The Recycle Bin

First up, the Falcons secured the 19th position in the 2010 draft; Texans get the 20th spot via coin toss. In the middle of the draft one spot may not matter a whole lot, but with the loss of their 2nd round pick, I think every spot does in fact matter.

NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks has put together his latest mock draft, which has the Falcons taking a linebacker.

19. Atlanta Falcons
Navorro Bowman, LB, Penn State

Mike Smith needs a playmaker at the weak-side linebacker spot, and Bowman’s athleticism makes him a perfect fit in the Falcons’ scheme.

I do not know much about Bowman; I think it is critical for the Falcons to get help on the d-line and in the secondary. If DT Peria Jerry is expected to make a full recovery, the Falcons could go in a different direction, but I think the first pick has to be an impact player on defense that can start right away.

The official Falcons site has an article with some quotes from GM Thomas Dimitroff and Head Coach Mike Smith. Nothing really earth shattering, but worth a read during the long buildup to the draft.

This weekend I am offering up another round of site maintenance for your viewing pleasure. Several upgrades are in the works, and should be appearing throughout the weekend.

Tags Away
With the upgrade to Wordpress 2.9.2, I can introduce tags, or more importantly, Clouds of Tags. Calvert Games has amassed over 2000 articles in its current database; there are literally 1000s more that were left behind in previous incarnations of the site. Archiving those into Wordpress is a job for another day.

I have probably only put tags on 15% of the articles. I will slowly work my way through the archive, tagging as time permits; watch the cloud change over time.

I had to make a few decisions on what to tag, and what tags to create. First, the primary focus of the site (see Site Focus below) is videogames so generic entries such as Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Racing pertain to videogames. Some games such as WKC:I, MLB: The Show, OOTP, and Madden (to name a few) get their own tags. Second, some specific real life sporting topics that I enjoy writing about have been given their own tags. UGA, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Braves all get their own tags, while there are also some broader range sports tags to cover NFL and NCAA Football. There is a method to the madness.

Check out the new Tags Cloud on the side-nav; when it actually appears. For an example of tags in action, check out the White Knight Chronicles: International (WKC:I) tag.

Site Focus – Airguns, Videogames, Sports …
And don’t forget the beer! Let’s be honest; Calvert Games lost its direction over the last 18 months. While the focus was primarily videogames, the site did go in directions that did not make a lot of sense. Over first two months of 2010 I am attempting to remedy the situation.

If you have noticed, this year the site has been extremely focused on videogames and sports coverage. I intend to continue to cover videogames in earnest, from my own unique perspective as a contrarian gamer. For me videogames are a hobby, a family activity, and a great stress release. Videogames will remain (or return as) Calvert Games primary focus.

Sports, primarily diatribes and commentary on the Falcons, Braves, UGA, and U.S. Soccer will also remain a staple.

Like it or not, adult airguns coverage will remain; I will keep anything over the top as opt-in have-to-click-to-see-it. However I am considering moving airguns coverage to a sub-domain. Maybe. For me airguns are another great stress relief, so once the weather is nice, look for more airgun coverage.

Stuffs (yes the ‘s’ is intentional) will remain a staple because there is always a place for off topic coverage. You just are not going to see as much of it as you have in the past. I am still going to write about beer, because I have to be me.

Some Categories will go away. For example, Birdwatching (WTF was I thinking) is now a tag; if I happen to write about birding, it will be designated as Stuffs, and as I just said, much less Stuffs than in the past. Same for Chronicles; at one point in time, under the old format, these types of articles made sense, but not anymore.

I haven’t decided yet what to do with D&D coverage. My intentions were sound; just not sure if it distracts too much from the main focus of Calvert Games – videogames and sports coverage.

Popular and Random Posts
I have added a new popular posts widget on the side-nav. Unfortunately it does not grandfather in any of the past history, so going forward articles showing up in this section are either really popular (linked from other sites) or search engines have decided to prominently display Calvert Games articles in their search results.

I am also looking at adding a “random post of the day” – after all, there are 2000+ articles on the site. While I may be biased, some of them are pretty damn good.

Ads and Other Nonsense
The Google Ad space (aka Sell Out) has not made a triumphant return. I think it will at some point. Maybe next weekend. Or a paypal solicitation space for beer money; have to pay the rent somehow.

Happy Saturday!

Pretty good article from GamesThirst (via N4G) on how the various Sony in-house studios are pushing each other for graphical and gameplay supremacy.

