The Recycle Bin

It’s a good thing I’m not a pyromaniac, or I would lead one unfulfilling life. From my camping exploits, to overnight stays at the Resident Inn and Suites, to trying to build a fire in our new backyard “fire pit,” I just can’t seem to get anything to burn! After watching me work with this thing for a couple of hours, one might conclude that it should be called a “smoldering pit.” I even used lighter fluid! I guess I can kiss moonlighting as an arsonist goodbye…

Grizzly Adams I am not. I don’t like “the outdoors,” and my survival skills are seriously lacking. It’s a good thing I was born in the era of city utilities, or I don’t think my family would survive!

Does anyone have some tips for starting up a good old campfire? What type of kindling do you use? Short of rubbing two sticks together, I’m open to any suggestions…

Finally, I have successfully played a session of TM:Head-On online. My first attempts were all met with failure; I would constantly get kicked out of any games where I managed to connect. After putting down the game for a while, I gave TM:Head-On a fresh go last night.

Not only did I successfully play online, I managed to connect to several different games without get disconnected. That is major progress! I did find it rather curious that in many games I attempted to join the players were just hanging out in the lobby doing the message thing. PSP community building? Maybe, but does not seem very fun to me; to each their own I guess.

At first blush TM:Head-On online was just as fun as TM:Black (PS2), but it would not be fair for me to judge the game after only 20 minutes of gaming action. If any readers have TM:Head-On, please post a comment or drop me an email; I would love to join you in a game sometime. While I am still not an online gaming advocate, I can see a certain appeal in getting together with 4-6 fiends and going at it in some friendly TM:Head-On action.

The good news is that I did not experience any lag, or any other networking issues that would cause me to think that the experience was not fair. Interestingly enough most of the games I played had a ping response/rating of 9999. I figured that higher means bad, but in the case of this network I think it means “unknown” and possibly bad. On most occasions my ping was listed anywhere from just under 100 to 450. More experience is really needed before I can come to any conclusions.

All in all last night was a fun night of gaming, and hopefully I will be able to make it two in a row tonight.

I’m baaack in the saddle again! Johnson command HQ successfully transferred from Gainesville, FL to College Station, Texas this past week. Spent roughly two weeks waiting for Verizon to set up my DSL service, but as any addict knows, those Jones’ will get you every time.

So now I am completely back within the evil Cox empire.

Long time readers of my old blog remember what is now known as the Cox Wars around my house. I switched to DirecTV, Bell South DSL, and was happy as a clam. Moving to Texas changed all of that. But imagine my horror when I saw my first Cox Cable truck in College Station and screamed “Oh the Humanity!”

I placed my DSL order with Verizon on May 20th. My “service ready” date was/is June 14th. I thought I could maintain my cool and just rely on work access, but I finally cracked this morning. Cox had me up and running at 5MB down in a manner of minutes. Will box up my DSL supplies and ship them back to Verizon in the AM.

Lots to chat about, but I must visit all of my long neglected favorite sites this evening. Not to mention my poor neglected World of Warcraft characters.

The Recycle Bin has had RSS and Atom feeds since day one, but I have never bothered to advertise them or “officially” publish the links. Now you can automatically be fed – just follow the “RSS FEED” and “ATOM FEED” button links on the left-hand menu, and plug into your favorite reader(s). If you are a My Yahoo! user, you are in luck, because I have added a button to automatically add the Recycle Bin feed into your my Yahoo! view.

If you run a gaming site that has an RSS feed, or if you have a favorite gaming site that has an RSS feed, please post a link in the comments section if you would like to see the link added at some point down the road. Not enough time today, but I am looking into introducing RSS feeds that would be of interest to CG readers.

As I find myself drinking some Miller Lite this afternoon, I wonder how many Rusty Wallace fans will only drink Miller Lite (today and tomorrow and the next day) when they have a cold one. I doubt I will find myself pulling for Rusty this afternoon, but I think I may have a second Lite for good measure.

I have read all sorts of articles and surveys about NASCAR and brand loyalty, and I guess I just do not get it (whatever “it” happens to be). Home Depot or Lowes? I actually like Stewart and Johnson, so that is not that big of a decision for me; whichever is closer and has the better deal. I doubt my wife has any idea who drives the Target car, and we all know women love to shop at Target. Awesome Bill and McDonalds was one I could swallow back in the day, but what about Jeff Gordon and DuPont? I guess that is why he does the Pepsi thing, and while I do like Gordon, it is Coke for me unless I need to do the Dew.

