The Recycle Bin

Today was a good day for yard work, real life work (not really, but duty called), beer guzzling, and NCAA Football 08. There was not much sports related in front of me worth watching. At this point, with Tiger out, I could care less about the Open, the Braves suck, and football is still a ways off.

I could have watched the German Grand Prix this morning, but Fox needs something to throw up in the afternoon. As a result, we get yet another tape delayed race, which is a total crock of crap.

I read in the paper this morning that as the trade deadline approaches, Bobby Cox considers the Braves to be a buyer, not a seller. Every the optimist. I love Cox, but this team is not built for a playoff run. How does losing by 9 runs to the Nationals (15-6) equate to being a buyer?

The Falcons open training camp this Saturday; thank goodness … I am ready for some football. The Redskins opened camp today. Looks like football is just around the corner.

Moving back to videogames …

Yesterday I spent some time with my kids playing Super Stardust HD Team Expansion. The new verses mode is interesting, but I really enjoyed the split-screen co-op mode. When things get crazy, there is some slow down, but not to the point where I felt it affected gameplay. I teamed up with my six-year old to post a high score in the top 2K. Obviously not a lot of co-op players out there, but it is pretty cool to be so high on the leader board.

According to Lazy Gamer, Sony has won the GTA: IV battle in Europe.

Europe was always going to be a major GTA battleground and by the look of it the PS3 has taken this one.

Right now the current sales sit at

PS3 – 2,193,728
360 – 1,919,583

And with the PS3 version outselling the 360 week on week at the moment it is becoming safe to say that while the race was close the PS3 won.

I am not sure why this caught my eye, but I guess it is an excuse to quote a South African gaming site. First time for everything I suppose.

Have I mentioned how much it sucks that Qore is not Remote Play enabled? Forget the fact that I cannot get Remote Play to work consistently outside of my home network. I could always have Qore stand in for my throne room reading material. One can dream.

Why does the Orange Box suck so much on the PS3? Who cares? Ripten has a nice “he said, she said” article

Now Valve’s Erik Johnson says, “Well, EA handled most of the PS3, so I don’t have a lot of insight into that — they did most of the work”. The use of the word “most” is supposedly an indicator that not all of the work was done by EA. The conspiracy theorists out there fail to realize that EA has a history of farming out it’s work, and have taken that to mean that at least some of it must have been done by Valve.

Ports in general suck, so no surprises here with this one. PC ports are probably going to be better on the 360. Still nothing earth shattering. Since I am not a shooter fan, much less a Half Life devotee, I could care less. I just thought the conspiracy theory was entertaining.

Why would anyone pay $349 for a 60GB 360 when they can get a 80GB PS3 for $400? Does anyone even buy the sub $300 360? Should be interesting to see if the PS3 continues to outsell the 360 (month-to-month) in Q3.

Let’s call it a wrap and move back to some NCAA Football 09.

I just finished up a game that really points out some of the glaring flaws with NCAA Football 09. I took the Georgia Bulldogs on the road to face Eastern Michigan University. Of course the Dawgs brandished their black jerseys. I picked EMU because my #1 ranked (and 99/99/99 rated) black shirted Dawgs should be able to overwhelm the poor Eagles. Not so much.

Here are some of the highlights and items of note from UGA’s 24-17 victory over EMU:

• Matthew Stafford was 9-9 134 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs. Good for a 261.7 rating. Holy crap! If that happens this year, UGA is deserving of their #1 ranking.
• The EMU QB went 23-30 194 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs. That is a 76% completion rate, which is fairly typical for my games.
• Knowshon Moreno had 73 yards on 18 carries, and 1 TD. Fairly decent 4.0/rush.
• Caleb King came in for one play to give Moreno a rest. That is the first time I have noticed the CPU doing substitutions.
• The main EMU HB had 55 yards on 11 carries.
• EMU missed a 52 yard field goal attempt. I have yet to see the CPU make a 50+ yard field goal. I kind of like that because those 50 yarders should be rare.
• The EMU QB fumbled the ball once on a bone crashing tackle, but an o-lineman managed to recover the ball. Fumbles are exceedingly rare.
• I had a couple of INTs, including a “user pick” and a one by the CPU that I returned for a TD.

