The Recycle Bin

We’re still here. You see, we actually play games and have lives that requier attending to every now and then. Geoff and I are heavily invested in getting my hunter (56) and his palladin (51) to 60 before we both risk our marriages. Jonathan was last seen diving into his new house.

I could throw something up every now and then, but I am just having too much fun playing games right now. We’re in this World of Warcraft guild filled with Canadiens and having a blast raiding dungeons.

Uh oh the queue just ended in WoW, got to go!

A couple of days ago I said:

“Carolina upsets Seattle, and surprising Denver hangs on in a close one over Pittsburg. I think Carolina wins because Coach Fox will out maneuver Holmgren and company. I used to like Denver (T. Davis and Elway and Reeves), but not so much these days. I am not a fan of Pittsburg, but I love Hines Ward. I just like Denver at home.”

So I was wrong on all accounts, which is the reason I do not bet on football! I am going to piss off the Pittsburg crowd and pull for the Steelers. I still do not have much respect for Seattle, but they look very impressive yesterday.

I am not sure how many people are actually excited about Nintendo’s next system, but after spending some time this weekend reading about the system, I cannot wait for it to arrive. Sure the controller is a little off the deep-end, but the thing may just work. The backwards compatibility will be a huge win for many gamers my age (and maybe so other demographics). I also think Nintendo’s gaming slant (i.e. this is just a video game system) is going to be a plus because I think the price will be affordable; besides, everyone does not want they gaming system to be a Swiss army knife.

The GameCube does not get much love, but for my money games like Animal Crossing, Super Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, Kirby Air Ride (for my son), two decent Star Wars games, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Walker provide plenty of unique game experiences not found on any other console. The funny thing is that the GameCube was so easily dismissed by sports gamers, yet some popular franchises such as Madden actually looked better (and some would dare say play better) than their Xbox and PS2 counterparts. My GameCube will remain around for a long time just for the GameBoy adaptor – that thing is money well spent.

I think that much like my current combination of PS2 and GameCube, a next generation combination of PS3 and Revolution is going to be in my gaming future. Of course I have to find time to play all the new games, but that is a different article.

One of the longest developed football games in sports gaming history may actually see the light of day. According to the Matrix Games forums, a release candidated of Maximum Football is in Matrix Games’ hands.

Do you believe in miracles?!

In anticipation of the wise cracking reviewers out there, Sports Interactive officially changed the name of the artist formally known as Out of the Park Baseball Manager 2006 to Out of the Park Baseball 2006. This pre-emptive strike should put an end to all of the OOTP “BM” jokes.

I was going to post this Thursday night, but ran out of time. Apologies if this is somewhat raw …

Thankfully MVP 06 has a very interesting coaching mode. This should be a great option for sim fans, or fans that do not want to play every single game, but want more control than a typical simulate game option. I honestly did not spend enough time with the game to determine how realistic the stats engine is, but a first glance everything looks in order.

In coaching mode you select your starting line up and then you tell your players what to do. Say you are batting … you can swing away, bunt for hit, pinch hit, hit and run, steal, etc. If you are pitching, you call various options such as pitch batter, pitch around, walk batter, sub pitcher, defensive sub, etc. There is even an option to use an outgoing pitcher as the DH; this is great for those pitchers (read stud athletes) that can also hit a ton.

Each play typically takes a second, so you can run through a 9 inning game in no time flat (say 5-minutes or less). As I said, if the simulation engine holds up, this is going to go down as one of the best features in a console baseball game.

After each play is some commentary:

Georgia 1st
LF #21 Grounded out to third,
2B #44 struck out swinging
RF #1 singled to right
1B #33 infield single, RF #1 advanced to 2nd
CF #10 grounded out to second
0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors
UGA 0, UT 0

Texas 1st
RF #1 struck out looking
CF #13 struck out looking
SS #2 flied out to right
0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors
UGA 0, UT 0

This looks promising; maybe not incredibly deep, but it looks like a good start for this new franchise.

