The Blog for the Sports Gamer

- EA isn’t all bad… They’re giving away the first Command and Conquer (Gold Edition) for free via their site. Thanks to Voodoo Extreme for the info. Just head over there and grab the ISO’s and install instructions.

- Go Astros!

My take on last night’s developer conference call is online today. Enjoy.

Wow, now I remember why we switched from Fox. I couldn’t get in the draft room. Sorry folks.

I just got an email saying the draft was complete. Wow, the auto draft guy should pick for me more often.

So do we go with the automatic or do we kill the league?

For those who played in last year’s fantasy draft, we’re doing it again on Fox Sports.com and the draft time is 3PM today….again those who are playing in this league:
Dan Clarke,David Yellope ,mike vollick,Chris Cook,Albert Graham, Jon Diehl ,Brian BB ,Jason Hodach ,Joe DiSano ,John LaFlumboise ,Sean Davis and Craig Tompkins

See you at 3…

- I was looking at a preview for Camelot’s new golf game for the Wii, called Wii Love Golf. Here’s my favorite line from the Google translation of the Japanese site.

“the game which reproduces the swing and feeling good quality of golf sensuously”

I’ve always wanted a sensuous golf game….

- Neo Geo games are hitting the Wii within the next month or so. That’ll add a bit more to Dan’s plate. Of course, you’ll be able to play all of those games online on Gametap, so I don’t know why I’d ever buy a single one on the Virtual Console.

- I’m about to run out and rent Lair. I have to see what IGN thinks is a 4.7 game. Most of the comments I’ve read from people that have played it say that it is an B- to C game, but no where near the range that IGN is talking about. We’ll see. If I can’t get it, I’ll try to grab Tiger for one of the systems.

- I got a chance to play a bit of Picross DS last night. If you haven’t ever messed around with Picross before, it’s a great puzzle game. Being able to get it for $20 or less is a steal.

- I don’t want to say it, but ‘Go Astros!’ I was always a Cecil Cooper fan and I’m glad that he’s getting a chance to manage a team now.

1. First let’s answer some comments left on various posts.
a. The retail (boxed) WarHawk comes with a Jabra bluetooth headset. It is very small, and is rechargable only. It just feels like it’s made of cheap plastic. It works fine.
b. For the record it was Glen’s fault the Red Sox were swept, not mine. Not to worry sox fans, as they are playing my Orioles who have lost 9 in a row and gave up 100 runs in the last nine games. If you can’t beat them, you don’t deserve to win the AL East.
c. Joey Knuckles, you’re such a wise ass. Joey is also a Yankees fan. Maybe he can call Jonah’s call in show and they can talk about the Yankees together.
d. IGN Gave Lair a 4.7, which is unheard of for a first party game. Must be their one game to restore street cred. Either that or this game really sucks. Needless to say, I had to go run to the store immediately and buy it.
e. Thanks to Microsoft and Sony for releasing 23 demos yesterday. I usually have my column put to bed by 11PM so it’ll run on GameShark first thing Friday morning, but there were so many demos I tried as many as I could. I have to say Timeshift didn’t grab me like I thought it would. It reminded me of that Xbox game with the vacuum cleaner…Blinx or something like that. I didn’t really have a lot of time with it, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. And of course, you can check out my full article by clicking here. Please do check it out and support my ongoing videogame purchase habit.
f. Gonna do some game playing tonight, but have to work a 1/2 day tomorrow. Bleck.

- How hard is it for users to log off their PC or shut down their programs at the end of the day? Jesus. Every week I have to do the same thing when I’m patching the 250 PC’s at work. Ugh.

- If you have OCD, for the love of god… don’t pick up Stuntman: Ignition. Getting 5 stars on each of the “missions” is an exercise in madness. I’m amazed that I wasn’t throwing the controller less than a half hour in. If you want to just play it through and get a single star for each event, there could be some fun there, but man… it’s frustrating as hell. The game has some fun to it, but when you have to string stunts every 2 seconds, and there are things positioned 2.125 seconds apart… it can drive you insane. No pun intended.

- I picked up the 360 HD DVD drive today. I wanted one that was 1080P capable and I couldn’t justify the 150 extra to pick up the Toshiba that has that capability. I chose 300 and Serenity as my “bonus” movies. Now I just have to wait to order the 5 freebies.

- Holy downloads today…. 3 demos on the PS3, Timeshift and NHL08 on the 360. Damn… I’m deleting most demos before I have the chance to play them.

- Got a big fantasy draft on Saturday. It’s a money league, any advice… other than needing to show up for the draft? heh.

- Lair comes out tomorrow. If I don’t get that rental, that will probably allow me to play more of Bioshock and Metroid. I think that I’ll probably be better off if I don’t get it.

The Haag reverse curse is in effect.

So, I get to hockey tonight figuring I’ll get an hour in and see how things are. I skate on the ice and the person in charge says, “Oh, by the way… we have 2 hours of ice time tonight.” It’s fair to say that my knee wasn’t ready for that.

We’ll see how the swelling goes down over the next day or so. Damn knee injuries.

- Back to playing hockey tonight. From what the doctor had told me, I damaged the underside of my kneecap and that just takes forever to heal up. Considering I had to stop playing for over 5 weeks, I’m really ready to get out there and sieve it up tonight.

- I’m just about to cave and buy the 360 HD DVD player from Amazon. They’re giving you two free movies, in addition to the 5 freebies and King Kong. I’m just dying to own Serenity and V for Vendetta in HD. Grrr… damn you format wars!!!!

