Birthday greetings!
Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to friend of the blog Bill Harris from Dubious Quality. PS Cant wait to try your Solitaire Football game 
Still waiting for free Vita game
Anyone else waiting for their Vita code? I finally got some support from Sony. They only needed the following information: copy of my Vita purchase sales receipt. Copy of my AT&T DataConnect pass sales receipt. Phone number of Vita. My PSN email. My email I signed up with AT&T (remember if you have another data plan on say, an iPad, you have to use a different email address for your Vita).
I sent it all over and was told I'd have a code in 5 days. We'll see. This is the code for Super Stardust which you were promised if you signed up for 1 month of AT&T service.
Anyone reading this from the UK and have a PS Vita?
I have some downloadable themes you can redeem via a code. The code doesn't work for me here in the US, so my loss is your gain. Email me.
Tiger Woods Thoughts
On the day Tiger Woods wins his first major in 30 months, it's apropos that I've been playing Tiger Woods 13 (?) on the Xbox 360 as part of EA's Season Ticket program. For those that don't know, the Season Ticket program, for a fee of $25 a year, gets you playing EA Sports games 3 days early. I have really enjoyed this feature, not to mention the discounts on Madden Ultimate Team and the bonuses you get on coins.
Anyway, I've been playing TW on my PC for a while. First it was the online game, then the TW game as a download, which is kinda also TW Online but with Augusta. I'm very comfortable and familiar with the PC version of the game.
What's great about the 360 version is that you can also cross play various leaderboards and so forth with your PC character. How nice. What's not great is Kinect. If you don't want to use it, but you have Kinect plugged in, it still thinks to feel that your body motions are attempts at playing the game. It's annoying. Unplugging the Kinect is even more annoying to play one game.
The game itself? Well the swing meter looks like it's straight out of MLB2K12. You use the left stick for swing and you see the meter as a swing rather than as a horizontal meter, making it very difficult to figure how much of a swing you want to take. If you aren't perfectly straight, you will muff the shot - and it'll show you how bad your downswing was. Apparently I like to go diagonally a lot.
The game is very challenging, especially on the greens. Good luck hitting the right pace on those. 3-putts (or more) were the norm for me.
This is one of the first season ticket games that makes me think hmm, I was going to get this game, but I think I'll pass and instead put the money into TW Online for another year...The Caddy is a nice touch, but he's a moron.
In other news, has anyone here who has a PS Vita received their Super Stardust code yet? I got my dataconnect pass on 2/15 and they said 30 days...but here it is 40 days and still nothing...just curious. I emailed Sony support and got a "here click this link that has absolutely no information of relevance and I can mark the ticket as closed" response.
Gotta get down on Friday
Good afternoon everyone. So how about that football stuff? I think we all agree that bounty programs are bad, but lying about it and attempting a cover up is even worse. I don't think this is the end of the suspensions and fines.
Has anyone received a Vita PSN code for the Show, only to find out it only works on the PS3? That's bizarre but that's what Joystiq is reporting...
Gamestop sent me an email today for new DLC for Tiger Woods 13...which isn't out yet, but whatever. It's an 11 course pack for $39. Seriously? Isn't that like the cost of the game? This is why games on iPad sell. It's 4.99 for the game and then .99 for each additional in app purchase. Not $60 for the game and then $39 for more courses. WTF.
Tebow
I think we should all vote for Tim Tebow to be on the cover of Madden. Just because it would make EA have to redo him in his new uniform, wherever that is.
Oops, I guess I like MLB2K12 more now
Well I have played a couple of games on MLB2K12 (360), and the Show (PS3 and Vita). I have to say, I'm having more fun right now playing 2k12 than The Show.
No doubt The Show wins on graphics and animations. The Show loses on the dumbass pulse pitching circle of death. The Show is not fun on hitting either. While the Show is probably more realistic, it is also extremely frustrating. There's a reason I'm not a pro athlete, and I can't time the damn hitting in the Show. By the time I figure out what pitch is coming, it's already by me. Some may like the realism. I just get pissed I can't hit the damn ball.
MLB 2k12 has great commentary, the MLB Live (stats are shown and talked about from yesterday's spring training game [yes this has been in the game for a while, but worth mentioning], the pitching model is much easier to get used to and hell, I even understand the baserunning now...