Notice anything really strange with the EMU QB line? He had 3 TDs, but EMU only scored 17 points. What gives? I looked at the scoring summary, and on the last play of the game, EMU scored a TD as time expired. The TD was credited twice (i.e. listed as two line items – 1 yard TD passes)!

Ouch. Not sure if this bug is a common occurrence, but it seems par for the course with NCAA Football 09.  With all that said, the game was still fun.  Go figure.

I guess the word is more or less out; NCAA Football 09 is a common disaster, but a fun one. The broken slider issue is inexcusable, and while I do not really care about the custom roster problems, this stuff gives the appearance of a complete lack of quality control. Tell me that is not the case. If a game should ever be recalled or patched, this one is a text book example.

At this point EA plans to release a patch to fix the roster issue; hopefully they will also do a minor gameplay patch to fix a few of the other holes.

I do not mind the issues that have been reported for kick off and punt returns. If I get a long punt return, I consider it a reward for stopping the silly passing game. Besides, it seems like the game has something positive to balance out each negative. For example, draws actually work, which is a pleasant surprise. Same for play action passes.

As always, penalties are not a part of the game. I have no idea why the developers cannot get some sort of random algorithm to at least attempt to get this right.

The best I can tell, it also looks like there is an issue with substitution frequency, which would be a major concern if I started a dynasty. I want to rotate running backs, but I cannot think of a game where the CPU has substituted a HB due to fatigue. This is the sort of thing that does not have a direct impact on gameplay, but the impact on statistics does have an effect on the overall college football experience. It does affect my fun factor; I am a statistics whore. I want my starting HB to have 22 carries, and see a handful of carries for my backup HB.

I have yet to see the Weather Channel offer me anything other than “partly cloudy and 75 degrees” – and yes, I am connected to the internet. Why offer features if they do not work? Once again, this does not affect gameplay, but it gives an experience of overall sloppiness.

Interceptions are low; I have thrown more than the CPU. Usually on quick outs, or into triple coverage. I have yet to get a “user pick” and my guys have dropped more than their share of would be interceptions. Unlike last year, fumbles are non-existent. I guess too few turnovers is better than too many, which would ultimately affect gameplay negatively.

Tecmo Super Bowl. When fun mattered.

Serious problems aside, the NCAA Football 09 is fun. I guess I am just a sucker for college football. If I do not watch replays of how the AI reacts to plays, my single biggest issue is a very unrealistic pass completion percentage (CPU gets 70-75% per game). Maybe some of that is user error (I am not a talented videogame player), but in the past I would make some minor slider adjustments to even things out. Not this year.

I have been holding off on starting a dynasty until I see what sort of patch is going to be released. We know a roster patch is coming, but what about some gameplay tweaks and minor adjustments? The roster bug does not bother me too much because I have never used real names at the start of my dynasties. I know who the players are on my team (and the teams I follow) or I can just look them up in a football annual or web site.

The one thing I have figured out is that the game is a lot more fun with lower ranked teams. Making teams equal may also get the same effect. As a UGA fan, it is just not that fun with a 99/99/99 team. Well, maybe a little beating up on Tech.

For years I wrote dynasty articles (the old Chronicles junk) using North Texas, which was always a lot of fun, until the Mean Green actually got sort of good. Well, now they are not so good, which makes them the perfect team to play with. I had a great game yesterday using North Texas vs. SMU; I won 12-10 … the game came down to me stopping SMU as time expired. I had a 40 yard field goal hit (and bounce over) the crossbar. I also had a 45 yard field goal fall just short.

The game is heavily focused on offense to the point where a lot of gamers are complaining that they cannot stop the CPU on 3rd down. While I am getting some 3rd down stops, there is no real formula for my success. The only way I can get decent pressure on the CPU is to “cheat” – I pull one of my linemen to the far end of the line and speed rush the QB. I am still not getting many sacks (I think I am averaging one per game), but it does help put a little pressure on the QB. I know its cheating, but it is helping me to make the game fun. I just call it a “Calvert Blitz” package.

