The Blog for the Sports Gamer

It’s that time folks! Time to dish out the First Annual Abner Bloggies! (not endorsed by any other blog member, writer, or associate and is the sole property of Bill Abner, and Bill Abner Enterprises.)

I gave this a ton of thought (lie) and I was awake late at night mulling over the games from 2004 (lie) and I’m sure that these will be the definitive awards for 2004 industry wide (ok now I’m just being silly).

So without further delay–here we go:

Biggest Disappointment - NCAA 2005

I start with this because I’m a generally grumpy critic and it just fits my style. This to me was a no-brainer. This is a great example of how to wreck a great game. The gameplay in the NCAA games has always been good but not great because of the limits of the Madden engine, but at least the recruiting and other stuff was good enough to make the gameplay easier to deal with. I played a ton of NCAA 2004 not because it had the best football gameplay but because it was a college football game that had “good” gameplay but the frills were excellent.

EA Sports made the gameplay worse and screwed up the extra frills in one fell swoop. Nice work, guys. Sega, can you please make a college game? Please? Or better yet, EA can you please undo this mess that you’ve made?

Biggest Surprise - NBA Live 2005 PC

I didn’t play this on the consoles this year but Live 2005 PC was a big shocker to me. EA really has made this a better game and I actually prefer it over the NBA 2K series. I’d like it even more if I gave a shit about the NBA anymore, but still–a very solid game.

Big Budget, Total Suckage - NHL 2005

I don’t want to waste too much space talking about this steaming pile of crapola, but let’s just say this is the worst game of the year that had any kind of budget to play with. Not a disappointment like NCAA was because the NHL series has been getting worse for a while now, but this version…wow. I’d rather eat tacks.

Game I Played the Most - OOTP6 (online league)

Not the best game of 2004 but I spent more time with this than any other game and I’ll prolly spend more time with OOTP 2005 next year when Sports Interactive releases it in Sept.

Best Game You Didn’t Play - Eastside Hockey Manager

Maybe the best text game of the year, this is a MUST get for hockey nuts. Seriously, it’s great.

Everyone raved about the PC version this year but I didn’t get to review it and it just sailed under my radar for the first time in several years. This to me is EA’s crown jewel, mainly because Headgate creates and it EA lets them do their thing without getting in the way.

Best Game I Did Play - ESPN College Hoops 2K5



Even with the bugs, this is the best basketball game, college or pro, I have ever played…and that spans almost 25 years of games. Yeah, it surprised me too because I thought last year’s game was drastically overrated. A fantabulously fun game.

Yeah, it has some issues. Franchise mode could be better and the CPU play could be better but overall 2K5 was a success…and it’s downright pretty. The best looking football game ever made, hands down. Here’s hoping we see some kind of 2K6 game.

This was my first real foray into online gaming with the Xbox and for the most part I was pleasantly surprised. Of course I did run into my share of dickheads that either waste your time or play like a 10 year old (maybe they were 10..I dunno) but the XBL experience was a good one.

What a pretentious fucking award. Don’t you hate it when magazines and websites sound too self important? Special Achievement—what the hell does that even mean?

The Ass Thumping Award - Sega Bitch Slaps EA Sports

EA’s MVP series is starting to find its stride, but I still thought ESPN Baseball was by far the better baseball game. NFL and Madden was very close but the great online play of 2K5 puts it over the top. ESPN NHL is so much better than NHL 2005 that it’s not worth debating. ESPN College Hoops well…see above. I know I sound like a Sega Whore, but I can’t help the fact that Sega’s games were, on the whole, a lot better than EA’s 2005 lineup. I mean it is what it is, ya know? The exception I think is Live and NBA 2K5. Other than that, Sega wins.

