PS3 | The Recycle Bin

Monday Gaming Stuff.

These days I get gaming in very small doses. The same goes for looking at videogame centric sites. Hell, I cannot remember the last time I even logged onto a videogame forum. Right now, that is just not my cup of tea. I have such little time to play games; I cannot be bothered to read about them, much less write about my gaming experiences.

What has changed over the last 18-24 months? Well, lots. For starters, I just realized that E3 was last week (maybe the week before last … not that I care). I also let my Official PlayStation Magazine subscription expire. I am not up to date on the latest Qore downloads. I have not preordered the twin football releases of NCAA Football 2010 and Madden 2010.

Things are different, but you will notice that I am actually writing about gaming. What gives? I still enjoy the hobby; I just do not find that much spare time – probably has something to do with work and having three boys. Usually real life events get my gaming jones churning. Last weekend, Le Mans got me into some video game racing. I even ordered a new game. Hmmm …

Over the weekend I started looking for a new racing game. I was really curious if a new F1 game was going to be published, but the best I can tell is that the PS3 version by Codemasters is either unconfirmed or cancelled. Oh, that was when I came across Ferrari Challenge. One thing led to another, and I started reading news about this that and the other, which was when I realized that I missed E3!

There was a time and place when that would never have happed. I even attended E3 years ago when it had a two year run in Atlanta. I realize that E3 is no longer as important as it once was, but it was a sort of reality check that I was so far removed from gaming that I did not give a shit that E3 had come and gone. Strange times …

One of the E3 related spin off bits that I read about this morning was the pricy new PSPgo. My PSP does nothing except collect dust, so a new PSP seems in order. I keep debating if I should sell mine and convert over to a Nintendo DSi, but I cannot convince myself to but bait and take a loss. At any rate, at first glance this newest revision of the PSP seems ill conceived. The system price point is too high, the game downloads are too expensive, and the downloaded selections are rather limited. This commentary from Sports Legends points out all these problems and more:

But the truth is that I would consider paying that much if, and only if, I knew my long term investment would pay off in lots of cool digital-only toys. If the PlayStation store was ready to go with lots of cool applications for the PSP, a system that screams for just such products, I wouldn’t even mind paying a little more for the really premium content. But, from Sony, nothing. It’s like putting a Porsche body on a Chrysler LeBaron and selling trying to sell it for $200,000.

To be blunt,if I’m on a budget I go with Nintendo’s continued DS juggernaut and if I’m looking for a technology novelty or vanity piece of hardware, I get an iPhone or iPod touch with access to an absolutely obscene amount of applications.

Love that Chrysler LeBaron quote! I had a good friend in college that could barely keep his LeBaron going, but man was he proud of that car.

Print magazines such as the Official PlayStation Magazine are antiquated. Except for quality reading time on the throne, I am not sure what they offer, but it still feels odd no longer having any video game magazine subscriptions. Well, I suppose that is not quite right because I do have a digital subscription to Qore. I think that one runs out in July or August, which gives me plenty of time to catch up on the last seven months of downloads.

I think the biggest nut chaser has to be that I have not bothered to order a 2010 EA football game release. I am somewhat torn here. First, do I have the time to take on a new football game, much less two? Second, do I really want to spend $120+ tax just to see if anything changes? Finally, do I try to get a few bucks for my 20th Anniversary Madden while it is still worth $15-20? I got rid of last year’s NCAA Football in enough time to collect close to half price, but it is far too late for last year’s Madden. The real travesty is that I am not even close to getting my $90 worth out of the Head Coach/Madden experience.

Finally, there is the whole “will it even work” thing that I have going against me. My PS3 is as fickle as a teenage school girl. Some days it plays discs, and others it just ignores my advances (err … you know what I mean … the drive will not read games, movies, etc). Right now I do not think I am going to bother sending it off for costly repairs. Replacing it with a new version that does not have the proper PS2 Emotion Engine emulation hardware does not seem like a good option. Besides all that, money for a system repair or system replacement would be better spent of a tailgating grill for the upcoming Falcons season.

So where does this leave us? I am not really sure, but this is a start.

Sunday Racing Stuff.

