Monday notes
- Took the kids to see the Muppets over the weekend and they were pretty bored by the end. Certain scenes just seemed to drag on, especially the one with the chickens covering "Forget You."
Overall it was a decent film and it had some fun 80's throwaway jokes, but it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting it to be. My hopes for comedy were probably way too high.
- Other than the Broncos/Steelers game yesterday, there wasn't too much in the way of drama for the Wild card weekend.
Oh, and if you love Tebow coverage, stay tuned to ESPN this week as they'll definitely have you covered.
- Anyone interested in the BCS championship game tonight? I can't muster up even the slightest amount of interest at this point.
- I did see that Best Buy is putting up signage indicating that Diablo III is coming out on February 1st. I'm not holding my breath on that, but I will certainly be there for the midnight launch when it happens. Haven't done that for a game in ages, but this game will eat all of my free time when it does release.
- As for gaming recently, I have been trying to play through some older titles along with fighting through the world of Skyrim, Crysis being one of the titles that has been fun to mess with.
I have a hankering for hockey gaming of late as well and will have to find and outlet for that.
- Have a great week.
Tuesday notes
- Let's start with the Rose Bowl.
Any team that gives up 640+ yards on defense can't complain about losing the game.
The only questionable call that the refs made was the one at the end of the first half where Toon was knocked out of bounds, they stopped the clock, then started it again without blowing a whistle or anything. That was just a weird situation.
Oregon was clearly the better team and proved it on both sides of the ball.
People around here keep talking about Chryst's leaving being the biggest deal, but I think it's that Chris Ash is still going to be the defensive coordinator. The D was terrible this season and it cost them in their 3 losses.
- The Packers have earned their rest and need to take every minute of the next two weeks to shore up as much as they can with their own defensive issues.
It was great to see Flynn play as well as he did against Detroit though. That was a crazy fun game to watch.
- You can tell that it isn't a normal sports week because the Badgers are playing Michigan State tonight and it's getting zero coverage from the local media. Usually Izzo comes to town and people break out the torches and pitchforks.
Losing to Iowa at home will do that I guess. That was another ugly game due to horrific outside shooting. This team is poised for a 1st or 2nd round tournament loss. Mark my words on that.
- As far as gaming goes, I spent the majority of the weekend playing Skyrim. The game just sucks you in. One minute, I'm walking to a cave to handle a quest and the next, I'm mining ore out of a second or third cave that I found along the way.
All that and I haven't touched more than a few hours of the main story line. I did find a kick ass Deadra mace in a quest that let's me capture the souls of enemies if I kill them within 3 seconds. It's an evil weapon but cool as hell to use.
- Still planning on a Game of the year post. Just need to find the time.
- Have a great week.
Thursday notes
- I'm slowly recovering from a flu/cold bug going around the house. Had a bit of a temp last night and just generally felt like crap. Thankfully, the Mrs. let me get a good bit of sleep last night and that seems to have helped things a great deal. don't feel 100%, but I'm getting back to full speed again.
- So, weith all of the SOPA stuff that is going on, I'm looking to move my domains from Godaddy. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm looking at Namecheap.com right now and they look like a reasonably good place to move the domains to.
- Thanks to some of Best Buy's sales over the last few weeks I was able to get the Nyko Power Pak for the 3DS. I have to say I'm impressed at how nice and easy it was to replace the battery on the unit and double the battery capacity for $8. The battery adds a nice feel to the bottom of the unit as well. Very happy with that purchase.
- I was able to get a chance to see 'Attack the Block' the other day and I was stunned that I haven't heard more about this movie to date.
I don't want to give too much away about the movie, but a group of street kids find an alien, kill it, and then have to deal with the issues that come up as a result of that.
Quite a fun sci-fi film and well worth your time if you can track it down.
Tuesday notes
- Hope that everyone had a nice and relaxing holiday season.
Nothing too eventful happened on my end, just played some open hockey and spent time with the family.
No real gifts to speak of either as my wife and I have completely bailed on the concept of buying each other gifts. I prefer to just get stuff for the kids and let them have their fun.
- Congratulations to Howie's Bleacher Bums who won the 2011 SportsGamerBlog Fantasy Football championship.
I'll be contacting Howie today to determine what game he wants as a prize for winning.
- As far as gaming goes, I spent a good deal of the holiday weekend working through Steam Achievements for their holiday sale.
