The Blog for the Sports Gamer

I’m planning that this will be the last post of 2007 unless something big happens. Happy New Year to all of our readers and thanks for reading and subscribing to our podcasts!

Before you spend a dime on the Wii Virtual Console, please note that all 3 games are available on GameTap. If you bought all three games you’d have spent $22. For about double that, okay $60, you could get those 3 games and 950 or so more for a year. And you don’t have to worry about running out of space on your seriously cramped Wii console.

In other news, I forgot to mention I saw National Treasure Book of Secrets over the weekend. Four people for a matinee, and it was only $27 but at Regal Cinema it’s very good — stadium seating, great sound and everything. Reviews of the movie were underwhelming, but if you liked the first movie, you’ll like this one. It has one very stupid turn in the middle of the movie dealing with Mitch but other than that the whole clue thing still is done well. Of course, now I go around the house telling my kids that I see a clue in everything.  I think they are getting annoyed by it now. LOL.

You know what sucks about Xbox Live that no one is talking about? While it’s screwed royally, if you have gone through 23 Xbox consoles, all of the Live Arcade games that you bought on the older consoles don’t work on your new one — only the ones you’ve purchased with the new console are unlocked when you are disconnected from Live. Great digital rights management, Microsoft! A few days ago, EA got the asshat support of the day award, but now it’s all yours! Enjoy!

 One thing I will say about the PS3 that I like is that it seems pretty open — use any memory stick device, use any internal hard drive (as opposed to that overpriced 120GB drive for the 360)….so there is something good to say about that system! On the other hand, not updating their store on a holiday week sucks…so you can’t win with any of them.

 In other news, while reading one of those ‘underrated games of 2007′ lists, I saw TrackMania United for the PC. It seems to be a game that is a lot of fun with some great multiplayer aspects and a fantastic track editor. Check it out here.

 Okay, the Mrs is calling. Have some stuff to do before company arrives.

- Nintendo’s new VC titles are out and… um… I think it’s safe to say that I’ll pass on Bubble Bobble for the NES.    Blades of Steel is just as much fun as I remember though.  I love that game.  “With the Pass!”  You don’t ever get tired of that.

-  Packing up Rock Band and a 360 is a major league pain in the ass.  I’m really glad that I kept the box for Rock Band though… otherwise I would have had to have used our luggage to cart all of the game stuff around.  The drums break down well, they’re just a pain to pack up in any box other than the one they came in.

So, here is the New Years agenda for tonight.  Wii, Rock Band, Bowling on the PS3, and drinking.  Probably not in that order, but it seems like a fairly good night to me.

- Xbox Live is still down.  So, I still can’t do anything to fix the issues that I’m having with my subscription card.  They’re really not making me happy right now, but I guess they have issues of their own to fix.

- I guess our house showing went pretty well, we’re in the top 3 for these buyers.  We’d love to get the house sold soon… I have way too many things that I want to buy that depend on the house selling.

If I don’t have a chance to make another post today…. Have a Happy New Year and I’ll see you all in 2008.

So, we got about 5 or 6 inches of snow during the day on Friday.  No huge deal, but I couldn’t get my car up the driveway and had to wait for an hour for the plowing service to show up.  Like I said, not a huge deal, but it was a hint to the weekend to come.

Saturday I wake up and I feel like crap.  I’m spitting out stuff that reminds me of the substance from The Blob.  We have a house showing at 10, so I have to get out and shovel our sidewalk and repair our snow fence.  About a month ago, I put up 250 feet of snow fence along our driveway to prevent drifting issues.  Little did I know that the whole damn thing would blow down while I was on vacation.   Remember, a snow fence is meant to prevent drifting snow… so what did I spend all of Saturday morning doing?  Shoveling snow that had all drifted over a broken snow fence!  I can’t even begin to describe the levels of anger that I had over that issue.

So, we get out of the house and pull off of our street just as the people drove up to our house (too close for comfort there) and went for a drive.  I really started feeling like crap while we were out of the house, but I just figured that it was because of the fact that I was out working in the yard all morning.  We got back home about an hour later and my wife went to sleep (she was working on Saturday night.)  I stayed up with the kids and felt worse and worse.   I got the kids to sleep around 7:30 and then recorded the podcast with Dan.  I have no idea how my voice was because I felt like I was gargling with gravel at that point.

Finally I went to bed… and could not sleep.  The youngest woke up at 1:00 for a bottle and diaper change and the oldest woke up an hour later because she had to go to the bathroom.  I laid there for another 5 hours while I felt worse and worse.  Finally I took my temp around 6:00 in the morning and found that I had a 101 temp.  My wife got home around 8:30 to help me with the kids, so I set the Tivo to record the Packer game, got the kids their breakfast, and we all took a nap.  I woke up around 2:30 to find that I still had a temperature of 101 and the Fox signal for the last hour of the Packer game crapped out (not a big deal as the Packers were playing a ton of backups, but I just like to watch the entire game.)  I get a call from work at 4:00 telling me that I have to go into work because one of my servers went down.

