The Blog for the Sports Gamer

In case you missed it, the Travers Stakes was run today, just before a monsoon engulfed Saratoga. Birdstone, Nick Zito’s mighty mite colt looked fantastic, notching another huge Grade I win over the best three year olds in the United States not named Smarty Jones. But ya know, as talented as Smarty was, I dunno if he wants anything to do with Birdstone on a fast track. Of course, we’ll never see that race, but hopefully Birdstone comes out of this race healthy and runs in the BC Classic against the top older horses. If he wins THAT, there’s your Horse of the Year, Smarty or no Smarty.

Okay, so having heard from the masses that I’m truly missing something by not playing Madden I go back and start a franchise. 2nd Play of my season has Tom Brady throwing and getting hit at the same time, the game calls it a ‘fumble’ and I recover. I go to replay to check it out, his arm is definitely going forward so I go to challenge the play. However, EA, being, uh, stupid, decides to prohibit me from asking for a challenge because I have replayed the video. What freaking rule is this? I mean, coaches up in the booths are allowed to view replays — that’s why they make the call to get a review. I know this isn’t new for Madden, but it’s annoying as hell.

That being said, ESPN isn’t perfect either. We do get the replays but following up on my post from a few nights ago, a review of the rule book says that an INT in the opponent’s end zone where I have posession and didn’t move out of the end zone results in a touchback — not a safety.

So bascially I’m mad at both games right now. Gah.

I have now totally downloaded Half Life 2 (legally) from Steam. Feel free to make it available for purchase already!!

UPDATE 8PM: As mentioned in the comments, ESPN has the same issue. ESPN does auto replays of pretty much every play on the default setting so I didn’t realize that if you select a replay you can’t challenge. In my opinion, the auto-replay defeats the purpose of not allowing someone else to see a challengeable play, which is stupid as well, so therefore all football games suck.

Today is a big day for racing fans as the “Summer Derby” takes place at Saratoga. This should be a helluva race with Belmont Stakes winner and Triple Crown thorn Birdstone taking on Purge (who looked great in the Jim Dandy), Lionheart, The Cliff’s Edge, Sir Shackleton, and Eddington. Tune in to ESPN around 6:30 to see the race. I think the Travers show is on from 5-7 ET. I think.

Of course this would even be a bigger race if Smarty Jones were here, but he’s off at Three Chimneys Farm getting ready for the grind of stud duty. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

This morning I drove down I-71 to meet my parents and pick up Ashley. Mary’s back from New York, Ash is back from my parents and all is right with the world. I enjoy a day or two by myself, but after that, I get kinda antsy to see them again.

My good mood was dampered a bit on the drive down, though. Doesn’t it drive you insane when you are driving in the fast lane, and some yahoo is going 65 MPH? It’s at those times when I wish I had twin machine guns mounted on my Ford Contour. For any blog readers out there that are too young to drive, listen up. On the highway, the left lane is the fast lane/passing lane. When someone rides up on your ass and you are in the fast lane–GET OVER. If some crazy whacko (me) wants to drive 80–get out of his way. In fact, don’t even BE in the left lane if you plan on driving the speed limit. It’s bad form, and it’s also dangerous.

When this happens to me, I refuse to go around the doofus doing 65. I sit behind him/her, flash my brights, wave my hands and generally get annoyed. So I travel behind the lady in the powder blue mini van for 5 miles, doing 65 and getting angrier by the mile marker. Not only because she’s doing 65 in the passing lane but because she’s driving a powder blue mini van.

Finally, she realizes that she needs to exit and then bolts three lanes over and zooms off the exit. By now I want to fire a rocket at the powder blue mini van but she’s gone so I begin to relax.

Then, I see the sign.

First off, the highway from Columbus to Cincy is mostly farmland and small towns. Well, Farmer Brown put a HUGE billboard on his property that sits right on the highway border. A black billboard with HUGE white block letters that says, “IF YOU DIED TODAY WHERE WOULD YOU SPEND ETERNITY?”



Before I have a time to consider the question, there is another huge black billboard with white letters about 200 yards down the road that reads, “HELL IS REAL!”

And I’m thinking, hey pal you’re telling me, did you see that lady driving the powder blue mini van?

If you’ve got Satellite Radio, don’t forget you have all kinds of sports this weekend — Sirius has the Patriots/Panthers game Saturday night, and XM has USC vs VA Tech also on Saturday night. Personally, I’m an XM guy who loves the music but is still envious of Sirius and their NFL package….

Okay, a few weeks back, I said the Orioles were the hottest team in baseball and watch out for the playoffs. Of course, only a moron would have said something like that as the Red Sox have now been red hot and I think the Orioles might have won one game in 3 weeks. Needless to say, I was a little premature.

In other news, really too bad about USA Basketball. Not.

My fantasy league that I’ve been playing in for years with some people from Bethesda (think Morrowind), has broken up. Someone started to date Yoko apparently. So, that being said, would anyone be interested in the free Yahoo fantasy league here in blogville? Leave a comment.

