The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Take a look at this CNet Networks press release. Let me direct your attention to the following paragraph, the 10th bullet under “business review”:

In addition, GameSpot continued to extend content relationships during the quarter, adding Walmart, MTV and Target as licensing partners. These build on GameSpot’s existing partnerships with Yahoo! Games, AOL Games, and EBGames.com, and Sony Playstation, among others

So just to recap, Sony PlayStation and GameSpot have a ‘content relationship’? So when GameSpot posts PlayStation news and puts it up front, is there payment for this? That would be a complete conflict of interest and pretty much make it wide open that there could be pay-for-reviews as well.

Just to recap: advertising in a magazine is not a ‘content relationship’. I’m very curious as to what this means, and VERY concerned for the videogame ‘journalism’ industry. And earlier this week, Sony paid a mega fine in New York for radio payola…..

So I am nearly 50% done with the book. Hmm, OK, actually closer to 40% done but the beat goes on. In doing the research for some of the essays I stumbled across some really cool stuff that I wanted to share with you. It’s not sports related, but hey — my blog. Pbbth.

I’m doing an essay on Indie Games, games made by small dev teams without the backing of big name publishers. There is a TON of neat stuff out there being made by highly cteative and dedicated people. Here’s a few links to check out:

Mount and Blade – Holy cow is this game fun! Seriously, check this game out if you like action-based RPGs.

Lux – Insprired by Risk, only with more stuff and really colorful maps.

Big Box of Blox – If you like puzzle games like Tetris or Meteos, check this out.

Indie Game Source: A great news page for the Indie Gamer.

Indie Forum – An even better resource for people looking to get into the indie gaming scene.

This does not even scratch the surface of what is out there. Cool, eh?

I should have the PC version of Madden by mid week. I’ll be blogging my thoughts on it as I prepare my GSpy review. In the meantime, there are a few people that already have the game. Blog Reader Mossfan led me to a thread at Operation Sports that is a tad disconcerting. Again, this is not ME saying this stuff to chill with calling me a gloomy gus, but if this is true it’s going to be quite the bummer.

For those of you that have not heard what the problem is, here is what Fred said:

“20 yard dropback shouldnt be an issue this year. whats going to be an issue is what we talked about on the radio show tonight, which is that animation where the CPU does a jetpack animation for you. Its tough to stop. we labbed with it online earlier tonight. You could send 3 guys in zone on that one WR and it couldnt be stopped a lot of the time.”

“ok this “jet pack” animation is definitely there and its damn easy to do. You just throw the ball high and the CPU will do the animation for you. Marcus from MM (Madden Mania) and I tested it. I’d tell him, what WR I was going to (throw to). He’d try dime, nickel quater, shading inside, and manually took his safety or DB. It worked, rarely. Most of the time the WR caught it. He could be surrounded by 3 guys and they couldnt stop it. Even when he was there manually for some reason the ball would just go above him and the wr would catch (it). Its pretty lethal on curls because the wr jumps. I havent figured out a way to stop it consistently.

BTW, it doesnt really matter how good your WR was. I was doing it with Mushin Muhammed, and he got injured and Justin Gage was just as effective. I could do it to the other side of the field as well and Bobby Wade, who sucks, would make the catch all the time.”

***

Ok again this is not my observation; I’m simply the messenger here but this is in fact coming from a Madden website, and not vindictive NFL2K fans (of which there are many.) This super lob was in Madden 2003 and 2004 but was fixed last year so it would shock me to see it back in ’06. I’ll be sure to test this myself with the PC edition next week and I hope that these guys are exaggerating its effectiveness or maybe it’s something a very slider tweaks can fix. I REALLY want to play a good NFL game this year, so I hope this is all being overblown.

I’m watching the MLS All-Star Game — the MLS All Stars vs FFC (Fulham Football Club) from the EPL. It’s been a pretty physical game considering it’s an All-Star game. One interesting thing they are doing in game is called “side-by-side” where they run a regular commercial while the game is still shown live. What a great idea. I think I saw this during an F1 race earlier…they should do this a lot more! MLS Stromotion is pretty neat too.

Hey, could the Orioles lose any more pitchers hit by batted balls? That would be great. Today a loss puts them under .500. Talk about ‘sucking’….

