The Recycle Bin

Gran Turismo 4 Slips into Obscurity

Another email update from EBGames, and another Gran Turismo 4 delay. This time we learn that GT4 will not even hit store shelves in time for Christmas.

We are writing to let you know that we have changed the projected ship date for Gran Turismo 4 to 2/5/2005.

How disappointing.

I know there are hundreds of thousands (dare I say a couple of million) of casual fans will still buy the game and will not care about the delay, but one really has to wonder “what is the point?” At this point, why not scrap the game altogether and wait for the PS3 (or whatever it will be called) and use GT4 as a launch title? Who am I kidding? There is too much money to be had for Sony, but surely they are disappointed that they missed the Christmas window.

I am seriously disappointed that Sony cannot get their act together on this one and get the damn thing released already.

Falcons Thrash Bucs

Wow, what a game! Atlanta beat Tampa Bay 24-14 in a game that had a little bit of everything. For starters, the crowd was really into the game. I would like to think we were responsible for several false starts, and in some small way a great defensive effort that produced 7 – yes, count ’em – 7 sacks. I am not sure what the final tally was, but Atlanta easily held Tampa Bay under 200 total offensive yards. Simply impressive!

Vick continues to be an enigma. At times he has flashes of genius, which usually results in an amazing highlight reel scramble or a great pass that makes you wonder “how in the heck did he pull that off?” Then he does something pretty boneheaded like throw the ball to a wide open defensive back. Vick has amazing talent, but lacks anything that you would call consistency. It is pretty frustrating, but as long as the Falcons are winning, who the heck cares?

The Dome does not usually rock and roll except for the SEC Championship game, but today was different. Right from the start the crowd was into the game (especially when the Falcons were on defense), and we kept it going full blast for most of the game. I have seen enough Falcons games where the visiting team has as much fan support as the good guys, which is always disappointing, but I guess it has something to do with the nature of Atlanta. When I lived in Atlanta six years ago, everyone living in Atlanta was from somewhere other than Atlanta, and they were always proud to show their non-Atlanta colors. Anyway, except for the preseason this was the first game I made it to this year so maybe the crowd has been this supportive all year long. I am not sure if it came across that way on TV, but it was a raucous performance; the 12th man was alive and well.

Perhaps Atlanta’s defensive lineman Ed Jasper said it best “There’s not a lot of rah-rahs and cheering going on just because we beat the Bucs. We’re trying to get to the Super Bowl.”

Unless things go really bad down the stretch, the Falcons should win the division going away. Right now at 7-2, the Falcons have a commanding three games on second place New Orleans. Things are indeed looking good.

Auburn Rules the Plains

I am not too sad about yesterday’s complete and total ass kicking at the hands of the Tigers from Auburn. After all, I am not sure that I *really* expected Georgia to win. I mean I wanted them to win, and I thought maybe they did have a chance, but I think maybe that was my heart talking to me. I did go on the record and state that the game would come down to the play of Jason Campbell and he delivered with an almost perfect day: 18-22-1-189. What an impressive box score!

Auburn was the better team and they deserve the accolades that they should receive from such a complete victory. So my hat is off to Auburn, and I have to say War Eagle!

I am sure other college football fans agree with me that it is a major crock of stinking crap that Auburn is not ranked in front of USC or Oklahoma. Well, maybe only Auburn and SEC fans agree with me. Say what you will, but the SEC is much tougher (from top to bottom) than the Big-12 or PAC-10. One can only hope that Auburn, Oklahoma, USC, and Utah all run the table. Not that it would change anything because the college presidents are not going to relent on their “no play-off” stance. There is just too much money to be made, and the presidents want total control over the bowl purses. It really has nothing to do with academics, lengthening the season, or any of that other nonsense.

I am about to pack up and take Joshua and my brother to the Falcons’ game. Hopefully we kick the living crap out of Tampa Bay!

