The Blog for the Sports Gamer

I have to say the Verizon DSL commercials are pretty funny.

Anyhoo, just received word that the Bruins have traded Thornton for 3 guys from the Sharks. A complete, total shock. But then again, the Bruins have sucked so much ass, what isn’t surprising from a cheapskate owner like that.

Speaking of shitty owners, how about those Orioles? Hey, I know you’ll pay me $5 million more but you suck so I’m going to stay with Chicago said Mr. Konerko. We already know about BJ Ryan…who I still think isn’t that big of a loss. Hey remember that All-Star game. Try living with that 50 times a year. Ugh.

But anyway, I guess the Chicago papers reported that Konerko has a degenerative hip just like Albert Belle, although it’s not that bad. The O’s also gave Belle the exact same money. Belle was also from Chicago. WTF? So maybe it’s better it’s left alone.

Baseball already depresses me. I really wish that someone else would buy the Orioles. Ugh.

Anyone watch Lost? Anyone catch Sayid on the TV when Kate visited her pseudo-dad? Cute. This must be some sort of purgatory, you know the whole ‘ghost’ thing and bad people are around and good people have been taken? And what’s with the IM on an Apple ][? That’s a new one by me!!!!

After another day of very spotty phone and net connections, I think I am good to go now. Just a few tidbits before I go get Ashley from school:

• Everything I am reading, including some inside stuff from an ABC exec (2nd hand) is that it’s Ohio State – Notre Dame in the Fiesta. That’s about an 80% chance right now. Oregon fans, don’t get mad at OSU, get mad at ND and the fact that the BCS is all about $$$.
• OS has the full CH2K6 rosters available for download in their forum.
• I finally started my Legacy last night — using the Mt. Saint Mary’s Mountaineers. I beat Boston U 77-70 in the opener. I hear what Todd is saying…stilll — great ass game. As a guy who just doesn’t like the NBA all that much, this game is exactly what the Dr. ordered. Plus there is a lot of new stuff, particularly in the recruiting interface.
• New screens of EA’s college baseball game are online. I still have NO idea what to make of this game.

Okay, this has no bearing on gameplay whatsoever, but did I miss a memo with regards to the inclusion of fight songs in College Hoops 2k6? Surely I must be missing something? I mean I know Hail to the Victors isn’t there and if the 2k “Beats” playlist is any indication there isn’t a single Big Ten school fight song in the mix. In fact, a whole lot of big time schools don’t have their fight songs in the list. Does anyone know if this was a contractual thing? Seriously, what the hell? Does EA’s NCAA license include exclusive use of fight songs for half the prime schools in games? (I’d say that’s too stupid to be true, but it’s EA, it’s the NCAA and it’s America, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the leas if that is, in fact, the case.)

The Post-Thanksgiving, Pre-Christmas time…in a word, sucks. I have a serious case of the blahs that neither Maker’s Mark nor Xanax can cover. Just an overall “blah” … it’s been cloudy and gray here for the past couple of days…in addition this getting dark at 3PM and sun coming up at 7am crap is just horrid.

Haven’t felt a desire to play games lately, watching sports is still fun, and I’ll be headed down to the Pats on Sunday…hopefully tailgating will be great.

The real job is beyond the redline in stress..home life is fine for now…but there’s just overall ‘tiredness’ about me that I can’t seem to shake. Everyone tells me to start exercising and I’ll feel better, but seriously, that involves, waking up, or walking, and that seems like a lot of energy at the moment.

Anyone with any thoughts or comments? Help me escape the blahs.

PS Wow, didn’t realize how many people were interested in an Xbox 360. JC Penney had a ‘bundle’ today for $700. The catch? The bundle was the freaking console! That’s it. Lame!

I’m home on vacation this week and have a ton of work to do around the house now that I’m back from a long (but fun) Thanksgiving spent out of town with family so I’m not going to dwell over long on the Lions sending Mariucci packing yesterday. But I will say this, cutting Mooch loose is regrettable, but it is absoutely the right move.

People can debate all day about Matt Millen needing the boot too, or the need for the Fords to sell the team (they’re the only constant in a half decade of losing football, after all), but Mooch’s tenure as coach of the Lions is a dismal failure. His offense is archaic. He’s allowed the lunatics in the Lions locker room to run the nuthouse. And he’s completely mishandled his younger players, especially with regards to his atrocious treatment of Joey Harrington.

I get that Steve is a nice guy. That people around the league think the world of him. But he’s completely mishandled this team and the fact that only Dre Bly has spoken in his defense is pretty telling. And Bly, by the way, is an idiot to place all the blame for this dismal season at Harrington’s feet as he did on the NFL Network yesterday (completely classless, btw). Even Jeff Garcia, Mooch’s golden child, thinks the old ball coach was far too lenient on the players, the wide receivers in particular.

