Category: Archive

What more can you ask for than some boobies to go with that shinny new PS3? Funny story (and video) posted at //engtech.

Not that it helps me any, but according to Joystiq, PSX games (I hate the term PSOne) are ready for action.

We logged in to the Japanese PlayStation Store this morning and found nine PSone games available for download to our dusty PSP — and at only ¥525 (US$4.50) per title. The selection includes two volumes of Konami’s MSX Collection, the Director’s Cut of Biohazard, as well as “lost classics” Jumping Flash and Bishi Bashi Special (so that’s where we left them!).

Not sure what the heck ‘Bishi Bashi Special’ is, but I still play ‘Jumping Flash! every once in a while. It will be interesting to see how well some games sell because some PSX titles (even brand new ones from my ‘collection’) will not go for that much on eBay.

As someone who works on financial websites that are expected to be up 24-7, I can appreciate the problems that walmart.com experienced yesterday.

For much of Friday morning, attempts to open Walmart.com resulted blank pages, delays or other problems. By early afternoon, visitors were simply told to come back later.

Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella blamed a “higher than anticipated traffic surge.”

Not so good. I for one do the majority of my shopping online, and not just during the so-called holiday season.

From the same article, it looks like the Xbox 360 is holding strong; MS should pimp the heck out of Amazon selling out of 360s.

The site [Amazon.com] was disrupted for about 15 minutes, starting at about 2 p.m. EST Thursday, as the retailer was offering the Xbox 360 to the first 1,000 customers for $100, $200 below the regular retail price.

“We saw dramatically more traffic than what we anticipated,” Amazon.com spokesman Craig Berman said Friday.

The Xbox sold out in 29 seconds, Berman said.

That is pretty impressive.

Finally we have this gem (once again from the above article)

Millions of people are also expected to shop online starting this weekend. The Monday after Thanksgiving, also known as “Cyber Monday,” is expected to be one of the year’s biggest online holiday shopping days, as people return to work and shop online using their office computers.

Cyber Monday? Seems like we have to have a catch phrase that pays for everything these days.

I guess this is fairly dated; well, at least a few days old, but I find it hard to believe that Sony would finally pull off a major firmware upgrade that support PSX emulation, only to learn that you have to have a PS3 to download and transfer the games.  Talking about a major run-on sentence, and a major downer.  Several sites, including IGN, claim that Sony is working to ‘fix’ this problem ASAP.

It would open up a world of possibilities if I could play PSX games on my PSP, but it would royally suck if I have to purchase them again.  Still, for certain ditties – FF VII comes to mind, and maybe a solid NCAA 2000 title or a decent F1 game – I would shell out a few bucks.  Sony is just not thinking with a clear head if they think PSP owners are going to buy a $500-600 PS3, just to play PSP games on their PSP.  What are they thinking?

While I wait, and debate if I should get a Wii, I thought this article from Infendo was interesting

“I witnessed something miraculous today. My sister, who rarely plays games, whooped butt in tennis. My mom smiled as she threw a spare in bowling. My dad, a man who I’ve never seen play a game in his life, beat my mom at bowling by getting four strikes in a row. I underestimated Nintendo. I wondered if their whole anyone-can-play strategy was simply marketing hooey. I was wrong, and Nintendo was right. If my family was playing games today after Thanksgiving lunch, Nintendo’s future is brighter than the Wii’s blue light on its brightest setting.”

The more I read, the more interested I am in getting a Wii, but I keep telling myself “wait until next year” … I really want to see what else Nintendo is going to do with this thing before springing for their latest system.

After taking an accidental week off, I am back to show off my lack of prognostication skills.  Something like that.  Interesting slate of rivalry games this week, headlined by the LSU/Arkansas game this afternoon.

(9) LSU – (5) Arkansas
I keep reading that LSU is the best two loss team in the country, and I keep thinking that Arkansas is not the real deal.  This game should prove that Arkansas is a solid contender as they win the Golden Boot thingy.

(4) Florida – Florida State
Florida State will not ‘save’ their season.  Gators will win big in this mismatch of FL schools.

Kentucky – (19) Tennessee
If this game was in the Bluegrass State, I would call for a surprising upset, but that is not going to happen in Rocky Top.

South Carolina – (24) Clemson
Always a good one; hope we get it locally this year.  I have to go SEC in this one; Gamecocks in a minor upset over Clemson.

Mississippi State – Mississippi
I think they play for an egg or some such.  Not sure if either team is good enough to win an egg, but I have to pick someone, so how about the Bulldogs of Mississippi.

