The Recycle Bin

Baseball games have come and gone this season, but the only significant news is that there will be a new patch issued for Out of the Park Baseball in a couple of days. I hope. Since this patch was promised as a “Christmas present” in 2004, many have speculated that Markus actually meant an early present for Chrsitmas 2005. No word on what is fixed or added by the patch.

Sean Sullivan continues to plug away at his PureSim Baseball game. He has a very loyal following and the game is much better than when first release a couple of years ago. The real shame in all of this is that I don’t have time to really take a hard look at the game. I am an OOTP fanatic because of online leagues. Playing baseball games solo lost its luster after I joined my first online league, and there really isn’t a significant PureSim multiplayer community.

However, if I did play baseball solo, I probably would choose PureSim over OOTP6. I don’t like PureSim’s minor league structure, but everything else is set up to attract people who like to customize everything. Sort of the ultimate tweak file game.

Speaking of baseball pruducts, it just amazes me how many years we see the same reaction to baseball arcade/action games. One group will quickly proclaim that game A is the best thing since sliced bread. Another group will say they don’t like the batter/pitcher interface. Yet another group will complain that some major baseball aspect is seriously broken in the game. Bill Harris will lead a concerted effort to “slider” out the problem. Everyone will seek Bill Abner’s slider settings. Repeat and rinse.

High Heat was the last gasp folks. Until a serious sim engine is attached to these arcade games, this cycle will continue. High Heat 2001 was the closest thing to a serious arcade baseball game that I’ve seen in my lifetime. It failed because of many lingering bugs that even the community couldn’t fix and tweak out of the game.

But that is is. Game over. Will never happen again. If you seriously believe that EA Sports or Sony (my God, Sony!) is going to make a serious baseball product, then you really aren’t looking for an acurate baseball simulation. So be happy with what you have.

It won’t get any better.

This is why I steadfastly support PureSim and OOTP. These are baseball chess games. And they deserve to be played.

One reader pointed out to me that Angela Basset is a good guy on the currrent season of Alias. Have we not learned? Ms. Basset will be outed as some sort of evil spy working for some sort of evil group at some point this season or next. You can count on it.

Anybody else lost track of the different evil groups that come and go on Alias?

I’ve been having fun playing the market in World of Warcraft. Looking for a way to gather loot so that I can purchase my Kodo mount at level 40, I finally started putting things up for auction. For those unfamiliar with WoW, every side has an auction house which serves as the clearing house for various merchandise. My Tauren hunter skins what he can to get various types of leather to sell through these auctions. So far, I’ve mad a nice profit.

There has been a great deal of uproar about servers going down and long lines to enter certain WoW realms. I really haven’t experienced much of this during my many months playing the game. Yes, the servers have gone down a few times, but nothing too inconvienant.

World of Warcraft is so much fun, that I can’t honestly see any game on the horizon that will take any time from it or Out of the Park Baseball. If I had any additional time, I’d probably check out Everquest 2 since there’s a lot of good word of mouth about the game. But what elder gamer has time for two online multiplayer games?

Not me, that’s for sure.

Yesterday I was exuberant about my PSP preorder from EBgames.com (see Virtual Sex below). Today I read the fine print:

You may cancel your order at any time up until ten days prior to the PSP launch, which is March 24, 2005. To expedite processing, your credit card will be charged ten days before the PSP launch.

Please respond to this e-mail within 72 hours. If, after 72 hours, we have not received your reply, your order will be canceled. Receipt of this e-mail does not guarantee system availability nor does it guarantee that your order will be fulfilled with our initial shipment.

Once we have your order in the system we will send you an e-mail confirming your games and accessories choices and the final price of your bundle. You should expect this confirmation within seven business days of replying to this e-mail.

WTF? Let me understand this. First, my credit card will be charged 10 days prior to March 24. Second, I have to respond to the email within 72 hours, but EBGames.com has seven business days to reply to my email to confirm my order. Third, EBGames.com is not sending a confirmation that they have received my email, but it does not really matter because this process does not “guarantee that my order will be fulfilled with our initial shipment.” Again I say, WTF?

