The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Two things to complain about today:

First the execution of Saddam. A quick seach of Google video and you can see the entire hanging, if you like that sort of thing. I’m not really complaining about the execution, I’m complaining because there are a lot of people just like him, and yet we don’t go and start a war and kill them. You know, like the guy who was behind 9/11, for example.

Even the defense attorneys admitted Saddam’s guilt. So to recap that’s USA 1, Iraq 2,400. Wow, that was worth fighting for. Not. And what’s even worse — and I’m not defending the guy here — but he could get everything done in Iraq..I mean did we hear about all the problems and car bombs while he was in power? Maybe there were and I just didn’t hear about it. It could be — that’s what happens when the press is repressed. However, doesn’t everyone agree that the situation is a billion times more volatile now than it was in 2002?

Second, the funeral for President Ford. Apparently a new tradition, since Nixon died, the current President closes all “non-essential” government offices on the day of the funeral. Of course, the Post Office apparently counts as non-essential because who needs mail, right? Enjoy your extra long New Year’s Weekend!

In all serious, I don’t disagree with the idea for a day of mourning, but I thought that’s what President’s Day was for, wasn’t it? Also, how come only the government can mourn? Why isn’t it a national holiday? Why doesn’t the President close everything as a day of mourning? Schools, local government, etc? The Federal Reserve Board of Governors are closed but Banks remain open? At least money is essential. LOL. Just forget regular mail. I’m not trying to demean the death of a President here, just the way this stuff is handled. Thoughts? I know you have them..

I feel bad for the suckers that paid 800 points for Toe Jam and Earl when it’s on GameTap, and if you’ve already paid for your annual membership you don’t have to pay anything for it.

The new mini-Golf game on their, made by Sierra, is very good. It’s not the 3D Ultra Mini Golf of yore. They also added one of my favorite games, Astro Chase. Fun times.

If you don’t have GameTap yet, you really need it. You’re saying, Dan, I have MAME why do I need GameTap. Well GameTap has leaderboards and you can challenge people online. And they have games from Atari 2600 all the way to the PC — Prince of Persia and Sam and Max.

It’s very cool and if you have any interest in gaming, I highly recommend this service. It is so worth it.

Anyway, I started working on my next batch of Wii reviews. Trauma Center Second Opinion has been taking up a lot of my time…it’s rather interesting..I mean it’s not going to make me into a doctor. However, using a defibrillator can be so much fun! I’m working on that and Elebits right now.

In my spare time, I have to say I’m having a tough time using the 360 wheel with NFS Carbon. I can easily win races with the standard controller, but when it comes to the wheel , I suck. Any tips?

Also downloading all the PS3 demos and the PSP holiday pack for something to do. LOL.

Finally I started playing Blitz the League. I was hoping to do a review on that but time marches on. Basically it feels like the original Xbox game with not much changed. I know the developers will swear to me there’s no cheat/catch up code but I can’t seem to shake that feeling. It is downright amazing how you can miss extra points or fumble just at the right moment which allows the computer to score. I don’t feel beat as I do in Madden , instead I just feel jobbed.

Still playing lots of Resistance : Fall of Man. Feel free to post your PS3 gamertag or whatever the hell they call it on that system.

Just realized Netflix lets you rent blu ray DVDs as part of your subscription. Guess I’ll try some of those with the PS3….

A few quick maintenance tidbits:

I removed the Amazon link and photo to the Gamer’s Tome. The book has run its course, and I want to thank everyone who ponied up and bought a copy. It means a lot to me and I really appreciate it. I kept the link to the GWJ review because I think it’s cool and it makes me happy.

I also added a Boardgamegeek.com script to the sidebar (below the Xbox gamertags) that lists the current board games I have been playing of late. The script auto-updates as long as I keep my BGG play list updated. Pretty cool.

Just in case you missed it, this week’s Xbox Live Arcade release is New Rally X. By New they mean the old version of the game with one car. It sucks with the Xbox controller, so skip it unless you are dying for the 200 points.

Ash got a lot of cool loot this year, but here’s a quick rundown of her new games:

• Cranium Hullabaloo - Will make for a great, great kid party game (think Twister, but a bit better for kids). We had some kids over yesterday and this was a huge hit.
• Stare! Jr Edition - A cool memory game where you have to stare at a picture for 30 secs and then answer questions about it.
• Chicken Cha Cha Cha - Another cool memory game from those crazy Germans– another huge hit so far.
• What’s GNU - A three letter spelling game, which she (shockingly) likes.
• Gobblet! - This was bought for Ashley but it’s a bit old for her…Mary and I like it a lot, though.

You can buy NCAA Football 07 for $19.99 RIGHT NOW on EBGames.com. No other purchase required. You can also buy NCAA used for $39.99. I can’t make this crap up.

