Madden NFL 10 Commercial
While watching the PIT-TEN snoozefest, I was stunned by the HD clarity of the Madden NFL 10 commercial.
While no one writes reviews to get quoted, I was very impressed to see a site I once wrote for, GameShark.com, get the lead quote.
Guess our Bill Abner has all grown up. Pretty good commercial coming off the “our sales are down.” It’s really too bad that basically the best game in years isn’t selling as well. I hope no one at EA is doing a correlation there….
EA Says Madden Sales are down
Tonight’s Wall Street Journal says sales of Madden NFL 10 are down vs last year. Must be because you have to pay for Franchise mode or something. LOL.
HA
Urban Dictionary’s Word Of The Day is “You Lie!” -- “The classiest way to respond to anyone you disagree with.”
That is funny.
Wednesday night notes
- No hockey for over a month is what the doctor ordered me. I have a microfracture in my leg that basically just requires less stress being placed on it. Funny thing about the bones near your knee is that they get used a lot each day. It'll be a fun recovery... at least there is no surgery.
- Seriously... a congressman yelled out 'You lie' to the president during his speech tonight. Good grief. Have things really gotten that bad between the two parties? The idiocy of what is going on right now just blows my mind.
- Did you see the Madden DLC that is on the way? A tribute to the AFL. I have to give it to them... that's one of their best addons in quite some time. Much better than paying to be an "Elite" player.
- Watched I Love You, Man tonight. The movie was hit and miss... but it did have the best Andre the Giant impression that I think I've ever heard.
- I laugh every time I watch this show...
- Any golfers have any tips for a very consistent push to the right? (I, mostly, hit it straight... but it's always at a 30 to 35% angle to the right of where I'm aiming.) I'm trying to rotate my bottom hand over to bring my swing around a bit. I don't play a ton, but like everyone, I'd like to get a bit better.
Tuesday night notes
- Just finished up Arkham Asylum. Quite the game, although the last two boss battles weren't nearly as challenging as some of the earlier ones. I'm now debating going back to finish up the remainder of the Riddler challenges.
There haven't been many games that I've been that anxious to step right back into after completing, but this is one of them.
- Bummer of a game for the Brewers tonight. They get great relief pitching after losing Parra early and then Hoffman blows the one run lead in the ninth. Oh, well.... it'll be Sunday soon and everyone will stop thinking about Milwaukee until April.
- I know I'm going to end up kicking myself for it... but I picked up NFL Tour at Best Buy. They're currently running a $20 coupon on their reward zone site for the game... and they have the game for $19.99 on Bestbuy.com... you just have to get them to price match themselves to get it for free.
I remember the demo being very bad... so I don't have high hopes... but free is free.
Peter Moore on the Dreamcast
If you’ve read the blog, you know that I have been a fan of the Dreamcast. Unlike the PS2 or original Xbox, it’s still a console that is hooked up and I play regularly – unfortunately I can’t play the light gun games on my LCD TV anymore, and many games are no longer available for (dial-up) online play, but still it is a fun system to play.
Peter Moore had a lengthy post about this. Ironically Peter was head of Sega of America on 9.9.99 and the irony of working for the company now that was one of the downfalls of the Dreamcast is not forgotten.
Saturday night notes
- Wow. Never would have expected BYU to beat Oklahoma... but when Bradford got knocked out... that made a big difference.
- Hate to say it but the Badgers game looked a lot like the Michigan and Michigan State games last year. A good size lead late in the game and let the other team get close enough to win. Thankfully they held them off, but it shouldn't have been as close as it was.
- I started playing Little King Story on the Wii and have to say that the game is incredibly enjoyable. After playing so much Batman lately, I've been looking for a game I can play if my daughter wakes up early from her nap. This one really looks to fill that need quite nicely.
- Also ordered Retro Game Challenge off of Gamefly for $8 bucks after a reward coupon. I've heard great things about this game and I don't think you can really go wrong with that price point.
- A follow up on the last 2 podcasts. I think the FOF Central guys are being overly harsh on Jim Gindin. The guy doesn't want to get burned by mentioning a game that might be coming out and then having to delay it. I can totally understand that. He's given us some of the best sports game simulations of the last 10 years and I understand that they want more from him, but I think he's doing what he can to enjoy what he does and bring a quality product to the market.
I didn't mention it on the post for the last podcast with Patrick Hruby, but he had a line from the episode that I just had to post on here. It's at the 30:15 mark, if you're curious to hear it yourself.
"You have a better chance of not contracting herpes at a singles bar, than you do have finding someone good (to play against) online.
That summed up my feelings about online gaming perfectly.
- Lastly, going biking sounded like a good idea today... but riding 18 miles (and pulling the carrier with both kids in it) with a partially torn MCL was not my best decision... my knee is killing me tonight.