Well, not really, but it makes for a nice headline. As I just told my wife, I guess this is what virtual sex feels like. She was starting to get pissed until I told her that EBgames.com just confirmed my PSP preorder. Pretty sad state of affairs when EBgames.com makes me happy by saying that I can spend $500 or so on a PSP bundle, but I digress.

This just in from EBgames.com via email:

Thank you for pre-ordering your PSP Bundle from EBgames.com. The bundle you have purchased includes:

Sony PSP Value Pack, which includes the PSP hardware, 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with remote control, battery pack and AC adaptor, soft case and cleaning cloth, movie/music/game UMD sampler disc and, for the first one million PSP Value Packs produced by Sony, a UMD video release of the feature film Spider-Man 2
Your choice of any four games and accessories listed below
Carefully follow these steps to tell us which games and/or accessories you would like.

Select any four items from the list below. You must choose at least four, but if you select more we will add them to your bundle. If an item is not listed below, it is not expected to be available at launch and therefore is not available for this offer.

Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (Rated T) $39.99
Twisted Metal: Head On (Rated T) $39.99
Wipeout Pure (Rated E) $39.99
Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (Rated T) $49.99
Gretzky NHL (Rated E) $39.99
FIFA Soccer (Rated E) $49.99
World Tour Soccer (Rated E) $39.99
NBA (Rated E) $39.99
Ridge Racer (Rated E) $39.99
Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Rated E) $49.99
Tony Hawk�s Underground 2 Remix (Rating Pending) $49.99
Lumines (Rating Pending) $39.99
NFL Street 2 Unleashed (Rated E) $49.99
Spider-Man 2 (Rated T) $49.99
Dynasty Warriors (Rated T) $49.99
Ape Escape: On the Loose (Rated E) $39.99
Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory (Rated M) $49.99
Metal Gear Acid (Rating Pending) $49.99
Need for Speed Underground Rivals (Rated E) $49.99
PSP Mobile Kit $39.99
Sandisk Memory Stick Pro Duo 128MB $39.99
Sandisk Memory Stick Pro Due 256MB $54.99
PSP Charger Case $59.99
Pro Gamer�s Case $29.99
Sound Stage for PSP $49.99
The software and accessory products listed above are scheduled to be available at launch, but release dates are subject to change.

EBgames is giving customers 72 hours to respond or they will cancel the order. Good thing I am not traveling this week!

No real surprises other than the memory stick; thank goodness I do not have to buy one right away. Also cool about the Spider-Man 2 UMD movie, but I would rather have the unit sale for less and not include the disk. Hopefully the sampler is worthwhile. I was also surprised that there are actually 19 launch games, which a lot more on the way in April.

I decided to go with 5 titles: Twisted Metal: Head On, Wipeout Pure, FIFA Soccer,
Ridge Racer, and Lumines.

I wanted to go with World Tour Soccer, but I figured FIFA was a safer bet; who knows how WTS will play on the PSP, but I can imagine what to expect with FIFA. Lumines was also a dark horse; I think Archer Maclean’s Mercury looks like a better puzzler, but it is not available on the preorder list. Surprisingly, no baseball games. I started to do Tiger Woods or Tony Hawk, but I figured I would not get my money’s worth out of either game. As it stands, it is going to be hard to get plenty of time in with Wipeout Pure and Ridge Racer. I figure Twisted Metal may suck – I love the series, but I cannot imagine that this one will be better than TM1, TM2, or TM:Black; maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully these new PSP games will hold their value on eBay for a little while … just in case they suck.

Now if I can also get my local EBgames to commit to my preorder from back in January; I may be able to do some damage on eBay.

Am I crazy?

Was watching Justice League (yes, the cartoon) via Tivo (yes, I tivo’d it) and another piece of the conspiracy puzzle rested in place. Guess who is in charge of the grand government run conspiracy against the Justice league? A white male? No. An Hispanic women? Nope. Who can we find that has cornered the market on evil this television season? Who can that be?

An African American female cartoon can, that’s who! Not even children and/or older folks who appreciate fine cartoon entertainment are safe.

Or maybe we’ve come a long way baby? Seems every other racial/gender mix has ascended to the throne of evil at some point in history. Finally black women get a turn in the sun? Is this the dream Martin Luther King, Jr. hoped for?