I just wrapped up season two of my RftH and it featured one of the most bizarre turnouts I’ve seen for a college football game. It’s just out there enough to make me think its an authentic representation of the BCS. Entering the Michigan/Ohio State game I was 9-1 (OSU was 8-2) and ranked sixth in the nation. Iowa was the lone undefeated and ranked #2, with USC and Georgia in the other top three spots with one loss each. Now, my one loss was to Iowa. So Iowa also had a lock on the Big Ten title, since the best I could do was tie them at 10-1.

So, I take care of business in a thriller at Ohio State, getting the go-ahead TD in the final 10 seconds of the game (it was tied). Iowa turns around and loses to Northwestern and plummets to like #12 in the nation. Two of the other top 5 teams lost as well and suddenly I’ve got Michigan ranked #3 in the nation behind USC and Georgia. In the second to last week USC also loses setting up Michigan in the #2 spot and in the National Championship Game without having won the Big Ten outright (finished as co-champion with Iowa, but I lose the tie break because of losing the head-to-head matchup, another game that went down to the final play).

It sounds ridiculous to me to think a team could finish second in their conference (due to tie break), but still go to the final game. But looking at the situation, its exactly the kind of BCS chaos I think we’re all so used to seeing with losses late in the season hurting teams so much more than losses the middle or early part of the season. At any rate, I owned Georgia in the Championship game, which tells me I need to give the AI some boosts from my current slider set (or bump back up to All American). As soon as I line up 4-4 against a team I can shut down their running attack and in passing situations, if I go with a 2-deep Man/Zone or 3-deep zone (where I control the safety) I can pretty much control most over the top passes and the combination really hamstrings the unimaginative AI (see Bill’s last post).

Busted up in-game AI aside, I’m still bound and determined to finish RftH and get some dynasty time with this game.

Holy crap!? You never know what trades people will pull out of their butt with the trading deadline….Manny may no longer be a Red Sox player. I can’t fathom this one. No matter how many players the Red Sox get, here’s one guy who is totally crazy but just has the numbers to back it up…

Meanwhile, the Orioles traded Larry “The Meat” Bigbie for Eric “The Meat” Byrnes. Wow, that will help with the pitching quite a bit. Maybe this will mean the end of the great box score stat Team LOB: 16. Fuckers.

Alright, I confess, the Madden 06 commercials as always have suckered me in. I mean after the fun that is NCAA 06, I just can’t imagine this being as great as GamePro’s “fact sheet review special” says…but I always keep an open mind.

Speaking of NCAA 06, I have submitted it to my editor for review. I’m sure you can pretty much guess the gist of that one. When it gets published, I’ll let you know. I’m guessing some of you will let me know. Heh.

Totally completely rumors, but my friends in Asia are giving me horrid MSRP’s for the PlayStation 3 over there. I’m hearing $599-799. Yes, that’s a huge price range. I cannot imagine this thing working on those prices. That’s obscene. Of course it could be a Sony campaign of misinformation — they are good at that. Remember, this is the same company that used payola for music, so you never know….

I’ve never been a huge, huge fan of this series but this sounds like a pretty bold move.

The funniest show on TV is on Fox tonight (FRIDAY), and they are running a marathon. Check it out.

I promise that this will be my last NCAA rant. Really, I mean it. We’ve hashed out the good and the bad of this game for quite a while. While Todd still plays the game in order to draw his own conclusions, today marked the last time I ever play NCAA 2006 against the AI. Ever. I really do enjoy the game as a 2 player game but you tell me — how acceptable is this? At what point am I allowed to say that this game is fundamentally friggin’ broken?

I’m wrapping up year 3 in my Akron dynasty. We’re 8-2 going into the rivalry game @ Kent State. After this, I doubt I even play the Bowl game. My gripe about this particular game has nothing to do with drops, even though KSU dropped 11 passes and Akron dropped ten. Bitching about the same old stuff, I mean why bother? Despite the drops, KSU threw for 433 yards and I threw for 234. It was an offensive explosion of a game. I ran a punt back for a TD. My HB had 145 yards on the ground. As crazy as the drops were, it was an undeniably fun game. Until…

I have the ball with :55 secs left; 4th and 6 at the KSU 20. Score is 45-42 Akron. I decide to kick the FG to make KSU score a TD even though the QB has 5 TD passes. I nail it. 48-42 Akron with about :53 secs to play.

