The Blog for the Sports Gamer Three guys who love Sports Gaming rant and rave about various stuff.

Michigan/Ohio State Thoughts

I keep hearing two stories about the possibility of an Ohio State/Michigan rematch in the National Championship Game: 1) It could happen. 2) You have to be your conference's champion to play for the national championship, making a rematch between the two impossible. Those that have parroted the latter say it was a new rules change for this year. I don't know. Certainly, though, I'd favor option #2, as I don't think the loser of this week's game should be able to turn around and get a do-over for all the marbles.

As for the game itself, I simply don't know what to make of it. I told myself all season long not to get to up for it because I thought Ohio State was the superior team. But the closer the game gets the more I think Michigan's got a real shot. Their defense isn't just great, it's monsterous. Their front seven is the best I've seen in winged helmets (yes, better than '97) and their secondary -somehow- actually gets underrated (they're prone to giving up the big play, but they're a solid unit overall).

The real question in my mind is what Michigan's offense will do. Michigan is notorious for stubbornly slamming the ball into the teeth of a defense stacked to play the run. You can call that three yards and a cloud of dust football if you want. I call it setting up for a punt. That said, when Michigan has tried to stretch the field and keep opposing defenses honest, they've been able to do that. At least when the receivers catch the ball. There have been times Michigan's wideouts have looked uncomfortably like the receivers in NCAA 2005. Still, I think if we see Manningham, Arrington and Breaston play big roles (particularly if Breaston shortens the field on kick and punt returns) Michigan has the defense to keep the game under control.

I think the game will depend entirely on how well Troy Smith avoids the pass rush and makes big plays out of the pocket. If he starts avoiding sacks on third and long and finding receivers late in plays for big first downs, it'll be a long day. If Michigan can contain him and limit what he can do, I think Michigan leaves Columbus with one of the biggest wins in school history.

The New Bond Film: Hope Springs Eternal?

It sounds like it does, after reading a relatively spoiler-free review of the new Bond flick Casino Royale, over at Ain't it Cool News. I've always been a casual Bond fan. I came of age in the Roger Moore era in which pretty much all Bond films have peaked in the neighborhood of passable. The Living Daylights wasn't bad. In the latest films, I rather liked the Pierce Brosnan image of Bond, but his films have largely been an excuse to sell cars and other trinkets and the action has just been flat our ridiculous. The first half of Tomorrow Never Dies (that was the last one, right?) almost restored my faith in the Bond genre, when James B. actually played a spy for a little while there before going all John "Die Hard" McClain with the inane ice fortress and sun ray of doom. I haven't seen anything quite so over the top since they tried to convince us all that that model chick from the Starship Troopers movie could be a nuclear physicist, or whatever the hell she was supposed to be.

Given that, I hadn't given the new bond film much attention. The trailer, I though looked good, but trailers almost always look good. When I saw the trailer for Exorcist 3 back in the early 90s, I almost shit myself I was so excited. That film was so bad it would've made watching Ernest Buys an Ant Farm sound preferable.

Well forget all that. If this new Bond flick is everything this AICN guy says it is, this will be the best Bond flick of the last 20+ years. Here's a snippet from the review, but the whole thing is worth a read.

First of all, this Bond is never played for laughs. He’s quite serious. He’s not a one liner, pun spitting smart ass. Instead he’s a hard core bad ass. The kind of guy the British government would go to to kill someone quickly and efficiently if they needed to. As you’ve seen Bond say in the trailer “You want someone who is part hitman, part monk,” only he hasn’t quite gotten the monk part down. No, this isn’t the Bond you grew up with. This is the Bond from the original novel. He’s not bitter yet, he’s not comfortable with his job. And he’s not weighed down by dozens of miniturized gadgets.

That’s right. There isn’t a single scene with Q, he’s got no special watch, his car doesn’t fire rockets or spray water or leave oil slicks on the road. He’s got a really cool cell phone and a car with a hidden compartment and that’s about it. You won’t see a surprise parchute nor a special device that seems to only have a single purpose that Bond just happens to find useful. Nothing of the kind.

No invisible cars? No slapstick? Just straight Ian Fleming Bond? Sign me the hell up for that.

College Hoops 2k7 Preview and What I’m Playing Lately

Hola, everyone. I know. I suck for not posting enough. Let's move on.

