jcalvert

Loving to Hate Gran Turismo

No, not another diatribe on the often delayed Gran Turismo 4. Not until the end anyway. Instead, of late, I have been playing Gran Turismo 3 to get me in the spirit of really wanting to play Gran Turismo 4. It is not like I have come close to finishing the game. Heck I never finished the second one either, 98% completion problem and all, but I did finish the first one … not that it ever won me any accolades, fame, or fortune.

Back to GT3. Was there ever a game that did so much right, yet did so much wrong? I cannot believe how bad the CPU AI is in this game. The AI goes to every length to drive the perfect line, even if it means sending your car straight to hell, err, off the road. I guess most of you already knew this, but I had to vent.

OK, so the racing action sucks, but man oh man are the tracks gorgeous, the cars numerous, and the driving action unbelievable. I am still miffed that there are only 6 cars on the track at any given time, but I guess something has to give to have such impressive car models.

I am not much of a gear head in real life, but I get great enjoyment out of turning my GT3 cars. There is something to be said about coming in third in a race, then making some adjustments that are good for an extra second a lap (and of course first place).

The only way for me to get real pleasure out of this game is to over compensate with a car that is slightly better than the field because equal footing or less is a sentence to bump and grind racing with the CPU AI. It is not so much fun (or challenging) to over match the competition, so a slight over compensation is the way to go because I can still lose a race if I make a mistake or two. I suppose that is justification for “intellectual” cheating.

When I am not getting banged by a CPU car, I am not sure if there is anything more fun than trying to drive the perfect lap at Laguna Seca or Apricot Hill. Really, that is the beauty of the game – driving perfect laps with all manner of cars.

I just hope that all the GT4 delays are a sign that the developers realize that the racing still sucks (based on the earlier overseas demo impressions) and they have to make some improvements. That or the game is in serious trouble because the developers are localizing the PSP version of Gran Turismo.

Feeling Blue, Not so much Mean and Green

I know, I know, you do not have to say it. I will say this – I have no true connection to North Texas. I just happened to “adopt” them (lucky for the Eagles, no?) a few years ago because I wanted to be challenged in NCAA Football. Plus it is my dad’s went to college, so there is some sort of connection. In theory … maybe not.

Anyway, North Texas has represented the Sun Belt Conference in the New Orleans Bowl each of the last four years, but they have only accumulated a 1-3 record. Last night was another example of “ouch” as North Texas succumbed to Southern Mississippi 31-10.

The funny thing about my North Texas “relationship” is that I have yet to watch more than a few mins of their bowl action until last night. The previous three years the game has fallen on my December 18th wedding anniversary. Let me lay it on the table: football, wife, football, wife. Being a smart man, and not wanting to live the life of a monk, North Texas and the New Orleans Bowl always take a back burner to the anniversary thing.

Last night was my first real opportunity to see North Texas play in a bowl game, but no, oh no, I just had to be sick yesterday, which led to me pretty much missing all but a few minutes of the first quarter. Feeling blue you see, and not so much Mean and Green. Maybe next year.

Valdosta State – 2004 NCAA Division II Football Champions

I attended Valdosta State my freshmen year of college; way back in 1989-1990. Seems like a long time ago. Way back then, the only game in town was the Valdosta High football team – they were great. And the football team? Not so much, but I still spent plenty of time watching them play.

Yesterday Valdosta State overcame a 14 point first quarter deficit to capture their first NCAA Division II Championship, defeating Pitt State 36-31.

Of note is Fabian Walker – the former high school prep star QB that never quite caught on at Florida State. Walker had 200+ total yards in his last chance to impress NFL scouts. Who knows if it will be enough, but I am sure Blazers faithful are happy with the results.

Congratulations to the 13-1 Valdosta State Blazers, 2004 NCAA Division II Football Champions!

Hackers (Still) Suck

Someone thought it was pretty funny to post tons of spam to the comments of various posts. Pretty funny.

Thankfully Necleus records the IP of each post. I suppose they could be spoofed, but hopefully my hosts’ admins can figure this out and put a stop to this disruptive crap.

For now I have disabled all comments.

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas! I mean it is the season to be jolly. Except for f’ing hackers.