There is an interesting box score after the game that includes up to date stats (not sure if ERA and average are just for the game, or if they would reflect for the whole season in Dynasty mode)

Speaking of which, the Dynasty mode allows for a tone of options. I am going to briefly cover a few to give you an idea of how much effort EA has put into this puppy.

The depth chart setting shows your depth chart by position on the baseball field with a breakdown by position.

The pitching rotation allows you to set your pitching rotation; fairly standard.

The batting order options shows graphics with hot/cold zones, including power, contact rating, speed rating, and ratings vs. LHP and RHP.

A defensive alignment option allows you to set lineups for LHP or RHP.

There create/edit player option is off the chart; it will make you have one. Honest. You can set all manner of non game play attributes such as what your players actually look like, but the good stuff is more gameplay related. I am not going to cover it all right now, but you can set a player’s career potential on a 1-5 stars. You can set various attributes such as contact ratings (of course like almost everything else you can set individual settings for LHP and RHP). You can adjust settings such as plate discipline, durability, base running ability, and more. The batter tendencies options look amazing, with the ability to set certain types of pitches (fastball, curveball, etc) – take vs. LHP/RHP, strike vs. LHP/RHP, foul vs. LHP/RHP, etc), and you can set hot/cold zones vs. LHP/RHP. There is a whole lot more; I have only scratched the surface.

You let the CPU optimize your roster.

You can set positional ranking (look at your roster position by position). Not sure how this is different from the depth chart option.

There are others such as options for team goals and challenge items, but I have not had time to look at these yet.

OK, the game is deep. I have only played here and there, and have spent a decent amount of time with the coaching option. I am going to reserve judgment for now, but I will say that so far I am very happy with the game.

I have played MVP 06 NCAA Baseball two out of the last three days. Videogames are fun again; there I said it.

Anchor Steam beer is delicious goodness; costly at about $10 a six-pack, but oh so tasty. Lately I have opted for different cheap beers; the kind of refreshing water with beer flavor types, but Anchor Steam takes me back to my days of being a beer snob.

I have become addicted to That 70’s Show on FX; fun entertainment that is in the perfect time slot (7-8PM) for watching while I read to my youngest son and rock him to sleep. Great line from the other night: “He is soft.” “How soft is he?” “As soft as Liberace at the Playboy mansion.” Juvenile? Yes, but still funny.

Carolina upsets Seattle, and surprising Denver hangs on in a close one over Pittsburg. I think Carolina wins because Coach Fox will out maneuver Holmgren and company. I used to like Denver (T. Davis and Elway and Reeves), but not so much these days. I am not a fan of Pittsburg, but I love Hines Ward. I just like Denver at home.

Nice to see Star Trek: The Next Generation making a run again; weekly at 7PM on G4 TV.

Moving sucks; have to move a dining room set out of storage later this morning. When, oh when will it end?

I have taking up walking to work a couple of days a week. Refreshing, healthy, and saves some money on gas. Walking to work is awesome. 3 miles to work gives me plenty of time to clear my mind and get ready for work. The 3 mile walk back home gives me plenty of time to de-stress before I get home.

Happy weekend!

NCAA Baseball arrived yesterday, forcing me to break my unintentional gaming sabbatical. After getting my PS2 setup and ready for action, I put in NCAA Baseball long enough to get in a couple of innings.

Since I was pressed for time, I selected the quick play option, and selected UGA vs. Texas. I know there are readers that pay particular attention to minute details in their sports games. To be honest, I did not have time to verify rosters, determine if Disch-Falk Field looked 100% accurate, verify that the home and away uniforms were picture perfect, or if Texas’ #1 ranking and UGA’s #74 matched preseason polls. I am sure the Texas ranking is correct, and UGA’s is fairly realistic, but they should be improved over last years barely over .500 record.

