The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Will be released May 31st at www.ootpbaseball2006.com

Well, chalk that up as TWO reboots while playing Oblivion. I’m riding my horse to this city, the game starts to chug a bit and poof — black screen followed by a involuntary reboot. Damn it.

Also, as much as I enjoy the game (and that’s two reboots in about 8 hrs of play, still not good but not so bad that it’s unplayable) I still have issues with the main quest / side quest storylines.

The Main Quest, from what I have seen of it, is pretty epic ’save the world’ kinda stuff. So from a story perspective, why would I bother with some of the mundane side quests? Seriously, I’m on an Elwood Blues Mission from God — I ain’t got time to deal with the Fighter’s Guild or help break some innocent dude out of prison. I got shit to do!

I know that it’s “just a game” and that I shouldn’t overanalyze but Bethesda goes to great lengths to make you feel as a real part of this world, and this game mechanic (it’s been like this since Daggerfall) has always bugged me. Now, I know that you don’t have to do any of the side quests, but that’s a huge, huge part of this game — the sheer amount of it.

Baldur’s Gate was like this, too, and I loved that series more than any fantasy series ever put on a PC. So I can and will live with it.

Tonight Michigan goes for its second NIT title in three years (against South Carolina). Not exactly music to a Big Ten school’s ears, but whatever. A lot of fandom and media vultures, probably the same ones keeping death watch over Lloyd Carr’s tenure, are calling for the head of coach Tommy Amaker after a 16-3 start begat a slow decent into hell. No doubt, injuries were a factor in the decline, but that doesn’t excuse season-ending losses to Indiana (after leading most of the game) and Minnesota. No injury list can account for that and Michigan absolutely deserved its March Madness snub.(For the record, I think turnovers were the ultimate death knell to Michigan’s season.)

That said, I’m much more impressed than others with the way the Michigan players have rallied in the NIT. It’s a poor consolation, sure, but I think it’s significant that Amaker seems to be at his coaching best when the storm of controversy over the program’s lack of success is at its worst.

One of my favorite movies is The Lion in Winter, with Peter O’Toole, Katherine Hepburn, a young Anthony Hopkins and Timothy “I was James Bond Once” Dalton. In the movie the character of Prince Geoffery tells his brother Richard, “You fool. As if it matters how a man falls down.” To which Richard replies, “When the fall is all that’s left, it matters a great deal.”

That quote pretty much sums up why Michigan’s success in the NIT this year is a big deal. This season will forever be a disappointment. There can be no doubt about that. But an NIT championship tonight is not cause for the Amaker naysayers to hand down more criticism from the safety of their keyboards and water coolers. As if winning the NIT somehow makes Amaker’s tenure even more of a failure than had the team exited stage right in the first round. Amaker took a potentially devastating loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament and has rallied these players into playing some of their best basketball of the season in the NIT. Cause for celebration? No. But it does count for something and U of M AD Bill Martin is right to so publically support Amaker as coach of the Wolverine basketball program.

Microsoft just added 3 games to the backward compatible list: Black, Star Wars Battlefront 2 and the one I care about: World Soccer Winning Eleven 9. Wooohooo!!!!!!!

Huh huh, he said hump, huh huh huh.

Bill, what do you mean about Oblivion on a 360 not being the way it’s meant to be seen? Seriously..1080, in HD? Vs a computer? Unless you have some Alienware 23482030585 GHz computer, I’d pick the 360 version.

Disclaimer: Although I have the 360 version sitting here from Gamefly, I have yet to try it. Yeah, sorry about that ’short wait’ on that game. My bad!

Once you go 360 it’s very tough to fire up the old Xbox. Just the wireless controller is awesome. Hey, I was a little skeptical and bitter because I didn’t get a reviwer’s unit (I admit it)….but damn, there isn’t a day that I don’t try to play that system…if only to get another 10 gamerpoints…

Thanks to Phoenix for letting me know that John Kerry rider and the celery thing was incorrect — I thought John wanted celery even though he didn’t like it — but the celery thing was for his wife. Sorry!

Rumble Roses XX just shipped for me from Gamefly! Wee! Of course, living on the other side of the shipping center, it takes a friggin long time to get it, but I’m looking forward to it.

