The Recycle Bin

U.S. Gives Points to Guatemala

I understand that there must be plenty of pressure, hostility, and adversity that go along with playing in Guatemala City. I get that; really I do, although I didn’t bother to pay $29.99 + tax to watch the U.S. give up a late goal (83’) to Guatemala on a set play that completely froze Tim Howard.

As far as I can tell, once again poor play in the backfield led to our undoing, as Fabian Johnson was badly beaten, pulled down a Guatemala attacker, the ultimately earned Guatemala a tie, and cost the U.S. two badly needed points.

The same thing more or less happened in the U.S. win over Antigua & Barbuda, with Oguchi Onyewu contributing to Antigua & Barbuda’s only goal.

With the top two teams advancing, the U.S. heads the table on goal differential in a weak Group 1 that also includes Jamaica. The U.S. heads to Jamaica September 7 and hosts the Reggae Boys September 11. These two games will ultimately decide if the U.S. advances, which will continue to be in question if the U.S. does not figure out the backfield over the summer.

E3 – What about the Vita?

Another year, another E3 out of the way. I remember when E3 use to be a huge deal, but it doesn’t seem that way these days, except for having outlets such as G4TV and SpikeTV providing live coverage.

More than anything else, I am disappointed that Sony didn’t offer more focus of its fledgling Vita. Apps like youtube are coming this summer, but we already knew that pre E3. Besides, Honey Badger doesn’t have anything on Charlie the Unicorn.

Getting PSOne Classics is nice, but in reality, PSOne support should have been a day one endeavor. Instead of really concentrating on the games, Sony more or less squandered an opportunity to really refresh the gaming publics’ opinion of the Vita.

It’s all enough to piss off PlayStation LifeStyle.

Seb: Yeah, on the topic of “shit that’ll probably sell well, but isn’t of interest to a single person at E3”, why did we need to spend 10 minutes watching people ‘playing’ Wonderbook? I’m sure some kids will be able to convince their parents to buy a PS3, a Move, a PS Eye, a Wonderbook and a copy of Book of Spells, just to be able to read another J.K. Rowling book. But, I’m not one of those kids, and I don’t want to see 10 mins of it instead of proper games.

In fact, Jack Tretton said afterwards that there weren’t any more Vita games shown because they couldn’t fit anything else in…

Would a price cut really matter? Not if Sony doesn’t push the games and give gamers some confidence that Sony is willing to back its four month old system.

The lead up to E3 provided a lot of rumors that the PS+ program was going to be revamped to provide an enriched Vita experience. It was revamped, and in a very good way, but once again, Sony blew its chance to really lift up the Vita.

Madden 12, Madden 13, MUT, Andrew Luck

I said I wouldn’t do it – no MUT for me after all the temptation in Madden 10, when the Ultimate Team concept was first introduced. This stuff can be like any drug addiction; cash will go down the sinkhole at a rapid pace.

Ah, but in order to earn the Platinum for Madden 12, two trophies require the competition of 10 and 20 MUT games. So now I am slogging my way through the final trophy (currently at the 10 game mark). Looking at my team, the GA TX Falcons, I have a handful of platinum pack Hall of Fame players, some special addition ones, plenty of gold and silver cards, and some rubbish bronze addition cards. All that glitters is gold, right?

In order to keep using my Hall of Fame players, which were procured with the purchase of my ultra-rare (not really) super-secret (not so much), Hall of Fame edition (that’s what it’s called), I have to purchase contract cards. Not just a few, but a lot. These things cost coins that can be earned in the game, or with real life money. A typical 600 coin contract card may extend a Hall of Fame card 1-4 games, a gold card 4 games, a silver card 6-8, and a bronze card 10+.

You can see where this is going, right? Playing against the CPU, I typically earn 800-1100 coins per game. I can either spend a lot of time trying to whore the auctions, or try to work trades, or I could spend some real life money, or I could just not play my most valuable players.

I have chosen the route of not playing my most valuable players, which means I’m slogging through the last 10 games by choice. I know MUT is addicting, and I just don’t want to be an addict.

I would have to do some searches (here, purchase records, etc.) to confirm, but I’m pretty sure that with MUT 10 I game my team an injection of $10 (maybe less, but not more), which is when I said I’m not going to get addicted, spending money on virtual cards, and passed on playing MUT 11.

