The Blog for the Sports Gamer

It would seem that the games are in fact set to 5 min. quarters w/o the ability to change it. This was my experience with playing an Exhibition game between the Browns and 49ers. Maybe you can change it when starting youir “career” but a default game is set in stone at 5 mins…which eternally sucks. Why not allow the 15 min accelerated clock? It’s a COACHING GAME!

Anyway, my first impression was watching Alex Smith run an 80 yard TD scramble on the first play of the game. After that, it honestly felt like I was playing Madden 2005 in coach mode but with the ability to “motivate” my players by giving pep talks. The game engine is pure Madden. No doubt. Is that good or bad? Well I’ll leave that up to you. For a coach game I’d like to have a better interface but remember this game was designed for the consoles so we’re stuck with a console interface. Now, I’d like to meet the guy that wants to play a coaching/sim game on the Xbox over playing it on the PC, but that’s neither here nor there. It is what it is.

There’s a lot of “stuff” involved in creating your coach and accepting a position as head coach. There really is a lot of info here — and yet I can’t play a 15 minute quarter game. I really, really, don’t get that at all. And, just like Madden’s AI, it sees 1:00 left in the half/game as if it were a REAL 1:00 when of course it is not. In Madden, 1:00 to play (hell it’s 1/5 of a quarter, so it’s basically like having 3 mins to play) is an eternity and yet the AI takes a knee on its own 20 with 1:00 until halftime. Of course I call three fast timeouts and get the ball in great field position with :47 secs to play. Nice.

Anyway, my first impression is pretty much what I expected it to be. Granted, it’s a first impressiom but I think anyone that expected Front Office Football with graphics, well, you’re a dolt to think that in the first place.

Well, I finally got a copy from EA that, supposedly, works. We’ll find out shortly. I have read elsewhere that the games are locked at 5 minute quarters. This is just what I read so don’t take it as gospel.

But if true…what the $#@!?

As I stated in my earlier post, I like PureSim 2007. The series continues to grow and is clearly headed in the right direction. That said…

I am simming the 2007 season to check long term stats in PureSim, and because of this I turn my team over to the CPU. I notice some interesting stuff as the season comes to a close.

In 2006 I played a 24 year old LFer who I drafted mainly for his future potential. He carried a 50 contact and a 76 power and in 2006 hit .275 and blasted 40 homers for the big league club. A GREAT year — and at 24 — wow this guy could turn into a real hammer. Well, his ratings took a slight dip in the off season and he started the 2007 season with a 48 contact and 74 power. I have no issue with this at all. All players shouldn’t get better, but I do find it odd that his potential rating was a 70, which is very good. Still, I’m cool with it. The problem? The CPU put him in AAA and there he sat the entire year. This is a guy who at 24 years old hit 40 home runs and the following year he can’t make the roster? And his ratings only took a slight hit. Just like OOTP, PureSim’s GM AI is not looking at stats at all, and I think that’s a mistake. It just doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.

Also, I noticed that my starting CF was no longer on the roster. In 2006 before I auto simmed I had a platoon in CF — two players with very similar attributes but I was playing the L/R splits and each platooned based on who was pitching. It worked well in 2006.

In 2007 CF Barry Nowlin was gone. Now, Nowlin is 28 years old and carries a 70 contact and a 98 eye and an 81 speed. He’s a good CF with great plate discipline who can run his ass off. In 2006 he hit .281 with an OBP of .398. What does the new CPU GM do? It cuts him, of course. Doesn’t trade him (which would make sense if it didn’t want to do the platoon thing) but it outright cuts him. He’s then picked up by another team, signed to a one-year deal and starts about 90 games.

Now, if this were OOTP people would be screaming from the rafters. To me, this is equally as messed up as what OOTP does. To outright cut this guy is completely bonkers.