(16) Georgia Tech – Georgia
Which Georgia team is going to show up?  If the team that whipped Auburn takes the field, Georgia will win.  If not, oh boy, look for a major embarrassment.  I cannot stand the bumblebees, but I guess they have to beat us sooner or later.  I am going to go homer, and say that Georgia in a hard fought upset.

Texas just kicked off vs. A&M.  Hopefully the Horns bounce back and wrap up a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.  Hook ’em!

Go Dawgs!

Just ran across this article at USAToday.com; the U.S. National soccer team is now ranked #31 in the latest FIFA rankings.

The U.S. team, ranked as high as fifth in May before a poor showing at the World Cup, fell two points to No. 31 in November’s FIFA rankings Wednesday. The last time the U.S. was not in the top 30 was June of 1999, when it was also No. 31.

Of course the rankings cannot mean all that much since the U.S. was fifth at the start of the World Cup. It will be interesting to track where the U.S. goes from here; hopefully only upwards and forward progress.

Most of you know that I am a pretty big advocate of Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection (for the PSP).  Looks like it is $4.99 November 24-25, which is a heck of a deal.  If you own a PSP, and have even a passing interest in pinball, this is a great way to kill some time.  Extremely entertaining, with solid pinball gameplay.

The ad also Gun (for the PS2) listed for $4.99; never played this one, but someone at work says it is entertaining.  It is also on the PSP, but not at this loss leader price.  I saw a replay of X-Play on G4TV the other night, and they played a great quote from the game, over and over and over “… wasted a perfectly good whore on you …”  What more can you ask for in a game?

I just saw this article; pretty sure my post below was first, but it is not as if everyone and their brother is complaining about not getting to see these ‘extra’ NFL games.

The NFL Network has sued Comcast over the cable company’s plans to put the network on a premium-priced sports tier in systems acquired from Time Warner and Adelphia. The network also is embroiled in litigation with Charter Communications. The third-largest cable operator (5.9 million subscribers) signed on as the NFL Network’s first big cable provider in January 2004, but the network hasn’t been on Charter since December 2005 because of a basic-versus-premium dispute.

According to the article, non NFL Network subscribers do get to see ‘in market’ games, so hopefully that means that I will not miss the ATL/Dallas game.

I thought it was interesting (and somewhat funny) that Toys R Us is running a 5AM-noon $129.99 PS2 system special that gives you Tony Hawk’s Project 8 for free.  Are we up to 8 of these games now?  I think I still have the first two for the PSX in my library … somewhere.  Never really got into the games.  I guess at this point the publisher (and Toys R Us) figures that the game is played out, so why not give it away for free?

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and safe travels to and from where ever it is you happy to spend turkey day.  While I have too many blessings to count, I figured I would list a few here …

• Family of course; especially my wonderful wife, Tonya, and sons Joshua and Nathan.  Of course boy number three due in February.
• My dad
• My new house, which of course was my grandmother’s house
• Thanksgiving in my house; been 10+ years since a Thanksgiving dinner graced this house
• Surviving our first Thanksgiving dinner; keeping my fingers crossed on this one!
• This website, its readers, and the contributors to the site over the years.  We quietly celebrated our fifth anniversary September 27, 2006!
• Chris; great ‘virtual’ friend, partner in crime on the site, and gaming partner (when I actually get to play OOTPB and WoW)
• Video Game library of 100+ games and several systems spanning the years.  Many unopened games, which provide countless opportunities if I ever get around to them.  Sad, but true; thankfully, wasted purchases do not happen too much these days.  With so many games, who needs a Wii, PS3, or 360?

Of course there are more, many more, too many to count or name.  Maybe I will do a part two later today if the mood strikes.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Hot damn!  A new tradition is started on NFL.com, with the addition of a third Thanksgiving game (KC vs. Denver) tonight, followed by more games each week for the rest of the season.  Too bad I do not get the NFL Network; me and another 60-million or so NFL fans are in the same boat.

It seems that the NFL Network and some major cable networks – Charter for one, which happens to be my cable provider – are in a nasty dispute over how to package the NFL Network.  Seems the NFL brass wants the new channel to be part of basic cable, but most cable providers want it as part of a premium tier due to the associated costs.  We the fans are caught in the middle.

I could switch to DirectTV, but why should I have to do that when my cable service and cable modem service works great already; no complaints, not even with pricing.  I have written my local Charter provider several times, but to no avail.