Here we are, trying to go Platinum with MUT and Madden 12. So far I have resisted the temptation to inject real world cash, but I’m tempted because I want to play with those Hall of Famer players, not a bunch of bench warmers. EA – sneaky bastards!

Madden 13
I decided to preorder Madden 13, and for my efforts Amazon is treating me well. $15 credit, release day delivery, an Andrew Luck card, and more.

Pre-order Madden NFL 13 and receive a $15 promotional credit

You will also get the Andrew Luck Future Stars Draft Pick Madden Ultimate Team Card for immediate use in Madden NFL 12. [… automatically unlocks the Andrew Luck Rookie Card for Madden Ultimate Team 13 …]

Pre-orders also receive the Amazon exclusive NFL legends Joe Gibbs and Lawrence Taylor for use in Madden Ultimate Team and the all-new Connected Careers mode.

Once I hear my ding-ding to finish off the Madden 12 Platinum, I’ll put aside MUT for this year, once again winning my battle with MUT EA demons.

PS: My boys want to spend some cash to get their Madden 12 Platinum (they need the MUT 80 rated deck one). And so it begins …

Madden 13: Vita + PS3 No Cross Play Platform Saves

What a bummer reading that EA will continue a trend it started with FIFA of not support cross play platform saves with Madden 13.

I imagine Madden NFL 13 will be a solid football game on the go, but personally, I know I’m not going to have much interest in running a PS3 franchise and a Vita franchise. Adding to the woes of PlayStation pocket gamers is that when asked if a unified experience could come to next year’s Madden entry, a developer said that they’d see how this year’s Vita version did before investing in the option.

It’s like a Greek tragedy: this year’s version will do poorly because it doesn’t have the mode that EA would add if it did well.

The reality is that I will probably order the Vita version of Madden (in addition to the PS3 version that I already have on pre-order), but this is really just a damn shame. I understand that the franchise mode in the PS3 is ultra-complicated, but you would think that the developers behind the Vita could at least attempt to pull off what Sony did with MLB 12: The Show; bunch of lazy bastards!

The Reinvention of Green Lantern

I’m not going write an op-ed on “gay issues” – that commentary is not the sort of thing I want to do in the Recycle Bin; let’s leave that for another day. With that said, I do have a bone to pick with DC Comics.

In my opinion it’s an absolute travesty what the liberal media is doing to push its agenda; attempting to ram its collective anti-religious, anti-main stream, out of touch values down the throats of Americans. Their minds are set – if you are against this you are a homophobe, vindictive, intolerant SOB bigot.

How on God’s Green Earth does any company in its right mind decide to reinvent history and make the original Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott, gay? He was not gay in 1940, but now he has to be gay because that is what society demands? Who exactly is demanding that Green Lantern, much less other original super heroes must be gay in order to “keep up” with the times?

“It’s a realistic depiction of society,” he said. “You have to move with the times.”

“I hope he’s a positive figure. If there’s some kind of kid out there who’s reading the comic and who’s worried about the person he is, maybe it will give him a positive sense of who he is. Or maybe a different kid will read it and decide I don’t need to bully some kind of kid in school,” Robinson said.

“We should be preaching love and tolerance,” he said.

If the comic reading public does in fact need a gay super hero, please make a new one, and leave the past to the past; no matter how much someone wants to revise history, it doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do.

Ohio St. – Running Scared of UGA

Or just call them a bunch of chicken shit wankers. I cannot believe that they are calling off a match-up 10 years into the making (agreed to a home and away for 2020-2021), and using future PAC-whatever and Big-whoever scheduling as an excuse.

“They couldn’t make it happen due to the Pac 12-Big 10 football schedule deal,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said Thursday, referring to a recent agreement between those conferences for a series of regular-season matchups beginning in 2017.

“And we understood,” McGarity added.

You have to be f’ing kidding me, right? We “understand”? Probably. Actually, we the UGA fans that have been calling for something other than cupcake match-ups get a no penalty back-out from The Ohio St. University.

Whatever. I can’t wait to see what sort of out of conference schedule the Buckeyes have in 2020 and 2021.

NCAA Football 13 – Enter Herschel Walker

I swore (really) that I would pass on either this year’s (i.e. 13) edition of NCAA Football or Madden. Ultimately I decided that I would skip out on NCAA Football and just do the “yearly update thing” with Madden 13. Then two things happed …

First, the Heisman Challenge mode includes the 1982 Heisman Trophy recipient, Herschel Walker, from the University of Georgia.

