The Blog for the Sports Gamer

I have to admit, the first time I saw the Euphoria game engine demos, I thought it could be great for a sports game.

Well, I guess that I wasn’t alone. Take a look at Backbreaker.

I would have been happier if 2k would have bought the engine, but I guess we might see another football game next year…

Wow. I played my first game of Shogun this week..and holy cow, this is an amazing game. Highly, highly recommended. I never played the first game in this series (Wallenstein) but Shogun is sort of like an advanced variant on Risk, but a whole lot more involved..and fun. You also don’t get the time sink that Risk can be, as the game is more structured like a Eurogame. And that Battle Tower–what a cool concept.

Fantastic.

1. My vacation continues. While the rest of the world is getting a heat wave, my swimming pool temp is a balmy 68 degrees and the air temperature is 69. Huh huh huh….while it’s great golf/hiking weather (which we did today — hiking that is), the pool is like a money pit. Even with the solar cover, you can’t get it higher than the air temp…supposedly this week we’ll see it get up to a whopping 80.

2. Bioshock is just freaking awesome. 2K games has a massive hit on their hands and all I can say is that the demo sold this game.

3. Madden Wii continues to be fun.

4. I hadn’t played Wii Sports for a while, but my kids wanted to play tennis and now we can’t stop. I just had to get my mii up to 1000 (pro) level so I played it last night. That game is a lot of fun but when I woke up this morning my right shoulder hurt like hell. I’m officially old, btw.

5. Congrats to my friend Sarita Churchill who is back in Washington state at Warner Bros games. I’ve known Sarita for 10 years or so way back when she was doing PR from Sierra. She is totally awesome and I’m glad she’s back where she wants to be.

6. I tried the Skate demo today, and believe it or not it has some potential.

7. Those of you waiting for my TWID column should know it will be a Saturday column this week because I’m on vacation. Deal with it ;).

1. Well, I’m giving up on Gamefly and I’m going to try and find Bioshock at a local store. Worst case I can Ebay it if I don’t like it. I’m sure I will though.

2. So, I was just looking at AVSforum the other day and have seen people talking about the new DirecTV DVR’s that they’re getting to use with the new High Definition channels that are being added. Has anyone gone through the process of calling DirecTV yet to get their equipment upgraded? I know that you lease hardware now, but that’s about all I know. I’m just not going to get rid of my HR10-250… as it has been… upgraded… and I can get my recorded shows off of it. That’s one box I’m not going to replace anytime soon.

3. Someone over at Neogaf has posted that 2K is putting out Top Spin tennis for the Wii next year. I have really high hopes for that one. I’ve always liked the Top Spin engine, but with the Wii controller and possible online play??? Be still my heart.

4. So, I need to burn up my Gamefly bucks if I’m going to use another rental service. Anyone have any suggestions of a good cheap game to buy?

5. I’m also looking at a new phone to replace my RAZR. My local provider is starting to sell the Motorola Q next week and it just looks like a great phone for my line of work. I’m sure my wife will love me having access to my work emails no matter where I am…

1. I wasn’t comparing the PC demo and the 360 demo. The PC version, in my opinion, plays better than the 360 version… plus it looks better with a good video card. I just wasn’t getting the feel that I would enjoy playing the game for the 15 or whatever hours it would take to finish it.

I have two kids under the age of 3. When exactly would we have time to give each other the ‘love’ that Dan speaks of?

I do think it’s funny that Dan thinks I’m grumpier than him. I think I just tend to rant more. Which I guess is kind of grumpy… go figure.

2. Damnit man… I’m a geek, I like to fix things myself…. and I was raised Catholic, I was told to be ashamed of myself the second I saw porn, so I delete it when I’m done. Seriously, I must have the most fragmented hard drive in the world. No wonder it broke.

3. My gaming knowledge before 1985 is sorely lacking, something that I’m ashamed to admit.

4. Dan and I agree on Bonds, no argument there.

5. I think there is something to the fact that Dan is near the Pennsylvania distribution point for Gamefly. The middle of the country has to deal with 3 to 4 day shipping times… which get old in a hurry. It’s sad that I’m thinking of doing the Blockbuster Game Pass….which could lead me to renting a lot of really bad games, but at least I’d get them when I want them.

As Dan said in a post a bit ago… I’m an ignorant slut.

As Bill continues his insane quest for sliders, I just keep playing the Wii version and enjoy my time with it. Are there picks? Yes. Does it feel like I’m actually throwing picks? Yes. Am I having fun? Yes. More fun than the other two versions (which I was stupid enough to buy)? Yes!

