The Blog for the Sports Gamer

- So, as far as the women’s gold medal hockey game yesterday, it was clear that the Canadians were just the better team.  When you’re able to kill 2 – 5 on 3 penalties while only allowing 1 shot, you are clearly in control of the game.  The U.S. team was good, just not as good as Canada.

Still it was a great tournament to watch, even if only for that game.  I wish that they could have played each other more than once… but it wasn’t in the cards.

- Speaking of hockey, I’m sitting and watching the U.S versus Finland game…. and thinking that I could have played better in goal for the Fins in the first period.  Good lord… 6-0 after 13 minutes of hockey.  That is just insane.

Certainly looks as though we’re going to see the U.S. playing for the gold medal on Sunday against the winner of the Canada/Slovakia game.

- If you are an RTS fan, Dawn of War II is on sale for 5 pounds on THQ’s UK site.  I was able to pay for it with Paypal and take the key that was emailed to me and load it into my Steam account.  $7 for a Relic RTS game is an awesome deal.  Plus, I will get my first ever Games for Windows achievements… when I play it.  heh.

- I’m headed up to St. Cloud for some hockey with the family this weekend.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  I’m going to get back Sunday night and will put in some more time on MLB2K10 when I do.

After being married for 12 years, you’ll run into nights where you are looking for a little bit of sympathy from your spouse.  Tonight was one of those, but she was having none of it.  Let me lay it all out there for you.

Here are all of the things that I wanted to try and tackle tonight before going to bed.

- Play a bit of Heavy Rain

- Play some of MLB2K10.  I was planning on playing the demo, but was shocked to see the UPS package on the front steps when I got home.  Who would have known I would get it that early?

- Watch the Women’s Gold Medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada.   (I’ll comment on this tomorrow.)

- Watch the Wisconsin basketball game against Indiana.

- Try out Fret Nice for the Xbox 360.

By the time I was done watching the hockey game, in which the Canadian team dominated the U.S., it was already 8:45.  So, I sat down to watch the Wisconsin/Indiana game and saw that it was going to be ugly,  (Wisconsin ended up winning by 32… just an ugly game.  Indiana is terrible,)   and dove into a bit of Heavy Rain.

I see what people were talking about as far as the voice acting was concerned.  It’s pretty lackluster for what could be a very emotionally charged game.  I’m only about 30 minutes in, and I won’t spoil any of the things that happen, but I’m not disappointed with the game thus far.

After that I finally sat down to start working on MLB2K10.  Here’s my biggest gripe about the game so far… I won’t be able to play more of it until Sunday night.

This is not a perfect game.  If you’re expecting it to be as good as The Show, you’ll be setting yourself up for a fall there.  What I can say is that the game is greatly improved over last year.  You can see that from the demo, but it continues in the full version of the game.

The first thing that I sat down with was the ‘My Player’ mode.  They immediately threw my closer into a AA save situation as his first outing.  No spring training or anything like that.  You get your two pitches and you get to work.

One thing that I loved about that mode is the speed of the game.  Loading times are incredibly fast.  You’re going game to game in a very short period of time.  No huge delays like you can see in the ‘Road to the Show’ mode from Sony.

With each batter that you face, you’re asked to achieve a specific task (throw a first pitch strike, get a ground ball out, get a strike out, etc.)   What frustrated me, is something that bothered me with Sony’s effort in this as well.  If it asks you to get a ground ball out and you get a line out… you get no skill points for it.  There should be degrees of completion for those sorts of things.  You didn’t achieve the exact goal, but the end result was the same.

One thing that I did like is the fact that they don’t subtract points from you if you don’t complete them.  So, each thing that you’re doing gets you pitching points that you can use towards improving your pitches, stamina, composure, or other attributes.

From my time with that mode, I think I’ll spend a fair amount of time with it.  It’s a great pick up and play option and I really enjoyed it right from the get go.

After that I jumped into a single game between the Brewers and the Astros.