One of the items that I won was a 50% off Bethesda software coupon and was able to trade that for a few games.
Between the Steam deals and Amazon's daily download deals, it's been a fun holiday season for picking up more games that I'm not all that likely to play soon. heh.
- The Packers got back on track with a nice win over the Bears on Christmas night.
Thankfully that stopped people from talking about how everyone has an answer to how to beat the Packers.
There are some very good teams that will have to come to Lambeau in the playoffs this year, and every one of them should be a fun game to watch. I think the Packers can beat all of them, but you never know if they'll have another bad game like the K.C. one. Hopefully the bye week will give them that extra time to get Clifton, Jennings, and Pickett back for the run to the Super Bowl.
- Lastly, post your 3DS friend codes if you have them. Dan is the only person I have on my friends list on there and it's depressing to see that one person on there, especially when it's Dan.
NBA2K12 – $9.99 for the PC at Amazon
NBA2K12 - Download version at Amazon.com
This post is also a great way to remind you that if you use our Amazon search box, we get a shiny penny when you buy things. That does help us to be able to add more prizes to the yearly events. Just something to think about in the holiday season.
Monday notes
- If you still own a Wii, please, stop what you're doing and go out and pick up Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Does the game have a minor issues? Yes, the Motion Plus support is a bit off from time to time (but can be reset quickly.) Outside of that, the game is absolutely terrific and is a tremendous amount of fun to play.
Also, it's a game that your kids can sit and watch without having to explain why daddy is cutting a bloody swath though a battlefield. My youngest daughter sat next to me yesterday and laughed hysterically every time Link fell down or hurt himself due to my actions, and that's something that most games don't give me now.
They have also made the game a bit simpler due to the fact that there are save points inside of dungeons now (blasphemy to most hardcore Nintendo fans,) but they do make it easier to step away from the game from time to time rather than forcing you to finish a dungeon/temple once you start it.
I highly recommend the game.
- So, along with Zelda, I had one of my more fun gaming weekends in memory as I was able to power through a decent amount of side quests in Skyrim and play through a good number of levels in Super Mario 3D Land.
In Skyrim, I have barely touched on the actual story of the game, spending more time solving little issues that various local towns have had and delved into mines to work on my smithing skill.
I wouldn't have thought that I could possibly like a crafting portion of a game, but I find myself going into mines, so I can acquire ore, then smelting it, and making new jewelry and weapons, so that I can continue to enhance my own weaponry. It's time consuming and pointless, and strangely fun all at the same time.
- Mario 3D Land? It's just one of the best platformers that I've played in memory. Some of the 'big coins' are a pain in the ass to obtain, and some of them are hidden in ways that just seem nearly impossible to access, but the game is fun in a way that I just don't see much anymore.
Frustrating at times, but an absolute blast to play.
- Oh, and NBA2K12 has come out for the iPad. Since I don't have one of those tablets, Dan will be taking a look at the game and posting some of his thoughts in the near future.
- One of the funny things to witness when a team is playing very well, as the Packers are, is how people seem to want to find fault in every victory. Hardly any of the fans around the area want to seem to enjoy the fact that the team is 10-0, all they want to do is discuss how close they have come to almost losing games.
Sure, there are things that the team needs to improve on, but enough with the negativity. Enjoy the run while it lasts...
- Lastly, I watched 'Beats, Rhymes, and Life' on Friday. The documentary covers the history and issues that 'A Tribe Called Quest' has gone through in the last few years.
ATCQ is one of my all-time favorite groups and it was sad to see all of the issues that they went through as the group broke up. I can only hope that they're able to get back together for a U.S. tour again at some point in the near future, as they are on top of my list of groups that I want to see live.
Tuesday notes
- A bit of advice to Jerry Sandusky, if you're going to go on national television making a plea of innocence to Bob Costas... Try not to have an awkward 15 or 16 second pause when you're asked about whether or not you're sexually attracted to young boys.
I have to commend Costas on his interview skills though. An interview such as that one is an incredibly difficult one to handle. He asked tough questions and great follow ups.
Moving on...
- Don't believe that the Packers have played a more complete game than the one that they put together last night... and they still made plenty of offensive line mistakes and fumbled on a punt return. Still, you can't complain when you beat a division rival 45-7.
Plenty of tough opponents remain on the Packers schedule, but their offense is playing remarkably well and a 3 game division lead is always a good thing with 7 games to go.
