The Recycle Bin

Several years ago I ran an almost semi-regular column called “Reset/Reply” � boy did I think that name was clever. I would review a game, and then at some later date discuss the pros and cons of that game, discuss the original review score, and if I was actually still playing the game. After all, replay value and fun factor is what it is all about. I thought Reset/Replay was a great way to discuss the longevity of games that I reviewed.

What I am writing about has nothing to do with those long lost columns. Instead last night Joshua (my eight year old son) provided me with a simple moment of laughter and brilliance all rolled into one.

I was playing Gran Turismo 3 – been playing a lot of that one lately – and Joshua was commenting on how good I was when suddenly I went into the pits by mistake. Boom! From first to worst just like that! I told Joshua that I just made a huge mistake and that I was going to come in last. He told me I was too good for that, or some such. When all of a sudden Joshua said “I never come in last in Need For Speed [Hot Pursuit for the PS2]. I always finish first! You should start over …”

So being inquisitive I ask him how he always managers to come in first. “I just reset and start over if I am not going to win.” And there you have it – Reset/Replay.

Come on, admit it. You do it, I do it; we all do it. I guess Joshua learns by example. Seriously, I admit to times where I get pissed and reset, but I do it much less these days. Because I have less time to play? Makes you think.

Kids have a remarkable ability to play and play and play and play and not get frustrated with dieing and dieing and dieing and so on. If they cannot get from spot A to spot B they just keep on plugging until it gets done. Me? I get tense and uptight and frustrated. I guess I could learn a thing or two from Joshua.

I have to admit that several years ago I would reset a game if it did not go my way, but I do that much less now. Honestly. No really. OK, maybe I am kidding myself a little. Oh, screw it, go on and Reset/Replay. It will make you feel better!

Christmas seems like a distant memory … except for all the toys thrown all over the house, and the tree that still needs to be undecorated, and all the boxes stacked up in the corner waiting to be kindly thrown out in the trash, and … ah, forget it. There are still plenty of Christmas reminders around the Calvert household.

And then there are JC’s Christmas toys. I spoke of the GameCube Game Boy player a few days ago – technically that is Joshua’s, but who is counting?

Goodie list not counting clothes, adult beverages (yes, I got me some Christmas spirits!), and other non-entertainment stuff:

American Idiot – Green Day
This is my first Green Day music; it is very good listening tunes. I am surprised that it is so solid from beginning to end. Good stuff!

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
This is the unlimited, super secret, special edition. Collectable or something like that. I really enjoyed the movies, and the soundtrack (this is the only LotR soundtrack in my library) is fantastic.

American IV: The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash
I cannot say enough good things about this CD. I do not own any other Cash, and I have to admit that I never really paid attention to Cash. This is by far my favorite CD right now, damn your eyes!

Need for Speed: Underground 2
Have not even opened this one yet; shame on me. I really enjoyed the first Underground, so hopefully this one will play just as well if not better. Will post an update sooner or later.

Ace Combat 5
Another still in the shrinkwrap game. Do I suck or what? I have always been a big fan of the series, but I have not really gotten “into” the games. Mostly just casually flying around blowing up chit. Much like NFS:U2 � will post an update at some point … fairly soon I hope.

Kirby Air Ride
OK, this one is really Joshua’s, but dad has to help out and play it some. I mean, what are dads for, right? The game is pretty simplistic, and I do not see a whole heck of a lot of strategy involved. You ride around, sucking up stuff in the typical Kirby manner, and try to be the first to cross the finish line. I think the game just uses the left control sick and the green action button – simplicity is good I suppose. Joshua likes it, so I guess that is all that really matters.

I am sure there is some stuff that I am forgetting; if so, that will have to wait until take 3.

OK, so I am waiting until the last possible minute to post SEC Bowl predictions. Actually I am just inside of 4 hours before the Tide starts Rolling, Rolling, Rolling over the Gophers in the Music City Bowl.

Music City Bowl: Alabama vs. Minnesota
No really, Alabama will win a hard fought battle against a gritty Big 10 opponent, but at the end of the day defense matters and Gophers will find that the Tide has way too much. I am looking at under 20 points for both teams.

Peach Bowl: Miami vs. Florida
I am an SEC homer and all that, but I am afraid the Gators will find that the Hurricanes are no push over. The truth of the matter is that the Gators are loaded, and of course the Hurricanes are too, but the level of talent that Miami is pulling in is not quite the same as the days of Butch.

The Georgia Dome is going to be rocking under the offensive fire works display by Florida as they put up 33+ points on a Miami defense that has averaged just fewer than 18 per game. Miami’s offense will also respond, but will it be enough?