In sports news, I see that AJ Burnett is going on the DL. Wow all those Toronto signings are looking not so brilliant now. I’m still hoping for a good year for the O’s. I guess what I’ll do is take the free preview of MLB Extra Innings. If they win more than they lose, I’ll buy it. If they go 0-7, I’ll spend the $159 on other things. Have any suggestions?

Well, as I’m sure has been obvious from my silence on the matter, I am still without a 360. I never strayed too far from my front door on Friday as I waited for the big brown truck to show up, stirring up visions of a Tim Allen bit in which he describes the UPS arriving while he waited on the front porch with his dog. Said Tim, “I got too excited. I ran up and smelled the driver’s butt while the dog got the box. It can happen!”

Alas, I have no dog, I saw no truck and by 5:00 I had to suck it up and pick up our son from daycare (Ana was at home with me for some speech therapy stuff - damn ear infections). On the way out of the neighborhood we passed the UPS truck so I did what any shameless geek would: I turned around, flagged the guy down and asked if he had a package for my house. After fixing me with his best, “Are you serious?” look of disdain he checked his delivery list and I had officially struck out. It’s really not right that I should be deprived any College Hoops gameplay at the height of March Madness, but what can you do?

There was no joy in Mudville on Monday either. Tuesday, as it turns out, the guy did show, but they won’t deliver it without someone to sign, so today I’ll be heading home early to ensure a smooth transition from truck to enterntainment center.

On another note. My Hack of the Week last week, ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd, did apologize for plagiarizing the M-Zone blog last week. Does an apology count if you only do it because the entire blogosphere has come down on your head? What an ass. I was listening to his show again on Monday during my lunch break and my god, whenever he goes off monologuing it’s just an awful listening experience. Anyway, M-Zone had a hysterical summation of the experience on their blog today that’s well worth a read. Here’s an R-rated snippet:

College football fans across America knew something was seriously amiss when even Buckeye fans rallied around the maize and blue cause.

“That could have been us in their shoes,” said O-Zone member MichiganCan LickMyBigHairy NutSack427. “But by the grace of God - and by God, I mean Tressel - that could have been one of our ‘Fuck Michigan, you cock sucking faggots!’ bits being read on the air with no credit. Although, we are trying to trademark “Fuck Michigan” so that will never be a problem. Either way, we supported them this time. Now that it’s over, we think they’re all big fags again. 4-1! We own you bitches!!”

All I can say is this: Space, Bitches. Space.

First off, thanks a ton for all of the TV advice. I really appreciate that. I’m about 90% sure I’m going with the 61″ DLP Samsung. I can get a really good deal on it and I’m happy with most of the online reviews on that model. I also have to save some cash for a zero-turn lawn mower, which is going to run a couple of grand. When all of this is said and done our savings will be kaput…but we knew that going into this.

We closed on the new house Monday. It’s ours. We still have paint touch up to do but other than that, it’s a done deal. We start moving in on Saturday and should be fully moved by the end of next week. Of course I still have the current house to sell…but hey, no worries, right?

I’ll take some pics of the interior before we start moving stuff in just so you guys can see the new digs. We like it a lot. I’m going with DirecTV and we’re forced to use Sprint as the high speed provider. Kinda leery about that but I have no other option.

I updated the work and review list (Dan needs to do that too because his MLB 06 reviews are up at Gameshark.) Gal Civ II is one of the best strategy games I have ever played. It’s just as good as Civ IV IMO, it just takes a bit longer to build up steam.

I started Oblivion a few days ago and hoo boy this is:

1) Really Fun
2) Really Pretty
3) I need a new PC. This game is taxing my computer like no other game. I have a 2.4 GHz machine with a gig of RAM and a Radeon 9700 Pro video card and I’m turning off details left and right. It’s very playable and still looks damn good but I’m in no way seeing Oblivion as well as I could see it. Oh, and if you’re playing it on the 360 — you aren’t either.

I’ve just scratched the surface on this behemoth; I’ve played about 5 hours and have accomplished next to nothing, but I think that’s the point. The game is so huge that you can get lost in it. The best thing I can say about the game right now is that it has shown me just how starved I was for a deep single player RPG…even though the initial storyline is kinda weak, or at least it is on the surface. After you go through the first hour of the game you’ll see what I mean. I’m convinced the Emperor is senile.

Finally, I’m going to start doing board game reviews on Gameshark. I won’t do them every week but I’ll try to get one or two in a month. I really feel board games and video games share a common bond and the folks at Gameshark agree. I think it’s a very good fit.