This was a great weekend of racing action; on TV (real life and the PS3). First up, congratulations are in order to Corvette for taking first in GT1 today at Le Mans. I wanted a decent amount of SPEED’s coverage, but Le Mans is not the type of race where you just sit down and watch end-to-end. Not to mention the fact that the race is 24 hours, I do actually have a life and commitments outside of watching racing on TV.

Jeff Gordon managed his fuel to a surprise (really a gift) second place finish today in Michigan. He is a healthy second in the Chase, 47 or so points back of Stewart, but only having one win is going to hurt his chances.

PS3 Gaming Update
All this racing action inspired me to try out some PS3 racing. These days I do not have a lot of free time for gaming, and my PS3 is extremely finicky with disc, randomly deciding to read/accept one. This weekend I managed to get in a few minutes with Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and Formula One Championship Edition.

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
GT5 Prologue is an eye-candy pleasing, fun game, but to be honest, except for the graphics, I like GT4 better. Unfortunately, my two-year old son killed the GT4 disc; I assume I will buy another copy one of these days. I played around with Gt5 Prologue a little; just enough to make me chuckle a couple of times watching the lame AI race around the tracks. Good stuff.

Formula One Championship Edition
Next up was F1CE. This game is still a blast! The simulation mode is far from perfect, and while it is not as brutal as a “pure” simulation, it more than gets the job done. I had a great time just running hot laps in the time trial mode. This game has held up amazing well. It is too bad that there have been no downloadable options, other than rumble support. New circuits, teams, drivers … really any bonus content would be welcome. I think I read somewhere that Codemasters now holds the F1 license, but there is not currently a confirmed PS3 release in the works.

Ferrari Challege
I decided to order Ferrari Challenge for the PS3 from Amazon for $17.99; thanks to second day Prime shipping, the game will be here Wednesday. Sure the game has been out for a year, but that goes a long way to show how much my gaming patters have changed over the last couple of years. There was a time when this one would have been on my preorder list, but to be honest, these days I am so far removed from the gaming community that I assumed this was an arcade game similar the PSP version. Hell, even if was a pure arcade racer, there was a time when I would have had the game in hand on release day, played the heck out of it, offered up some initial impressions, and then go on a 5000+ word diatribe about the game. I digress. Those days are gone.

When I saw the cheap price, I headed to metacritic to check out the game. I am guessing that Ferrari Challenge got lost in the crowded field of other arcade racers – you know the GRID, DiRT, Need For Speed, Motor Storm, and to some degree the beautiful GT5: Prologue. I am going to guess that when everyone figured out you had to work for wins Ferrari Challenge fell by the wayside. Even if I hate the game, for less than $20, I figure that it is not a big loss.

Saturday Pot Luck.

Better than a Sunday church pot luck dinner; a scrumptious serving of Saturday random nonsense, Recycle Bin style. Enjoy!

Doing the needful.
Oh yes my friends. Rejoice! For sex, and plenty of it is in your future. After all, your wife does care about you, right? Thanks to this article, now you have six damn good reasons for a romp in the hay with your better half. No more “not tonight honey, I have a headache” – what a crock of crap; this excuse is no longer going to fly.

Believe it or not, sexual intercourse burns off 150 calories every half hour. Although the average couple engages in sex for approximately 25 minutes a session only three times a week, it still accounts for 450 calories that are better taken off than put on.If you’re more active than average, then that will only make things more beneficial for you and that lucky gal. A health benefit of sex, particularly a rigorous hour of sex, is that it may burn even more than 300 calories depending on how rigorous you get.

“Honey! Time to exercise!”

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet…I’m hunting wabbits!
Well, at least I would like to read about wabbits, but Amazon has not been able to fulfill my order. I have had “Air Rifle Shooting for Pest Control and Rabbiting”? by John Bezzant (2009; Hardcover; $31.50) on order for a while, but no dice yet. Too bad; the book sounds interesting. Amazon keeps sending me “we are still trying to locate this book emails” – I may just have to cancel and order from their UK store.

Paul Tracy’s Blog
What a pleasant surprise to find (A) an athlete that can put pen to paper (B) a racer that is down to earth (C) an entertaining blog by none other than Paul Tracy.

Over the last week I have linked to a few RACER.com stories. Their new site has a few interesting tidbits including Tracy’s blog.

