 80 to an 86. This preparation will affect each and every game you play in Franchise, and is a refreshing take on a subject that’s been mostly ignored to this point.”

Actually, no. I can’t tell a damn bit of difference between a 90 and an 86 in a football gane. Can you? Unless it’s speed I can’t tell at all.

“The third improvement to Franchise comes in the name of contract signings. You can now finally setup contracts on a year-per-year basis, even including signing bonuses into the mix to make this portion of the game more realistic.”

Franchise tags? Restrictred FAs? Pro rated contracts? We have no idea.

“The biggest new gameplay addition is Maximum Tackle.”

What. This sounds like Sega’s answer to the broken tackle fiasco that is ESPN Football. Let’s read on..

“If you hold the tackle button, your player will attempt a textbook wrap-up. Tap the button, however, and you’ll unload with a dynamic hit, blasting the ball carrier toward the turf and increasing the chances for injuries and fumbles. This will enable fast-fingered defenders to even combo the tackle, wrapping up the runner with his first player, then switching defenders and fly in for the fiercer blow. Maximum Tackle is a two-sided feature, however, as it also works for the ball carrier, in the all new, “you’re never down until you’re down” scenario (not that we needed any more broken tackles after last year, but ESPN Videogames promises they’re working on the issue).”

Yep.

Show of hands. Who hopes that this is NOT the “biggest gameplay addition?”

“Speaking of running with the ball, the game will also feature all-new run animations, including spins, jukes, cuts, and plants. Forget the days of the joystick jockey running full speed to the left, then breaking back right without slowing down.”

The Thrill Meter says: Thank GOD.

“Another addition is the new Quarterback Evade button. If you thought Michael Vick was dangerous in last year’s game, now he’s even going to be more difficult to get your hands on. Tap the right analog stick as a defender flies toward you and watch as your quarterback ducks or steps up in the pocket to clear room for a throw. The more agile the quarterback, the better he’ll be at evading the rush. Sounds like another year of Falcon video game dominance.”

I don’t like this. Like it isn’t hard enough to get sacks in this game anyway?

“Play calling has also received an upgrade, as the game will keep track of every play you choose, and the plays you use more than once will be put into a Favorite Plays column for you to easily scroll through and select.”

Thrill Meter says: Nifty

“If you were a fan of the Cribs feature the game offered last year, you’ll be happy to know that this year’s pimped-out room will be tree times bigger.”

Thrill Meter says: Waste. Of. Development. Money. You. Dummies.

“Last year’s other huge, and probably most talked about feature was First-Person Football. Gimmick or gem, it’s not going away.”

Thrill Meter says: Waste Of Limited Funds. EA is Laughing at you.

“If that’s not enough, ESPN NFL will also incorporate living rosters into online play. So now, not only will you be able to play in leagues and tournaments with friends, but you will also be able to make trades, track injuries, and even check out all of your stats and schedules on the Web. In fact, everything you can track in season mode you will also be able to track online.”

I guess you online dudes will dig this. So..um..woo hoo!

“ESPN rewrote the entire graphics library for the Xbox version of the game for 2005. That’s right, started from scratch.”

OK. How many games do you hear EACH YEAR that does something from scratch? “We rebuilt the AI from scratch!” Sure you did. Like they started with a blank screen and then said here we go! That’s an A+ on the horseshit-o-meter. I have NO doubt that the graphics in 2005 will be good and prolly a lot better than 2004 but I also bet thet have a similar look as well. Hell just look at the screens. If you didn’t know which game they were from, could you guess? If not, you lose your football gamer’s card. Turn it in at the door.

“The new graphics engine incorporates a technique called Triple Pass Rendering.”

Um…woo?

“Instead of just molding a player onto a skeleton, Triple Pass Rendering takes into account everything from the wrinkles in the jersey to the flexing of muscles.”

Oh well hell in THAT case…YEAH!!

OK that’s pretty much the preview.

Are you excited?

I can’t hear you!

I say are you excited!?!?

Yeah, I guess I am too.

OK in all seriousness, I think this IGN preview is pretty good. I woulda tried to find out more details about some of these features but with the limited time and info you have..ya gotta do what ya can. Problrm is, this preview could have been written if Sega had mailed IGN a fact sheet and some screens. Save the bus trip to E3 and stay home at watch Deadwood.

