For those of you that care about this sort of thing, I just got the following from Amazon:
We are pleased to report that the following item will ship sooner than expected:
Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts “Baseball Prospectus 2006 :
Statistics, Analysis, and Insight for the Information Age (Baseball
Prospectus)” [Paperback]
This is the first time I have picked up this annual; hope it makes for a decent purchase.
I had a few minutes to get in a quick game, which is certainly not enough to judge the game as a whole. With that said, just one game was enough for me to determine that the pace of the game and spacing of players was better than the dozen of games I spent with the first PSP FIFA (I am taking a pass on FIFA 06).
Believe me, I have done plenty of FIFA justification over the years, but WE9 is a whole new type of soccer – fans of soccer and portable gaming should be pretty happy. I lost my first game (US vs. Poland) 0-1 pretty handedly. I hardly had any build-up, possession, or shots on goal. I blame that on not reading the game, and trying to figure out the controls on the fly.
On a non-gameplay note, the load times seem rather long. Getting into the game takes a while, and pausing the game to get to the various option screens took several seconds. I have not seen this in any other PSP games, but there is an option to save battery life – looks like it turns off music, crowd noise, and maybe other secondary sound items. I used to have time to figure out if we were talking about a few minutes of battery life, or gaining an extra hour; will be interesting to see what the die-hards find.
More to come as I have more time to play and post.
Welcome to a new month of bliss. Fun stuffs in store – college basketball tournaments galore about the only time I pay attention to college basketball. Spring Training is in full swing, and that little something called the World Baseball Classic is actually going to make baseball intense in the otherwise calm, warm weather days of camp. The NFL is exploding on itself with serious labor issues – not sure what this means to the Falcons, but rumor has it that Dunn is done, which would serious suck.
USA beats Poland 1-0 today in a friendly; did not get to see it because I was doing the work thing, and no sort recorder for me.
My wife picked up the PSP version of Winning Eleven Soccer for me; what a nice wife. Hope to get a few mins with it after I get the kids to bed. Wonder if I can get her to do the same with MLB 06 tomorrow?
Currently reading “2006 Gamer’s Tome of Ultimate Wisdom” and “The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2006” – more on each later, but both are worth a purchase.
Happy March!
From the March 3, 2006 “The Sporting News”
Player to watch this fall: Ohio State LB Larry Grant. A junior college star at City College of San Francisco, Grant originally committed to Florida last fall but didn’t meet SEC academic requirements. He signed with Ohio State and likely will start spring practice at middle linebacker. Four years ago, Florida went through a similar situation with junior college LB Lance Mitchell, who eventually signed with Oklahoma and became an All-American.
Are the SEC’s standards really all that? Just another excuse to cheat, I suppose.
On a disappointing note, I just added a digital sports tier to my digital cable setup, but I am not getting the NFL Network. This pretty much sucks because the only reason I added the sports tier was for the NFL Network; ESPN News was an added bonus. Mediacom, my previous cable company, did not carry the network, but apparently Charter does carry the channel. Sort of; well maybe, at least some of the time.
For some reason Charter is showing ESPN Classic in place of the NFL Network during the off season. Charter email support tells me that the NFL Network is seasonal. Not sure WTF that means the NFL is a year-round league, especially now with the NFL Scouting Combine going on, followed by FA signing period and the draft.
I guess the local Charter affiliate decided it was cheaper to give me ESPN Classic twice because no one cares about the NFL off season. I guess I should be happy that I will get the channel when the games start, since the NFL is adding a decent number of games this season, but it is still a very disappointing turn of events.
Last night I said I was becoming a little loopy about baseball. Case in point, I just ordered The Fielding Bible by John Dewan after seeing it advertised at The Hardball Times and seeing the referenced NetShrine review. Amazon was showing 4-6 weeks to ship, so I ordered it from ACTA Publications’ site.
As I said last night, WTF is wrong with me? Hopefully I will find some time to partake in the nuggets of knowledge to be bestowed by the book.