Funny thing happened last night — for the first time, I actually talked to Bill over Xbox Live. We’ve been ICQing since 1997, but that was the first time we actually talked. Kinda funny in this internet age, it took us 7 years to actually speak. Too funny.

Anyone else not caring this year about the MTV Video Music Awards. Ever since 1999, when Sega paid for Ulala to be a host, it’s really gone downhill. I think the WWE is less scripted. But then again, I’m getting way too old anyway.

I finally figured out why the Phins keep cutting Sam Madison each time I start a franchise. The rosters that I use are not default. I have placed players where they should be (the highest rated FA on my rosters is a 69) so the Dolphins now have Boooker, I created Fred Russell, etc. I started a franchise and manually selected the Dolphins and it said I couldn’t play week 1 because there were either too many players or they were over the cap. Aha. That’s why the CPU guts Sam Madison each time I do this–they need to and for some reason Madison is the chosen one. After tweaking my rosters, the Dolphins refrain from releasing ol’ Sam. Woo.

I played some ESPN today for the first time in a while after spending the past few days hammering away on Madden and doing franchise tests. Man, ESPN is such a fun game to play. Never before have I been this torn over which game I prefer. I just don’t have the time to play both but both games offer different goodies and have different problems. I better get my ass in gear or I’ll sound like a wishy washy critic for that GameSpy article. Nothing sucks more than to read a comparison piece and the guy at the end says, “Buy Both!”

In order to fully test the games for my GameSpy article, I need to go online so I’ll be playing a few games with Dan over the next couple of days and if all goes well I may even do a league or join Dan’s after the current league season is over.

I did go online today to check out the menus, etc. The ESPN and Madden leaderboards are hilarious. I just think I’m a hardcore football gamer. There are dudes with hundreds of online games logged and one guy is 131-0 in ESPN. Now, how is that possible? Most players average 25 yards per completion AND complete 50% of the passes. Does that say something bad about Madden and ESPN or are these players just that good?

To me, it solidifies my stance that you MUST know the people you are playing. If I’m playing a random guy that throws deep every play, I shut off the console. But that’s just me. I’m a dick like that.

Regardless of who you’re voting for, this thing is pretty darn funny.

Our league continues, with a 31-17 game with Baltimore on top. KingOPain did a nice recap (which I didn’t realize you could do, and makes the game even cooler than before) — which you can check out by clicking here.

Thank your deity that it’s Friday. I’m looking forward to a good weekend of game playing. I also picked up the Girl Next Door movie. Kim from 24 never looked better, and fortunately, she’s not being attacked by a tiger, making the movie more bearable, or so I hear. Also Netflixed Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2. I’m *so* looking forward to this weekend, you have no idea. This week at the real job was a real bitch. Now, if I could only get that other present for my 10th anniversary ..oh well…that’s what happens when you’ve been married for 1o years (hey, if you guessed the Mrs. doesn’t read the blog, you’re right). LOL

I added links to a few blogs that I read other than the masterpiece that is the Blog for the Sports Gamer, which, let’s face it, sets the standard around here. Seems like everyone and their cat has a blog these days. Aren’t they just a hoot?

Did some more simming with Madden today and without question, EA’s game pummels Sega’s game in terms of simmed statistics. Again, not a huge deal for each and every one of us, but if you want your Franchise Mode stats within the realm of earthly reason, Madden is that game. Is there a way to copy ESPN’s gameplay into Madden’s franchise mode? Dan, get to wotk on that.

Last thing, I’m giving a shout out to Granatofan. Ted, wake up. On Ted’s blog he mentions the new Gallop Racer game which comes out on 8/30. Since I am stacked up to my eyelids in games to review prolly through the end of September, I will be counting on Ted to report how GR2004 is. Ted, I’m counting on you. Point Given (a regular commenter here at BSG) and I want to know the details. (At least I assume he wants to know, too.)

After the Bloom case is anyone surprised? Here ya go.

Decided to take a break from Madden and ESPN and headed to the movies by myself. You ever do that? I don’t do it often but whenever Mary is away on business and Ashley is at the grandparents, I like to take in a flick if I get the chance. I saw Open Water this afternoon. Pretty good movie, in a low budget kind of way. I liked it, actually. It’s the kind of movie where you continuously say to yourself, “Boy…now that would suck.”

I’m back into Madden’s franchise for the rest of the afternoon and I have a question for the Madden base out there: what good is placing a player on the IR? I’m simming games and stopping to read the paper and listen to Bruno and I notice that MLB Andra Davis is out for the year. I place him on IR and head off to sign a backup MLB and it says my roster is full. I thought placing a player on IR freed up a spot on the roster. Right? If not, what’s the point?

