Wednesday Thoughts
1. 6 days to go until the NH Primary. Unlike 4 years ago, things aren't nearly as busy here as they were then. I still have a few phone calls here and there, but not nearly as many as there were back then.
2. The general feeling is that Mitt Romney will win here, because apparently NH Republicans are so stupid, they will vote for the guy closest to NH. Just like Democrats in 2004 LOL. I am not a fan of Mitt, or pretty much anyone on the ballot. I know you are shocked.
3. Moving along to gaming, I had to buy NFL Blitz for the PS3 so I could get it a day early. My feelings: 1) the graphics suck. 2) the game clock stops after every play no matter what happens - stupid. 3) same plays as before on offense and defense. 4) the lateral to forward pass is still fun. 5) Not a fan of the one button controls this time around. I don't seem to do well with a turbo pass, for example. 6) I hate not having late hits. 7). Of course, I keep playing it.
NFL Blitz first impressions
- You have to give EA credit for going out and grabbing the old Midway licenses and trying to revive the old NBA Jam and NFL Blitz franchises. With Madden and Backbreaker being the only two football titles released in the last 2 years, we're really in need of a bit more variety in the football gaming genre.
Does NFL Blitz provide enough of a change of pace? I guess that remains to be seen.
Be ready when you purchase the game, it is a rather large download, coming in at 1.8 GB. That definitely makes it one of the larger arcade games that I've seen in recent memory.
First off, the online component was completely empty last night. I'm sure that's due to the fact that the game does not release until 10:00 a.m. today, so that's not something that I can hold against them. What I do wonder, based on the configuration of the online, is how easy it will be to actually play online games.
The first thing that it asks you when you connect to the servers is to choose a state that you are in. Once, I did that, I never had the option to connect to any sort of lobby to match up against any other players. All of the online games seem to be done through automatic matchmaking.
Again, with no one available for the matchmaking, I'm not sure if that's the case or the fact that all of the online features are not configured yet.
If there are no lobbies and the only options that you have are to play against friends or against a random opponent that the server finds for you, that would be disappointing. Not being able to see an opponents record or gameplay status (whether their a late game quitter etc.) would be a real drag on the online component.
- Online aside, I spent a few hours last night with the Gauntlet mode, the single player mode for the game. The Gauntlet consists of a series of matchups against CPU teams, then a matchup against a "boss" team, then 3 more CPU's, another boss, another 3 CPU, then a "final" boss battle.
After playing through the first boss battle (a matchup against a team of Cowboy players, not the Dallas teams... 1800's Western guys,) I can see why they didn't implement any sort of season mode. The game, while fun (in spurts) against the CPU, just doesn't have any long term appeal. As you beat the bosses, you unlock new codes for the game that unlock the teams that you play against, but the experience just isn't as much fun as playing against a real person.
Within a few games, I was able to find formations that were very difficult for the CPU to stop on offense, and on the defensive side of the ball, putting quick pressure on the QB prevented the computer from gaining more than 5 to 10 yards on any given play on most occasions.
As the developers mentioned in our interview, the fact that you can no longer make late hits in the game is certainly noticeable, but it doesn't really detract from the game. It's just.... not there. You really want to be able to move your guys after they've knocked a guy to a ground... and you can't. I know that eventually that feeling will go away, but it won't stop me from continuing to hit a button after the whistle to try and give that offensive player another hit.
- Graphically, the game is very nice to look at. One of the cheat codes that I stumbled on (a single press of X, Y, and B at the code entry screen) unlocked the NFL Blitz team ball. On the ball it consisted of the signatures of all of the members of the team that took part in the making of the game. In an instant replay, I was able to zoom in and clearly see Mark Turmell's signature on the ball. That to me was a sign of the quality of the graphic fidelity on the field.
Player models are, seemingly, bulkier versions of the Madden gameplay models and they look as good as you would want them to for an arcade style of game like this.
- As far as the audio is concerned, Tim Kitzrow seems to have taken his typical enthusiasm down a notch. Maybe it's due to the fact that, comedian, Brian Haley is taking part in some of the commentary with him, but he just doesn't seem to have that "BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA" type punch to him this time around.
Again, not a bad thing... just different than you would have expected.
- Well, that was certainly a long winded first impression, but hopefully in the coming days, I'll be able to play the game against people on my Xbox friends list (Dan? Any other takers?) and we'll be able to see how well the co-op and other online modes will work.
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.
Happy Friday
Hello y'all. I was off this week from work, thinking I'd be able to catch up on games, movies, and everything else. That didn't go according to plan as after a wonderful holiday, I got nasty sick. I think it was food poisoning, but I'm now 3 days removed and still not 100%. I will spare you the details (Glen got a nice descriptive blow by blow, although I did neglect to take photos), but I'm still not 100%. I was really hoping to catch up on gaming, but oh well.
So let's talk about what I did do:
I watched some movies. First The Smurfs. If you weren't sick before, watching this movie will make you sick. It is awful. I also watched A Christmas Story for the first time. I can see the appeal, I just wasn't OMG that I had seen on Facebook about this movie. Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is a definite must-see. I also saw Margin Call which has a very good cast and was interesting but not stellar -- too many unresolved issues in that movie. I did get out of the house and watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which was very good.
