Taking a Break (Sort of)
Well, I’m glad Dan’s keeping the home fires burning this week. I’m not sure what Bill’s up to, but anytime you move into a new house there’s a lot to do so I’m guessing that’s got a lot to do with it.
As for me? I’m swamped. My job is the type where it can go dead for a month or two at a time (like March and April) and then, overnight, turn into a monsoon of work to do. Which is exactly what’s happened, as I unexpectedly picked up three “get it done right now” books in a span of four days. Basically, I’m developing a book a week for three straight weeks, with a quickie review of a fourth also on the hopper. (I’m half-way home at this point.) Anyway, it leaves very little time for gaming or blogging.
Not that there’s much with gaming to talk about. Sports gaming is basically a great big wasteland right now, in terms of new stuff. Eventually, I’ll get Ping Pong from Gamefly, but that’s not all that sporty. More of a sports novelty than anything. Next week, however, Out of the Park Baseball Manager 2006 finally arrives, so I hope to get some quality time with that.
Earlier in the week I spent a while with the new Tomb Raider game. I’ve gotta admit, it’s a fun title. I’ve put in about four hours on it and digital jumbly-bumblies aside, it’s a lot of fun guiding Lara through the act of actually raiding tombs. (As I understand it, the “Tomb” has been missing from “Tomb” raider for quite a while now. I haven’t played one of these games since the first one, though.) My only big gripe? At what point can somebody come up with a camera view in a 3rd person game that doesn’t leave me fighting the controller? There are times the camera makes certain fairly standard jumps or spins or what have you nigh impossible. And thanks the long load times after you, say, fall off a building or something, every time you take a dirt nap you’re left to sit around for a good 30 - 60 seconds twiddling your thumbs. That’s not bad for an initial load, but if you get stuck at a certain point (which can happen quite often) and are dying a lot, you’ll spend as much time loading as you will playing (at least until you get past it). That’s not much fun. Moving on…
The Pistons gave me a scare last night, as they let a big lead and some horrendously bad officiating allow the Heat back into a game in which they should’ve been dead in the water. How many times can they call an offensive foul on Detroit when the Miami player has a foot inside the circle? Yeah, Miami gets there share of offensive calls to, but honestly, I’ve not seen one called on Miami that didn’t look legit to me. (And I’m not so much a homer that I can’t keep perspective on that sort of thing.)
I about busted a gasket at the end when Tayshaun Prince called a timeout (while trying to inboud the ball) and the official flat out ignored him. Oh, he can say he didn’t hear him, but look at the tape. They’re looking straight at each other and even from the camera view I can read Tayshaun’s lips, “Time out!” Evidently the official said something nasty to Tay-Tay as well, that Prince was too classy to repeat in an on-court interview following the game. My bet is that dirty old bastard official (EDIT: it was Dick Bavetta; emphasis on his first name) said somethig pretty inappropriate, tough. (Nevermind that the wanker completely ignored the fact that Chauncey Billups got tackled not once, but twice, while the Pistons were trying to indbound the ball.)
The league ought to fine that chump of an official and not put him on the floor for the rest of the series, but somehow I doubt that’ll happen. (I’m not complaining about the whole game, mind you. But the last two minutes were a joke. The only thing I give them credit for is not calling a foul on Lindsey for his clean strip of the ball on Miami’s final possession.)
Then there’s the Tigers. Winners of 13 of 14 games and still owners of the best record in baseball. They’re nearly 20 games over .500 now and are winning in every way you can imagine. Back to back shutouts? Check? Come from behind victories? Check. High-scoring and low-scoring wins? Check. Granted, a four-game sweep of the Royals isn’t that much to crow about. That team may be worse than the 2003 Tigers (2nd worst record of all-time). So, the big test comes over the next couple weeks as they face all of the AL East’s top teams, plus more action against the White Sox and Indians. But as a Detroit columnist pointed out this morning, the Tigers could play .500 ball for the rest of the season and still win 90 games. For a team that hasn’t sniffed a record north of .500 in over a decade, that’s an amazing feat. The roar, at long last, is restored!
Have a happy and safe Memorial Day, everybody! (I’ll get back to regular posting as soon as I can.)