The Ass Thumping Award Part Two - EA Sports Laughs At All of Us

I’ll close the awards on a note of total frustration. We all know about the NFL deal that gives Madden the rights to the NFL stuff for 5 years, but EA is already after additional licenses, the NBA turned them down last week, so this might not be over and if EA runs Sega out of the sports game business, sports gaming just might be dead in the water unless you want to play shitty games like NHL, Fifa, and March Madness, and EA will then have no incentive to make the company’s good games, MVP, Madden and NBA Live, better than what they are now. With no competition, the innovation meter will stay low and then Electronic Arts will have company sex with Microsoft and then we’ll have to get implants so that we can’t download no CD cracks for our PC games without getting zapped like that test guinea pig guy in Ghostbusters and then…well maybe then I’ll be forced to get a real job.



Merry Christmas Everyone!

It’s snowing here today in Columbus. We’re supposed to get between 4 and 8 inches which is a pretty hefty snowfall for this area. Now, I know that people up north think that’s a light flurry but but for central Ohio it’s not bad. I used to love snow as a kid and would plead for loads of it in order to get a school snow day. Thing is, I still love snow; I think the fact that I work from home has something to do with that because I never have to get up at 6AM and venture out into the stuff.

Snow is great when you’re in your house.

The initial 32 team College Hoops tourney is winding down as Michigan and Oklahoma State are in the final. Yep, Todd took UM to the final. Well done coach Brakke.

I was going to go into the whole OSU QB Troy Smith suspenion for the Alamo Bowl, but I’m too depressed to talk about it. Can I go 2 weeks without having to defend my Alma Mater to people? Good lord.

Well, as you know many reviews are out for this game. IGN still loves it (idiots) while GameSpot is not so much enthused, giving it a 7.1.

Some places are breaking street dates and I had a chance to play it. Please note my boycott still exists — I will not pay for an EA game again, but renting and demoing is still ok. Anyway, the game is just like NFL Street 1 + Xzibit + climbing the walls. There you go. Oh there are some new modes and you can play online. But $50? No f’n way.

In my extremely brief time with it, I just didn’t feel like it was much different than the original. It’s not horrible, has some fun moments, but isn’t and OHMYGAWDYOUHAVETOGETIT. My only experience came on the PS2 version of the game, I didn’t get a chance to check out Xbox….

So anyway, the boycott still stands :). This game is definitely not worth breaking a boycott for.

Haha. And you guys thought I was pissed at the President. Take away my Sega Football and I get REALLY pissed.

Anyway, as you know from my posts, I visit Bill Harris’ Dubious Quality site now and then, and he just put up this interesting article from Newsday that basically says people are pissed about this deal. What a surprise.

My favorite quote? “EA has said it will continue to innovate, as it has done with its NASCAR, PGA Golf and FIFA soccer series, all of which it holds exclusive deals with.” Oh god. Now that is funny. Tiger-proofing a course is not innovative. It is stupid. Almost like trying to charge people for shitty league management tools that are free in Sega’s game.

But like I said before, Winning Eleven doesn’t do that badly for a non-licensed soccer game. I prefer it to FIFA. I prefer Links on the Xbox to Tiger myself. And umm boy does the NASCAR console game suck compared to the Papy game of 2 years ago. Maybe their new NASCAR game will be good for the PC. But, seroiusly, now that they can’t make employees work 23 hours a day around the clock, how good will it be?

1. For those of you that have TiVo and make use of Home Media Option to play music, make sure you try out the free trial of Moodlogic. Pretty cool insta-mixes!

2. I’m working on my year end awards as well. I was going to give Burnout 3 some seroius mentions, then I realized it’s an EA game and therefore eliminated from competition. I’m serious about this boycott.

3. I’m still pissed about the Patriots. I’m not going to buy that 50″ Samsung HDTV now. I mean, even though I don’t get CBS in HD where I live, still, they really pissed me off.

4. Kodak’s EasyShare digital camera system is so simple, you wonder why no one else thought of it first. Even my wife can figure it out. The new photo printer lets you print cell phone pictures via infared now too, which is tres cool.

5. What makes an excellent Christmas gift? This one cup at a time brewer by Keurig. The drawback is I drink a ton more coffee. But, it’s so much easier! If you’re interested, let me know before you buy so you and me both can get $28 worth of coffee free :).

