The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Well last night’s game night was aborted because I’m suffering from dizziness when I stand up. I’m told it’s due to low blood pressure; perhaps it’s due to my body fighting off a virus. All I know is that my voice is gone and I’m dizzy and playing games is pretty difficult in a situation like this.

 I didn’t spend any quality time on the games, but just for you I played each to give you quick thoughts:

 Sega Rally Revo (360, PS3) - Uhhh….like the new graphics, but the game still feels like the Dreamcast. Not sure if that’s good or not…the interface seems old to me.

FIFA 08 (Wii) - I opted for the Wii version because it was new. Love the minigames. Shooting takes some getting used to…slide tackles are easy. It’s not graphically strong but it is fun…so I have good feelings so far. The only issue I saw was when I played a single player exhibition game, NE vs NY , both teams wore blue making it a nightmare.

 Orange Box (360)  - Um, this rules. I remember when HL2 chugged on my computer. Now this isn’t a problem with the 360 version.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (Wii) - Interesting concept. Lots of work to play this game but it could be fun. Seems better than the reviews are saying at this point.

Today on GameTap was Typing of the Dead. Sir Gold is back, bitch. LOL. And Wing Commander 2. Pretty good. Just waiting for that GD PS3 update to happen.

So, you might have seen over on Kotaku that MS is claiming the Wheel episodes are few and far between. Why do I have to get a whole new wheel then? Why don’t they cross ship the wheel? I mean how many more of these episodes are we going to get before MS figures out how to do this stuff right? 4 weeks with no wheel? Come ON!

Before I get to that, I should mention that Todd’s NHL 08 review is finally up. Worth a read. Todd’s a good hockey critic. I am making my bi-annual trek to Todd Land with the family this weekend. Board games will be played and egos will be crippled. 

Anyway, advice. Yes, I need some.  Ashley turns 7 this month and we’re going back and forth on the whole DS/Wii thing. Chances are good that I’ll get one of those for the Bday and one for Christmas. My question is: which games are A-List stuff for a 7 year old? Dan suggested the Dogs game for the DS and that’s a no-brainer.

But what else? I’m looking for easy, not overly frustrating…you know, something for a 7 year old. Any ideas?

- I spent a few hours last night playing Success mode again on MLB Power Pros and it’s a blast. My first attempt at it ended when I went 1 for 4, as a 3rd baseman, in the championship game in my 3rd year. I drove in the only RBI, but the scout told me that I just don’t have what it takes to be a major leaguer… so it’s game over right there. I guess I spent too much time dating the Math TA…

I started over after that creating a pitcher that is entirely focused on training (with just a tiny focus on studying to stay in school.) I’m part of the way into the second year and I’m already into the starting lineup (something that took until the 3rd year for me in my previous effort.)

I just love how you have to balance out what training methods you want to work on, what abilities you want to train for, and how you have to figure out how to be a college student all at the same time. I could probably play through the mode 100 times and have a completely different experience every single time. I love it.

- Circuit City didn’t get the Orange Box for the PC yesterday, big shock… considering it didn’t even release on Steam until early this morning. Hopefully I can pick that up today.

- As much as I wanted to laugh at Dan for his issues with picking up Jewel Quest instead of Puzzle Quest, I couldn’t. I know I would probably do the same thing as tired as I’ve been lately. Darn kids not sleeping through the night and tons of things going on at work catches up with you after a time.

- My Wii was flashing blue this morning as they have a new update on there. I didn’t grab it, but I’ve read that it allows the use of a USB keyboard for everything, as well as a new version of the Everybody Votes channel… so incredibly important stuff there…. not really.

Nintendo also had some press conference late last night where they announced a few things.

• Sonic is in Super Smash Brothers (Meh, I’ve never really understood the excitement over that game.)
• There is a new Mario Baseball game coming out (This should excite Dan, I know he loved the last one.)
• Mario Kart will include Bikes (Um… I don’t get this one at all…)
• And we’ll finally be able to get DS demos from our Wii (About freaking time.)

- Um… I think that’s about it for the morning.  Time for some caffeine.

