Wrestling Spirit Two was released by the good folks at Grey Dog Software.
Browsing Posts published in June, 2006
Sorry for the slow posts this past week. With Jonathan in the UK and my recent return from lovely Seattle, Washington, I think we’ve both sampled quite a lot of beer. And completely forgotten about computer gaming. Greetings to any readers who frequent the Collins Street Pub in Seattle. A fine beer pub indeed!
In the news – EA Sports makes an unrealistic management sports game. This is second-hand information from the good folks at The Blog for the Sports Gamer. Is anyone really surprised by this? The good news is that the mod community is hard at work fixing the game.
We still wait with great anticipation for the Out of the Park Baseball 2006 patch. I think the length of time we wait for the patch may be strangely related to how far England and Germany go in the World Cup, but this is pure speculation on my part.
I am taking off to the UK on business this Friday; will be back on July 1. I am sure I will post here and there, when the opportunity presents itself, but if I am not around, know that I am having a delicious cold one (or three). I am actually looking forward to watching some proper football (World Cup style) in an English pub. Should be for good time. Cheers!
So I was wrong about Georgia; I thought they would have a better showing in the CWS.
So what of Team USA’s chances over Ghana tomorrow morning? You have to score to win, so for starters the US is going to have to figure out how to get the ball in the net. No advice here other than we have had next to no quality shots on goal, and technically we have yet to score (an own goal vs. Italy does not really cut it when it). No idea what Arena is going to do to improve the offense, but something has to change or we will be going home.
I think Italy will beat the Czechs, so it is up to the US to do their part. I am going to go on a limb and predict a 2-0 victory for the Red, White, and Blue.
Oh yeah. The Braves are still sucking wind.
In the World Cup spirit, I finally seriously loaded and updated Football Manage 2006 while I wait for Out of the Park Baseball 2006’s next patch. I forgot how much a pain it is to keep a game’s CD-ROM in the disk drive in order to play it. Since most of my gaming time is split between World of Warcraft and OOTP 6.5, FM 2006 is the only one bugging me to insert the CD every time I open the game.
I’m a converted MLS fan now that Houston has a team. Growing up a New York Giants fan means you can never cheer for anything from Dallas, so an even passing interest in FC Dallas was out of the question. The Dynamo solved my problem and the World Cup made me finally get serious about it.
Finding updated MLS rosters is a Google nightmare. I could find only two that included the new teams (Houston and the renamed New York). One had some weird lower division system that the creator decided to include in the database. The other I found at Sport Sims Heaven and I used it, even though it didn’t include the team logos and kits.
Luckily, my search uncovered a nifty site called sourtitoutsi and it should be in every text gamer’s bookmark section. It not only has all sorts of great stuff to download, but it contains strategy guides and tutorials for most of Sports Interactive’s games. There’s even an OOTPB 2006 newbie guide posted.
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I downloaded the complete logo set and new MLS kits from sourtitoutsi. Updating the database was pretty easy. Not so with the logos. Eventually I just deleted the installed files and extracted the new pictures to get the team pictures to appear. But it sure makes the game seem more alive with the new logos and uniforms.
I’ll continue to update my progress as things get going…
William Abner is taking a close look at PureSim 2007 over at the Blog for the Sports Gamer. He’s making some good observations about the game’s mechanics, but the most interesting thing he writes is:
“Now, if this were OOTP people would be screaming from the rafters. To me, this is equally as messed up as what OOTP does. To outright cut this guy is completely bonkers.”
I’m glad I am not the only person that notices a double standard that seems to be applied to everything called Out of the Park Baseball within the text gaming community. If something is broken in OOTPB, people are outraged, hair is pulled out of scalps, teeth are gnashed, and the world seems to be coming to an end. Similar problems crop up in other text baseball games, and good old [insert Shaun, Clay, Tom, etc.] will fix it.
There just isn’t the same level of stupidity associated with the reactions to other text baseball games.