Oh yeah, I found a credit card that expires before 8/1/05, so I went ahead and used that to sign up for Premium Pass. Yes, like Kerry, I flip flop, but I figured it was for the good of the blog and no “Online Gamers for Truth” group would be up my ass.

So I sign up, and what do I get? Uh…I can edit my EA Sports Ticker! Woohoo! Oh yeah, and there may or may not be some League Functionality at some point. So far, call me not impressed.

Oh, I did see updated rosters from EA from August 5th, so go wild and grab ‘em online if you’d like.

Played my first league game last night, and I didn’t do too shabby. Check out our league page by clicking here. Boy, I know Bill wasn’t happy with franchise mode, but this online stuff is just awesome.

In other news, how about that lawyer in the Bush campaign resigning? Oops? So although there’s no relation between Swift Boats and Bush, two people were involved that were also in the Bush campaign? Oh wait, Bush now calls McCain to stop 527s? Whatever. The BS meter is in full effect. I think it is pretty f’n hysterical that Bush, the guy that had people call up South/North Carolinaians in 2000 to tell them McCain had an illegitimate kid (he didn’t), is now saying he’ll play fair. Yeah, right.

Republicans quite often cheat to get what they want. In 2000 in New Hampshire, they actually jammed phone lines to Democratic headquarters so that people couldn’t call. It’s illegal, and now people have plead guilty. Hey, democrats, if you weren’t so damn dumb, maybe you’d make sure everyone knows this .

Gah. I know, I know, I said I’d tone it down, but I can’t help it. I’ve boiled over. Okay, now I’m done, I’ll let it simmer again.

As I continue to test each game’s franchise mode, I’m becoming more frustrated with ESPN. There’s just too many oddities for me. Does it bother you when you’re playing a franchise mode and the stats don’t look right? I know for some they could not care less, and I understand that. But it takes away from the game when I see stats that just don’t make any sense, and it makes the stats in the games that I play a bit less meaningful as a result. A few examples of what I’m seeing in ESPN:

• Priest Holmes averaged 6.4 yards per carry for the season. Not only is that like a guy batting .450 for the year in baseball, but the Chiefs then turn around and trade for Clinton Portis! I mean, obviously, you gotta have insurance for your 6.4 yards per carry back so you go out and trade for another top 5 back as his backup and pay him a crazy salary to do so. *Thwap!* Anyone that tells you that ESPN’s AI “Trades for need” is selling you snake oil. In bulk.
  
• I’ve mentioned the QB ratings being exceptionally inflated, but oddly enough the reception totals are surprisingly low. The league leader in receptions usually has about 85 in my test seasons. That’s low. Here, look for yourself.
  
• Sack totals are also out the window. The Jags gave up 79 sacks one year and 6 teams gave up at least 50. Compare this to the NFL. It’s a wee bit insane. When stats break down like this it just skews the whole league. I’m cool with stats that aren’t 100% dead on and it’s unfair to ask a game like Madden or ESPN to do that, but 79 sacks?
  
• Why do so many players retire in ESPN after they have only played 6-7 seasons and are not injured? Just because a guy is the 3rd string HB doesn’t mean he’s gonna pack up and go home when he’s earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. It just doesn’t happen, or at least it’s not common. Guys leave the game because they get hurt or get cut. Every other circumstance is rare. The Browns lost 5 players after 2005: James Jackson, Aaron Shea, Chad Beasley, Melvin Fowler, Roosevelt Williams. Starters? No. But to RETIRE? Not a chance.
  
• I’ve already discussed the horrid draft day AI in ESPN. No need to go over that again but to say, yep, still sucks.

More later today as I go back into Madden’s franchise mode and do some stat checking. I will say this: on the field, I still prefer ESPN. Madden isn’t bad, but ESPN is the smoother, and less predictable game. I just have more fun playing it. That said, I’m a Franchise guy, and playing ESPN in franchise mode is one big headache.

Upon further review, Madden’s franchise mode still has some holes that I’d like to see plugged but it doesn’t compare to the deluge of water flowing from the breaking dam that is ESPN’s franchise mode. I’ll go into detail about this tomorrow, because my head is kinda spinning after 12 hours of video football.

But any game that allows Carson Palmer to have an 85 yard TD run during a simulated season has major statistical integrity issues. Major. Huge. Any football game that has 19 QBs with ratings for the year of at least 91 has major stat issues. Peyton Manning is good, folks, but a 121 QB rating for the entire season? 39 TDs and 4 INTs? Seriously? I’m supposed to buy that? Now I know this kinda stuff doesn’t matter to everyone but to me, it does. Drives me crazy when a game breaks through the realm of possibilty with its stat engine. I’ve messed with that damn “Sim Quarter Length” setting all night to no avail. Oh, and while I’m ranting, whose brilliant idea was it to create a “Sim Quarter Length” setting? Who is the guy that wants the stats to be even more bizarro than they already are? What’s the purpose of this thing? Why not just, oh, I dunno..give me good season stats to start with?

Ok. Bed.