Just a heads up for the Xbox Live game playing audience. It was late last night so I figured I’d grab the new game. The thought that “Jewel Quest” was only 800 points should have been a warning, but it wasn’t. So I dropped $10 on a 18 month old game. Fantastic! Next week’s game will be “Money Quest: Dan’s Quest for MS Points”.

Reminder: Jewel Quest is old. Puzzle Quest is new and costs 1200 points.

I received a lovely one-color copied form letter in the mail today:

 ”Dear Wireless Racing Wheel Owner:

Thank you for registering to receive the free wireless wheel retrofit.

We are contacting you to let you know that you will be receiving a pre-paid shipping carton for you to send your Wireless Racing Wheel to Microsoft. The carton will be sent to your registered mailing address, and will contain packing materials, a return pre-paid shipping label, and instructions for the return.

You should receive a retrofitted Wireless Racing Wheel within 2-4 weeks of it’s receipt at Microsoft. After the retrofit, you can use the AC/DC adapter.

For further information and support, plesae contact www.xbox.com/support”

 Are you fucking kidding me? I have to send the whole wheel back? WTF is going on over there? And since when is it an AC/DC adapter? When will I Have to ship back my Wireless communicator? Might as well take care of that while I’m at it! 2-4 weeks! Unbelievable!

When Yaris, or whatever her name is “Gamestop whore?” called me about my preorder, she said that ‘F-I-F-A 08′ would be arriving tomorrow before noon.

I had never heard it spelled out — all this time I referred to the game as “feefa” 08. I know that FIFA is an acronym, but I always thought you said it rather than spelled it.

 Can anyone offer an opinion? Who’s right - me or GameStop whore?

1. Play-Asia is taking pre-orders for the White DUALSHOCK PS3 pad. $59 + $8 shipping, but you can find a $5 off code somewhere. So for $13 more than a regular pad you can beat the US market by 6 months. I preordered. Shocking isn’t it?

 2. If you like to write reviews, then you’ll like to write for IGN. They are looking for an editor, check out the details by clicking here.

3. Speaking of IGN, they liked MLB Power Pros on the Wii, except it really didn’t support Wii controls.  No? Really? This is the biggest deal ever? Also, the asshat posters really ragged on it. So just in case you weren’t aware, IGN posters = 12 year old dolts who wouldn’t know what baseball is.

 4. I hate how GameStop always lists “Ship dates” when they should instead list “in store dates”. Games are never there on ship dates. Grr. I got a call from Yaris or whore or whatever her name is telling me Donkey Kong Barrel Blast should be there today. I was also hoping for FIFA and Half Life but that’s tomorrow. Guess I’ll just wait. In other news, why the hell did I preorder DK  Barrel Blast?

 5. Really sucks to be a Buffalo fan. On the bright side, the Patriots may have it easier than I thought.  Just get 5 picks!!

6. It’s frustrating that so many people wanted to sign up for fantasy football but now in season no one bothers. Pretty easy to win when your opponent has 5 people on a bye.

My totally late review of Tiger 360 is up. Also, the latest Mr. Binky column is up today. Comedy tastes run the gamut, but I think this is pretty funny.  I also tossed up a Medal of Honor Airborne PC review today.

Finally, my sports column/rant is live on The Escapist. Lots of plugs today, I know.

I should get playable preview code for The Witcher any day now. I think this could be kinda cool.

Finally (2x) I’m playing NBA 2K8 right now, trying to figure out all the ISO post moves. So far I like the game, even if the animations still seem to be stuck in heavy syrup.

- I’ve posted my very quick impressions of the PS2 version of MLB Power Pros over on the forums.  The game is pretty much identical, but there are some minor differences between the two.

- Romo throws 4 Int’s in the first half of the Monday night game… and they’re still only losing by 7.   Ugh.

- Indians are just 9 outs away from knocking out the Yankees.  I can live with that.

- Looks like Circuit City is the only local store promising The Orange Box tomorrow.  Wonder if it’ll end up in a few other retail locations as well….

- Everyday Shooter is coming out for the PS3 this week.  People just rave about this game… so I guess I’ll have to take a look.

but I have to comment in a post about Bill’s anger regarding Wisconsin’s ranking.