Wow that was a long blog. I won’t do this to every sports game previewed at E3 although I will be commenting when I can.

My ankle hurts.

IGN posts this link. I hope to hell this isn’t the big sega news. (http://sports.ign.com/articles/514/514086p1.html. Yeah, this is why I buy videogames. I don’t want to play football, but I want to talk to Funkmaster Flex and challenge his crib team! This is the best ever!!!

I received a few emails and read the comments about the E3 essay. First off, while I obviously don’t care for the show I do think it’s something everyone should try to go to at least once. I mean that first trip is pretty overwhelming. It’s just the yearly pilgrimage that gets really old. Everyone should experience it…but don’t lose sleep over not going. It’s not like you’re missing a party at the Playboy mansion.

I’ll be blogging some comments about the E3 Sports coverage from other websites here as they come rollng in. I mean, after all, this blog is about sports games. At least partially. However, that will have to wait as I’m off to the doctor again today so I’ll try and play E3 catch up tonight or tomorrow.

***

I’m still couch riddled at the moment for the most part except when I slap on the walking boot. As a result I’ve been able to almost finish Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. Pretty cool game, especially if you’re like me and like dogfighting games but hate flight sims.

***

Oh, and for the record, if Ian McShane does not win an Emmy for his role on Deadwood then it’s fixed. That is the best TV role I have seen in a long, long time.

Just re-reading Bill’s post and the comments, I couldn’t agree more. The last E3 I went to was in 2000 (this was the year Sega showed off a “DVD add on for Dreamcast” haha. I can’t believe it’s a Presidential Election ago. Whenever the event comes up, I’m envious of everyone that goes. However, when you’re there, you’re so freaking tired and suffered such ear drum pain that you wish you didn’t go.

I’m thankful for GameSpot’s video streaming. It’s like being there without being there. I just wanted to follow up on a few things, including the comments people posted to Bill’s original post.

1. To call most of the people journalists at E3 is akin to saying Fox News has fair and balanced reporting. These ‘journalists’ seldom are over age 21, are about as objective as Fox News, and seem to get hard-ons about everything. I encourage you to go to GameSpot and check out the Xbox and Nintendo conferences. Listen to the whooping and hollering about these new products. Only in the technology sector do you have stuff like this. I doubt that McDonald’s “GoActive” meal had the same feedback at it’s conference. Yes, some of it is marketing, but it just makes the industry look , uh, cheap.

2. I would concur with Bill that it is horrible to get an interview at these things. I will say that as an EIC of GamePen, I seemed to have better access. For example, I was able to attend a 2nd floor, behind closed door, must have credential showing of the Xbox (this was 18 months before release). However, Sega was a very tough booth to get in, even though we had appointments.

3. Someone from Calvert games had posted how hard it was to get a press pass. I can certainly relate: although I had a press pass in 2001/2002/2003 I didn’t go. I didn’t have a press pass in 2000. It was pretty funny trying to get one. I had just done a review for Tiger Woods in PC Gamer. I had the byline, and not only that, one of the screenshots I took for the review showed how I put my picture in the game. So, I had my PC Gamer article with my byline and picture, and attempted to get in as freelance, and the E3 attendant refused to give me the press pass. Luckily, I knew everyone enough so I could still get in the press only showings and I also avoided Bill’s predicament of all the Kentia types attacking me, so it wasn’t so bad.

4. I think I’ll go to the Classic Gaming Expo instead — it’s in Vegas, has more games I care about and probably a lot more people who care about the craft rather than the Benjamins.

Am I bitter? A little. Of course I want to be there. Am I disgusted that every freaking game seems to be a sequel and people can’t seem to have an original thought? Yes, but that’s the fault of the public. The public doesn’t embrace most new stuff, but Grand Theft Auto 23, even if it’s the same game, will sell millions. It’s depressing.

And on that happy note, I must go to the real job.

Well, I think we have settled on our league. 8 Players, including yours truly are competing for the prestigious SportsBlog Trophy, or something.

Visit our forum at ePlanetCentral for all the details of our league. Good luck to everyone!

Thanks to Pacuca and Jason for the league over at EPC. You can also create your own leagues over there too.

Ok…for DSP readers this essay will sound familiar. I was reading Gone Gold this morning and Bill Harris said this about E3, “Like I said last week, I’m not going to E3, but I’ll be able to give you a much better analysis of what’s going on than I could last year, because the absolutely worst place to understand what’s happening at E3–is to be at E3.”

