The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Wow, talk about a weird coincidence. You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging. You see, I was at the ER yesterday (really) and had a CT scan done (really) and I had an enlarged appendix, which resulted in absolutely nothing!

Well that and I was sent to the ER by my regular doctor because of severe dehydration. I mean the real thing, not the Mariah Carey kind of dehydration.

So I drank 2 liters of fluid intravenously and off I went back to work today.

I don’t know if I have some weird mind melding with Glen’s daughter or what, but that is truly bizarre that we had similar stories, wouldn’t you say.

So yeah, the CT scan shows the appendix is large, but not large enough to take out – nor does it rule out surgery – so I”m kind of in this purgatory…apparently the rationale for this is because there’s an assumption I had “C|Diff”, not related to C|Net….which apparently can happen if you’re given an antibiotic but don’t have a bacterial disease, so instead the drug eats the good bacteria, making you sick, or something.

The only good thing is that because I had an ER referral from my primary care, the whole event is going to cost me my usual copay..$5. I’m sure that hospital bill is insane! Oh well, I would rather have them check everything out on me than not, right?

I’d write about playing games but the only one I’ve been playing is “text message my wife to let her know I will be discharged from the ER”…which doesn’t really have very good graphics.

- So, just to update… Urgent Care visit, Emergency Room visit, CT scan, a few hours of sleep, then back to the doctor again for an ultrasound and at this point all that they think my daughter has is really bad constipation.  I’m beginning to think that she’s got something blocking things up in there though.  Her stomach is bothering her to the point of crying and there are times where she can’t even walk upright without pain.

Hopefully the medicine that they gave us will soften things up down there and she’ll be able to get whatever is blocking things up, out of there.

I’ll tell you this though, giving a 4 year old an enema… is not fun.  That’s something I don’t want to repeat again any time too soon.

- I got my copy of MLB Front Office Manager today and I’ll post some impressions either later tonight or tomorrow.

- Also today from 2K Sports, Don King Boxing was resurrected and will be released in March for the Wii and DS.  Here’s a link to the site.

I have high hopes for the game, but it is being made by 2K China, who made Top Spin for the Wii… and I was sorely disappointed in that.  Hopefully they turn it around this time.

So, here I sit in the ER with my oldest daughter, who has an undiagnosed pain issue. She started complaining of stomach pain yesterday, but we just figured it was constipation and it would clear itself up with some juice and such.

Well, one day later and she’s in some pretty bad pain at the moment.

We just got blood drawn and are waiting on those results. Next up is a scan to see if her apendix(sp?) is in bad shape.

At least she’s resting now and has stopped crying for a bit.

Sick kids are about the worst thing in the world. There is nothing that you can do other than to just be there. All she wants is for me to give her hugs and hold her and to be home with mom(who has Strep for the 2nd time in a month.)

As I said… the fun never stops.

- Well, the Wisconsin basketball team is more than likely NIT bound.  I just don’t get this team.  They don’t play anything like the Bo Ryan teams of the last 8 years.

Bo’s offense is based on getting every player to post up.  This season, they rely almost entirely on outside shooting.

As far as defense is concerned, certain players don’t look like they want to hustle to cover their man.

It’s just a very odd year, that’s to be sure.   I just can’t really see a scenario right now where they make it to the NCAA’s.  8-8 in the Big Ten wouldn’t do it… and it’s hard to picture this team going 6-2 down the stretch to get to 9-7.

- So, MLB Front Office Manager was released today and I’ve read some mixed impressions so far, but I’m hoping to have a copy within the next few days and can post my thoughts then.   Feel free to post your thoughts here though if you have a copy.

- Dan is pretty under the weather, so we may not hear from him for the next few days… but stranger things have happened.

- I finished Half Life 2: Episode 2 earlier tonight.  What a spectacular game.  I always forget how great the Half Life series is, but man is that fun to play every time.

- I also started up Puzzle Quest again in the last few days.  It took me about a half hour to remember why I stopped playing.  While the story is engaging, you only get tiny snippets of it in between 5 to 10 minute “matches,” and those matches get longer and longer as the game progresses… and it just starts to drive me nuts.

My hope is that Galactrix takes care of some of those issues, but I have my doubts.

Earlier in the week, one of my friends suggested to me that I should try out cross country skiing.

Until yesterday, I had never even worn skis, so it was certain to be an interesting event.

One of the first things that I noticed was that even getting the skis on was a minor challenge.  Then getting the poles adjusted so that they are tight enough over your wrist and allow you to push off correctly, added another layer to the event.  I felt like I was already a bit exhausted before we got 15 feet from the building, but I soldiered on… I’m a gamer.  Plus, it cost me 10 bucks, so I couldn’t back out that quickly.

Here’s a question for you.  How many types of exercise can you think of where you are almost entirely reliant on someone else creating a path or track before you even started?

Within a few minutes of being out on the snow, I found that I was completely hopeless unless I was skiing in the tracks that were created by others.  Once one of those tracks disappeared one of my legs would just slide to the side like I was turning myself into a human saw-horse.

Then there were the hills.  Going down them?  Not so bad.  I did have to fight the urge to pull myself into the full skier tuck though… the last thing I needed was to go hurtling down a hill, at what was at least, a horrifyingly fast, 4 or 5 miles an hour.  Going up the hills was a different story though.

If you stay in the tracks, you can shuffle your feet and move about 6 inches at a time… maybe.  If you go outside of the tracks, you have to try and climb the hill like a penguin with 2-by-4’s strapped to their feet.

