Quick Thursday notes
- As Dan mentioned the Fantasy playoffs start today. The bummer about the CBS Sports leagues is that the free ones offer zero customization. Which means we get 4 playoff teams. 3 division winners and a single wild card.
I'm happy to be the wild card winner, but it doesn't look good for me this week.
Still, thanks to everyone for playing this year.
- I'm still working on the site move stuff, but it won't probably happen until early next week. Probably a good time to do it with the holidays and all.
- Dan and I are planning on recording a show tomorrow evening and may try out something different for it. I'll have to let you know more of the details on that tomorrow though.
- Heading to the company holiday party now. Have a good rest of the day.
Playoff Bound
As the division winner, I’m in the playoffs! Thankfully there were no hosers like San Diego last year vs New England – the four best teams by record made it in, although I’ll say an 8-6 season kinda sucked.
I’m up against Daniel Reagan who whipped me 146-74 back in Week 11. Early betters have TBD as a 24 point favorite. Then again, I’m playing Philip Rivers vs Aaron Rodgers and Adrian Peterson vs Jamaal Charles.
How am I supposed to lose, exactly? Oh well , it’s just my luck.
Late Monday night notes
- Slow news day and not too much going on, outside of work.
- Still trying to figure out what to get my 5 and 2 year old for Christmas this year. Having a birthday this close to Christmas will be a challenge as Gaby gets older, but for now... I'm just struggling with coming up with another gift for her. Maybe her letter to Santa will lend some insights.
- I was curious as to if anyone else tried out the Dante's Inferno demo on the PS3 over the last few days. I don't think I've ever played a game that was that obvious in their attempt to take what another game has done (God of War) and make almost an identical replica to it. Not that it was a bad replica, just that you have a severe sense of Deja Vu during your entire playthrough. Maybe they have some Kratos easter eggs in the game... who knows?
- For those of you that are Best Buy Reward Zone members, the game Fairytale Fights will be $19.99 beginning next Sunday at Best Buy. Not really a big deal, until you see that there is a $20 off coupon via the Reward Zone site for the game... making it free. The reviews have been pretty bad, but it's probably worth a rental at that price (and then trade-in fodder.) The Wii Metroid Trilogy will be $19.99, but I just can't bring myself to pick it up, seeing as how I already have the first two on the Gamecube and haven't finished the 3rd yet.
- Hopefully there will be more news to cover tomorrow...
Sunday night notes
- Ugly win for the Packers, but they are 9-4 now (which is just amazing to say.) They also have a 2 game lead in the Wild Card thanks to the tie-breaker with the Cowboys. Win 2 of the last 3 and they'll lock up the 5 seed. In fact, they'd really have to collapse in order to not get the 5... but crazy things like that can happen.
- I've seen a lot of things lately about Avatar addons for Xbox Live, and I have to ask. Who in the hell buys things for their avatar on a game console? Why in the hell would you pay one cent to give a virtual version of yourself a kitten? It never ceases to amaze me what things people will buy, especially virtually.
- Ended up grabbing Fight Night Round 4 today for $14.99 from Best Buy (as it was their deal of the day.) I enjoyed my rental of the game, so it was worth it for that price. Might be a fun title to bring up for New Years. Beating the hell out of each other after a few drinks would probably be a lot of fun.
- I will never pay attention to the Heisman race again. What a pointless award. The best player in college football (and most dominant player that I've seen in college in a long time) finished 4th in the race for the Heisman. The player that won the award, wasn't even voted as the best running back in the country 2 days ago. Ugh, what a sham. All I read today was about how great of a person Ingram is, while no one can seem to indicate that he was a better player than the others up for the award. Again, I won't mention the Heisman ever again. If the voters can't even agree on how they should vote for it, then I won't care about their idiotic voting.
VGA Announcement Tiger Woods 2011
Wow, lots of announcements about new games tonight from the VGA’s…of special note:
Tiger Woods 2011. Now with even more cheat codes.
Get it? Cheat? Omg, I kill me.
And yes, this is humor, there’s no announcement of a new game.
However, I am looking forward to hearing Bill Harris talk about Green Day Rock Band, you know since Harmonix doesn’t sell out and stuff 
.