On a whim I am going to say that Florida manages to restore some pride and send Miami into an ACC tailspin for the 2005 season.

Did I really just call for 60+ total points? Damn, I did.

Cotton Bowl: Tennessee vs. Texas A&M
Uh, does Tennessee have a QB for this one? If they do not they are going to be in for a hurting in Dallas. There is going to be an overwhelming home field advantage for the Aggies of A&M, but does home field junk really matter all that much when it comes to bowl games?

Let us look at it this way. Tennessee has lost to the Tigers from Auburn twice. Yes, those same Tigers that went undefeated, and won the SEC, and got snubbed from playing for the mythical National Championship. No shame in that. Now the Irish thing is a different story, but Tennessee was down to someone like me playing QB. They had excuses.

We could forgive the Aggies for losses against Utah and Oklahoma, and instate rival Texas, but Baylor? You have to be kidding me. Other than that, did the rest of their schedule matter? Come on, Wyoming, Clemson, K. State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Colorado, and Texas Tech? OK, some is wrong here � Texas Tech is actually respectable, but the rest of Big 12 was really down this year.

I still think the best the SEC has to offer is better than the best the Big 12 has to offer, and A&M stumbled with a 1-3 mark in their last four games.

Any other day of the week I would say Tennessee wins, but because of the QB situation (do they actually have one to suit up for this game) I am going to say A&M in a closely contested battle. Both teams score in the 20-24 point range. So look for under 50 in this one.

Capital One Bowl: LSU vs. Iowa
LSU has a very nice defense, and they have a balanced offensive attack. Iowa’s defense is also solid, but they cannot run. Who ever heard of a Big 10 team that could not pound it on the ground?

I could say that homer thing again and just call LSU, but those guys in the Bayou are all kinds of pissed at their coach up and dropping them like a five pound bag of cow crap. I am going to call this one for Iowa, surprisingly by 10 or so points.

Sugar Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Auburn
No contest. The Tigers were screwed by the BCS and the Hokies will pay the price.

Auburn will run and pass their way to a 13+ point win by racking up 30+ for the game. Really, it will not be a contest in this massive mismatch.

For those that do not know, I am a huge Georgia fan, and I live about 45 miles from the Auburn campus. I do not like the Tigers – seriously, all those Tiger fans in Columbus are rather bothersome. Still, I give them their due – they are the best team in the country this year.

Outback Bowl: Georgia vs. Wisconsin
This could be an interesting game, but Georgia’s defense is too damn good to let me down. The Badgers may have a nice rushing game (they average 170 per game), but Georgia will stop that cold forcing Wisconsin to put it up, which will give the game to the Dawgs.

Greene and Pollack look to go out big, and they will not let themselves down, much less their coach, their team, and their fans.

Wisconsin ran the table early, but lost their last two games by 50 some odd points combined. Not so hot. Georgia will put up 27 and the Badgers will struggle to reach 17.

Go Dawgs! Go!

This morning I found a surprising, but welcomed email from my old pal Kevin Mosley. The circle is now complete – all former CG staffers have now taken on blogs to spew their words of wisdom (and other crap) to the masses. Kevin was the last hold out, and now that his “Gut Reaction” is live, all of the old gang are blogging fools (figuratively speaking of course).

I would like to wish Kevin good luck with his new endeavor, and of course continued success to Adam, Derek, and Ted!

• Granatofan’s Corner


• Kevin’s Gut Reaction


• The Sound of Simpson


• Webdanzer’s Spin

Click on one of these blogs today; you will be glad you did!

My traveling experiences with Griffin Technology’s iTrip was fairly successful. The product basically works as advertised. It allows you to transmit your iPod songs via your car’s FM radio.

I will caution those of you that live in areas with heavy radio traffic (lots of stations) that your results may be very mixed. The instructions recommend that you find a station with just static, but the kicker is that the instruction manual also suggests that the bands to the left and right are also all static. I have to admit that is a very tall order! I never thought it would be so difficult to find static on the radio, but believe me it is a challenge.

Traveling from Columbus, GA to Orlando, FL I never found three consecutive bands of static, but I did find enough static that I could enjoy my iPod. In one case I managed to go 2+ hours without having to switch stations, but this was really the exception. I often found myself switching bands every 20-35 minutes, which was a pain in the neck. You have to switch because once the radio station starts picking up something (music, talk radio, bleed through from another band, etc) the music starts to sound scratchy with static.

To get the iTrip to function properly you have to tune your radio, then switch to the iPod’s iTrip playlist and select the correct radio station. Once the selected station starts playing you pause the “song” (iPod treats this as a regular music file) and wait for the iTrip’s led to blink three times before going solid. After that you start playing music as normal.