I’ve always been indifferent to the whole interleague play thing in Major League Baseball. I understand why some people don’t like it, but to me, it’s like the idea of adding luxury suites to Michigan Stadium: I just don’t care that much. But now I have a reason to pick a side. And I’m for it – 100%. And no, not just because the Tigers kicked the holy hell out of the Cubs in a 3-game sweep this weekend. No, I’m for it because of the fact that because they were playing the Cubs, it meant I got a nice little Father’s Day/Birthday gift on Sunday by being able to actually watch it on TV (via WGN). The Tigers end up on TV in Indy about as often as a contestant on Big Brother manages to show a little pride or self-respect. What a great game to watch too. Between half the crowd in Chicago rooting for the Tigers, Kenny Rogers getting win #200 (he’s been a model guy in Detroit, so far this year), the 6-0 lead the Tigers had after just the first inning, and the fact that the big cats hit a franchise-tying record of eight home runs in the game (two each for Shelton and Inge) it was a perfect day to sit down and watch a ballgame (especially since it rained all day in Indy).

I’ve only got one complaint and his name is Jeremy Piven. Currently, Piven’s one of the primaries on HBO’s Entourage. Now, I don’t know anything about the guy and I’ve always enjoyed his work. He may not be Oscar caliber, but he’s consistently a fun actor to watch do his thing, even in enjoyably bad movies like PCU and Old School. What’s he got to do with the Tiger game? Well, the Cubbies brought him in to do the seventh-inning stretch, which was fine until he lead off by shouting, “Let’s hug it out, bitches,” to the crowd, which I guess is part of an Entourage catchphrase.

The wife and I both did a double-take at that. Look, obviously, I’m not a prude. I write on the same blog as Dan, for god’s sake. And if you’re going to curse at 30,000+ people, I supposed calling them bitches beats saying cocksuckers. But come on. It’s a televised MLB game in the middle of a Sunday afternoon on Father’s Day. How damn oblivious can you be? Maybe he just didn’t think it through. Maybe it just sort of came out. But god, what a dumb-ass thing to say to a stadium littered with little kids; and that doesn’t include all the people watching at home. Say someone like me, with my 2 1/2 year-old daughter sitting right there. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, I wasn’t the only one who was more than a little pissed. There were multiple shots of dads standing up, apparently scowling at Piven’s broadcast booth. Do the right thing, Jeremy. Get an apology out there. Certainly, the Cubs -who did issue an apology- agree that he owes us one.

As I continue digging into PureSim I’m ready to make a few more blanket observations:

• I enjoy managing the individual games in PS more than I do OOTP and the reason is mainly cosmetic. I like the PS sound effects and animated ball. I also love the fact that when you set the game speed to Very Fast you can zip through a game in 10-15 minutes. OOTP’s new forced pitch by pitch mode is uneccessary and drags out games for those that want a true 1-pitch game.

• That said, I wish PureSim showed more player info on-screen during a game, stuff like defensive range and arm stregnth should be on the screen at all times (for players in the field).
• Just like OOTP, there are things that happen on the field that make no sense, and the obtuse play by play doesn’t provide any answers. How does a CF with a weak arm throw out a fast runner tagging up to score on a “deep” fly ball? I guess he slipped. The PbP in all of these text games really need to be as detailed as humanly possible and I think both games fail here. We either need simple real time graphics or better text.
• The base simulation engine in PureSim reflects MLB a bit more accurately than OOTP — at least with fictional leagues. I ran a few test sims based on fantasy drafts and the general statistics looked surprisingly good. A sprinkling of starters with sub 3.00 ERAs, 40 to 50 hitters with .300+ averages, team stats, when compared to real baseball, all looked very beliveable. Sometimes OOTP can suffer a bit here. I know you have all of the modifier tools to tweak it but I like that the base PS stats loked this good. Granted, I dunno how well it holds up after, say, 10 years. (If you want to do your own tests for this stuff I’d check out Baseball Reference to get an idea.)
• PureSim has built-in Lahman support. Fire it up and play with the 1975 Reds as easy as pie.
• The CPU-CPU trade AI in PS is not QUITE as weird as OOTP but there are still trades that will make you look sideways. Now, the cut-player gaffe is not in PS so guys don’t do the sign and cut thing, but some of the trades I think are odd at best. If anyone tells you that PureSim’s trade AI is vastly better than OOTP — they are lying. It’s just that the cut player bug in OOTP makes a huge dent in that game.
• OOTP has a HUGE advantage in terms of interface. Take or leave the new OOTP look, and I know a lot of you are still getting used to it, but OOTP presents information, particularly player stats, MUCH better than PS. There are a lot of pop up windows and expandable screens in PS and even then, OOTP tracks more stats.
• In PS you do get some cool tools, though, like ratings and stats graphs and the Bill James “toy.” I still want SOMEONE to include WIN SHARES. Damn it.
• There are no scouts or coaches in PS.
• One of the biggest beefs in past editions of PS is sim speed. Well, it’s still not “fast” unless you do an “Unattended Sim” but that turns over control of all human teams to the CPU, doesn’t track game logs, etc. If you do a regular sim, this is still a fairly slow sim game. Faster than before, but slower than OOTP and MUCH slower than Baseball Mogul which still has, by far, the fastest sim engine on the planet. Clay, please redo that game’s interface. Please. Mogul has so many cool features but the aging interface is killing that game, man.
• There is no front office worries in PS — no ticket prices, etc. The only money stuff you deal with is player contracts.
• PS is also not nearly as deep as OOTP in terms of league and world scope. I still contend that OOTP has more potential if SI can fix its AI issues. But I am having a lot of fun with PureSim and if SI fumbles the patching process I’ll have no problem playing it long-term.

