The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Federal holiday today, which means no work for me. Time to catch up on all the house projects.

For the record, I actually watched the entire Patriots game. And the last :20 of the GB/NY game. Really sad about GB..they love their football up there. So now we have a Week 17 rematch….should be an interesting game.

In other news, the two new VC games are absolutely nothing to write home about, Lolo and Street Fighter XXIVVVIV. Ho-hum.

Two questions for the group. Has anyone that purchased Undertow called Xbox support and gotten anything? I’ve just been on hold for an insane amount of time and given up. 2. Has anyone used jamster.com on their cell phone? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Still to fix for my Stiletto 100. Sirius is really on the ball here.

Here it is… the anxiously awaited 7th episode of Riding the Pines.   Feel free to discuss all of the action in the forums or in the comments here.

Enjoy!

No kidding or sarcasm there.  The Giants totally owned the Packers tonight.  The score was no indication of how much that the Giants controlled the game.

The Packers could never get any flow going on offense.  I’ll give a huge pat on the back to the Packers defense though.  If the other teams offense is on the field for 40+ minutes in a game and you lose by 3 points in overtime?  That’s a quality defensive outing.

It was a field position game in the second half and the Packers were not able to get a quick 3 and out that could have turned the field around.

I was just talking to my best friend about the game and we both agreed that before the season, we both thought this would be an 8-8 or 9-7 team at best.  They definitely exceeded my expectations and it was a ton of fun to watch them this year.

They’re the youngest team in the NFL and I think they’ll be a pretty good favorite to return to this point again next year.

So, congratulations to the Giants… I hope they’re able to put up as good of an effort as they did in Week 17.

I watched the whole game. Neither team played their best game. I’m still waiting for someone to remind Phil Simm that it’s Samuel, not Samuels. Since he can’t say the guys name right , I won’t say his right. What a wanker.

So, I’m just about to head to bed, but I figured I’d let you know what my wife and I did for date night.

- Saw a movie, Juno.  Very good.  My kind of humor.  A bit sappy at the end, but still, very good.

- Bought tile to re-do our bathroom floor.

- Went to dinner

- Came back home and played Rock Band for 2 1/2 hours.

There is something special about a night that ends with your wife singing a Nine Inch Nails song.   Sigh…  Tell me I don’t have it good.

To make up for Xbox Live’s downtime, everyone can download Undertow free next Wednesday - Sunday. Of course if you already have Undertow, apparently you’re fucked. But those of you that don’t have it, enjoy!

- I grabbed the Turok and FIFA Street demos off of the PS3 store last night and both games were a ‘meh’ release for me.

FIFA Street 3 blows NFL Tour out of the water as far as entertaining gameplay is concerned… but a kick in the nuts is more entertaining gameplay than NFL Tour.   Honestly the game felt more like Super Mario Strikers than an FIFA game.  Not a bad demo… and it was a very small download (300MB) compared to the Turok demo.  Well worth a download.

Turok on the other hand…

It’s a very impressive looking game… when you can see what’s going on.  They start off the demo in a cave, which is incredibly dark.  Not Doom 3 dark… but dark all the same.  Then they tell you to follow a squad mate (voice by Ron Perlman.)  This squad mate appears to be mentally challenged.  He’s supposed to be leading you around… but he ends up standing right next to you most of the time.  So, you’re wandering around a dark, almost featureless cave trying to find an exit.  Very fun.  Once you get out of the cave, you’re set to wandering again.  Graphically the game was very impressive…  the gameplay was lacking.  Oh, well…sometimes that’s what you get for free.

- Undertow has been announced as the free game being given out as a result of the XBox Live outages.  How’s that feel for you Dan, since you already own it?

1. Don’t listen to Glen on Turok. The game should already win an “achievement in sound” award as it’s great. Hey in case you didn’t know, exclusives suck. OXM must have paid a shitload of money to get that exclusive becuase it’s really pissed off the Xbox community. Meanwhile those of us with PS3s are enjoying the game.

2. My TWID column will be up shortly.

3. I kinda liked FIFA Street 3. It has that NBA like horrible cheat system where the AI can do tricks nonstop and you’re barely able to get one trick off. Ah, the good old days of EA Big games….now you can fondly recall those times. BTW, the demo isn’t bad — give it a shot.

4. I was approved for a Sony Card, which allows me a $100 credit when I purchase from the Sony Store, making it much harder to resist getting a 2nd PS3 for BD playback. I really don’t need it. Must…not…purchase…

5. Bill Harris found out that the person behind Fairway Solitaire also did the well known TV Sports games by Cinemaware, which explains the crack like addiction I have to it. BTW, they are having a 30% off sale, so grab it before 1/21.

6. Whoa, how about that Rock Band downloadable content. $2.5 million worth of downloads….at $2 a song, that’s 1,250,000 songs downloaded! Impressive stuff. I wonder if the folks at Red Octane were thinking damn, we should release more songs for GH3….or are they just saving them for GH4?

- FIFA Street 3 is available on Xbox Live right now… my guess is that it will be on the PS3 later today, but that is just a guess. I wonder if this game makes soccer exciting… probably not. heh.