For the $35.00 price, the iTrip works as advertised. I cannot give it a full recommendation because it may not work well in heavily congested areas (lots of stations with little to no static), and because it is a cumbersome process to switch stations (music files) while driving. Still, the iTrip did what I wanted it to do – allowing me to listen to my music library on my iPod while traveling to Disney. Your mileage may vary.

I turned comments back on after doing some research of the most recent hack attack to hit Calvert Games. This time it was not personal. That was actually a relief. Some form of a nasty spambot left all sorts of casino comments – I guess the hacker of the spambot gets referral fees or something if someone clicks on their links.

Anyway, now that I know it was not a vicious sort of personal attack, I have decided to re-enable comments. Of course if I get hit again I will have to take different measures such as only allow registered users to post. At this point I do not see any real benefit to having registered users, but I guess that could change down the road.

For those users that also have a blog that uses nucleus, here is the plug-in/fix I have used to (hopefully) reduce spam attacks in the future: NP_Blacklist.

Here is to keeping my fingers crossed that future comments are meaningful and not full of spam!

I am going to try to write some Christmas gaming recaps over the next several days. I figured I would start off with the GameCube Game Boy Player that Joshua got for Christmas. I figured Joshua would enjoy playing some of his games in full screen glory, but I also kind of guessed that dear old dad would get a kick out of not straining his poor old eyes.

For 50 duckets, let me tell you that this thing is a great investment. In all my time reviewing games I was never able to do screen captures for my Game Boy reviews, but now I can … if I ever decide to review again.

I think the device has been out for a year and a half (maybe even two years or longer). I never figured I would get one because I just do not have that much time to play games, and when I do I want to play other games than the portable type. My Game Boy is pretty much exclusive to traveling and my in-laws house. This handy-dandy device changes everything.

It is fairly easy to setup. You just remove the external connector on the bottom of the GameCube, put the Game Boy Player in the slot, and screw in two screws (to lock the device in place). I have one of the purple (or indigo or whatever) GameCubes, but the Game Boy Player is black. Not that big of a deal, but I guess it is not that ecstatically pleasing if that sort of thing matters to you.

After connecting the device to your GameCube, you pop in the included player disk, slide in a cartridge, and let Nintendo do its magic – your tiny little Game Boy games magically appear in full screen glory on your TV.

Wow! What a difference it makes to play Qix! in full-screen goodness. Joshua got a kick out of playing his Kirby games on TV. Not only that, but you can use the wonderful WaveBird controller instead of the tiny little Game Boy setup. Delicious!

I can easily see myself buying a second GameCube (just in case) once the price drops below the current $99.99 price point just to have a way to play all these classic games on TV.

We have not put in very many games, but the fact that the Game Boy Player works with an older game such as Qix! and the newer Kirby Mirror game bodes well for its effectiveness.

Very highly recommended!

I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and hope that you and yours has a very blessed New Year.

Joy to the world! the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King;
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room,
And heav’n and nature sing, And heav’n and nature sing

…

See within a manger laid Jesus, Lord of heav’n and earth!
Mary and Joseph, lend your aid, With us sing our Savior’s birth.
Gloria in excelsis Deo

…

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King.”

…

Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

This small Tribute to and Celebration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is expressed to remind us all that Jesus is Lord. Merry Christmas!

Earlier this week I purchased an iPod for my family trip to Disney. My wife’s van does not have an auxiliary port or tape deck, so I figured a FM transmitter was the best way to go. After reading the various reviews of the handful of products available the iTrip seemed to be the best option, even if it is not an ideal solution.

I have only tried it a couple of times, but so far it seems to work OK. It is kind of a pain finding stations that are all static and have stations on either side of their band that are also non-broadcast stations. According to the instruction manual this is the best way to enjoy my new iTrip.

My experience thus far was broadcast quality music (in other words, pretty much like an FM radio broadcast) with some static. It will be interesting to see how this handy, dandy device works while driving down to Orland tomorrow. I have a bad feeling that I am going to be switching stations left and right, and I am going to be listening to more static than music.

Hopefully my fears are unfounded, and I will be iTripping down the highway. Either way I will post an iTrip recommendation next week.

No, not another diatribe on the often delayed Gran Turismo 4. Not until the end anyway. Instead, of late, I have been playing Gran Turismo 3 to get me in the spirit of really wanting to play Gran Turismo 4. It is not like I have come close to finishing the game. Heck I never finished the second one either, 98% completion problem and all, but I did finish the first one … not that it ever won me any accolades, fame, or fortune.

Back to GT3. Was there ever a game that did so much right, yet did so much wrong? I cannot believe how bad the CPU AI is in this game. The AI goes to every length to drive the perfect line, even if it means sending your car straight to hell, err, off the road. I guess most of you already knew this, but I had to vent.