Too bad about AUS:BRA, but seriously, how could Brazil not win that one?

I’m still pissed about that World Cup game. trying to get over it. I know I will. Luckily I can watch the Orioles and get more pain.

So, David “The Meat” Segui was the Oriole who was “legally” taking HGH. Great. Go O’s! Way to set the shining example. Of course, with great ‘players’ like Grimsley and Segui, the only thing I’ve learned is that HGH won’t make you a superplayer :).

Now that my FIFA WC game review is done, I went back to Winning Eleven 9. I think I’m happy with my FIFA grade, especially when compared to WE. My gawd, FIFA WC compares to WE 9 like a Uruguayan referee to someone who actually knows the game of soccer. It’s night and day. So, you can guess how I reviewed that.

I cannot believe anyone with a brain could give FIFAWC high marks. It is so not Winning Eleven 9. Playing WE 9 on an Xbox 360 (in bc mode) looks pretty good, if not better, than FIFA WC. The audio on WE9 is zillions better. I’m almost thinking I should have knocked FIFA down more..no no, I’m happy with it.

What do you think I gave FIFA WC? I’m not telling until it gets published :).

Just finished my FIFA World Cup review…more of the same if you ask me. I see that IGN loved it, saying that the commentary is great and never repeats. Obviously this guy never played more than one game with the same team. Every intro I hear the same spiel about millions of USA people playing football…WTF?

Just finished the Revolution game..nice crowd on hand. Loved going to those games, the friends and the tailgates and the players..but 4 hours of driving for 90 minutes of game 18 times a year..ugh.

I think from now on I will TiVo to the 80′ and then watch the Revs score goals because it happened again. Yeah, suck it Barra Brava and DC United.

Nice comments in the blog, let me get to ‘em:

Agree on the 2nd red to Pope. Pope sucks. I don’t know why he’s on there. Like MeanOnSunday says, he’s the second coming of Agoos. Can’t wait for the own goal next game!

The red on Mastro was just bullshit. Complete bullshit.

AWS6000 had a comment about offside — first let me welcome you to soccer — no question is too lame or stupid — we need to have education in order to get soccer well received in America (assuming you’re in America, of course). The hardest rule to understand in soccer is the offside rule. The offside rule is simple — an offensive player must remain on the same ‘line’ as the last defender (the goalkeeper does NOT count), until the ball is played (ie passed to the player — as in the ball has to be in the air going to the player before he can move off the line). Once a player has crossed that ‘line’, if the ball is not played yet, he is offside and the play is over. The ref has discretion to not call the offside if the player is not interfering with play (such as if someone is injured near the end line, etc). I usually don’t see discretion used very much, I see it always called. There is no ‘advantage’ given because the player is offside and in an improper position. “Advantage” is only given when a foul is committed by a defender but the offensive player still retains posession of the ball and can make a play. If you have any other questions, keep ‘em coming. Also, if anyone else wants to chime in, feel free…

As far as the cards go, usually they are given out for hard play — ie no attempt to get the ball, deliberate hand ball, committing a foul on a player who is about to score a goal or unprofessional conduct (you can get a card for delay of game, for example, or complaining to the ref). Pope should have known better, but nooooo. Mastro was a late tackle, but it was absolutely not willful from what I saw and should have warranted a yellow, definitely not a red. Only a complete buffoon from Uruguay would put out something like that.