Second, Amazon is offering the game for $44.99. I’m a little disappointed that release day shipping (a staple of Amazon) hasn’t been offered yet, but I’m sure that will change in the coming weeks leading up to the July 10 release. Amazon is also offering some exclusive Nike Pro Combat Uniforms, which is not a big deal to me, but the overall deal (lower price, no sales tax, and free shipping) is hard to beat. Even with the “other guys” (i.e. GameStop) offering some bonus DLC, I cannot image that the DLC will cost more than $15, and even if it does, once you add in the sales tax and shipping, Amazon’s offer made the purchase decision rather easy. Besides, I’ll be playing with Herschel …

Now Playing (End of May Edition)

As summer starts to bloom, I finally decided to pick up Flower as part of the recent ThatGameCompany sale ($4.89 via PS+ discount). What a wonderful experience; when games become art, they really become immersive media, moving beyond the realm of typical game-playing sessions and evolving into said experience.

I haven’t spent a ton of time with it (too many other distractions as you can see from this post), but I would say that it is a stronger outing than their initial flOw, but not as emotionally captivating as their recent Journey outing. Wow; I’m becoming a softie in my old age.

Final Fantasy XIII (some XIII-2)
I swore to myself (seriously) and told my boys that I wouldn’t start XIII-2 until I finished the mainline FF XIII story. Two years after its initial release, I finally got around to doing the needful.

I’m not sure if I will actually Platinum FF XIII; I probably don’t have the time or strength of character to grind, grind, grind. With that said, I am still plugging along and having a good time with it. At some point I will have to put it down and fully focus of XIII-2; until then, I hope to pick up another “you have put too much time into this game” trophy or two.

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale
Speaking of RPGs, Daggerdale was just released on the PSN. It is the rare purchase for me to actually pick something up day one at full price; in this case $14.99.

I’m a sucker for fun hack-and-slash experiences, and this one carries the full backing of the Dungeons & Dragons 4E rules system.

I’m only a couple of hours in, so I can’t really comment on the game play mechanics, but playing with the human warrior is pretty much what I expected. Pick up a quest, smash barrels for treasure, fight some bad guys (goblins and skeletons so far), rinse and repeat. I’m at level 2, and have only died once by stupidly falling off a high ledge while fighting a skeleton. I forced Mr. Bones off the ledge and thought I would follow; to my death.

Madden 12
I have been playing this one a little here and there in order to satisfy my football gaming jones, but mostly to finish it out and pick up the Platinum. I only need the 2 Ultimate Team (10 and 20) games played and I will score a new shiny. The truth is that I swore I would stay away from Ultimate Team so that I wouldn’t be tempted to throw real money at virtual cards. For the most part that has worked, but I did have one weak moment; money was sitting in my wallet, so I did flip some for a Gold pack. Yes, I’m weak.

For the most part Madden is a super easy Platinum. Over the holiday weekend I finished off a couple of the trophies with help from my two oldest boys – yes, we “gamed” (err cheated) the system by turning down the CPU AI to be weak as a kitten, but we had a good time playing, which is what life (and gaming) is all about. Speaking of quality family gaming …

LittleBigPlanent 2
I haven’t played this one is a while, but it’s a great game to play with my boys (all three – 13, 9.11, and 5). LBP provides infinite possibilities, is fun creative outlet, hilarious at times (watching each other die or do otherwise stupid tricks), etc.

Speaking of LBP, I’m still anxiously looking forward to the Vita version.

Waiting Game …
As I wait on my “Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland Limited Edition: Grand Finale Set” NIS America store, to arrive today or tomorrow, I keep looking at my backlog of RPGs and shake my head. I’ll never get to them all, but it is a nice problem to have. At the same time, I start looking forward to the next round of Gust instant classics (i.e. Atelier Ayesha). I’m hopeless …

Same for Gravity Rush (Vita – June 12); it has received extremely positive reviews, but not sure that it will be a system seller or marketed as such. I’ll be happy with a quality game that provides some new Vita experiences.

U.S. Finishes … Defense Still Suspect

Jurgen Klinsman’s boys flat out whipped Scotland 5-1, as Landon Donovan managed an impressive hat trick (and an assist for good measure). This was perhaps the most complete game in the Klinsman’s era.

“Tonight, you saw many elements of what we’re always talking about, what we’re trying step-by-step to develop,” Klinsmann said. “It’s a fast-paced game. All those elements I think we saw a lot today. It’s obviously a lot more difficult to play that way against Brazil or Italy, but the players they understand more and more what we’re trying to achieve. Today, it was really fun to watch.”