- Speaking of football, I would like to thank the Vikings for stopping James Starks from scoring a late game meaningless touchdown that allowed me to win my fantasy game last night and go to 8-2 on the season. It's hard to believe my team has done this well, when I have only outscored my opponents by 50 for the season. Still, I'm not going to complain.
Only 3 more weeks before the playoffs, so make those last moves count.
Oh, and pay no attention to the playoff brackets that are created by the game. Currently it has teams from opposite divisions playing in the first round. I'll be re-adjusting it so that the top for teams from each division make the playoffs and are seeded from there.
- As far as gaming goes, Skyrim has been eating up quite a bit of my time as I navigate through the initial city that you travel to.
One of the problems that I had with Oblivion was the leveling system and having no idea what way was the best to grow your character. For example, I apparently went up 5 level during the first quest that I tackled with my character, but had no idea if it was a good idea to advance all the levels at once, or if there was a reason why I would want to wait and move up a level at a later time. I'd hate to think that I'm a few hours into the game and I've already made a mistake that would impact my character for the life of the game... but I'm going to stick with it either way.
I guess this is just one of those games where they really want you to buy the strategy guide, as you can tell it's just going to be a massive world that you're going to be taking on.
- Lastly, looking like no season for the NBA. It's just so hard to pick a side between billionaires and millionaires who can't split 3 billion dollars.
Whatever will we do without having to watch the pick-and-roll be run for 48 minutes?
Veterans day notes
- Funny that Dan's offices are closed, but the bank that I work for is open today. Oh, well. Thank you to all of the veterans that have served or continue to do so. You do a job that I could not, and I'm proud of what you do.
- The process of starting up Skyrim on Steam last night was a very painless one. At 11:00 p.m. I was able to decrypt the files and by 11:05, I was playing the game.
At this point it feels like a much prettier Oblivion, but that is not a problem at all. I spent at least 10 minutes making helmets and other weapons, along with fixing up the weapons that I had picked up in the early stages of the game. My Redguard warrior will be smiting many enemies in the coming weeks, but no dragons if I can avoid it. I'll be steering clear of those big nasties for quite some time, no doubt about that.
- Thanks to Carson Palmer for getting my fantasy week started off right. I had to laugh when I initially picked him up and saw that he was only owned in 3% of all leagues. I think that pick up will work out for me over the long haul. Anyone need another QB? Josh Freeman and Colt McCoy are available cheap.
- Happy birthday, Madtowner.
- There were some absolutely terrific lines in the first Beavis and Butthead episode last night. My wife and I were laughing out loud at some of the video and Jersey Shore quips. (It's so cold in the D.) The show has had some disappointing parts, but for the most part it's as good as I was expecting it to be.
- Have a great weekend, everyone.
Thursday notes
- Well, I have to say that the Penn State board of trustees did the right thing last night by firing the university president and Paterno. How McQueary is still coaching this weekend doesn't make any sense to me.
Sadly it seems that this story is just not going to go away. Hopefully it will continue to make people aware of how universities and businesses will protect their own name before doing the right thing.
Maybe something like this can help stop that sort of behavior, probably not, but I can always hope.
- And because I'm incredibly weak, I pre-ordered Skyrim from Green Man Gaming earlier today. I'm happy to say that the pre-loading process is complete on my home PC and I'll be able to start digging into the game at 11:00 CST.
I think this is actually the first time that I was ever able to take advantage of that feature of Steam and I have to say that it's pretty damn cool. Something like that allows me to put the kids to bed and then just sit back and wait until I can play the game, rather than having to go to a midnight launch somewhere.
Just one of the nice things that the PC does that consoles still cannot.
- Don't forget to update your fantasy lineups if you have anyone playing in tonight's game. Gotta see if someone can knock of my 7-2 Madtown Bombers.
- Walmart has released their Black Friday ad online and there are a few interesting sports gaming deals in there.
For $15 each, you can pick up Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports: Season 2, or MX vs ATV Alive.
For $28 each, you can grab Madden 12, FIFA 12, Nascar 11, or Forza 4. (Also you can get Battlefield 3 or Batman: Arkham City for that same $28 price point.)
That's a good start to the Black Friday deals. I just hope you can order games on their website and avoid having to deal with the silly crowds.