This ref flat out sucked. He called play on on multiple hand balls, and the one by Beasley at the end was totally deliberate and he should have been carded.

The lead commentator on ABC’s coverage sucked. When the ITA player went down due to injury, the moron should have aptly noted that (1) both teams were at even strength and (2) ITA had no more substitutions left so he had to play injured or stay even. of course anyone with a passing knowledge of soccer would know that. Thankfully Balboa had a clue, I’ll give him that.

Now back to accounting, I neglected to mention that ITA gets a point for a tie, so the standings are now 4/3/3/1. ITA (4) plays CZR (3). If ITA wins outright and the USA wins, the USA moves on. If ITA and CZR ties, USA wins if if it beats Ghana by 4 or more goals (ie 5-1 ugh). Or of course there’s also this scenario:

“The Czech Republic beats Italy AND the total combined margin of victory for the Americans and Czechs is five AND the U.S. team scores exactly two more goals than the Italians do in their loss AND the Americans win a drawing of lots by FIFA”

(Taken from ESPN) There are actually 7 scenarios where the US can move on. But the best scenario is Italy wins and the USA wins. Both games are at the same time so there is no scoreboard watching (which is why I love the final game). Let’s hope there is no drawing of lots. Ugh.

My gawd, another red card in the 46′? You are f’n kidding me.

Now, given the horrible bias the US had, they performed ok. I think they could have played better, specifically:

Keller - What the fuck? How about trying to kick the ball to one of our players now and then. I’ve seen better goal keeping in 1997 MLS. Jim St. Andre, anyone?

Beasley - When your coach calls you out on the carpet and then subs you in as a pair of fresh legs, how about you use them? Again, What the fuck? Use those jets!

Arena - Hey Bruce, you have 3 subs. When you have 8 guys that are near dead on the field and one sub, use it. I mean seriously, 1 point does you jack, even if Ghana won.

So to recap, in our group — we have 3 teams that have 3 points each and one team that has 1 point (USA). Two of the three point teams play each other. Let’s say they draw, giving them 4 points each. The USA must win to also get 4 points. The tiebreaker is goal differential, and losing 3-0 means the US has to kick Ghana’s ass by 4 goals at a minimum to advance. Now, if one of the 3 point teams beats the other 3 point team, it would be 6/4/3/3 if the US wins, and they advance. So we have to hope for a winner in the CKR - ITA game and the US must win the Ghana game.

Of course, I’m doing this all in my head. I may be off my ass.

So, to recap:

An elbow to the face that results in blood gushing everywhere is a red card. (yes).

A tackle by a US player that just dings the guy’s shin is a red card.

Nice make up red, you f’n a’hole. How much did Italy pay you to get that one in?

Grrr.

Just a few notes about PureSim after spending the morning setting up a league and playing a few games:

• It’s nowhere near as detailed as OOTP. However, for some I think this will be a positive rather than a negative because OOTP 2006 is information overload. (I love the detail but some may find it just too much) I still think that PureSim’s newspaper coverage is the best in any sim on the market. Grade A stuff.

• I cannot express just how much it adds to managing a game to see that little ball being smacked around the park. What’s more dramatic? Reading text or actually seeing a ball travel near the wall and hoping it clears the fence? I’ll take the simple graphics, thanks. Not to keep harping on this but once a “text” game adds little men to chase said ball around the park I’ll be back in MicroLeague heaven.
• This was in Puresim 2005 Gold but there are sound effects…but wow they sound bad. You get a computerized voice that announces each player as he comes to bat but it sounds like the old Wordperfect text reader. I wish that instead of that we got crowd noise and/or a batted ball sound. That voice is sure to give me nightmares.
• I noticed a SAC bunt glitch in both games I played this morning. If a failed SAC bunt takes place, the defense turns a double play. I dunno if the game sees a failed bunt as a batter swinging away or what but it doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.
• In PureSim, unlike OOTP 2006, you can decide if a player tags up, tries to throw out a runner, etc. I love this. OOTP 6.5 did this but both PureSim and OOTP 6.5 don’t go far enough. We simply need more information. Simply saying, “Fly ball to RF. Do you a send Smith (speed 65) home against Jones RF (Arm Strength 55.) ” Well, I have no friggin’ idea if a want to or not. Where is the ball, exactly? Deep RF? Shallow RF? Was Jones retreating when he made the catch or was his momentum taking him toward home? As a manager, I absolutely need to know this kinda thing.
• Anyway, after a quick two hour tour this feels a lot like PureSim 2005 Gold but with the nifty animated ball graphics thrown in. The featurelist says a lot under the hood was retooled but as I said, I just started messing with it. Try the demo to see that ball thing I keep yapping about. It’s cool.

