The Blog for the Sports Gamer

OK, this is coming out in a week. Anyone else as jazzed about this as I am?

Are we insane enough to try another blog tourney?

May I raise you the ESPN announcing crew? Holy crap. I am glad I don’t watch Sunday Night Football that often, because my god…Joe, Al, and Mike are just plain horrid. I know Bill Simmons makes fun of the weekly, but man, that just doesn’t begin to talk about how bad they are. Yes, I know Tedi just came back. Eric Moulds sure did push off. Insert your own Joe goes on air and they tell him to break a leg joke here.

I’ts a pretty good fantasy week for me as I’ve already won this weeks game even though my QB and one of my RBs have yet to play, bringing my record up to a whopping 3-5. This is the last year I have a 18 team league. There’s just zero players available and makes it very difficult to enjoy.

I picked up Grand Theft Auto for the PSP over the weekend. So far I’m really enjoying it. Alrighty, time to get to work…

wait a minute. The snow we had here yesterday is now replaced by lovely 65 degree weather. You never know.

Last night the NE Revolution played on a field with snow. I bet wearing shorts was fun for those guys! At least they won the game and on aggregate so the Revs continue their MLS dominance. The whole getting-the-winning-goal-in-the-84′ thing is tiring though. At least they keep doing it though, so there’s that.

OMG..only 3 weeks until Xbox 360 hits. Of course, I’m really hoping that being a videogame reviewer will pay off for me, but I’m not sure this time around. (Yes, quite often videogame reviewers get the console). I know you all feel bad for me if I have to pay, but damn, for $400 and $60 a game, that’s some serious pain.

Of course, I know I’ll go buy it even if I have no games for it, because mainly I’m an idiot and have to have it. As everyone knows, the more you wait, the better the deal. For example, this holiday season the PSP will now have a 1GB memory stick…a stick that I paid $90 for. Then again, the PSP price will be $299 instead of $249 so I guess it works out and I did get Spider Man 2 for free…

I just picked up Virtua Tennis for PSP, and I really like it. True, it’s not much different from the Dreamcast days..but on a handheld that’s very cool. Today is Trick or Treat day here for the kids (for some bizarre reason, the way to avoid the terrorists is to have Trick or Treating the day before Halloween), so we’ll be doing that and be back in time for the Pats game tonight. And the moons have all aligned — Desperate Housewives, etc are in repeats today. Then again, Rome is new, so I gotta watch that. Gah! So many choices…

Okay, I gotta go review Top Spin for PS2. My advice: go with Virtua Tennis PSP.

Alrighty, as promised my Blitz The League review is now online. I think what bothered me the most is that I felt I was promised a whole new game, and instead we got the old game with some new stuff on it, almost like an expansion pack.

I do grade hard, but really, I feel this is just a below average game. I loved the hype, I loved the websites, it really had me juiced, but when I went to play it, it was like, OMG, it’s the same game, right down to the horrid catchup code and money plays. So there you go.

Blog reader Mike Sheridan sent this link along today. I am SO keeping all of this money! Muhahaha.

Bill Harris’ Dubious Quality Blog is worth 41,000.

Sigh…we’ll never hear the end of this now…

I try to read The Onion as often as I can but I’ve been behind of late. Glen Haag — he of the formerly evil GA-Sports! (Sorry Glen, I kid. I kid.) sent this to us via email.

The Onion’s MLB Year in Review.

I like the one about the bunt sign.

You better hurry up. The price is going up $48/year ($5/month) as of November 1st. I’m just letting you know. It’s an excellent deal right now (you get the “to go” included as part of the package as well)…just saying…Hmm. Napster $14.95 /mo, Yahoo, $4.99/mo until 10/31……

Sorry for my blog delay. Lots going on right now. I’m happy (thrilled actually) that my editor actually likes the book. That’s a plus, I think. I’m by nature very reserved about my own work. When I look at the book I wish I had more time to write it, wish I would have been able to make it a bit more detailed in patrs, etc.

In the book’s Introduction I wrote:

“The 2006 Gamer’s Bible is the perfect book for the busy gamer who doesn’t have the time to read about games every single day. If you love to play computer and videogames, but also have a life outside of your monitor or TV, this book is for you. Even if you are a self-described hardcore gamer, there should be some nuggets and pearls of wisdom inside this book that you can use, be it a mod for your favorite game or an under the radar indie game that you haven’t heard of — there is a little something for everyone in the 2006 Gamer’s Bible.”

I think that’s a fair description of what readers can expect. Well, aside from the fact that we have to change the name again. Someone at Que has vetoed the Gamer’s Bible name, which is really cool with me. I didn’t like that name anyway. As for the new title I’m shooting for: Pimps, Orcs, and Lightsabers: 2006 - The Year in Games.

