The Blog for the Sports Gamer

As you know, the U2 fan sale was probably one of the biggest disasters ever as far as ticket presales go. U2 is now offering refunds to those who were unable to buy tickets. (I’m still waiting for my Propaganda discount code btw, but hey I didn’t get suckered in myself)..

Anyway, just in case you didn’t know that, now you do. Of course, knowing how well they answer emails like “what is my Propaganda discount code” with {crickets chirping}, I’m sure you’ll get your refund about the same time that Xbox 3 is out.

I tell you as far as music fanclubs go, I’ve lost a lot of faith and hope in the band. It’s kinda like when a President you admire denies getting laid in the oval office and then admits fellatio. It just a massive downer — otherwise I wouldn’t keep harping on it. It’s actually difficult for me to watch a U2 video now without feeling angry about this whole situation.

Okay that’s it for U2.. maybe I’ll talk about something else now…like politics….in the words of Feracito..”i’m Just keeeeeding”!

I have twelve (12) gmail invites. email me if you want one.

As Bill mentioned before, I strongly encourage you to read the GameSpot interview. Interesting stuff…one thing that’s pretty hysterical is how TTWO says they are committed to consumer choice…uh, except when that choice is EA, huh?

So let’s assume EA kills their baseball game. Big deal. I know there are MVP fans out there, and they will be bummed. From a sales standpoint, EA loses about $5 bucks based on the sale of baseball games. No wonder it was such an easy license to get.

What’s more interesting is the TTWO kiss ass to Sony. One wonders if the GTA franchise quid pro quo came into play so that Sony could make their own baseball games. Frankly, I wasn’t a fan of MVP. I am a fan of MLB 2005, and hopeful about MLB 2006. So it’s not a big deal to me, but calling it “consumer choice” is lame.

The GameSpot article quotes the agreement that basically says that only the first party console maker can enter into an agreement and that prohibits cobranding. I still say big deal. Sony could still ask EA to develop the game, no one would know and as long as the EA logo isn’t on the front it seems legal — mind you I have yet to see the actual agreement and I doubt anyone will show it to me.

Of course, we are just speculating. I still think that NCAA license is pretty juicy.

Anyone watch some Arena football? Interesting overtime rules they have, basically forcing a team to go for two because after each team has a posession in OT, it’s sudden death. Of course, since every posession seems to result in points, you pretty much have to go for two. Interesting coaching strategy. Maybe this game will be good. Can’t be any worse than that Midway POS.

God I hate February…after this weekend, it’s Arena Football (bearable), College Basketball (ugh), NBA (bleeeech) until Daytona. Oh wait, there are some World Cup Qualifiers in there, and yay, we have the ‘real’ US team.

On a sad note, Joe-Max Moore retired from soccer this past week. JMM was one of my favorite players, I got to meet him a few times and just a great all around guy. He was cover boy of a World Tour Soccer game…I think it was 2002 but don’t quote me. Injuries got to him. The last couple of years weren’t very good for JMM…since he left New England for Everton, he just didn’t play up to the potential we saw in World Cup ’98. Since he was injured, the Revs just weren’t the same..either I got older and ‘grew up’ or I lost that player/fan bond that we had in MLS in 96-99 or so. Just a real disappointment. Okay I digress, I should go take some Xanax or something. LOL.

I’ve been on a mini-sabbatical the past week, so my apologies for the lack of Bill Blogging.

Looks like I was about as wrong as a guy can be about the baseball license thing. Well, sort of. I had no idea that Sega was going to sell off their sports stuff to Take-Two. Everyone knows that Take-Two has major financial muscle (thank you GTA) and it looks like the battle is officially on for sports game dominance.

GameSpot has the latest on the Baseball Wars. In short, football goes to EA, baseball will go, mostly, to Take-Two with MVP Baseball being DOA. That article is interesting in that the company *says* it’s going to be whole hog on baseball games. We’ll see. I still have a flicker of hope that this will bring back PC baseball — maybe Microsoft will finally dust off that High Heat base code? Who knows?

I might be going to E3 this year with the folks at GameSpy. Maybe. I dunno yet for sure but when I know I’ll post it here. I haven’t been to E3 in four years and I need to get back (for business reasons actually.) The games are really a secondary reason for me wanting to go. I personally loathe that show.

