The Blog for the Sports Gamer

The past couple weeks I’ve gone back to NCAA 2006 (Madden went back to Blockbuster and I wasn’t feeling enough love to re-rent it) so I can check out the dynasty mode. I usually try to pick a different school to start off with every year, and having notched off Michigan, Western Michigan, Air Force, Boise St. and Hawaii I decided to bring up my “beloved” Rhode Island Rams from 1AA (displacing Cincinnati). (I have family near Newport, RI and my mom and uncle both graduated from there.) There is only one word that can describe the experience of having the Rams compete against the Big East:

Brutal.

The fact that there’s no way for a team of inferior talent to hang in there against better teams is one of the things about NCAA 2006 that I think EA really improved on. There were games in the first season where I was down 35-0 by halftime. Because there hasn’t been much point in getting shellacked week in and week out I’ve been simming a lot of games in the first two seasons while focusing my efforts on recruiting. (I managed to land a trio of three star recruits in each year, which I hope will start to pay off.) At one point in season 1 my team went four consecutive games without a TD (I played one of them). The only teams we’ve beaten have been Western Carolina, Bethune (sp?) Whatamacallit, Army and –much to my surprise- Pittsburgh (Army and Bethune were simmed). The Pittsburgh game was a classic, with my Jr. RB Jones taking the heat off my freshman QB and running up about 160 or so yards with four touchdowns. Beyond that it’s been pretty ugly. I had a 14-0 lead on Syracuse at the half and lost 35-28 after the Orange rattled off touchdowns on three consecutive possessions to start the 3rd quarter.

In fact, if I hadn’t saved and re-loaded the bowl week for season 2 I’d be back at Western Michigan right now having been “terminated” from my three contract a year early for not having a winning record or reaching a bowl game. I can only assume the AD at URI had a replacement already in mind or failed to notice my roster is stock full of players who would be walk-ins at any other 1A school. (That’s me being nice and not blaming EA for unrealistic AI off-the-field.) Whatever the reason, though, when I redid the bowl week URI decided to bring me back for one more year. Woot.

Anyway, I don’t want to say I intend to pad my schedule for the next season, but I have no intention of playing multiple top 20 teams in my non-conference schedule this year. Hell, my team had its hands full against Army last season. But my hope is that I’ve got enough players in place now to at least beat some weak 1A programs outside the conference and maybe that’ll take the sting off getting creamed by Louisville.

All in all, having come to accept the abysmal 2-minute AI, unrelenting halfback passes and the fact that the vertical game completely overshadows the short-range passing game, I’m still having fun playing NCAA 2006. That said, this has been my first indoctrination into the discipline system. Gotta say: It’s absolutely asinine. What the hell does the NCAA care if my kicker or backup guard is late for a team meeting? My NCAA Interest meter is near the max right now despite the fact that I’ve never failed to suspend a player for an infraction and the worst infraction was something about “questionable” off the field activities. I mean seriously, what the hell is does questionable mean? Did he mix red wine with fish? Did he beat up a computer lab geek (you know, like Bill used to be)? Because my interest meter was so high I ended up suspended my starting right guard for the season (five games) when I have no freak’n clue what he actually did. My QB tells me he let a booster buy him a matinee movie ticket to see Princess Diaries 2. If true I’m surprised I didn’t lose a scholarship.

Why? Oh why, EA, do you not let us turn off the discipline feature? There are some aspects of the “real” world game that some of us gamers can live without. And in the name that of all that which does not suck, please at least fix the system so the NCAA’s interest level makes sense. I had to suspend my kicker twice in season 2 for being late to team meetings. I’ll set aside the fact that this freakazoid -who can’t hit a 38 yarder if I max the meter out, I might add- has an A+ discipline rating, but really, find me a coach who gives a fig if his kicker is right on time for a team meeting. Yuck.

Well, here they are.

These look ok, but they don’t look all that much different from close up PC screens.

Not quite like this, eh?

The feature list on that page also sheds some light on what to expect. I like the biased announcer thing. I do find it hilarious that EA has the stones to say that Madden NFL “invented” franchise play in a football game. “Advanced Franchise Mode - The game mode invented by Madden NFL Football comes to the Xbox 360…”

Madden invented franchise mode like Al Gore invented the Internet.

Started a test franchise last night in NHL 2K6 and holy cow do these rosters suck or what? You can get updated Xbox rosters here. I’m usually not a ‘roster guy’ who needs every player to be on the right team, but this is shockingly bad.

Anyway, my test season, which I just simmed start to finish, seemed OK (I forgot to check trade activity because I have idiot-like tendancies) but one thing stood out: If Mario Lemeiux plays in all 82 games, wins the scoring title, and wins the league MVP award then take a look out your window…pigs are about to take to the air.