I guess I am the preverbal monkey wrench that messes up those marketing statistics. Racing fan, yes, but a NASCAR dad I am not.

Spoilers be damned, the USA just played a polar opposite game compared to the recent USA � England debacle. Team USA looked damn impressive tonight with a 3-nil victory. A few quick comments are in order:

Donovan was all over the place, and looked fantastic putting two in the net.

Kasey Keller was extremely impressive guarding the net. He made several impressive stops, including an unbelievable reach behind the back stop.

DaMarcus Beasley was back in action (after missing time with an injury), and he got the living shit kicked out of him 2-3 different times. Really nasty stuff on the part of Costa Rica.

Kevin’s boy McBride collected a stay ball into the net to give the USA their third and final goal.

All in all a nice performance, and I think it puts the US at the top of the table (for at least a day anyway).

I finally found a few spare minutes to update (and hopefully upgrade) the site. I have upgraded to the latest version of Nucleus CMS (the wonderful software responsible for this site) in hopes of providing greater security, less spam intrusions, and more flexibility with the site.

If you see some random error messages, broken images, and the like over the next few days, you now know why. Hopefully I will get everything corrected in due order. Please feel free to post errors that you encounter to this blog entry.

I am able to announce that I can continue to allow unregistered users to post comments to the site. I have installed NP_Captcha, a script that requires you to post a challenge (via random alphanumeric graphic characters) before you can post your comments. Small price to pay to prevent spambots from posting here. So take that you f’ing spammers!

Upgrade has gone well thus far; wish me luck the rest of the way!

For the first time in nearly 10 weeks, I actually do not have to work at the soccer fields on Saturday and Sunday. I know, “cry me a river.”

On top of that, my wife and kids will be at a scout outing all day, so I’m going to be a “bachelor” for almost all of Saturday! I have so much that I want to do, I don’t know where to start!

I literally haven’t touched my Xbox in probably 8 weeks. Partially because I had to replace it (blah!), and mostly because I just haven’t made the time to play it. I haven’t bought a new game in a while, but I think I can amuse myself by rediscovering the many games I’ve hardly played. I’m looking forward to a baseball/soccer blowout, spending time with MVP 2005, ASB 2004, FIFA 2005, WE 8, and ESPN MLS Extra Time. I’ve got a lot of franchises to work on! If the mood strikes me, I may even pop in my son’s Pitfall game for a little while. I’m not a huge adventure gamer, and this not-so-hardcore title might provide a little nostalgic entertaiment.

Of course, I could just actually decide to watch an entire ball game or two from beginning to end. What’s that like?! Lately, I basically get all of my sports fill from the ‘net. I probably won’t have the patience to watch an entire game without getting fidgety, LOL…

Regardless, I’m looking forward to having no responsibilities tomorrow. It’s appropriate that my kids’ summer vacation started today, because tomorrow will no doubt harken me back to what it was like on summer break when I was a youngin’. I may not even shower… (is that too much information?).

I find it rather amusing that it has rained every day this week in Columbus, Ga., and I here I am writing about a dry spell. In my last blog entry I wrote about what a godsend the PSP has been for my gaming life; in short, it has revived my gaming experience. Now I have to bunker in for a long dry summer.

There is absolutely nothing on the PSP release list horizon that catches my interests for summer gaming satisfaction. In fact, there is next to nothing schedule for release this summer.

At this point I suppose I will try out some other games that I would not normally purchase just to spice up the action. I was pretty reluctant to pick up FIFA because of the $49.99 sticker shock, but I needed a sports game, and I was curious about FIFA, so I made it part of my initial preorder bundle. Of course it was delayed for a month, but what can you do? I played it a bunch the first week, but now the UMD is lonely, collecting dust on a book shelf.

What about the other PSP sports games? At this point I do not see any PSP sports games that have everyone clamoring praise over, so I will divide up the PSP sports titles into two categories:

• May be worth owning: MLB, Hot Shots


• May be worth trying: MVP, World Tour Soccer


• Probably not going to happen: Gretzky, NBA, NBA Street, NFL Street 2, Tiger Woods, Tony Hawk

To be fair, some of the “probably not going to happen” games have received average or better ratings, but I do not have the time, energy, or money to toil away on average at best games. Based on what I have read MVP and Tour Soccer are probably not worth my time, but it is going to be a long dry summer, so why not give them a go if I can get them discounted or on the cheap via eBay?