The commentary impressed me right away.  Within the first inning or so, I heard them talking about how the Brewers would miss J.J. Hardy from the lineup despite his struggles from last year.   That sort of information was something that we just haven’t gotten in a baseball game in the past.  It’s not something that you’ll pay $60 for, but exactly the type of commentary that makes the game more interesting.

One of the complaints that I had heard about the demo was that it was incredibly hard to get doubles.  I had no issues with that in the full version.  I had 2 doubles with the Brewers in the first game that I played.  One was a flair by Escobar to left that dropped over the 3rd baseman’s head.  His speed allowed him to take 2nd in a close play, but it seemed legit.

I’ve seen runners moving from first to third on hits to right field.  I saw a few dropped pitches by the catcher.  I threw a wild pitch (that was entirely my fault due to a horrible pitching motion.)  So, it’s safe to say that there were plenty of nice touches to see.

Not everything was perfect though.  The gameplay speed just seems off.  ( I am playing with default settings on pro, no slider adjustments whatsoever.)  Players like Carlos Lee seem to be running way too quickly on the bases.  Houston stole 7 or 8 bases on me and never once was I even close to throwing them out.  (I’m not entirely sure if this is because I’m not throwing quick enough… or if they’re just getting such a massive head start that I find it impossible to throw them out.)  No check swings in the game yet, but the defensive swing mechanic is nice.  I had a few at bats where it bailed me out with a flair to the out field that scored a run, and had other times when I just nubbed the ball with that type of swing.

The fielding controls are odd as well.  The CPU takes control of the player… but only until they get so close to the ball, then they just stop and have you take them over… but there is no indication that it’s coming and I’ve given up a few hits due to the fact that my player stopped when I thought he was just going to run to cut off a ball heading to the outfield.

Those are my early thoughts of the few hours that I was able to spend with the game.

I am heading out of town tomorrow afternoon and won’t be back until Sunday, so if you have some questions and want to find out some things about the game, send me an email and I’ll cover it next week.

Also, I plan on talking about the game quite a bit on my first podcast on Monday.  Between that and the men’s gold medal hockey final, I think there will be plenty to cover that day.

MLB2K10 on my doorstep when I got home.

I will play a few games and let you know what I think.

Here is the link.  Some interesting discussion about the changes for this year.  I’ll post some more comments later.

- Well, the U.S. versus Switzerland hockey game was a hell of a game yesterday.  Hiller, the Swiss goalie stood on his head for most of the game, but the Swiss team just couldn’t get anything past Ryan Miller and the United States team moves onto the Semifinals on Friday.

The Canadian game versus Russia was projected to be a great battle, but ended up being a blowout as the Canadians skated out to a 4-1 lead in the first period and never looked back.  Now THAT is the type of hockey that we expected from the Canadian all-star team when they put that roster together.   Things really seemed to have turned around for them once they took Brodeur out of goal, which is such a surprise because he’s so great in net usually.

Not to put the wagon before the horse, but the U.S. and Canada are one win away from a rematch of last Sunday’s game.  I really hope that’s what we get because it should be absolutely awesome hockey.

- 2nd, and last, test show for my new daily podcast is up.  I felt a lot better about this episode while I was doing it, and afterward.  I won’t be mentioning it every day here, but wanted to get the word out.

- Sony has worked out a demo program with Best Buy for MLB10: The Show.   According to the post, only 845 stores will have the demo.  I have no idea how many retail locations Best Buy has, or if your store will have the demo, but I’m going to head there today to take a look at it (if it’s available.)

- MLB2K10 conference call is happening later today.  I’ll get it posted on the site as soon as it’s done.   Hopefully there will be some interesting questions about things other than making sure the road socks for the Red Sox are the right color…. (eye roll.)

- Lastly, Amazon has the Mel Brooks collection on Blu-Ray for $55.99.  If you buy it from that link or via our search box on the site… we get cashy-money from it.  Always a nice thing.

- Absolutely HUGE hockey day today.  U.S. versus Switzerland at 2 CST and Canada v. Russia at 6 p.m. CST.