- Lastly, I forgot to mention this a few weeks back, but I grabbed Warhammer: Space Marine from OnLive during their $1 sale and was pleasantly surprised as to how well the game played. I didn't notice much in the way of lag while mashing my way through the first groups of enemies and found that the graphics were surprisingly decent as well.
If they do offer another game sale where they're putting games forward for $1 again, I highly recommend you take a look at the service. For a $1, you can do much worse.
Wednesday notes
- Well, now I guess we can step away from the events at Penn State and get back to normal events.
- Last night I had a chance to finish up the campaign for inFamous 2 (for the record, I was a good guy.)
I have to say that I was surprised at the ending and the choices that the game allowed you to make. Definitely one of the more surprising endings that I can recall in quite some time. Not sure that I'll be going back to complete the game as an evil bastard now, but it has been fun to run around the city zapping street musicians... damn harmonica players.
- With the NBA Players association deciding not to take the owners last offered deal, and seeing highlights of an exhibition game last night, I wonder why the players don't just start a barnstorming league at this point. Create 6 or 8 teams of superstars and travel the country playing in non-NBA owner owned venues and build up the public interest in seeing them play real games.
Sure there would be high costs involved with doing something like this, but right now, all you have is people thinking that rich people are not happy about how much money they are getting.
Give people some games (for very good prices) and they might think a bit better of you.
- Considering my run on all things sequels in gaming lately, I'm having a really hard time with buying Skyrim this week. Uncharted 2 is sitting next to my TV begging to be complete, along with Killzone 2, Resistance 2, and other games from the past few years like Oblivion, and addons to games I have already finished like Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Retribution and Episodes from Liberty City for Grand Theft Auto 4.
Perhaps waiting a few weeks for prices to continue to drop would be for the best.
- As part of the most recent Humble Bundle I had a chance to start playing two indie games that were new to me, The Binding of Isaac and Blocks that Matter.
The Binding of Isaac is definitely a strange game with a very twisted story and plays as a combination of the Legend of Zelda and Robotron. For the price, it's very interesting, and incredibly challenging. You only get one life, and when you die... it's back to the beginning of the game. Unforgiving would be one way to describe it.
Blocks that Matter has been a very fun puzzle type game to play as you acquire various blocks with your character and re-assemble them to escape from each level. The trick is that when you reconstruct your blocks, you have to do so in the form of a tetromino. That adds an interesting challenge level to the game as well.
You also get Voxatron in it's current alpha state as part of the bundle, and all you have to do is spend more than $5.10. Well worth it for those titles.
- Have a good rest of the day.
FIFA Soccer 12 for $16.00 on Origin
Dan seems to think quite highly of it, and it's a much better price than he paid a few weeks ago.
It'll be this price until November 7th, so you have time to mull it over.
Friday notes
- Not ashamed to admit it, I played Batman: Arkham City for 3 1/2 hours last night. I really have to give the Rocksteady people credit as they have made an incredibly enjoyable game that I keep getting sucked into each and every night. According to the game meter, I'm 40% done, but I have no idea if that's tracking all of the subquests and Riddler trophies. I know that I've finished off a few side-boss missions and have completed those story lines, but I really hope that there will be plenty more in store... although, based on the story, I have my concerns about how much is remaining.
Having said that, still enjoying the ride.
- As we get closer to the release of the Playstation 24" 3D tv, I've been debating upgrading my PC monitor at home with a 3D monitor that I could use for PC gaming as well as for my PS3.
Earlier today I got an email about how I could get this Asus 27" monitor for $539... and I've just been fighting the urge to pick it up all day.
Has anyone spent any time with 3D gaming on the PC or PS3 side that can speak to the quality or how much they enjoy it?
It's tough to think of giving up a 40" screen for PS3 gaming, but it could be great to play some of the PS3 games in 3D. As well as having a 3D monitor that my girls could watch some Disney movies on as well.
Thoughts?
- Don't know how many got a chance to see it last night, but I thought that the first two Beavis and Butthead episodes last night were pretty entertaining. Of course, I was watching them at 1:00 a.m., so my need for sleep might have clouded my judgement a bit.
- Trying to put together a podcast tonight, so stay tuned for that.
- Have a great evening and weekend.
Thursday notes
- Very important note! Beavis and Butthead returns to TV this evening. Set those DVR's.
- Yesterday was a fun day as I spent 6 hours with my wife in various Urgent Care and Emergency Room areas while they tried to treat her migraine that she was dealing with.