Football Manager 2005 Arrives

Thanks to GamePay, the UK Royal Mail, and our own fine US Postal workers, my copy of Football Manager 2005 (FM2005) arrived today (now yesterday as this gets posted fairly late), only a week after it shipped. Not too bad, but is it worth the wait?

The manual is as tick as can clocking in at 60 some odd pages, but being a veteran of the Championship Manager series (CM) that was more or less what I expected. Gamers new to the series may be in for a shock – FM2005 is not a casual Sunday affair. I have never been what I would call an expert when it comes to CM, but I do my best. I am sure I will eventually read the entire manual, FAQs, and of course the obligatory message boards (already doing the message board thing) to try to get the most out of the game.

On to the game … not so much, but you will see why if in a minute.

To get things started right, I dove right in and decided to start a new game; selected several leagues (England, Argentina, Mexico, MLS, and the like) and made a decision to start off unemployed. In retrospect I am not sure if that was such a hot idea since the only manager job opening was for DC United, which I applied for, but I was unsuccessful in my bid for my first job.

After simulating a few days, I decided to go on “holiday” and have the game auto apply for jobs. The first one to be available was for San Jose, but once again I was unsuccessful. I simmed until late July (my game started in February) and still do not have a job in hand.

Enough is enough. My first experience with the game did not live up to my expectations. Is it too much to ask for a job? Then again why would anyone hire an obscure manager from America? Maybe I need to read the manual to see if I did something wrong. Not enough lower level clubs? No idea. I think I will just call it a night and start over tomorrow, this time selecting a club to manage instead of waiting for the game to let me play.

OK, OK. I know I suck. I do not even get to the important stuff like the match engine. There is always another day.

Random Stuffs

I have not had a whole lot of time to write of late, so I figured I would start the week off with a little bit of everything. Funny that I put this together Monday and it is now mid-week. So it goes, and so I go, and so will you soon I suppose (with apologies to Billy Joel).

2004 Election Musings
I continue to be amazed at all the fall-out (err, crap) from the recent election. Conspiracies on all sides. Bush cooked the electronic voting machines to give him a +5% margin, while Kerry cooked the exit pools to discourage Republicans from voting. It is really just short of astonishing that people have this much time on their hands.

I could go on forever, but I will spare everyone the grief and horror. I do find it funny that CNN kept stating that this “election is too important for us to rush to judgment” after several networks finally declared Bush the victor. I also thought it was funny that the Kerry camp was not going to concede the election because “we believe there are still some votes out there.” WTF were they going to do? Shake the election tree? Freaking ridiculous.

UGA vs. Auburn – Comes Down to Campbell
Not that it matters much because it is easier to say after the fact, but I predicted to my step father that UGA would put a hurting on Kentucky, 56-10. The actual score was 62-17, which really does not matter since the Auburn games looms large this weekend.

Speaking of which, no prediction yet but it comes down to one simple fact. If Jason Campbell plays well then Auburn wins, if not, then the Georgia ends Auburn’s dreams of a Championship season.

Football Manager 2005
While I wait for my copy to arrive from GamePlay (hopefully today) I have been reading the sigames forum to pass some time, and to be entertained. It is always eye opening to read what different gamers complain about.

The known bugs list is pretty long and worth reading. Some of these issues are very minor, while others are more significant. Luckily sigames is know for quality support via patches. And then there is the MLS …

The list of MLS issues from this MLS issues thread is nothing short of eye-opening (now transferred here). If the MLS is really this cooked, then I will be one disappointed gamer. I just hope that sigames decides to address some of these problems in a patch, and not wait until FM2006.

Katamari Damacy – Take Two
I continue to be impressed with Katamari Damacy, which has to be a candidate for non-sports game of the year. Well, maybe GTA: San Andreas will win that, but Katamari Damacy is easily the most addictive and original game that I have played in years.