I wake up my wife (who at this point only has about 3 hours of sleep after working a 12 hour night shift from the night before) and let her know that I have to go to work.  I take a few cold and sinus pills and head to work.  My fever finally breaks and I get the issues resolved there.   I get back home around 6:30, help my wife finish giving the girls a bath, put them to sleep and turn on what was probably the most boring NFL football game that I have ever seen.   Finally give up on that after half time and head to bed.

Usually I look forward to the weekends… but man… I don’t know how many more of those I can take.  Oh, one of my most entertaining thoughts as I was fixing the snow fence was… “I fucking hate Wisconsin weather.”  Of course my wife and I are talking about moving to St. Paul at some point in the next few years… so I’m just plain stupid.

Join us for Episode 4 of Riding the Pines, where we give out our nominees for Game of the Year. We cover all of the major sporting categories as well as non-sports games, so there is plenty there for you to disagree with.

Feel free to comment on the show in the comments, or here in the forums.

We hope you enjoy the show.

More things to contemplate:

1. Just turned on Football Night in America. I find it hysterical that these sports types are congratulating the New York Giants for playing the game that the players are being paid to play. Of course, when contrasting that to the pussies that are the Indianapolis Colts, I guess that’s correct. I’m really hoping the Patriots will play the Colts again and hopefully will kick their ass. I hate the Colts.

2. Speaking of Colts, their ability to tank tonight’s game affects the Browns ability to make the playoffs. I’m sure the Browns fans have the same feeling for the Ravens as I do the Colts.

1. I am unashamed to say that when the Patriots were losing, I promptly shut off the TV, text messaged Craig and he proceed to give me play by play of the Patriots win. This is a tried and true system that works, and my team has 16 wins to prove it. Of course Tom Brady realizes that the only way to win is if I turn off the TV. Yes, I’m a bit superstitious here, but if it ain’t broke….

2. Besides, the game is going to be on NFL Network again this week (if you don’t have NFL Network; at the risk of sounding like one of those shills, you are missing out), so I’ll be able to enjoy it again.

3. Watching the post game show, hearing the Giants complain about the refs was hysterical. Maybe they should watch the replay. The Pats defender did not take the guy down in the end zone, he fell on him. Deal with it.

4. Glen and I recorded our year end podcast last night. We talk about the games of the year across all platforms. I went old school.

5. Speaking of old school, I purchased Blades of Steel because Glen kept yapping about it. I forgot how much fun 20 year old games can be. The graphics and sound are atrocious for this day and age but the gameplay is still fun. Besides you know you want to hear “with the pass” over and over again.

6. Because I also do everything Bill Harris tells me to do, I purchased Fairway Solitaire. This game has taken over my life. I don’t know who said, hey let’s combine golf with a solitaire game but over the past two days, it’s pretty much all I’ve played at the expense of my reviews and other game playiing. Bill, I’m not going to listen to you again, I should not be playing a f@#$ing solitaire game for 8 hours over two days.

7. Wanting to blow out Best Buy reward certificates, my son wanted Battle of the Pacific for the 360. Looks like the History Channel people learned their lesson after Civil War. I mean don’t mistake it for Call of Duty 4, but it looks good and doesn’t play half bad.

8. Oh good, more snow. Could there be any more snow? What a time for my snowblower and power shovel to both decide to crap out. Yes, I’m a very happy camper.

So, I have a subscription card that I picked up last year… in fact I picked up 2 of them last year.  I used one at that point and figured I would use the other one later.  Big mistake.

Here’s what I’ve been told at this point.  I should set up an account on my original Xbox and use the card on that account and then migrate that account to my Xbox 360… good bye Gamertag.

They were able to look up the code and see that it is valid, and that it hasn’t been redeemed… but they wouldn’t just apply it to my account…  Why?  I have no idea.

If anyone has a contact at Microsoft that might be able to help me with this, I’d appreciate the info.  Right now I’m stuck with a Silver account… and since Xbox Live is pretty much down right now, there is precious little that I can do with my account anyway… but I’d like to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

About 20 minutes ago I was all set to write up a post about how the Wisconsin basketball team played without toughness today against Texas.  (I will say that they never teach their guys to finish their shots strong.  They’ll be 2 feet from the basket and they’ll put up a little jumper rather than just throwing it down.)  Then they surprised the hell out of me by focusing on the things that they do best.  Running their offense and playing tough defense.

If you get a chance today, and I’m sure that ESPN will show it, watch the finish of the game.  Wisconsin was down two with the ball under the Texas basket.  Michael Flowers brings the ball up the court, works off of a pick and hits a constested three to put the Badgers up by 1 with 2.7 to go.  Flowers then stole the inbounds pass and as he was falling out of bounds, he threw the ball up in the air to kill the rest of the clock.

It was an amazing sequence to end a basketball game.  I still don’t know why Texas didn’t call a timeout (they had 2 left) and inbounded the ball so quickly, but it was an amazing ending to the game.

Oh, and Wisconsin played the game without their leading scorer.