IGN has put up a preview for College Hoops 2k7. It's not great. He spends half of it talking about using the new custom crowd chant creator to try and create dirty chants. I don't mind that so much, but let's get more creative than trying to put F and U or Blue and Balls together. I'll be happy if I can get the crowd to chant, "Listen, strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords, is no basis for a system of government." Probably not, eh? Anyway, while there's very little gameplay info there are some videos to see.

I actually find myself getting pretty excited for this one, which is surprising since I've all but ignored the NHL and NBA games. Lately it's been Guitar Hero (the first one), World of Warcraft and Sid Meier's Pirates for me. Pirates is fun. I've completed one pirate career as Steve the Pirate, but the lack of diversity in the game makes it wear thin quickly. I see it as the type of the game I'll play a lot for about two weeks every six months or so and leave it on the shelf the rest of the time.

I'm still on the fence with WoW. I mean it's fun. I've got three character started. Right now I'm favoring my level 11 dwarf fighter who keeps getting pasted whenever more than one monster gangs up on him. But for $15 a month? Cash is so tight for my family right now I just don't know that I'll stick with it. (Though I probably will until I have a chance to meet up with Bill online.)

And Guitar Hero is Guitar Hero. Which is to say it's too addicting for words. I did finally pass Cowboys from Hell and Bark at the Moon on Hard. But I've only managed to get through the first 14 tracks on Expert. That level is so frustrating I've gone back to Hard to improve my review scores. Hopefully, if I return to Expert at some point I'll be better prepared for some of the more insane parts.

With the 360 version somewhere on the horizon I haven't been planning to buy GH2. But the universal praise, especially from Dan and Bill Harris, is pressing on my willpower. I'll probably just see about landing a rental of it from Gamerang at some point. (Gamefly dropped my account this week after no less than four games have disappeared in the mail in the last six months. It pisses me off to no end, but I can't blame them. They probably think I'm stealing the games.)

Anyway, the Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 crunch, for me, is finally starting to subside, so I hope to get back to more regular posting going forward. (Don't hold your collective breath over it, though.)

Congrats Cardinal Fans

If the Tigers had to lose, I can't really pick a team from a better baseball city for them to lose to. Well, there's always the Cubbies, but let's deal in reality here. Anyway, forget the string of nonsensical errors and untimely gaffs. The Cards earned it. It's just a shame it had to end with a whimper for the Tigers, but what they did this season and what it meant to fans that wondered if we'd ever see winning baseball in Detroit again... it was a special year. The best summation for this season can be found at The Detroit Tiger Weblog.

What the Hell was That?

Did anyone else catch that new commercial for the Playstation 3? The one with a plastic baby doll with fire in its eyes, sitting in a blank white room, staring at a black PS3 unit like it's the monolith from 2001. This may not be the worst console TV promo I've ever seen, but it sure as hell is the creepiest.

Evil Avatar nailed the message on this one: The Playstation 3 makes babies cry.

In Case of Emergency, Push the Button

The Wayne Fontes Experience has neatly summed up my thoughts on the World Series.

Actually, I think the toughest game for the Tigers will be tonight. The Tigers can get to Weaver. It all hangs on the arm of Verlander and the bullpen's ability to FIELD A GODDAM GROUNDBALL!!! If they can do that, I'll take Kenny "The Second Coming of Ed Harris" Rogers (surely you all remember the Indians, uh, crafty veteran pitcher in Major League) in Game 6 in Detroit any day. And if it goes seven, that sound you hear will be me spontaneously combusting, since my dear ole da snagged two Game 7 tickets when they went on sale last week.

Tigers in the Series and General Gaming Thoughts

So I know with all that's happened with the Tigers this past week, at least a few of you have expected a Todd-OMG-Tigerz-Pwnz! post. Certainly Magglio's bottom of the ninth, two out, two on tater that went over Comerica's old wall of insanity (behind the bullpens, which were only moved there a year or so ago) is just cause for one. But honestly, even moreso than usual, the words necessary to sum up that moment… There aren't any. Excitement? Pride? Vindication? I don't know. There's just not much to say beyond offering up a prayer of thanks to the baseball gods that have twisted this team so cruelly for so long before this year. (Really, Ray Wert summed up what this has meant to Detroit better than anyone, over at Deadspin.)

