Monday morning notes « The Blog for the Sports Gamer

20Jun/111

Monday morning notes

- In honor of the IT Crowd...

- Moving onto the Brewers...

and let's move back away from them.

What a horrible weekend series from them. I began to wonder if they could try to give up more runs by the time the weekend was up. Two first innings where the starters averaged 45 pitches?!? That's horrible stuff. Thankfully, Wolf had a great outing on Saturday night to salvage something from that series.

Still, they're tied for 1st after a 2-5 road trip. They get to come back home today but have to go up against Tampa Bay for a 3 game set. They do get a day off after that, as they've had to play 17 days in a row (and that's the max that the union allows.) Then they run into the Twins this weekend, who are playing their best baseball of the year. Could be a really rough inter-league season for the Crew.

- In what will be a shock to no one, I picked up Ocarina of Time 3D yesterday morning as a father's day gift for myself.

The first thing that really amazes you about the game is how much effort they put into improving the visuals. It's really quite stunning how great the game looks now. I can remember how muddy some of the characters and backgrounds appeared with the initial version and all of that is gone now. The 3D effect in the game is also quite impressive, as it's the first game that I've played on the 3DS that really makes you feel like you're looking into the world that you're playing in.

The only issue that I have had with the game thus far has to do with the slingshot, and the issue is a minor one. One of the new control options allows you to use the gyro feature of the system to aim by moving the system, rather than using the control stick. The primary issue with that becomes the fact that unless you move your head as well, the 3D goes out of focus. Thankfully, you can use the stick to aim as well, so you can avoid the problem.

Beyond that, the game is just as terrific as I remember from the last time playing it. Also, I've forgotten most of the locations of items and the puzzle solutions, so that should allow me to enjoy it a great deal more. I guess that's the benefit of playing a game that you haven't played in over a decade. Also, it was funny to see Gamestop trying to sell me a $20 strategy guide for a nearly 15 year old game. Why do I need strategy guides again? I believe the internet does just as good of a job, thank you very much.

Probably the most surprising thing to me about the game is how much the music has stuck with me. Even though, as I said, I haven't played the game in a long time, the music still seems quite familiar to me. I guess that's a sign of how great Nintendo's composer is, when the songs stick with you like they do.

- Also, over the weekend I spent a great deal of time with inFamous 2. Probably the best thing that they did with the game was to avoid taking away the things that made the first game so much fun, but still add some new features that give your powers a bit more punch.

Another one of my favorite things about the game has to do with how the citizens of the city react to your actions. In my current play through of the game, I have chosen to help the citizens and be a "good guy" and as a result of that the people of New Marais try to help me out from time to time. It's always a pleasant surprise to see the NPC's trying to punch and kick the bad guys that are trying to take a shot at you, after you have "cleaned up" their neighborhood.

What really struck me about this game was how much better they handled a sequel for a "collectathon" type game such as this one. If you take a look at Crackdown 2, you see a game where a new developer was brought on and they appeared to have no idea how of how to keep the heart of the gameplay intact while adding on new features.

inFamous 2 suffers from none of those problems, and only improves on what they did in the first game. I highly recommend picking up the first game to get your first taste of the universe that Sucker Punch has created, and then buy the second game after you get hooked.

- Lastly, I'll be curious to hear if any of you watched the U.S. Open over the weekend. Usually I like to sit down on Father's Day to watch the final round, but when the event was all but decided going into Sunday, I really had no interest in tuning in.

People can talk about how Tiger Woods makes an event more interesting to the casual fan, but I could care less if he's playing. I just want to see an interesting competition at the end of an event, and sadly, this one just didn't have it.