I loved the fast paced, possession style attack, with only one real complaint. On a couple of occasions, the U.S. had a couple of great buildups, only to kick it away without managing a shot on goal.

The United States completed 84.6 percent of its passes against Scotland (466 out of 551), its highest completion percentage in 11 games under Jurgen Klinsmann. Steve Cherundolo completed 90 percent of his passes (54 of 60), best on the team among those with at least 10 passes.

I know defeating Scotland is not the end all, be all, but anytime you completely dominate a Top 50 team, you can be sure you are doing more right than wrong, even if Scotland was not at full strength.

So what to make exactly of this U.S. performance? It should be noted that Scotland brought a seriously understrength side to this match, with players like Darren Fletcher and James Morrison among the missing either through illness or injury. And the Americans will no doubt encounter a much tougher test this Wednesday against a youthful Brazil side. The upcoming World Cup qualifiers — in particular the away date against Guatemala on June 11 — will also offer considerably more hostility and tension than Saturday’s match.

But it’s nonetheless encouraging to see the U.S. begin to show a level of comfort with the principles that Klinsmann has been preaching: namely, a more attack-minded approach with an emphasis on playing the ball out of the back and pressing high up the field.

Over the last few years I have been writing about Team USA’s lack of class quality finishers. I think Donovan more than rose to the occasion, and I cannot wait to see what happens when the U.S. is back to full strength with Clint Dempsey.

The U.S. defense is still worrisome; I don’t see how Klinsmann can sleep well with the current back four (Fabian Johnson, Carlos Bocanegra, Geoff Cameron, and Steve Cherundolo).

Super (Dis)Connected

With apologies to Belly, I just spent a wonderful week in FL on the gorgeous Gulf Coast. Seafood a-plenty, beer for breakfast, crystal clear water, gorgeous white sand, and all around family fun.

Except for my work blackberry (answered too many emails), my wife’s Razor (I think she is addicted to texting), and my Vita (never turned it on), we were completely disconnected. I took the family laptop, figuring we would use it on a daily basis for our typical internet-ing activities, but we didn’t actually have a wireless access point at our condo. No worries; we survived.

The scary thing about being disconnected was that I don’t think I even missed it. Of course that may have something to do with the seafood eating, beer drinking, and over all beach-going fun.

Beach Tripping

Get away day; the best day of the week. I’m packing up the summer frills, loading up the van, dropping the animals off a the vet, and heading to the Gulf Coast of FL, Carillon Beach style.

Not sure if I’ll have much in the way of an internet connection for any live updates (as if anyone is actually interested in my adventures in seafood, beach stuffs, and beer). I’ll have my Vita; hopefully it will not rain and I’ll only play it occasionally. I will however tweet; just because I can.

When I make it back, just in time for Memorial Day weekend, I’ll spend a little more time cleanup up the site.

Happy Wednesday!

Site Maintenance (Start of Summer Edition)

Every once in a while I get a burr in my ass** to update the ol’ Recycle Bin, but time and again we always come back to one thing. Green is a must. Back to the green theme in just a moment.

Over the weekend I upgraded from WordPress 2.9.x to 3.3.x without any major incidents. There was a temporary issue with the Word Press console not being able to perform an automatic update due a WP_MEMORY_LIMIT issue.

I was receiving a “Fatal error: Allowed memory size of n bytes exhausted (tried to allocate x bytes)” error message. So after a few searches and jumping into a UNIX shell to edit a .php file, I was happily on my way. No worries at all. Anytime I get to play around in a shell, dusting off some vi skills, I call that a win.

At any rate, I’m hopeful that moving to WordPress 3.3.x is going to give me a little more flexibility in content, and allow Joshua (my 13 year old son) to post a little more frequently.

Mean Green
As mentioned at the top, since Calvert Games (AKA The Recycle Bin), various shades of green has always been the site’s calling card. It’s mantra if you will; screaming green.

As part of the overall upgrade I decided to finally upgrade my theme, which is Arjuna-X, v1.2.1. The latest version is 1.7.x, and Lord knows it looks better and has a ton more flexibility. I just have to get my green back!

I’ll have to do some moving and fixing in a couple of weeks; heading to FL in a couple of days for a much needed vacation. Between work, soccer, and other day-to-day stuff, I doubt I have much time to get this thing cracking.