Saturday night notes
- I won't even bother to tell you what I'm playing... you know it's Borderlands... so I'll leave it at that for the night.
- Meet the new boss, same as the old boss....
the band promises that it'll feature their "songs, favorite venues, and imagery" to deliver the ultimate Green Day experience for players at home.
Really? I've been dying to know what it's like to live the life of a band... that has members almost the same age as me.
As I said to Dan, "Don't want to be an American Idiot? Don't buy Green Day Rock Band."
- In another shock from the VGA's tonight, Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. Sometimes it would be nice to have a unique new game not be forced into a sequel. Oh, well. That's what makes the money, I guess.
My quote to Dan after him saying that we didn't need a sequel was this, "No, the last one was perfect... but when you make a great game... you'll get a sequel. Or in the case of Lucasarts... when you make a mediocre Star Wars game... you'll get a sequel."
- Nice win for the basketball Badgers today. Add that to the hockey team taking 3 points in Grand Forks and it's a good weekend so far. Now the Packers just need to beat up the Bears.
Quick Friday notes
- Man, I can't wait for the "warm" weather for this weekend. The roads are frozen solid blocks of ice at this point and it takes at least an extra 45 minutes to an hour to get just about anywhere. The 20's and 30's over the weekend should finally allow the county to put some salt down and start melting that crap. These have been the worst prolonged driving conditions I've ever seen around here. Crazy.
- Finished up the first run through of Borderlands with my friends last night. 4 player co-op in that game is a blast and we hammered through the final boss without too much of an issue. Now I have to go back and do it by myself... which should be much less of a challenge with the nice loot I was picking up last night.
- Big hockey series this weekend for the Badgers between them and North Dakota. I hear it's cold up there. That's about all there ever is to say about Grand Forks. (I say this because that's where my wife lived when we first met. Coldest damn place I've ever been to. Smelled like beets. Ugh. You don't forget that...)
Quickies
PixelJunk Shooter is a very cool PS3 game.
Speaking of PS3, the new update fixed my trophy problem. Yay!
I’ve been playing PSP Pinball games. They are cute.
Lacrosse is still taking up my time on the 360.
I have to go to work now.
Football Mogul says Belichick was right
I was just sent a link to a story that ran at Sports Mogul last month after the Patriots coach went for it on 4th and 2 from his own 28 yard line. Their simulations proved that it was a better decision to go for it which, of course, is what happened.
The question is this, does this make you feel better Dan?
Mwahaha.
Quick Thursday notes
- I'd like to .... loading.... comment on MLB 09: The Show for the PSP, but... loading.... I can't seem to... loading.... formulate my comments in a .... loading.... way that can.... loading.... reflect... loading... what the experience.... loading... is.... loading.... like.
Good lord. Playing in the Road to the Show mode is terrible. I sat down with the game yesterday and, while I didn't have a stopwatch with me, I would estimate that the time to start each and every game for my relief pitcher was at least 1 to 1 1/2 minutes long. It was a, set your system down and come back in a while to see if you're ready to play, type experience. Terrible.
Also, it reminded me to one of my gripes about the way that 'The Show' handles their tasks that they would have you complete. Here's my example from yesterday.
My relief pitcher was tasked with getting a groundball from the batter. A grounder is hit to my 2nd baseman, who boots the ball, and the runner takes the base. I fail my task, even though I did exactly what the game wanted me to. They've been making adjustments to the system each year and I think that it's important that your player is not punished by the errors that another player commits. That just seems to make sense to me.
- I was back in New Haven and Rust Commons last night in Borderlands. Seriously, this is the most addictive game that I've played since Diablo II. Are there issues? Certainly. Are there some minor bugs? Yep. Do any of them stop you from enjoying the hell out of blasting Skags, Rakks, and Bandits? Hell, no. The game is sensational and I can't wait to play it each night after the kids go to bed. (Watching your enemies die from is just so fulfilling, but is something that I don't really want my girls to watch just yet.)
