The Blog for the Sports Gamer Three guys who love Sports Gaming rant and rave about various stuff.

Thursday Night Thoughts

1. How is Intellivision Lives an "Xbox Original" ? Isn't it an Intellivision Original?

2. So Jeopardy, huh? Pass!

3. I just got Ferrari Challenge. I've also just mailed it back. LOL.

4. You know what sucks? This Belkin N Vision router. Wireless disconnects constantly. Nice display scren on the unit...but it's totally useless when it just arbitrarily drops wireless connections....

5. I watched the Sarah Palin interview...she came across pretty well, much to my chagrin, but then again, two weeks of prep and vetted questions will do wonders .

6. I forgot to mention this: I asked the gamestop employees why they aren't doing a midnight release for Rock Band 2 Saturday night but are doing a midnight for Star Wars Force Unleashed on Tuesday. Their reply -- they only had 16 copies of RB2. Sounds like they aren't expecting a rush , or the game is going to be tough to get.....

7. More on politics. Want to see how much Obama will raise your taxes if his plans are approved? Click here.

Thursday night notes

Well, my complaining doesn't seem to have amounted to much for the Brewers as the looked pretty poor against Philly tonight and their lead for the Wild Card is now down to 3 games.

I'm really wondering if some of you really want me to try and help you with your team and financial issues now.  I'm pretty sure it will lead your team to the basement and drive you into a massive amount of debt.

- I started playing NHL2K9 for the 360 and I've been enjoying the game thus far.  I haven't run into any major gameplay issues and have seen some realistic situations develop such as screened goalies not making a save or breakaways that developed when defensemen tried to pinch in along the boards.  I'll stick with the game for a while and see if I see any issues of know come up.

- I have a copy of NHL09 coming for the PS3 from Gamefly (due to the fact that one of our readers has that version and we can test out the online team-play option.)  My primary curiosity is the Be-A-Pro mode for goalies.  Last years Goalie mode was a good deal of fun... for a while, but the amount of controls and motions available to each keeper caused me to lose interest.  We'll see what this years version has added to that.

- There is a demo for FIFA 09 out on the Playstation Network as well as Xbox Live.  I'm sure Dan will be commenting on that tonight or tomorrow.

- International Track and Field continues to be a great deal of fun.  I'm pretty sure that I'm wearing down the bottom of the stylus though from scrubbing it across the screen as much as I have.  Still having a blast with the game though.  I can't remember the last game that I played that I actually cared about breaking my own scores for each "stage."  That's a great game, in my book.

What do you know….

Amazing....the Brewers can actually get a clutch hit.

Nice to see another win, in person, this year.

More later.

Quick Brewer note

The Brewers flat out stink right now.  They are going to give everyone a chance to steal the wild card from them.  They're practically playing their way out of the playoffs right now.  The Cubs have left the door wide open to steal the Central... and so the Brewers respond by scoring 24 runs in 9 games.  Unreal.

This team couldn't buy a clutch hit at this point.  2-7 on a home stand.... Good grief.

All I can say is that I'm happy I'm going to see Sabathia pitch tomorrow.  Maybe they'll give him more than a run of support....

Game review writing 101

I know that I'm not the one that actually gets paid to write game reviews (Dan is that guy, for those of you that don't feel like playing along,) but I have to say something about 1up's latest review for an EA Sports title.   In this case, the title is NHL09.

For those of you here that read Bill Harris, he put together an article detailing how 1up, almost without fail, gives EA Sports titles higher review scores than any of the other sites.

I get that sites all have their own scoring system and their own definition of what an excellent title is, but my issue comes with the writing of this review.  If you actually skip the score at the top of the page... you can't read the review and think that the score given actually matches what he is saying.  Here are some examples.

In reference to the "Be A Player" mode...

As an experiment, I played five strong games in a row then purposely imploded -- completely disregarding Be A Player's visual cues -- in the sixth. Was I benched? Demoted? No. Instead, I was given props and bumped from the third to second line.

In reference to gameplay issues....

Unfortunately, no matter which configuration you prefer, NHL 09 is not free of past unrealistic annoyances. I was still privy to bizarre last-minute goals that were seemingly designed only to keep the score close, and I still feel that one of the best defensive moves is to viciously chop players to the ice. It is time for EA to correct such indiscretions.

So, just to catch up with what he has to say... the new mode, has flaws that seem to indicate that regardless of your performance... you will be rewarded for it.

Also, the game seems to have rubber-band AI.

The score he gives the game?  A, the second highest rating possible.  The review just screams of "Despite all it's flaws...."

Memo to the 1up writers, particularly this "hockey-playing madman."  When you point out flaws in a game, those are things that DETRACT from a score.  Maybe I'm just old-school, but I think that's how you write and score a review.

Monday night notes

There is nothing quite like spending 10 hours in a server room to make you want to play games....

- I'm really excited to play this years hockey games, but I just don't know about picking up NHL09.  I really want to hear how different it is from last years version.  If there aren't major improvements there... then I might just pass.

- So, what did I do yesterday after spending 10 hours in the car with my family?  Drop them off at home and go out and play hockey... I guess that's how I roll.

- What I did play a good deal of this weekend was International Track and Field.  That game is terrific.  Easily the most fun DS sports game that has come out to date.  Hopefully a few more of you can pick it up so Dan and I have more people to compare scores with.