He [A.J. Foyt] was mid-story-telling of how their race went at Indy, and suddenly I blew a driver’s-side tag-axle tire on the RV. It just exploded on me, and got chewed up and hung up on the Jeep, so it started rocking around all over the place too. So I’m trying to drive something that suddenly felt like a giant sprint-car, trying to keep it out of the ditch. I’ve got one hand on the phone, one hand on the wheel, both feet on the brake pedal trying to get the freakin’ thing slowed down but not wanting to interrupt A.J. mid-sentence or cut him off. But eventually when he paused to take a breath, I said, “A.J., I’ve got to take a break, I just blew a tire,” and he said “OK,” and hung up.

College World Series Regionals
Georgia gets Florida St. today at 4PM. Follow all the action here.

PS3 Stuffs
I think my PS3 is still alive and kicking. It has been randomly accepting and rejecting discs, with no particular rhyme or reason. The only constant is that Blu-ray movies would spin like crazy with a horrible sound. Thankfully, the PS3 did not scratch any of the discs.

Just for the hell of it I wondered if the drive was out of alignment. I turned off the PS3, took a disc that I could a crap about, and forced the disc into the PS3. After all, that is more or less what my two-year-old son did in the first place. Of course I stopped at one disc; he went for three, but that story has already been told.

I turned on the PS3, and now all is in order. Strange. Could have just been a random coincidence, but I was able to watch Spider-man 2.1, so I am not complaining. Will have to give a game or two a go today to see if things are still on the up and up.

If the PS3 is still working I am going to have to finally get Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. It has been a long time coming getting this one to Greatest Hits status. $29.99 is a good deal.

The bad news is that I was thinking about throwing my unopened copy of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on eBay, but I may as well open it up and play it now.

It is about time for my yearly Madden and NCAA Football purchase. Am I going to do the double again this year? Sure. It is tradition!

Mmm … amber liquid goodness
Because sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Pour you a sipping glass full of some delicious Knob Creek, and settle in for a great weekend.

I’m drowning in a whiskey river bathin’ my memoried mind in the wetness of its odor.
Feelin’ the amber current flowin’ from my mind, a warm and emtpy heart you left so cold.

Happy Saturday!

Eye Candy Retro Style

I have a huge catalog of Original PlayStation (PSX) and PlayStation 2 (PS2) games just sitting around in my entertainment center, various bookshelves, boxes and bins. I know; this sort of sucks as a waste of perfectly good (and not so good) games. I have written before that at one point in time I was pretty much addicted to videogames – buying the game, holding it, owning it, preordering it, playing it for a few minutes. Getting a new game was akin to crack.

Over the years I have broken this habit; sort of. The addiction is partly what drove me from reviewing games, and not getting new material every week also contributes to not having anything new to say, but I digress. Writing about the latest, greatest videogame releases became more of a core than a welcome distraction.

At any rate, I do a much better job of selling some games if I figure I just do not enjoy them or will never get around to completing the game. I try to time selling sports games on eBay so I can get $25-30 in preparations for the next release. At other times, I have a hard time letting go. Seeing the Gran Turismo 4 (GT4) game case, knowing that the disc is destroyed (see previous blog entry – “Life without a PS3?”), I think about tracking down a replacement copy. I know that I will never finish it; the only GT series game that I have completed 100% is the first release for the PSX. Still, to me, GT4 is the best release in the series, even if the graphics do not compare to the PlayStation 3 (PS3) eye candy in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which finally brings me to the point of this column.

I was poking around looking for some information on older PSX games; need to make some decisions on which games to sell and which ones to keep a while longer. I came across this article about upcoming PSOne (I still like PSX) games for the PlayStation Store.

Medal of Honor
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Wipeout XL

I still have Wipeout XL (and the original Wipeout). Fun games that I never really got into, but never sold because I know they are “classics” that I will eventually came back to one of these days. I never got into the Spyro games; I am sure I purchased them, but that is a different story. I own Medal of Honor, but never got around to playing it. Several times I thought about selling it, but I always thought I should hang onto it for a while longer. I use to play the heck out of the Street Fighter Alpha series, but was never very good. I think I still own one of these games, but will have to look to see. I do still have the Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter game, which I have held onto just because. Seriously, no real reason other than the Marvel characters in the Street Fighter engine was pretty cool.

