The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Who cares about GTA — Mario Kart is tomorrow! LOL. Anyhoo, it’s funny that GTA got a 10 on IGN. The comments by everyone’s favorite reviewer, Hilary, says that even though the game got a perfect score, it’s not a perfect game. Um, whatever.

I’m getting the 360 version myself because downloadable content > annoying HD install. Buying the PS3 version of a game rewards lazy programmers who say “let’s just dump everything to the HD” in my opinion. Yes DMC4, I’m talking about you.

- Got my Stilletto 100 from Circuit City today.  The people were pretty pleasant to me, but the more I thought about it, I was bummed that I had to go into the store 4 times to finally get everything right.  Now I just have to activate it and figure out if I’ll replace my car receiver or just keep it as a 3rd.

- I’m really going to have to make a decision soon about watching every Brewer game. This team will kill me if I have to keep watching games like tonight.  0-0 game in the 7th, lead off man gets on.  Next batter doesn’t bunt him over, fouls out and the opportunity is pretty much gone.  0-0 game in the 8th, lead off man gets on.  Next batter doesn’t bunt him over.  Seriously, how much worse can you manage a close game?

- IGN has their review of GTA4 up and says that the PS3 is the better version graphically and has less loading times due to the ability to install.  Guess that’s what I was looking to hear.  I’ll probably be grabbing the PS3 version.

- More sensational NHL playoff hockey tonight, this time between the Sharks and Stars.  Oh, and thank you DirecTV for having Versus in HD.  heh.

Sony updated their blog with new Hot Shots Golf Out Of Bounds (HSG5) content, including the ) Stroke and Match Online Play download patch. Yay!

Speaking of Sony, I’ve been able to play MGSO for most of the day. Well right until the connection drops. Still not perfect, but the game is promising…some reminiscient of Counter-Strike. Not sure I like the 3rd person stuff though…

So, Peter Moore has written a blog post defending Brett Favre as the cover boy. The more I think about this, the less I care. Why? Because yet again, EA has gone to great leaps and bounds to make us focus on something other than the game. Well done EA…you’ve thrown us all off the scent and we’ll be too busy bitching about the cover boy to notice that your game is a roster update!

Anyhoo, what is rather interesting is the auto-censor in Peter Moore’s blog. Brett Favre’s wife had breast cancer, but apparently that’s too risque for the EA blog censor, so instead Brett’s wife has **** cancer.

And regarding my EA joke, Glen points out that Bobby Rahal never raced in NASCAR. Of course, Glen has his facts wrong, but what do you expect? Heh. According to NASCAR.com, Bobby Rahal started one race in 1984 and finished 40th. Yeah, feel free to apologize.

Wow — we just received the announcement of the other cover athletes for EA Sports games this year:

NBA Live - Wilt Chamberlain
FIFA - Pele
NCAA Football - Walter Payton
NASCAR - Bobby Rahal
NHL - Wayne Gretsky

Awesome! Way to keep current, EA! Also they said that the game will be released on the Atari 2600. Check out the video of Pele’s Championship Soccer by clicking here.

- Being a Packer fan, even I’m annoyed with Favre being on the cover of Madden.  Maybe there wasn’t an athlete who wanted to deal with the curse this year, but I just think it wrong.  I also happen to think that Madden isn’t a good game and while that has nothing to do with whose on the cover, I just felt like saying it.

- If you haven’t had a chance to try out Echochrome, it’s quite the puzzle game.  I also saw today that the full version of the game is going to be priced at $9.99.  You have to love a price like that… considering that people will be able to download addon puzzles for free.

- Loco Roco was on the Playstation Store today as well… for $21.99.  Are you kidding me?  The game has been on the discount rack at Best Buy for $9.99 for months.  I really don’t understand that pricing.

- Speaking of pricing, why is it that DLC never has a price drop.  I started playing Guitar Hero II after picking the game up again and I went to check on the songs on the store and saw that they’re the same price that they were a year and a half ago.  Almost all content on the 360 store is the original price that it came out at, with a few minor exceptions.  I can’t understand why.  Why isn’t downloadable content subject to the same pricing schemes as the retail model?  I would have to figure that the demand for the content drops after the initial release, so why not cut the price in half to increase the sales again.  It’s not like you’re making more money buy having it sit there without selling.  Crazy.

