Not really, but it seems that way. Look week of “real world” stuff, so no gaming updates until tomorrow.
So how about those Jets? Makes EA’s decision to put Favre on the cover looks sort of silly. Last night I heard some talk about Favre being the face of the Jets and helping to usher in a new stadium in 2009. What happens when Favre wants to be retrospective on retiring again? Sequels are never as good as the originals.
My Falcons ticket arrived over the weekend. I know Atlanta is not going to be very good, but I am excited about getting season tickets.
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Can I get some beer up here? |
I will get to watch games from Section 331. Not the best view, but for $225 per seat (for 10 games), it is certainly not a bad view.
All the regular season games have 1PM kick off times, so that is not going to be good on the tailgate front, but sometimes you just have to start passing around the cold ones early.
This year’s schedule is not top shelf, but there are some interesting teams visiting the Dome. The Falcons’ second and third preseason games are at home against the Colts and Titans. Not sure if Manning will be ready to play, but watching a few minutes of Young should be fun. I think it is much better to get the two middle games because we should get to see some open competition. The last game always sucks because everyone wants to protect the starters; just get out of there without any injuries.
Regular season games feature the Lions, Chiefs, Bears, Saints, Broncos, Panthers, Buccaneers, and Rams.
I don’t think we will see a sackfull of wins, but it should be a fun season.
Over the weekend I gave PSP to PS3 Remote Play another go. This time I followed a reader’s (Morrelli) suggestion to leave the PS3 in Remote Play mode. This actually works; I connected to my PS3 over the internet (outside of my home network) without any connectivity problems. Lag was an issue, but I think that can be attributed to the wireless networks I was using.
If the PS3 is already on, in Remote Play mode, everything is gravy, but to me this kind of defeats the purpose because I want to leave the PS3 off and connect as needed.
For the first time ever, UGA has been selected as a preseason #1.
Georgia was widely considered the hottest team in college football at the end of the 2007 season.
A panel of Division I-A coaches remembered, voting the Bulldogs the preseason No. 1 in the USA Today Top 25 coaches’ poll, released Friday.
Funny thing is that #3 Ohio St. is positioned for yet another SEC beat down if they can get by #2 USC September 13. Even if UGA cannot survive a brutal schedule, #5 Florida and #6 LSU will also be very strong contenders for the mythical National Championship. SEC Champion vs. Ohio St./USC winner?
Is UGA really #1? Just last week at SEC Media Days, the media voted Florida to win the SEC East, while Auburn was picked to win the SEC West. The Florida pick is very realistic, but Auburn is going to have to resolve their QB issues if they want to make a serious run.
I am going to write more about the Dawgs changes in the coming weeks. For now, while I will hold out hope that the Dawgs can run the gauntlet, I think realistically Georgia faces two losses. Killer schedule, but doable if everything goes in their favor.
Go Dawgs!
It has been a while since I last played a 1942 game. I am not really what you would call a fan of the series, but many moons ago, I did enjoy previous versions of game in the 194x series. Picking up the latest version from the PlayStation Store a few weeks ago for $9.99 was really an impulse purchase.
The graphics are 2D on top of a 3D backdrop, fairly standard stuff for a 2D shooter pushed forward into this current generation of high powered graphics.
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Too old to duck and dodge all this crap … |
I will get straight point. I am too old for this sort of frantic, pattern based shooter. More precisely, I just do not have the skills to progress very far in the game, even on the easiest level. I think my speed is more along the lines of the bosses in Super Stardust HD is about my pace.
I am not going to say that the game is bad; it’s probably very good for fans of the series (metacritic score of 68). Purchasing a so-so game (from my perspective) exposes one of the things I do not like about digital distribution. I have no opportunity to recoup a few dollars of my $9.99 purchase.
There is an interesting slider discussion going on at OS, and while some think there is much doom and gloom with the lack of CPU sliders, can it really be all that terrible? I mean down right PlayStation Madden 96 bad? Enough to cancel the game?
I think I am going to wait with baited breath to see how things pan out with this year’s Madden. While I am not a slider whore, I do like to fiddle with sliders to adjust things to my liking. I am not sure what inspired the developers to drop slider adjustments, but obviously sliders are not considered important to the overall success of the game. Look no further than the broken slider crap we are currently enduring with NCAA Football 09.
These days I am not looking for the perfect game, but something that is enjoyable and heavily slanted towards a simulation experience. Blitz style over the top sports games are not my cup of team. I do not like seeing 75% (or higher) pass completion percentages game after game; that is just not realistic. There is a fine line between fun and realistic, and this line, or perception, is different for every gamer. I think sliders can help balance out things, but sliders will not help with a faulty AI, poor play calling, or a broken game engine.