In other news, my Tauren hunter is level 31. The game likes telling me how long I’ve played World of Warcraft. So far, that would be 4 days and 9 hours – with just my Tauren character. That’s right, 105+ hours of my life gone. I also have a level 21 Dwarf hunter.

Does Blizzard know how to make a game or what?

I need 100 gold pieces to purchase a mount for Fwa (my Tauren hunter) and I only have 22 on me. So I need to make quite a bit of coin over the next eight levels. Because nothing looks badder than a Tauren on a big old Kodo beast.

Got to get me one of those.

As I said yesterday, petrol is in the air. Despite the dominance of Ferrari in recent years, I still love F1. I do not look at the one man show as a bad thing; I look at it as mastery that may be a once in a life time experience. The 2005 season is almost a go!

This week was fairly lacking on the video game front; some management of my OOTP6 online baseball league team, some GT4, and Wipeout XL, but that was it for the week. I need to put in some time with WE8 tonight for the online league over at SGN, but other stuff is going to get in the way (that F1 thing in Australia).

Speaking of which, I picked up some Fosters this evening in honor of kicking off the 2005 F1 season Down Under. Fosters is not part of my normal rotation; I may buy it once a year (for the Australian Grand Prix), and when I go to Outback, but that is about it. I suppose it is not that bad, but it is not that great.

I also picked up some Sam Adams Light, which I was very impressed with for a light beer. Much better than Keystone Light (a poor man’s Coors); needed some cheap beer. Anyway, back to the Sam Adams Light – this is about the best light beer I have ever tasted. I normally drink what I like, but I have been trying to eat better lately, so I have been doing light beer do try to cut back on the calories. I guess that explains the Keystone Light. Feel free to offer up some light beer suggestions.

I guess that is all for now; seven minutes until taped qualifying (session 2 – the new rules are interesting). A happy Sunday to all!

Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of spring. F1 is back in action. I am really nothing close to a gear-head, but I love me some Formula 1. The new 2005 rules should make for an interesting year. It is going to be fun having Villeneuve back full time.

As I was watching Alias last night, it suddenly dawned on me that this show is part of the axis of evil. Half way through the episode, it occurred to me that Anna Espinoza…is yet another evil African American woman on TV! The show even went to great lengths during past seasons to establish Sidney’s best friend (a black woman), only to turn her into an evil twin.

Am I onto something?

The actor who plays Ms. Espinoza was also an uber-demon in the show Angel for a while. And, to top it off, she let the President’s wife convince her to let her husband die in 24, after becoming the President’s brother’s lover.

Alias, 24, and The Apprentice. Trying to keep a sister down.

Still no word from ebgames.com or the local ebgames about my preorders. I have no idea if I am going to get 0, 1, or 2 PSPs at launch, but there may be some good news from ebgames.com:

Your choice of any four games, accessories or a combination thereof, from a select list of launch games and accessories. These games and accessories are priced between $29.99-149.99 each.

If I have to have a bundle, I would much rather get games than be forced to get an accessory. With that said, 4 games is a hell of a lot to have to buy at launch. I suppose I will end up with three and some sort of memory stick.

Forgot to post this earlier, but some interesting news for iPod owners. Apple is very good at innovating, but very bad at understanding consumers. At least consumers who think rationally and aren’t dazzled by Apple’s brilliance. There’s a long list of great Apple ideas that were fully exploited by other companies. A vintage Apple Newton sits in a file cabinet in my office.

Random thoughts:

I saw this movie title, thought about 24 and The Apprentice, and laughed out loud (readers of my former site will get the joke).

Florida beat South Carolina in South Carolina by one point this afternoon. Nothing significant except that it was the first game in four years that the Gators showed some heart.

Lot of bad press for ESPN’s baseball release. Mixed reviews for MVP Baseball so far. I’m staring at High Heat 2003’s jewel case wondering if I will ever purchase an arcade baseball game again. That was the last action baseball game that I paid for, and High Heat 2002 is the last baseball arcade game that I actually played.

One of the funniest gaming threads I’ve ever read. You’ll have to speak online RPG geek in order to get some of the jokes, but every elder gamer/married person will understand the gist of the discussion.

Do your disks need protection? Ever consider a disk condom? Sounds crazy, but I picked up a 5 pack of d_skin disk protectors last week from Best Buy. Yes, I am supporting the enemy, but it is not my fault that someone gave me a gift card for Christmas, so I am not directly supporting that crap chain.