I’ve been to a lot of E3s and truer words have never been er…typed. I don’t like E3. Instead of rephrasing the same speech I gave at DSP I’ll just post it here. With the Big Show cranking up this week it seemed rather topical. I just don’t get all the mouthwatering over a show that has pre-release code of games of which 80% will either suck or be just another average-to-mediocre sequel with a movie tie-in.

Anyway, here’s the essay:

E3 is 100% media hype-laden crapola.

Ok, seriously, the reasons I hate E3: (And I’ve been to five of them…I think. Maybe six. I guess I should blog this at some point. (See! I’m blogging it now! Woo!) I actually had fun at the Atlanta E3, though.)

1) It’s too damn loud. Between Sony, Nintendo, EA, Sega, and Konami you cannot hear yourself THINK. Try doing an interview with a game designer on the floor with Nintendo blaring it’s corny music over…and over…and over. You’re shouting, the designer is shouting and misquotes abound. This can be avoided by scheduling times upstairs with the developers, but that’s not always a possibility. It’s all about who has the biggest and loudest display. (The console companies win)

2) If you have to do a write up on a game on the floor you may get 10 minutes to talk about the game and maybe see a running demo or an early Alpha. From this, you get these completely asinine “Best of E3!” Awards. You want to know why the gaming press has the rep it does? Here ya go. Giving awards to games that aren’t even in Beta yet is about as bad as it gets. Daikatana was an E3 DARLING for like…four years. Every year they’d show it, say how cool it was going to be, the press bought it, the game went through hell, finally shipped, and was garbage–and was panned in the media. Funny how no one said how crappy it was going to be at E3, eh?

3) It’s a misnomer that E3 is about games and about the media. It’s not. It’s a trade show and it’s about $$$ and about retailers. I got bumped from a a LucasArts interview one year because a rep from EB Games just happened to show up when I was scheduled. Heh, kinda funny looking back on it, but I was none too thrilled at the time. This is the show where deals are made. The media is like a bad case of fleas to the suits that run it. We’re in the way.

4) You only get cursory glimpses of the games themselves. The number of games that look cool at E3 that turn out to be crap…is about 80%. The number of games that appear at E3 that do not ship for another 2+ years is about 50%. I saw one game at E3 four years in a row. Whee. (It wasn’t Daikatana)

5) OK this might sound snobby but too many people are there that have no business being there. The show is a trade show for members of the industry and not Joe Gamer off the street. I like Joe Gamer. But when I’m trying to work and 50 Joe Gamers are in my way because they have a friend that works for Microsoft, that irks me.

6) If you wear a press badge you will be hounded by very small companies that are begging for press. One word of warning: Stay out of Kentia Hall unless you don’t mind telling ansty PR people, “No I don’t want to see Harley Davidson Across the US Part 4.” You can find some real gems in Kentia Hall, but you have to dig, and you’ll get dirty.

7) I like big boobs as much as the next guy. But I cannot help but be offended when so many gaming companies use half-naked women dressed up in some bizarre outfit to attract retailers and industry insiders to their kiosk. It’s classless. It’s another way the industry says to me, “This is not about the quality if the games. E3 is all about image. And tits. Big ones.”

Now, there are pluses, especially for sports gamers. Most of the football games are close to being ready by the time E3 rolls around. The trip is worth it just to play NCAA 200x. Of course you have to turn off your BS-Meter when listening to PR people (EA is especially bad at this) but at least you can play some Madden and NCAA at E3, which is cool.

My first E3 was great. It was like Christmas for gamers. It was like a big fun park. I was too much in awe to realize that, “Hey, this is all hype.” By the time my 3rd E3 rolled around I could not wait for the weekend to be over. If you go, go for fun and not as your job. As a gig, E3 is a huge pain in the ass. If I could go to E3 with no schedule to follow, no games to cover and simply walked around the three convention halls (with earplugs) and just fiddled with the games for a day or two I’d have a pretty good time. Covering it sucks.

***

So there ya go, my yearly diatribe on the big, massive, over-hyped drama that is E3. So when you read your favorite website or magazine and they tell you how great every game that was displayed at the show is going to be, take the hook out of your mouth and realize that your chain is being pulled.

Man, physical therapy sure has improved my mood!

Link here: http://www.xbox.com/en-us/e32004/ea/default.htm