The Blog for the Sports Gamer

1. I wanted to 2nd what Glen said about Pure. Looks like a very good game.

2. I tried the Motorstorm 2 demo….feels a lot like Motorstorm 1, but that’s not a bad thing.

3.  So not only Tom Brady has a torn ACL and MCL, but now Charlie Weis does as well? Damn…who would have thought…

A few thoughts while I watch the Wisconsin football game tonight against Fresno State….

- I’m upset with Major League Baseball tonight for putting the Cubs/Astros series in Miller Park.  You took a home series for the Astros and put it in a stadium that will essentially make it a home game for the ‘visiting’ team.  That stinks.  I’m not happy with how the Brewers are playing, but if they were to lose the Wild Card to anyone, I would prefer that it would be the Astros… due to Cecil Cooper being their manager.  This just sucks for them.  They were asking for Atlanta as the site for the games… and they should have gotten that.

- I don’t know how many NHL fans we have here on the blog, but I read this article on CNNSI about the fact that the NHL is still not reducing the size of goalie equipment and it really annoyed me.

One of the bigger problems that the NHL faces right now is that the game could be more fan friendly.  One of the first things that they could do to resolve this is to increase the scoring in the games.  Goalies are WAY too over protected in the game.  It’s not at the level it was when Patrick Roy covered 2/3rds of the net, but it’s still way too much.

Look, I play goalie at an entirely recreational level… and I feel like I need every bit of that just because I put myself in bad positions where I need the larger pads to protect me.  These guys are pros… they don’t need the massive armor that they have to be safe.

Keeping the goalies safe has to be a priority, but they also have to look at the good of the game as well.  I love the NHL and just think that they need to make some changes to make the game a bit more interesting for the casual fan.

- Wow… did OSU get CRUSHED by USC tonight.  Wisconsin really needs this win tonight to give the Big Ten just a bit of love today.

- On the eve of Rock Band 2’s release… I find it funny that I just really got the hang of hammer-ons and pull-offs… by playing the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith demo.  For whatever reason, it never really clicked before… and when I played that demo… it finally felt right.  Go figure.

- I finally got around to watching ‘There Will Be Blood’ last night.  I’m absolutely amazed that I had never heard the jokes about “I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!” before today… but somehow I avoided it.  I did a search on it and there is a terrific SNL sketch about it though.  It’s funny to hear the crowd during the sketch though, as you can tell that most of them have no idea what they’re talking about.

- Glad that the press is finally starting to call out the lies in the presidential campaign.  The ad that McCain is running about Obama wanting to teach sex education to children in Kindergarten is one of the most disgusting ads that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.  The press is supposed to fact check this kind of crap and call them out for it… I’m glad to see that they might actually be starting to do their job.  It’s just funny to see that the hardest questions that McCain has had to answer in the last few days have come from the cast of the View.

Back to sports gaming

- I tried out the demo for Pure last night.  Wow, was that fun.  The trick system was very intuitive and the course didn’t seem like the game was trying to cheat you out of finding a way to win a race.  This game is in my rental queue right now… and I’m pretty sure I’ll be picking it up if the rental goes as well as my demo experience did.

- I spent an hour or two with NHL2K9 today for the 360 and I’m still very high on the game.  In my first game with the Islanders, I went against Martin Brodeur and the Devils.  I was shut out 2-0, but hit at least 3 or 4 pipes.  In my next game, I went against the Blues and managed to put up 7 goals… at which point they pulled the goalie.  It was nice to see that the in game AI decided that their goalie was struggling and needed to get out of there.

Now to my annoyances that I’ve found thus far.  In the franchise mode, there is a waiver wire where you can try and claim players.  I have yet to see anyone on it, but when I look at other teams… they have claimed players.  Unless I’m looking at the waiver system all wrong, the Islanders are 4th on the list and should have had a chance at some of the players.  I’ll keep an eye on it.

I also, can’t figure out how to trade for minor league prospects… they don’t appear as an option in the trade system.  You can trade for draft picks and players in the NHL, but not in the minors.  (I found this out as I was trying to trade for a former Badger goaltender in Ottawa, Brian Elliott.)  That really hurts the franchise mode if you can’t trade for prospects to rebuild your team.

- It’s surprising to me… but the NBA Live 09 demo wasn’t all that bad.  After watching the DNA video.. I’m intrigued by it, but it doesn’t really seem like a useful system for a person like me.  They’re talking about updating their rosters every single day, and while that sounds great… how many people really want to play one game a day when they’re playing a game like this.

Maybe those people are out there, and in that case… this looks like it’s a game for them.  They also have a feature where they let you replay the last game that happened in real life, using the exact rosters that were used that night.  Again… interesting, but I’m not sure how practical it is.

- Whew… I did have a lot to talk about today….