So yes, I'm excited. In fact I welled up more than once on Saturday night watching Guillen and Monroe and Ordonez circle the bases as virtually the entire team awaited them at home plate. My recent move back to DirecTV was further vindicated since I now get Fox Sports Detroit and was able to see all the lockeroom and postgame coverage that is skipped over on national TV and national highlight shows. I think my favorite shot of the night (aside from Magglio) was of Dave Dombrowski when the ball left Maggs' bat. He's been here five years and took hell in 2003, but like I've said here before, he made this historic season possible. He put these players in place. He brought Leyland to the dugout. The fact that it was so unexpected, the way the players have brought the fans into it and just the way they've won these series; it'll just never taste as sweet as this again regardless of whether this is a one year wonder or the start of a long run.

This Bud's for you, Dave.

Anyway, the other reason for lack of posts this time is that I've been pretty well laid by the infection that took my voice on the eve of the ALDS Game 4 last week. (That's why I never got pics from the game up. I haven't done anything with 'em yet.) I still don't quite have my voice back (I couldn't really talk at all on Wednesday) and was so whipped I was hitting the sack soon after the kids. (My day job hasn't helped. Vista's RTM is just about two weeks away and that equals hell for me as I try to shovel through endless chapters necessary to help get our books done.)

I haven't even played a game in about a week and a half, sports or otherwise. I'm sure the lack of sports game posts from me has been annoying and so I've opted for the quiet. And truthfully, I just haven't had an urge to play a hoops game. The extended Tigers season has left the NBA (and by extension NBA 2k7) far from my mind and right now I can't imagine what other sports game I'd play. I've got zero interest in another Tiger Woods rehash this year, NBA Live is a sick joke. I mean really, what else is there? (I know I should play the hockey games, but I just haven't gotten into either of them the past few years.)

To me, these really just aren't good times for sports gaming. I'm not saying there are no good sports games, but the variety and level of innovation and –most importantly value per the almighty dollar- just don't capture me quiet the way these games used to. I think having to pay $60 to own a 360 game really doesn't help. $50 was really my cap in terms of buying games and thinking it a reasonably fair value. The genre also needs another High Heat type of game to jump on the landscape. Something that just takes your expectations from a sports game and just blows them out of the water. NBA 2k comes close, but it just doesn't make me want to come back for more. Maybe when baseball season is over and the NBA season gets going for real.

But enough of that. Hopefully after the Vista maelstrom and the World Series I can actually crack a game and say something related to the goal of the blog. It's not sports, but I'm thinking of picking up Sid Meier's Railroads, since it's just $35 at GoGamer this week. (This is Bill's fault for introducing me to the Railroad Tycoon! Boardgame.) To me, $35 is good value. If I don't play it from now till Christmas I'm not going to feel guilty about it, like I do when I set aside a console game I paid $60 for after just a month of play.

The Feeling of Pure Joy

Well, I’m back. It’s two days later and I still can’t speak above a whisper and my voice cracks like a teenage boy in puberty. Granted, it sounded like that before Saturday’s Game 4 thanks to a nasty cold I’ve gotten from the kids, but around work today I think I’ll pretend I blew my voice out at the game. Even without the cold I’d probably still be hoarse today and I’m sure my throat is much more sore for the mostly failed effort I put into making noise at Comerica on Saturday night.

Let me be clear on one thing about the experience of being at this game. I was at the Detroit Lions 1991 playoff win over Dallas to advance to the NFC Finals. It was the first playoff win for the Lions in the Silverdome (and the only one, as it turned out). I was also at the 1991 Michigan vs. Ohio State game, sitting in the very corner of the endzone where Desmond Howard did his infamous Heisman pose as Michigan cruised into the Rose Bowl. And I’ve certainly been to my share of games that despite being a matter of routine, were jolly-good times.

None of it held a candle to being on Comerica Park Saturday night as the Tigers put an 8-3 pasting on the Yankees and advanced to the ALCS. I swear to god, you’d have thought we won the World Series, cured AIDS and found a solution to global warming, all on the field that night. Aside from my marriage and birth of my children I'm not sure I’ve had a better night.