Thanks to Glen for the heads up–PS apparently to get the deal instore you have to BUY an Xbox 360. Not that compelling a reason to buy the console if you ask Bill

Just saw on the news that Gerald Ford died. You probably know my political leanings, but I think history has shown that the steps he took to move the country forward in the mid-70s was probably the right thing to do, although it meant he wouldn’t win the election in 76.

I had met his son at a convention a few years back and he told me a story of a book he wrote for his kids and only for his kids. The wisdom in there was very impressive.

You know you are getting old when Presidents that were alive during your lifetime are now dying left and right. I mean Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the W’s are all that’s left, right?

Good to see Bill is alive. Was wondering about that.

For those looking to use Target Gift Cards, NFS Carbon, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and a little known game called Gears of War are $39 each for the 360, and PS3. (No GoW is not for the PS3)…I picked up NFS Carbon for the 360 becuase I wanted to have another wireless wheel game and Carbon supports it.

I didn’t get much for Xmas, but you know I bought the Wii and PS3 so what more would I want. Heh.

I downloaded the Motorstorm demo for PS3. Any racing game that has Nirvana as the soundtrack, I can’t wait for this game. So now I see we are in the post-launch “racing game” phase of the PS3 between this and GTHD. Funny how that works.

Alrighty then, time to get back to work.

I hope everyone had a fun, safe holiday. With a six-year old in the house, it just doesn’t get any better.

This year’s stand-out gifts:

• A robot! That cleans the house! I have a robot!
• A new coffee maker! (much more important than you may realize)
• A 4-feet long OSU wool pennant (woo)
• Two OSU stepping stones for the new walkway to the house (2x woo)
• The Marvel Heroes board game
• The Fury of Dracula board game (the remake/reissue of the 1987 Games Workshop version)
• Mary got one those Sharper Image Ionic Breeze clean air things, but it’s really for the both of us.
• My parents had several family pictures framed for us, which ran them like $400. Our house is still empty (as far as wall stuff) so this was awesome
• No video games.

Anyone get anything that stands out?

I have a robot!

Well the presents are opened, and I’m downlading TG 16 R-Type at the moment. Yeah, retro gaming!

Hope you got everything you wanted, and if not there’s always returns tomorrow!

PS I finally got around to editing the template to show my latest reviews. Sorry bout that!

Okay, being a graphics whore…once I downloaded GT Concept, and turned it on, I thought immediately “This is why I bought a PS3.” Jonah left a comment from a newsgrouper..and all I can think of WTF..the graphics on this are jawdropping in 1080i. I mean holy shit good. Look at the detail on the fans around the track and the way the flags wave…very impressive stuff.

Now the game itself…well it’s a racing game. You know what you miss with a racing game? You miss force feedback in the controller. Yes, the old USB logitech wheels are support if you are so inclined. But I don’t need a room full of wheels at the moment, so it’s PS3 SIXAXIS or nothing.

You start with one track and one car and have to beat 2 minutes in one lap. It’s pretty easy — I did it on the first try (1:55.385)–which then gives you your online ranking (yeah 15,737! Suck on that!) and then unlocks another car and track, where you have to beat the time again, and so on, for 10 times, which then unlocks the reverse tracks, etc. The #1 leader right now has a track time of 1:03.708, which means I have a lot of work to do. The in game and menu audio is a superb classical/jazz score which sounds great on these new speakers.

I know I bitched earlier about Sony but now I’m ok. LOL

I had my first taste of videogaming. This was the day we opened our Atari 2600. I think I’ve put this story up before, so it’s kind of like a holiday tradition. I was 8.

In addition to the 2600 console, we purchased three games so we had a total of four to play with:
Combat
Star Ship
Video Olympics
Home Run

Guess who picked Home Run. Yup, I started playing sports games at an early age. Those of you who haven’t experienced Atari 2600 Home Run, need to really see what “suck” means. It didn’t stop me from playing it, as I wasn’t a reviewer than, but instead I took advantage of the quirks…like controlling the pitch from beginning to end, or hitting all the computer players and then getting a triple play. Good times. For those who need to try it, make sure you sign up for GameTap and relive those good times…

From that point on, I was turned on to videogames. I blew my entire paper route income on Atari 5200 games. In 1984 during the Summer Olympics, I blew my income on collecting every Vectrex game before the crash took everything else out.

Other people have crack and whores. I have videogames. I think the crack and the whores would cost less and probably give me more enjoyment. Except for syphillis. That would be bad.

Thankfully I don’t have syphillis, but instead I have all 3 of the big consoles and a massive credit card bill. I believe I’m technically still paying off the Atari 7800 from 1988, but that’s another story.

I hope everyone has a great holiday…and it looks like the PS3 store is now up and running. Now if I can login to PSN, I’ll be able to blow some crap up online and really have a good holiday.