Did I just Tweet
Son of a gun, Calvert Games has gotten just a wee bit modern. I decided to do the Tweet thing because I have the app on my Vita. Not sure what I will Tweet, or why anyone would want to follow me, but there you go.

** Ass reference is strictly for my boys. If they read this they will giggle until they are almost ready to wet their pants.

LittleBigPlanet Vita Beta

While Amazon still shows the release as December 31, 2012 (meaning they have no idea what date to confirm), it looks as if an open beta is in the works.

If you are one of the 100 or so Vita owners that actually care about the game, make sure you sign up for the beta. There is a very short survey, and since your PSN info, qualification into the beta may be based on your actual gaming practices (trophies, purchases, etc).

I could usually give a crap about betas; most of the ones I receive via PS+ are nothing more than glorified demos. The LittleBigPlanet Vita one is different. Would really like to see how the game in the pre-release stages and offer some feedback.

Skype – Vita Credit

While I famously wrote about Skype Skipping Me (and my PSP-1000), I plan to take the plunge with my Vita. Sony is making Skype a little easier to test out be offering up a $2 credit.

Not sure if this Sony email with voucher offer is going out to all Vita owners, Vita owners that downloaded the Skype app, or some other combo. I downloaded the Skype app when it was first offered, but didn’t sign up for a Skype account until I received the credit, which will allow me to give Skype a go on my Vita for free. At least for a few minutes.

Falcons – Asante, Strength of Schedule, and Random Stuff

After my spectacular draft coverage, I would be remiss not to mention that that the Falcons improved their defense immensely the day before the draft by turning a lowly 7th round pick into a top-flight CB, courtesy of a deal to land former disgruntled Eagles CB Asante Samuel.

Seriously, where else are you going to get this much known quality for a 7th round selection? While Asante comes at a price tag far above a typical 7th round pick, adding him to the Falcons’ secondary should instantly have a positive impact on the defensive line. If nothing else, an extra second or two of shutdown coverage by Dunta Robinson, Brent Grimes, and Asante Samuel should result in a few more coverage sack gifts for Abraham, Edwards, and company.

Thankfully, Asante was willing to rework his contract to make things a little more cap friendly for the Falcons.

Falcons Get “Easy” Schedule
In my opinion, the NFC South is very strong top to bottom. Of course the Saints, even with all their offseason cheating coming to light, will remain tough. Panthers are on the rise. You have to think that the Buccaneers are not as bad as their record last year indicated, plus they have had a great off season via free agency and the draft.

With that said, the current strength of schedule rankings for the 2012 season show that Atlanta should have an easy path to the playoffs. The Falcons are at the back-half of the league in terms of strength of schedule, tied for the 24th easiest schedule. Their 2012 opponents had a 125-131 Win/Loss record, which is good for a .488 winning percentage. They will only pay 4 “quality” opponents (teams with 9 or more wins in 2011).

As a card carrying Falcons fan, I could give a crap about a speculated easy schedule; anything to put ATL over the top.

Falcons National Coverage
Speaking of the 2012 schedule, the Falcons will have four appearances on National television. Home Prime Time dates with Denver, Dallas, and the Saints, and a pre-Christmas Saturday night date in Detroit.

I’m excited about the schedule, although I wish the Falcons could land a couple of idea 4PM tailgate kickoffs. Tailgate highlights include:

Sept. 17 vs. Denver (8:30 p.m., ESPN): After playing 13 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and missing last season, Manning is trying to revive his career.

Nov. 4 vs. Dallas (8:20 p.m., NBC): Former Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking’s celebration got out of hand after the Cowboys defeated the Falcons 37-21 on Oct. 25, 2009.

Nov. 29 vs. New Orleans (8:20 p.m., NFL Network): The Saints should have their players back from any Bounty-gate suspensions.

Dec. 16 vs. New York Giants (1 p.m., Fox): The defending Super Bowl champions have the most difficult schedule in the league based on opponents’ 2011 records.

I have never seen Oakland or Arizona in person, so that should be fun. Same for the Giants. For the second year in a row, we close out the season at home against Tampa Bay; hopefully we are resting our starters.

The Falcons schedule is full of quirks, including never playing consultative home or away games. I hate playing New Orleans twice in Nov; I thought that a Christmas week matchup would become a scheduling staple. A week 7 bye week (Oct 21) seems a little early, but it could be worse. Plus it gives me time for an Oct beach trip!

Go Falcons!