Saturday notes
- The Badger game is in just a few hours and I'm pretty geeked up about it. It's one of those games where a team really defines who they are. Considering the fact that Wisconsin is the only unranked undefeated team, it's a big game.
Should be a fun one to watch.
- I decided to pre-order DJ Hero. I have enough trade credit to cover it, so I just have to give it a go. Just looks like too much fun to me.
- We're onto week 2 in the Madden league. It's a solid league structure, but the lack of salary cap and other controls keep it from being perfect.
- More later
Thursday night notes
- Watching the Islanders game tonight was terrific. I didn't see the same fire in the team that I saw in game 1, but they still had some impressive stretches. Still... losing for the second time (even with getting points both games) isn't much fun to watch. It's still great to watch the games though.
- I'm glad that the Onion really covered this story. I'm amazed that no one picked up on it this week.
- After the Islanders game I had a chance to try out Baseball Blast a bit. I can really see that this might be one of the first baseball games that I can get my daughter to play on the Wii. Some of the minigames are pretty simple and will be fun to watch her play, but there are others in there that will be way too hard for her to be able to grasp. My hope is that they can take the concepts of some of these mini games and put them into the gameplay for MLB2K10. If you can come up with a good batter and pitcher scheme for the Wii, you can have a sensational game. Add some of the elements of the Wii Motion Plus to it... and you have a real win there.
- Call me an idiot... but I'm getting more interested in DJ Hero every day that goes by. With the complete soundtrack list coming out the other day... I'm just dying to try out the game.
- Also got NBA Live 10 from Gamefly today... but haven't had a chance to start it up yet. More on that one over the weekend.
Quick Thursday notes
- So, I got home last night and found a copy of Baseball Blast for the Wii on my doorstep. Thanks 2K. I know that the game looks like a collection of Mini-games for the Wii, but as listeners of the podcast know... I've been hoping to see a more fleshed out version of Wii Sports baseball. Maybe this isn't it, but I'm happy to take a look at the game and see how it pans out. I'll be giving it a look later tonight.
- The reason I didn't look at it last night is because I fell asleep at 7 PM. I was just flat out exhausted from the late night of work the evening before.
- Dan is out of town at the moment, hence his lack of posting.
- My parents are getting their first HDTV tonight (and a Blu-Ray player to boot.) I'll be going over there tonight to set things up and test it out with them. That should be a fun event. I'm thinking their Christmas present from me will be a Harmony remote...
- More interview efforts are underway, and I've had a few more ideas for things to add to the podcast. Hopefully all will work out...
Quick Wednesday notes
- Forgot to mention it, but it was nice to see the Brewers end on good note by sweeping the, resting to get ready for the playoffs, Cardinals over the weekend. They scrapped and fought for a few hard games and ended up getting Prince Fielder a share of the RBI title (and almost got him the Home run title as well.) They were a frustrating team to watch as far as their pitching was concerned, but my hope is that they do what they can to keep Prince around long term. He was the only player in the majors to play ever game this season and he just keeps getting better.
- Here's one of the more shocking news stories of the day... Microsoft's Project Natal might be expensive. Wow, that's so surprising for a company that charges $150 plus for a 120 GB hard drive, and $100 for a wireless adapter for their console...
- Good to know that Dan is still miffed about losing the fantasy game to me. It was entertaining to see the Vikings stop handing the ball to Peterson down the stretch when all Dan needed was 3 points to win.
- I'm still playing a lot of Quickhit football. It's fun to manage the RPG aspect of the games. Deciding how you want to upgrade your players becomes quite a bit more challenging as you move along. You can really bump up the stats for your running back, but if you don't take care of your offensive line, he'll never have a hole to run through. Keep on sending your email requests for beta codes.
- More later...
Tuesday night notes
- Give it up to the Twins. They came back from being 3 games down with 4 games to go and knocked off the Tigers in the 163rd games of the season. If you didn't get a chance to see it, it was a very exciting game from about the 7th inning on... and just kept getting better from there.
So, the Twins have to go from celebrating to playing against the Yankees tomorrow. Not exactly the most fair playoff system (as the extra playoff game was delayed due to the Vikings/Packers game last night,) but here's hoping they keep it going and beat New York.
- I got my copy of NBA2K10 tonight and started up the My Player feature. It plays almost identically to the NBA Draft Combine feature... which just seems a bit odd, but oh well.
I haven't seen any real major changes in the gameplay from the previous versions, but I've been almost exclusively in the 'My Player' mode, so there is plenty more to see.
- Stuck working late tonight, and will be up for another hour or two. Ugh. This is never much fun. (Damn software updates.)
- The hype is really starting to get build for the Badgers and Buckeyes. I really can't wait for the game. The Badgers are probably not as complete of a team as OSU, but they have been playing some really good football of late. Should be a lot of fun.
Tuesday Thoughts
- Interesting that Ray Lewis and co weren’t fined for their anti-referee remarks this week..maybe because they were right?
- Hey, I’m a Pats fan, and I can say all 3 of the roughing penalties were lame – if viewed from the correct angle…at first when I saw the guy on BAL attempt to grab Brady’s knees I was like PENALTY!! but then from another angle, it was pretty lame. It’s all how you saw it.
- I got NBA 2K10 for the PS3 today. More later.