I’m going to start off by reviewing Runebound along with the brand new Midnight expansion set. I also want to focus on board games that are also linked to PC games. Stuff like Railroad Tycoon, World of WarCraft, DOOM, Civilization, Age of Mythology, and so on. Even though these games aren’t technically brand new I think a lot of gamers would be interested in hearing about these versions.

Good news for Tennis on the 360 lovers — Top Spin 2 is shipping tomorrow according to the big sites.

And if you like other things that are big — Rumble Roses XX is now shipping for the 360. I begged our editor to let me do Rumble Roses XX. I can see the conversation at my house now:

the Mrs. “Why are you playing this game that objectifies women”

Me: “Because I have to. I was assigned it by my editor. And besides, look at all the work that went into making that chest so bouncy!”

The Mrs. “Enjoy the sofa tonight.”

So there’s that to look forward to.

OMG. This is teh funny. You may remember last week we posted the link to Dick Cheney’s rider. While there was nothing odd in it, he did say that Fox News had to be on all the TV’s in the hotel.

Now John Kerry’s rider has come out to the public. In a shocking flip-flop, Mr Kerry hates celery on one page, but then on another page, asks for celery as a snack. This is the same guy who is all for the New Hampshire primary as first in the nation, unless another primary happens first, when that’s ok too.

Ugh! With losers like this, it’s no wonder why Bush won. Anyway, check out the rider by clicking here.

Check out this Smoking Gun email about what the producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition are looking for during next season’s taping.

As was mentioned before, the Final Four brackets are all f’d up. ESPN put up a synopsis – of 1.5 million entries, a whopping four have matched the final four.

Gamefly sent me Oblivion today. Guess I’ll get started. Finally, anyone looking for an accountant/marketing/sports gaming player in the New England area? Just curious.

I just checked the scoring on the blog pool brackets, and what a brutal weekend it was. 33 people (counting three who made no picks) are in this thing and not one of us picked a potential NCAA champion that managed to reach the final four. It’s no surprise to me that nobody picked GM, Florida or LSU to win it all, but I am surprised no one had UCLA.

All last week I was kicking myself for not putting UCLA in the final four in at least one of my two brackets (I had the Zags over them in one and Memphis over them in the other). In the blog brackets I went from a tie for first place last weekend to eight place with no shot to recover this weekend (all my final four teams are out in both of my brackets). If only Villanova had made it, then I’d still have a shot. Damn you Florida! In my work bracket I was in the top 10 after the first weekend with all my final four teams still alive. This weekend, they’re all shattered husks. A final four with no number one seeds? I wasn’t even in middle school the last time that happened.

Update: Not only does no one in the blog pool have a championship pick still in contention, but I just went back to double-check and it appears only two people have any of the Final Four teams making it to the NCAA final (one has UCLA and one has LSU). Amazing.

Well, the time has come to lay down some loot to get a good TV. I have never owned an HDTV television so I’m pretty excited. I know a lot of you guys are TV Tech Heads so I figured I’d post the sets I am looking at. I’ve done a fair amount of research, did some window shopping, read some forums, and I think I am down to these:

The Samsung 61″ DLP

The Samsung 42″ Flat Panel Plasma

I can get either set for around $2100-$2200. (Not the Best Buy link price.) The room where the TV will go is 17.4 x 13.5 with the TV at the far end of the room. I’m seriously considering going with the smaller screen just because of the picture quality but I wanted to give you guys a quick heads up and a chance to talk me in to or out of either of these.

This TV will be the main TV as well as the Xbox 360 TV. Thoughts?

Update:

After spending the past hour on the horn with a buddy of mine, I’m also going to give this Sony LCD a look when I go back to Best Buy tomorrow.

I know, yesterday I did a rant about Nintendo. But last night, I broke down and used my last 800 MS Points to purchase Feeding Frenzy after playing the demo. I had read the reviews about it being only ‘passable’ but bought it anyway….

….and I went to bed at 2am after playing it. Even if I had finished the entire game in that period of time, I had more play value out of it than some lame movie. But I’m not done. I love the fishies. It’s a cute, simple and fun game.

Prior to that I had tried the Blazing Angels demo. Maybe it’s just the demo but it really didn’t seem that bad to me (another passable from the IGN/GameSpot wizards). I may have to rent it and see what happens.