A good KR sets the ball up at the 30. I go Prevent/Dime and the KSU offense throws some short passes of 10 and 8 yards. Tick..tick..tick.. (they have 1 time out, I might add.) Then they hand the ball off on a direct snap to the HB for a nice 8 yard gain. They are now past mid field but they burn their last time out. Coming out of the time out, Kent State runs the ball on three consecutive plays while running the hurry up offense.

What. The. Hell.

In fact, they run the ball on the last play of the game but Akron was called offside (I jumped the snap with my LB). They get one more shot at the end zone and I sack the QB. Game over. Go team.

You can debate the dropped pass issue, the importance of the QB simmed stats, the deep pass problem and even the over-powered Impact Players. This you cannot defend. This makes the solo game unplayable because the AI is flat out busted. This was a rivalry game! And for it to end like this is just unforgiveable. You know what the kicker is? KSU ran the ball maybe ten times the whole game. The QB had like 40 attempts, but then they run the clock out down six with under a minute to play.

Even with all of my griping I was still playing the game, trying to get as much fun out of it until the release of Madden. Well, it’s now being demoted to a once per week game when my buddy comes over and we play in a MP dynasty. Nothing is more infuriating than late game AI that is as smart as Paris Hilton.

What sucks about all of this is that I have always been a huge fan of this series up until the 2005 version. Like most people who play NCAA, the game has provided some amazing gaming moments over the years. I think I played 12 full seasons of NCAA 2004 using Ohio State and then SMU, and even more with 2002 and 2003 with a group of friends in a MP dynasty (which is stil the most fun I have ever had with a sports game that wasn’t called High Heat Baseball.) Playing as UTEP and TCU, competing against my friends during recruiting, etc. It was a weekly ritual at Casa de Abner.

I take absolutely NO joy in ripping this game. I hate the fact that it’s broken. But it is.

And there’s just no other way to say it.

Well, according to their website, Tapwave is now dead. It’s the PDA I now use, and it’s really too bad, but I sure saw this coming.

Their Spy Hunter game was awesome, their Madden game was coded by retards but I bought it, trying to support the system. It had some great potential. Oh well.

Guess I need to switch to a Windows Pocket PC. Anyone interested in buying a Zodiac 2 cheap with Wi-Fi SD card?

Oh my gawd, this is funny. I didn’t know there was a “Cool as Ice” UMD! Click here for a funny video about the PSP.

Cheers to the PSP modders.

My PSP purchase was just made worthwhile thanks to this thread at the Digital Sportspage. If you’ve got an old school love for NES games, Super NES games, Genesis games (the list goes on), there’s now an emulator for it that lets you play them on your PSP. With very little new (ie – nothing) in the way of PSP games this summer, the entire concept of being able to run any number of vintage titles on my PSP really tickles my… fancy.

I haven’t tried the Genesis emulation yet, but unfortunately the SNES stuff seems to suffer from massive framerate problems. I tried some of the tweaks built into the emulator to improve it, but they don’t really help quite enough (so far). But just the fact that the games work leaves hope that future versions will address that problem. On the bright side, the NES emulation is flat out flawless. Castlevania, Zelda, Super Spike Volleyball, RBI Baseball, Baseball Stars… (the list goes on). Today these games may only be fun for an hour or so, but it’s a fun hour just the same.

Jeers to comic book writers and artists who won’t stop putting gratuitous T&A in otherwise good books.

Yes. I’m going to talk comics in a sports blog. I do this maybe four times a year. Endure it.

Pointless exaggeration of the female form has been a staple of comic book art for years, but usually it’s been easy to ignore. Maybe it’s just the books I’m reading, but damn. Is it me or is it reaching a new, and embarassing level? Do these guys have wives, girlfriends or at least a decent f@ck buddy? They’re obsesses with tits and women who walk around the house (and fight evil for that matter) in their underwear.

I’ve never been ashamed to be a comic book geek until the past few months. Every damn book lately has at least a couple pages where one of the female characters is in the shower, a nightshirt or lace grungies for no freak’n reason whatsoever. I swear it goes like this:

Writer: Hey, we need a scene with Peter Parker and Mary Jane debating whether he should join the New Avengers.
Artist: Can we have them talk about it in the bedroom while she’s wearing an open button-down shirt and white panties?
Writer: Well, duh.
Artist: Heh. I get to draw boobies. That’s awesome.