- So, I’m now a Blockbuster Gamepass or Gameplan or whatever member. I started it today by renting Stuntman for the 360. I was surprised at the selection at the location near my work, as they had the new Tiger Woods for the Wii, Stuntman, as well as Two Worlds for the 360. I think it’s for the best that it’s not in a ‘family’ neighborhood. I’ll probably have better luck getting newer games from them than Gamefly. Plus, I’ll have a game every day of the month. Works for me…so far…

I’m not gay, I just like a potato in my ass every now and then. LOL. God this Senator from Idaho needs to come to grips with his personal choice, eh? I mean really….have you ever used a “wide stance” and touched the other guy’s foot in the public restroom? I hope W says that his name was unfairly dragged through the mud as well.

First off, let’s talk TV: Friday Night Lights is now on DVD, and if you haven’t seen it, please buy or rent this and see how good television can be. It’s not all football (warning to all the sports freaks out there), but it’s superb drama and definitely worth checking out.

Let’s talk baseball. Nice of Glen to jinx the Red Sox. Also, have you noticed the Orioles have lost every game since saying Dave Trembley will be their manager? Only the Orioles could hit 6HR in one game and lose thanks to an 11 run inning. They are the awesumest!

Also, Labor Day is a great time to catch up on TV as most every cable channel is running some sort of marathon. There’s a marathon for Damages, and a marathon for Mad Men. For Mad Men, you’ll have to find AMC on your cable box, but it’s worth checking out. The guy who wrote it also was a writer on the Sopranos and you can kind of feel the similarities in the presentation of the show — I mean that in a good way.

Surprise! Microsoft added Streets of Rage 2 to the list of XBLA games today. Awesome game, just in case you didn’t know.

Speaking of games, I picked up Carnival Games and played that for too long last night while Metroid stayed in it’s box (it got too late too open it and I know when to say when). Carnival games is perfect for the Wii. Dunk tank, shooting gallery, clown balloons….this is fun stuff, especially for the kids. Oh and skee ball. Don’t forget about skee ball!!!!

I did play around with the demo for Tiger on the 360. I have to say I liked what I saw. I see that various reviews are coming for Tiger on the Wii, and really I’m not surprised about the mediocre ratings. Tiger 07 was released in MARCH after multiple delays…and it’s August and this game is going to be that much better? I doubt it. I think I’ll pick up the 360 version and rent the Wii version. Which is a compliment considering I had no intention to pick up the 360 version in the first place!

1. Brewers lose again. Ned Yost is on his way to being canned. I don’t have the exact numbers, but from what I recall, his post-All Star break record is something like 50 or 60 below .500 (Edit: I just checked the numbers… it’s 55 as of today.) No matter what players and what talent he has on the field, the Brewers take a crap in the 2nd half under his leadership. I’d be shocked if he’s the manager next April.

2. Metroid Prime 3 is very, very good. The graphics are quite impressive for the Wii and the control is just about perfect. Every shooter that is coming out for the Wii should stop development right now and adopt this control scheme. It’s that good.

3. I picked up my Q phone today. I’m liking it quite a bit. One annoyance is the fact that you can’t setup Google Apps mail for Domains on it. Hopefully that will be available in the future.

Ok, the Brewers are just about done. No questions about that, but there is a part of me that can’t stop smiling when the Yankees get crushed 16-0.

Jonah? Anything?

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Sox sweep them this week and put them 11 back. That would be… nice.

Hi, it’s Dan taking the role of Bill the Gameshark shill…

My All Pro Football (PS3) review is up, as well as former BSG blogger Todd’s review of the 360 version. One of the great things about GameShark is that we don’t just repeat the same review for 23 platforms and instead have different people give different opinions. Now, for the record, I’ve played both versions, and to me the game is the same whether or not you play the PS3 or the 360. My grade was more punitive based on the limited depth and lack of features of the game and if I did the review of the 360 version, I’d have given it the same grade.

Xbox fanboys will say “this proves that the 360 is better than the PS3″ but at least with this game, I wouldn’t say this is the case. NCAA on the other hand — there’s a *HUGE* difference. I would give the 360 version a higher rating.

Well, Dan covered Metroid, Carnival Games, and Warhawk. I’m planning on picking up my copy of Metroid today and seeing if I can rent Tiger Woods for the Wii or Stuntman for the 360. The demo for Stuntman on the 360 really surprised me when I played it, because I thought it would really suck all kinds of ass, but it actually seemed like it might be an enjoyable game. That feeling might change with time though.

- Amazon is running a buy 2 get 1 free promotion with select HD DVD’s and Blu-Ray discs. I picked up the first two Pirates of the Caribbean and the Fifth Element on Blu-Ray yesterday for $41 after a coupon. Not a bad deal at all. They have a big list of titles over at Cheapassgamer.

- I ended up buying Picross DS as my last Gamefly rental game. I won’t be going back to Gamefly until they have a Midwest distribution center.

- Still no movement on my bad hard drive. My wife doesn’t seem to think it’s worth the cost to recover pictures of my daughter that “didn’t make the cut” on our website. My inner geek is just having a hard time giving up on the actual photos that were taken by the camera. Oh, well.

- Can anyone explain to me why I watched the new Aliens versus Predator movie trailer last night? I don’t ever think I’ve seen so many people killed in a movie trailer before. I hated the first movie, so I have no idea why I wasted 2 minutes of my life watching the new trailer. Ugh.

- Dan just told me that the Last Starfighter is coming out on HD DVD. I have fond memories of seeing that movie in the theaters for my birthday when I was a little bugger, but since it’s coming out on that format… I guess it will be a while before I see it in High Definition any time soon.