GameSpy posted my review today, and with that I will be taking an OOTP hiatus until Patch #2. I’m doing this because I don’t want to get the online league back running full time until the game is ready for it, and I just don’t want to deal with the AI as it is right now. Also, I need to devote my baseball time to PureSim 2007, which I started playing last night for a review in CG Magazine. To be fair to PureSim, I need to shelf OOTP for a bit. I did some ballpark tests as well as some tests using the league modifiers (which are pretty darn powerful), but I think it best to hold off until we see what SI does with the next update.

As for PureSim, I have played earlier editions, and this one feels similar thus far but the games themselves are pretty slick as it has an animated baseball that shows you, in real time, where the ball is put into play. It’s pretty cool. Simple graphics like this can really help…now all we need are little sprite-based players that move around and we’re set. Something like this.

For those interested in really digging in deep with OOTP’s sim engine, the Recycle Bin has put up some very interesting analysis of player development in OOTP 2006, as compared to the 6.5 version. Good stuff, indeed.

Right now I’m content to sit in a holding pattern with the game. It sounds like Patch #2 is due (knock on wood) before the start of July. For now, I’m content to wait for that before digging in deep. I still have about two dozen logos or so to put together for my custom fictional league. (And I’m learning a ton about using Photoshop Elements, so I can add to my resume in the process… sort of.) Anyway, hopefully some of the GM AI issues will get worked out on this go ’round.

As a sidenote, I’ve gotta say I’m actually extremely impressed with the level of support SI and the game’s testers have offered up to this point. Given the game’s scope, and the fact that it’s been rebuilt from the ground up, I’m actually surprised that the problems haven’t been much more severe. On the whole it’s a completely stable, playable game with features that work. Is it well-balanced? No, and it desperately needs to be. But at this point I’ll take this over the types of issues and level of support we get from EA Sports or 2k Sports, where it’s place your bets as to whether a problem will even be acknowledged, let alone get patched. (And even when patched, it usually takes much longer to happen and most of the time we don’t even know if it’s coming at all, until it’s already out.) In this genre, I’ll take the OOTP 2006 scenario any day of the week.

I caught the latest Gameshow Marathon last night. Nice idea and I always thought the old Card Sharks theme was the bomb. Great idea to have to run a ‘game show gauntlet,’ but Ricki F’n Lake? You couldn’t get any other game show host to do this? Come on!

And their definition of ‘celebrities’? Damn. Oh well, I digress.

I’ve been playing FIFA World Cup up the wazoo lately. It suffers from so PES-itis. Two things I hate about PES (aka Winning Eleven) — 1) the “pre-load” move so that if you don’t have the ball, hit Y to do a man block but get the ball instead, you’ll then do a through ball to nobody. Gah! 2) the “let me help you auto select the player,” which is about as good as Heads Up for the Vectrex. There’s no rhyme to it. The game itself isn’t bad, although I’d like to know how every team I play can always get to my offensive players yet I have to tackle everyone on the other team from getting ahead of me. I certainly understand if it’s US v Brazil, but Costa Rica? Come on!

Sorry to the Wolverine Studios PR as well. Sorry I dropped the ball on that one guys.

Todd, before you get all moist about the Tigers, remember this time last year the Orioles were in first place and looked great too. I’m just saying. I doubt any other team could explode like they did, but still. October is what counts…don’t count your chickens and all that.

Yesterday the Tigers won their 43rd game of the season. That’s the same number of games they won during all of the miserable 119-loss 2003 year. Here’s some numbers from the Detroit Free Press, comparing the two squads:

2003
Record: 43-119
Winning percentage: .265
Standings: 5th, 47 games out
Team ERA: 5.30

2006
Record (through June 15th): 43-24
Winning percentage: .641
Standings: 1st, 1 1/2 games up
Team ERA: 3.64

What an amazing first half of the season it’s been.