Hey, I like pretty pictures as much as the next guy, but Marvel and DC need to wake up and smell the Internet. It’s all out there, so quit throwing this grade-school, “I fight evil on my way to a Victoria’s Secret photo shoot” crap in my comics. I won’t be able to let my son read the recent Frank Miller/Jim Lee All Star Batman and Robin until he’s 14 for crying out loud. Hey Jim! How many newspaper reporters(/supermodels?) do you know that walk around in a penthouse apartment in pink lace underwear (that’s drawn pinched into her butt crack, no less) while working on a story? And if you know one, you should marry that girl you far-too-talented-to-resort-to-this-junk asshat.

Hey, it’s comics. It’s an empire built on the wallets of, “over or underweight guys who dont’ get laid.” (From Chasing Amy.) But there’s a time and a place for that crap. It’s called porn and it’s everywhere already. So how about letting comics stick to the stuff that’s the reason geeks like me buy them: guys with big pecks and capes….

hmm…

Okay, well, keep a few jumblies in there, but for god’s sake, at least put some clothes on these chicks. Fishnet stockings are not suitable attire for battling super villains.

I’m now about half-way through season two of my Race for the Heisman session and I still don’t know what to make of NCAA 2006. After reading many good things about the Jistic’s slider set (check Operation Sports) I sucked it up and gave them a shot on the Varsity level (per some comments by PK500 at The Digital Sportspage). Basically, the sliders max out catching, accuracy and pass blocking while dropping run blocking, knockdowns and picks. The result does seem to be a better short passing game, but hitting the bomb when you need one remains ridiculously easy (no surprise since the QB accuracy slider is up). I think, playing on short six minute quarters, I can learn to live with that, since the AI can also throw the bomb just as well. (Though, unlike the AI, I know to look for it, making it easier to defend and get the pick.)

Anyway, I’ve played three games this way. One was a hell of a lot of fun. Two were fun for one half before the home team got some momentum and just rolled ahead far too easily (one time it was me, the other time I got rolled). Tonight I’m turning off the Home Field Advantage feature. I like the idea, but I think a handful of bad plays by the road team results in everything going to hell. Turnovers, blocking, drops, they all seem to start coming in insane proportions once the road team hits a bad stretch. Maybe turning off HFA will have an effect. Couldn’t hurt, right?

Bottom line is this remains a tremendously flawed game. The 2-minute drill AI is flat out bizarre. Even passing teams will start running the ball in the final minute of the game or half, get two yards, and then have the audacity to call a timeout. The penalty sliders, as far as I can tell do absolutely nothing. I have most of them maxed out now and I may see two or three total penalties in a game. I still have no idea what EA was thinking when they touted these new dynamic pre-game spiels. Frankly, I think they convey less information than they did a couple games ago and the postgame is even worse. Like the discipline system, RftH is a joke. A complete and utter joke. EA took a great idea and did nothing with it. I really hope Madden’s upcoming Superstar mode shows more creativity than this. Even with the things they did right (next paragraph) EA deserves a good hart kick in the nuts for getting so much of what seems like hard stuff right and botching aspects of gameplay that ought to be a no-brainer. The only thing I can think of is that the game engine has been pushed so far beyond its limitations that it’s about to fall out of the car.

Despite all that, the game does maintain a sense of fun that I can’t deny. Being able to bust a long run up the middle is sheer joy, though I think outside runs are a bit too feast (15+ yards) or famine (-1 to -3), with little middle ground. Despite the ease with which some are returning punts and kickoffs, I still think it’s great that it’s now possible to return a kick for a TD and that the AI can go the distance as well. The fact that player speed now works in a more realistic fashion really helps things out. And if you take the drops and long bombs out of the equation there is a lot to like in the passing game. Quarterbacks can finally just flat not throw a ball well, and completely miss a receiver. Being able to scramble (using the A button) and still keep your passing icons up also makes mobile QBs much more deadly. Plus a pocket QB really has to have some open field to get away with trying to take off and run. I haven’t really run it, but I’ve read the option game is bloody brilliant. And there is clearly a very real difference between good and bad teams. All very nice.

Not sure how long I’ll stick with the game after I finish out RftH (something –much to my regret- I have vowed to do). I do want to play in dynasty mode a bit, but the in-game play has to maintain enough fun factor to make putting up with its many serious flaws worthwhile. Right now I’m still going back and forth on that.