I played an O's vs Red Sox spring game today, and wow was it fun. I was down 2-0 in the first but got 1 back later from a Wieters HR and then despite leaving a ton on base (bases loaded in 2 consecutive innings and hitting into DP's), I did get a run on in to tie it. Then in the 8th, the Sox pitcher broke down and I got 3 on some great baserunning. Pedro Strop pitched 3 innings of amazing baseball including 4 straight K's to get the come from behind win. It was a lot of fun. Pitch counts were right, it didn't feel broken...except for the animations. Watching Wieters "swing" for a HR more or less looked like a bunt.
But it was still fun. Meanwhile I went back to the pitch meter from last year on the show and still can't seem to do it right. Gah!
Cool thing about the Show
The Orioles are featured in the intro because of game 162 last year. You know what sucks? If the new playoff format was implemented last year those games would have been meaningless.
Saturday Thoughts
I think pulse pitching sucks. anyone else enjoying it?
Contrary to what Glen said, after you upgrade to v1.05 of MLB The Show you can download rosters without an online pass. Vita, well uh good luck, it seems like you need a pass to turn on the game. Kidding of course, but implementation could have been so much better.
I'm going to pick up the MLB2K12/NBA2K12 double pack tonight. Because I can .
Thursday Thoughts
I have to agree with Glen, the Show's default pulsing circle is stupid. You can go back to last years model easy enough though.
Fair warning to Vita gamers: like the PS3, this game has an online pass and you pretty much need it. However if you liked the Show before, buying is a no brainer as we said on our podcast...which should be posted any minute now, right Glen?
MLB The Show deal now on Amazon
Remember, if you buy MLB The Show for PS3 and Vita, you get $20 off at Gamestop and other locations, like Amazon:
Last chance to trade GameCube games
GameStop announced today April 1, 2012 is the last day they will buy GameCube games. I can't imagine them being worth more than $0.99 at this point, but if you're clearing out your house, now is the time!
Buy The Show on Vita & PS3, save $20
This is kinda cool. Sony is running a promotion: if you buy the PS3 and PSVita versions of The Show at the same time, you will save $20...both games will set you back $79.99. Pretty good deal...too bad you cant buy them both digitally!
See Friend of the Blog Joe DiSano on CNN
For those that missed it, friend of the blog Joe DiSano was on CNN tonight speaking about Democrats who should vote Santorum.
Whether or not you agree, it's cool that a blog reader is on CNN, so I'm giving him props. However, he didn't give Sportsgamerblog a shoutout, not sure what was up with that.
Check out his interview by visiting http://outfront.blogs.cnn.com/
Apparently Joe is an "activist" which you could have fooled me; as I thought he just sat in his chair playing video games and podcasting.
Thursday Deep Thoughts
As a commenter mentioned -- Grand Slam Tennis is not the pile of awesome it seemed to be -- instead it is a typical pile of crap and it is pretty obvious no one reviewed this one in-depth before writing it up. I had the exact same experience that our readers did - easy to win early -- even championships and Grand Slam events -- and then the difficulty ramps up you can't win anything. I like the idea of a difficulty curve, but winning Wimbledon should be a career pinnacle, not something you do in the first year.
On the other hand, may I interest you in Virtua Tennis for PSVita? Now that is a game I like...the Vita is an interesting piece of hardware. Games just look so good, and if you have a PSN Visa Card, with 10x points for downloads, it makes a $39 purchase look like a $399 purchase in points, so rewards are adding up. The battery life is worse in my use than a 3DS...just a heads up. I'm at about 3.75 hours with gameplay and 3G on..blech.
Fairway Solitaire on iPad/iPhone is taking up my life right now. In addition the new Midway Arcade app and the Pinball apps are also keeping me busy. The WWE Wrestlefest is a cute idea but not a whole lot of fun.
Gee, you'll have to excuse Glen. He was too busy pleasuring himself to write about Braun's suspension being overturned. MLB can yap all it wants, but no one has had a decision overturned on appeal, and there have been quite a few appeals, so one thinks there may in fact be reasonable doubt about this one. It is also nice that an MVP was exonerated. I'm also guessing that MLB will never have Shyam Das as an arbitrator again. That's what's so stupid about arbitration -- it happens in many cases all the time. If the company loses, then they change arbitrators.
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