I can’t say it’s the worst exercise I’ve ever gotten, but I can say that I now understand the biathalon.  I’m positive that after the first 15 minutes that anyone ever spent doing this…. all they could think about was shooting the person that took them.

For those that didn’t see it on DirecTV or Easynews, don’t forget to watch Friday Night Lights on NBC. Freaking awesome show.

In other news, I’ve been a bit under the weather with an ear infection and a loss of my voice. Don’t worry, I’ll be better soon.

I’ve been playing NHL 09 and NCAA Football 09…two of the better sports games in recent memory.

On the PC, I’ve been playing Crayon Physics Deluxe, which is pretty cool.

I also installed Windows 7 beta…Microsoft makes it clear, once you upgrade to the beta, you have no uninstall path aside from FDISKing your drive — unless you dual booted, which I didn’t do. So guess I’ll be using Windows 7 beta until Windows 7 final comes out.

The MLB The Show stuff that’s coming out is really getting me excited. The screenshots of MLB2K look great….but I’m a little skeptical until I’m hands on with the game.

The MLB Front Office game was reviewed in the new Game Informer, and they gave it a 3. Now to be fair, they pretty much hate any sort of sim game like this, but still a 3 is a very bad score….guess we’ll have to see what the game is like…

- I always count on the fact that people will forget what I say after drinking too much beer over a weekend, but leave it to Madtowner to call me out on that.  So, without further adieu….

It sort of works for the site, because there is a doofus wearing a Brewers hat. (Oh, and that’s not me.)  Thanks to Sidelinehotties.com for the picture.  (I swear, that’s the first time I’ve ever been to that site.)

But, as for the picture of Megan Fox requested in comments?  No can do.  I just can’t handle every request that comes down the pike.

- Speaking of the Brewers, they signed Prince Fielder to a 2 year deal today.  I’m still disappointed that they didn’t trade him to try and acquire some pitching help, but the GM keeps saying that they’re happy with the rotation that they have… ok… whatever you say.

- Next up… I rented Star Wars: Force Unleashed from Gamefly this week and here’s my first thought.  The save points suck.  I hit a bug in the game on the 2nd freaking level and it made me re-do about 10 minutes of gameplay.  That just blows.  I went into an elevator and when I stood on the platform, it launched me up and killed me.  It’s crap like that that just makes me want to return a game and not give it another look.  Very irritating.

- I’ve got a story coming later tonight… so you have that to look forward to.

Today 2K Sports released their first images of MLB2K9.

Click on each image to see a larger version of the screen shot.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Glen for posting even more great things about MLB 09 The Show. Who isn’t excited about this game? Hmm?

Today’s Amazon daily deal is Geometry Wars DS for $9.99. Come on Glen, you know you want it. Just give in.

I went to Circuit City yesterday. Man, if you thought it was a dump before, wait until you see it now. I do honestly feel bad about the people that are left to work there. They probably have no choice given the economy but yet know their jobs are ending soon. Yikes.

Did you see The Daily Show last night? The similarities in speeches between W and Obama sure was scary….

Today Sony posted some more information about the newest iteration of their baseball franchise, MLB09: The Show.

This post details more information about things that have changed in the way that the AI operates, new animations added, and adjustments to the batting and pitching duel.

This was, easily, my favorite baseball game of the year in 2008 and it’s my hope that they can continue to refine the product and that the additions in the game aren’t detracting from other parts of the game.

- So, I’ve been thinking about putting together a better PC in order to play through some of the games that I’ve picked up over the past few years.  It was just tonight that I noticed that my gaming PC is over 5 years old.

I’ve been looking over Tom’s Hardware and their guides for putting together reasonably priced PC’s and was curious for input about what people would recommend for a quality gaming system?  I don’t want to break the bank, but I’d like to have something decent again.  Any video card and processor thoughts?

- Thanks to Netflix on the 360, I’ve been watching through quite a few episodes of 30 Rock of late.  Why didn’t anyone bother to tell me how entertaining this show is.  I haven’t laughed this much at a sitcom in a long, long time.

- So, the Packers hire Dom Capers to run the defense.  Meh.  Better than Haslett at least.

- After a weekend of ice fishing, it was nice to get back home and watch some football.  (Considering we only got 2 or 3 fish on the ice… and only one was a keeper.)

I really like this Superbowl matchup.  I think that Arizona is a great story and Pittsburgh was probably the best team in the league for the second half of the year.

Plus, there is a storyline there with Ken Whisenhunt not getting the Pittsburgh job 2 years ago… so it should be an interesting game.

- I got my rental copy of NBA09: The Inside for the PS3 on Thursday and played through one of the 3 ’stories’ in the game. Here’s my IGN review for the game….

If you like 2 minute cutscenes where your character is dancing on the screen, you’ll love NBA09.

I kid you not… there were at least 3 cutscenes where your player is just dancing with people.  My wife walked into the room and asked, “Why are you watching people dance?”

Crazy… just plain crazy…

- Ok, time to watch some 30 Rock on Netflix.

Tired of creating your player in NCAA Football and having the commentator using a crappy ‘nickname’ instead? EA is asking you to submit your name for possible inclusion in NCAA 10!

All you have to do is have an EA account (which if you play online, you do), and click here.

Well I think everyone saw this coming, but it’s too bad. It was always one of the circulars I looked forward to. Consolidation is good, right?

New Star Soccer 4 will be the Game Du Jour on January 20th, meaning it will only be $9.98! Awesome deal!