Is the game wroth $60? Depends on how many fundamental football problems you can put up with in a videogame. No doubt, NCAA Football 09 has its fair share of bugs and issues. Pretty much a common disaster from that point of view, but the game has plenty of fun to offer. If we can get a few minor gameplay fixes via a patch; I think the game would be excellent if sliders and substitution frequency were fixed. At this point, most of the other stuff that has been discussed here and elsewhere is not going to be fixed. In short, a mixed bag.

I held off all week, but this morning I decided to pick up Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Circuit City has the game on sale for $49.99 and you get a $10 Gift Card to boot! Pretty good deal. For $52.79 I get the last great PS3 exclusive (for now).

Impressions later, but right now I have a backlog of gaming goodness in front of me. The Circuit City deal ends today, so hurry fast to effectively get $20 off of Metal Gear Solid 4. I am sure that will help boost sales figures.

Coming at you fast, furious, and with half the verbosity.

First up, last night I download the Super Stardust HD Team Expansion. It was $4.99, but I have read that a couple of articles that hint that somehow it is included with release 4.0. Not sure WTF that means except that I may have just spent 5 unnecessary duckets.

Are you kidding? 4 player slowdown for $4.99?

I am looking forward to split screen, but not looking forward to the slowdown that is apparently present in the new multiplayer modes.

Next up is Remote Play. I still cannot get it to work correctly, but since it worked once, there is hope that it will work again. The PS3 is not automagically turning on, and then disabling Remote Play Start, but the handy-dandy Remote Play green light does not always come on if I turn the PS3 off (and then on) using the power switch on the back of the system. Router settings? Firmware settings? Not sure where to turn next.

Speaking of remote play, it is a total travesty that Qore is not Remote Play enabled. Why not? Seems like a perfect way to take this video magazine on the go. Hell, why not stream it to the PSP to take advantage of its pretty wide screen?

The fleecing of America continues. What is the world coming to when a Belgian company can come in and swoop up the King of Beers? With the sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev is complete, Pabst Brewing Company will be the largest American brewery. That’s right, this PBR is for you.

Support Pabst. Drink American owned beer!

Finally we move on to NCAA Football 09, the release of which is riddled with enough bugs to be considered a complete goat fuck. Seriously, this OS NCAA Football 09 gameplay thread says it all.

I am going to save further NCAA Football 09 comments for a later post.

Now featuring 15 days of consecutive posting. That has got to be the most for me since the Golden Days of yore. Happy Saturday!

Lies. Damn lies. Statistics. Regular readers know that I have a PS3, but no 360, so it probably naturally comes across as a somewhat Sony biased site. I am sure it would be the same if I had a 360 and no PS3. I also have a Wii (really it is mostly for the kids), so I guess that makes me anti-Microsoft.

Not really my intentions, but I am sure that is the way things come across. The Xbox never captivated me, and the same goes for the 360.  I guess that does make me a Sony homer of sorts, but I digress.

What do the latest numbers from thestreet.com tell us?

“Sony sold 405,500 PS3s, compared to 219,800 Xbox 360s but still has a long way to go before it catches up with the Wii, which sold 666,700 systems last month.

It’s the second month that the PS3 has stayed ahead of the Xbox 360.

Sony still has a long way to go before it beats Nintendo. The Nintendo Wii has now become the best-selling console among its peers, with 10.9 million units sold year-to-date in the U.S.”

It is interesting that the PS3 has managed to outpace the 360 two months in a row. May can be attributed to GTA IV; even if more units were sold on the 360, the franchise is traditionally associated with Sony. June is squarely on Metal Gear Solid 4: Gun of The Patriots, which is currently a PS3 exclusive.

“Sony is making concerted efforts to regain its footing. Earlier this week, it shaved $100 off the price of the PS3. Sony said the 80-gigabyte version of the PS3 will retail at $400, down from $500, while discontinuing the 40-GB version of the console.

