The Blog for the Sports Gamer

GameSpot’s Director of Technology, or whatever the hell he’s called, MSN’ed me to let me know about this interesting article about how publishers are using game ranking meta sites to determine a royalty rate. Interesting stuff. I can say, I knew Scott way back in the day when he lived in Beverly Mass and was programming for GA-Sports of all things. Damn him and his mad programming skillz.

In other news, while I was at the same site, I saw this interesting article about Burnout 3 and how much better it’s selling vs the old Acclaim Burnout games.

Just FYI, I received this email:

Here’s the 411 on Madden Madness:

Who: EA SPORTS Premium Pass for Madden NFL 2005 holders

What: 72 Hours of Madden MadnessWhen: September 17-19, 2004

Where: Online with Madden NFL 2005



Prizes will include:

100 Madden NFL 2005 t-shirts

100 Madden NFL 2005 mouse pads

25 copies of NASCAR® 2005: Chase for the Cup™ for the PlayStation®2

25 copies of NASCAR® 2005: Chase for the Cup™ for the Xbox®

Don’t forget, Premium Pass is FREE the first year but you will need a credit card to sign up.

ESPN NFL 2K5 rosters are now updated (online use only) for Xbox. Grab ‘em and let’s get this league started! 10 slots are unfilled. So, get going!

The ‘news item’ online says “Any leagues scheduled from now on will use the new roster. Any leagues already having active schedules will continue to use the old roster. THe offline roster update should be available around the 23rd after it goes through Microsoft certification”

So, we may have to can our league and start fresh. Argh. Maybe by the time the Super Bowl is here, we’ll get a league going, but then won’t MLB 2K6 be out?

1. This interesting: According to this GameSpot article, the lead producer on EA’s NHL game has been given a game misconduct. I don’t know the guy, I was never a huge fan of EA’s NHL games since ‘97, so I leave it for you to comment.

2. Rumor has it that ESPN NFL opening day rosters will be available today for Xbox, but for online games only. I’ll believe it when I see it either way.

3. Congrats to former DSPer Brian Ekberg for getting the cushy GameSpot Sports Editor job. His first post is now online talking about how to deal with the NHL Lockout. One thing I hate about all sites is there use of streaming video without my permission. Hello, I’m at work, I don’t need loud crap coming out of my speakers.

4. My god, are you all pervs? I keep getting email asking how to get the Jenna sex tape. I’ll tell you what, don’t vote for W on election day, and I’ll give you the link. Deal? PS Remember, I only viewed it for journalistic purposes. That’s a euphamism for ‘getting it by the wife’.

5. Burnout is still easily the most addictive game I’ve played. According to my profile, I’ve already spent 6 hours with the game, and I’m only 20% complete. My son keeps egging me on, he wants the fire engine. So, I guess I have to keep playing until I unlike the fire truck.

6. If and when rosters get updated, we’ll get going with our league. I’m dying to play again. Heck at this point, I need a football fix so bad, I’ll even play NCAA for 10 minutes until the first guy plays ping pong with the football!

I hate being sick. Ok granted I don’t know many people that say that they love it…but anyway..

The pattern has been like this starting last Thursday until today.

• Mild Cough
• Headaches
• Feeling kinda tired
• A little light-headedness
• Go to the OSU game and nearly pass out at halftime
• 100 degree fever
• Insane coughing
• Chills..and then hot
• Fever breaks!
• Headache still there
• Coughing still there
• Can’t sleep worth a damn (see cough)

So that’s been my week. Sorry for the lack of blogging.

Lots of games coming out this week and next so there will be plenty to talk about once I get back to normal.

1. Is there a day on CNN where they don’t show a traffic jam of cars going one way and no cars going the other because of a hurricane? This Ivan storm sounds horrible — it does seem like we’ve been talking about it for 2 weeks!

2. After an announcement today, the NHL season will be pretty much dead. Now do you see why ESPN NHL was released so early? LOL. Guess it saves them from having to do roster updates!

3. Tiger is still engaged. Phew. I was worried that the whole stress of the wedding might affect his golf game. Heh.

*** Warning: Contains Political Ranting ***

4. When some right wing crazy guy like Pat Buchanan goes on the Daily Show and says Bush needs to go because the war on Iraq is just terrible, you know Bush has got has got to go. I just don’t understand why Bush is still winning. I don’t know of any other sport or otherwise where people vote for the loser. I mean, even in 2000, he was a loser. LOL. But seriously, if the Democrats put up any sort of challenge, it would be : Sock puppet 80, Bush 10. Kerry has played right into their hands. He won’t answer a question straight up. Bush does, even if it’s a terrible answer. When someone says are you for the war in Iraq and Bush says yes, that makes sense. When Kerry is asked, and he goes on a 10 minute tangent, that doesn’t make people vote for him. He (kerry) only has about 30 different issues he can win on, yet he doesn’t push. Bush has a new commercial about the ‘new agenda’ and it’s like, uh, didn’t you already have 4 years for this agenda? Whatever. Bush sucks on the war on terror, he sucks on Iraq, he sucks on the US Economy. If you vote for him, you made your bed. Enjoy!