As I described a few nights ago, the concept is amazingly simple – you roll around your katamari (ball) to make it bigger and bigger. You play in different levels and roll over all manner of items in order to “stick” them to your ball to make it a certain size within a set amount of time. My description may sound stupid, but it is amazing fun.

I was trying to think of a game that contained the same sort of whacked out graphics and addictive sound track. From a graphics standpoint, I think Jumping Flash for the PlayStation may be a good starting point. If you ever played that game, then I think you have a decent idea of the approach Katamari Damacy’s developers took. As far as music goes, there is no comparison; all tunes are completely original, catchy, and full of fun.

I will try to do a more detailed write-up later this week, but suffice it to say that I am addicted to this game. If you want to try something completely different and cheap ($19.99)

All for now …

Football Manager 2005 Ships

For “text-based” sports management fans, the Championship Manager series is about as good as it gets, and thankfully, it looks like Football Manager 2005 (the true successor to Championship Manager 4) shipped today. I have a pre-order in with UK based GamePlay. Hopefully the game will arrive soon since I paid for priority shipping.

GTA: San Andreas

GTA: San Andreas – but of course everyone with a PS2 is going to be playing this one. Well everyone that is not completely put off by the whole gangster thing, the violence, the language, and well, the whole damn experience. I have to admit that GTA is not for everyone, but so far this one looks damn impressive.

In case it needs to be said, much like the previous games in the series, you do not want your youngsters around when this one is on. The violence and the language are pretty indicative of a mature rated game. Really; not for kids.

I have not put in enough time to state my opinion one way or another, but if you like the series, you should buy this one. So far the story is great, the characters are pretty cool (from concept to appearance to dialog), and the soundtrack is perfect. As much as GTA: Vice City said 80’s (Miami Vice) San Andreas is all about the gangster thing (from what I have read and from watching moves). It is pretty impressive so far.

If anything put you off about the previous two PS2 GTA games, then you will be even more put off by San Andreas. I am not sure what has changed – it really seems like more of the same, but in a larger world, with a much tighter story. Small things like controlling the camera with the right analog stick have been added, and I am sure there are others that I will uncover. My point (at this early juncture) is that the game is just as stylistic as ever (if not more so) – same engine, just a deeper story and a whole lot more to do. The development team goes all out to make the game feel authentic, and it does.

I’ll post more later as time permits. I assume it will be a long night of mayhem …

Champions of Norrath (PS2)

This may be old news, but Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest is now priced at all of $19.99, which is an absolute bargain if you are into “hack and slash” type games. I wrote about this one back in the day. It is developed by Snowblind Studios, which happens to be the great development shop that developed the excellent Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance.

Champions may not sport the ever popular Dungeons and Dragons license, but it has the plenty successful Everquest moniker. I you like games that are long on fun, fairly simple in terms of strategy (i.e. it is hack and slash), leveling up, and the like Champions is for you. The graphics are beautiful, the sound is solid, and the gameplay is about the best you can get for this type of game. In short, Champions of Norrath rules.

My oldest son calls this one “the father’s day game” for reasons that I should not have to explain. I have not played Champions in a few months, but recently picked it back up as father-son activity. Hey, hacking an orc is quality time, right?

We are just inside the last part of the first section of the game. In order not to give away spoilers I will not elaborate too much; there are a bunch of spiders and I am about to have the first really nasty boss battle for that scroll/map thingy. My son is playing the dark elf warrior (he loves those disease bolts); I went with the archer guy to try something a little different. Anyway, perfect father-son game for my six-year old. Thankfully the developers allow you to turn off the blood effects, but interesting enough, some of the animals bleed. Go figure.

In my solo game I am putting out fires in the temple in the middle of a desert. Not sure how far this is in the game, and I am not about to read a FAQ to find out. In this game I am currently a level 17 barbarian; I went for brute force.

On a final note, unlike other games in the hack and slash genera, you can customize your armor and weapons, which adds a lot of depth. As an example, different items can be added to armor for extra fire damage, or the same item will provide fire resistance if you add it to your armor (gloves, boots, shield, breastplate, etc).