First off, there wasn’t a fan in the state that actually thought that the Badgers deserved the #5 ranking last week.  The only reason they were there was because they won their game against Michigan State and half of the top 10 lost.  Were the Badgers better than Florida or Oklahoma or Oregon?  Hell, no.  But those teams all lost… and there really wasn’t anywhere for them to go.  Did the Badger fans hope that they would finally put things together on the defensive end and finally prove to people that they deserved that ranking?  Sure, but this just isn’t the team that people thought they would be.

Were the Badgers deserving of their high ranking at the beginning of the season?  Apparently not.  Around here, people knew something was up in week two when the Badgers couldn’t stop teams from making huge gains on offense.  But the only people that are to blame for having them ranked that highly are the coaches and the writers.

Wisconsin isn’t a good team right now.  In fact, I’d be surprised if they only have 3 losses by the end of the year, unless they right the ship in a hurry.

I listened to a local sports writer that has a vote in the AP poll on the radio today and the first thing that he said was that he submitted his poll with the Badgers being ranked lower than Illinois.  Why is this hard to accomplish in the polls though?  Wisconsin was ranked 5.  Illinois was ranked 27.  So, because Illinois beat an over-ranked Wisconsin team, you’re going to drop Wisconsin 10 to 11 spots and have Illinois jump over 11 or 12 teams because they beat a team that they were favored to beat?  Within the next few weeks, I’m sure that Illinois will be placed ahead of them as they deserve to be, but to expect that kind of movement in one week is just not likely.

The post only proved that you really thought the Badgers were over-rated, which is absolutely true.  But to point out the Badgers as the example that the polls are flawed is just silly, when you neglect the fact that the #2 team in the nation lost to a 1-4 team, at home, when they were favored by 40 points.  That team only dropping 7 or 8 spots is not worth mentioning, but Bucky falling 10 or 11 spots is “re-feaking-diculous.”

Please…

Has anyone tried uploading videos in NCAA yet? It’s kinda cool — check out this 90+ yd Int return for a TD that I did.

Yay, Puzzle Quest is hitting XBL this week, bug free! It’s 1200 points ($15) but still cheaper than PSP!

I’m looking at a new PC. Would you take a 3.0 Ghz dual core or a 2.4 Ghz quad core? And why?

- Oops.  I think the Packers just turned the ball over again.  That was a tough loss.  They were totally dominating the Bears on the offensive end, and they actually played some pretty good defense as well, but 3 fumbles and 2 Int’s are something you can’t overcome in the NFL.  It was nice to see the Packers running the ball well in the first half though.  That’s something that hadn’t happened all year.

- 3 Neo Geo games on the Nintendo Virtual Console this week.  Normally a Neo Geo game for $9 bucks would be a good deal, but considering you can get all of those games and a lot more on Gametap for $5 a month right now… I can’t think of a single reason that I would recommend any of them.

- The Orange Box comes out this week.  I’ll be picking up the PC version at Circuit City for $37.99 this week.  If anyone wants a copy of Half Life 2 and Ep.1, I’ll be happy to get them the codes for them on Steam for very cheap.

- FIFA 2008 comes out this week as well, so I’ll leave Dan to comment on that.

- After a very busy weekend, I’m planning on getting right back into MLB Power Pros.  I’m just starting the third year of the success mode and I’m making a love connection with Annabelle…. oh and I’m the captain of the baseball team, but who cares about that.

I’ll have more Saturday thoughts later; it was a big weekend but how in the HELL can the coach poll have Illinois ranked behind Wisconsin? Seriously, …didn’t they just prove that they are a better team? I know it doesm’t matter all that much but good lord people. An opinion is fine…but THEY JUST PLAYED. Illinois only loss? a 40-34 game to undefeated Mizzou on opening weekend. To have Wisconsin ahead of them is just another reason why college polling is re-feaking-diculous.

Illinois beats Wisconsin today.  2 big interceptions thrown by Donovan when the Badgers were down 5 really hurt, but the defense is what killed Wisconsin.

The funny thing to me is the fact that the defense was supposed to be the strong suit of this team at the beginning of the year and thus far it’s been the worst aspect of the team.

Illinois executed their gameplan very well and ran at the Badgers all day and deserved the win.

On to the rest of the games for the day.