- Boy, that Badger game last night was something to behold. The game wasn't on TV, and we can't pull in Madison Radio stations from our house (living in the sticks is fun sometimes....) so I had to "watch" a blogging from the game. Listening to the guys who were at the game brought up some interesting points. UW-GB ran a small lineup of guards out there and the Badgers really had no answer for it. What I didn't understand is that if the other team goes "small," why do you have to let them dictate that to you? If they put 4 or 5 guards on the floor, send out your three quickest big men and force the game inside and get those guards into foul trouble. It was just a bizarre way to let that game go.
Based on my basic research, Green Bay scored the most points that a Badger team has allowed since 2006. That's just astounding. Great win for the Phoenix. Bad loss for the Badgers going into a matchup with Marquette this weekend.
- I'd really like to see the Brewers grab one more starting pitcher to really get that starting 5 set. Right now it's Gallardo, Wolf, ?, Parra, and Suppan or Bush. Ugh. That deal with Suppan can't end soon enough. Also, I have to hope that the Brewers can get that money (along with Bill Hall's horrible deal) and use that money to re-sign Prince to a long term deal. Him and Braun together in the 3-4 slot for the next 5 years would be awesome to see.
- The Fantasy football regular season wraps up this week. It's a very competitive league this year and no one has run away with it. Plenty can still change this week, so get those lineups in.
Traffic and weather together
Not bad enough that we got 15 inches of snow in the last day or so, we now have a -25 wind chill. The drive into work is taking about 3 times as long as normal. The kids are handling it pretty well thankfully. Winter weather is always fun, right kids?
Storm o’The Century
We received our first of many storm of the centuries today, and my John Deere snowblower died. I am not a happy camper.
In other news, the difference between where I live and 10 miles south of where I live was 6 inches. Now not Jonah, I’m talking snow.
Have you tried the lacrosse game yet?
PS Orioles did a pretty good deal today – Millwood and Cash for Chris Ray is a very easy deal to make. Sign Erik Bedard and hope for the best and we could be getting somewhere.
Quick Wednesday notes
- I should be finished up with my thoughts on Madden NFL Arcade later today. I just want to get in a bit more time on it before I have my final thoughts.
- I spent a good bit more time with Borderlands last night. Single player is fine for the game, 2 player is pretty good, but 4 player online is where it really shines. I spent close to 3 hours with some friends last night and we had a blast (until the power went out at my house... Grrr.) I can see myself playing this for a while. After finishing up with my soldier, I'm really anxious to try out the Brick character after this.
- Badger basketball tonight against Green Bay, which should be interesting... considering every school in the state is closed. I'll be very curious to see how many people show up for that game tonight in Green Bay. If it was in Madison, I'm guessing it would have been friends and family night.
- Speaking of the weather, we got about 15 inches here at our house... and we're totally snowed in. I'm hoping to be able to get to work tomorrow... but I'm not really sure how that will work out. Guess I'll be playing it by ear.
Nice day for the Brewers
- Nice to see some good free agent signings out of the Brewers. They probably knew that they would not be able to acquire someone like Lackey, so they went out and acquired Randy Wolf today via a 3 year deal worth almost $30 million. Also, they added LaTroy Hawkins to solidify the bullpen.
Not a bad start to free agency. If only they can pull off a deal to move Corey Hart along for more pitching, the roster would look a great deal more solid than it did going into last year.
Tuesday Notes
Hello all, long time no chat. Well maybe a few days.
Anyway, as we get ready for the weekly “storm of the century,” I wanted to let you in on a little known secret on the Microsoft Indie Games channel on your Xbox 360.
There are sports games there, and the one released a few weeks ago is of important note to sports gamers.
It’s called “Inside Lacrosse's College Lacrosse 2010,” and it’s a mere 400 MS Points ($5). Of course this isn’t an EA game so there aren’t any real college teams but there is a Baltimore team.
The game is better than many of the “Xbox Live” games that are a lot more expensive, and yes Tecmo NBA Crapfest, I’m talking about you.
You’ll use the right stick to shoot and the left stick to move. You can call your own defense, edit rosters, and buy items from the store. Best of all, you can play the game online.
There are no achievement points and depth of the game is limited but I played it late last night. Did I mention it is an insanely cheap $5?
You should show support of this great Indie Game and show support for the awesome sport of lacrosse and try this game out. There is a free demo naturally, and you can check out the official Xbox Page right here.
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