The only problem with these older games, that I may or may not get around to playing one day, is that the graphics really do suck on my HDTV. Funny; I have become a graphics whore. Every time I attempt to cull my collection, I think about which games were fun (at the time of the PSX) and which ones have gameplay that would hold up well today. This pretty much rules out sports games, but you cannot get more than fifty cents for many of the older games, unless they have some collectable value (i.e. Tecmo Super Bowl). I would actually play some of these games if I could get my PS3 and PSP to do a decent job with Remote Play. Maybe one day.

I have been having a good time with my two oldest sons playing Midway Arcade Treasures 3; mainly Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder. Back in the day this collection averaged a metacritic score of 67.

It goes without saying that the graphics are certainly better than any of the PSX offerings, but nowhere near the level of PS3 arcade racers. In this case, it all comes down to gameplay and that all important fun factor quality. It is fun “re-discovering” some of these older titles with my boys. They could care less about the graphics (they are use to the Wii and their Nintendo DS); I think they are actually OK with enjoying a game for the pure pleasure of playing something new.

So maybe there is still some life in that old collection of mine, and along the way maybe I can educate my kids in the finer arts of PlayStation and arcade style gaming classics. If my kids learn to value fun factor and gameplay over eye candy, I win.

Life without a PS3?

Any longtime readers of this humble site have realized for a while that I lost my gaming jones. As the NFL draft was approaching I decided it was high time to get in some Madden. Imagine my surprise when I could not insert the disc. After a while I realized that my youngest son decided he wanted to play a game, so he tried to help himself. To the tune of loading up the PS3 with three discs!

I have no idea how he accomplished this feat, but none the less, three discs were in the PS3. Dragon Tales (original PSX – this must have been what he wanted to play), Crazy Taxi (PS2), and Gran Turismo 4 (PS2). What to do? I was awfully pissed off, so I went outside so as not to take out my frustrations on my family.

The lovely and talented Mrs. Calvert decided to appraise the situation, and tweezers in hand, she removed Gran Turismo 4. Of course it was broken and completely ruined. I guess that is one game that I have an excuse not to complete at 100%. That was all she could do.

After I calmed down, I came back inside and attempted to get the other disc out. At the time I had no idea that my son jammed in three games! Good grief. After numerous attempts to eject, turning the system on and off, Crazy Taxi finally emerged (I have no idea if this one still works; lots of scratches). Finally, my son’s prize emerged – and of course as luck would have it, Dragon Tales still worked.

The PS3 did not survive the forced gameplay process. Results were mixed. Often when inserting a disc, it makes a horrible noise, and does not recognize the disc. After several attempts 5-10, a disc will finally be show in the XMB, and will actually play. Last weekend I did get in a couple of games of Madden, and a few older PS2 arcade type collections (kids love the Midway collection with Rush 2049).

Earlier in the week, the new Star Trek Season 1 collection arrived, and seemed to work OK, after the above process of multiple disc inserts, turning the system on/off, etc.

I realized that the PS3 was on its last leg; something in the blu-ray insert, load, read mechanism is badly jacked up (you know you like these technical descriptions). Last night the system decided it would not play any blu-ray movies would not work, and they sure as hell would not eject. After 10 minutes, the PS3 finally gave me back 300. Thanks.

So now I have to decide if I want to attempt my own repairs, taking about the PS3, and disassembling the blu-ray drive in order to clean the lens and maybe see if I can align the mechanism that moves disc in/out of the device. Or I can send in the PS3 for repairs.

At any rate, after a long sabbatical from the PS3, now that I am starting to feel the jones again, I have to prepare for life without a PS3. I do not really want to spend $150 on repairs, and I sure as hell do not want to buy a new PS3.

The day gaming died.

I think today is the day that I finally realized that gaming has died. Well, maybe not died, but it is truly on life support. As long as I was on a roll with some blog updates, I figured I would check out the latest videogame action to see what I wanted to write about. I cruised on over to n4g, and looked around. First I took a glance at the general news page, then the PS3 section, and finally the PSP section. Nothing of interest. Nothing to get excited about. Nothing to make me turn on my PS3.