It all started in earnest with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. No one paid attention back then, the game did not receive the praise to so badly needed but deserved. It was, and still is one of the best looking games on any console. After it, the flood gates were opened, and while lazy devs complained about the PS3’s built, Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Kojima Productions, Guerrilla Games, Quantic Dream and Zipper Interactive were all working their hearts off to drop bombshells on the gaming industry. Guess what? It’s exactly what they did.

Technical Quantic Dream may not be a first party studio, PS3 fans have to assume Sony will do everything they can to lock up future IP from the developers of Heavy Rain. Sony may not have the numbers yet, but I like their strategy of getting out original IP experiences.

I am only a few chapters into the Heavy Rain experience, but I wanted to offer a quick comment or two. The opening stages/chapters are slow going, but they are necessary to introduce you to the backdrop story and of course the awkward controls. Yes, I still find the controls cumbersome, and they take away from the immersion factor. The quick time events are interesting, and add to the intensity; I just hate holding down the R2 button to walk. Seems so 1996 Resident Evil-ish.

IGN (UK) recently posted an article a couple of days ago offering various opinions from their contributors; spoiler free and worth a read. I thought this opinion summed up my experiences so far in the early stages of the game.

Heavy Rain is so well-put-together and finely produced that it’s guaranteed to suck in even the most skeptical PS3 owners right off the bat. It’s an adventure game at heart — there’s no doubt about that — but don’t let that turn you off. While the adventure genre has been effectively dead on consoles for a very, very long time, Heavy Rain puts a new spin on things. This is no point-and-click, read-read-read bore-fest. Heavy Rain exemplifies what adventure gaming should be in 2010.

It is worth noting that the Heavy Rain metacritic user scores (6.6 based on 566 votes) are significantly lower than the critic ratings (88 reviews). Heavy Rain is definitely not for everyone. A rental may be in order for some; so for this jaded gamer is enjoying the experience.

For those of you that like this sort of thing, Sony made an alternate Heavy Rain cover available for your downloading and printing pleasure. I think this is based off of the UK release.

I am not sure what it says about me that I am posting this link; I can say that I have never been “hard core” enough to replace a game cover with something I could print off the internet. These days I am thankful for small blessings!

It looks like the kids at Sony have figured a way to eke more ram out of the PS3. According joystiq, PS3 developers now have access to 70MB more RAM.

While 70MB of additional memory is not insignificant, don’t expect drastic changes to future PS3 games. A PS3 developer told us that “any bit of RAM helps. Generally it probably won’t change design, but might allow extra effects resolution or dynamic lights or something. Probably more beneficial from the systems and art side then from design/gameplay.” In tandem with increasingly efficient code, the added RAM will undoubtedly make for even better looking games.

Better looking graphics should scare the piss out of ESRB reviewers near and far.

Last night I put the Heavy Rain Blu-ray into the PS3 and was immediately greeted with a “must install 1.01 version” message. So of course I did the needful.

When I was playing the game I noticed that the character dialog was choppy (call it audio skipping), which brings me to this article by the examiner; apparently the patch causes some gamers some serious issues.

Among the complaints, many are complaining about game crashes, audio skipping, save/loading problems, and some characters getting caught in furniture. Not all are complaining about the game, though. For many, the game is running fine after the patch and they are enjoying the experience the game offers. Whether the problems are widespread or just a minor problem for some can’t be determined, yet. Since the game isn’t an online title, you don’t need to get the patch to play the game, but you will have to deny the patch every time you play the game.

I guess we will see a 1.02 patch fairly quickly; hopefully. If the audio skipping continues tonight, I guess I can play with closed caption turned on, but I may as well wait to progress the game. For a game that is story driven, this type of glitz is a hell of note, exemplifying poor quality control.

I only played the initial opening chapters, which to be honest, were really just not my cup of tea. I understand that farting around in the house for a little while introduces you to the characters, background story, and gaming mechanics. My initial impressions were certainly not favorable; I would have rather spent my time playing something else.

To be fair, I only played an hour or so; when I progress into the meat and potatoes of the game things may be a lot more interesting. At this point I just cannot bring myself to accept that I am going to spend the next 8-12 hours with Heavy Rain holding down the R2 button to move around. To me it just breaks every aspect of being immersed into the game.

It is really difficult to post comments about Heavy Rain without talking about the story, which in effect would be to give out spoilers. As I move on with future Heavy Rain posts, I will attempt to avoid spoiling surprises for those of you that have not played the game yet, of I will make sure there are “spoiler alerts” to warn you before continuing on with the article.

It sucks being up at four o’clock in the morning, but I did get some cheerful news – Amazon has shipped Heavy Rain. It should be landing on my doorsteps later day. I hope to get a crack at it later tonight, but it will be like my WKC:I experience – gaming one hour at a time.