From the moment the PA guy announced that Fox had initiated their live feed from the game, you knew this was set to be something special. We all just went crazy. Every time Bonderman put two strikes on a batter it was cause for a standing-O, in anticipation of the pitch that would cast aside one more Yankee hitter. Every time a Tiger reached a base (and that happened *a lot*), the place would erupt. When the Tigers scored a run, take your pick of any of the eight, total strangers would exchange hugs and high fives. And each of the last six Yankee outs of the game, in the 8th and 9th innings, brought the top decibel level up just a little bit higher. And then there was the final out…

If you want to know what pure joy feels like, mix 20 years of losing baseball in an underdog diehard baseball city, with an underdog roster going up against the “greatest lineup ever assembled,” and have the national pundits repeat over and over again how your team has no hope of victory. Twenty year of pent up baseball frustration all let out in a collective cheer as the final out was recorded. It was surreal. We were high-fiving the police providing security, the Air Force guys standing behind us (we were the last row on the lower level – amazing seats), a drunk guy practically leaped the railing next to me to share a hug before running up and down the aisle hugging anyone who wouldn’t push him away. The couple in front of us were practically dry-humping. It was absolutely surreal.

And then the players came back out of the dugout, two-fisting champagne bottles, and spraying them all on the crowd as they took a round-trip around the stadium to mix it up and share the experience with the fans. It was like watching a Stanley Cup team take a tour around the ice following a Stanley Cup victory. I’ve never seen anything like it, in person or on TV. There’s simply no way to describe what it all meant to the fans at the game and to the city of Detroit at large for this team to have this kind of season and snatch victory away from a very much despised opponent that had been all but anointed when the series began.

Even in the aftermath, to the media, it's clear that this will be all about the great Yankee failure as opposed to the pitching of Rogers and Bonderman. Or the clutch hitting of Carlos Guillen and Placido Polanco. The two homers each (in the series) from rookie CF Curtis Granderson or Mr. Clutch LF Craig Monroe. The incredibly strong infield defense, or the diving catches of Tiger outfielders as they snatched extra base hits away from the Yankees. Outside Detroit, I’m sure very few Tigers have become household names over this series. The MSM is much more eager to talk about what happens next to Rodriguez and Torre.

And you know what? It doesn’t matter. National attention? National respect? That wasn’t what Saturday night was about. It was about a franchise and a fan base that has been dying for post-season victory since Reagan was in office. Screw the national media and the talk of a New York meltdown. The Tigers earned this with heart, desire and more talent than they get credit for. And to the credit of the players, many of whom have had only the slightest taste of the franchise’s losing past, they showed when they toured the stadium and shared the experience directly with the fans that they understood what it meant to all the people in that building.

This was bigger than a renewed opportunity to reach the World Series. Anyone who thinks the celebration was out of hand for something as mundane as surviving a divisional series, can’t understand what Saturday night was all about. It was about everything I’ve put into this post and so very much more. To say that I’ll be forever grateful for getting to experience the Tigers series victory over the Yankees on Saturday is to use words far too small to fit the occasion. This was euphoria. Pure joy.

I snapped a load of digital pics from the game. In looking them over last night, not a lot of them came out so great (I really needed a telephoto lens), but after I get a chance to clean up some of the better ones up a bit, I’ll post a few.

Oh yeah, and to answer a note from Glen in the Comment section. No, I didn’t have a kitten over the Tigers win. I had a whole f’ing litter of ‘em.

Parting Shots

I'm hitting the road late this afternoon (staying with my folks in Toledo tonight) and wanted to point out two things before I go.

First and most importantly (something I forgot to mention yesterday), can the wonks on ESPN please, for the love of god, learn Justin Verlander's name. Miller called him Zumaya once yesterday, which happens, but on top of that, not just once, but twice (once in the pre-game and once during the game) those dingleberries also called him Jason Verlander. It's Justin. Justin Verlander. You can tell it's not Jason because there's no "o" in his first name and it has a "t" and an "i". You can look it up if you're not too busy commenting yet again that Cano almost led the league in hitting from the 9th spot for like the one millionth time.

Secondly, I just caught wind of this memo from Steinbrenner to Yankee GM Brian Cashman over at The Wayne Fontes Experience (best blog name ever). I'm pretty sure there's a chance it's authentic. At least that's what Dan Rather's fact-checkers all tell me.

Go Tigers!

All Aboard for Game 4!

After last night's Game 2 rainout I made a point of telling (not asking; telling) my boss I was working from home this afternoon to watch the Tigers game. There's just no way I'm missing an inning of this series, let alone the whole thing.

What can I say, but Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy! FunFunFunFunFun!!!

