Author: jcalvert

Of course my comments are for the PS3 version. Out of the gate, I like this one, although it does still have some of the more of the same feel. For some, dare I say long time fans of the series, that may be a good thing, but for others looking for a different football experience, this demo does not do the trick.

The demo is fairly limited. You get to play with LSU or Ohio St, at Ohio State, with two minute quarters. I have no idea about the skill level (or other settings). You also get to play a Mascot game at Florida against Texas.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the graphics are better than what we saw last year. The field looks terrific, the players have nice animations, the stadiums (the two in the demo) look terrific, but the crowds still look somewhat ho-hum. I noticed some collision problems, where players slide and blend into other players, but I have not played enough to know if graphics collisions actually impact gameplay.

I have been able to put together a couple of nice long drives (15+ plays), I have seen the CPU miss what I consider to be easy field goals, and I have seen the CPU fake a punt. I have also watched the CPU complete passes in triple coverage, but I have not seen too many crazy route jumping DBs/LBs. There has been at least one INT where the ball stayed up way too long, bouncing around, begging to be intercepted.

Since there is such a limited roster of teams, I actually played the mascot game, but this is not really my cup of tea. My two oldest kids (9 and 6 years old) enjoyed watching the mascots get it on, but I really do not see why this would appeal to anyone except a bunch of drunken college students. My only real comment here is that the mascot game suffered from a lot of collision detection problems.

One interesting new “feature” is play recognition sequence that has appeared after a couple of turnovers. If you can pick the correct defensive coverage you can keep your composure, but if you guess incorrectly, you lose some composure. Depending on how the system is implemented, it should (or maybe I should say could) give some interesting home field advantage feeling to the game. Hopefully it is not over done.

Speaking of home field advantage, during one goal line sequence, my Dual Shock 3 controller was going crazy as the Ohio St. faithful were cheering like crazy for a stop. And stop me they did on four straight attempts to push the ball across the goal line. What? You did not expect me to play with Ohio St did you? Anyway, the crowd seemed to go nuts.

My wife says the cheerleaders are skimpy. I did not pay too much attention, but they do look better than the horse models from last year.

I will keep playing for a couple of weeks until the full game arrives. Hopefully, no real game killers will reveal their ugly heads.

For the first time in 6-8 weeks I decided to put something in the PS3 other than a Blu-ray movie. First up was Gran Turismo 5. Yes, I am a sucker for the series. Yes, I know it does not have the best racing. Yes, I could really care less. I just enjoy the series.

At this point I am still not very far in the game. I have the C series completed, but need to get a Gold Trophy in a couple of events. Cappaccino Time Target; I am still a little over a second from Silver. Honda Integra Mission Race (the one at Daytona); I am 1.1 seconds from passing the lead car. Maybe this says I suck. Don’t know, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to overtake at Daytona.

I have also spent some quality time with Super Stardust HD. This game is only of my all time favorite shooters. My score of 5 point something million is only good for mid 50K on the leader board. Doubt I will ever get much better, but you never know.

Yesterday I download the NCAA Football 09 demo, but have only spent a few minutes with the game. My only real thoughts at this point are that the graphics look a lot better. The semi-cartoony look of the 08 game is a thing of the past.

All for now. Good gaming!

The Braves continue to struggle, in what has to be one of the more disappointing seasons in recent memory. Injuries have plagued the team. This is really an All Star list that goes a long way towards summarizing the Braves season:

• Smoltz and Moylan are done for the year.
• Who knows if Hampton will ever pitch again?
• Glavine, Soriano, Gonzalez, Diaz, Omar Infante, Martin Prado, and Kotsay (and probably a few others I may have missed) have all spent time on the DL.
• Chipper Jones and Yunel Escobar have managed to avoid time on the DL, but have been banged up of late.

Other teams have their share of injuries, but this is a little out of control. It is amazing, and a testament to Cox, that the Braves are only 5 games under .500.

In the next couple of weeks the Braves have some difficult decisions. Are they still in the East division race? Seven games back is not impossible to overcome, but it certainly will not be easy. What about the Wild Card race? I think it will be extremely difficult to overtake St. Louis, and Milwaukee (among others). Teixeira will be the meal ticket to pick up new prospects, but I do not know what the future holds at 1B. Hudson is the only other high priced veteran that the Braves could consider dumping to a contender for future help.

Regardless of the direction the Braves take, I hope they keep their core nucleus of young, upcoming players intact. It would be a damn shame for the Braves to move Jurrjens, McCann, Johnson, or Escobar. This will be a good opportunity to see inside the mind of GM Wren.