- Don’t even talk to me about fantasy football. Words cannot express how pissed I am about losing to Glen by 2 freaking points.
- Am I the only person that hasn’t received GH:VH yet? WTF!?!
Well…
I have to give a tip of the hat to one player today....
Aaron Rodgers.
That boy got beat like a pinata and just kept coming. The offensive line is a sieve and couldn't stop me, my grandma, my sister... hell anyone... from getting to the QB today. If anyone deserves the week off that the Packers have, it's him. He'll need the time just to rest after that beating.
What this will turn into though, is a "madtowner" festival of... "See, I told you Ted Thompson was wrong."
The fact of the matter is that if that they would have had a 39 year old QB in a coma if he played with that offensive line.
My hope is that in the next week the Packers can try to find someone, anyone, who can play tackle and keep Rodgers upright. My first vote was to call Forrest Gregg. He probably would come on back for one more year.
Oh... the highlight of the night though was beating Dan by 2 points in Fantasy. He was talking smack all game... that makes up for a bit of it.
Monday night notes
- My copies of NBA Live 10 and NBA2K10 are on the way... so it'll be interesting to see how those titles compare this year.
- Is there something going on tonight? I can't really tell.
- If you asked me for my honest opinion, I would say that I'm much more interested in the Badgers/OSU game than I am in the game tonight. I just want it to be tomorrow so that all of the crap about this game can be over. I'd like to see the Packers win, but that's all.
- If you'd like to get involved in the Quick Hit Football beta, just drop us an email and we'll get your info passed along.
- Picked up Wii Fit Plus for myself and the missus. We'll see how much fun that one can be. For $19.99... seemed like something well worth picking up.
- I picked up NHL Center Ice over the weekend. It's a great package. Tons of HD hockey this time around. I got to see the first Islanders game against Pittsburgh in HD over the weekend and loved every minute of it. The Islanders really looked a hell of a lot better in their first game. Tavares really looked sharp... it'll be great to watch him all year.
- Ok. Time to watch the game. More later....
Riding the Pines – Episode 34
Hello again everyone.
For this, the 34th episode of Riding the Pines, I had the opportunity to interview Brandon Justice and Dave Zydrko of Quick Hit football. We spoke about the upcoming release of the web-based football title and how the game came together and how it will continue to grow after it is released.
Also in the episode, Dan and I spoke about what we've been up to lately and what games are on our play lists.
You can download the show from all of the usual places, iTunes, Feedburner, and direct download.
Enjoy!
I forgot what a pile of dung NCAA is
Feeling in the mood for some football on this rainy day, I played some All Pro Football 2K8. I forgot how much fun that game is. I won on a kickoff return TD in OT. The game was well balanced and very enjoyable…even if I would have lost, it was fun.
Then I put in NCAA 10, got the 1.03 patch for the PS3, and man, the game plays so much faster. And for the record is Florida St #20 in the poll? It sure didn’t look that way when BC beat them today.
I tried that college showdown mode and man, who mapped these controls? I keep hitting R3 inadvertently meaning the screen flips and it goes into player lock or as I like to call it “automatic offside.”
This game sucks pure and simple. I can’t believe I ever liked this.
So to recap: spend $10 get all pro 2K8, enjoy. use the NCAA football 10 case as a door stop.
Oh and now that game has those weird artifacts like pointy things coming out of the players. Well done EA!
Podcast Update
Glen and I recorded the podcast last night around the interview with the guys from Quick Hit Football. They are ex-2K and EA guys, and ex-IGN to boot.
I wasn’t in on the interview unfortunately but I have been playing the beta. Stay tuned as when we release the podcast, we will tell our readers how they can get a free invite into the Quick Hit football beta…
Fantasy Game of the Year
This week my 3-0 team, The Happy Fluffers, take on Glen’s “Madtown Bombers”…right now the Sportsline preview has me as a 25 point favorite.
Should be an interesting game!
PSP Go
Well it’s PSP launch day. I have a PSP 2000 and I’m happy with it, plus it’s white and has cool Darth Vader on the back of it. I also have a 32GB Memory Stick Pro, which is about 16 GB bigger than the PSP.
Their limited memory is insane, of course if they used SD cards instead, it would also be less expensive. Oh well.
At least the game store has some great downloads, including EA Sports games, although they are insanely priced at $40. Why would I pay the same price when I can get a UMD and not have to worry about memory space or downloads?
Did anyone get the GO? What do you think?
Thursday night notes
- The newest interview is "in the can." I'll be posting it tomorrow night, if all goes well. I thought it was an entertaining look into the un-named game that we spoke about. (That in the biz is called an annoying tease...)
- I can't believe how annoyed I am that DirecTV hasn't settled with Versus. Gotta find some way to watch the NHL tonight.
- Dan is right on about NHL2K10 for the Wii. The speed for the game is a bit slower than you may like, but the gameplay is terrific.
- I'm home with a sick kid tonight, so I'll try to get some gaming in later tonight... but those of you that are parents, know how these nights go...
Hot Ice Action
Tonight on Versus! (WTF) It’s the Caps and Bruins. I’m thankful I have Versus HD. Apparently Versus used to be Outdoor Life Network or something.
Speaking of hockey, you should give NHL2K10 for the Wii a chance. It’s pretty good.
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