After the Yankees went up 3-1 on that Damon homer, I was feeling pretty nervous. Verlander looked alternately poised and shaky from batter to batter. One minute he's falling behind in every count and the next he's throwing some hellacious pitches to strike guys out. Despite the 3-run homer, he got the job done for 5 1/3 and with the Tigers returning to claim a 4-3 lead, Jamie Walker, Joel "Fear Me You Inferior Mortals" Zumaya and Todd "Roller Coaster" Jones took care of the rest. Seriously, how unbelievably good is Zumaya? For 1 2/3 the guy just mowed down the Yankee lineup. It was amazing. And for all the Jones naysayers, the guy got the job done all season long and clearly has no fear of throwing strikes to the Yankee hitters. I've got no problem with him getting the ball to finish a game in the 9th.

So now I'm guaranteed a seat at Game 4 at Comerica on Saturday. (Thanks again, Mike! I owe you big time.) With The Gambler (Kenny Rogers) going tomorrow night, there's no telling what to expect. He was the only guy to pitch consistently well through last August and September, but we pretty much all know his abysmal post season career numbers. I tend not to put much stock in that, and I like the idea of following a fireballer like Verlander with a craftsman like Rogers. (And then back to another fireballer in Bonderman for Game 4.) But nevertheless, I'll be sweating bullets for Game 3, knowing that if the Tigers pull it out, they have a serious shot at knocking the Yanks off their $200 million dollar pedastal. Hot damn, but it would be sweet to be there for that.

Not to put the cart before the horse, of course. (And yes, that was a rather unfortunate rhyme.) There would be nothing surprising about the Yankees coming to town and taking two to win the series either. I don't think the Tigers were the least bit lucky today, but certainly it took about as good a game as they're capable of producing to pull out the win and to do that two more times is no small chore. Still, at least all the talk of "Sweep! Sweep!" can finally die.

All I know for sure is that Saturday can't get here fast enough!

Playing Lately

So it's been a while since I've had an actual gaming related post. Mostly because I haven't had a ton of time for gaming. Time to rectify that a bit.

I've had a rental of NBA 2k7 since last Friday and I've managed to play a whopping two games of it. My early reaction is that there's a lot of nice play balancing that's been done on the game. The flow of the games seems even better than 2k6. However, I think they went overboard on the animations to a certain extent that reminds me -in a not so good way- of College Hoops. I find the worst part of the college hoops game to be control over players, as I think you too frequently get stuck in animations. It's still better in 2k7, but if you're a stickler for total control you may find it frustrating. I do think, though, that the more you try to play legitmate basketball (ie - don't try to cheese for dunks on every posession, try to throw ridiculous passes in the middle of a running jumper, etc.) the less of an issue it is. The game's off the court UI, by the way, is abysmal.

After reading at the Recycle Bin that Circuit City was selling World of Warcraft for $20, I finally took the plunge on that. The gameplay mechanics really aren't much different from Diablo II, and I'm surprised more people don't seem to make the comparison. Right now I've got a Level 8 Gnome Thief and a Level 6 Night Elf Hunter. It's fun so far, but I need to hook up with Bill's crew on one of the servers and see how it plays when you're actually in a party. (I've been soloing so far.)

Finally, Gamefly sent out a pair of games. Madden 07 for the Nintendo DS. It's crap. 'Nuff said. The other was Dead Rising. I've barely scratched the surface of that one, but I will say it's damn fun nabbing a Boomerang from the mall's toy store and flinging it at mobs of zombies. The photo journalist angle for your main character was an especially nice touch since it forces you to not just focus on the hack and slash, but to take pictures that will (I presume) tell the game's story to the virtual world if you get out a live.

"Fake" News is More Substantive Than Real News

Or something like that.

An IU assistant professor and a couple of grad students compared the "substantive" news coverage of The Daily Show to that of mainstream network news programs and found that The Daily Show provides more depth (humor aside) than the pros. I offer no comment of my own, except to say that the day this is even a subject for debate (and it is), the bar for TV journalism in this country has officially sunk below sea level. Read the full story at Ars Technica.

The researchers looked at coverage of the 2004 Democratic and Republican national conventions and the first presidential debate of the fall campaign, all of which were covered by the mainstream broadcast news outlets and The Daily Show. Individual broadcasts of the nightly news and corresponding episodes of The Daily Show were analyzed by the researchers, who found that the "average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories" were no different from The Daily Show. Perhaps more telling, The Daily Show delivered longer stories on the topic.

There was no word on whether or not the study thought The Colbert Report trumped Fox News for being both fair and balanced.

Panic? Who? Me?