Francoeur is a mess. The Braves say he is only going to be in the minors for 2-3 weeks. The goal is to get Francoeur away from the distractions of Atlanta, and give him a chance to work out of his slump in a no pressure situation. Depending on what happens, the Braves will look like geniuses, or Francoeur will never be the same. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Francoeur gets his head straight.

It’s been a while, so let’s get things rolling quickly. First up is a classic

Pabst Blue Ribbon, henceforth referred to as “PBR,” has won numerous awards since its creation in 1844. It was even the beer the military gave to the troops in WWII. Since that time, however, PBR has sort of fallen out of the American beer drinking limelight. Overall, it has a decent taste and at $10.99 for 18, it’s semi-pricey. But PBR is a great way to “drink vintage” if that exists, thanks to its rich heritage and classic cans.

It is what all the cool kids are drinking.

OK, so I am not one of the cool kids, but I digress. Amstel Light is working for me right now. BBQ weekend will no doubt result in some delicious ribs, ribeye, and brats, washed down with Miller Lite and some High Life.

Happy almost 4th of July!

Uga VI passed away last night, bringing to an end a most remarkable career as Georgia’s top Dawg.

Damon Evans, UGA athletics director, bestowed the highest praise on the beast that he could Saturday, in a statement:

“Uga VI was a damn good mascot and a damn good dog,” said Evans.

Well said. God speed Uga VI.

As an addendum, Part 2 if you will, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer has an interesting bit on Uga’s Columbus connection. For those keeping score at home, the current Uga line began Dec 2, 1955 in Columbus, GA with the birth of Uga I.

Every year I fight the temptation to not spend a bucket load of money on the football annuals, and every year I fail to resist the urge.  Today I threw out several annuals – Phil Steele’s 2007 College Football Preview, Lindy’s Southeastern 2007 Preview, CBS College Football 2007 Season Preview, Athlon Sports Southeastern 2007 Preview, and Sporting News College Football 2007.  That is a lot of duckets and wasted time on reading about college football.

So far this year I have not picked up any of the yearly annuals, but while I was in line at the grocery store, I caught of glimpse of Phil Steele’s 2008 College Football Preview.  [sigh … throws arms up in defeat]  I love this stuff!  Phil Steele’s annual is always my favorite of the bunch; should get me in the mood for some PS3 NCAA Football.

As I write this, Georgia is down 6-0 to Fresno State. 12 at-bats left, so there is still time, but the reality is this one is over.  Too bad.

Yesterday Georgia blew a 5 run lead.  Today they never got it kick started.  Give credit to Fresno State; they earned it.

Last night, the #8 seed Georgia took down #1 seed Miami 7-4, by scoring 4 runs in the 9th inning.  Impressive stuff, especially if consider that Miami was previously 45-0 when taking a lead into the 9th inning.

Next up is Stanford, Monday night at 7PM.  Go Dawgs!

What a said day to hear that Smoltz is having season ending surgery. The reality is that this could finally close the books on a wonderful career.

As an Atlanta Braves fan I am somewhat biased, but Smoltz is one of the best pitchers of my generation.

Sad to see that his body is giving up long before his competitiveness wanes.

Special thanks to Doyle Alexander and the Detroit Tigers for making all of this possible.

Best wishes to Smoltz for a speedy recovery!

The Bulldogs beat the tar out of the bumblebees, 18-6.

Georgia (39-22-1) pounded out 18 hits off of six Yellow Jacket pitchers and scored at least two runs in six different innings to beat Georgia Tech for the second straight night and advance to next week’s Super Regional. The Bulldogs will host NC State, which beat South Carolina Saturday to win the Raleigh (NC) Regional, in a best-of-three series at Foley Field beginning Friday night.”

Nice victory for the Dawgs! I got to watch most of the Regional games over the last few days, but I am not sure if the NC State match up will be televised here. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can watch the Dawgs keep on rolling.

It was a pretty good weekend for a backyard pest hunt with my Beeman R7. The score? One starling, one treerat, and one chipmunk.

First up was the hunt for starlings. After doing a lot of reading, learning how to identify these pest birds, and reading in the GA regulations that there is no closed season for starlings, I decided to see if I can remove a few. Gotta help the songbirds.

On Saturday I took out my first starling. Actually I may have taken out two. The first was a good 20 yards out; not a clean hit, but enough to stun it before it flew to some of the shrubs. I doubt it will come around my yard again, but I cannot confirm the kill. The second starling that I decided to use for target practice was almost in the same location; maybe 20-25 yards. An absolutely clean, wonderful shot to the top of the head. Dead on contact. From a target shooting aspect, this was a thing of beauty.