I would love to write more, but I am short on time. Think of this summary as the newer less frills version of what I would have written under the old banner. Norrath: Realms of Everquest is well worth the money and in my book is about as must play as it gets (for hack and slash fans).

Buy

Fantasy Football Play of the Day

My Yahoo! fantasy football team has been struggling; that is being too kind. My QB situation has sucked – started the season with Jeff Garcia, and then I moved on to Kurt Warner who is having a good “real life” year, but Warner is not much of a fantasy prize in a league that puts a premium on TDs. Luckily last week Byron Lefwich was out there for the taking, so take him I did, and much to my please he produced 33 points.

This week I was debating on which QB to start. Once again luck prevailed as I went against my Warner hunch (figured he would do well against Detroit) and stuck with Leftwich for a second straight week. Leftwich produced 22 points while Warner only managed 13. Nice.

In another brilliant move (I am biased) I picked up William Green on waivers (he was just sitting there for the taking), and Green rewarded me with 9 points.

In a not so brilliant move, I decide to stick Santana Moss in a WR slot and he gave me nothing, nada, zip. Zero points sucks. Oh well; win some, lose some.

I love fantasy football when I have time to manage my team and watch the waiver wire. It also makes watching “whatever” games more interesting because someone involved in one of those crap teams may actually score a few points for my team. Interesting stuff, but as I hinted at above, in my opinion a lot of luck is involved.

One final note regarding fantasy football trades. Has anyone ever played in a league where trades actually matter? I have not, and I doubt I will anytime soon. You have to give something to get something, and no one wants to give up too much, which results in pretty much no trade activity. Too bad. Maybe next year I will do one of the pay to play leagues to see if things are any different when the owners get serious about winning.

Now Selling (Love Me Some eBay)

Every once in a while I have to PIMP my own junk on eBay. I need to fund my next round of purchases so I just threw up a few games that some readers may want to check out. After all, my eBay rating has “trust me” written all over it.

Jonathan’s list of eBay junk …

Mark Davis Pro Bass Challenge (PS2) – OK, this one was an impulse purchase at the low-low-low release price of $9.99. I am not much of a fishing fan, so it pretty much just collected dust. I played it once or twice, but it obviously did not stand out. I say rent, but it is so damn cheap that you may as well purchase it if you like fishing games.

MVP Baseball 2004 (PS2) – I put down rental, but only because the left-handed hitting bug thing polarizes many simulation fans. I could live with it because every other aspect of the game was fun. And fun it what it is all about. Now that baseball season is almost behind us, it is time for me to cut bait and get what I can from this one.

Need for Speed: Underground (PS2) – great title, and well worth the $50 that it cost me last year. I got a ton of value out of this racing game that is a little more over the top than a simulation racer. The rubber-band style racing sucked, but was easily outweighed by the excellent gameplay, polished interface, superb graphics, and solid soundtrack. NFS:U may not be the first underground racing game, but it easily owns the field. Excellent replay value and tons of fun. I figure I can use the money to help pay for Underground 2.

More to come later because there are a ton of great titles on the way. Air Combat 5, Need For Speed: Underground 2, NCAA Basketball titles, the new GTA title, and of course GT4. Got to pay to play or I guess sell to pay in my case.

Wireless Technology is Grand

My youngest son is not feeling so wonderful today, so we stayed home instead of going to church. I now find myself sitting in the driveway, laptop in hand, watching my older son enjoy his bike. The beauty of it all is that I am putting this post together, surfing the web, maintaining my fantasy football team, all via the joys of my wireless network. Wireless technology is indeed wonderful!

Running Sucks

Two posts tonight and everything sucks. I guess the Dawgs have put me in a nasty mood tonight. They are physically beating the shit out of Arkansas (oh how I hate those Hogs), but they are still clueless when it comes to closing out a game. You would think Richt would figure the redzone offense out by now, but I am getting off track.