I also caught up on some TV. I can't stop watching Storage Wars (thanks Roku). I also watched the first episode of Homeland which has a lot of buzz and I can see why, although I'm only one episode in.
I haven't done jack when it comes to gaming unfortunately.
With NFL.com Fantasy, the final standings are up as Glen mentioned -- NFL.com did a nice job showing off the winners and the playoff brackets. I enjoyed myself this year, even if Glen only gave 4 pts for a passing touchdown. I lived and died by the Gronk and while he did great things for me in the first 13 weeks, his zero touchdowns in the last week knocked me out. Oh well. Congrats to the winner and I look forward to next year. What is most important is that I beat Glen and Craig. Craig couldn't even make the playoffs. Talk about bad. I don't think Craig has ever done well in Fantasy.
I have to say I am looking forward to next Wednesday's release of NFL Blitz. I have no idea what to expect, but my fingers are crossed for a great game.
Friday notes
- It's probably easy to determine that you're a child of the 80's when the first songs that you think of for an exercise or workout tape are these two....
- You really missed out if you didn't watch any of the Baylor/Washington game last night. What was funny was the fact that RG3 wasn't even the best QB on the field last night, that honor belonged to Washington QB Keith Price who threw for 4 TD's and ran for 3 more.
Typically I have no interest in watching bowl games (well, ones that don't involve Wisconsin) but for some reason I tuned in to this one and when it was all said and done, I was very glad that I did.
If you have ESPN 3 and can go back and watch the game, I recommend you do so. It's a great exhibition of offense and how not to tackle.
- Speaking of ESPN, they have brought out the fancy new toys for the bowl season, starting with EA Sports Game View, which uses a modified version of NCAA Football on a 70" touchscreen LCD to allow them to move players around on a virtual field.
No word if the linebackers still jump 5 feet into the air to knock down passes yet.
Thanks to Richard Lawler, loyal blog reader, for that news tidbit.
- Oh, and a reminder, UFC 141 is on Xbox Live tonight and should be free to all Live users.
- Lastly, I'm still working on a games of the year post. Hope to have that to you tomorrow.
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.
Thursday notes
- Haven't heard of this, but can't say it's surprising. EA was once considering bringing Madden back to the PC... in a way.
Sadly, those parts were moved into other Madden properties and we're stuck with the console only version of Madden that we have today.
Of course, I've never messed with the Facebook Madden NFL Superstars. Still, I long for the olden days where you could actually update and mod a PC version of a game.
- It's not very often that I see an app that really looks like it has a ton of very cool applications, but 'Are You Watching This?!' seems like a real winner.
I've been debating getting a GoogleTV unit for my Dish Network receiver and this looks like a great reason to pick it up.
Changing channels to watch other sporting events right from my phone or tablet? Giddyup.
- Other than that, I've been working (and fixing the last laptop that I will EVER fix for anyone) and catching up on TV stuff.
I'm in the midst of season 3 of Doctor Who and just started watching Archer again (now that I know that season 3 starts in less than a month.)
- Lastly, I was looking at some information about the Humble Bundle and found that I have Steam Keys available for Humble Bundle 2 and 3. If anyone would like them, just let me know. Consider it a holiday present from me.
- Have a great day.
Wednesday Thoughts
1. Wow, I didn't realize how good of a game NBA2K is for the PC. Best $9.99 I've spent -- and I don't even like Basketball!
2. I'm one of the three people left on earth stuck with a BlackBerry (thanks corporate IT policy). It's a CDMA phone but it does have unlimited (but monitored) data. I was excited to see Spotify released for Blackberries...but not CDMA phones. Crap. Of course I'm sure Spotify is programming for this phone like EA programs for Commodore Amigas.
3. I'm still bitter over my fantasy loss. Playing in the "3rd place game" is about as exciting as not making the playoffs at all. Of all the games Gronk becomes a non-factor, it had to be this one. Grrr.
4. Not a bad interview by Glen about Blitz. I'm looking forward to this one.
5. Pretty much every game is $0.99 for the iPad by EA this week. Hello, FIFA 12 and Madden. It's $0.99!
6. If you have PlayOn, you should get PlayLater. Very cool idea.
7. Anyone out there have a Kindle Fire? Does the upgrade help? I have an iPad but with all my Amazon "crap" I keep thinking maybe I should get this. Yes, that is not healthy at all.
Yes I’m alive
I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I honestly don't have a good reason why. I guess I could blame some personal things going on or just the fact that I haven't been playing many games, but neither is a good reason.