Microsoft also dropped $50 off the price of the Xbox 360 and said the basic 20-GB model of the console will retail at $299.”

Summer is typically slow for moving videogames, and I assume the same games for systems. If the PS3 remains in front of the 360 for three months in a row some sort of trend may be at work. Until then, Nintendo and their Wii continues to kick Microsoft and Sony in their collective nuts. Think Sony needs to get Jesse on the payroll to take care of business?

There was not much of anything exciting coming out of E3 this year, but one thing of note was that Sony is going to a single PS3 SKU – 80GB, no PS2 hardware backwards compatibility.

Interesting strategy on Sony’s part. The PS2 is still selling well, and the PS3 is picking up momentum. Seems to me that the two systems would cannibalize each other. It has been a while since I bought a PS2 game, but I have a lot of PS2 (and original PlayStation) games in my library. The last thing I want is have to hook up a PS2 and PS3 system in my entertainment system. The first thing I did with my PS2, after hooking up my PS3, was to put it up on eBay. Hardware backwards compatibility rules!

If someone is struggling with the idea of purchasing a PS3 for $399, they could easily turn to a PS2 for $129. They would be happy with the huge library of PS2 games, but at some point they would long for a PS3 (or maybe a 360 at $299). I doubt they would go all in and throw $528 + tax at both systems.

Sony must expect PS2 sales to remain strong one more holiday season. I predict that within two years there will be another PS3 SKU, this time with PS2 hardware backwards compatibility. “Play all your PS2 games on a PS3. Get it while it lasts!” Seriously. My hardware backwards compatible PS3 has already proven that Sony knows how to get her done. It will all be done under the guise of manufacturing improvements, with no mention of declining PS2 sales.

For those of you that want to upgrade your PS3 HDD, BG Gaming posted a nice little guide

“In the XMB go to Settings > System Settings > Backup and backup your current drive to an external USB drive. I suggest making your backup as lean as possible. Delete any game cache files (seeing as they usually weigh in at about 5 GB apiece) and any demos or other items you can always re-download later. Once you run through the backup process you are ready to go to work. My biggest piece of advice is to replace your hard drive before it reaches the limit, which was not the case for me.”

At some point I am going to have to get brave and try this because my 40GB HDD is rapidly filling up.

Nothing really significant to post on the gameplay front because I have only played one game.

First of all, I think this year’s game is better in every way compared to last year: gameplay, pace of game, controls, menu system, everything. With that said, my next impression is that the game pisses me off as soon as I start to break down plays by watching instant replay.

For my first game was Texas Tech vs. Georgia (me, of course). I wanted an all red and black game. Georgia is ranked number one, and rated 99 across the board. Are you kidding me? They are going to be good, but not that good. EA Sports was also kind of enough to put in the now famous black jerseys. Cool beans!

I played the game on all default settings, with 4 minute quarters. Please, no comments on how much I suck.

I quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but found myself trailing 14-3 at the half, and 21-10 at the end of the 3rd quarter. I decided to “super sim” the rest of the game. Texas Tech 28 – UGA 18. Ouch.

I could not get a running game going; Knowshon Moreno only had 22 yards on 10 attempts. Matthew Stafford completed 76% of his passes, with two TDs and 1 INT (my fault; threw into triple coverage). Unfortunately the CPU completed 75% of their passes, but did not even bother to run the ball (5 total attempts). No other turnovers, but my defensive players dropped two sure-fire interceptions. Disappointing, but it may be a better alternative than too many turnovers.

I recently wrote that I was not going to go off on to a tangent of looking for every little thing wrong with the game (i.e. nitpicking, reviewing the game, etc). Instead I was just going to concentrate on fun factor. OK, I suck. I cannot help myself. I love football games, and a big part of it is how the AI performs. I have to look at the replays to see how the CPU reacts to plays, my movements, etc.