Anyway, Glen put some stuff up, and I need to make my own opinions known. LOL.

1, Comparing the PC Demo to the 360 demo is like..uh, I don’t know. Not that it matters. I bought the 360 game and man, it is teh awesum. I’m really enjoying it so far. I believe it’s official: Glen is more of a grumpy old gamer than I am. Sarah, give him some love, becuase I think he needs it. More than me, even. I don’t mean from you, Sarah. LOL.

2. Wow, what a great segueway into the next thing…’family photos’, eh, Glen? Is that what they are calling it these days? Yeah, no wonder why he won’t give that drive to someone else to inspect. Heh. Sports Gamer after dark. Heh heh.

3. Glen is too young to realize that Track & Field for the 2600 was the best for controls, becuase it came with a button controller! I should try my DDR pad and see if that works. That might be fun.

4. Re: Bonds — still in the innocent until guilty department. I’m sure this guy is being tested and yet he still hits them out. Either he has the craftiest doctor around, or he is drug free. It can happen.

5. Gamefly — weird thing — Rayman Rabbids (Wii) and Mario Party (Wii) both shipped out the same day. I’ve had Rayman for 2 days, but haven’t received Party yet. Go figure.

UPDATE: I deleted the PC Gamer post because I found the website, ibuypower.com is the name of it…

1. Bioshock day. I was really geeked up for the game when I played the demo the first time, but I played the PC demo last night and I’m not sure any more. I’m sure it’ll be a very high quality game, but it just seems like it’s more hype than anything right now. I don’t know what it was but when I was playing the PC demo (which, by the way, controls a great deal better with a keyboard and mouse than with the 360 controller) I just felt like the game could get a bit repetitive. I know you have a ton of options as to how to play the whole game, but maybe I was just in a crappy mood or something.

2. Hard drive update. So, I threw the drive in the freezer for a few hours and the BIOS now detects the drive again… but the problem still remains where it just clunks. Ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk. Some of the software packages that people have recommended have seen the drive, but there really does seem to be something badly wrong with the seek head and it seems stuck. Tonight my plan is to go and look around all of my drives and see how much data that I’m missing and talk to my wife about our options. I do have all of our “best” pictures on our family website, but I’d just like to have the raw images, as well as the ones that didn’t make the cut for the website. I’m sure you all know what I mean.

3. Konami is making a new Track and Field game for the DS. What is it about the market that seems to make everyone think that we’re dying for new versions of that type of game? I played Track and Field on the 360 and was incredibly disappointed. No matter which way I held the controller, I couldn’t ever feel comfortable with it. I think that’s why the NES version was so great… the rectangular controller could be pinned between your knees and you could hammer away at the buttons. The 360 controller, not so much.

4. I was thinking about it and I just realized that we hadn’t discussed Bonds breaking the Home Run record. Personally, I didn’t mind him breaking it. Baseball already has stats kept by era, Dead Ball, etc. I just view this as a different time for the game and each time period will have it’s own record breakers.

5. I won’t even bother you with my rants about Gamefly anymore, I’m about 30 seconds from just quitting the service. Maybe when they have a Midwest center things will work out… right now though… it’s just no good for me.

As I’m actually trying to take some time off work (both jobs) during vacation, I’ve been afk.

Anyway, very sad to hear the passing of Wild Bill Hagy a few days back. Bill was the epitome of the Orioles in the late 70s….it’s now official, I’m getting old. Click here for the Baltimore Sun tribute.

Picked up Bioshock today but haven’t played it yet. I will though, rest assured… lol

My Wii downloaded games OMG wicked fast yesterday. Not sure what happened there, but it was awesome.

Well, here they are. I just keep having good games with these so I’ll let you guys take a look.

In fact the game I just finished was arguably the best game of Madden I have played in my life (vs the AI) It had its share of AI goofball-ness but you are either going to live with that or shelve the game.

Thr Browns took their 2-3 record and hosted Miami. I jumped out to a 21-3 halftime lead. It was one of those games where every play was working. I think Frye was 12-14 at the half and Lewis had 59 yards. Brodney Pool also returned a quick out for a TD in the 2nd. But…this is Cleveland. You need to finish the game…

Sure enough, at the start if the 4th it was 21-3 when Miami started moving the ball. Green went to Ginn on a fly pattern and he was somehow WIDE OPEN.

And he dropped it.