*** End of Political Ranting. Back to our regular program ***

5. Just when you thought it was safe to go online, along comes news of the Jenna Lewis (from Survivor) sex tape. I only found out about it from the Sports Guy on ESPN (Page 2). After reviewing it for journalistic purposes, I’d have to give this one a C. Unfortunately it’s a very wide angle lens where you see them do the deed, and it’s not so close to , uh, appreciate it. The intro has some moments. LOL. Get this: Jenna seemingly owns the website where the movie can be purchased — so the whole video is her like saying this better not show up on the internet, but she put it on there! Oh, the irony! Oh, how your 15 minutes are so up!

Okay, folks, if you like racing games with a twinge of arcade action, I can’t mention this enough: Burnout 3 is a fantastic game. I cannot get enough of this horribly addictive game.

Go buy it now. Seriously! Of course, if you’re not a fan of racing games, nothing new here. But if you like horrendous wrecks, lots of racing where it actually feels like you’re going 165 mph, then this is the game for you!

In other news, we are eagerly awaiting the roster update in order to start our ESPN NFL League. If you see the new rosters available, please let us know, as I haven’t been checking in with the game nightly.

I did have a chance to check out the new Activision game, Cabela’s Super Terrific Happy Deer Hunt. This is one of those games I’d never review, because I’d have to predicate the review with “I’m not normally a deer hunter…” If I did hunt, I think it might be a fun game. I accidentally shot a wolf and never found a deer in my time with the game. I have to say, it was fun, even if it was illegal to hit that animal. Speaking of, why didn’t they include the new assault weapon rules in the game? I mean why take out a deer with one shot when you could use 75? I guess that might make for less meat. Oh yeah, in case you didn’t realize, I’m not a hunter. So there. I did give it a try (the game), it’s not my cup of tea, but I could see people liking it if you like hunting for real. God, I sound like one of those reviewers I despise. Maybe I should delete this whole passage. Nah, because then I’d have to think about something else to write about.

Of course I could always write about the election. bwhahahah.

I almost forgot to tell you, this week I saw my first HD NFL games in glorious 720p on FOX. The funny thing is that my regular def FOX channel and the hidef fox channel had 2 different games on them. Now who needs Sunday Ticket if you get extra games!

I have to tell you, I had on the Jets in regular definition and the Redskins in hidef. Even on my smallish 4:3 TV set in 16:9 mode the difference was incredible. If you have HD available in your area, go get it now. I saw an HD set at BJ’s Wholesale Club in 16:9 format for $699. Get it now. If you watch sports on TV, you will be in heaven. Here’s what I saw in HD over the weekend:

* College Football

* MLS Soccer

* MLB Baseball

* NFL Football

It, in a word, rules. Of course, I forgot to mention how Fox HD has 5.1 dolby. Surround sound at a football game is awesome!

When you have a 100 degree fever, you’re coughing up a lung and have a headache the size of Texas…it helps when both Ohio State AND the Browns win on the same weekend.

The Cleveland game against Baltimore was a weird, weird game. 3-0 at halftime with neither team able to move the ball, when all of a sudden Garcia came to life, torching the Ravens secondary and using his legs to score the TD that put it out of reach. Ahhh beating the Ravens…it’s such a wonderful feeling. So I guess the Browns defense isn’t the laughing stock of the league, eh? Lewis with 57 yards on 19 carries. I’ll take that.

But it’s a long season, and hopefully we’ll play like that on defense against Dallas and the geriatric company.

The new college football polls are out, and the ISBN coaches poll is filled with few surprises. But the MEDIA poll…Good lord these media dopes need to start shopping at the lobotomy store because it makes no sense at all.

OK first off, how does Florida State drop only from #4 to #8? Did they actually WATCH that game? FSU looked like shit, scoring no offensive touchdowns. They played good defense, but they LOST. So how FSU remains in the top ten let alone at #8 is just baffling to me. Pollsters need to stop looking at a team’s rep and start looking at the results. If FSU is the 8th best team in the country based on that performance college football is doomed.

OK next–(and again this is just the silly ass media poll) how does West Virginia leap from #10 to #7 after beating Central Florida 45-20? Ohio State stays at #9 despite two teams ranked ahead of them losing last week? How is that humanly possible?