Finally, despite being busy with real life stuff of late I have been playing Vampire: Bloodlines (flash site) — powergaming through it, actually. What a great game. I played a lot of the RPG in college and this game (made by the Troika) really nails the atmosphere of the game world. If you like RPGs (ADULT RPGs..the language and the content is definitely for adults) and if you have the horsepower to run it, it does use the Half-Life 2 engine after all, then this one comes highly recommended.

I’ve been a member of the old U2 fan club, Propaganda, since around Joshua Tree. Since then I’ve been able to get tickets to every tour they’ve ever done. Some have been fantastic seats (ZOO TV @ Foxboro), some have been ass (Elevation @ FleetCenter), but I’ve always received tickets.

This year U2 decided to mothball Propaganda and divert everything to U2.com. It costs $40 a year to join U2.com, but Propaganda users were supposed to get in for 1/2 price. They were supposed to be mailed a letter. I never recieved said letter and despite emails to propaganda, u2.com and even numb.ie, I got nowhere. No freakin way I was going to pay $40 for what amounted to an online Personal Seat License.

I’m glad I didn’t give Bono my money. Apparently according to most fan sites, the online presale was a complete clusterfrick. Some never got in. Others thought they had great seats, then TicketFucker changed the seating layout. It’s almost hysterical what happened, except tickets were $160 each plus service charges. I think I could find lapdances that give me better gratification than those tickets.

Anyway, as a FleetCenter special customer, I was offered 1 U2 ticket with parking and dinner for the low low price of $390. Uh, no thanks. Anyone that fucks their fanclub over the way U2 just did just lost a pretty big fan. Oh well, not that I’d missing anything on tour anyway. I Will Follow for the 23rd time? Please. I guess I have Vertigo or something .

Well, I played my football game last night, and umm boy did I suck. I was down 31-3 in the 2nd. I fumbled a kickoff return. God damn……..I did make it interesting in the same way PIT made the NE game interesting….I got it down to 14 and was in the red zone but couldn’t convert…twice. Ugh.

Still an enjoyable game…I haven’t had that much fun with Madden..except with maybe rushing attack.

In other news, my Orioles are about ready to get Sammy Sosa…at least according to every sports news thing. Hmm, a non-roids Sosa who’s 36 and hasn’t it 50 home runs since Brady Anderson was playing….can we give him, say $17 million? What a pick up! Why not just activate Albert Belle while you’re at it. Well, maybe he will be Dillionized in Baltimore. Maybe not. Guess we’ll see. At least they did something. Apparently Javy Lopez and Tejada really lobbied for him to come over. At some point the O’s will learn not to give up their farm system for high priced free agents. Glenn Davis anyone? Oh well, at least they got rid of losers like Schilling in that gem…..

When I bought my 50″ DLP, I filled out a rebate and completed all the paperwork. The rebate company kicked it saying they didn’t have my account number of my cable bill. I replied to them “I have the copy right here. The account number is listed right where it says “account number”". And then they wonder why they get sued….

It’s supposed to get to a balmy 32 here today…but right now it’s 1. One f@#$ing degree. It better warm up!

Further in the magazine (it makes for good bathroom reading), they interview people associated with the “STREET” series of EA games. I found it interesting that the FIFA and NBA games have a similar interface — it looks like there’s a sort of Combo meter in it…interesting. The NBA game is definitely the best one of the franchise that I’ve played (I have yet to play FIFA Street), and I think it’s safe to say the NFL one is the worst.

All these street games remind me of the old Epyx Street Sports games on the C64. They weren’t nearly as polished as the EA games, but had thinks like potholes or obstacles on the courts and various items used as bases in the baseball games. I always thought they were kinda funny–they definitely weren’t the best sports games of their time, but they were fun. You know, thinking about it, by far basketball is the best one for this type of genre. I guess I will declare this genre “Street Sports.”

Hey maybe we can have an Apprentice like game — “Street Sports” vs “Real Sports”…oh wait, Atari has the trademake on RealSports. Does anyone else get a big laugh that the 2600 baseball game was called “Real Sports Baseball”….well at least they had 9 guys on the field and extra innings…..

Mindless trivia: What’s the first football game with stastics that I know of. LOL I had to qualify that because i’m sure someone will rip me one. Hint: It’s a console game.

Just got the latest Nintendo Power. Wow. Talk about coming out of the closet. Yes I’m lame, but hey, I got free GBA SP headphones for subscribing, so there. I read it for the articles.

Anyway, they have a big spread for EA’s new boxing game coming to the GameCube in March. I don’t know if it’s coming to other platforms. On the 2+ page spread, you get the usual screenshots and what not..but guess what the big gist of the article is….