A wide open AI receiver dropped a pass that was a sure TD. Whoa. Next play, Green went to Ginn again, this time on a post route, he caught this one, juked Sean Jones out of his shoes, and went 75 yards for a TD. Doh. 21-10. Miami goes for 2 and makes it, Ronnie Brown running over both safeties. 21-11.

I go 3 and out (again..) and Miami gets it back and starts driving. On 4th and 6 I stop them, Chambers had the pass for the first but Pool laid a serious lick and the drop popped out. Miami lines up for a 52 yard FG to cut it to 7.

WIDE RIGHT.

Flag on the play.

Gary Baxter roughed the kicker. That wasn’t ME either. The AI mauled the kicker..and on replay..oh yeah..that’s a flag. Ouch. 3 plays later — TD Miami and it’s 21-18.

I go 3 and out for the 3rd straight series. Good lord this IS THE BROWNS.

The fins drive again and get into FG range and nail a 40 yarder to tie it with around 1:50 to go.

Finally, I start moving the ball, thanks in part to a 40 yard kick return by Cribbs. Frye comes out throwing, hitting Winslow and Edwards for a first down and a 8 yard gain. I’m around the 39 yard line, needing about 10 more for a safe Dawson kick when the Dolphins call a run blitz up the middle; I called an off tackle left which was wide open and Lewis took off for his longest run of the year — 38 yards down to the 2.

A chip shot FG later and the Browns win 24-21. Madden weirdness aside (the Dolphins punted at the end of the first half with 11 secs to go on the Browns 36 yard line..) this wa sa very, very fun game. The 4th quarter was just insane.

Some stats:

Frye: 18/25 208 1 TD 0 INT (he was 6 of 11 in the 2nd half)
Green: 23/40 287 1 TD 2 INT

Lewis: 28 carries 118 yds
Brown: 20 car 78 yds

The Fins dropped 3 passes, the Browns 2.

OK the sliders:

PRO lvl
Weapons OFF (inside the settings menu.)
8 Min quarters

HUM/CPU

Off:
ACC: 35/80
PB: 100/0
CAT: 0/0
RB: 35/58
RBlock: 25/55

DEF:
AWR: 5/85
KNK:48/100
INT: 0/0
BB: 30/100
TAK: 30/30

ST:
I can’t get where I like it. Make sure FG ACC is 0 for human and lower kickoff strength . Other than just, just experiment.

Penalties:
I bumped holding and facemask to 85. I bumped DEF PASS INF to 65 and lowered clipping to 30 (I hate seeing clips on running plays). Everything else I have at 50.

House Rules:

• No calling the same play on the same drive.
• No rolling out of the pocket unless flushed or the play calls for it.
• If you plan on throwing a DEEP pass..one where you need to throw it 40+ yards in the air — change the Human Acc to 50. On 35 it’s great for short to medium routes but on deep passes you can’t throw it far enough.
• No milking the clock with under 2 mins to go. Thanks for adding he accelerated clock..*grumble*.
• Every snap, always fake the snap at least once

I hope these work for you guys. They are providing me with some fun games.

1. Well, my hard drive is really f’d up. I can’t get my systems to detect it anymore either. There is a local service that supposedly will restore your drive for less than $400, but I’ll have to talk to my wife to see if we’d be willing to absorb a cost like that. I had backed up our old pictures a while ago, but I have no idea how long it’s been. It’ll be a major pisser if we lose all of those pictures.

2. Well, the Brewers are really f’d up. After an awful homestand, they’re heading on the road where they typically play even worse. Ugh…

3. I don’t think I mentioned this the other day, but I can’t believe the gaming lineup for the next few weeks. Bioshock (and Brain Age 2) this week, Metroid Prime 3 next week, then Lair, a week off, then Heavenly Sword and the two NHL games, then Stranglehold for the PS3. Good god… the next month is just nuts… it just gets crazier after that….

4. Since Bill brought up his new dog, I thought I’d mention that my wife and I are getting rid of our cats. They’ve never adjusted to the girls being in the house and have been getting more and more destructive ever since our first child was brought home. We picked up this scent stuff the other day that was supposed to tame them down, but jesus… it smells like a cat has pissed all over our house. We can’t sell our house with that smell all over. I’ll be sad to see them go, as one of them was the first pet that I ever got to name, Vandelay. Such things can happen to a pet owner though, I guess.

Paramount today announced they are going HDDVD only, meaning no Shrek in BD. Just wanted you to know.