OK, so the racing action sucks, but man oh man are the tracks gorgeous, the cars numerous, and the driving action unbelievable. I am still miffed that there are only 6 cars on the track at any given time, but I guess something has to give to have such impressive car models.

I am not much of a gear head in real life, but I get great enjoyment out of turning my GT3 cars. There is something to be said about coming in third in a race, then making some adjustments that are good for an extra second a lap (and of course first place).

The only way for me to get real pleasure out of this game is to over compensate with a car that is slightly better than the field because equal footing or less is a sentence to bump and grind racing with the CPU AI. It is not so much fun (or challenging) to over match the competition, so a slight over compensation is the way to go because I can still lose a race if I make a mistake or two. I suppose that is justification for “intellectual” cheating.

When I am not getting banged by a CPU car, I am not sure if there is anything more fun than trying to drive the perfect lap at Laguna Seca or Apricot Hill. Really, that is the beauty of the game – driving perfect laps with all manner of cars.

I just hope that all the GT4 delays are a sign that the developers realize that the racing still sucks (based on the earlier overseas demo impressions) and they have to make some improvements. That or the game is in serious trouble because the developers are localizing the PSP version of Gran Turismo.

I know, I know, you do not have to say it. I will say this – I have no true connection to North Texas. I just happened to “adopt” them (lucky for the Eagles, no?) a few years ago because I wanted to be challenged in NCAA Football. Plus it is my dad’s went to college, so there is some sort of connection. In theory … maybe not.

Anyway, North Texas has represented the Sun Belt Conference in the New Orleans Bowl each of the last four years, but they have only accumulated a 1-3 record. Last night was another example of “ouch” as North Texas succumbed to Southern Mississippi 31-10.

The funny thing about my North Texas “relationship” is that I have yet to watch more than a few mins of their bowl action until last night. The previous three years the game has fallen on my December 18th wedding anniversary. Let me lay it on the table: football, wife, football, wife. Being a smart man, and not wanting to live the life of a monk, North Texas and the New Orleans Bowl always take a back burner to the anniversary thing.

Last night was my first real opportunity to see North Texas play in a bowl game, but no, oh no, I just had to be sick yesterday, which led to me pretty much missing all but a few minutes of the first quarter. Feeling blue you see, and not so much Mean and Green. Maybe next year.

I attended Valdosta State my freshmen year of college; way back in 1989-1990. Seems like a long time ago. Way back then, the only game in town was the Valdosta High football team – they were great. And the football team? Not so much, but I still spent plenty of time watching them play.

Yesterday Valdosta State overcame a 14 point first quarter deficit to capture their first NCAA Division II Championship, defeating Pitt State 36-31.

Of note is Fabian Walker – the former high school prep star QB that never quite caught on at Florida State. Walker had 200+ total yards in his last chance to impress NFL scouts. Who knows if it will be enough, but I am sure Blazers faithful are happy with the results.

Congratulations to the 13-1 Valdosta State Blazers, 2004 NCAA Division II Football Champions!

Someone thought it was pretty funny to post tons of spam to the comments of various posts. Pretty funny.

Thankfully Necleus records the IP of each post. I suppose they could be spoofed, but hopefully my hosts’ admins can figure this out and put a stop to this disruptive crap.

For now I have disabled all comments.

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas! I mean it is the season to be jolly. Except for f’ing hackers.

So U2 and Apple (via iTunes) have teamed up to offer The Complete U2 – 446 songs for only $149.99. Ouch!

I love U2; have for years, and I guess I will for years to come. I have all their albums and their early EPs, but I do not have $149.99 to get The Complete U2. Why would I care to get the collection if I have most of the band’s music? Because there are a good number of unreleased songs that are not available anywhere else. I do not have any “un-purchased” music; I have paid for everything on my iPod, either through my CD collection or via iTunes downloads.

Scam? Not really sure, but Apple and U2 have to realize that their fans will pay for these unreleased songs despite having most of the rest. So instead of paying $.99 per song, Apple and U2 are asking us to pay around $3.75 per unreleased song. The catch is that you cannot just download these songs; you have to pay the whole $149.99.

In this case I would not mind paying $40-50 for these never before released songs, but $149.99? That is just too much for me to stomach. I am not going to blame Apple or U2 for trying to make a buck, but why stick it too the fans that matter the most? The fans that have been with the band for years are the same ones that will own all the previous music and will want to own these new unreleased songs?

Maybe someone will realize that this is a terrible mistake by making a the unreleased songs available in a cheaper bundle? Maybe just maybe, but I doubt it. Or maybe Santa will bring some iTunes gift cards …