Once upon a time all of the above mattered to me, but these days I am fairly content actually getting to play a college baseball game! I did not dive into any of the game setting options, although the game did ask if I wanted to use roster numbers of names (I think these are random generated like NCAA Football).

The load times are very acceptable; pretty much what you expect with a PS2 game, and certainly not overly long. The presentation is nice – the game opens with commentary about the teams, some statistical info, and a description of the starting pitcher’s assortment of pitches. UGA (me in this case) was presented with some info on the starting lineup as my leadoff hitter came to the plate – contact and power numbers. All in all, nice stuff.

If you have followed the game you have read all about the new Load and Fire Batting System. I did not read the instruction manual, so I have no idea if I was approaching this correctly, but before each pitch I pulled back on the right analog stick, and then timed pushing the stick up. The longer I held the stick, the more vibration I would get, so I finally opted just to wait until the pitch was thrown – then I would pull back and flip forward. I had a nice homerun with this approach in the 2nd inning. I was down 1-6 when I turned off the game; after the homerun the announcer made some comment at the end of the inning about how “nicely UGA had made a game of it” (something like that).

I completely screwed the pooch with the new throwing system. The bases are mapped to the right analog stick, so you throw to first by moving the stick to the right. One key here is that there is an indicator around your fielder that seems to show when you should release the ball. To explain, if you hold the stick too long, the indicator turns red and you run the risk of throwing the ball away. I am not sure if this type of system is in other baseball games, but it looks fairly interesting. I gave up a three unearned runs just by practicing throwing the ball around the diamond after a hit (obviously I need some practice).

That is about it after 10 minutes. My first impressions are very positive. For starters we have what appears to be a decent college baseball game. I am sure that gamers that are more dedicated (i.e. they have more time to play) will pick the game a part as they find all sorts of issues; hopefully most of these will be minor in nature. I do not plan to spend much time reading various message boards to see what others have to say – in the past that has been a sure way to spoil a game for me because others uncover things that I would never find.

Hopefully I can live with the game, and enjoy the college baseball experience. It is probably too much to ask (or wish for), but I am keeping my fingers crossed that the game does not have any major issues, it sells reasonably well, and a new franchise is born.

More updates to come.

It looks like my video gaming sabbatical will be coming to an abrupt end later this week when MVP 06 NCAA Baseball delivers the ping of the bat to the PS2. I have been writing for years that I am sick of the crap that goes on between the MLB owners and the MLBPA – yes, I still love the game, but I could do with less of the politics that result from labor disputes, weak drug testing policies, and all the other stuff that goes with the constant bickering between the all powerful players’ union and the owners.

Baseball as a sport is still wonderful; it is not like I do not watch the Braves, keep up with baseball news (I especially love The Sporting News’ baseball coverage), or debate stats with my friends. I am just at a point where I have more fun playing Out of the Park Baseball with fictitious players or historical rosters than playing console MLB games.

In fact, it has been several years since I last picked up a MLB (or MLBPA) licensed game that I kept for a significant period of time (i.e. longer than a month). Each year I am tempted, but somehow I am able to keep my spending in check. There was once a time when I owned each and every baseball game every season, but now I limit myself to one purchase, and typically sale the game on eBay after a week or two of uninspired play. If a really good baseball game ever gets released for the PSP, then my self-imposed sanctions may come to an end, but until then, I wonder if I will ever find my way back to console baseball.

Writing this now, I find it rather surprising that I have made it this long without keeping a baseball game in my console library. What once was a staple of my gaming rotation is now a fond memory, but that is about to change unless the baseball gods just do not want me to play console baseball. It is one thing to keep a man down on MLB, but it is another thing entirely to keep a man away from the bliss of college baseball. I have been begging for a college baseball game for years, and thanks to EA getting the short end of the MLB license stick, we are about to get a huge prize – MVP 06 NCAA Baseball.

