The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Not that this is a surprise, but Major Nelson’s Twitter account reports that the game is delayed and they are doing everything they can to put it online. They aren’t saying what the issue is, but he says…

 ”I am being told that I won’t have another SWOS update until tomorrow morning (12/20) Pacific Time. The teams are working through the night and doing everything they can to get this released as quickly as possible. “

Of course morning Pacific means lunch time here on the East Coast. This is a big bummer.

Oh goody. Here we go again. If it’s December, it must be the time of year for Ben Brinkman to tell us how much last year’s baseball game sucked and how much better this year’s game will be.

IGN is there to suck up and believe the hype. I’m guessing this guy also takes Roger Clemens at his word on steroids as well.

Click here for the laugh a minute interview. You’ll note how he pats himself on the back for the IGN postmortem but never mentions anything about why we never got a patch. Top notch interview.

Ben, when you are ready, you’re welcome on our podcast in the No Suck-Up Zone. Yeah, that’s right, I’m calling 2K out on this one. Make it happen. Let’s have a discussion. Don’t get me wrong, I want to see this game succeed, but I’m tired of seeing the same stuff.

I think you could just take that entire review and do a find and replace for 2K8 with 2K7 and 2k7 with 2K6 and have the same interview as last year…well maybe if it was for the 360 and not PS3 but you know what I mean. In the words of the Smiths, “Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before…”

Well, I got home and can confirm that SWOS is not yet online. Another email to Codemasters’ PR and they tell me they are working on it and hope to have it back online sooner rather than later. Unfortunately your guess is as good as mine as to what “sooner” means in regular time.

 I’m on it and will keep the five of you posted who care. LOL.

I personally contacted Codemasters’ PR about the SWOS game and was told they have fixed the error and the game should be now available again. Microsoft’s PR also confirms this. I don’t have my 360 with me, so I can’t confirm it myself.

You’ll know when I have it because I’ll be moist. BWHAHAHA.

I’m trying hard to keep my, tenuous at times, grip on reality… so let’s see if gaming talk will do it.

- Sensible World of Soccer was pulled from Live due to a very, very bad bug.  No time frame on when it will be put back in place.  This is one of those that makes you wonder how it got by beta testing…

- The new PS3 firmware allows you to schedule when you want your PS3 to run the Folding @ Home app.  That’s a pretty cool feature for that program.  For those of you that have PS3’s that haven’t signed up for our blog team, you can see our info here.

- I also just saw another feature for the new PS3 firmware.  Now you’re able to put a PSX disc into your PS3 and remote play that game on your PSP.  That’s pretty sweet.  It’s not the same as allowing you to rip the game to run at any time on your PSP, but it’s a pretty cool connectivity feature.

Back to the grind…

OMG hearing this guy deny use of steroids reminds me a lot of Raffy for the Orioles. I wish he’d just point his finger at Congress and say he never ever used them.

The whole issue of everyone coming out, saying they used it once, didn’t inhale and never used them again sounds rather suspicious. Especially since everyone knew this report was coming out and with everything going on, just now they are fessing up. It smells bad. And I love Brian Roberts, which this whole thing makes it worse. Of course his use was a he said/she said that a friend of his from Canada 23 years ago said he might have used them.

I dunno what to think. Since I’m not a fan of Clemens, this easily justifies why I dislike him more. Comments?

So, I wake up today like a kid on Christmas because it’s the day SWOS gets released. I see it on Major Nelson’s blog so I go right online and attempt to download it…except for one thing. IT’S NOT THERE!

Did I miss a restriction? Is it only available in Luxemborg? What the hell? Reading the comments on Major’s blog, it seems that the game was defective (it disconnected on XBL) and must have been pulled, because I’m not the only one who isn’t seeing it. I’d love some sort of update…I guess I ask too much when a game I’m dying to play isn’t there.

This is like getting coal in your stocking at Christmas.

Now it’s time to address some comments:

1. Yes, I know the 360’s DVD playback sucks. But, if I want to watch HDDVD in my office I’m limited in my options. I am out of inputs on my TV, and the last thing I need is another huge box. Boy, I’ve really received a ton of negative feedback on my purchase. I’m fully aware of the issues and thanks.

2. Someone wanted the SWOS link, and here it is. It looks like it’s released, but it isn’t. Click here for the link.

Thanks to Sega, I was able to experience NiGHTS early. The graphics are very good and if you have fond memories of the Sega Saturn version, you will be very, VERY happy. I love the background music, although the regular wii controls are meh. I prefer old school classic controller action for this.

In other news…
1. In my brief time with the patch, I am seeing less interceptions, which is good. Instead, I am seeing many tipped passes, which sounds familiar with last year’s game. The patch was such a fast download, I really think it was just a slider change. Just my opinion though.