I am not sure WTF has happened, but I am suddenly taking an unhealthy interest in baseball, specifically statistical books, ramblings on various websites, and actually wanting a deeper grasp of what it takes to “win” OOTPB. I admit I am screwed; it was bound to happen sooner or later – it is not as if I ever stopped liking baseball, just the crap between the MLBPA and MLB Owners groups. I have a feeling my wife is not going to like this turn of events.
Lately I have been reading Baseball Musings, The Hardball Times, and then some. I have also recently ordered The Hard Ball Times Baseball Annual 2006, Baseball Prospectus 2006, and looking at the various Bill James books actually wanting to understand how Win Shares are calculated.
I do not think I have cared this much about baseball in over 15 years. I think I am doomed …
There’s been lots of activity over at the Out of the Park Baseball 2006 site over the past couple of days. I’m not one to buy into hype about any game, especially with a copy of Black & White sitting on my shelf. However, this may be the greatest baseball product release ever. That’s right, ever. More important than Front Page Baseball’s release, Diamond Mind Baseball, the original APBL for DOS, more important than them all. Let me caveat this enthusiasim by saying that I fully expect it not to work when released. That’s pretty much a given. But I believe that it will be fixed, so I’m not too worried.
If you define baseball game “accuracy” by the exact duplication of previous statistical results, then you already have your product – Diamond Mind Baseball. For the rest of us who want to model prospective baseball environments, we have PureSim and Out of the Park Baseball. Yea, Baseball Mogul is still breathing but the family is gathered around and deciding whether or not to pull the plug at this point.
I started complaining and moaning about baseball games many years ago because I wanted a Championship Manager (now Football Manager) baseball game. One where the game felt alive, was as complex as real life baseball, and didn’t feel like you were playing an Excel spreadsheet or an Access database. PureSim and OOTP 6.5 are close, but not in the same ballpark as Football Manager or even Eastside Hockey at this point.
All of that will change with Out of the Park Baseball 2006. So brew some coffee, go visit the site, and start learning about what will be the greatest baseball game ever developed for the PC. Even if it doesn’t pan out to include everything promised, I will be forever happy that there’s a young German programmer, writing code in England, who understands what career-minded baseball fans around the world really want in their game.
World of Warcraft changes quite a bit at level 60. The leveling grind is replaced by gear-grinding. But it is much more casual for me since I can take my time doing the instanced dungeons. I have a level 28 mage and 10 rogue that I am slowly advancing. The best part about being level 60 is that I don’t have to worry about getting rest anymore. Get tired from chasing after mineral deposits? I just log out wherever I am. No more running to the inn to get that max rest credit.
In other news, I actually thought about another game this week that isn’t called World of Warcraft or Out of the Park Baseball. Star Wars Empire at War is the first purely PC game to get TV ad time in a long time that I can remeber. Not that I am going to buy it because…
…they are actually taking pre-orders for World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade. My marriage barely survived getting to level 60. Kids lost teeth, daughter got into college. Wife got a new job. All sorts of things happened.
We’ll have to see how getting to level 70 works out.
There’s even a limit on the number of pre-orders and the game is scheduled for release in July. Insanity!
My PS2 has been on the fritz for a while. You know the symptoms; some DVDs skip, freeze, or do not even get recognized by the system. Same for games – sometimes they load, but other times they present that not so wonderful disk read error.
I have not had a ton of time for playing games over the last few months, but when I want to play I do not want to be hampered by a bum PS2. Yesterday was the last straw; I had some free time, but Gran Turismo 4 would not load. So off I went to Best Buy (yes, I hate the store, but it is closer to my house than Circuit City) to pick up a new slim generation PS2.
Of course my wife asked why I was buying one if I am going to turn around and get a PS3. Good question, but who the heck knows when that thing will be released, or even if I would be allotted one in the initial batch (or can even afford the darn thing). This was considered a “family” purchase since most DVDs are no longer playing; no problems convincing Tonya that this was a necessary purchase.