I have read nothing except positive press about the game, the new Load and Fire batting system, the game play, ESPN propaganda, the graphics, etc. Of course this is to be expected from the mega sites – they are going to give EA good press. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that the game is actually good, and maybe, just maybe, I will find some time to play some college baseball this weekend.

Of course the interesting test will be to see if I am just down on MLB, as I keep telling everyone, or if I am really just down on console baseball. The latter would be a scary revelation because it may tell me some things about myself that I have been scared to admit � namely that I am no longer a true console sports gamer.

Sports car racing looks to be getting more and more popular in the US. At least I think there is an upwards trend based on snippets I have recently read in Racer magazine and there is a pronounced upwards trend in participation by NASCAR Nextel Cup stars.

It looks like Danica Patrick is adding her name to the mix:

“I think it’s one of those races where you have to stay consistent,” Patrick said at a three-day testing session this weekend. “As soon as I pick up my speed on the track, hopefully that will stay consistent.”

Danica’s statement may be obvious, and this may be old news to racing fans, but I think it is great that more and more US racing stars are throwing their weight behind sports cars, prototypes, and the Rolex 24.

I’m leaving Blackberry land and coming back to my beloved Palm OS. Other than the email push, the Blackberry absolutely sucks as a calendar and contact management program. I actually went back to my relatively older Palm Tungsten C to manage my day-to-day existence. But I have to have my phone and PDA together or else I miss tasks and appointments for some reason.

What pushed me over the edge was a nice deal on a refurbished Treo 650 through Cingular. We were Bell South Wireless customers when Cingular purchased the company, so we’ve been with them for quite a while now. My wife and oldest daughter are on the family plan and I’ve had few complaints.

Until now.

The phone arrived today and, after a couple of hours charging, I was set to begin my wonderful Treo life. The problem was – I couldn’t hear or speak through the phone. I’d call other phones and nothing. So I called Cingular tech support and took it to the retail store. Everyone concluded that the Treo was broken.

Then the fun began.

I should mention that the refurbished phone cost me $139, about $200 cheaper than a brand new phone. Refurbished, according to dictionary.com, means “to make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate.” I called customer service and they agreed to exchange my phone. The initial response of the rep was that they were having problems with the refurbished models, and was I “sure” I wanted another refurbished one? I asked her if it was Cingular’s policy to sell equipment they knew was broken. She said no, and her tone changed a bit.

The lesson to be learned here is to not be in a rush to get a refurbished Treo that works from Cingular. My Blackberry still functions and I can wait. The savings are significant enough for me to play Treo roulette. Just have some room on your credit card because you have to order a brand new phone (refurbished in this case) as part of the exchange and pay for it up front. When the damaged phone arrives at Cingular, there�s a credit issued.

Surprisingly no withdrawal symptoms. My TV is sitting on the floor in the living room because the entertainment center (where the TV sat at my old house) is in my kids’ room. All my videogame systems and games are in various boxes in the front bedroom.

I keep thinking I am going to get something out fairly soon, but it seems like there is always something more pressing. I have had a desire to play some Gran Turismo, NCAA Football, and Colin McRae Rally PSP, but that is about as far as it has gone. Should be interesting to see how long this sabbatical lasts.

Of course I am still playing OOTP in the IOSBL, but that is about it. I just found my Football Manager game, so hopefully I will have time to get it loaded and this new laptop. And I keep thinking about getting into Civilization or Ages of Empires, but I am afraid that I will spending way too much time playing games if it ever comes to that.

Two quick points. First, I have not been pulling my calvertgames account because some spam-bot has been hitting the site for a good six weeks. I have not been able to turn it off, so I have been ignoring much of what comes into my main jonathan at calvertgames dot com account. Second, I am now using Charter instead of Mediacom for my ISP. No real reason for the switch except that Mediacom did not service my new house. You can get me by sending email to jonathancalvert at charter dot net.

Shout out to Kevin, I saw an email that you sent me a couple of weeks ago, but I cannot find your email address. Please send me a quick note to the new Charter account. Thanks!