I will say, I love the ship level on Resistance. I think that and Gears of War are really competing. Yea, I said it.

PS Looking at the high number of comments from my posts today it looks like we have a lot of readers…cool

PPS…On one of my comments, Chris, the Lead Animator for MLB ‘07 reminded me that Sony actually puts the year of release in the title, unlike EA who puts next year on their title. So next year’s PS3 baseball game, due for release around 1Q 2007, is MLB ‘07. I’m sorry Chris. Do me a favor and make an awesome game like last year’s for the PS2 but make it with high def goodness. Thanks.

The Playstation network seems to have crashed and I can’t download it. Can you ? Post here.

I’m getting 80710D23 error code.

Sony’s site doesn’t talk about it, I think they expect you to get excited that you can try to connect for $599. There’s a reason there’s so much backlash. It’s because they treat their customers like shit and expect them to eat it.

Take a look at Xbox and Major Nelson…their blogs are fantastic and feel like you’re part of the community. OTOH, I only can dream about playing Resistance online at the moment. The worst part? ITS NOT CHRISTMAS. Can you imagine the pounding the network is going to be taking tomorrow when everyone opens their presents? Maybe they are just gearing up for that. Let’s hope so.

I’m sure everyone is out and about for the holidays…just checking in and saying hello. Thank goodness the Pats won.

Regarding the Olevia TV, the picture is very good but the audio blows chunks. Thanks to some Amazon reviewers, it was recommended to use the stereo output from the TV and hook up some new speakers. So I bought some $60 Cyber acoustic speakers (2.1) and the audio is much, MUCH better.

So now I think I’m officially happy and can enjoy the holiday. I love Wii bowling.

In other news, I picked up a bluetooth headset so that I can chat on my PS3. I know that it also works with my Blackberry so I killed two birds with one stone. It’s a Motorola V300 headset, and seems to be working well.

Hey, although the TV show is great, I’m not talking about that tonight… heh.

Anyway, I had the day off from the real job, which meant getting everything cleaned up and ready for my relatives who are staying with us the next few days. I did take some personal time to head to Staples, where they were having a sale on LCD HDTVs. Yes it’s an Olevia, which I believe is French for “Cheap ass” but seriously $349 for a 23″ HDTV widescreen with HDMI? Sold. Used one of those $50 off $150 coupons to bring it down to $299. You cannot beat that.

The picture quality isn’t bad; in fact, I’m quite impressed. Sound quality….uhhhh…well coming off the Samsung with the SRS and a built in subwoffer, this one is loud and sounds tinny. I mean it’s not unbearable…it’s just not full. And I know, playing a game in 1080 with 2.0 sound is for losers but seriously it’s silly to put a 5.1 setup in a 2 foot radius.

We’ll see how it goes this weekend. So I went from a 27″ 4:3 screen to a 23″ 16:9. At least now I don’t have to keep changing the screen to Wide and having black bars up and down. IN fact, I’m more happy about this purchase than I am about the PS3. Heh.

Thanks to Thomas for letting me know that you can watch BluRay DVDs without an HDMI cable. I think you just saved me $50. I can’t believe there is an SD-to-HD difference with HDMI vs. Component. Tell me if I’m wrong here.

I downloaded NBA 07 for the PS3 (demo) and tried a little of it. While NBA isn’t my big thing…it didn’t seem terrible. By that I mean I’m guessing it’s much better than NBA LIVE 07. If it was released for the PS3.

Interestingly enough MLB 08 is right around the corner, and I’m really excited to check that out…..so that’s why I kept it. Jonah said in the comments that it would be easy to make $600 by selling it used — I assume he means get the money back that I paid for it and not sell it for $1200, because that’s not happening.

People I’ve run into at stores are incredulous that I was thinking about giving up the PS3 and they wanted to know where they could get one. They must not be looking that hard. This week I have counted 10 PS3’s that I’ve seen. Maybe I’ve just been incredibly lucky or Sony is filling the pipeline nicely, or no one is buying it. I’m not sure. I feel more comfortable having all 3 systems and being objective, for you our readers, even if I’m now broke. It’s the sacrifice I make for you.

One thing I haven’t seen is the Wii. This guy at Wal-Mart I was talking to, while trying to find an HDMI-PS3 cable, just bought a nunchuck because that’s all he could find and he wanted to promise his kid something. That’s love. It made me want to give him my Wii…not really.

Speaking of Wii, one of the very cool things about this console is that if there’s some new update to download, the glow around the disc try lights up to get your attention. I didn’t know what that meant until I read it in a forum. Now that I know what it means, I think that’s cool. I am not sure what all the excitement is about being able to browse the web with a Wii (or a PS3 for that matter)…but it’s now up there, so there you go.