2. Microsoft was wicked fast in sending me back my replacement wireless wheel. It has a new serial number and was packed in a similar wheel coffin that I shipped. From the time I filled in my recall request form to now was only 3 months (yuck), but I only received the shipping coffin last Friday. Now that is fast.

3. Speaking of slow shipping, nice of EA to preauthorize my credit card $250 for my Rock Band drums and guitar adn giving me a tracking number for two day shipping…except the items haven’t shipped yet. That’s great.

4. I broke down and bought the 360 HDDVD player today. I really don’t know why I did it except to get Bourne for free. I find teh 360’s video playback via HDMI to be, in a word, ass. I am hoping that it’s just ass in SD, and will look great in HD. Ironically when I tried playback with the VGA cable I thought the video looked better. However everything else looked washed out and dim so I’ll stick with HDMI.

5. OMG one more day until Sensible Soccer. This is like Christmas for me. I am — dare I say it — moist for this game right now.

For those unaware, a patch for NCAA Football 08 has been released for the 360 (and only the 360). What does it do? Let’s have a look:
The update will address the following issues: 
  
 Gameplay: Fumble chance has been tuned to more realistic values and logic. 
 Fumbling has been tuned to occur during more realistic scenarios such as big hits and collisions. 
  
 Gameplay:  Defense Secondary aggressive coverage has been addressed. 
 Defensive players AI has been better tuned for only certain percentile of defensive backs have the ability to make aggressive moves that are effective. 
  
 Gameplay: Pass Lead Tuning on Lob passes has been improved.
 The user has the ability to lead receivers with lob passes now.

Sounds less like a patch and more like a slider adjustment. It’s a wicked quick download. It seems like DB’s are tipping balls more than picking them…I guess that’s good?

- I forgot to post the forum link for the second episode.  Feel free to vent and let your feelings known in there.

- Dan may have an issue avoiding the use of certain words this week, as both Nights for the Wii and Sensible World of Soccer are due out.  This could be a tough one on all of us.

- I picked up Killzone: Liberation for the PSP yesterday at Target (on clearance for $9.98.)   What a fun game.  I’m really surprised at how much I’m enjoying it thus far…. other than the fact that I hold the system too tight and end up powering it off from time to time while I’m playing.  Maybe I should take advantage of that PSP trade-in offer…

So, it’s Monday, the day from hell. I suppose though it can’t be any worse than yesterday. Why do you ask?

1. We had another one of those wonderful storm of the centuries.

2. During this storm of the century, my snowblower died. The Auger broke — well it didn’t break, it got bent, resulting in this horrible vibration and making it difficult to use. Of course I probably should have used it but I didn’t have a choice if I wanted the driveway clear.

3. Sears has changed their policy on repairing snowblowers from on site to carry in. This thing is monstrous and I have to bring it back to sears to get repaired. Great.

4. My backup, Toro PowerShovel plus, didn’t work either. It worked on Monday, now it’s DOA. WTF is going on???

So that was my Sunday. Great. Now I’m off to work and I’m sure, because I’m ever the optimist, that things will be fine. or not.

- Congratulations to my alma mater, UW-Whitewater, as they won the Division III NCAA Football championship yesterday defeating Mount Union, who had a 37 game winning streak snapped when they lost the game.  I’ve always been a Badger fan, but I have to respect the program that the Warhawks have put together.

- Favre broke the all-time passing yard mark for the NFL earlier today.  He pretty much owns the record book… for the next few years.  Manning will probably claim all of the records eventually, but it’s nice to see Brett’s name up there next to all of those records… even for a while.

- Dan seriously got crushed in our game of College Hoops.  I can’t even state how ugly it was.  It was fun though.  Please, try to game with Dan as much as you possibly can.  It’s great for your ego.

- I stopped over at my parents house earlier tonight and they surprised me by telling me that they want a 46 inch Plasma TV and a Wii.  That was a huge shock.  Of course, they’ll hook up everything via composite cables and tell me how great it all looks.  They’re so cute when they waste money like that.

iTunes will take a little while to update, but all of the other links have been updated on the front page of the blog.

Hope you all enjoy!

First Jim “out with a groin” Nantz — The guys name is Asante Samuel, Not Samuels you moron. Second, that was very nice of CBS to kill the game and go to the PIT game with 0:02 remaining. After hyping up the end of game handshake they switch it to another game. And I’m in the NFL Home territory for the Patriots. I don’t really know if your coverage could suck more than that of NFL Network, but congrats, you did it!

Glen and I recorded it last night, now it’s in editing. Brandon will especially enjoy the podcast as we discuss why I say “moist” quite a bit. Oh and we talk about sports games too. Go figure. Glen will post when it’s up and running.