It has been a heck of a haul getting settled into my new house, but it looks like there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel. This renovation project has been a pain in the rear from the get go. The garage apartment was months behind schedule (there is still some plumbing work to be completed), and the house was a good 10 weeks behind schedule. In fact, we are still waiting for a few outstanding items to be finished inside the house before we can tell the contractors “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!”

The plumbing backed up last week (damn cast-iron pipes) after a mysterious hole appeared in the main sewer line. Raw sewage under the house – yuck! We failed a plumbing inspection (surprisingly not for the sewage issue), and electrical inspection. We have had to fight our contractor tooth and nail for everything, and by everything I mean that our contractor said re-screening the screen door to the screen porch was not included in the price to re-screen the porch. It has been absolutely ridiculous at times.

We planned to be in the house early November, and then the week before Thanksgiving, and then Thanksgiving weekend, and then the first week of December, and then the week before Christmas. You get the picture.

I could go on and on, but I will spare everyone the pain. We moved on December 30, and while we still are living out of boxes, everyone is starting to settle into our new house. I have found myself sitting in the sunroom or the screen porch thinking about my grandmother and remembering all the fond moments I had growing up in my grandmother’s house. I had to spin a ton of cash to save the garage apartment, but once again, like the rest of the house, it was worth it. In the case of the apartment, I spent my college days in that thing, so there are a ton of memories up there. Plus, after we recover from the house renovation, Tonya is going to let me turn the bottom apartment into a pool room (billiards that is).

I like to think that my grandmother is looking down at us in her house, smiling, because the house is once again filled with joy, love, and children. She would be especially pleased with the 54-bottle wine cooler and the champaign that Tonya and I drink for New Years. Champaign at Christmas and New Years was one of her favorite traditions.

OK, I am sounding like a sap, but it has been a long road home, and I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to keep the house in the family. It is also pretty cool to live in a house that my great-great-grandfather built. Living in the park district is also cool � we are a five minute walk from the park. I am also a lot closer to work; six minutes in fact. Last Friday I actually walked the three mile trek to work in about 50 minutes. So lots of good stuff all around.

I said I would spare everyone from a continuous rant, but man I am I sick of my contractors. You can only fool yourself so many times about how great the house looks while you cuss about all the crap you have to put up with in the process. I need to write a “what not to do while renovating” type of book – I could spare everyone else a ton of crap.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Real life sometimes interferes with free time. But there�s still a bit to chat about, so think of this as a week in review.

I�m happy New England was sent packing from the playoffs. Now maybe their fans will shut up for at least a few months. I remember the days when the Patriots were a very, very bad team.

Geoff and I joined an Alliance guild this past week. We�re using Teamspeak to coordinate efforts with our guild mates and I am very impressed with the technology. It makes World of Warcraft an even more addictive experience, if that was possible.

The big discussion here in Central Texas is whether the Texans should pick Vince Young or Reggie Bush. I agree with the roughly 90% of the fan base that says the Texans would be fools not to take Young. Reggie Bush is not what the Texans need right now. If anything, an offensive line would probably help more than Bush, but Young could take the Texans to a level that David Carr probably will not. Even if Carr had a line to protect him.

Grey Dog Software released Total College Basketball. I just don�t know why, but I can�t get into text basketball. I tried Grey Dog�s Total Pro Basketball and while the presentation is very slick, I quickly grew bored watching games unfold. Maybe I�m just not that big of a basketball fan, so your mileage may vary.

PureSim released a new version 1.21 patch. This is the last patch for PureSim Baseball 2005 Gold Edition. Shaun Sullivan is talking about doing an open beta for PureSim 2006 for registered owners of PureSim 2005 Gold.

I saw the blog entry we�ve all been waiting for at Out of the Park Baseball Manager titled �Online Leagues & HTML Capabilities� but there is no article there as of Sunday morning. Arrrrrgggggg!