- So, I was informed by a fellow hockey player that there are no age restrictions on Division 3 NCAA sports. Know of any D3 programs that are looking for a 33 year old goaltender that isn’t very good?

- Gametap hasn’t really overwhelmed us this week with their new releases, but they do have a new game called Gumboy Crazy Adventures (in Happy Fun Time… my addition to the title.) It sounds a good bit like Loco Roco for the PSP… so I figure that I’ll check that out. After all… I’m almost done with Fairway Solitare.

- If you haven’t seen it… here are the Rock Band Songs for the next two weeks. Microsoft made an oopsie and posted them yesterday and then pulled them back down.

Week of January 22, 2008
Oasis Pack includes songs by Oasis including “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Live Forever,” and “Wonderwall”

Week of January 29, 2008
Progressive Pack includes “Siva” by Smashing Pumpkins, “Working Man” as made famous by Rush, and “Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)” as made famous by Coheed and Cambria

Maybe Working Man for me… but that’s about it.

- Oh, and 2 new Motorstorm tracks are due out today.  I really need to pick up that game.  It’s a fun Arcade racer… and it’s nice to see that they’re still putting out tracks for it over a year after release… and pricing them nicely ($2.99 for 2 tracks.)

If you’re reading this, you probably have heard about Randy Moss and the allegations surrounding him. This of course, led the news in the media here (if it’s not sports, it’s not news should be the motto around here, yet another reason why I prefer BBC World News, but I digress).

Recently I think we’ve seen a lot of people talk and deny allegations, and boy do they not sound credible. Randy sounds pretty credible in this case and an extortion allegation doesn’t sound out of the ordinary. Then again, I thought Raffy was telling the truth in front of Congress. So right now, I’m inclined to believe Randy. And now, back to football..

The BBC has decided to continue to release on HDDVD. Funny how when Planet Earth sells a ton on HDDVD over Blu Ray, they decide to keep releasing on HDDVD :). Full story is right here.

1. Wow! Just when I think my crap meter is full, along comes this stupid buddy game for Xbox Live Arcade.

2. Bill Harris has a long post about Fairway Solitaire. Personally, I’d like to thank Bill for ruining my life. I can’t stop playing this game. The last course challenge was to finish 9 holes at +3 or better, and after two perfects I thought I’d clear it, but then the +5’s kept coming. Everytime I feel as though I’m getting better at this game, it beats me with the damn water traps. I agree with everything Bill says about the game. What does suck is that I started playing the game at 10:30PM last night and then I decided I really needed to get some sleep - it was 1:15AM. That’s how addictive this game is.

3. Next Tuesday is the series finale of Life on Mars, one of my favorite BBC programs. It was over much too fast, but in England they have a tendency to limit the number of episodes in a season as well as the number of seasons, regardless of popularity. Hey we should try that :). Anyway looking forward to that.

4. Someone want to tell me why Turok isn’t available in North America? WTF?

- Sony has updated their MLB 08: The Show page for the PS3.  There is a new HD trailer as well as 12 screen shots for the game.  The game looks pretty good again this year.  This was Dan and my favorite domestic baseball game last year, so I’m looking forward to seeing Sony’s 2nd baseball effort for the Playstation 3.

-  I’m nearly done with Fairway Solitare.  Dan and I have mentioned this game on every podcast since we’ve purchased it.  It’s well worth your time to take a look at the one hour demo.

- I have to say that this cover for Sports Illustrated is pretty damn cool.

- Again… seriously… The Monkees on Rock Band?  Best yet, it’s a cover of the Monkees.  Oh, and still no Who’s Next either.  Great stuff EA.

Here are some things to ponder as I’ve reinjured my fifth metatarsal bone yet again on my right foot while playing DDR Disney Channel. Because I’m an independent contractor, I don’t get worker’s comp for playing that game. LOL. I’ll live. It’s just a bad bone that keeps popping out when i put weight on my ankel or something.

1. DDR Disney Channel — let’s just say I was hoping for more :(.

2. Big shout out to my new friends at Magmic Games who got my old games working on my new Blackberry Pearl. Miner 2049er rules, btw.

3. The Toshiba HDDVD player was featured on the front page of USA Today. Maybe there’s still hope :).

4. American Idol is starting so I have g2g.

5. I bought Last Train To Clarksville on Rock Band. Funny story, although the song is “Clarksville” if you look at the Monkees video here, you’ll see the sign says “Clarkesville” which was founded by my great grandfather. Joking of course. Anyway, I actually found that song a challenge. Oh and in other news, I suck at Rock Band, but you already knew that.

6. Speaking of RB, I filed an RMA with EA on 12/11. I received my replacement guitar on 01/06/08. I mailed the bad one back and it shows as received by EA on 01/10/08. They charged my card on 01/11/08 for an unreturned guitar for $125. So just in case the whole NFL license and NCAA license doesn’t make you mad, apparently they can also charge your card. Maybe this is retribution for the NFL Tour review….

Dan and I have gotten together yet again to record another episode of Riding the Pines.  In this week’s episode, Dan vents about NFL Tour, we talk about the NFL Playoffs, the re-birth of a franchise… and the death of another.

Enjoy the show!