Anyway, the 5 pack version comes in a little metal canister and cost $5.95 (or maybe $6.95). Each disk slips over the underside of a disk (CD, game disk, DVD, etc), which protects the disk from getting scratches, while allow the laser on your player to read the media.

I picked up a pack because my oldest son does not understand the concept of not scratching his dad’s game disks (especially Need For Speed games). I just put these condoms on the games that Joshua is allowed to play, and then I do not have to worry about his grubby little hands ruining my games.

So far so good; no problems with my original PS2 reading any of these disks, and no new scratches on my games. I wish I would have thought of this; the manufactures have to be making a killing because these condoms probably cost next to nothing to manufacture. In fact, I am willing to bet that the little metal canister cost more than the 5 condoms. Oh well; maybe my day will come.

Highly recommended!

I’m sure that I am preaching to the choir, but the SciFi Channel’s Friday night lineup is a solid three hours of pretty good storytelling. They were smart enough not to include the dreadful Andromeda and decided to showcase the network’s crown jewels. Thanks to Tivo, I started watching Stargate SG-1 last year and I feel as though I am pretty caught up since around a third of the SciFi Channel’s programming are SG-1 repeats. How this show has managed to remain somewhat fresh all of these years is a mystery that many other prgrams need to solve.

I’m slowly warming up to Stargate Atlantis. I see the previews for the shows and they never really seem to interest me. But I’ll watch it anyhow, and I am usually happy that I did.

But the show of shows is Battlestar Galactica. It is my favorite show on television. Better than 24 and much better than Alias (another one of my favorites). If you haven’t seen this series from the beginning, you’re really missing some quality writing . The acting can be over the top at times, but the way they portray a civilization’s last stand makes up for anything else wrong in the show.

My brother, also an elder gamer, complained loudly that Battlestar Galactica “sucked” because there were no cylons. Well, he meant the old fashioned cylons of yester-TV.

I like the complexity presented with the new cylon human copies. Especially the discussion that God was displeased with the human race, so He created the cylons. Will be interesting to see where this winds up later in the series.

So if you don’t like sitting in front of your TV contemplating such philosophical thoughts, then Battlestar Galactica probably isn’t going to float your boat.

What is the ultimate site for GT4 info, including outstanding forums/message boards? Back in the day it was the Gran Turismo Forum, but that place looks rather dead. Please do not tell me that it is GameFAQs.

Anyone want to help a poor guy out? These days I just do not have time to surf all over the place looking for quality content. Any suggestions?

If I said the AI in GT4 was better than the AI in previous GT games, many of you would say that I was a f’ing genius because it could not get much worse. The AI has been slightly upgraded, but it is nothing to write home about; marginally better at best.

Of course I have not spent much time with the game, and I have not experimented on all the courses or raced with anything other than my lowly Honda PRELUDE Si VTEC ’91. GT3 featured what I refer to as “pattern” racing – the AI cars would always take the same line no matter what; they always bumped other cars at the same point on the track, they always made mistakes at the same point, and they always attempted to get back on line even if it required going through another car.

After two days with the game I do not think GT4 is as bad as previous GT versions, but I guess my opinion could change as I get more time with the game. The AI still features plenty of bumping, but it looks like the cars are not adamant about staying on line no matter the consequences – that is an improvement.

In one race I tired to slow down, while on line, to see if the cars behind me would scatter or just bump into each other. To my surprise, the closest CPU car attempted to go left then right (I was doing my best Schumacher) before finally bumping into my right side as we were entering a turn. It was too optimistic for a pass at that point, but the CPU attempted anyway, but at least they did not try to bump me the heck off the road. Meanwhile in my rearview mirror I noticed that two of the other cars bumped, one went off-roading.

I have experienced many failed passing attempts; these usually result in the CPU coming along the side of my car and attempting to “push” me out of the way. This is bad, but in my opinion it is not as bad as always trying to get back on the racing line no matter. Kind of like saying “But mom, I am only a little pregnant.”

Like previous GT games, I do not think GT4 will win in prizes for best “racing” action, but there does seem to be some improvements. Stay tuned …