So Game 1 had all the appearances of a clunker for Detroit, what with Detroit trailing most of the game and losing 8-4. I'm ashamed that I wasn't more prepared for the Yankee love-a-thon as sponsored by the Fox Network. I should've seen that coming a mile away. Seriously, the Fox people and the entire Yankee roster should just get a room already. Fox was so busy fluffing the all all-star Yankee lineup you'd never have noticed some of the good things the Tigers did in that game.

And they did do some good things.

In fact, you can take this game down to two pitches that would've completely changed the game, and neither had to do with the five runs the Yankees laid down in the third (or was it the fourth?). The first came with the Yankee hitting with runners and 2nd and 3rd and two out and Tigers down 5-3 (having just climbed back into the game). I forget who (probably Jeter, it's always Jeter), but the Yankee hitter rips a two run double. One good pitch there, resulting in a pop up or routine grounder ends that inning unscathed and the Tigers still nipping at the Yankee heels. The second pitch is the one that Ordonez popped up with two on and two out (I think it was the very next inning; the sixth maybe). He takes that pitch downtown (contrary to popular opinion, Ordonez still has the clutch long ball in his repetoire) and suddenly the Tigers stake a 7-5 lead.

This is not to say that the Yankees got lucky. They were scary good last night and earned every one of their eight runs. I'm not sure there was an inning where there wasn't a Yankee baserunner. That's just scary. But the peanut gallery today, gushing with Yankee love and how outmatched the Tigers were, is patently ridiculous. The Tigers were in that game and the notion that they were intimidated or didn't belong on the same field as the Yankees is equally ridiculous.

I also really do like the Tigers chances tonight with Verlander on the mound, opposite Mussina. Tigers hitting is always a cause for concern, but if Verlander can get past any rookie post-season jitters, he has the moxy to tame this lineup. Barring injury Verlander has all the making of one of the great ones and it would be great to see him put an exclamation point on the first chapter of his career tonight by sending this series back to Detroit tied at one.

And to be clear, none of this is to say that the Tigers have a better roster than the Yankees. That notion is lunacy. It's all the sweep talk in the mainstream media that gets on my nerves, especially now that the Yankees posted a nice game 1 scoreboard. The Tigers weren't a fluke this year and win or lose they're sure as hell not going gentle into that goodnight.

It All Starts Here

I got -if luck holds- the best news I could've asked for this past weekend when a buddy of mine phoned to say, "Hey I got Game 2 (now Game 4) Tiger tickets. Get your ass up here!" Of course, I'm paraphrasing. As long as the Tigers/Yankees series isn't a sweep (and if Detroit's pitching goes as badly as it did against the Royals, it really could), I'll be in the Motor City this weekend taking in some post-season Tigers baseball.

It just feels bizarre being able to type that. It really does. Tigers. Post-season. The words can't traipse through my cranium without a fit of girly-man giggles.

I really have no idea what to expect from this series. My head says don't get your hopes up. My heart says a good run of pitching from any three of Robertson, Verlander, Rogers and Bonderman will have this series over in four games. The Tigers, for all their lack of on-base percentage, can still drive the ball far and wide and I think they can get to both the Yankee starters and their pen (excepting Rivera). So the real question is if the Tigers can shut down the the Yankee bats. It's a tall order indeed, but it can be done. (As recent post-season history has proven.)

Really, there are just two things I don't want to see: A Yankee sweep or a four game series in which the Tigers lose (I don't want to see the game that ends their season). Obviously, the best case scenario would be for a four-game series the Tigers win. Then I get to witness the game first-hand that sends the Tigers to the next round. If that happens I shall frollick about town singing, "Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!" for weeks on end. Oh yes, I shall frollick to and fro and the unwashed masses -that's all of you guys, although most likely I'll be the one who hasn't bathed- shall know my joy.

So it is written and so it shall be done.

Windows Vista and Gaming

The Windows Supersite has a nice look at PC gaming and Windows Vista that's well worth a read. Microsoft is doing some, not exactly exciting, but certainly good things with the PC gaming market in an effort to bring it back from the dead zone. Here's a snippet:

While the wired Xbox 360 Controller is indeed compatible with Windows Vista as expected (Figure), Microsoft will be adding compatibility for all Xbox 360 wireless controllers and peripherals via an upcoming USB-based Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows (Figure). That means that such Xbox 360 peripherals as the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset (Figure), and the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel (Figure) will all work, suddenly, in Windows games. That's just good stuff.