The Blog for the Sports Gamer

For me, it’s very simple:

I hate Belichick…but I despise the Steelers. So that outcome was fine for me.

As for the other game, Mike Vick is not an elite level QB yet. He’s just not. I’m sorry. Quick quiz. Of these players, which did Mike Vick have a higher QB Rating than:

Billy Volek

David Carr

Jake Plummer

Aaron Brooks

If you answerd ZERO you’d be right. Look, Vick is an awesome athlete that can do a lot of great things with his feet; I realize his 900 yards rushing doesn’t factor into the QB rating but he was sacked something like 45 times and had two more TDs than INTs. He might be a great player one day, but there are a lot of holes in his game and Philly exposed them. Triple spy him and make him throw it.

Anyway, New England is going to beat the ever loving shit out of Philly. Ah well. When’s the draft?

So the Superbowl matchup is set and I’m happy guy. With the exception of the Broncos, I would’ve been okay with any of the AFC playoff teams in the Super Bowl. Having been in Indiana for the last five years I would like to have seen the Colts there, but as I’ve said before, I’m a New England guy at heart so I can’t help pulling for the Pats. I love that team. The fact that they have a Michigan QB is just gravy.

On the NFC side, for my money, Philly is the only “elite” team in the conference so I’m pleased they finally made it to the big game. I do think Atlanta is a quality football team. But a Super Bowl team? I just don’t see it. Call me an idiot (no, really), but if they were in the AFC, I’d see them as just barely in the playoffs. Certainly a notch above Denver, but not clearly better than the Chargers or Jets. (And way behind the Colts, Pats and Steelers.) The rest of the NFC is a joke. Green Bay had me believing prior to their meltdown, against the Vikes, but any conference that sends two 8-8 teams into the playoffs has some upgrading to do.

Super Bowl Prediction: Patriots

Regardless, I’m eager to watch my first Super Bowl on a pseudo-HD front projector (technically it’s not HD, but it’s way, way better than standard def). The Super Bowl on an 84-inch screen. (drool) Six months in and this projector remains the best money I’ve spent on a “toy”.

The Pats would have a very easy time of it in Pittsburgh. :). Just kidding. But seriously, an all PA Super Bowl would probably be one fo the more boring games ever, so it’s good that the Pats won :). And I think there should be a law that says any team that has some sort of gimmick (ie Terrible Towels, People doing a warcry, etc) should always lose.

In other news school are closed around these parts as we continue to recover from SUPERSTORM. Damn it’s cold….

Well, Blizzard warnings are still in effect here. That can be a good thing, because I ‘have to’ stay in and play videogames. Of course, all eyes are on 6:35PM tonight for the Patriots game. I’m very nervous. So many people are now picking the Patriots for this game, which has me worried. Nonetheless, cable and electricity are still here so I should have the game in HD.

Not much else going on. If/when this snow stops, I have to go snowblow. I went to get out the Sunday paper this morning, couldn’t get by the door because of the snowdrift..it was halfway up the door! It’s stil 7 degrees here. Yuck. It’s too bad the Jets didn’t win becuase that would have been a fun Foxboro game!

So here I am in SUPERSTORM. Not too often you get ye olde Blizzard Warning, but it adds to the fun. Usually the temps go up in these things, but as I type this it is a toasty 7 degrees. Why is it toasty? Because that’s ABOVE zero!!!

Needless to say, there’s not much going on here except hoping the power stays on. I did play some Madden (I bought it before my Boycott, so it’s allowed). I don’t know why I played it. I threw 4 picks vs the Steelers but caused one of those Eagles like fumbles that flew into the end zone. I recovered it. Touchback!

Up by 7 with not much time left, I ran the clock out, which of course means there’s an automatic fumble for my guys. After playing awesome defense all game, somehow the CPU gets a touchdown on one play (so a fumble and then a touchdown — nope, no catch up logic here). The computer, in one of the most dumb moves I’ve ever seen, elects to go for two with :23 left in the game. They don’t get it. 17-16 me. They then do a regular kickoff! My god, is this game stupid. They can’t even win with the patented EA catch up logic! What is this world coming to??