How on EARTH is Purdue ranked BELOW Michigan!? Have you seen what Purdue has done this year? Did the media notice that Michigan got beat by Notre Friggin’ Dame? Purdue has actually PLAYED like a top 10 team so far–utterly destroying Syracuse and Ball State. And I mean destroying. Purdue has played better than any team in the Big10 and yet because of the dumb ass preseason poll, they remain at #18.

How is Fresno State not ranked in the top 15?

I love college football and I hate it. Polls that allow the media to participate are a blight on the sport, because the sports media knows as much about these teams as they know about ethics.

Edit: Oh, and where is Troy? If you’re 2-0 with a win over a top 20 team and a win on the road against the MAC’s premiere program, shouldn’t you be in the top 25?

If you have followed OSU at all over the past 3 seasons you know to expect close games–sometimes when they shouldn’t even be that close on paper. Well, OSU did just that against Marshall, winning 24-21 on a last second 55 Yd FG by All American kicker Mike “Nuuuuuge” Nugent.

But this is different. In the past, games were close because our offense could never move the ball consistently (unless Clarett was on the field), our defense wouldn’t let the other team move, and our punter would boom 50 yard kicks and pin teams in their own end. And Nugent would never miss.

This is a very different team.

After two games, Ohio State is - 7 in the turnover margin. MINUS SEVEN. Yesterday they lost two fumbles (one of which was returned for a TD) and Zwick tossed 2 INTs. Marshall had no turnovers. To be -7 after two games and still 2-0 is just remarkable to me.

But this is not the no-punch offense that some are used to seeing. Tressel has replaced that with a 5-wide not afraid to air it out attack that has shocked many OSU fans. Redshirt Sophomore QB Justin Zwick threw for 320 yards and 3 TDs yesterday–210 of those yards to phenom Santonio Holmes. This Holmes kid is scary good.

But with youth you are going to have stumbles, and for the 2nd game in a row, Zwick tossed 2 ill-advised INTs in the 2nd half which really gave Marshall a shot to win. But he also orchestrated the last second drive to get into FG range. I love Zwick. The kid has started 2 games in his young career but you can already tell that he has the ability to be a special QB.

Ohio State is an extremely young team this year, and despite the top 10 ranking, I fully expect a few losses to come our way, possibly next week @ NC State. We’re just too inexperienced at too many positions. Combine that with the loss of D-Captain CB Dustin Fox for 5 weeks due to a broken arm, and this looks more and more like a learning year rather than a championship year.

The good news for OSU fans is that in 2005 this team should be fully loaded. We lose 3 starters. That’s it. (Well, and Nugent, which will be a huge loss).

Anyway, about the Marshall game. There was a sequence in the 4th quarter that stunned me to the core. Here’s the situation. OSU leads 21-14 with 8 minutes to play. Marshall is at the OSU 13 yard line. 3rd down and 10. Pass complete for 3 yards, down to the 10. Refs call holding on Marshall and the OSU staff ACCEPTS THE PENALTY. Well, Stan Hill promptly throws a 19 yard TD pass to tie the game at 21.

If a video game would have done this I would have ripped it for poor coaching AI.

This Sunday is difficult for me. You see, all of the football teams are in action but mine. Oh wait, Miami and Tenn and Indy too, but who cares about them. LOL.

I will finally get to see my first NFL HD game on Fox today, at least I hope. That should be very cool.

Last night, my friend Scott from GameRankings/ZD/GameSpot/GameTrax/whatever, ICQ’d me and was all in my face about playing Burnout 3. Of course, I had to go ahead and play online. It was the first time I had played Burnout 3 online. I set up the game and within 3 seconds, the field was full. I don’t think I had ever filled up a game that fast.

Anyhoo, that time online was easily the best online multiplayer experience I’ve ever had. The guys we were playing with were pretty damn funny and we all had a fantastic time. As I plowed into a bus, I called the crash experience orgasmic because when you blow up, you seem to blow your wad. We then of course pulled out some great King of The Hill references (ie, “Bobby, don’t crash into a truck with Propane and Propane Accessories”). The whole time was a total blast. Just in case you missed my 23 other endorsements, go get this game. Now.

I saw my first MLS HDTV Soccer game last night on HDNet. Of course the Revs lost. Damn them.

** Political Stuff **

Frequent readers know I’m in a battleground state. Of course, I see a lot of commercials on TV for various candidates. The most recent commercial is an LOL fest. It’s by George W Bush and goes over his agenda, as if he wasn’t able to do anything else these past 4 years, and now look at all the things he’s going to do. The agenda is hysterical, becuase, none of the things talked about were done in the previous 4 years, and it reads like a wish list of things that are never going to happen like “save the world,” “give everyone a check for $5,000″ and so forth. (No, they don’t actually say that in the commercial, but they may as well).

For a candidate that complains about the other guy making pie in the sky promises, it’s just hysterical.