My favorite idiot is the one who feels that he would have made the difference over the incompetent OOTP beta testing group. This special idiot is the one with magical powers. His list of problems would force Markus and Sports Interactive to bend to his will, for his problems would NEVER be ignored when a gaming company was choosing between releasing a game and fixing all of the bugs.
Where were these idiots when PureSim was in earlier incarnations with all of its fun AI issues? Where are they in the Baseball Mogul forums?
The lunacy and volume of OOTPB complaints is just something I cannot understand, given the state of other less complained about products. I’m happy that I am not alone in this confusion.
People at work get tired of me fussing, cussing, and complaining about the lack of passion for soccer (yes I know it is football everywhere else) in the US. I long for the day when there is some pride in what the National team does on the international stage. I want people to be hacked off about the officiating in today’s game. The stuff of water coolers.
Maybe we took some small step today. When I was in the check out line at the local adult beverage store, a couple of buddies in the other checkout line waved over another buddy entering the store. After some brief chitchat, they started talking about the US/Italy game. It was obvious that they were not soccer fans or even that knowledgeable, but wonders of wonders, they were talking about the game.
I could go on with this story. Tasty, cold, adult liquids. Explanations of the US not being out of the WC. But the day has been long, and I have posted enough for one heck of a sports day (LeMans, WC action, CWS).
GA had a chance (so says the announcers – I was watching the World Cup), but in the end they could not hold on against Rice. I guess I should not feel too bad because I had Rice beating UGA in my office pool. I actually picked several of the CSW teams correctly: Clemson, Rice, GA, GA Tech, Cal St Fullerton, and Miami. I picked Clemson to down Texas (oops) in the finals.
Unless Oregon State mounts a major comeback against Miami, it looks like the Dawgs will go in the losers’ bracket against the Beavers. Of course that is right were we want them. Seriously, GA has played awesome of late when in elimination games. Still not a great way to start, but I like our chances on Monday.
Un’fing believable. What a poorly officiated game. When is the US going to score? I guess a tie is better than a loss, but now we have to play the “if we beat Ghana and Italy beats the Czechs …” game. To be honest, without studying it more, I am not even sure what it will take to advance. That -3 goal differential is going to kick us in the teeth before it is all said and done.
The Mastroeni red card was bad enough, but the Pope red card (second yellow of the match), just minutes into the second half was really unnecessary. I am really beside myself right now, spitting mad, and should not be typing this entry. BUT I am so f’ing upset that I have get this off my chest.
I was right on a couple of points. Beasley was a second half sub, but he did a piss poor job of stretching the field. To be honest, I hope he does not see any action against Ghana, but I best he sees time because two of our boys are down for group play. I also said that Keller would get the job done if given some decent support, and he proved his worth with a couple of nice saves late in the second half.
For a few seconds my 2-1 prediction seemed to come to fruition. So close, yet so far away. I guess the interference was the right call, but after so many crap calls, I would hope for some type of break. Alas, it was not to be.
Playing a man down (9-10) most of the second half sucked, but I really do not understand why we did not try to mount some sort of attack in the final minutes. Beasley should have run the sidelines just to try to make something happen.
More later. When I calm down.
My entire house erupted with thunderous shouts of “Goooooaaaaalllllll!!!!!” when the US scored their second goal. Man, what a let down when it was taken away.
Holy crap! Up 2-0 with 7 mins to play. Makes you really wonder WTF happened to the US earlier this week? I know the Czech Republic is hurt, but still, what an amazing upset in the works.
Now it is up to Team USA to do their part! USA! USA! USA! Come on boys! Make us proud!
Let’s now turn our attention to where players on major league rosters were drafted in OOTPB 2006. I took a look at the Jacksonville Sharks (in my IOSBL league) to see where the major league 2035 roster players were selected in the draft. The Sharks were six games under .500 in 2035, so they weren’t the best team in the league.
There were four position players taken in the first round. Two second round, one third, one sixth, and one seventh round picks were on the starting roster. The substitute/utility players had one first round, one second, one fourth, one seventh, and one 12th round pick.