The Complete U2

So U2 and Apple (via iTunes) have teamed up to offer The Complete U2 – 446 songs for only $149.99. Ouch!

I love U2; have for years, and I guess I will for years to come. I have all their albums and their early EPs, but I do not have $149.99 to get The Complete U2. Why would I care to get the collection if I have most of the band’s music? Because there are a good number of unreleased songs that are not available anywhere else. I do not have any “un-purchased” music; I have paid for everything on my iPod, either through my CD collection or via iTunes downloads.

Scam? Not really sure, but Apple and U2 have to realize that their fans will pay for these unreleased songs despite having most of the rest. So instead of paying $.99 per song, Apple and U2 are asking us to pay around $3.75 per unreleased song. The catch is that you cannot just download these songs; you have to pay the whole $149.99.

In this case I would not mind paying $40-50 for these never before released songs, but $149.99? That is just too much for me to stomach. I am not going to blame Apple or U2 for trying to make a buck, but why stick it too the fans that matter the most? The fans that have been with the band for years are the same ones that will own all the previous music and will want to own these new unreleased songs?

Maybe someone will realize that this is a terrible mistake by making a the unreleased songs available in a cheaper bundle? Maybe just maybe, but I doubt it. Or maybe Santa will bring some iTunes gift cards …

High Cotton

I have not had a whole heck of a lot of time for gaming lately, but I still get by. Hopefully I will get to pay a little something in the next couple of days. If not, I should have plenty of time (20 hours to be precise) to play GBA games. I am flying out to Frankfurt, Germany this Sunday, and back home on Friday December 3rd. Plane trips suck, especially these long Europe trips – they drag on and on and on and … well, you get the picture. Thankfully my GBA and iPod are there to get me through the experience. Too bad the new Final Fantasy I and II GBA title is not going to be out in time to help me with this trip.

My Seinfield Season 1-3 DVDs arrived a couple of days ago. Man, my wife and I love this show. I know it is on all over the place, but there is nothing like getting to watch something when you actually have time to watch that something. I probably have too many DVDs, but these are absolutely worth owning.

I hope everyone that celebrates turkey day had a great Thanksgiving! What a wonderful day we had at the Calvert household. We had the meal catered in – turkey, dressing, sweat potato casserole, and some great BlackStone chardonnay (1999) for starters. Plenty of other good stuff including champagne to go with pumpkin and chocolate chess pies. All in all, a very good meal – too bad the football pretty much sucked. Even if you are a Colts fan – Payton was awesome – the game sucked. The Dallas game really sucked. Oh well, maybe Texas will play well today and I hope that Georgia beats the living snot out of the bumble bees tomorrow.

The holiday season kicked off, but we stayed home. Tonya and I did our shopping via the internet. You have to love Amazon – you can get pretty much anything you need to pickup for Christmas presents. EBGames online had some pretty solid deals – the same ones they were advertising in-store. It is pretty unusual for stores to honor sale prices online, and even with the sales tax added, I saved a good deal. Joshua has been asking for Kirby Air Ride since forever, but I have not wanted to spend $50 on it because I have read such poor reviews. I got it on the cheap this morning, along with the newest Midway Arcade Treasures – hey I had to get me something! Arcade Treasures for $9.99 was a major bargain.

The Frankfurt trip will suck the life out of me, so do not be surprised if the content is fairly sparse this week.

Gran Turismo 4 Slips into Obscurity

Another email update from EBGames, and another Gran Turismo 4 delay. This time we learn that GT4 will not even hit store shelves in time for Christmas.

We are writing to let you know that we have changed the projected ship date for Gran Turismo 4 to 2/5/2005.

How disappointing.

I know there are hundreds of thousands (dare I say a couple of million) of casual fans will still buy the game and will not care about the delay, but one really has to wonder “what is the point?” At this point, why not scrap the game altogether and wait for the PS3 (or whatever it will be called) and use GT4 as a launch title? Who am I kidding? There is too much money to be had for Sony, but surely they are disappointed that they missed the Christmas window.

I am seriously disappointed that Sony cannot get their act together on this one and get the damn thing released already.