I see that on Friday, Kerry came out for the assault weapons ban after he found out that the NRA will support Bush. Like this was in doubt (the NRA decision) — here’s the thing that pisses me off about Kerry — give me a guy who says he’s for the ban and loses and goes down fighting on principle — I will be very happy with that (hey, look I was a Dean supporter — and while his PR skills aren’t so hot, I sure as hell agreed with what he had to say about No Child Left Behind and the Iraq war). Kerry really pisses me off on both. NCLB is a horribly flawed bill. If someone has little or no brain function, why or how are they supposed to get “acceptable yearly progress.” That’s the teacher’s fault? Puh-leeze. And what if a teacher out paces the rest of the district in progress — why don’t they get some huge bonus or incentive? Hmm? Oh wait, that doesn’t make sense apparently. So you’re judged on your performance, except when it comes to salary? Whatever. Stupid program from a Stupid administration. (Yes, Kerry voted for it too, up until the point where he was against it).

This is why this whole election pisses me off. It makes you not want to even bother voting. Then again, after 2000, you gotta vote, even if you’re not a fan… gah. I’m going to play some burnout.

I have a lot to say about the OSU/Marshall game, but since I am running a fever of about 100.3..I think I’ll pack it in and call it a day. Being sick sucks. Being sick at a football game with 104,000 people when it’s 90 degrees in the stands REALLY sucks.

Two things of note today:

1. There’s now a PC demo of FIFA 2005 available at the usual suspects, including GameSpot. It’s only 86 MB but does NOT have commentary. That might not be a bad thing, heh heh. Anyway, click here for the demo.

2. On the NFL opener on Thursday, there was an ad for Mr. 3000, which try as I might to say it’s stupid, I literally laughed out loud at one joke. EA is putting their weight behind it because MVP 2004 is featured. Check it out here.

3. Did you buy Burnout 3 yet? If not, why? There’s no excuse.

4. My verizon dsl account includes MSN Premium, which means I get MLB.TV free. This is by far the best reason why to switch to Verizon DSL. I just re-watched the Yankees - Orioles game last night. Talk about teams going in two different directions (hint: it’s not the Yankees that are going ‘up’).

5. ESPN NFL League — those of you not in the league, we had stopped the old league because we had started it without the new rosters and with Performance EQ off. We’re doing a new league now, we still need 23 teams to login. If they don’t login, we go to the waitlist. Stay tuned!

Peronally, I’d always refer to today as ‘remembering 9/11,’ but there’s an actual name for it: Patriot Day. This is of course, not to be confused with Patriots Day, here in New England, the day of the Boston Marathon and the day of the 11:30 Red Sox game. One would have thought that someone would have known the close correlation between the the start of the Revolutionary War and 9/11, but I guess no one knows Patriots Day outside of New England.

I watched a program about engineering of the WTC site post-9/11 and boy, what they did was nothing short of amazing. All of the things that had to go on was just incredible. I hadn’t realized that the air quality really affects people to this day.

Of course we all remember 9/11 in our own way. Myself personally, I was working no less than 1/4 mile next to the Portland (ME) Jetport. Yes, the airport where some of the terrorists acutally were. The hotel they stayed at was on my commute to work. The ATM they used, the Wal-Mart, all places I went by. That’s how close it was. At the time I had MSNBC News Alert (now replaced with MSN Messenger Alert). We didn’t have much information about it, the news alert said something about a small plane crash.

My friend Craig Tompkins ICQ’d me and said PUT ON THE NEWS NOW or something like that. Luckily, I had a TV in my office (no cable), but we got in one channel barely. Craig had just told me that the 2nd plane went in. Then it was mentioned the planes came from Boston, which made me very concerned. As my staff and I are watching the TV, Bryant Gumbel then goes to the Pentagon where another plane had crashed. I think at that point there was a general feeling of us literally being under attack. I mean, terrorists had always gone after the WTC, so while surprising and shocking, it seemed like a one time isloated incident (no one thought the towers would collapse mind you at that time). Then the Pentagon. Then PA. What a terrible day.

I think we all remember that week — I know I do, it was so — spooky — every day, as I got into work at 7.45 AM I would usually be at a traffic light where I could look up through my sunroof and see a plane’s landing gear going up as it took off — but not that week.

Of course, we are all still, and while we remember, we move on. It’s almost surreal that it’s been 3 years. It is amazing how fast time goes by. There’s no doubt that 9/11/01 made everyone reflect on what’s really important.

I’m going to end this 9/11 post here and go back to my regular raving…

Chris Rix is freaking horrible.

That about sums it up.

A lot of hockey fans across the pond are already playing this but North American fans may want to check out the Q&A I did with the folks behind Eastside Hockey Manager. Does this game sound cool or what?