Next, I took a look at the starting rotation. There were three first round picks (numbers four, nine, and twelfth overall), one third round, and one fifth round pick in the rotation. The third round pick was actually the number two SP in the rotation, but the number five pick was the fifth starter.
How does this compare to OOTP 6.5? I examined the starting lineup of the 2017 Jacksonville Sharks, a playoff team, battling for first place in our AL East. There were four first round, two second round, one third round, and one fifth round pick in the Sharks starting lineup. One player was drafted in the original IOSBL draft. The starting rotation consisted of a second round, third round, fourth round, and a ninth round pick. Again, another SP was selected in the original IOSBL draft, so not included in the numbers.
These results are consistent with our first test. There doesn’t seem to be a big difference between OOTP 6.5 and OOTPB 2006 for position players. First and second round players do well. Players selected in lower rounds can have productive careers in OOTP 6.5, and they may also do well in OOTPB 2006.
Pitching is a different story. The third round pick in 2017 is one of the best pitchers in the AL, and the ninth round pick (my number two SP) is very good as well. So if we want to get the best bang for the buck patch-wise, Sports Interactive needs to look at the pitching development algorithms. They are not consistent with OOTP 6.5 and success seems too predictable for higher level prospects.
Well-done. I have not see the Braves play this bad in a long, long time. After a hell of a run, you have to expect that all good things come to an end sooner or later. I know it sounds silly for me to complain about the Braves not being a “big market” team, but regardless of all the TV contracts, the current Braves management will not put money back into the team.
The Braves have many problems, but not putting money into a quality bullpen was the ultimate downfall of this year’s Braves. I know there is over a half season to play, and I love Bobby Cox, but after going 3-15 over the last few weeks, this year’s team is toast.
In what was a major oops, I forgot that today is LeMans day! What did you expect with a birthday party for my 4-year old, World Cup, the Dawgs in the CWS, and a crazy work schedule. Not to mention that my Orlando Dolphins of the JOBL ran away with their division, which was good for my first ever division title in an online league! I cannot give myself too much credit; I took over a pretty decent team last year.
So back to LeMans. I doubt I will get to watch much today, there is just too much going on, and I am going to be scheming hard to watch this thing while hosting Nathan’s birthday party. Like I said, this one pretty much slipped up on me, so I have no idea who I have to pull for with American interests. I am damn curious to see how the diesel powered Audi perform.
Today’s game against Italy is a rare chance for US soccer to gain a degree of respectability. I am not sure if anyone realistically expected Team USA to down the Czech Republic, but I doubt that many expected total embarrassment. I just have to wonder which team will show up today? The one that played a lazy endeavor against a clearly superior team, or will we get the team that is hungry for respect?
There has been a lot of talk about changing up the lineup today, but it will all be for naught if we do not figure out some basic principles of defense (clear to the sidelines folks!). I am not going to make any suggestions here because I have no idea how to fix this problem. The guys just need to figure out how to hold it together, close down any attacks, and play some sound defense. I really think steady play is all that is needed because Keller is a fine keeper if given just a bit of support.
As for the midfield, at a minimum Donovan needs to go back to the midfield and Beasley should be a very late sub to help stretch the field. Everyone seems to like O’Brien; I can jump on the bandwagon if needed, but Reyna will need to play like he is super pissed about the midfield’s poor performance last Monday.
Of course you have to score to win, and if no one can serve McBride, or whoever is playing to support McBride, I do not think we will score. This is really a huge problem for the US; no dominant strikers. I figured the US was going to play a classic defensive style of ball control, but after going down in the first five minutes, it was pretty much over. All signs point towards Eddie Johnson playing opposite McBride. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that we can at least get some quality opportunities and hope for the best.
The two things we do know are that we have to win or we go home, and what an utter disappointment (dare I say failure) that would be for US soccer. We also know that Arena is going to shake up the line up. Like I said, steady defense, solid midfield support, and a few quality opportunities for our boys will result in a 2-1 upset.
Go USA!