Falcons Thrash Bucs

Wow, what a game! Atlanta beat Tampa Bay 24-14 in a game that had a little bit of everything. For starters, the crowd was really into the game. I would like to think we were responsible for several false starts, and in some small way a great defensive effort that produced 7 – yes, count ’em – 7 sacks. I am not sure what the final tally was, but Atlanta easily held Tampa Bay under 200 total offensive yards. Simply impressive!

Vick continues to be an enigma. At times he has flashes of genius, which usually results in an amazing highlight reel scramble or a great pass that makes you wonder “how in the heck did he pull that off?” Then he does something pretty boneheaded like throw the ball to a wide open defensive back. Vick has amazing talent, but lacks anything that you would call consistency. It is pretty frustrating, but as long as the Falcons are winning, who the heck cares?

The Dome does not usually rock and roll except for the SEC Championship game, but today was different. Right from the start the crowd was into the game (especially when the Falcons were on defense), and we kept it going full blast for most of the game. I have seen enough Falcons games where the visiting team has as much fan support as the good guys, which is always disappointing, but I guess it has something to do with the nature of Atlanta. When I lived in Atlanta six years ago, everyone living in Atlanta was from somewhere other than Atlanta, and they were always proud to show their non-Atlanta colors. Anyway, except for the preseason this was the first game I made it to this year so maybe the crowd has been this supportive all year long. I am not sure if it came across that way on TV, but it was a raucous performance; the 12th man was alive and well.

Perhaps Atlanta’s defensive lineman Ed Jasper said it best “There’s not a lot of rah-rahs and cheering going on just because we beat the Bucs. We’re trying to get to the Super Bowl.”

Unless things go really bad down the stretch, the Falcons should win the division going away. Right now at 7-2, the Falcons have a commanding three games on second place New Orleans. Things are indeed looking good.

Auburn Rules the Plains

I am not too sad about yesterday’s complete and total ass kicking at the hands of the Tigers from Auburn. After all, I am not sure that I *really* expected Georgia to win. I mean I wanted them to win, and I thought maybe they did have a chance, but I think maybe that was my heart talking to me. I did go on the record and state that the game would come down to the play of Jason Campbell and he delivered with an almost perfect day: 18-22-1-189. What an impressive box score!

Auburn was the better team and they deserve the accolades that they should receive from such a complete victory. So my hat is off to Auburn, and I have to say War Eagle!

I am sure other college football fans agree with me that it is a major crock of stinking crap that Auburn is not ranked in front of USC or Oklahoma. Well, maybe only Auburn and SEC fans agree with me. Say what you will, but the SEC is much tougher (from top to bottom) than the Big-12 or PAC-10. One can only hope that Auburn, Oklahoma, USC, and Utah all run the table. Not that it would change anything because the college presidents are not going to relent on their “no play-off” stance. There is just too much money to be made, and the presidents want total control over the bowl purses. It really has nothing to do with academics, lengthening the season, or any of that other nonsense.

I am about to pack up and take Joshua and my brother to the Falcons’ game. Hopefully we kick the living crap out of Tampa Bay!

Football Manager 2005 Arrives

Thanks to GamePay, the UK Royal Mail, and our own fine US Postal workers, my copy of Football Manager 2005 (FM2005) arrived today (now yesterday as this gets posted fairly late), only a week after it shipped. Not too bad, but is it worth the wait?

The manual is as tick as can clocking in at 60 some odd pages, but being a veteran of the Championship Manager series (CM) that was more or less what I expected. Gamers new to the series may be in for a shock – FM2005 is not a casual Sunday affair. I have never been what I would call an expert when it comes to CM, but I do my best. I am sure I will eventually read the entire manual, FAQs, and of course the obligatory message boards (already doing the message board thing) to try to get the most out of the game.

On to the game … not so much, but you will see why if in a minute.

To get things started right, I dove right in and decided to start a new game; selected several leagues (England, Argentina, Mexico, MLS, and the like) and made a decision to start off unemployed. In retrospect I am not sure if that was such a hot idea since the only manager job opening was for DC United, which I applied for, but I was unsuccessful in my bid for my first job.

After simulating a few days, I decided to go on “holiday” and have the game auto apply for jobs. The first one to be available was for San Jose, but once again I was unsuccessful. I simmed until late July (my game started in February) and still do not have a job in hand.