- I got Madden Wii Play via Gamefly today.  Damn queue... I was hoping to get a hockey game instead.  Pisser.

- In local sports... the Brewers have really taken the tail pipe.  I'm absolutely floored that they have a 3 game lead in the Wild Card.  They absolutely cannot hit the ball right now and when they do have a late lead, they blow it, as they did tonight.  You have to hope for more than 4 wins on an 11 game homestand, but that's the best they can hope for at this point.

The Badgers had better figure out how to play defense in the first 2 quarters of a game, because Fresno State will rough them up big time if they don't figure that out this week.

Great win for the Packers tonight.  They were pushed around by the Vikings on the ground tonight, but they managed to make enough big plays to pull out a win.  Rodgers looked like a great "game manager" and didn't make any big mistakes that could have cost the team.

I'll post more tomorrow if I pick up NHL09.  I'm just weak enough to do it, you know....

Spore

I was ready to buy and download on Sunday...then I started reading the reviews. All of the scores look great, but when you read the reviews ...it doesn't seem to me that the text of the review matches the score. I just get the funny feeling if this were a Ubisoft game by an unknown developer we wouldn't be seeing the high scores that we are seeing now.

What do you think? Have you played it? I am curious, but I'm not sure I'm $49.99 curious...

Politics

Well, in something to me that's nothing short of shocking, McCain has jumped up big time in the polls. Especially among white women. I'm sorry, are white women in this country voting for Sarah Palin just because she's a woman? That didn't work out so well for Hillary. Or Geraldine Ferraro for that matter. I just don't understand how you vote for a woman (or man for that matter) on gender or race.

That being said, it looks like McCain's gamble is paying off. Much to my chagrin.

Monday Thoughts

1. So the worst news possible came out of the CIA, err, Patriots HQ today, with the announcement that Brady would be on IR and miss the season. Interestingly enough he was not on the cover of a Madden game. This sort of injury is supposed to be something a player can come back from, but man, once you are damaged goods, it's difficult to come back.

1a. Speaking of injuries, my wife and I noticed that my daughter was running awkwardly during soccer. She's a full time figure skater (Vancouver here we come), but we thought we would have a doctor check out her knee. The doc referred her to physical therapy and they did find something wrong -- it's no ACL but it's significant -- she can still skate but boy I sure do see the desire to keep going when you work so hard for something -- it's difficult to rest.

2. At the end of last season, I had said that hey, if the Pats won the Super Bowl, it really wouldn't be worth watching football because there's nothing they could possibly do. If they lost, I wouldn't watch because hey here we go again. I guess you can look at this as half empty half full -- the ESPN guys have already written off the Patriots and while I agree the QB is a very important cog in the engine or whatever, you still have many other parts. I don't know what to think, but seriously I think Bill B has the ammo needed to move the team forward. Of course they may also suck donkeys on Sunday and then I'll say I'm glad my son has travel soccer.

3. I like getting 35 Gamerscore for signing into the Live Score tracker on a Monday.

4. You probably won't hear much from me the next two days because of NHL. Oh just kidding, I have to be knee deep in work so I'll only post at night...unless I have a moment from my cell phone. We'll see.

Sorry Glen

My condolences to Glen who had Tom Brady in our EA Sports Fantasy Football challenge.

It sounds very, very bad up here according to news reports. I don't believe the hit was dirty, but I do think that the hit was illegal becuase you aren't allowed to grab a quarterback below the knees -- the Carson Palmer rule. Oh well...hey, did you hear about the CBS Scene? I didn't know if I was watching a football game or a 3 hour promo for $35 pizza.

More thoughts

1. What's with all the music I grew up with being used in other songs or commercials. This MIA song called "Paper Planes" uses The Clash's "Straight To Hell," which I feel is blasphemy...then while watching the Patriots game (hey, there's nothing else on even though I swore off football, sorry, I see a commercial for NFL.com and they are using a Morrissey song. A @#$%ing Morrissey song!!! I can't believe this.

2. I finally logged in to EA Sports fantasy through my 360. I still can't get in through my PC.

Football Sunday

I've never been a fan of Dan Dierdorf, and today I'm even less of a fan. I would love a second opinion on the hit that knocked out Tom Brady...looked to me like he deliberately grabbed Brady's legs, like Carson Palmer...but Dan says no.

In other news, the EA Fantasy live scoring is borked big time today...

NCAA Title Update available (360)

I haven't played NCAA in a while, so I was surprised to see a 2nd NCAA Football 09 title update. On further review this was released August 20th. Oops. Anyone have any thoughts/comments on if the update impoves play?

ID Software PC Pack $35 (not sports, but wow)

This week's Steam sale is a doozy, it's pretty much every Id software game for $34.99. So if you're missing that key to Hexen, or Doom, or never bought the extra doom levels, now is your time to pick this up!

Forza Motorsport 2 DLC cheap!

For those who hadn't heard, Microsoft is having a nice sale on some downloadable content. Although $10 off the Oblivion add on is a great deal, let's keep it sports related and let you know about the discounted Forza Motorsport downloads:

In US dollars, the old price was $5, the new price is $3, allowing you to save a total of $8 if you buy all the packs.

Forza 2

• Motegi Track Pack - 240 MS Points Was 400!
• September Car Pack - 240 MS Points Was 400!
• December Car Pack - 240 MS Points Was 400!
• March Car Pack- 240 MS Points Was 400

This is "for a limited time"....