On another note, I got a new beverage: Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. I like it.

Saw Sideways today. Great movie — truly funny. We don’t get to see too many grown up movies in the theater anymore, but since Ashley is at her cousin’s this weekend, we lived it up with a movie AND dinner. High life.

Oh, and I’m about to (finally) finish Painkiller. You like 3D shooters? Get Painkiller. Seriously. It’s a wild, wild game.

Anyway I finally checked out March Madness 2005 and after playing with it for a few days I have reached the conclusion that all sports game publishers should charge at retail an amount that is consistant with the amount of $$ the company sank into the project. March Madness shouldn’t cost the same as say, NBA Live. (I know this is totally un-American in that it’s not in the true meaning of Capatilism..but screw it.) It is so blatantly obvious that EA Sports spent oodles less development cash on MM as it did its other games. After playing with MM, it was easy to blow off the shortcomings of ESPN CH.

It doesn’t surprise me. Basketball usually comes in last in worldwide retail sales. Yep — even below hockey. OK granted this was about 4 years ago. But an EA rep actually told me that. Football and soccer rule. Golf and baseball “do well” and hockey and basketball are the weakest sellers. So it should come as no shock that a college basketball game receives fewer dollars than the pro one. Of course they still charge $30 (usually $50 but this year EA was Sega’ed so they dropped the price).

Not that Sega gets off scot free here. Sega is the underdog company in all of this and we love underdogs. The suits at Sega and Take 2 would LOVE to be in EA’s shoes; the fact that they aren’t makes it easier to root for them, but make no mistake about it, Sega and Take 2 are big ass companies that are after $$ more than anything else. The oddity that their games are better (IMO) seems purely coincidental.

This is funny. Poor, poor A-Rod. Let’s all feel bad for him. There’s no I in team, unless you’re the Yankees and it’s every man for himself.

I enjoy giving the business to Pete Prisco over at CBS Sportsline becuase many people feel there’s an anti-Patriots slant. Hey, I know he’s just voicing his opinions like me, but when the predictions come out wrong, it’s always fun to send a nyah nyah email. My email was posted on his article this week, but now he’s picking NE, and that really has me worried!!

At least I can see the game on CBS HD!

If you polled 1000 random Americans on the subject, there’s a chance that a few of them have noticed there’s been no NHL hockey this year. A handful still, like me, might even miss it. Let me say first that this post isn’t about taking sides between ownership and players for who’s to blame for the lockout. All I know is that collectively, they’re killing the game (and have been doing so for quite some time). This morning I got a new name and a new face to which I can apply my disgust. In today’s Detroit Free Press (www.freep.com) Jimmy Devallano, the very successful senior vice-president of the Detroit Red Wings is quoted as saying:

“We want the right deal. The hockey’s not important.”

There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don’t even know where to begin. My god, if the game of hockey isn’t the most important thing to those who run the teams, how are they supposed to sell the game to an audience that already places it (at best) a distant fourth behind football, baseball and basketball? And that’s just counting North American team sports.

But what kills me is that this statement didn’t come from some jackass like commissioner Gary Bettman or NHLPA union leader Bob Goodenow. I expect such asinine rhetoric from them. No, this comes from a guy who plays a key role in managing the Detroit Red Wings, arguably the best run, best fan-supported, most talented franchise in the league. The statement comes from the franchise of Steve Yzerman. The Captain. Very likely the most beloved Detroit sports figure of my lifetime. Take your pick from any Detroit athlete who’s played in the past 30 years: Barry Sanders, Billy Sims, Chris Spielman, Robert Porcher, Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, Al Kaline, Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Ben Wallace.

Don’t get me wrong. All of them are Detroit sports icons (you could even argue Grant Hill should be on the list), but not one of those guys is revered quite the way Steve Yzerman is. And what kills me is Devallano’s statements come in the same edition of the Detroit Free Press where Mitch Albom reaffirms what was already well-known: if there is no season Yzerman is likely done as a hockey player.