6. Is it Christmas yet?

7. According to IGN, the NBA and MLB are both saying no way to exclusive contracts. Something about fucking over the consumer. Oh wait, that’s just me saying that. LOL. I look forward to the next filing for EA that says “Sales declined quarter vs last year due to a strong backlash for our NFL license plus the fact that we signed over have the company to the NFL” UPDATE: Bill Harris says that it’s just the ‘initial offer’ that EA made that was rejected. Translation: Show me the money. No word on the highly sought after NHL license. That’s the only way they are making money these days. LOL. I’d kill for a NCAA Hockey game. Guess that will be in the same fantasy world as a hot 3 some and Sega making a new NFL Football game.

8. NCSoft sent out the best gift of the year. The desk clock with time/temp/date/day is very chic.

9. I got this “Ping Pals” game for the Nintendo DS. I don’t have a DS, so who wants it? PS I hear it sucks.

10. Video on Demand is very cool. Now I can really catch up on the Sopranos and I don’t need to buy the damn DVD sets.

11. Napoleon Dynamite comes out this week. Any good?

12. I like Jubilee Rolls.

13. Drinkable Yogurt?

14. Is it ok to take a painkiller if it numbs the pain but also stops my heart from beating?

15. There is no 15. Enjoy the evening.

Well, after reading Bill’s post on Sunday, I was like, yeah I remember those days, thankfully New England has done so well….and then tonight happened. It felt like one of those Madden videogames where you’re up by 23 and then just start doing goofy shit. And then you lose. Ugh. Of course fighting for the #2 or #3 seed isn’t as big of a deal as being 2-14, but still…you just get the feeling that the “patriots will kick ass” feeling isn’t there as much anymore. With a horribly injured secondary and everything else, it’s just a feeling of glumminess.

Of course that being said, the Pats still won the Super Bowl this year and the Red Sox won the World Series, so it can’t be all that bad, and let’s face it: you can’t win all the time. And I’d much rather have my team lose in week 15 than in the playoffs!

Well, just when you think you’ve seen it all. The Lions trailed Minnesota by eight points in the fourth quarter of yesterday’s game. They go downfield and score. Not only do they score, they get a miracle of a 2-point conversion to tie the game. Minnesota gets the ball and promptly goes downfield on a TD drive that lasts beyond the two minute warning. Usually, when the Lions are still in this sort of game, that’s where it ends. But this time, they go right back downfield, sans timeouts, and score a game tying TD with only about 12 seconds to play… oh wait, the extra point. Only the Lions can botch the snap on a game-tying extra point with 12 seconds to play. Only the Lions.

Its days like that where I’m thankful for my daughter (1 year). No sooner do I bemoan the missed XP (NO! NoNoNoNoNo NO!!!!) than she looks at the screen and goes, “braaaaaaaaaaaaah!” with a big goofy smile on her face. Tough to stay mad after that. J

Regardless, you have to give credit where credit is due. Joey Harrington had a heck of a game yesterday. A couple bad picks, but he played through the stomach flu and delivered one of the best performances of his career and best overall day since Week 7 against the New York Giants (which at the time improved them to 4-2). One good week doesn’t erase half a season of ineptitude, but it was a heck of a game.

Anyway, there must have been something in the air as later that night I took the Lions against Bill’s Cleveland Browns in our DSP league. I trailed by a TD late, went down and scored to tie. Bill gets another TD. I go down and drive for another game-tying TD with about 30 seconds to play. I should’ve just shanked the XP on purpose (and nearly did). Instead I let Bill go about 50 yards in TWO plays to get into field goal range and win the game. Unbelievable.

It’s gotta be the Lions mystique that allows things like this to happen.

We suck this year–3-11 and staring 3-13 right in the face. But man..Browns fans love this team. Makes it hard to believe that Art Modell was actually able to move it to Baltimore without a full fledged riot breaking out. Yesterday Cleveland played San Diego. It was -10 below wind chill with 30 MPH winds…and snow. Lots and lots of snow. It was so cold players were numbing on the sidelines. It’s games like ths when I want to throw a pee-laden snowball at fans in Minnesota and Detroit (sorry Todd, I’ll spare you the pee.) Domes are evil, especially if you live in a cold weather city. It’s FOOTBALL. It should have been FREEZING during that Vikings/Lions game, but no. Actually it’s not the fans’ fault, I like like poking fun at Todd. Still a dome in Minnesota just seems inherently…wrong.