1. Condolences to Todd and Bill…man, I didn’t expect the stink fests that Michigan and OSU provided tonight.

2. I watched the 20/20 interview of Sarah Palin last night. While that show was terrible (really Sarah, guns don’t kill people, people kill people is your argument), the commercial for Life On Mars was great…they ran the promo like it was 1972, right up to the bad ABC logo at the end. I loved this show on BBC America….I have no idea what to expect on the US version, but I’ll be watching.

3. Burn Notice had like what , 5 episodes for the season? Maybe it needed to be shown in London  as BBC “seasons” are six or so eposides.

I played an online game of Tiger on the Wii the other night. Craig beat me by a ton. I wish I could get putting down…

I played a little NCAA football today on the 360. That was fun.

I think I’m going to trade in Mario Super Sluggers because it’s not a fun game and since it’s a Mario game it still gets good trade in value + 20% :).

Well yesterday Obama was in town, and he was around today as well, and McCain will be around for the NASCAR race. My goodness, you’d think it’s the primary or something.

The thought that Obama cancelled an appearance on SNL because of a Hurricane is silly. The PC-ness of this people is insane. I mean seriously — oh my we should stop doing everything because of a storm in California. Whatever.

My thought, at this point, is that the Brewers best hope for making the playoffs is if they don’t let the Astros go back home after Ike.

Also, they need to stop any other team from playing….Phillies..Cards… everyone.

Any chance of that happening?

Tons of demo comments coming later tonight.

1. How is Intellivision Lives an “Xbox Original” ? Isn’t it an Intellivision Original?

2. So Jeopardy, huh? Pass!

3. I just got Ferrari Challenge. I’ve also just mailed it back. LOL.

4. You know what sucks? This Belkin N Vision router. Wireless disconnects constantly. Nice display scren on the unit…but it’s totally useless when it just arbitrarily drops wireless connections….

5. I watched the Sarah Palin interview…she came across pretty well, much to my chagrin, but then again, two weeks of prep and vetted questions will do wonders :).

6. I forgot to mention this: I asked the gamestop employees why they aren’t doing a midnight release for Rock Band 2 Saturday night but are doing a midnight for Star Wars Force Unleashed on Tuesday. Their reply — they only had 16 copies of RB2. Sounds like they aren’t expecting a rush , or the game is going to be tough to get…..

7. More on politics. Want to see how much Obama will raise your taxes if his plans are approved? Click here.

Well, my complaining doesn’t seem to have amounted to much for the Brewers as the looked pretty poor against Philly tonight and their lead for the Wild Card is now down to 3 games.

I’m really wondering if some of you really want me to try and help you with your team and financial issues now.  I’m pretty sure it will lead your team to the basement and drive you into a massive amount of debt.

- I started playing NHL2K9 for the 360 and I’ve been enjoying the game thus far.  I haven’t run into any major gameplay issues and have seen some realistic situations develop such as screened goalies not making a save or breakaways that developed when defensemen tried to pinch in along the boards.  I’ll stick with the game for a while and see if I see any issues of know come up.

- I have a copy of NHL09 coming for the PS3 from Gamefly (due to the fact that one of our readers has that version and we can test out the online team-play option.)  My primary curiosity is the Be-A-Pro mode for goalies.  Last years Goalie mode was a good deal of fun… for a while, but the amount of controls and motions available to each keeper caused me to lose interest.  We’ll see what this years version has added to that.

- There is a demo for FIFA 09 out on the Playstation Network as well as Xbox Live.  I’m sure Dan will be commenting on that tonight or tomorrow.

- International Track and Field continues to be a great deal of fun.  I’m pretty sure that I’m wearing down the bottom of the stylus though from scrubbing it across the screen as much as I have.  Still having a blast with the game though.  I can’t remember the last game that I played that I actually cared about breaking my own scores for each “stage.”  That’s a great game, in my book.

Amazing….the Brewers can actually get a clutch hit.

Nice to see another win, in person, this year.

More later.

The Brewers flat out stink right now.  They are going to give everyone a chance to steal the wild card from them.  They’re practically playing their way out of the playoffs right now.  The Cubs have left the door wide open to steal the Central… and so the Brewers respond by scoring 24 runs in 9 games.  Unreal.

This team couldn’t buy a clutch hit at this point.  2-7 on a home stand…. Good grief.

All I can say is that I’m happy I’m going to see Sabathia pitch tomorrow.  Maybe they’ll give him more than a run of support….

I know that I’m not the one that actually gets paid to write game reviews (Dan is that guy, for those of you that don’t feel like playing along,) but I have to say something about 1up’s latest review for an EA Sports title.   In this case, the title is NHL09.

For those of you here that read Bill Harris, he put together an article detailing how 1up, almost without fail, gives EA Sports titles higher review scores than any of the other sites.

I get that sites all have their own scoring system and their own definition of what an excellent title is, but my issue comes with the writing of this review.  If you actually skip the score at the top of the page… you can’t read the review and think that the score given actually matches what he is saying.  Here are some examples.