Some might ask, so what? He’s played twenty years. He’s led three Stanley Cup teams, the last of which (in 2002) he went through the playoff basically playing on one good leg. He had a good run. And yeah, he did. But right now every Wings fan’s last memory of Steve Yzerman on the ice is of him being helped to the bench, blood soaking down his covered face after a deflected slap shot shattered the orbital bone around his left eye, almost costing him his sight. Even by hockey standards it was an ugly scene, watching him drop to the ice and hopelessly try to struggle to his feet, face buried in his hands.

The guy has already come back twice from injuries that many thought would end his career. In 2003 he won the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Even in his waning years he was a two-way force on the ice (winning the 2000 Selke trophy awarded to the best defensive forward) that always, always put team goals ahead of personal goals. He is the NHL’s longest serving team captain, having first donned the “C” in 1986, at age 21. In a 2004 Star Tribune poll of 15 NHL GMs, Yzerman -in what may now turn out to be his final season- was the guy most often named as the league’s best captain and overall team leader.

The man has earned the right for a final bow, a chance to skate off the ice under his own power, after completing a season’s final game. Red Wings fans absolutely hunger to see it. To say goodbye, even if just watching it on TV hundreds of miles away. And the senior VP of the team that Yzerman played his entire career for, that fans have continually paid insanely inflated prices to see, is on public record as saying, “the hockey’s not important.”

Mr. Devallano, the hockey is the only thing that’s important. If you, or any owner, member of management, or player doesn’t get that, then your league isn’t worth my time or money anymore.

In the words of Ren & Stimpy…happy happy joy joy!!!!

My cable company just added CBS HD. Now I have every network in HD. I can now rule the world!! With that and NFL Network HD…who needs sex? Who needs leaving the house…this is just awesome! Oh and I can record in HD too. Just in time for the Pats-Steelers. Now all I need is a Pats win and it will be even awesomer!!

I cannot believe the Pats are the favorites. I agree with the PIT coach (doesn’t he look like everyones HS gym teacher btw), that they must have thrown out the 10/31 game tape, because PIT mauled them. I think Heinz Field is a very tough place to play…especially with those towel wavers…damn. Dedicated fans…but would they have cheered “Cut THAT MEAT!” to Peyton when he was getting his ass handed to him?

I haven’t really been playing any sports games…this HD set has taken over my life. Best purchase I’ve made in some time, IMHO. Back to watching last night’s LOST and Alias sans commercials…..

I had a HUGE post…but 2#$#$#$ing blogger killed it.

Suffice it to say: Based on the comments, thanks to everyone for thinking “What will Dan say.”

Let me say this:

1. Exclusive sports licenses in videogames are just plain stupid. They will degrade the value over time. Some of the best games (High Heat 99, Hardball, 4th & Inches) didn’t have any licenses and I still played them. However, the general public probably won’t.

2. This Sega/MLB deal doesn’t shock me in they way I said I would be shocked. If what IGN reports is true (Yahoo Finance said a week ago TTWO was looking for long term, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVE, deals for sports games), it’s gotta be the stupidest contract ever. It allows first party games but not third party games? I’m Sony, I call EA and say, do MLB 2006 for me. So there you go. Makes no sense. Stupidest “exclusive” I’ve seen and IGN calls it a ‘bombshell’…uh, no. Unless you count the “protest” of “electoral ballots” in “Ohio” a “bombshell” also.

3. Let me say this again: an exclusive restricts choice. Many people prefer Madden over ESPN. Many people prefer George Bush over John Kerry (and after seeing Kerry rant on the Daily Show, it truly was the battle of two losers wasn’t it). People should have the right to choose. Is it ‘just business’? Absolutely. Does it screw the general public? Yes!

For the record, other exclusives I Hate:

NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV

MLB on XM

NFL on Sirius

At least with EA getting the NFL license, you can still buy a game for the platform you have. Unlike say, cable vs DirecTV. Gah!

So there you go. And for the record, according to a CNN article, you can take all the sales of all MLB videogames PLUS all NBA videogames and they still don’t sell as many COMBINED as football games. So basically this license, exclusive or not, isn’t a hill of beans.