Well I think I have turned the corner at least as far as INTs are concerned. My last 3 games I have 2 INTs. I just replayed that Pats game (the one where the power went out). I was down 28-3 in that one, but in the replay I took it into halftime up 21-17. The 2nd half was a different story and I lost 34-27, scoring 2 FGs in the 2nd half. I actually had the ball at the NE 7 with 20 seconds to go and Frye threw a wobbler right into Vrabel’s hands. Ugh.

Some stats:

Brady: 22/35 206 0/0 (yes, 0 INTs)
Frye: 18/29 299 2/2 (Winslow had a 56 yard TD, which padded Frye’s yards a bit)

Morris (Maroney is hurt) 18 carries 88 yards
Jamal Lewis: 74 yards 21 carries

I am playing on PRO with tweaked sliders and weapons deactivated. The game still has a LOT of sloppy things that a game like Madden should never, ever have. But the INT issue seems to be ok for now. I saw the most beautiful incompletion I have ever seen in a Madden game though. Moss leaped for a pass over the middle and he was covered tight by Bodden and at the top of his jump, the ball went THROUGH his hands. I mean it looked exactly like a real play. I’ve never seen a ball do that in Madden. I wish we saw more of those instead of the passes that conk off a defender’s helmet, bounce off his hands and are swatted by spiderman DBs. But THAT play shows that the animation is there…it’s in the game…somewhere.

I’ll post sliders later after one more game.

Good morning!

First, thanks for all the response to the fantasy football league. We do in fact have our 12 team NFL.com league. I had also sent out emails for last year’s FOX league to see if anyone was interested who played last year.

I’ve been reading that some people didn’t get email invites. Sorry about that. I emailed everyone from NFL.com who asked to be invited up until Saturday when the league became full. Should be a fun year. Draft is Friday night. Sorry about the time, NFL.com gives you a choice of times, and you have to pick one.

In other news, I’m on vacation this week. So that should be fun. Eagerly awaiting this week’s Wii VC titles, and of course, getting very excited for Bioshock

1. I don’t think I’ve ever been more bored than with this week’s circulars. Circuit City is offering BioShock for $49.99 for the 360 version, so that’s nice. I think it was CC. Honestly, it might have been Target. I forgot. See how boring they were?

2. Brain Age 2 or whatever the hell it is comes out for DS. That’s fun.

3. Tired of my daughter’s HP computer shutting off with no reason, I found a really cheap notebook (Acer) at Staples. 1GB ram, windows vista, etc…only 80gb drive, but she doesn’t need the space. Not bad for $479. Of course, by the time I was done — I bought the warranty (the screen replacement is worth it), and Office Student, and a wireless mouse. So $479 became $700. But now I’m not bothered with trying to fix a PC, so it’s money well spent.

4. I’m off this week (yay) so I hope I can catch up on movies and sleep. Yay! Of course, I hate to be a pessimist, but I’m sure I’ll have to deal with work at some point.

5. I’m watching this Iowa debate right now and they are all talking about faith and how faith got me through this and that. I grew up a Catholic, even did the lector thing for a while. However, I realized in my early 20s that the Church was more political than the government is and bailed out. There is a lot of prayer involved by all the candidates; and I certainly understand what they are saying, but I tell you, that Gravel guy from AK — he was right — talking more about peace and love rather than prayer. I don’t discount prayer — sometimes psychologically that will help you (see Lou Tice, New Age Thinking)…but I believe at the end of the day the responsibility lies with yourself. I do believe that you can will yourself to do things — but you’ve got to take action. I remember that joke about the stranded guy in the ocean — he’s alone and then a boat comes up to pick him up and he says something like God will rescue me and the boat leaves..then another boat comes up and says the same thing. Then he dies and when he gets to Heaven the guy asks why God didn’t help him and God says something like I sent you two boats, what else could I have done… anyway, getting back to what I was saying, I just thought it was an odd question. Of course it’s the important stuff like this that determines who people vote for. Go figure.

6. Hey, what’s Bill’s opinion on Madden? lol. I know what he’s saying; I think if I was EA, I’d just come out and say “hey, we want 23 picks per game, becuase this is what gamers want.” I think they did this to make it more fun for multiplayer or something — as Bill said, how could anyone in QA miss this — unless it was meant to be this way. I think it’s obvious that EA has no cares at all, they have the exclusive license and tough crap. Why can’t they build a league functionality that was in NFL2k5? They can’t figure this out four years down the road? Instead they spend all their time putting a brick wall icon on a guy? WTF?