Running is about the only way that I can lose any weight, but like many red blooded gamers, I hate to run. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy exercising (swimming, riding my stationary bike, running around with the kids), but I cannot stand running for the sake of running. It is different on the soccer field, but running around the freaking neighborhood sucks.

Unfortunately, if I want to look half way decent for my better half, I have to run every now and again. I thinking watching one of those makeover shows (where they suck the fat out of ugly people) scared the crap out of me. Time to start the fall festivities back up again. I usually run in the fall and spring; too damn cold for this Southerner in the winter and too freaking hot to walk outside in the muggy Georgia summers.

So the other day I notice that my face is starting to look rather fat and it is time to hit the road again. Thankfully my new iPod makes the experience more tolerable than it has been for past runs. Last night I kicked off the seasonal pain and suffering; lasted all of about a mile … 10 mins or so … lots of hills in my area, so no worries. I was planning to do the usual every other day thing, but Georgia was pissing me off so much that I had to burn off some energy. Well, that and my wife told me to stop yelling at the TV. Screw that! I told her that this was “how I had fun” and that “if there was no emotion involved there would not be a reason to watch.” Some women just don’t get this no matter how long the marriage.

So off I went for a halftime jog. Just short of two miles in 12 mins; cross country style through the local school yard and over all those damn hills. Man I hate running, but I suppose it is good for me. It better be anyway because I sort of hurt right now. At least Georgia just took care of business 20-14.

Here’s to hoping that I will not dive into the chips and beer like I did after last night’s run. Oops!

Where is the Love (or Why EBGames Now Sucks)?

Back in the day I was all about GameStop, but they became increasingly frustrating as I attempted to return a game within the 14-day window, which eventually turned to 10-days, and then 2-days. Granted, I have no idea what the return policy is today, but should anyone be hassled for trying to return that South Park monstrosity for the N64 after a couple of hours with the game? “Back to the store! This turkey sucks!”

It was not like I was returning games left and right; maybe three a year, which was nothing considering I was buying 2-3 per month. The twit turnover was much higher than my propensity to purchase games, so I guess I never built up a report with the folks behind the counter.

I eventually gave up on the brick and mortar GameStop stores, and the whole “rush to the mall” scene to see if a new game was out an available pretty much sucked as well. I discovered online shopping, and all was well (eventually). I no longer had to rush around to get a game; much to my wife’s chagrin, game after game magically appeared at our front door. Technically is grand!

After a few months of using GameStop (they seemed like the best option at the time) I realized that they too sucked as much donkey you know whats as the standard mall stores. I guess the same twits that ran the mall stores ran the online business.

I was sick and tired of bad service, high shipping prices, and messed up orders, so I switched to EBGames (at the time known as Electronic Boutique). I was not familiar with the store, but a nice relationship was born. I have loved them for years and years and years. And then some. I even used to PIMP them all the time when Calvert Games took itself half way seriously. But no more. That was then, this is now.

Long story short, EBGames is now charging me GA sales tax, which in my opinion is pretty evil. So I recently went back to GameStop because their shipping charges are reasonable and they do not charge that nasty GA sales tax. So far so good. Keeping my fingers crossed that a new relationship is born, but just in case please feel free to post your internet vendor of choice.

Thank You Namco (Katamari Damacy)

On a hunch I decided to pick up Katamari Damacy. I knew it would be a wacky Japanese game, but I figured I was up to the task since I am fan of other obscure goodness: Tale of the Sun, Aquanauts Holiday, and Motor Toon GrandPrix. Yes, add Katamari Damacy to the list.

What the hell am I talking about? Namco just published Katamari Damacy for the PS2 – only $19.99 for extreme goodness, lots of fun, and plenty of replay value.