PUNCH OUT IS INCLUDED IN THE GAME RIGHT FROM THE MAIN MENU! Yes, the game we all loved in 1987 and 1990 is now back sans Mike Tyson…there are plenty of screen shots of Punch Out game. I’m sorry, I’m supposed to get excited about this new EA boxing game becuase…it has a 17 year old game on it from the main menu? See, I have this thing called MAME, and I believe you can play the Rom for it. Without paying $50.

EA still sucks. And I’m not buying that game, as it’s still part of the boycott. Remember, renting is ok becuase that means EA gets no royalty (the game is already bought). I may have to allow used purchases becuase that indirectly screws EA too of another sale and hey, I’m a compassionate conservative, I know you want to play the games…

You know why? I can add our Sportsgamer.blogspot.com RSS feed right on my tool bar links. I can also put my weather forecast right on the status bar on the bottom. Web pages seem to load faster too. The favicons work also. I’m sold!

Try it out yourself: Click here.

In other news, Verizon just sent me a brand new Westell 327W modem to replace their old Westell modem. The best part? It’s a combo DSL modem/802.11g/4 port wired gateway. Now that is cool. And did I mention it didn’t cost me a dime? Sure my cable company will give me 4MB down..but $43 a month? Pass. For $29 a month Verizon gives me 1.5 down 384 up and MLB.TV for free. What more do you want?

This snippet from today’s press conference with the President of the United States of America:

“I’ve discussed with Vladimir Putin some of his decisions. I will continue — as you might remember in our meeting in Chile. I will continue to do so. I will remind him that if he intends to continue to look West, we in the West believe in Western values.

I — you know, democracy is a, you know, progressed — you’ll see progress toward a goal. There won’t be instant democracy. And I remind people that our own country is a work in progress. You know, we — we — we declared all people equal, and yet all people weren’t treated equally for a century. We said, you know, everybody counts; but everybody didn’t count. ”

Is it really too much to ask that the “leader of the free world” be able to… well… talk?

Anyone know/heard anything about AVault? Not that I’ve checked it daily, but it seems frozen in time from December 2004.

UPDATE: Just perused the forums. David Laprad is gone, they are restructuring it as a ‘community based’ (read: FORUM) site…

So Sega sold off Visual Concepts to Take Two? Yeah, that one was shocking news. Next up: will the Sun rise in the East tomorrow? Film at 11.

Actually the bug up my bum for the day is purely political (a long probably unpopular rant on the latest stories of US torture) so rather than post it here I put it up at my old, long-neglected blog. If you just can’t get enough of me on a soapbox feel free to head over, but I didn’t want to use up two pages of screen space here on it.

By the way. What the hell is going on with the Pistons this week? They were on a six game winning streak, and something like 11 of 13 only to drop four straight over the last five days or so to some pretty weak/mediocre competition. This stretch of back-to-back games must really but wearing them down (not to mention the likely source of injuries to half the starters). February’s light schedule (10 games, I believe) can’t get here soon enough.

Okay guys & gals, I need your help. Someone has emailed me that they want to make a wager on this Super Bowl since they are an Eagles fan. (That’s LOL in itself, but whatever).

Anyway, the wager has the following conditions:

* Nothing can be snail mailed (ie lobsters are out)

* It has to take place in the virtual (internet) world

Any suggestions? Thanks.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/24/news_6117016.html

Not unexpected.

1. Yeah, I agree with Bill on the Super Bowl. Of course, everyone said that about the Rams vs Patriots in 2001, so I have to be careful .

2. Take Two Interactive made the MLB deal official. In what’s got to be the most bizarre deal ever, TTWO has exclusive Third Party rights to MLBPA stuff. Keep in mind that it’s MLBPA only — ie Curt Schilling could still be playing for the Boston Red Leggings because TTWO didnt’ get the MLB license (according to the Wall Street Journal they are working on it, but don’t hold your breath). Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have players than the teams, but still… First party (ie Sony, Microsoft) can still make baseball games with the license. Of course, this means EA can’t make their own baseball game anymore. However, it still doesn’t preclude Sony/Microsoft from making their own game but outsourcing it to EA..so I’m not sure what this agreement is supposed to do.

Anyway, it’s stupid. BFD. Microsoft can still make a High Heat game..so how would that help Sega?

In other news, ERTS dropped 1% today on the news. Aww, darn. Now if we could only add a “0″ to that 1….they deserve it.