Two examples of things that piss me off from my first game…

• On a kick off, I received the ball, ran to a good 40 yards, and was finally chased down from behind by two Texas Tech players. I am not that worried about the angle of the CPU players; the chase down seemed fair. However, as soon as the ball was kicked, one of my blockers took off for the Raid Raiders endzone, along the way making a half hearted effort to block one of the CPU players. By they time I had received the ball and made it just short of the 50 yard line, one of my blockers was around the 20 yard line. Pretty much a WTF moment.
• I was sacked several times during the game. Probably mostly user error. Not sure of the pace of the game, blocking patterns, coverage, etc. Or was it something else? On one of the sacks, one of my blockers clearly did the 90-degree turn deal, letting the Texas Tech defender have a clear run at Stafford for a sack. Oops.

I am sure there will be other complaints as I continue to breakdown the game, but if I can remember to put fun factor first, hopefully the game will not completely piss me off.

Late last night (or early this morning depending on your perspective and time zone) I also made the mistake of starting to look at messageboards. I could not help myself. I am 100% convinced that the majority of players would not find most of the stuff that is currently being posted by a handful of gamers. In other words, I bet that 2% of the gamers (messageboard posters) find 95% of the issues, but everyone piles on with how much the game sucks, how EA should have better quality control, etc. NCAA Football fans are clearly passionate.

More updates later.

This year was the first year in forever that I did not preorder NCAA Football, and pay for next day shipping. So I did not get it day one, and somehow or another the sun still came up today. Amazing!

My wife was good enough to pick up the game for me today, so in a little while it will be time to crack open a High Life or two and see what this year’s game has to offer.

I am not much of a big E3 fans these days. For the most part, I think the show has lost its prominence. As much of the videogame world knows by now, yesterday Microsoft announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be released on the Xbox 360. Gasps! Gnashing of teeth! You heard it all yesterday from Sony fans. Buildings were burning, chaos ruled the day, messageboards crashed.

In the end does it matter? Third party exclusives are going the way of the dinosaur. At one point they would make or break a console, but these days, the prices of software development are so damn expensive that publishers have to release their software for multiple consoles. From Sony’s standpoint it has to matter in terms of sales and allowing key franchises from the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 days to slip away to their competitors. Grand Theft and Final Fantasy were synonymous with the PlayStation brand. [Yes, I am disregarding the fact that Final Fantasy was once a niche RPG franchise for Nintendo.]

For third party games, the only thing that really matters is the leading development platform, and how developers take advantage of a system’s key features. The Xbox continuously took it up the pipe because the inferior PS2 was the lead system. So far, the worm has turned, and the 360 has been the lead platform. Things are changing. In theory GTA IV is better on the PS3 and there are a handful of games including DiRT that fall into this category. Final Fantasy XIII should also take full advantage of the PS3’s capabilities.

Today we will hear all sorts of conspiracy theories on how Microsoft pulled off the Final Fantasy deal. No doubt, money bags are in order. Same thing apparently happened with GTA IV. Sony has done the same thing in the past, so it should not come as a surprise. What Sony fans should ask “is Sony is asleep at the wheel?” If Sony does not have a major response today, then they will come across as completely indifferent, incompetent, or worse.

So chin up Sony fans. The sun still came up this morning, and Final Fantasy XIII is still coming to your favorite system. Of course it may no longer look and smell like roses. Funny how a multiplatform release will do that to your favorite title.

Sony never ceases to amaze me. Their current marketing strategy is all over the map. How does Home fit in with Qore and the PlayStation Store? How about the OfficialPlay Station Magazine? I do not see how Sony is pushing any of the mediums; it is so damn ad hoc, that they appear to just be throwing up a bunch of junk to see what sticks.

As an example, the latest from Sony is that they are going to sell ad space in their games.

Sony announced Friday that it will start offering virtual advertising space in PlayStation 3 games as part of efforts to stem losses from the console.

Players may see the ads in spaces such as billboards and wall surfaces within the games, it said.

Not a huge surprise. We have already seen this in movies, and some games, and of course Qore is all about sponsorship.

In a move that may be more disappointing to Sony fans, it does not look like a price cut is imminent as a response to the recent Microsoft 360 price reduction of $50.