Good times… good times.

Like Glen, I RMA’s my Rock Band drums and guitar on 12/12/2007. Immediately I was issued two UPS tracking numbers. I received the drum kit and mailed the defective one back, but I have not received the guitar. A look at the UPS tracking number says “billing information received” but that’s it. I mailed back the drums on 12/20 and UPS is showing them as delivered 12/27.

 So I found today’s email hysterical:
”

Dear Dan,

We trust you have received your new Xbox 360 Drum Pads by now and are enjoying the Rock Band experience!  However, it has been 15 days and we have not yet received the faulty Xbox 360 Drum Pads you’re returning to us.

To avoid a charge to your debit or credit account, please return your faulty Xbox 360 Drum Pads immediately upon receipt of your replacement. A charge will be posted 28 days after your request for a replacement if we do not receive your faulty Xbox 360 Drum Pads.

Rock on, Dan!”

I also received the same email about the guitar. So to recap:

1. EA says they haven’t received my old drums, despite UPS proof that it was delivered.

2. EA says I received the guitar even though UPS says it hasn’t shipped.

3. EA counts 2 holidays as business days.

4. Great customer service guys. I’d write more but it’s been 3 days since I updated my question on support.ea.com and no one has written back!

- There is very, very little going on in the gaming world right now… so not much to talk about there.  Also, Ben Brinkman hasn’t taken up our challenge to be a guest on the podcast, so Dan and I will be doing the show all by ourselves tonight.

We’ll be putting together a “Best of the year” type show thing tonight… so stay tuned.

- I’m not sure, but am I the only one that doesn’t have any interest in the NFL this week?  Maybe it’s the fact that my fantasy season is over and I didn’t win it.   I do like that the Patriots/Giants game will be on almost every channel, and I’ll be watching a re-run of American Chopper.. or something else.  Anything but that game….

- I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but I got my Black Dual Shock 3 controller from Play-Asia just before I went out of town for the holidays.  I didn’t mind that the Sixaxis was a pretty light controller, but the Dual Shock 3 is pretty sweet.  I plugged it in… it rumbled.   I guess that’s all there is to say about that… Oh, and why has the European version of Super Stardust been updated to support rumble, but the US version hasn’t?  Riddle me that Sony.

- Oh, and one last thing… Comments or no comments?  I have no problems with shutting them off, but I just want to make sure that they people aren’t really attached to them.

whew.

A 9:30 hour drive yesterday got me back into town last night.  What was the first thing I did?  Hop in the car to go play hockey.   Go figure.

- Like Dan said earlier, no pressure to use the forums, but sometimes they’re better for carrying on a discussion than the comments, as not everyone reads those.

-  I brought the Wii up to my in-laws and had a blast playing it with them.  My father-in-law is a big hunter, so he had a blast with the target shooting game on Wii Play.  My only regret was not taking the system out earlier so that more people would have had a chance to play it.

- Don’t know if this has been mentioned, but Amazon is running yet another Buy 1, Get 1 on HD-DVD’s. I just picked up the first 4 Harry Potter films for 40 bones.  It’s not the fancy gift set, but I can live with that pricing.    Oh, and they have the A3 with 10 free movies again.  Tons and tons of free movie deals to be had right now, it would seem.

- I should be picking up Blades of Steel later tonight.  I’m just can’t wait for some ultra-old 8-bit hockey.

Okay, maybe not but I’ve noticed that there is no activity going on in there. I know everyone likes the comments, but we worked really hard on the forums (not really, Glen did it all) but we want to hear from you  — podcast discussion requests, slider settings, favorite pr0n (Glen likes Heavy Into Jeff, not that there’s anything wrong with that). So do us a favor and post. I promise I’ll look in at least once a day. Deal? Or No Deal?

For those that got a nice new PlayStation 3 Blu-Ray player, errr, videogame console, don’t forget to join our Folding@Home group. Our Team ID is 57557. We are moving along nicely, beating the asshats at sportsgamer.com. Nice site, asshats. Help us out!!

Just remember, sportsgamer.com = C|Net = GameSpot = Kane & Lynch fiasco!!!!

8 PM – NBC: NFL Football: Patriots at Giants
8 PM – CBS: NFL Football: Patriots at Giants
8 PM – NFLN: NFL Football: Patriots at Giants
8 PM – WCVB (ABC) Boston: NFL Football: Patriots at Giants
8 PM – WMUR (ABC) Manchester NH: NFL Football: Patriots at Giants

 Hmm, I wonder what I will watch on Saturday night….

Twas the day after Christmas and all through retail, everyone was crying because their sales were stale.

So it’s time for the Xmas rush all over again! Stores opened early today and boy there are some game deals out there. Me, I’ve resolved to just use my Gamefly account as my credit cards can’t handle it anymore.

 If yours can you can get some good deals…

Halo 3 $29.90 at Go Gamer
Timeshift $29.99 at GameStop (TODAY ONLY!)

Buy 2 get 1 free on all used games at GameStop.

So there you go, have fun.