Enough is enough. My first experience with the game did not live up to my expectations. Is it too much to ask for a job? Then again why would anyone hire an obscure manager from America? Maybe I need to read the manual to see if I did something wrong. Not enough lower level clubs? No idea. I think I will just call it a night and start over tomorrow, this time selecting a club to manage instead of waiting for the game to let me play.

OK, OK. I know I suck. I do not even get to the important stuff like the match engine. There is always another day.

Random Stuffs

I have not had a whole lot of time to write of late, so I figured I would start the week off with a little bit of everything. Funny that I put this together Monday and it is now mid-week. So it goes, and so I go, and so will you soon I suppose (with apologies to Billy Joel).

2004 Election Musings
I continue to be amazed at all the fall-out (err, crap) from the recent election. Conspiracies on all sides. Bush cooked the electronic voting machines to give him a +5% margin, while Kerry cooked the exit pools to discourage Republicans from voting. It is really just short of astonishing that people have this much time on their hands.

I could go on forever, but I will spare everyone the grief and horror. I do find it funny that CNN kept stating that this “election is too important for us to rush to judgment” after several networks finally declared Bush the victor. I also thought it was funny that the Kerry camp was not going to concede the election because “we believe there are still some votes out there.” WTF were they going to do? Shake the election tree? Freaking ridiculous.

UGA vs. Auburn – Comes Down to Campbell
Not that it matters much because it is easier to say after the fact, but I predicted to my step father that UGA would put a hurting on Kentucky, 56-10. The actual score was 62-17, which really does not matter since the Auburn games looms large this weekend.

Speaking of which, no prediction yet but it comes down to one simple fact. If Jason Campbell plays well then Auburn wins, if not, then the Georgia ends Auburn’s dreams of a Championship season.

Football Manager 2005
While I wait for my copy to arrive from GamePlay (hopefully today) I have been reading the sigames forum to pass some time, and to be entertained. It is always eye opening to read what different gamers complain about.

The known bugs list is pretty long and worth reading. Some of these issues are very minor, while others are more significant. Luckily sigames is know for quality support via patches. And then there is the MLS …

The list of MLS issues from this MLS issues thread is nothing short of eye-opening (now transferred here). If the MLS is really this cooked, then I will be one disappointed gamer. I just hope that sigames decides to address some of these problems in a patch, and not wait until FM2006.

Katamari Damacy – Take Two
I continue to be impressed with Katamari Damacy, which has to be a candidate for non-sports game of the year. Well, maybe GTA: San Andreas will win that, but Katamari Damacy is easily the most addictive and original game that I have played in years.

As I described a few nights ago, the concept is amazingly simple – you roll around your katamari (ball) to make it bigger and bigger. You play in different levels and roll over all manner of items in order to “stick” them to your ball to make it a certain size within a set amount of time. My description may sound stupid, but it is amazing fun.

I was trying to think of a game that contained the same sort of whacked out graphics and addictive sound track. From a graphics standpoint, I think Jumping Flash for the PlayStation may be a good starting point. If you ever played that game, then I think you have a decent idea of the approach Katamari Damacy’s developers took. As far as music goes, there is no comparison; all tunes are completely original, catchy, and full of fun.

I will try to do a more detailed write-up later this week, but suffice it to say that I am addicted to this game. If you want to try something completely different and cheap ($19.99)

All for now …

Football Manager 2005 Ships

For “text-based” sports management fans, the Championship Manager series is about as good as it gets, and thankfully, it looks like Football Manager 2005 (the true successor to Championship Manager 4) shipped today. I have a pre-order in with UK based GamePlay. Hopefully the game will arrive soon since I paid for priority shipping.

GTA: San Andreas

GTA: San Andreas – but of course everyone with a PS2 is going to be playing this one. Well everyone that is not completely put off by the whole gangster thing, the violence, the language, and well, the whole damn experience. I have to admit that GTA is not for everyone, but so far this one looks damn impressive.

In case it needs to be said, much like the previous games in the series, you do not want your youngsters around when this one is on. The violence and the language are pretty indicative of a mature rated game. Really; not for kids.