So no Denver/KC tonight, no Baltimore/Cincinnati next week (will be in London, so no big deal), but it gets better.  The following weeks will see me missing Cleveland/Pittsburgh (hey, it is football … well, sort of0, San Francisco/Seattle (uh, well maybe not a big loss), and then Saturday Dec 16 I will not get to see Dallas/Atlanta unless I score some tickets for the games.  Boo hiss!  I will also miss Minnesota/Green Bay, KC/Oakland, and NY Giants/Washington.

OK, on second glance, I am not missing much, but it is the freaking principle of the thing; I want to watch football!  I cannot believe that I cannot see Dallas vs. Atlanta because my cable provider will not work out something with the NFL Network folks.  I would gladly pay $5/month for the channel, just to get the extra games, but that would be too much to ask.

This Thanksgiving, turkeys are not the only ones getting screwed.

This may sound like a broken record skip, but sorry for the lack of posts these past weeks.  Occasionally real life creeps into my gaming addiction and I have to deal with demands for actual on the job performance.  Such was the case these past few weeks, but now I can relax a bit over the Thanksgiving break.

I made the difficult decision to quit my guild today.  I am an officer in this guild, so my decision to leave was very hard to make.  You see, I am a WoW raider.  That’s what I really enjoy doing in the game.  I like the rush I feel after 20 or so people take down a boss for the first time.  And I do not enjoy PvP (player v. player) in the battlegrounds.  Raiding is what I live for in WoW-land.  So when my guild seemed to spend more and more time doing PvP, I had to make a decision about what was best for my entertainment dollar.  And out the door I went…

Now I am a free agent looking for a large raiding guild.  These are difficult to get into and choosing a guild that fits your personality is a worrisome process.  I am, ahem, an older gamer who doesn’t necessarily enjoy a lot of the teenager humor I put up with in my old guild.  Therefore, my primary objective is to find a more mature guild that raids in the evenings.

I’ve submitted one application and I’ll let you know how it goes.

With an upcoming trip to London looming (this weekend in fact) I decided it was time to pick up something new for the PSP.  I do not think I have played the darn thing since my last trip, so it is more or less collecting dust.  In other words, nothing exciting going on with portable PSP gaming.

After work, I loaded up the kids and headed to Best Buy to see what they had to offer my PSP.  And yes, I still hate Best Buy, but it is the closest gaming store.  A long plane trip is a great reason to play Madden, but Best Buy did not have Madden ’07 in stock.  I did notice a new EA game that had various classics including Wing Commander and Road Rash.  I was tempted, but I was really looking for Madden and NASCAR.  Best Buy had neither, so on to Circuit City.  No NASCAR in site, but they did have Madden, and they also had Tiger Woods ’07 on sale for $27.99.  Joshua said something along the lines of ‘But daddy; that’s golf.’  In other words, he knew I was reaching, but I guess desperate times (a lackluster PSP library) calls for desperate measures (playing golf games).

The PSP library is just not that compelling.  I think a NASCAR game would make for a nice way to waste some time on a plane; same for football (i.e. Madden).  After that, I am not sure what else I am interested in play.  There is Loco Roco, which looks interesting, but not $39.99 interesting.  Same for GTA Vice City Stories, but that one is $49.99.  Capcom and EA have classic collections; maybe b-day presents, but I decided to go all sports for this trip.

It will be interesting to see if I finally give MLB a try, or pick up some of the other old games in my library.  It is sad when Pinball Hall of Fame is still the most played game in my library, and future purchases (or b-day presents) are classic compilations.  I think I would be more inclined to try more titles if they were priced at $19.99 – $29.99, but I am not going to try too many PSP titles if they are going to set me back $49.99 + tax (i.e. GTA Vice City Stories).

Oct 20th I wrote that if you looked at Atlanta’s remaining schedule, they better figure out some things in a hurry, because they were going to go 9-7 at best:

I hope they get it figured out soon, because the Falcons’ remaining schedule is brutal. The Falcons are capable of wins against Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, and Tampa Bay. I do not think they will beat Baltimore, New Orleans, Dallas, Carolina, or Philadelphia. That would put their record at 7-7, with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati as swing games. It could get ugly in a hurry.

Funny. I thought Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were important games; turns out they were important wins since ATL has now taken it on the chin three games in a row – Detroit, Cleveland, and Baltimore all made the Falcons look pretty bad. Now the Falcons stand at 5-5, with wins looking increasingly few and far between. I still think they should beat Washington and Tampa Bay, but the rest is downright iffy. So we are still taking about a 7-9 campaign, which makes for a major ouch.