I doubt that gets off the ground, though.

In review news my NBA 2K6 review is up at GameShark. I turned in my Dawn of War Winter Assault expansion review to CGM today (good expansion, not great.) I am knee deep in Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, which is friggin’ HARD. After that, I am moving on to Dragonshard (an admittedly very late review) and then to March Madness and hopefully by then College Hoops will be ready to go.

Well, after reading Todd’s review of Bill’s book, I hope I can get an autographed copy. I wonder if Bill will be doing a book tour and signing the chest of groupies. My guess is that he’d probably have to sign Jonah’s…uh, well nevermind.

In other news, funny that Todd mentions he’s sick, I’m still trying to fight of the double ear infection/sinus infection combo. I took that Zithromax last week but I’m still in the ‘blahs’. Even though Bill, Todd, and myself live nowhere near each other, we all seem to get sick around the same time. I’m just thankful we don’t have periods and they are in sync.

You know how Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ is the anthem of the White Sox? Well I just went onto Yahoo Music Unlimited and did a seach for it (of course I have the CD of greatest hits, but I was lazy). Anyway, I found the song on this compliation. (You have to have YME installed to view, even if you’re not a subscriber). Okay, I’ll clue you in since you probably don’t have YME. It’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Body Workout. The dialog from Arnold alone is OMG funny. I think he says Pump It Up about 20 times. Beginners should do 10 repetitions. All this voiceover great songs of the 80s, like Journey, 867-5309…”stretch your thighs” “Jenny, I’ve lost your number” “17…think about those wonderful thighs”….

OMG. This is worth the $60 annual fee to Yahoo alone. Now I have to see if there are any Richard Simmons albums…darn, nope.

Yep, I’m still here. I’m exhausted from work, I’m sick (as is the familly), and I’m operating on too little sleep, but I haven’t gone anywhere. Hopefully I’ll get back to a more regular posting routine next week. For now, though, I just need to post a few thoughts that are on my mind today.

I’ve just finished developing (editing) the initial draft of the Bill’s 2006 Gamer’s Bible and he has, without question, written one hell of a book.

I’ve made a conscious choice not to pimp the books I develop for Que Publishing, but this one’s different. A) It’s written by our favorite gaming blogger. B) It’s about anything and everything that has to do with gaming. And C) It’s so f’ing good I can’t put to words how glad I am we talked Bill into writing it.

Okay, so let’s keep things in perspecitve. No, it’s not Tolstoy. But right now there’s really just two types of (successful) gaming book on the market: strategy and programming guides. This hobby is too damn big for that to be it. Yeah, there’s the 2005 Gaming Almanac we published last year with a different author, but two people read that book so it doesn’t count. And besides, this year’s edition is way better. This is a differrent kind of book in that every page is focused on a different aspect of our collective hobby. One page may be about NCAA 2006, and the next could be about the demise of Black Isle Studios (may they R.I.P). And it’s all done with both humor and style and I just can’t wait to see this thing in print.

If you enjoy Bill’s writing on this blog as much as I do, you really do owe it to yourself to check this thing out when it hits shelves, hopefully by the last week of December. It is by far the most enjoyable book I’ve read in six years of being an editor for Que.

This is a great read about the 40 yd dash times in the NFL and how these 4.2 times are full of shit.

Alright, my Blitz review is now done, and let’s just say I wasn’t as big of a fan as IGN/Gamespot. That’s an understatement. I was very disappointed. Very.

In more Midway disappointments, who was the moron who said, hey SF Rush was so good, let’s make it into a GTA clone. Yeah, that makes no sense. Sometimes you can tell in the first 10 minutes of a game is a turd, and LA Rush is one of those games. Ugh.

I have a confession to make. I tried Gametap last night. I spend more time playing Space Invaders, Pitfall and BurgerTime than I care to admit. $14.95 a month seems a little steep, but damn those games are fun. Primitive, but fun…..

Two really shitty teams. Trent Dilfer should retire. Lions win 13-10. Whee.

Wow. I’ve been playing 2K games World Poker Tour online for some time today. It’s the first Hold ‘em game I can really recommend. What a blast to play. And I can pretend I’m at Foxwoods. And it looks like Foxwoods!

Okay, I don’t know if it’s my regression and love for things for things of the past, but I really like the new Depeche Mode album. It’s also very strange how my brother looks like Dave Gahan. His name is Dave too. Coincidence?

I’m just wrapping up my review for Blitz.

that’s about it. Ta ta.