I have not put in enough time to state my opinion one way or another, but if you like the series, you should buy this one. So far the story is great, the characters are pretty cool (from concept to appearance to dialog), and the soundtrack is perfect. As much as GTA: Vice City said 80’s (Miami Vice) San Andreas is all about the gangster thing (from what I have read and from watching moves). It is pretty impressive so far.

If anything put you off about the previous two PS2 GTA games, then you will be even more put off by San Andreas. I am not sure what has changed – it really seems like more of the same, but in a larger world, with a much tighter story. Small things like controlling the camera with the right analog stick have been added, and I am sure there are others that I will uncover. My point (at this early juncture) is that the game is just as stylistic as ever (if not more so) – same engine, just a deeper story and a whole lot more to do. The development team goes all out to make the game feel authentic, and it does.

I’ll post more later as time permits. I assume it will be a long night of mayhem …

Champions of Norrath (PS2)

This may be old news, but Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest is now priced at all of $19.99, which is an absolute bargain if you are into “hack and slash” type games. I wrote about this one back in the day. It is developed by Snowblind Studios, which happens to be the great development shop that developed the excellent Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance.

Champions may not sport the ever popular Dungeons and Dragons license, but it has the plenty successful Everquest moniker. I you like games that are long on fun, fairly simple in terms of strategy (i.e. it is hack and slash), leveling up, and the like Champions is for you. The graphics are beautiful, the sound is solid, and the gameplay is about the best you can get for this type of game. In short, Champions of Norrath rules.

My oldest son calls this one “the father’s day game” for reasons that I should not have to explain. I have not played Champions in a few months, but recently picked it back up as father-son activity. Hey, hacking an orc is quality time, right?

We are just inside the last part of the first section of the game. In order not to give away spoilers I will not elaborate too much; there are a bunch of spiders and I am about to have the first really nasty boss battle for that scroll/map thingy. My son is playing the dark elf warrior (he loves those disease bolts); I went with the archer guy to try something a little different. Anyway, perfect father-son game for my six-year old. Thankfully the developers allow you to turn off the blood effects, but interesting enough, some of the animals bleed. Go figure.

In my solo game I am putting out fires in the temple in the middle of a desert. Not sure how far this is in the game, and I am not about to read a FAQ to find out. In this game I am currently a level 17 barbarian; I went for brute force.

On a final note, unlike other games in the hack and slash genera, you can customize your armor and weapons, which adds a lot of depth. As an example, different items can be added to armor for extra fire damage, or the same item will provide fire resistance if you add it to your armor (gloves, boots, shield, breastplate, etc).

I would love to write more, but I am short on time. Think of this summary as the newer less frills version of what I would have written under the old banner. Norrath: Realms of Everquest is well worth the money and in my book is about as must play as it gets (for hack and slash fans).

Buy

Fantasy Football Play of the Day

My Yahoo! fantasy football team has been struggling; that is being too kind. My QB situation has sucked – started the season with Jeff Garcia, and then I moved on to Kurt Warner who is having a good “real life” year, but Warner is not much of a fantasy prize in a league that puts a premium on TDs. Luckily last week Byron Lefwich was out there for the taking, so take him I did, and much to my please he produced 33 points.

This week I was debating on which QB to start. Once again luck prevailed as I went against my Warner hunch (figured he would do well against Detroit) and stuck with Leftwich for a second straight week. Leftwich produced 22 points while Warner only managed 13. Nice.

In another brilliant move (I am biased) I picked up William Green on waivers (he was just sitting there for the taking), and Green rewarded me with 9 points.

In a not so brilliant move, I decide to stick Santana Moss in a WR slot and he gave me nothing, nada, zip. Zero points sucks. Oh well; win some, lose some.

I love fantasy football when I have time to manage my team and watch the waiver wire. It also makes watching “whatever” games more interesting because someone involved in one of those crap teams may actually score a few points for my team. Interesting stuff, but as I hinted at above, in my opinion a lot of luck is involved.

One final note regarding fantasy football trades. Has anyone ever played in a league where trades actually matter? I have not, and I doubt I will anytime soon. You have to give something to get something, and no one wants to give up too much, which results in pretty much no trade activity. Too bad. Maybe next year I will do one of the pay to play leagues to see if things are any different when the owners get serious about winning.