The premise of the game is simple. You roll around your katamari and try to grow it to a specified size (within an allotted amount of time) by collecting all manner of objects. And when I say all manner, I really mean all manner starting off with fairly small mundane items such as candy, tacks, matchsticks, lipstick, crackers, and so on. Eventually as your katamari gets bigger, you can pick up bigger object. I have not made it far enough along yet, but you can pick up all manner of living things including people.

Sound crazy? Well it is, but it is unbelievably addictive and fun. The backdrop story is stupid – I will not go there. Your goal is to grow your katamari to a certain size within a specific amount of time. Simple? Yes and no, but it is a flashback to the glory days of gaming against the clock.

Making things more interesting is the simplistic controls, which are so freaking ingenious that the developers should be granted awards for innovation in simplicity. What is so great about the controls you ask? You just use the analog sticks to move around and about each level. No buttons to press, no rapid sequences to tap, no nothing except for wonderfully fun controls. OK, not entirely true. You have to use one shoulder button to look around and change your view, another to jump, and you have to press down on both sticks to rapidly turn. Still, that is it. Straight and to the point.

Everything about Katamari Damacy is simple, but deep and complex at the same time. The graphics are extremely stylistic, the much is catchy and perfect for the game, and the interface is perfect for the game (and silly little backdrop story). On the surface the gameplay is simple, but at the same time is very deep. You actually have to plan how you build your katamari; as your katamari gets bigger you can open up areas that you could not previously enter and you pickup items that you could not previous collect. You also have to avoid certain obstacles for fear the items coming off your katamari (thus making it smaller). It is all good clean wholesome family fun, and I am not coming anywhere near doing Katamari Damacy justice. You just have to give it a chance to see what I am talking about.

I will certainly write more later because I have a feeling that I am going to be playing the living crap out of this one. At this point I can say without reservation that Katamari Damacy is a sure fire purchase and an instant classic. If you want something a little different, if you like old school gaming, or if you want an easy pick up and play game, start rolling your katamari now.

Thank you Namco. Thank you!

Buy

FIFA 2005 (PS2) More Impressions

More time with the game brings me to another frustration that I am having a hard time looking past. The CPU controlled players on offense are worthless. When I fire a shot at the goalie, and it is deflected, I do not want everyone to sit around and watch the CPU defenders eventually clear the ball. No, I want my guys to run like bastards towards the ball in hopes of getting a rebound, second look, cheap shot, etc. Maybe there is a setting that I am missing?

Same thing goes for my CPU defenders when the CPU is attacking in my box. They should do everything is their power to get to the ball to desperately clear. Instead, there is no appearance of urgency, no desperation; just lollygagging.

The game is not a total disaster; far from it. The new first touch system is pretty cool. It allows you to flick the right stick in the direction you want your player (about to receive the ball) to redirect the ball. This is important because it helps clear space while keeping a run going. I have discussed before my lack of dexterity when it come to gaming, so I still need lots of work with this feature, but the potential is evident.

I have yet to score with the new “chip the ball shot over the goalie” feature, but I am getting a lot of use out of the new “chip through-ball” feature. It gets pretty crazy when you do a chip through-ball, followed by a first touch, and then fire in a shot.

The sucky manual is really bothering me. I have no idea how some things work, or should work. The manual says that I can use the L1 shoulder button to call in defensive help to cut off a player, but damn if this does not seem hit or miss. I hope someone gets a PS2 specific FAQ posted sooner rather than later. Is it too much to ask for a decent manual? I am not asking for color or anything, just something that describes the game’s controls, features, strategy, and so on. Winning Eleven does this right, so shame on EA for such a lackluster effort.

I will post more later. The verdict is still out on how good or how bad FIFA 2005 is compared to WE7. Right now I think that WE7 easily has the better playing game, but it too has plenty of issues. We could pick apart games all day long, but at the end of the day fun factor wins out. So far, so good, but FIFA 2005’s lack of any semblance of computer controlled AI players is starting to grate very, very quickly.