Because PSP releases have slowed to a crawl, I decided to pick up Brotherhood of the Blade, which is no doubt a quality title that I may have otherwise missed. I am reluctant to give any license money to MLB, but I think the dry summer and my curiosity will get the better of me with MLB (and perhaps MVP). I have played Hot Shots on the PSX in the past, and while the franchise is pure quality, I am just not a golf fan, so I hazard a guess that I will not get my money’s worth from the game. I know I would waste money on a NBA or hockey purchase, and I just do not care for the whole street thing. Give me SSX any day of the week for my “BIG” experience.

Virtual Tennis could be a solid title; it was on the Dreamcast. Problem is that I am not a tennis fan, so once again I may not get a good return on my purchase. Besides, the game is not scheduled for release until the end of August, so it is not going to help me fight the dry spell.

Alas, no football anytime soon except for the Street thing. Madden is too far away – it is not schedule for release until mid September – I really need some PSP football! As of now, NCAA Football is not scheduled for a PSP release, which I can understand since it may be hard for EA Sports to make money off a PSP college title, but I still find it disappointing.

I think I have written enough about Ridge Racer and Wipeout that everyone knows I think the two games are quality titles with excellent replay value and both games provide a solid gameplay experience. What about the other racers? ATV Offroad? May be a good game, but I am just not into the ATV thing. Need for Speed Underground looks very underwhelming. Midnight Club 3 is going to be out towards the end of June, but I will probably hold off unless it gets great reviews that force me to open my wallet. This fall we will get Burnout, F1 Grand Prix (yes!), and WRC (happy days are here again, but why no CMR?), but the wait will be long, hard, and dare I say dry.

Anything else on the horizon? Midway and Namco both have collections (I need me some classic gaming action) coming out this fall, so no help for the weary summer gamer.

So if I have to hold out with what I have now, here is the current pecking order of my PSP library; pecking order subject to change as the long dry summer drones on:

• Brotherhood of the Blade – Brotherhood may not be the best game in my library, but it is getting the most play time since it is the current new shinny. Great for those hack-and-slash fixes, but could get a little monotonous if you are not a fan of the genera.


• Ridge Racer – This is a great game for pick up and play racing; possibly the best title on the PSP. I am not sure how long this game will last because I can only take so much arcade racing, but so far, so pleased.


• Lumines – Absolutely a great puzzle game, and Lumines is a great way to waste 20 minutes. There have only been a handful of puzzle games that have come close to the level of addiction seen in Tetris, and Lumines certainly fits the bill.


• Wipeout Pure – Wipeout is a fantastic racer in the mold of the classic PSX Wipeout and Wipeout XL games. I am not sure what else can be said; you either like stylistic futuristic racing or you do not. I happen to think Pure is one of the best PSP releases to date.


• FIFA 2005 – This game is sort of a wild card. It is not necessarily bad, but it is certainly not great. I think EA straddled the fence with mediocrity. We should expect more for our gaming dollar, but FIFA is typical of previous first generation sports games on console systems. FIFA is the only sports game I own for the PSP so you would expect it to get more play time, but I just do not find it that compelling. I have actually put it down for a while so I can give it a fresh go at a later date.


• Twisted Metal: Head-On – I think Twisted Metal loses out due to sheer numbers; too many games, not enough time for them all. I am a fan of the series, but something about Head-On has thus far failed to capture my imagination. Maybe this summer’s dry spell will bring it back to life. Time will tell.

There you have it; the first time I have written a 1000 word article in months. Must be the dry spell.

Not to be confused with the all important gameplay review element (how a game actually plays); my game play time seems to be ever diminishing. Thankfully this new PSP thing is perfect for the gamer on the go. The gamer with a life. The gamer that has to sneak in a quick turn at Ridge Racer or quickly level up a Druid in Brotherhood of the Blade between conversations with said gamer’s better half. Yes, the PSP is revolutionary, but in ways that matter to this gamer most – game play (time).

Seriously, my game play time seems to have been misplaced somewhere between the crapper and somewhere else that should not be mentioned on a family network. Of course there is the “life excuse” (as in get one and you will understand), but there is also the “my six year old son wants to play Zelda (or Need for Speed)” excuse. Joshua gets to play my PS2 and GC so much more than I do that I think I am going to become seriously jealous at some point. Why should he get to have all the fun, while I languish in gaming purgatory?

Of course I jest. Well maybe I am only a little bitter and slightly jealous, but only a little. After all, I can put Joshua on restriction if I need the TV or controller.

These days I may not have much game play time at my disposal, but most days I am able to get in some PSP action. Thankfully the PSP has this wonderful sleep feature that allows me to latterly play for a few minutes, sleep, play some more, sleep until tomorrow, play some more, sleep; you get the picture. The PSP is a dysfunctional gamer’s wet dream.