In reference to the “Be A Player” mode…

As an experiment, I played five strong games in a row then purposely imploded — completely disregarding Be A Player’s visual cues — in the sixth. Was I benched? Demoted? No. Instead, I was given props and bumped from the third to second line.

In reference to gameplay issues….

Unfortunately, no matter which configuration you prefer, NHL 09 is not free of past unrealistic annoyances. I was still privy to bizarre last-minute goals that were seemingly designed only to keep the score close, and I still feel that one of the best defensive moves is to viciously chop players to the ice. It is time for EA to correct such indiscretions.

So, just to catch up with what he has to say… the new mode, has flaws that seem to indicate that regardless of your performance… you will be rewarded for it.

Also, the game seems to have rubber-band AI.

The score he gives the game?  A, the second highest rating possible.  The review just screams of “Despite all it’s flaws….”

Memo to the 1up writers, particularly this “hockey-playing madman.”  When you point out flaws in a game, those are things that DETRACT from a score.  Maybe I’m just old-school, but I think that’s how you write and score a review.

There is nothing quite like spending 10 hours in a server room to make you want to play games….

- I’m really excited to play this years hockey games, but I just don’t know about picking up NHL09.  I really want to hear how different it is from last years version.  If there aren’t major improvements there… then I might just pass.

- So, what did I do yesterday after spending 10 hours in the car with my family?  Drop them off at home and go out and play hockey… I guess that’s how I roll.

- What I did play a good deal of this weekend was International Track and Field.  That game is terrific.  Easily the most fun DS sports game that has come out to date.  Hopefully a few more of you can pick it up so Dan and I have more people to compare scores with.

- I got Madden Wii Play via Gamefly today.  Damn queue… I was hoping to get a hockey game instead.  Pisser.

- In local sports… the Brewers have really taken the tail pipe.  I’m absolutely floored that they have a 3 game lead in the Wild Card.  They absolutely cannot hit the ball right now and when they do have a late lead, they blow it, as they did tonight.  You have to hope for more than 4 wins on an 11 game homestand, but that’s the best they can hope for at this point.

The Badgers had better figure out how to play defense in the first 2 quarters of a game, because Fresno State will rough them up big time if they don’t figure that out this week.

Great win for the Packers tonight.  They were pushed around by the Vikings on the ground tonight, but they managed to make enough big plays to pull out a win.  Rodgers looked like a great “game manager” and didn’t make any big mistakes that could have cost the team.

I’ll post more tomorrow if I pick up NHL09.  I’m just weak enough to do it, you know….

I was ready to buy and download on Sunday…then I started reading the reviews. All of the scores look great, but when you read the reviews …it doesn’t seem to me that the text of the review matches the score. I just get the funny feeling if this were a Ubisoft game by an unknown developer we wouldn’t be seeing the high scores that we are seeing now.

What do you think? Have you played it? I am curious, but I’m not sure I’m $49.99 curious…

Well, in something to me that’s nothing short of shocking, McCain has jumped up big time in the polls. Especially among white women. I’m sorry, are white women in this country voting for Sarah Palin just because she’s a woman? That didn’t work out so well for Hillary. Or Geraldine Ferraro for that matter. I just don’t understand how you vote for a woman (or man for that matter) on gender or race.

That being said, it looks like McCain’s gamble is paying off. Much to my chagrin.

1. So the worst news possible came out of the CIA, err, Patriots HQ today, with the announcement that Brady would be on IR and miss the season. Interestingly enough he was not on the cover of a Madden game. This sort of injury is supposed to be something a player can come back from, but man, once you are damaged goods, it’s difficult to come back.

1a. Speaking of injuries, my wife and I noticed that my daughter was running awkwardly during soccer. She’s a full time figure skater (Vancouver here we come), but we thought we would have a doctor check out her knee. The doc referred her to physical therapy and they did find something wrong — it’s no ACL but it’s significant — she can still skate but boy I sure do see the desire to keep going when you work so hard for something — it’s difficult to rest.

2. At the end of last season, I had said that hey, if the Pats won the Super Bowl, it really wouldn’t be worth watching football because there’s nothing they could possibly do. If they lost, I wouldn’t watch because hey here we go again. I guess you can look at this as half empty half full — the ESPN guys have already written off the Patriots and while I agree the QB is a very important cog in the engine or whatever, you still have many other parts. I don’t know what to think, but seriously I think Bill B has the ammo needed to move the team forward. Of course they may also suck donkeys on Sunday and then I’ll say I’m glad my son has travel soccer.

3. I like getting 35 Gamerscore for signing into the Live Score tracker on a Monday.

4. You probably won’t hear much from me the next two days because of NHL. Oh just kidding, I have to be knee deep in work so I’ll only post at night…unless I have a moment from my cell phone. We’ll see.