Sony has no plan to cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console, the company’s chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda said Friday.

“This year, our strategy is not to sell more quantity for PS3 but to concentrate on profitability,” Oneda told a forum in Singapore. “Our plan is not to reduce the price.”

Interesting. I bet a price cut would ultimately help profitability (kind of like selling more Quarter Pounders with Cheese).

PS3 Fanboy is running a couple of different articles [link 1 and link 2] that show some “Greatest Hits” type titles are on the way for the PS3.

Game Positive+ also confirms that a “Greatest Hits” line is on the way.

“It should be interesting to see how prices compare to games in the Xbox 360’s Platinum Hits collection, which was started in 2006, and currently carries a general price range of around $30. Since the Platinum Hits line was introduced, it has accounted for more than 16% of all software sales on the popular console.”

Ratchet and Clank is a game that I really wanted to get, but I could never justify $60 bucks. Not because the game was not good, but at the time I already had spent close to $200 on games (F1CE, Resistance, and Oblivion). Throwing down another $60 was just too much, and besides, I knew that I would not find the time to really enjoy the game.

Things change when the price falls to $29.99. The articles mention Heavenly Sword and MotorStorm, which are two games I would also like to give a go. More so with Heavenly Sword. I would also like to give Conan a whirl, but I doubt it sold anywhere near enough to get into the Greatest Hits (or whatever they are call it) line.

I have been thinking about dumping Resistance for a while because I have never been able to get into it. Not really my cup of tea. Doubt I will be able to do much with it now, but maybe I can get near enough for one of the boobie games. If I have to spell out Heavenly Sword and Conan you should stop reading this blog.

Still doing the Remote Play thing; or at least trying to get it to work. I made some more updates to the PS3 and Router settings, and I was able to connect via internet and private network options, so things were working OK. By saying things “were working OK” I mean that the system was not randomly turning on (and off), and I was able to Remote Play inside my home network without any difficulties. I decided to take the PSP outside of my network to see what would happen.

After a short walk around the block (really just one street over behind my house), I found several unsecured wireless networks. I decided to try a Remote Play session, and I actually connected to my PS3! Success!

There was some serious lag, but I was able to browse via my PS3, stream my Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour video (because soft porn rules!), and play PixelJunk Monsters. Like I said, lag was awful, so I would not say that any of this was useful, but actually connecting to my PS3 gave me a fleeting feeling of success.

Alas, the connection was broken a couple of times, but I was able to reestablish a connection.  Since the bandwidth was so poor, I continued my walk until I found a better connection. This would make three successful connections (PS3 was on for two of them because of the unexpected disconnections). The second network was much faster; Shakira audio and video was better. I finally ended Remote Play, and selected the option to turn the PS3 off.

After a short walk home, I noticed that the PS3 was still on. Hmmmm … something is still not working right. I tried to connect via the internet, but right as I started to attempt to connect, the PS3 turned off.  Eventually I received a time out message. I noticed that the “green” light was not on, so I turned on my PS3, and checked the Remote Play section (start option was still enabled). Not sure what is what with this one, but something that was not supposed to happened.  Needless to say, this is the kind of crap that I find so frustrating.  I wish Remote Play worked without so much anguish.

I took a walk again, but could not establish a connection to my PS3. After returning home, I could not connect with the internet option, but I was able to connect via the Private Network option. I just turned the PS3 off (back of the system power switch) to see if that makes any difference next time.  Maybe I can only connect once, which would suck, but it would be more than not being able to connect which is where I was at before today.

I will continue to experiment,.  Remote Play is getting ever so close!

I have been looking for an excuse to throw up another Eye Candy post. Thanks to EA Sports I now have one, but I bet everyone would rather see some more body paint models. Talking about real eye candy!

No doubt even prettier in Tiger Woods 09

While doing some Remote Play tests, I decided to down load the Tiger Woods 09 video. The video clip presents a side-by-side comparison of Tiger Woods 08 and Tiger Woods 09 graphics. No idea how it plays. Who cares? Sure looks pretty.