Oh, but let me tell you why.  heh.

Yesterday I heard that the Sirius Stilleto 100 radio was being clearance out at Circuit City for an absurdly low price.  $14.51, to be exact.  So, I stopped in over my lunch hour at the local store.  They didn’t have any new units, but they had the display model.  The priced on the shelf was still listed at $99.99.  So, I grabbed the tag and walked over to customer service to see if I could buy the display model.  He said that I would have to talk to the car stereo install guys to see if they could be sold.

The stereo guy disappeared for about 10 minutes and then appeared with a bag of accessories for the Stilleto 100, letting me know that I could buy the display unit.  Needless to say, I was pretty happy.  The unit was in almost perfect shape, so I figured it was a great deal for me.  The next thing he told me though should have gotten me a bit worried.

“It’ll take us about 30 minutes to get the unit out of the display, so if you come back, we’ll have it ready for you.”

I guess I was still in my ‘clearance euphoria’ mode, because I said… “Sure, I’ll be back in 30 to pick it up.”

I went to lunch with my wife and returned, very excited about picking up my new portable satellite receiver.  Everything was in a bag at the counter waiting for me, the manual for the 100, headphones, the car antenna, and the base for the car kit, but no power adapter.  I asked about the power adapter and they said that it didn’t seem to have one, which was odd…because it was plugged in and working in the display.  So, I asked about that and they opened the display up again and, what do you know, there was the power cable for it.

They handed me the unit and I happily paid for it and left the store.  I got out into my car to attempt to hook it up, and I’m not sure why, but i took the battery out of the unit.  What I found was that I was given the Stilleto 10, a very similar radio but a lesser model with 10 hours of recording instead of 100.  No big deal, I figured, they just gave me the wrong one.  There were actually two display units, so I just figured they took down both of them, and I got the wrong one on accident.

I went back into the store and told them that I had the wrong unit and I wanted the other unit from the display.  Without missing a beat the employee says, “Yeah, you can’t have the other one.  The other guy back in the department bought it already.”

Not wanting to put up a big hassle in the store, I went back to work and then went home.  As soon as I got home, I called the manager for the store and let them know what had happened.  His reaction was priceless.  I told him of how the other employee had bought the other unit while still on his shift and he said, “He did WHAT?!?”

He took down my receipt ID and my phone number and told me he’d call me back.  10 minutes later I was informed that the employee would be returning the Stilleto 100 to the store the next day and I would be able to come and exchange my unit for it.  I haven’t been able to stop laughing since.  I can just picture how pissed off that guy is.  My only question is, do you think they knew I was getting the lesser model?  My wife is positive of it.  I’m pretty sure of it, but I’m curious to hear your take as well.

Sorry for the long story, but I thought it was pretty entertaining.

I hate it when one of my favorite bands of the 80s is now named after a birth control pill that provides lighter periods. WTF?

Also in the blog, Mr. Moore says in a separate post that NFL Head Coach is going to ship on it’s own. I can’t remember if I already mentioned this or not. If I didn’t, then let me say, ho hum, what a surprise. It’s based on popular demand. Or based on the already prepared script. Shocking! But Peter Moore says the game is really good.

Hey here’s another thought — you know how there’s a guy online who posts to his blog how games are awesome and then you play them and they suck? Well I feel like this is going to be the case with this one as well :).

So Peter Moore updated his blog where he’s in line for the Letterman taping. He’s also wearing a cheese head in the picture. And Brett Favre is on Letterman tonight. Hmmm..let’s put two and two together and say that Favre is the cover boy of Madden 09. Hey what a great idea: let’s put players that are no longer playing on the cover! That worked so well for All Pro Football! Unless he’s not retiring….

I know there are cheeseheads out there that love this; I think it’s dumb. Although I guess there won’t be a curse this year. It’s like using a player in the NFL on the NCAA cove….err, whoops. But that’s different, there are licensing issues there. It’s not like there aren’t any players deserving of being a cover athlete (cough Tom Brady cough)….oh well. I haven’t even seen the game and I already hate it :).