Anyway it WAS cold in Cleveland and 35,000 fans showed up to watch a 3-11 team lose 21-0.

THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE.

“I want to applaud the fans today,” interim coach Terry Robiskie said. “I noticed when I went out today, the fans and the people who were here. My hat was off to them, coming to the game, driving over.

“I was looking up and concerned if we’d have 10 people at the game and I saw the Dawg Pound was full. I looked behind me and saw guys standing behind me with no shirts on. It’s unbelievable for me.” (OK we either love our team or we’re totally insane and drunk and need professional help)

Even a dismal 3-10 record could not stop season ticker holder Rocko Evangelista, 47, from driving from Columbus Sunday morning to catch the final home game until next season.

“I love it,” he said. “This is the best time to come. It’s the last game. We have about eight season ticket holders (in our group) and we all came up for the game. We’ve been coming for years. You pick a team and root for them, win or lose.”

Fans flocked to the concourse areas underneath the stands to reload on concessions and get away from the whipping winds. Coffee, hot chocolate and beer were the popular choices to warm up.

***

There you go. It’s -10 below. You’re numb or if you aren’t wearing a shirt you’re about to friggin’ DIE and what do you get? A beer. Cleveland really is an amazing football town; it’s just a shame that we have a less than amazing football team.

Okay, don’t forget, DO NOT BUY NFL STREET 2 THIS WEEK UNLESS YOU ARE AN EA FANBOY. IF YOU DO BUY IT YOU ARE SUPPORTING TERRORISM, and THE ENEMY WILL WIN!

Oh wait, that won’t change your mind, well look at this awesum review from EB Games

“I think that this game is going to be pretty good because xzibit is going to in it and it comes out in time for christmas so all you people should get this game because it has good graphics and it looks fun too so youll should get it

YES! What an awesum review. Who wouldn’t buy a game because xzibit isn’t in it? Hey, Sega, there’s your new football game! XZIBIT Football! Who wouldn’t buy it?

We now return you to gaming for idiots at EBGames.com.

The people.

Ok that’s not entirely fair, but I’ve never been a big online guy. This was really my first real foray into the world of XBL to do anything outside of review testing. But I always go overboard with this kinda stuff. Do I just join a league and then play a game of NHL, NFL or College Hoops every so often? Oh, no, not my dumb ass. I organize a 32 team NFL league, a 32 team CH tourney and a 64 team CH nightmare tourney and ask for 100 headaches.

I don’t know where I get this sadistic gene from. I really don’t, but I’ve always had it when it comes to sports games. I have to do everytning 150% and sometimes it ends up costing me personal sanity points.

Running this 64 team College Hoops tourney is such a pain in the ass that I’m smacking myself for trying to run it. People don’t show up, people yelling at each other for not playing “right”…it’s enough to make you want to unplug that cable modem forever.

There is a flip side to it, though. I’ve met a few really cool guys running these ESPN leagues and tourneys, and it’s prolly worth going through the childish rhetoric to meet a few good guys. Still…the pettyness (or is it pettiness?) of people truly amazes me at times.

Not that I don’t get mad when I lose a game. I do, but I visibly get upset if I really know the guy well that I’m playing against. If I lose to Todd, I throw things. I know Todd really well, and I feel like I can vent at my ineptness to him. If I lose to a semi-stranger I’m on my best behavior. Why is that? It’s like your wife doesn’t care if the house is dirty for 29 days out of the month, but if her mom comes over it’s “WE MUST CLEAN!” mode. I guess I’m no different.

Anyway, my 2004 Sports Bloggies will be posted, hopefully, tonight. We’re doing these on our own so hopefully Todd and Dan will do their Bloggies soon.

I’m watching the NYG-PIT game right now, there’s 4 minutes to go in the 2nd Quarter.