Really wish they could figure out the cause of things like that. Seeing the look on my wife's face, I wouldn't wish those on anyone.
- Here's another weekly update to take a look at the demo for Fairway: Collector's Edition over at Big Fish Games. Seriously, if you don't have this game by now... I just don't know what to think. Unless you're waiting for the mobile versions, which would be totally understandable, as I can't wait for a version of the game on my Android tablet.
- In just a bit, I'll be posting my impressions of Kinect Sports: Season 2. I'm sure that's something you've all been looking forward to. heh.
- Have a great day
Tuesday notes
- Didn't get a chance to play any games last night, as I went and played hockey at 10:00 p.m. last night. One of the things about doing something like that... the adrenaline doesn't wear off for quite a while and it ends up being a pretty late night. Thankfully, I played pretty well. That always helps you feel a bit better when you do get to bed.
- A few new Kinect games are coming out this week and two of them are on their way via Gamefly, Dance Central 2 and Kinect Sports: Season 2. I haven't seen much about either of the games, but I figured that my Gamefly queue is pretty empty right now and I might as well give them a look.
- Having said that, I can't wait to play Lord of the Rings: War in the North next week. I have really loved the games that Snowblind Studios has created in the past, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance being one of my all time favorite console games.
Just trying to decide whether or not I'd like to play it on a PC or console...
One thing that does stink about that is that Amazon is doing a $20 credit for the console versions, but nothing for the PC. C'mon, man. Give some love to the PC guys.
Monday notes
- Well, let's get this out of the way...
The Badgers clearly deserved to lose the game against the Spartans. When you have a blocked field goal, blocked punt, and give up a safety, it's hard to say that you were the better team that day.
Having said that, a hail mary is a hard way to lose a game. I only saw the video of the play a few times, and while it was hard to know for certain that the guy crossed the plane with the ball, I can't say that I was surprised that they lost.
Probably the biggest play of the game was the Wilson interception when the Badgers were up 14-0 in the first quarter. Wisconsin was driving to go up 21-0, but the interception gave the Spartans new life and they took advantage. If Toon runs the right route, there is no telling what could have happened.
I have to give the team credit for fighting back when down 14 points late though. They showed a lot of heart in the 4th quarter. Oh, well. Gotta regroup and win out to play for the first Big Ten championship. Maybe they'll get another shot at the Spartans... who knows?
- On Friday night, the Mrs. and I got a chance to see the Badger hockey team for the first time this year. Man, that's one really young team. On a roster of 25 skaters, they have 19 underclassmen... and only 1 senior.
They really out hustled the Sioux that night though and deserved the win.
I always enjoy seeing UW/UND games with my wife as she is a long time Sioux fan, so it's one of the only times that we're not cheering for the same team. Stuff like that keeps a marriage lively, am I right?
- So, we're going to get a new NFL Blitz, without late hits? Hmm... not sure I would be interested in that. The old game was just so much more fun when you hammered guys after a big play. It was a nice little bit of payback on your friends after a nice play or a score. Without that... not sure how much fun the game will be.
- Not sure how many of you have tried out the service, but Onlive is running a promotion that allows you to buy your first game on the service for $1. I have an account where I've activated a few of my Humble Bundle games and really debating picking up something like Deus Ex for a buck.
When I've played games on the system in the past, the lag hasn't been bad enough to cause any issues with the gameplay, but it's hard to say how a promotion like this might impact their server performance.
But when you're only paying $1 for a game, it's a risk worth taking.
- Arkham City continues to eat up all of my gaming time. I've enjoyed dropping into the game and getting lost in my pursuit for more of the Riddler trophies as well as crusing around the city looking for thugs to beat up.
I do have to give them credit for the story as well. I'm only 17% into the game, but have already run into Two Face, the Joker, Bane, the Penguin, and Mr. Freeze (Along with several other baddies.) I really wondered how well a story would work when you had that many guys involved, but they make it work really well.
- Lastly, the Packers didn't play their best game, but are 7-0 after beating the Vikings. The player that surprised me the most was Christian Ponder. He really showed some poise in the 4th quarter and kept the Vikings in the game by completing 1 3rd down pass after another.
I thought they reached when they drafted him, but he looked pretty good yesterday.
Worst play? Bryan Robison's kick to TJ Lang's groin. How he wasn't ejected from the game is beyond me.
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