Big Ten Saturday notes
- You could hear a collective, "WHEW!" from the Big Ten offices today.
Iowa blocks a field goal to hold off Northern Iowa.
Ohio State picks off a 2 point conversion attempt that could have tied the game and holds off Navy at home.
Minnesota kicks a field goal to send their game against Syracuse into OT (and goes on to win it in OT.)
Quite a tense day for the Big Ten, but they end up starting off the season well.
Quick Saturday notes
- I don't envy the players for Ohio State today. After watching the first quarter, you can really see how hard it is to defend the triple option. I also liked seeing the OSU and Navy players run onto the field at the same time at the beginning of the game.
- Greg Paulus is in for a long year as the QB for Syracuse. That team really looks like they could struggle quite a bit this year. (Edit: Funny... as I say that... they start to figure things out and move the ball quite a bit on the Gophers.)
- I'm pretty excited for the season opener for Wisconsin. They have two really high quality running backs and some solid wide outs. Hopefully the defense improves off of a terrible season last year.
- I was playing Super Mario Galaxy (7 stars to go) with my daughter Gabrielle last night and she put a Packer pom-pom on my head.
She said, "Now you have hair, Daddy."
"How does it look?" I asked.
She looked at me and thought for a few seconds and said.... "Unusual."
She never ceases to amaze me with the things she says.
Riding the Pines – Episode 33
Hello again, everyone.
This week's episode is a solo interview between myself and Patrick Hruby of ESPN. You may recall that Patrick recently wrote an article over at ESPN about the 12 most overrated athletes in video game history.
In this interview, we speak more about that article, why we wonder if football games can ever truly be realistic (and still fun,) and why the Wii is the best video game system to pick up women.
The show is available via iTunes, Feedburner, and direct MP3 link.
Enjoy!
Oops
As Jesse L reminded me, Gran Turismo has a NASCAR license. I’m not sure if it’s exclusive or not, but there will still be NASCAR action…
EA Drops NASCAR
Good thing EA had that NASCAR exclusivity license. After driving Papyrus out of business, EA released multiple NASCAR games, including the still played at my house NASCAR Cart game on the Wii.
According to GameSpot, EA’s Peter Moore has said that EA has no further plans to release a NASCAR game. So the question is, will anyone pick up the slack? Has the license been returned to NASCAR? Or is EA just sitting on it and paying for something they won’t use again? Interesting news either way..
The one where I call Bill Harris a dumbass
Imagine all the people....
Playing Rock Band to-day.....
In all fairness to Bill, he called himself one in an earlier email exchange today, and this is in reference to something else... but it just seemed like a catchy title for a post.
Over at Dubious Quality today, Bill discussed part of his dislike for the Guitar Hero franchise partially due to how Kurt Cobain's digital image is used in the game.
Now before I state my opinion, tell me what the difference is between how Cobain's image is used in Guitar Hero and this video at You Tube?
I may be a bit naive (and certainly am)... but how are these two items all that different? In Guitar Hero, they, paid for, and were allowed to use the digital likeness of Kurt Cobain (and I'm guessing Johnny Cash) to sing some of their own as well as other bands songs. In the commercial for Beatles Rock Band, they have digitally altered the 2 living members of the Beatles along with the 2 deceased members of the band and show them enjoying the greatness that is plastic instruments used to play a video game.
How much outrage was there over that commercial? As far as I can tell, none, but to me they are one in the same.
Both Activision and EA are out to make money. And with both of these games, they're going to make a lot. (In the case of EA, they're betting up of $40 million to do so.) You might not like the way that they're using the images in the games, but at least be fair to both... they're both using the dead in order to make a lot of money for the living.
Ok, I've never called Bill a dumbass... and still wont in this case either, but in this case, lets call a spade, a spade.
Wednesday notes
- And the early news is in on my knee.... Meniscal tear and something to do with either the fact that there is a microfracture or that they want me to have a microfracture procedure... plus other things that my nurse couldn't really relate to me.
Either way, it all sucks... and from the early prognosis I won't be playing hockey for a long time (4 to 6 months.) Well, I guess I'm really counting on enjoying my time with NHL10 and NHL2K10. Major league pisser.
- Speaking of NHL10. I'm hearing that the early review copies of the game are making their way out. Hopefully I'll be seeing the title very soon.
- Rumor has it that the limited amount of "upgradeable" (for lack of a better term) songs for Guitar Hero 5 will be increasing as they get the licensing issues sorted out. That'll make a big difference for me as I'm really debating picking the game up in the next few days. ($50 in gift cards at TRU eating a hole in my pocket at the moment.) Although, the thought of putting those cards towards DJ Hero has it's merit too. Hmm....
- Can I say how much it sucks that my knee is not very good? I knew after 4 weeks that it wasn't good...but damn...
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