Another day (technically from Sunday), gives us another silly ESRB story. This time joystiq references Tecmo Bowl Throwback for the PSN and XBLive.

This is a top-down arcade-style football game in which players compete against teams around the country to become the “Tecmo Bowl Champion.” Some of the football highlights are depicted in animated cutscenes (with better graphics); a few non-football highlights depict cheerleaders wearing low-cut tops while dancing. And a jumbotron screen displays a 2D swimsuit model with some exposed cleavage.

It may be too soon to be 100% certain, but it looks like the game will not feature any NFL players – thanks for that exclusive license NFL & EA.

I noticed this article earlier this morning via N4G. Apparently Sony is up to something, but what?

Sand Dollar’s filing today is for the CECH-2101A ‘Computer Entertainment System.’ Label pics for the device (above) confirm that this is indeed the Sony PS3, while label placement pics (below, left) show a device that is the same size and shape as the PS3 Slim. Another device, called the CECH-2101B is also identified in Sand Dollar’s filing. The only difference between these two devices is the hard drive size.

We’re not sure why Sony is passing two new PS3 Slims through the FCC. The wireless specs on the new PS3 Slims include 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth – nothing new there. We’re guessing that maybe Sony found a new manufacturer for some of its wireless components, and was forced to pass the PS3 Slim through the FCC again.

This could be as simple as Sony offering new bundles, or maybe Sony is offering a yummier Slim – bringing back some of the previously removed features such as backwards capability and additional USB slots. My guess is either cheaper internals or game bundles; however it seems too soon to already be changing the innards, so let’s go with new bundles for this fall (or whenever the motion controller thing is due for release). I’ll speculate that one of the Slims will include the new motion controller and the other one will have a motion controller plus a game.

I decided to preorder Out of the Park Baseball 11 (OOTP 11) while it was $15 off. Getting OOTP 11 for $24.99 is actually $5 cheaper than I paid for OOTP 10 back in November!

It has been my experience that OOTP typically goes on sale for $10 off throughout the year, and maybe drops to $15 off at some point towards the end of the year (or at some point before the next version is released). I am not sure if I have seen the upcoming version this cheap. While I am really just getting into OOTP 10, having recently joined an online league for the first time in ages, I just decided that I could not leave well enough alone. I guess the addiction is back in earnest!

There were several items in the preorder announcement that caught my attention.

A Player Comparison screen, in which you can compare two players side-by-side

I know this is not much of a “feature” however it is about gosh darn time this is included. I guess by this point in the franchise the developers should concentrate on refinements.

More customizable news subscriptions, so you can get just the news you want in your inbox

Another one in the category of small nuances; I hate having to shift thorough all those messages and news items.

A handy comparison tab, where you can compare your simulated results with the actual real-world results from that season

This should be a fun way to see how bad I muck up Braves seasons!

Truth be told, I could have been perfectly content with OOTP 10, but OOTP 11 should be worth the money, especially considering I am getting it at a near bargain basement price.

The Heavy Rain hype has reached a crescendo, and the reviews are plenty positive. Now it is just a matter of waiting for Tuesday, and of course waiting for the kids to go to bed. There’s no way I can play this one with the kids watching!

Heavy Rain was really an impulse purchase. While I had read the various comments about the game over the last 12-18 months, I was not really interested. The lack of interest may have been due to my gaming doldrums, but I think it was more a matter of being completely disconnected from the content of the story. It just did not look like a day one purchase.

As Heavy Rain neared (or I should say nears) release day, the articles started to sound increasing interesting. Timing could be everything; my gaming melancholy came to a close about the same time Sony lifted the review embargo. I preordered the game, and played the demo.

I am looking forward to this game just because it is so different; new experiences matter, which is very much in line with my contrarian gaming view. This article from TheSixthAxis sums up why I am interested in Heavy Rain.

Is it because it’s so different, perhaps? It’s true, there’s nothing out there like Heavy Rain and, given the development time (and presumed budged) there won’t be another for some time, but is it really as powerful an experience as the hype over the last couple of years would have you believe? Maybe, but that’s not important.

What is important is the direction David Cage attempted to take console gaming. He may have stumbled with the plot (and clearly had some issues with controls) but Heavy Rain is, for its sins, a tale worth telling. It’s sometimes smart, occasionally sophisticated and frequently adult, unlike 99% of games out there.