Lots of debate about Oblivion. I mean seriously, you had to see those 9.0+ reviews coming. It’s funny how both game sites ‘had to spend time with it’ when you already knew how the reviews were going to read. Well not really debate, but you know what I mean. I have to give more power to Bill — I will play the game leisurely on my own dime. Reviewing that game is more work than it’s worth. If you ding the game at all, you’ll get emails like ‘well you didn’t play the one mission in the Kingdom of Rlkit8tg where you have to obtain the chalice of Life while distracting the wood golem” or some shit like that. An open ended, missionless game is the dread of all reviewers.

Like i said, it’s hypocritical day here. After saying how goofy the TG16 games are, I spent all night playing a Live arcade game.

Too bad about BC losing. I had them going into the final 4 in my worst bracket ever, but losing there. Oops.

Well there’s this exciting news from Nintendo saying that they’ll support old Sega and TurboGrafx 16 games on their Revolution console. Thrilling news, isn’t it? I mean, that’s the reason why you’re going to spend $200-$300 on a console — to play old games, right?

That’s the thing I like about XBL Arcade. Yes some old games are on there, but most are new games that do take advantage of the console, although they are simple. Feeding Frenzy is one of those games. It seems like a stupid game. You’re a fish. You eat other fish. You get bigger and eat bigger fish. Think Bubbles in an aquarium. But it’s strangely addictive and fun. It’s not Bonk’s Dumb Ass adventure, ya know?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060323/ap_on_hi_te/nintendo_old_games

I know what at least some of you are thinking: who?

Colin Cowheard is the voice of ESPN radio’s “The Herd” program, which owns the lunch timeslot for the radio network, following the much more entertaining Mike and Mike in the Mornings. I’ve listened to Herdie-boy a few times while picking up lunch during the week and more often than not I end up switching to a music station or CD.

Why?

Because he’s just that bad. He’s constantly trying to be funny and just as constantly fails. Badly. Worse, he’s always pausing after each joke like he’s waiting for his listeners to catch their collective breath. Frankly, his show desperately needs a canned studio audience so that he can pipe in some fake laughter cause god knows he’s the least funny radio-personality I’ve heard since Lt. Steve in the movie Good Morning, Vietnam. The only thing I’ve listened to this week that’s more nauseating than his radio show was enduring Bill Walton express his man-love for Dwayne Wade during the Pistons/Heat game last night. That, however, is not why he’s my hack of the week.

You see, evidently, Cowherd was, for a moment, geniuinely funny this week when he broadcasted a fake Wunderlich test (after talking about Vince Young) for listeners to call in and answer. Here’s a sample question:

“1. If the Ohio State tailback gets $42,000 from a Buckeye booster but the Escalade he wants is $57,000, he should:

a) Buy a different SUV
b) Take a job he doesn’t have to show up for from another booster to cover the difference
c) Ask Maurice Clarett to borrow one for him
d) Transfer to an SEC school with more generous boosters”

Oh yeah, that’s good stuff. Well, maybe not to Bill, but whatever. Trouble is he (or one of his staffers) lifted it from the very excellent M Zone blog. And hey, that might’ve been no big deal, except the asshat didn’t bother to credit the source. Uh, nice going. But even that isn’t the best part. When the good folks at M Zone wrote to complain this is the response they got from Colin “I Don’t Care That I’m a Plagiarist” Cowherd himself:

“WE WERE SENT IT….WE HAD NO IDEA..BUT THE INCESSANT WHINING…MEANS I WON’T GIVE YOU CREDIT NOW..GET OVER IT
CC”

First, what’s with the all-caps emails? Second, if the material was “sent” to him, why did he not credit the person who sent it (or have one of the studio go-fors Google a phrase from the text)? Third, inadvertently or not, the dude plagiarized M Zone and instead of just apologizing (publicly or privately) he calls them a bunch of whiners. That’s class all the way, Colin. Once again ESPN is setting the bar high.

The trouble for this guy is that this story is making the rounds on sites like Deadspin, Every Day Should Be Saturday, and just about every Michigan blog you can imagine. And god knows how many others. So, at this point there’s probably only about, I don’t know, one-hundred billion people who know the guy’s a hack.

Congratulations to Colin Cowherd! You, dear sir, are my Hack of the Week!

Read the full story(in two parts) here and here.