With the introduction of the PSP into my gaming library, I have actually been able to get my video game fix daily. In fact, assuming that I only have 30 minutes to play on a typical weekday, prior to the advent of the PSP I would just pass up gaming in favor of something else. With the PSP, I can easily get in that 30 minutes, watch a game of baseball, tighten up the graphics, and event talk to my wife.

Fantastic? You bet, but I have no idea WTF those guys on that advertisement are talking about when they tell their boss that they have to “tighten up the graphics.”

Good grief, this guy blows yet another game. How many freaking games is that so far this year? Un-f’ing believable.

The guy comes in against Washington after ATL manages to come from behind, scoring 4 in the 8th to go up 6-3. What does Knob do? How about 1IP, 2H, 3R, 2 f’ing BBs, all good for a 27.00 ERA.

Thanks to Kolb, the Braves go down to Washington 8-6. Absolutely ridiculous.

Those of you that visited Jonathan’s “Way Back Machine” may recognize some of my past contributions to the original Calvert Games. After spilling my guts at my own blog for a bit, I’ve decided to attempt to improve my image once again by partnering with Jonathan and his website! Thanks for graciously allowing me back into the fold, Jonathan…

Typically, like many other “gamers with responsibilities,” my contributions will tend to ebb and flow. I’m heavily involved in one of the local youth soccer clubs, where my son is a premiere player, and I run the recreational league. Basically, when soccer’s in full force, I don’t have much time for anything else. Now that the season’s done for a couple of months, I’ll have some free time to share some thoughts and opinions here at the Recycle Bin.

The days of 4000-word reviews for me are most likely over. Instead, I’ll post on what ever seems to strike my fancy at the moment. Things like sports, pop culture, video games, current events, etc. will all most likely get coverage. For example, if I had the time a couple months back, I would’ve loved to have posted about the irony of Ricky Williams’ study of holistic medicine in GRASS VALLEY, California. You can’t make stuff like that up! Hopefully, I’ll offer something pertinent, informative, and/or humorous. If not, let me apologize in advance…

Kevin Mosley (kmosley) has returned to the Recycle Bin! When we last met, Kevin was the very first CG staff member, and currently spills his guts in his Gut Reaction blog and various message boards over yonder.

Enough of the pleasantries and fluff; Kevin is back and certainly welcomed!

Over the three-day weekend I picked up Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade for the PSP. The game is basically Champions of Norrath without the Everquest license; no official character types, races, monster names, etc. The mechanics of Brotherhood are the same as Norrath. I was going to same the same with a few exceptions, but there are so few that I would be hard pressed to think of any. To enter a new area you hold down the square button for a couple of seconds while a meter/gauge fills up. Does that count as a difference? The controls are also different since the PSP only has two shoulder buttons compared to four on the standard Dual Shock controller.

The character menu is the same as Norrath – four icons consisting of a sword, armor, potion, heart, and some other thing. Obvious stuff follows. The sword icon for weapons, while the armor icon for various pieces of armor, and the potion icon is for miscellaneous items such as health and power potions, rings, pendants, and even items to upgrade your weapons and armor (you guessed it, just like Norrath). The heart icon is for character info – health, weapon damage, attribute info, etc. There is even a book icon for current quest info, and the final tree type icon is for what else, the ability tree.

I can go into the backdrop story later; who cares about stories anyway in a hack-n-slash adventure? Right now I have a six level Druid, I have just left the city, and I have some sort of “sting” magic bolt that does a good deal of damage.

If you are into Norrath and Baldur’s Gate type games, then this one is a slam dunk. I am having a blast with it right now, and highly recommend Brotherhood until something happens (i.e. more time to uncover issues/flaws).

No, not another Star Wars post, but a Internet Archive Wayback Machine link to the olden days of Calvert Games. It is kind of interesting for me to see the evolution of the site; figured some other long time readers would get some giggles as well.

As long as I am digging up old crap, here is one from before I lost my gaming innocence:

“Announcement: New Sports Reviewer At “Sports Reviewers”
Sports Reviewers is pleased to announce the addition of a new member to its team. Jonathan Calvert brings Sports Reviewers his gaming expertise and ability to write outstanding, in-depth reviews. Some of you may already know Jonathan from his strong presence on Usenet. Enough with the pleasantries — Jonathan’s work will speak for itself. Welcome aboard Jonathan!
posted by Matt 8/10/2000 10:44:45 AM” [Source: Sports Reviewers August 15, 2000 Archive]

It has been a long time since those days; a very long time.