If I were Sega, I’d try for an NCAA exclusive license and forget the majors. NCAA College BB, NCAA College Hockey (drool), NCAA Basketball, NCAA field Hockey, NCAA football….every stadium…every 1-A and 1-AA team….and D-2 and D-3…..A League Soccer….damn, I may have to do this myself!

Finally, my .02 on the ESPN thing — brilliant move by EA. The average dolt who walks into EB probably heard how much ESPN NFL is better than Madden. So next year or 2007 or whatever — they’ll ask for the ESPN game…and get the EA game! Awesome for EA. Brilliant move.

I think people are making way too much out of this new EA Sports / ESPN thing. So what if EA bought the 15 year rights to everything ESPN? This is secondary news, folks. The big fish was already landed when EA grabbed the NFL licensing. This is just a continuation of that plan.

What good is the ESPN license (for football anyway) without the NFL logos and players? In my estimation this does two main things:

1. It allows EA Sports to cement a known entity (ESPN) onto their games. This marks a MAJOR breaking off point for EA Sports and it may actually help in the long run. My big issue with EA and Madden in particular, is the presentation is total shit. Now with the ESPN license ready to go when the “Next Gen” consoles come out, maybe, just maybe, this will foster a new breed of EA Sports game. Even with the ESPN license, I thought Sega never truly used it to full effect and with EA’s bankroll, it can.
2. This saves Sega a ton of cash. The battle of video game supremacy is over. EA won. Now, when I say that I mean that EA Sports won the casual gamer (as well as some hardcore guys, I realize that too)., But the guy that buys a few sports games per year (usually at Wal-Mart) will continue to get the EA games. Sega needs to find ways to cut costs and continue to operate. They cannot afford to buy another license (I will be SHOCKED if they purchase the MLB rights.) Sega can still stay afloat and continue to make sports games. There are a couple of options here: (Yes I am going list-crazy today)
1. Focus your advertising on a smaller base of buyer. Competing head to head with EA Sports at this point is a recipe for bankruptcy. In other words, go AFTER the hardcore gamer and not the Wal-Mart shopper.
2. FIX THEIR GAMES. This cannot be understated. If you go after the hardcore sports gamer and try to corner that market with great gameplay over licensing power (and it can happen folks, look at soccer gaming) then the Sega games CANNOT be as buggy as they are today. This is of primary importance. A buggy game, which every single ESPN game this year is (maybe sans NHL) is another high road to hell for Sega. Why does Konami beat the shit out of Fifa? Winning Eleven is unquestionably better than Fifa in every way, shape, and form. Some may like ESPN over Madden (like me) but is the difference so great that the bugs are worth it? Tough call, and not nearly enough for people to play Sega over EA. Put it this way — sports gamers do not come anymore hardcore than the writers of this blog and if a generic Sega football game has the bugs that are in this year’s ESPN game I will not play the generic Sega game. Period.
3. Tap the STARVING market that is the PC sports gamer. It’s a real shame that companies have ignored the PC sports fan for so long and I think it’s high time that someone tried to reach out to that group. Yes, console sports games outsell PC sports games. Duh. But if Sega wants to earn every nickel and if every sale counts then how can they ignore a market that is being ignored? Yes, Madden is out on the PC every year but it’s not the same game. Madden 2005 Xbox blows Madden 2005 PC out of the water. And (and this is really important) I strongly feel that a generic PC game (one that Sega allows a lot of user customization to) has a MUCH better chance of succeeding than a generic console game. Why? Modders. A strong mod community can give a game life like no other fan base. High Heat Baseball lasted as long as it did in part because of the insane mod fan base that the game had generated over the years. Why couldn’t a football game do the same? I was talking to Steve Bauman, the Editor in Chief of CG Magazine (the mag I write for and that you should read monthly…ahem) and he made the point that simmers, the hardline gamers, will love a generic football game with fictional players much more so than the casual console gamer that just wants to pick up and play a game. He’s right.

   So come on Sega. Step up to the plate and allow the fertile minds of the PC sports mod community to run wild with your game. You may not outsell Madden (ok you won’t outsell Madden) but you’ll sell enough copies to keep in the game in the public eye…and you might just have the better game in the long run. Who knows?