The Madden 09 demo gives me a sense of things to come, and right now I am sitting on the fence. The experience is different than NCAA Football 09, which is a positive, but will Madden 09 offer more enjoyment for my football time?
I want a solid NFL game; my expectations are not lofty. The problem is that Madden 09 is the only game in town. Thanks to exclusive licenses, we are stuck with a take or leave situation. I long for the days of GameDay, where Sony caught EA Sports with their pants down, which resulted in the cancellation of Madden 96 for the PlayStation. Give me some GameBreaker vs. NCAA Football, GameDay vs. Madden, or 2K vs. Madden competition. Sometimes the good ‘ol days really were better.
It looks like EA Sports is about to do the needful and patch NCAA Football 09. We can look at this two ways.
WTF was EA thinking releasing a game with this many issues? Or we can be grateful that EA Sports is addressing the many issues with the game. At this point the horse is out of the barn, so I am going to wait and see what if the gameplay improves. If it does, we may have a wonderful game on our hands, but will anyone notice as Madden 09 is due in 10 days?
Patch info at OS, via digitalsportspage (Page 15). The follow could really improve my gameplay experience
Dynasty
– Faster simming between weeksGameplay
– Improved coverage on kicksBug Fixes
– AI sliders for will now work correctly
– An issue with missing stats after simming has been fixed
– Ball carrier will no longer run out of bounds when changing hands and heading towards the sidelines
Am I upset that purchasing this game day one basically made me a “beta” tester? Yes, I am. Should EA have delayed the game until it fixed some of these issues? Yes, absolutely. Should EA Sports get a “pat on the back” for doing the right thing? Maybe, but this may also encourage the behavior of “release it now, patch it later” games. Still, happy horse shit aside, I am looking forward to an improved game when the patches are available.
I just had a total “oh shit” moment with the Madden 09 demo for the PlayStation 3. After calling a play, the players walked to the line and got ready for Eli to call for the ball. For some inexplicable reason, #69 (G, Rich Seubert) decided to walk away from the line of scrimmage. I figured that I must have pressed L1 one too many times, resulting in a false start, but the flag never came.
Instead, #69 just turned around and slowly started walking away from the line of scrimmage (towards the bottom left-hard corner of the screen), leaving a nice hole just left of the center, and between the tackle. I was helpless to use my one time out or snap the ball.
WTF was happening? I repeatedly tried to call a time out, but could not. I figured some bug had to be at work here, and when the play clock ran down to zero I would be called with a delay of game penalty (or false start).
Nope.
After the play clock hit zero I called an audible. Thankfully #69 got his head out of his ass and ran back to the line of scrimmage. I ran a play without any consequence (no delay of game or false start).
Un-f’ing real. I have never seen something so damn strange in a video game. Well maybe I have, but words fail to express how strange it was to see this cowboy decide to walk away from the line of scrimmage. I tried the replay option, but it did not show him leaving the line. If it did I would have taken a picture of something to upload.
Strange stuffs at work in this demo.
I spent some time last night with the Madden 09 demo, and to be honest, I am not sure what to think.
You start out by taking a serious of Madden IQ tests. I’ll throw up mine for all to laugh at (grins and giggles all around please) …
I ended up with a measly 509 rating. Ouch. So offense was fairly straight forward and easy, but rush defense was really just a guessing game. If I picked the direction the running back was going to take, I ended up passing the test. If I guessed wrong, well, that’s why I ended up with a Pro rating. Pass defense was the worst; I really did not know what buttons to press, so I failed most of the test.
It will be interesting to see how Madden IQ comes into play with the overall experience. Bill Abner has the full game (360 version), and as has been reported all over the place, this year’s game does not include CPU sliders.
That is very much a WTF moment. First, the sliders in NCAA Football 09 were broken. Now this; no sliders at all. In theory Madden IQ will somehow level the playing field, which is probably fine for some online games, but not so much for single player games. Why not just use the NCAA Football 09 “equal teams” feature?
After doing the Madden IQ junk, the demo lets you play a “Madden Moment” – last year’s Super Bowl. You are the Giants, down 10-14 with under two minutes. Fourth and one; Patriots on defense. You score a TD, you pass the “Madden Moment.” Fail to score, and you fail the test.
That is the extent of the demo. You do not get a chance to try out the defensive side of the ball.
More to come later.