Preseason games don’t get much bigger than this.

I was sent this last night by a buddy of mine. Interesting stuff:

Of the Preseason Top 20 teams, who has the toughest road to the BCS?

1. USC – No games vs. top-10 teams, three vs. top-25 teams (at Arizona State, at Cal, vs. Fresno State). Despite playing no preseason top 10 teams USC’s schedule is no cakewalk if, and this is a big if, ASU and Cal live up to their ranking. Fresno State isn’t a pushover either but I don’t think they have the defense to handle USC. USC also gets Notre Dame and the UCLA rivalry so the Trojans will have some tough games this year, at least on paper.

2. Texas – Two games vs. top-10 teams (at Ohio State, vs. Oklahoma in Dallas), four vs. top-25 (also vs. Texas Tech, at Texas A&M). Plus, the Longhorns would have to likely win the Big 12 title game.

3. Tennessee – Two vs. top-10 (at Florida, at LSU) and three vs. top-25 (also vs. Georgia). Plus, the Vols would have to win the SEC title game.

4. Michigan – Two vs. top-10 (at Iowa, vs. Ohio State) and two vs. top-25 (same two).

5. Ohio State – Three vs. top-10 (vs. Texas, vs. Iowa, at Michigan) and three vs. top-25 (same three). (OSU is among just three teams nationally slated to face three preseason top-10 teams. The others are Notre Dame and Northwestern.)

6. Oklahoma – One vs. top-10 (vs. Texas in Dallas) and three vs. top-25 (also vs. Texas A&M, at Texas Tech). Plus, the Sooners would have to win the Big 12 title game.

7. LSU – Two vs. top-10 (vs. Tennessee, vs. Florida), four vs. top-25 (also vs. Arizona State, vs. Auburn) and the SEC title game.

8. Florida – Two vs. top-10 (vs. Tennessee, at LSU), four vs. top-25 (also vs. Georgia in Jacksonville, vs. Florida State), plus the SEC title game.

9. Virginia Tech – No games vs. top-10, two vs. top-25 (vs. Boston College, vs. Miami, Fla.) and the ACC title game.

10. Iowa – Two vs. top-10 (vs. Michigan, at Ohio State), three vs. top-25 (also at Purdue).

11. Miami (Fla.) – One vs. top-10 (at Virginia Tech), two vs. top-25 (also at Florida State) and the ACC title game.

12. Louisville – No games vs. top-10 and one game vs. top-25 (vs. Pittsburgh). (If Louisville finishes outside the Top 10 with this schedule….)

13. Florida State – One vs. top-10 (at Florida), three vs. top-25 (also vs. Miami, Fla., at Boston College) and the ACC title game.

14. Georgia – Two vs. top-10 (at Tennessee, vs. Florida in Jacksonville), four vs. top-25 (also vs. Boise State, vs. Auburn) and the SEC title game.

15. Purdue – One game vs. top-10 and top-25 (vs. Iowa). Come on Purdue, grow a pair and play someone. You Know, how fair is it that a Big10 team misses out on playing Michigan AND Ohio State in the same year? Way to go schedule makers.

16. Auburn – One game vs. top-10 (at LSU), two games vs. top-25 (also at Georgia) and the SEC title game.

17. Texas A&M – Two games vs. top-10 (at Oklahoma, vs. Texas), three vs. top-25 (also at Texas Tech) and the Big 12 title game.

18. Fresno State – One game vs. top-10 (at USC), two games vs. top-25 (also vs. Boise State).

19. Arizona State – Two games vs. top-10 and top-25 (at LSU, vs. USC).

20. Boise State – No games vs. top-10, three vs. top-25 (at Georgia, vs. Bowling Green, at Fresno State).

The Big Ten is the only league with three top-10 teams. Purdue gives the Big Ten four in the top 15. No other Big Ten teams are in the top 25.

The SEC has five teams in the top 16 – three in the East and two in the West.

The Big 12 South has four ranked teams, while the Big 12 North has none. Iowa State at No. 30 is the highest ranked team in the North. (Ouch)

The ACC also has four ranked teams – two in each division. The Big East and WAC each have two and the MAC has one.

The Pac 10 has three top 25 teams and one top 10 team.