I should be playing Heavy Rain 40 or so hours. Needless to say, I am excited, dare I say enthusiastic. In fact I cannot remember the last time I actually counted down the time to getting a game. Hopefully Heavy Rain does not disappoint.

The weather this weekend has been absolutely wonderful – upper 60s and blue skies on Saturday and Sunday. We spent most of our free time outdoors – throwing footballs, practicing soccer, riding bikes, going on long walks, and cleaning up the year. You get the picture. It would have been a perfect weekend for shooting the airguns – the R1, R1 Carbine, R7, and the Marauder – however I never had the chance. Not that I am complaining that there were always kids in my shooting range; maybe next weekend.

Auto Club 500 Fontana
I am watching the closing stages of the race [50 laps left] as I write this entry; rain looms. I only watched the opening laps and this last part of the race. As mentioned above, the weather is too nice to stay inside. Fontana has never been one of my favorite tracks; just wish some of my drivers (Gordon, JPM, Junior, Smoke) where closer to the front. On the occasional look-ins, Gordon has been up front some, but it looks like he has a wounded engine.

Gaming Update
Are you kidding? With this weather? When I was not working on the site upgrade Friday and Saturday night, I was not in front of the TV. I did get in a couple of hours of White Knight Chronicles: International, which I continue to find a lot of fun. From a mechanics point of view, it is actually more interesting as you gain more skill points and build combinations.

Heavy Rain is coming on Tuesday (Feb. 23), followed by MLB 10: The Show (Mar. 2), and Final Fantasy XIII (Mar. 9). Needless to say, I have no idea how I will get in all these games, but I am going to try.

I am considering eBay’ing Madden 10 because I have not played it in a week, football season is over, and I would like to capitalize on something to put towards Madden 11. This is always a challenge – trying to hit the perfect moment to still get something for the game before the upcoming version makes the current version worthless. I am not sure if I am ready to throw Madden 10 away; it’s the best Madden in years and Madden Ultimate Team is a lot of fun. However I have not played it in two weeks, and with a slew of incoming games, my Madden opportunities are probably slim.

I’m actually having the same debate with FIFA 10. Unlike Madden, I have not gotten my money’s worth out of FIFA. The World Cup version will be here in April. I need to do some research to see what sort of gameplay upgrades the new version would offer over FIFA 10. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

More Site Stuffs – Green is Back!
I know I am biased; I love the new theme. I think it is the perfect complement to the original Calvert Games brand, without being overly done. It has taken a long time [calendar and actual weekend work] to get it back to this point. I think it was worth the effort.

As I mentioned yesterday, I still have some maintenance I need to do before I put a ribbon on this puppy and call it clean. I continued to polish the site today, and I have a few other items I would like to touch-up this week. I would also like to add in a few more plugins and widgets; nothing too over the top … just enough to make the site a more dynamic experience.

I have been playing around with a lot of different WordPress themes the last 12 or so hours, and finally found one that I think will stick. It is different than the old 3 column layout, but I think it is nice and crisp. The design is fairly simple and easy to modify. I think I will stick with this one for a while, and continue making it Calvert Games branded.

For those that are interested, I will post a change log at the end of the upgrade.

*****
Update 1 [afternoon]: I am continuing to play around with themes and colors; I think this one will work.

Update 2 [night] Change Log …

• Upgraded from WordPress 2.2 to 2.9.2
• Added new theme – Arjuna X – with color modification to give the site a Calvert Games flavor
• Introduced new “AddToAny: Share/Bookmark/Email Button” plugin for those of you that enjoy social networking. Earlier in the day I had a Google Buzz plugin, but for now it has been removed.
• Added Google XML Site Map plugin (to allow for better search engine indexing)

There is still some work in front of me. WordPress 2.9.2 includes Tags; I need to see how to best utilize them with all the previous historical content.

I also would like to re-introduce GoogleAds. I am going to research some additional widgets/plugins to make for a more dynamic site.  The site still needs more Calvert Games branding, but I am happy with the initial results.

Yea me! I just upgraded from Word Press 2.2 to 2.9, which is a pretty substantial upgrade to [knock on wood] not experience any issues with the upgrade process.

For those of you that are interested, I followed these fairly simple upgrade instructions. Of course, like a good company man, I did a backup, made sure I had my shell access working, and then started the ftp for the updated files.

I have only done initial tests, but everything seems to be working correctly, included the current theme. I figured that puppy was going to die a painful upgrade death.

It looks like a couple of my plugins may not be working, but no worries, as I was planning to add some new ones anyway.

You may see some more wackiness and the like as I continue some improvements over the weekend, but the major stuff is out of the way. Happy days!