Next up was some squirrel control. I could shoot these varmints every weekend, but I want to make sure that I am only going after the true pests. Those that try to take shelter in my garage apartment, my attic, or under my house; those are all fair game. I took out one at about 10 yards, which was an easy shot. Right in the head. Dead on contact. No muss, no fuss. Poor idea to throw it in the trashcan as the temperature hit the upper 90s, but I digress.

Finally I turned my attention to the chipmunks. Yes I know, cute, cuddly rodents. These son bitches are massively destructive, burrowing in my back yard, flowerbeds, and under my deck. They have to go. I thought I was alone in thinking these things were pest, but some interesting links for your bemusement.

First, this site discusses chipmunk control:

“The possibility of diseases such as plague, Rocky Mountain spotted fever or the Powassan virus to be transmitted to you or your family increases with these animals being around.”

Screw that. Who wants the plague? Actually I am more worried about them f’ing up my deck; paid a pretty penny for it and cannot afford a new one right now.

Next, someone on this site gets it right:

“I’ve tried everything and I mean EVERYTHING to control these destructive little creatures and have found the only TRULY EFFECTIVE means of control is an accurate pellet rifle with scope. They can then be eliminated humanely with one shot to the head. I’ve found that active hunting of the population seems to scare the survivors away as well. I am able to skip every other year and control the population effectively.”

Oh yes my friend. If only it were that easy to hit the little critters in the head at 20+ yards. The first victim was a good 22 yards out. It must have jumped up a good foot in the air. I obviously hit something, but not the head. Too bad; it found its way into one of the nearby tunnels, hopefully to not be seen from again. Sunday I took aim at one of the little buggers as it was scurrying about. Perfect shot to the neck (a head shot would have been better). Things ended fairly quickly.

All in all, the Beeman R7 does its part if I do mine. For those keeping score at home, I was using Gamo Hunter pellets for all my pest control shots. It will be total carnage when my Beeman R1 .22 Double Gold arrives, but until then, I will have to continue to work with the R7 and become a better shot. The R1 will allow me to cheat; larger pellet will mask my mistakes and increase my score.

After going down to Lipscomb 10-7 in game one of the Athens Regional, UGA has been on a tear.  The impressive Bulldogs have won three in a row, including two games on Sunday to force tonight’s winner take all match up against the bumblebees.  The Dawgs beat Louisville 9-8, beat Lipscomb 14-3, and shutout GA Tech 8-0.  They are up 15-6 in the 6th inning, so things are looking good right now.

Go Dawgs!

I am not sure what happened to Georgia.  They take the SEC, but went into the tournament on a down note, dropping 2 of 3 to Alabama to close out the season.  Then they quickly fell out of the SEC tournament losing two straight to Mississippi and Alabama.  Despite the mess, they managed to become a host site.  So yesterday they took it on the chin 10-7 against Lipscomb.  Who?  No idea.  Now they have to win out to advance.  I do not see it happening.  For some reason the team ran out of steam.

The Braves are also in somewhat of a tailspin, going .500 in their last 10 games.  I read in today’s paper that last night’s 3-2 loss to the Reds in 11 innings was their 12 one-run loss on the road. Chipper Jones must need a day off; he went 0-5 and committed a game ending error.  Cox will get the boys back on track.

Memorial Day weekend has become one of my favorite times of the year.  Three day weekends are great, but this one is especially nice due to the flavors that hit the grill and all the racing action on Sunday.

First up is some serious time with the grill.  Saturday ribs, Sunday thick ribeye steaks, and Monday hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats.  Wash it all down with some High Life, which is perfect to combat the 90 plus degree heat.  Besides getting fat and tummy aches from over eating, does it get any better?

Next up is the racing menu which is un’f’ing believable.  The day starts off with the Monaco Grand Prix.  Massa was the inside track, but I have to think that Raikkonen will do what it takes to land the top podium spot.  Of course all the passing will be in the pits, but I love watching Monaco.  A Ferrari one-two would be the perfect start to the day.

After Monaco we get the Indy 500.  Unlike the Monaco GP, I think this one will be broadcast in some delicious HD.  The race will be highly watched because of Danica Patrick and the dancing Helio Castroneves.  I am not pulling for anyone in particular.  I think Dan Wheldon, Helio, and Tony Kanaan or the likely winners.  It would be interesting to see Patrick (just for the history), Marco Andretti, or Graham Rahal drinking the milk.

The day ends with the way too long Coca-Cola 600.  While I enjoy NASCAR, the first two races will be more exciting, interesting, and have better intrigue, background stories, etc.  I will probably watch just to see if Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, or Dale Earnhardt Jr. can pull out a much needed victory.

Here’s to the High Life!