I’m also no fan of the franchise interface. I am a fan of the game, though. Todd, come on man, $20 for a good hockey game? Think of it this way — the $35 it costs now to fill up your car is gone in a week. Carpool man! Carpool!

Oh, my AoE3 preview went online at GameShark. Just check the side links if you care to read it.

First off, I finally got Burnout for Xbox and PSP as well as MediEvil. Working on those pretty much non stop at the moment. What’s with the golf meter in Crash mode? WTF were they thinking there exactly?

PSP is fun. Hard on such a small screen. Bought NHL as well, figured what the hell.

Speaking of what the hell, remember 1977? There was an early video game console called the Channel F, made by a company I’m very familar with, Fairchild Semiconductor. This console was well known for the games on lame game shows like TV Pow! and so forth. The controller sucked. I know because I had this in a work place I was in showing off Fairchild’s early ideas way back when. The games sucked, even for 1977. The controller was even worse.

Well, apparently, if this picture is correct, Nintendo has decided to bring it back, sorta. It’s a wand with a cable connected to a joystick. I prefer the Fairchild version, and that’s saying something. For the love of god, someone tell me this is fake.

Finally — I got the answers back for my Blitz interview which should appear on GameShark this weekend. Here’s a taste:

Training Camp is one mode we haven’t talked about much yet, but I think is a great introduction into The League and our unique gameplay “Clash” and “Unleash” Clash mechanics. There’s also online play, Quick play mode, a huge bonuses and unlockables section, and my personal favorite: a ton of unique game modes that includes an arcade-perfect Tournament Cyberball! The League’s season is quite brutal — it consists of 33 games.. 3 divisions of 10 games each including three playoff games to reach the top. So one season of The League is almost double that of the NFL season. Once you’re done with the Campaign “Story” Mode, you can still edit your team, use them in Quick Play, or bring them online.

After tooling around with this for a couple of hours all I have to say is this: EA Sports–please, please, PLEASE do not buy the NHL license. For the love of Dino Ciccarelli, please let it be.

I totally missed the fact that XM now will have the NHL and become the exclusive satellite radio network of the NHL in 2007. Hmm, give up NASCAR for the NHL, interesting.

It makes sense because XM is starting up a Canadian Satellite Radio service and NHL is still the shizznit in Canada. Here, I’m not sure.

I’ve been offered to sponsor the Bruins on the radio and I’ve held back becuase, quite frankly I’m not so sure about how it plays on the radio. Guess now with XM I’ll find out, but I probably won’t sponsor because..well it’s on XM! LOL

While most sane men eagerly await the latest Playboy/Skank/Hustler/FHM/Details to arrive, one thing that gets me moist is the Crutchfield catalog. I love seeing the latest gadgets, no matter how expensive they are.

In the latest catalog:
a new Sony HD DVR that records OTA HD as well as cable HD, a 500GB hard drive, only $999
a home theater receiver that allows you to swap out modules to keep up with technology, only $4999
An XM wireless repeater antenna so you can listen to XM Radio without a wire running 50′ around your house, $169

I don’t really need this stuff, but I want it now, dammit. You know what would be good? A nice set of headphones that aren’t those fucking buds that always fall out when I’m at the gym. I want a nice compact set of headphones that provide good sound but stay over the ear. I don’t care how goofy they are, as long as I can put them away in my gym bag I’m good. Any recommendations?

I dunno…maybe I’m just lacking sleep but this didn’t blow me away. Why doesn’t Rasheed dunk that in the first vid after the guy falls down?

A quick call to Sam Goody tells me that the above games still have yet to come in. Do they understand I have to review these games? kee-ripes!

Anyone get either of these games (regardless of platform on Burnout), I’d love to hear impressions.

Also, anyone get the MS video of Napoleon Dynamite? I can’t find it anywhere!

Sorry for the lack of blogging of late. I wasted the weekend with football and didn’t get any work done, which sucks because I have a book quarterly deadline coming up in like…now.

I also had an AoE3 preview to do, which I finished up a couple of nights ago. And a quick review of NHL 2K6, which I need to get started on tonight. So I just have a lot going on right now. I’ll post some NHL stuff when I get a chance, though, even though the impressions game is a bit late at this point.

One of my personal favorite blogs is by Bill Harris. He used to be at a site called Gone Gold and then..uh…’left to pursue other interests,’ yeah, that’s it. Anyway, his blog, Dubious Quality, is a daily must read, even if he never updates on weekends. Now that I’ve got the sucking up out of the way, check it out, I guess he actually heard from a videogame analyst he was talking about. It’s some interesting stuff. Bill, feel free to pass along stock tips my way, my Share Builder account needs some help. My TiVo stock is falling faster than my fantasy team.