I’ll be covering the two games tomorrow in my last test show before going live daily (on Monday) at www.sgmore.com.   I’m still not sure how effective Twitter is for such a thing, but you can follow me at sgm_glen.   It still makes me feel dirty to say that….

- Tomorrow is the MLB2K10 conference call and I’m curious to hear more about how the check swing will be re-implemented into play.  Baseball fans know that the check swing is a major part of the game.  Hell, the petition to the 1st or 3rd base ump happens at least 5 to 10 times a game.  To see something like that removed was disheartening.  I’m just curious how it will be re-added and how they can prevent it from impacting the gameplay.

I’m planning on playing the demo a few more times tonight to see if I still enjoy it as much as I did last night.

- Anxiously awaiting my copy of Heavy Rain from Gamefly.  I can’t wait to start spending time with that.  It is the first game in a long time that I cannot wait to play.. and then play again to see how my choices in the game will effect the gameplay later on.

- As far as games that I’ve been playing, I started up Halo Wars the other day and just don’t know if I can really commit to it.  RTS games on a console just don’t have the controls that I can live with for it.  I feel like I’m doing so much time panning back and forth, whereas on the PC, I just click on a part of the map and I’m where I want to be.   I’m only a few missions in, so I’ll give it a bit more time before hanging it up.

- Also, on a lark, I loaded the original Command and Conquer on my Windows 7 laptop.  I was amazed to see it work as well as it did.  It’s been years since I looked at that title and it was funny to jump back to an old RTS like that and see how far they have come in the last decade.

Last night I played a few games of MLB 2K10. The scoreboard showing the “pulse” meter of the teams is the first thing you notice between innings instead of the regular score line.

I am still not a fan of the pitching – it feels like it’s the same to me.

The idea of a flick of the RS for a swing vs a back and forth swing for a power swing is a nice idea.

No commentary in the demo, btw. Hoping that’s just to keep file sizes down.

At first glance, it seems better than last year’s game, but Home Run for the 2600 was better than last year’s game. I don’t hate it..how’s that for a ringing endorsement?

In other news, I like the new Steam interface – it reminds me of the Zune software – and that’s a good thing….

Tonight I sat down with the MLB2K10 demo and came away pretty impressed.

In the three, 3-inning, games that I played, I only ran into one issue (and that was a throwing animation where the right fielder was making a motion like he was throwing to first, when I actually had pressed the button for third.  He did throw the ball to third… just looked really awkward.)

What I enjoyed most of all was the pitching interface.  It really felt like I had a great deal of control of what I was trying to do when I was pitching with Halladay and by the time I was in the 3rd game, I was hitting the black with a decent percentage of my pitches… and, it’s hard to believe… but the CPU was taking some of them.

I saw dropped 3rd strikes that forced a throw out to first.

I saw nice little touches, like pitchers throwing out in the centerfield bullpen when I was throwing too many pitches.

Now, it wasn’t all perfect.   The crowd animations are pretty repetitive and it seems like the Yankee pitchers paint the black at will… but that’s a minor grip.

One thing I will say about myself is that I did struggle with figuring out the pitch timing.  It took me a while to figure out how to time the pitches, and in time, I was putting the ball in play and having a good deal more fun.

Lastly… the check swing needs to come back.  At least twice there were instances where I made a tiny twitch with the swing stick and it registered it as a full swing on a pitch that I realized was going outside too late.  We have to hope that patch will be here soon.

Do your thoughts jive with mine?  Did you enjoy it as well, or did you find some issues that I did not stumble across?

Pre-order today and you’ll get the game for $24.99 when released.   More details here.

- My first test show is posted on the new site. www.sgmore.com for those of you that want to have a listen. No editing or anything, so you get to hear me talking to myself in the beginning before I get a bit of a flow going. I am planning on doing another few warmup shows before I “really” go live next week.

- The demo for MLB2K10 went live on the Xbox marketplace this morning. Please tell us what you think after you give it a go.

- More later

- Have to say that I’m excited about the 2K10 demo.  The conference call this week probably won’t offer a ton in the way of information, but I think the demo could speak volumes about the issues that they needed to correct from last years game.  The Game Informer Blog has been very informative and has me pretty geeked up about the game.  Tomorrow will tell us quite a bit about it.