I’m finally coming out of whatever the hell I had. Only took 3 weeks, but whatever. Sounds like I’m gonna need surgery to fix my sinuses/ear..the whole ‘head circuit’ thing. Good times. Let’s play catch up, shall we?

1. Got a chance to visit the Salem MA Maritime Museum and Park yesterday, run by the National Parks Service. Definitely a hidden gem, and beautiful weather to go along with it!

2. Picked up a new Onkyo AV receiver (the 705). This my friends is the receiver I’ve been waiting for…it has 3 HDMI in, and passes through audio so no longer do I need optical cables and I can change my audio on my PS3 to uncompressed! What’s even better is that it takes every signal going in — even crappy RCA, upconverts it and outputs it through HDMI. No more input switching on the TV. I’m very happy.

3. I had to buy a new lamp for my Samsung Kirk model DLP tv. It’s been 4 years, so it’s about due. The old lamp is still working but it takes a long time to warm up. At least I’m hoping that it means I need a new lamp :).

4. I haven’t been playing many games this week due to my lovely sinsuses and addiction to sudafed making me sleepy (non-drowsy my ass), but I did want to mention there’s a Guitar Hero III Def Leppard pack that was relesaed today. And those if you who bought Okami who want a little less IGN on your cover can click here and request a new cover of your choosing.

5. New Gametap games are crap. It’s really getting depressing. Three billion 2600 games and they can’t get one of them?

6. Make sure you check out this week’s How I Met Your Mother with the Robin Sparkles video “Sand Castles in The Sand“…a nice 80s satire!

7. I had to get a Tetanus booster on Tuesday…damn it really hurts today. WTF?

8. Anyone watching American Idol? At first I thought show tunes would suck but I thought that Andrew Lloyd Webber did a nice job mentoring. Not sad to see Tattoo You go. Then again, for a season that had the ‘most talented 24 ever,’ I think I’ve cared the least about this group. Brooke is very cute and brings sunshine to everyone. I can see her doing covers of 10,000 Maniacs songs in a flowing dress spinning around. Either that or doing a commercial on a spring day for that not-so-fresh feeling. Syesha has her moments. David Cook is probably the most talented but he probably won’t win, since he is. LOL.  Neil Diamond next week. I’m still waiting for Morrissey week — I think the whole group singing “There is A Light That Never Goes Out” will be awesome…or I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me…

I need to get in the shower.

Seriously, there isn’t anything better than this.  The intensity in the crowds and on the ice is absolutely amazing.

Nothing better than playoff hockey.  Nothing at all.

I’m watching San Jose and Calgary right now and it’s just amazing how loud the crowd is at the moment.

Too fun.

First person to email me, who has a Steam account, can have a free copy of Half Life 2 and/or Half Life2: Episode 1.

I got two gifts with the Orange box, so if someone wants those, just drop me an email and they’re yours.

Who says we never give anything away here?  Actually, no one has ever said that… but isn’t this how all giveaways are posted?

- I think that Dan is making my youngest daughter sick.  She was sent home from daycare today with a 101 temp.  The kid just can’t catch a break.  Hopefully she’ll get through this and then avoid those major illnesses that kids tend to get in Kindergarten.

- So, I got an email this morning from an old account that I used to use saying that my cousin wanted to add me to his Facebook page.  Who knew that I had a Facebook page?  I certainly didn’t.  My guess is that some site that I signed up for quite a while ago was bought by the people who do Facebook… that’s the only guess I have.

- Target Clearance part 4… PSP USB Charging cable for $1.98.  I’ve always wanted a cable that I can charge my PSP from the PSP.  Couldn’t beat that price.  Also picked up the DS headset for 3 bucks.  Clearance sales rule.

- Brewers pull out a victory in 12, and Gagne blows another save.  He’s on quite the pace… of course today he was betrayed by his defense in the 9th.  Oh, well.  12-8 is still a good start.

Dan’s sick and Glen’s grumpy, but we still put together a show for you all this week.

Here’s what we’re talking about this time…

- Major League Baseball talk

- Blitz: The League II

- Gran Turismo 5: Prologue

- What we’re playing.

Feel free to post your comments here or in the forums.  Enjoy the show!