My hope is that this gives Harrington a new lease on life. The QB coach (I forget his name) now takes over as offensive coordinator. Last season when the same coach took over play calling for the final three games Harrington had his best output of the season, including two games throwing over 300 yards. At any rate, they’ve got five games to decide who among the players should go, and who should stay. Millen may have botched his job unforgivably the past few years, but he was right about one thing at yesterday’s press conference: This team has too much talent to play this badly.

Wish I could echo Bill’s thoughts about College Hoops, but fact is I’ve played five games and I’m ready to toss the controller at the cats. I’ll emphasize one point again. I’ve played five games. So take this for what it’s worth.

It’s not that College Hoops is a bad game, it’s not. But the degree of control campared to NBA 2k6 is just not there and after playing NBA for the past few weeks it’s just a pretty stark contrast. If it weren’t for the defensive assignments bug in NBA I’m not sure there would be any reason for me to pick up College Hoops again, which is a shame. From a gaming standpoint, I like college so much more than the pros. After just three games the list of things I’m already tired of is growing far too quickly and most of it has to do with control. I want to feel like I’m in control of my player. In this game…

- I don’t want to constantly get stuck in pre-rendered animations. The number of times I lost a defensive assignment in transition resulting in a fast break bucket because a player decided to post up at my own 3-point line is maddening. (This can happen in NBA too, but it’s no where near as frequent or as difficult to break out of.)

- I can’t stop my players from pulling up or taking bass-ackwards shots when they have all the room in the world to run to the hoop. Ordinarily I’d think it was because I was doing something wrong, but this is the same control scheme as NBA 2k6 and I have zero problems like this in that game.

- Too much of the game continues to feel canned. I don’t feel like I miss or make shots on the merits of my players skills so much as the timing of the shot, perceived positioning of the defense and the animation being used to depict the shot. And I think the opponent matters too much. I swear I could take a wide open shot with my point guard and make it more often than not if I were playing New Hampshire, while at the same time missing the exact same open shot more often than not if I were playing Duke. That could be entirely my imagination, but that’s how it feels to me.

- The control, even taking away the pre-rendered crap, is best described as herky-jerky. Unless you’re actually in a rendered animation there is absolutly nothing smooth about how this game plays. Half the time I try to make a move I feel like I’m fighting the game and the controller to get my player going where I want.

Now, none of this is really all that different from last year, when I raved about the game. But -bugs aside- for me NBA 2k6 raised the bar and this game just isn’t there to meet it and I’m extremely disappointed right now. I hope to give it more time before I have to return it to Blockbuster (it’s a rental), but I like NBA 2k6 so much it’s hard to imagine setting it aside to play this. Maybe I’ll give coach mode a shot where I don’t have to worry so much about controlling the action myself.

That isn’t to say that the game doesn’t do a lot well. I understand why so many people seem to love it so much. If it didn’t feel so canned to me I’d say the game continues to do an impressive job of reflecting the play and flow of college basketball. And I absolutely adore the new in-game coaching options that allow you to make subs, change defensive assignments and coach up some facet of your players’ play (defense, ball control, shot selection, etc.) all without going to separate menu screens to do it. That’s a feature that’s been sorely needed in hoops games… well, forever I guess. But at first look it’s just not enough if I don’t feel like I have adequate control over my player on the court.

Sorry for my lack of bloggings — there was a major fire at a columbus substation that killed the power for around 30,000 people yesterday. We were w/o power from about 5Am to 3PM. Problem is, our cable has been going on and off as a result even though we have the power back. So I am online for a hour, offline for 4 hours, etc. Hate to complain because our neigbors acorss the street, who are on a different grid, still dont even have basic power back yet.

I will say that CH2K6 is an absolute blast.

For those of you that ‘get’ the headline, you’ll be pleased to know that Rick Springfield is coming back to General Hospital. Remember that soap being such a big thing in the 80s? That was before Brenda took her pregnancy test on 90210..now it’s soo over. LOL

Those of you looking for an Xbox 360, I know a great site that checks all the online sites to tell you if they are in stock (hint: they aren’t)…well Best Buy had a bunch of core systems in today, but who wants that turd?

Email me for the link…

So I click the link for Bill’s book right, and although I see a great plug for this site, the accompanying photo doesn’t have Bill’s name on it. Who is Sean Garton? A nom de plume for Bill? Inquiring minds want to know.

I am once again hitting you TV gurus up for some infop re: our
big TV purchase this spring when we move. A few months ago, a lot of you suggested the Samsung 61″ DLP. I can get this TV for around $2500. The reviews I have read are pretty glowing for this.

Tonight, Consumer Reports lead me to the Sharp 56″ DLP. I can get this for abour 2 grand.

Finally, there’s the 37″ Westinghouse that supports 1080p.