Gaming:
Madden: I'm in season 3 of my Patriots franchise having won my first 2 Super Bowls. My players are starting to show their age however and ratings are dropping. Overall I'm rated an 83. Part of that is that I refuse to pay top dollar for most players. I'll pay someone rated an 80 the minimum rather than someone rated an 86 10M a year. I did find a strange bug this year. In week 6 I decided to try to trade around some draft picks. Being 5-0 I found 2 teams that are 0-5. Both were willing to trade me pick for pick. So my 1st round for their 1st, my 2nd for their 2nd and so on. That's an easy way to start boosting your team. Linebackers jumping 20 feet in the air making 1 hand catches still piss me off.
NFS: The Run - I have only played about an hour of this one, but I like it. My son just finished the run across country so maybe I'll start putting some more time in. I actually like the gamepad controls better than the wheel.
Diablo 2 - Yea, still playing this one...enough said
Movies
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - This is a very good movie. I was not a fan of the ones in the 70's but I loved this one
Captain America - Just so so. I really liked how they picked the guy to become Captain America, but not really enough action in the movie for me
Music
I've been using Spotify since Dan sent me an invite and still like it a lot. Not everything I look for is on there of course, but I have found a bunch of new music. My current favorite is "Falling in Reverse". I had never heard of them, but they were a Spotify recommendation. Now I listen to them all the time. They will be in Atlanta on January 24th. It's a Tuesday night. I will be going!
Sports
The Patriots D has been terrible and I don't see it getting any better. They might be the strongest team in the AFC, but if the O has a weak week they can't hold on. I still think the Packers will repeat.
Red Sox - What were they thinking? Bobby Valentine? Give me a break. We might not sink to the level of Baltimore, but we are going to have issue this year. On a positive note, I'm glad they let Papelbon go. Give Bard a shot. Sure he might be a little rough stll, but I honestly think he's ready. Of course maybe that's why I'm writing here (when I do) and not on the Red Sox payroll.
Clemson looked great in the ACC title game and I think they can handle West Virginia. Next year looks very promising too with Boyd, Watkins and Hopkins coming back. I expect Dwayne Allen to leave for the NFL, so that will hurt, but Watkins was so impressive as a true Freshman, I can't wait to see him next year.
Tuesday notes
- About that Packer game on Sunday. It's fun to hear the over-reactions of fans around here as well as the pundits. Right after the game Esiason in the CBS studio says that the Packers defense cost them that game. The next day I heard Tony Siragusa (truly an awful analyst) say that the linebackers at the end of the game prevented the Chiefs from running out the clock.
First Boomer's comment, The defense gave up 19. If the offense didn't drop 6 or 7 balls in the first half, that would have been a much different game. The team was averaging 30+ points a game. 17 any other week is a victory. Sure they gave up a lot of yards, but they weren't what cost the team the game on Sunday.
Goose? The linebackers on the field are two backups playing for Hawk and Bishop and they made terrible assignment decisions all day. I honestly don't know how that guy has a job... ugh.
Credit has to be given to the Chiefs though. They played a good game and didn't make any mistakes with the ball and that is what the Packers have really destroyed other teams with.
If the Packers win on Sunday night against the Bears, at home, all is well and home field is locked up throughout the NFC playoffs. Hopefully that would give them enough time to get some healthy bodies there for the playoffs.
- In regards to the Blitz interview, I really have some high hopes for the game. I love the concept of unlocking things based on play instead of via cash. Paying for unlockables annoys the hell out of me and I wish that more developers would follow their lead on this, especially with Live Arcade and Playstation Network titles.
- In Fantasy, Howie and Roderick are playing for the championship. I'll be honest, I have no idea how Roderick is in the championship. Blaine Gabbert is his starting QB. That's just crazy.
Dan plays for 3rd place, and I play for 7th.
I think all is right with the world considering none of the guys writing for the blog have a chance to win it. heh.
- On Saturday night, I had a date night with the Mrs. and we went and saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Going into it, my hopes were pretty low, but the movie really impressed. The pacing of the film was tremendous and the action never really slowed down.
For the life of me, I can't think of a movie that Brad Bird has directed that I haven't really enjoyed. The guy just knows how to make a movie.
I highly recommend the film.
- Lastly, I got a new phone yesterday. A Galaxy Nexus from Verizon.
The only thing I can say is that I love ICS. The interface is smooth and I really love the huge screen. Plus, mail indicators and multicolor LED lights. Kick ass phone so far.
Live by the Gronk, die by the Gronk
Well, Glen's dreams have come true as the playoff week was the week that Gronk decided not to score any TDs. That combined with a shitty Flacco performance means the only thing I can do is hope for the PIT defense to score negative points. I will need a Tebow-esque miracle for that!
Riding the Pines – NFL Blitz interview
Recently, I had the chance to interview NFL Blitz project lead, Dave Ross and designer Yuri Bialoskursky and talk about the upcoming release of NFL Blitz for Xbox 360 Arcade and Playstation Network.
Here are a few of the topics that we covered in the interview.
- How does the game compare to the recent EA arcade football games?
- The decision to have an in-game market where you unlock things by gameplay, but not via money.
- The removal of late hits from the game and how that impacts gameplay.
- How the Elite League feature compares to the Ultimate team modes in other EA Sports games.
- If you can play couch co-op against other people online
Click on either of the following links to listen to the interview
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