- The hockey game last night was amazing.  I can’t think of a game in pool play that was played with that much intensity.  Another thing that will be awesome to see will be the TV ratings for it, not in the U.S. mind you… seeing as how hardly anyone knew it was on MSNBC (instead of the riveting Ice Dancing on NBC,) but the Canadian ratings would have been through the roof, I’m certain.   Considering that 12.3 million viewers watched the U.S play Canada in the World Junior Hockey championships earlier this year.  This game probably would have blown that one out of the water.

Next up?  Barring an unbelievable upset, the U.S. Women’s team should be facing off against Canada on Thursday at 6:30 EST.  Hockey, hockey, hockey… all the time.  Woo!

- With all of the talk about 2K10 of late, let’s not forget what’s being added to MLB10.   I can only hope that the PSP version loads better this time though… man… last years effort was so damn slow…. Hmm… maybe the digital download version will be faster… that’s something to think about.

According to Major Nelson’s podcast, a demo for MLB 2K10 will be released Tuesday 2/23. It will feature PHI @ NYY and be a three inning demo….looking forward to it!

So, after all this time, I’m going to let you in on what I’ve been working on.

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to figure out how I could do something a bit different with sports and gaming.   What I’ve decided to do is to start doing a daily podcast.  My original vision was to do a live radio show each and every day, and I still hope to do that, but the logistics and cost of it make that a bit of a challenge right now.   One of the things that I really wanted to add to it was the ability for people to be able to call into my voice mail and add their questions and comments that can be integrated into the show each day.   Also, once things get going further, I’m planning on adding a live chat module to the new site so that people will be able to comment as the show is being recorded.

I won’t be leaving the site here and will be still doing my normal posts that you all know and love, but in addition to that, I will be posting my show every morning at the new site, each week day at  7:00 a.m. CST.

The reasons that the show will be up so early each day are two fold.

1 – It allows me to comment on the sporting events of the last night and still be topical.
2 – It’s the only time that I can consistently do the show without interruptions (before the kids wake up.)

After all that, if you’re still interested head on over to www.sportsgamesandmore.com or www.sgmore.com to take a look for yourself and add your comments to the site there.

I’ll be doing my first test shows later this week and will be going daily on March 1st.  Can’t wait to get it going.  Hope you all enjoy it.

Oh, one last thing, I’ve signed up for Twitter… so you can follow my updates for the radio show via this tweet link.. or something…

- Huge men’s hockey game today between the U.S. and Canada.  The only game that I would want to see more than this one is Canada vs. Russia, but this one will do for today.

The U.S. team took a different approach by bringing in a good deal of younger players this time around, and so far it has worked for them.  They could run into a buzzsaw with the Canadian team today though.  Either way, should be a fun game to watch.

Then tomorrow we have the semi-finals in women’s hockey as the U.S. and Canadian teams seem set on a collision course for the gold medal match.

Any way you look at it, great hockey for the next few days.

- I’m very disturbed by the nature of the reporting of the Tiger Woods spectacle.

When the 3 major networks (NBC, CBS, and ABC) all cut into their daily programming to cover an apology by an athlete… I think we have shown how sad our culture has become.

Face it, it’s a person that screwed up his family because of what he was doing.   In no way is that an event that deserves this sort of attention.  I don’t care who he is.  The whole thing makes me sick.  Hell, it took me two days to be able to comment on it.  So damn sad.

- The Sports Gamer Blog Madden league is down to the final two weeks.  The final playoff spot in the NFC is still in play between the Rams and Cardinals, so there is plenty of interest (and smack talk) between the participants.

- I’ll be making a post later tonight about what I’ve been working on.   I’m sure you’re all giddy with excitement.

Finishing in 3rd doesn’t sound like much to most sports fans, but this was a major effort to step into the top 3 of the best conference on college hockey.

Congrats to the Huskies!

(First time I can ever recall cheering against Wisconsin….)