The kicker here is that

I obviously need this to be a gaming TV as well as a regular TV. The dimensions in our new family room will be 17.4′ 13.5′. So it’s somewhat rectangular. I was planning on putting the TV on the long wall, but would a 61″ TV be too big for that? I’d rather not put the TV at the end wall because I wouldn’t have a very good direct viewing line unless I closed off the room with chairs or a couch. I don’t want to do that. So would a smaller TV with better picture quality be the way to go or do you all think a 61″ TV would still be ok for those dimensions?

While I enjoy (of course) the videogames of today, I really enjoy looking back into the 1975-1986 (ie pre-NES) era of videogaming, mainly becuase I remember growing up with videogames and love looking back when the industry was in it’s infancy, there was no Microsoft and no massively big EA to f things up.

Of course, there was Atari who made you believe 2600 Pac-Man was great, so it’s not all awesome.

So anyway, when doing a google search I found this page which scanned a bunch of mags from 1983. I love this stuff. Look at the Electronic Games article about what we’ll be playing in 2001. The forecast that videogames were here to stay was right on, but the whole ‘mind control’ really didn’t come to fruition. (BTW, that was the first time I knew to look for people as writers — so if Arnie Katz or Bill Kunkel wrote something I knew it was going to be a good read. I had talked to them back in my GamePen days, and it was akin to talking to Bono for some people. Last I checked they were working for Westwood in Las Vegas, but once EA killed that who knows — Arnie or Bill if you’re out there, lemme know!).

So, go relive the past. Find out about the Vectrex — which I still play. Find out about 2600 porn. Ugh. Find out about the awesome new joysticks from Wico.

I always thought of Brookstone as “the vibrator store”…you know, that place in the middle of the mall with ‘waterproof back massagers that look like male genitals’ …but I didn’t know they are now more like a Sharper Image until I randomly got a catalog in the mail.

So just for the record, if you’re in the moment and want to give me something not Xbox 360 related, this would do nicely. (no, it’s not a waterproof back massager). If that’s too much, then how about this or this?

Thanks!

Things I’m pondering while watching my wife’s alma mater pound away #24 Colgate in the 1-AA playoffs.

1. At least there’s a playoff tree in 1-AA.
2. I’ve seen high school stadiums better than my wife’s alma mater’s football field.
3. I played NFL2K2 on the Dreamcast last night. Wow, hard to believe what passed for great graphics in 2001, isn’t it. Game still was fun, but I do have a better appreciation of the Xbox now.
4. I want to like Madden and NCAA but just really have a tough time enjoying the dropped passes and so forth.
5. ESPN NFL 2K5 for the Xbox still is miles ahead of Madden all the way around. After I’ve heard about the piss poor Xbox 360 version, I think the NFL should revoke the exclusive license just becuase of how bad the game is.
6. Why is Heather Mitts the sideline reporter for this game? Isn’t she a soccer player. Update: I just did a google search and yes, she was a WUSA player.
7. Still no dice with the X360, but really, with a launch this fucked up, who cares. It’s not at the top of my list. Seriously, although with the PSP you heard about dead pixels, I don’t remember hearing about console issues this bad. I also was able to easily pick up a PSP. It’s not about demand, it’s about supply. Hey here’s a thought: fuck the worldwide launch. What sort of stupid idea was that?
8. Another game I rented for the X, FIFA 06, has so much potential. It’s fun online also..but still it just has that EA annoying feel if that makes sense. And where the hell are the linesmen?

BB has it on sale for $9.99 today only — click here.

I hope everyone has a good day off and eats a lot of food and avoids that one relative that annoys the hell out of you. Don’t get into a fight. It’s not worth it.

I’ll be on the road most of the day, driving down to my folks place near Cincy and then back up to Cbus this afternoon. Tomorrow we go to Mary’s parents in Danville (out where the buses don’t run..this is serious country..not suburb country). So we’re eating two huge dinners in two days. Thank god I play basketball three nights a week.

I updated my work schedule as well as Dan’s latest article list; he just reviewed GTA on the PSP. I have lots on my plate (Thanksgiving humor) but after spending one night with College Hoops — I am one happy fella. I am really liking the game thus far. It’s an obvious improvement over 2K5 despite the fact that the player models look about the same. They made a lot of significant gameplay tweaks and added some very nice animations.

I’m playing on 14 minute halves on AC level and playing as Navy. I know, odd choice, but I used the Midshipmen in my 2K5 dynasty so I’m familiar with the team and I think it’s a good way to really get a feel for the changes by using the same school to start off. In 2K5, Navy wasn’t very good but I was still able to do well with them — this year, I have played three games with them and lost to Bucknell by 25, 13, and 19. Ouch.

Everyone is going to have their own settings for this one, but I did boost all of the foul settings a few clicks and also boosted the CPU 3 Point Tendency a few clicks. After doing so, Bucknell fired off anywhere from 14 to 22 3′s games, which is perfect.

So early returns are very favorable. Anyway, have a good holiday.