7. As I said to my friend at GameStop….who cares about Madden — Bioshock is out Tuesday!

This whole playing Madden on PRO level with Weapons turned off has me confused. I was losing to New England 28-3 in the 3rd when we lost power last night. (The only thing about living out here that annoys me…this happens a bit too often.) At the time, Brady (Tom, not Quinn) had 3 TD passes, no INTs and I couldn’t do a damn thing with the ball. I’m using some house rules alongside a set of custom sliders…but I have to admit, the INT issue, so far, has been toned down quite a bit.

Before going to NE I played the hated Ravens and lost 26-14. McNair was 13 for 22 for 199 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. (I couldn’t tackle McGahee). The pick that I had, though, was total Madden Bullshit. Bodden (my CB) returned it for a TD and it was so hilariously awful I made a video of it with the wife’s new Powershot. I’ll upload it later today. To say that it wasn’t “legit” is understating it. Madden Magic Physics.

Still, that WAS the lone INT of the game. Well, for me. McCallister returned a quick out 40 yards for a TD because Frye, especially with these sliders, has a noodle arm that prevents me from throwing that out pass. Maybe I need to plug in Brady Quinn like the real Browns should.

There are areas of Madden that simply you need to live with, or stop playing.

(Tangent alert) That’s the thing that I think a lot of people who don’t like to hear their favorite game criticized fail to understand. NOT playing a game is a fantastic solution to cure a game’s ills. And I have absolutely no problem whatsoever putting a game on the Bookcase Shelf of Death in my office, never to be seen or heard from again. As I have grown older and my responsibilities and priorities have changed, I have become even less tolerant of mediocre games. I don’t have time for them. I have other things I can be doing from just hanging with Mary and Ashley, going to movie, playing with the dogs, playing a boardgame, reading a book (this one…is great), mowing my jungle of a backyard…

Why waste time playing an “eh” game? I hear people say all the time, “It’s just a game” or, “Why take it so seriously, games are for mindless entertainment and to help you relax.” Well, no. If I want mindless entertainment I’ll watch network TV. Howie Mandel, Bob Saget, Jeff Foxworthy, and the Get er Done guy have the market pretty much cornered on mindless entertainment. I want my games to be more than that. I want them to be better than that.

Going on yet ANOTHER tangent, this is why I’d love for a website to have the balls to ditch the 10 point, 100 point, 5 star, letter grade (yes, like GameShark), grading system and go to a straight up Thumbs Up/Down system. My goal is to remove the 3 star review from videogames. I despise them with all my heart.

As a critic, do you recommend the game, or don’t you? It’s an easy question, or at least it should be. Sure there are games that are better or worse than others and the text of the review should convey your feelings about it, but who wants to read a 3 star review? “Well, it’s good, but…” or, “Well, if you like this type of gameplay you might like it but…”

We really treat readers like morons. If your review cannot express how you feel about a game without the need to add some completely arbitrary “score” to it, then why even add the text? Slap on the score, add a few bullet points and move on. Now–give a game a thumbs up or down and people may want to find out why.

This will never, ever happen of course. It would be a PR nightmare. Imagine if some of those 2.5/5 and 3 star reviews came in as “mild thumbs down” instead? No one is going to jump into that deep end. I said I wish someone had the balls to do that…I never said it was ME.

I like what 1Up has done. It’s not my dream or a Yah or Nah verdict but they are at least trying to use their entire grading scale. A 5.0 is an average game. It looks like shit on Metacritic and Gamerankings and PR HATES THAT (Metacritic and GR have been a huge pain for editorial sites because PR uses them as be all end alls), but 1Up is doing the right thing.

Granted, how you can review Madden 08 on the 360 and NOT mention the crazy number of turnovers on default settings is a true mystery–seriously, how is that possible? How can you play this game for more than an hour and not see that people are fumbling and throwing picks all over the place? I know that I’m getting better results now but that is with massive slider tweaks, playing on PRO, and turning off the new fangled weapons feature. 1Up isn’t alone, but damn guys…are you even playing the game?

Well, that turned into a much longer and rambling post than anticipated. My gym is closed for 3 weeks for cleaning and to re-seal the courts so I have no basketball today. I have to burn this energy somehow.

I will leave you this this, an AMAZING NCAA 08 Air Force Dynasty report (with videos!) from mudtiger over at Operation Sports. It took me an hour to get through all of this, but man…it’s damn cool. Mudtiger is living with the INTs; I just wish sports developers cared as much about people like him as they do the casuals. If they did, we’d all be playing better games. Still, make sure to check this out. It’s fantastic.