In other news, I was really bummed. I went to Circuit City today to pick up MediEvil for PSP and Burnout for Xbox and PSP. (2 of those 3 games were for review so wait before you call me Mr. Moneybags). Of course none of the games were out yet..which puts a crimp in my review plans for the evening. I do want to thank Circuit City who helped me with my gift card. You see, my CC gift card had been in my wallet for eons…all guys know that their plastic cards get all kinds of crap on them in a wallet, and I’m just talking about the leather. Anyway, the CC card doesn’t have an ‘imprint number’ it’s actually printed on the card. You can rub it off, making the card worthless. A CC associate was able to look up my account history and find out the verification numbers so that I could use it in store. If this were BB, they’d tell me to go F myself. Which of course, is why I stay with CC. So just thought I’d put that out there.

I understand that today’s Microsoft conference had a video with Napoleon Dynamite. It’s edited out of the broadcast on the MS website for ‘royalty reasons.’ If anyone knows where to get the video, please post in comments or email me.

Finally, as I’m typing this, I’m listening to Leave It by Yes. This Yahoo Music Unlimited is great…especially for the cost of 5 CDs for the year and the I can transfer subscription music to my IRiver T10…very nice indeed!

Take a look at the top 25 Xbox live games. Interesting that one game isn’t even available in the US (Pro Evolution Soccer 4 isn’t XBL in the US)…but what’s also interesting is that ESPN NFL 2K5 is still #16 on the list.

I had this in my blog notes, but I forgot to post, now Peter King on MMQB beat me to it. Has anyone seen those Burger King commercials? They are hysterical. My son and I keep hitting the instant replay button to watch the King pick off Bledsoe. According to the MMQB article there’s another one with a lateral but I haven’t seen it.

I was watching Letterman (in HD) and just kinda mumbling around the house when I heard that unmistakable NFL music of the 60s….the first thing I thought was..hey I hear that in Madden…and then you see Bledsoe throw a screen and the ball is tipped, which allows his 324098092th pick of the year while with Buffalo but instead of a football player — it’s the Burger King running it back while the crowd is cheering and the NFL music plays.

A short version is available by clicking here. You get a free 1 day pass for NFL Sunday Ticket too..that’s a good deal if you have DirecTV. My friend Craig now has this link memorized as I seemed to have sent it to him twice a day all weekend. I have to get back somehow since he kicked my ass in fantasy. Maybe I should sign him up for some porn. No, make that gay porn.

Prior to this weekend the following are all statements I made out loud:
- The Steelers will be totally dependent on their defense.
- The Dolphins will struggle to make a first down let alone score.
- The 49ers will be even worse (to be fair, that statement was predicated on Alex Smith being the starter).
- Mike Anderson is going to have a big week against the Dolphins (injured after 4 carries for five yards).
- JP Losman (Bills QB) is going to struggle.
- The Lions will have to put up buku points against the Pack because their D won’t stop Favre and the Packers offense.
- If Michigan loses to Notre Dame it will be because of their defense (and vice-versa).

I could probably go on, but why belabor the point?

Anyway, it was a roller coaster weekend in Casa del Todd. Michigan’s loss to Notre Dame was just a nightmare to watch. Luckily I quickly recognized the signs of a disappointing performance in the making and made sure I was occupied with other stuff while keeping only one eye on the game (makes me less prone to causing damage to the household if I’m distracted).

From there I headed to a birthday party at a bowling alley for a buddy of mine. This is my second outing this year, which doubles my usual number of trips to the alley. I promtly tossed a 203 and followed it up with a split-ridden 137 (ick). Then my game started to click again as I opened game 3 with five strikes. The next two frames both had good pocket shots and left me a pair of undeserved splits: the 5-7 (got the spare) and 5-10 (missed it). But I followed that up with five more strikes to close out the game (254), marking the first time I’ve ever thrown ten strikes in a game. It’s truly bizzare. I can only presume that the secret to my game if for me to bowl as little as possible because I’ve been far better in my semi-annual outings than I ever was when I was throwing 6-20 games a week back in early 90s (when I averaged about 180-190).

Thankfully the Lions capped off the weekend nicely. I really thought their offense would have to produce for them to win this. I do like the defensive talent in Detroit, but they have yet to put it all together (obviously) and Favre usually just torches ‘em. But instead the offensive line struggled to run and pass block and the defense smacked The Brett around for four quarters. The Detroit media was indifferent on Harrington today, but I thought he looked pretty sharp considering he couldn’t take a five step drop w/o a sea of white jerseys all over him. TE Marcus Pollard may end up being a huge FA pickup if this week was any indication.

As for my fantasy football leagues (I’m in two)… My only hope to win our Que league (work) is if the entire Philadelphia defense gets injured. (Any chance of that?) You know you made bad choices with your starters when your own bench outscores them. On the other league I should be able to hold out for the win unless the Atlanta D just lays an egg and Warrick Dunn goes nuts.

Facinating reading, no? If you all like I could talk politics on my next post…