The new unit is amazingly slim; slightly longer than a DVD case, maybe a little wider, and about two DVD cases think. I have heard this about the unit, but did not pay attention because I did not care to get a new PS2 anytime soon. My original (day one release) PS2 made it a good five years; hopefully this one makes it longer. It seems like today’s generation of gamers expect systems to be disposable, but I have Intellivision and Colecovision systems that are still going strong. What gives?
Anyway, I have been happily playing GT4 again; fun driving game, even if the racing is beyond suspect. MVP06 is also in the rotation; as is Taito Legends. I think I am going to order WE9, after I sell WE8 (and others) to cover the cost. Speaking of which, when I was moving I realized (probably for the third or fourth time) that I have an amazing collection of un-tapped potential in my gaming library. Hopefully I will have time to play (and write about) those lost gems at some point.
Maximum Football lives! Or at least it went gold. Will be interesting to see how the longest develop football game in memory plays. Sadly, with no financial model, my hopes are not very high for this one. Normally I’d say wait for the financial engine to be added in the next version, but I’m not sure if I’ll be alive by the time they develop a next version.
I was reading the Blog for the Sports Gamer and noticed Dan Clarke moaning and groaning about the non-existence of a curling video game. Huh? Surely everyone who has a passing interest in PC sports gaming has heard of the classic Take-Out Weight Curling and the sequel Take-Out Weight Curling 2. I even know at least one person that has a working copy of the original.
Those writers are “sports gamers”?!
hehe, OK I kid. The only reason I know about this game is that one of my Canadian colleagues showed it to me years ago. Fascinating what people with a PC will make into a game. It is unfortunately out of print and only available on the curling black market. If there is such a thing.
Do you hear those birds chirping? Man this cup of coffee tastes good! I may even rake those leaves out in the backyard this weekend. Where did I put my old pair of running shoes? Need to go outside and get some exercise.
I FINALLY GOT A CHARACTER TO LEVEL 60 IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT!
Life is good. A gaming burden is lifted off of my shoulders. Much like a heroin addict finally getting through rehab, I can now start enjoying my addiction free WoW life again. The post-60 game is all about doing raids and dungeons to get better gear for your characters. This requires parties of five players or more, so some organization is involved. I’ll continue to improve my hunter’s gear, but there is no leveling-up stress.
I can now concentrate on my level 27 mage and a Dwarf rogue I created this weekend. It’s a lot more casual with a level 60 sugar daddy to feed the lower level characters gold and other resources.
Now I have more time for OOTP, so I am back into my leagues once again in full force. A couple were suffering, but that is over now.
As Chris has said in his previous posts, we are still here. Lately I have had little time to play games, such is life I guess. I did have my parents keep the kids overnight last night, so Tonya and I could sneak away for a nice Valentines date in Atlanta. The food was awesome – not the typical Columbus fare, and of course a night at a hotel without the kids is worth every penny.
Hopefully I am going to have some game time in the next week or so (one can always dream). Time to catch up on MVP 06, WE 9, Football Manager, and of course Out of the Park Baseball. Interestingly enough, I spent a decent amount of time in the bookstore this morning looking at the baseball section. That was the first time I did that in years. Baseball must be returning to my blood.
Still not sure what all the WoW fuss is about, but if it is enough to cause Chris to drop some OOTP online leagues, then it must be truly addictive.
Here’s a reason to be a bit worried about ATM/Debit cards. Ouch!
My hunter is up to level 59, so the end of the tunnel is near. I’ve started a Dwarf rogue, and he’ll be my primary leveling-up character after I get the hunter to 60. World of Warcraft is now the number one drain on my free time, of all time. Yes, even more than Out of the Park Baseball. I’m going to quit some OOTP leagues to free up even more WoW play time.
The site continues to be very quiet, but we’re still here. I’ll try to post at least once a week, but I am sure that activity will increase when Out of the Park Baseball 2006 is released. In the Johnson world, now is the time for playing games as opposed to writing about them.
I haven’t even picked up Civilization IV since I did an initial install and decided to wait for the patch.