PIT just got a TD, after the wonderful officiating. They called a NE-OAK style roughing the passer call when they sacked Ben. It was awful. There never was a whistle they tackled Ben and give them a free penalty. Of course, Phil and Jim seem to not even bother noticing this. Of course, they are idiots.

Then again, when the Giants punt while in Steeler territory, they do deserve to lose.

One thing I will say about PIT, they remind me of the 2001 NE season. They’ve gotten every break possible — two weeks ago, thanks to JAX’s piss poor clock management, they got the victory. This week, they’ll get a victory — but they could have lost to the Giants. I just keep telling myself that. LOL.

Anyway, maybe Phil and Jim should comment about how stupid the Giants are by punting on the PIT 45. It took PIT a whopping two plays to negate the punt. Why not go for it? Oh that’s right, because it’s the Giants :)>

Some of you have heard me talk about Chaos League, which should be available in the States in January. Well, Digital Jesters has announced plans for an Add-on:

Chaos League Expansion Info

Some new bits of information have been given out regarding the new expansion that will be coming from Cyanide Studios for their game Chaos League. The expansion pack will be going under the name of Chaos League: Sudden Death, and as well as featuring a host of new features there’s also the possibility of three new races to play with.

Not enough to whet your appetite? How about a tasty peice bit of concept art of one of the confirmed new races? Here we have a picture of the running back for the new race, ‘The Little Men’. Enjoy - DJ PR

**

Woo hoo. If a few people get the game next month, I’ll be happy to run a small league. Really, the game is a lot of fun.

Another interesting article at GameSpot. Microsoft has sold the development team behind Links and Top Spin. Unfortunately, the crack journalism people at GameSpot (who have gotten very shoddy as of late) fail to report whether just the team who made Amped was sold, or if Microsoft sold off the rights to Amped and Links as well. Story is here. No mention whatsoever about High Heat either.

GameSpot also has an article about “football wars.” Those expecting a “Last Days of Half-Life 2″ like expose by Geoff Keighley will be sorely dissapointed by this GA-Sports like article that has no hard numbers or behind the scenes information, and pretty much just says stuff we already know. Reader beware, but if you dare, check it out here.

Oh and for the record, I got my ass literally handed to me in the new 64 team DSP challenge. XXXIV or whatever your name is, I bow down to your ass kicking of me. I just sucked.

I have screenshots of OOTP 2005. I can’t show them to you because I’d get fired. It’s gonna be a long wait until they release the next one, which is going to be sold at retail…in a store..with a CD! Woo hoo. Anyway, based on the info I got today it sounds pretty great.

Sorry I can’t show you the pics or talk about the features; I just like to stay relevant as a sports game writer and this makes me feel important.

I CAN show you this pic, though. It’s a snapshot of me, dad, and Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day on the backstretch at Saratoga, after seeing our colt Crimson Stag (ours as in we own I think 10% of him.) Such a cool moment. This is like a football fan meeting Brett Favre.

Of course after this pic was taken I beat Pat Day silly for losing the Preaknes and BC Classic with Easy Goer.

EA Sports: You’ll be stone dead in a moment

ESPN: But I’m not dead!

EA Sports: Quiet You!

ESPN: I feel happy!!!!!!!

OK it’s not a given that ESPN will be back, but Take Two didn’t say it was DOA.

Anyway, GSpot has the news.

Here’s the important stuff:

Company officials also touched on the future of the ESPN football franchise, which, in the wake of Electronic Arts’ exclusive deal with Players Inc., would have to be NFL-free. In its statement, Take-Two said, “While recent industry developments preclude the release of an officially licensed professional football title, the Company and SEGA are evaluating opportunities to publish a title based on the critically acclaimed 2K football game.” Chairman and CEO Richard Roedel tried to put a more positive spin on the situation by reflecting on ESPN games’ past. “We are pleased with our ESPN sports titles. We brought terrific energy to this product and proved that our approach to brand development and our distribution strengths are relevant to diverse markets,” he told analysts during a conference call.