Bill and Dan have the playoff talk covered, so I’ll instead drone on about how I spent my weekend instead of watching playoff football (much to my chagrin). Early last week I got home from work to find the garage door opener had broken. I could press the button and the motor would run but it wouldn’t rotate the chain to open the door. Now when it comes to things like home repair I’m about as useful as a fishing pole in the Sahara, but at this point I was pretty sure the thing was broken.

So I do some homework on new door openers. Turns out there’s different kinds, besides the chain-driven one I have. (Who knew?) Being a PC guy I like upgrading so if I’m going to have to buy a new one, I may as well upgrade too. So I decide on the Genie Excelerator, which uses a screw-driven system and is supposed to be both quieter than a chain and more durable for not much more money (cue Tim Allen grunting). It also has the nifty feature of opening twice as fast as it closes and has a lifetime warranty on all parts and the motor. So I head out to Lowes, find the thing and ask a sales associate about installation. Not being particularly adept with this stuff I decided beforehand professional installation is probably the way to go. But it’s $110. Also being notoriously cheap I ask if I can take the opener home and if necessary pay for and schedule installation at a later date. The guy says, and I’m quoting, “Sure, just bring in your receipt.”

Looking through the manual at home the scenarios of things that could go wrong start going back and forth in my head. I figured I could do it, but I really didn’t want to spend the whole weekend in a freezing cold garage bouncing off the walls with every setback (which were sure to be numerous). At that point my desire to be cheap is overcome by my desire not to end up throwing tools around the garage in disgust with myself and whatever semi-literate person wrote the manual. So on Friday I go back to Lowes, with my receipt at the ready. I’m told to go to dept. ‘x’ where employee #2, whom I had to interrupt after 20 seconds of watching him stare down at the counter doing nothing, says in the most bored and disconcerned voice you can imagine, “You have to pay for installation when you buy the door.”

The rest of the exchange is pretty predicable, with the only surprise being that it didn’t end with a large wooden plank being driven through Mr. Helpful Man’s chest. Ultimately I could A) go home, bring the unit back in, return it and re-buy it with installation (which included a 2-day delay to schedule and up to 7 days after that to actually have it installed) or B) I could storm off and spend my 3-day weekend in the garage instead of kicking back just a little and watching some football.

This is where being cheap, stubborn and impatient (do I really want to go another 10 days without a garage door opener?) leads me to doing exactly what I had hoped to avoid: Spending most of a 3-day weekend in my garage (when I wasn’t watching/feeding/bathing the kid) , in the cold, enduring multiple setbacks (too long a story to get into), throwing tools around, cursing Mr. Helpful Man and ultimately being glad that his poor customer service skills saved me a hundred bucks when late Monday evening I was looking at a fully installed garage door opener that made the door go up and down without shaking the house to its very foundation. Had I any feeling in my fingers or toes it would have been a proud moment for someone as mechanically inept as I am. Still, for the next few days I’ll get a small charge out of watching that door open and close and knowing that righteous indignation can overcome both my incompetence and laziness. Go me!

I’ll have some stuff to say about the ESPN/EA thing tomorrow, but I found this story rather ..interesting.

This whole EA buying spree might make a lot more sense if Rupert is on the prowl. It just gets stranger and starnger.

You’ve got to be kidding me. ESPN and EA signed a 15 (15!) year agreement for ESPN. So I guess we’ll have ESPN Madden NFL 2006? Or something. Fuck EA. Fuck EA hard.

Full press release here.

PS Thanks to GamingNexus’ Charlie Da Tuna for the heads up. Bill just ICQ’d me this article at CNN. I love this quote:

I think there’s plenty of room for competition,” said Probst. “At the end of the day its who can build the highest quality products. There’s plenty of room for other third party companies - and console first-party companies - to do that. Just because EA Sports and ESPN are partnering I don’t think people are going to run for the hills and not compete with us

Probst is the President of EA. Yes, plenty of room for competition. No NFL license or AFL license. But other than that, enjoy your football games! Asshole.