It has been a while since I played anything. My PSP lives in a drawer waiting for me to recharge its batteries; hoping and praying for a business trip that will let it strut its stuff. My PS3 sits idle, waiting for me to put in something other than a Blu-ray movie. And so it goes.

At some point I have to ask myself WTF is wrong with me? Am I defective? OK, don’t answer that one, but right now I am not sure when I will get close to being enthusiastic about gaming. It has been months since I wanted to play anything. Come to think of it, Madden was the last game I purchased and played (and certainly not $90 collection edition enough to get value for my purchase). I wonder if playing Madden is the gaming equivalent of a cock block.

It may be time to switch gears and pick up something PC oriented. A return to text based simulations such as Football Manager or Out of the Park Baseball. Or maybe check out Spore, Civilization, or some other addictive simulation. Maybe even give World of Warcraft another go. As it stands right now, gaming is on life support. Hopefully sooner or later, it will come back alive and kicking.

PS3. It’s been a while.

How long? I decided to crank up my PS3 today. It’s been a while. I think the last time I turned on the PS3 I was in the process of upgrading my firmware to 2.50. Today, I had to upgrade to the 2.53 firmware.

When I last turned on my PS3, I started downloading the Sep and Oct Qore episodes. Looks like Sep was still in progress, and Oct had not even started. I went into the store and started downloads for Nov and Dec Qore episodes.

Folding at Home is now something called PlayStation Life. No idea about this one. I actually enjoyed folding proteins; not sure about this new Life thing.

I decided to pass some time with Madden; had to upgrade to game data 1.20. My last profile was saved in Aug, so yes; it has been a long time since I fired up the PS3. I decided to play the Falcons vs. Texans, but first I looked for a roster update. No idea where to find those, so I just put in Ryan as my staring QB. Played a quick game on 3 minute quarters and won 13-6. Yeah me! My IQ is still sub 500, but who cares? It is not like I have penis size complex or anything.

I have been out of the PS3 scene for awhile, but I have not really missed anything. Not sure if Bowl season will finally get me going with NCAA Football. Heck, I never gave the second patch a chance.

I keep thinking that the Little Big Planet thing will bring me back to the world of gaming, but I have not really been interested enough to pick that one up. It may be more like priorities, and what is getting most of my free time. Right now, obviously gaming is taking a back seat.

So here’s to turning on the PS3 for the first time in months (literally). May my Qore downloads succeed, and may I actually be in the mood to watch them. Hopefully that hot chick is still hosting because that was really the only reason to watch them in the first place.

Would you believe that this is the first year in forever that I can remember actually not asking for a game from Santa? Seriously. My wife is usually good for a game or three, and she makes sure my mom also throws in one for good measure. I did not even bother putting a game on the Christmas list this year. My how times have changed.

Good gaming to you and yours!

Madden 09 Countdown (3 days).

I was just about to pre-order the Madden 09 Collectors Edition from ebgames, but decided against it because the total price was a shocking $108.58 ($89.99 + $11.49 Next Day Shipping + $7.10 Tax). I decided that I did not need the game next day that bad. Seriously, there was a time and a place where I had to have games on the release day, but it is not like I am doing the Madden Holiday thing.

At any rate I decided to take my shopping pleasures over to Amazon. After all, I have the Prime thing going for me, so next day shipping is cheap (forget the exact amount – something under $4). Plus Amazon does not charge sales tax. The only downside of using Amazon for videogames is that you never get them on release day. Hey, I am sensible; I just talked myself out of needed games on the release day.

Imagine my surprise to see a new shipping option (automatically selected for my happy self): “Release-Date Delivery Aug 12.” That is not the kicker; release-date delivery is free. Wow! You have to love Amazon Prime. I just saved 18.58, which absolutely makes me giddy.

In three days Madden 09 Collectors Edition will show up on my front porch for $89.99. No shipping charges, no tax, no wasted gas going to a brick-and-mortar, no waiting. It is all about me.

NCAA Football 09 Discussions (Eye Candy)

I have been participating in a fun discussion over at the digitalsportsgame.com. If you want to read some intelligent, diverse discussion on the game, check out this thread.

I am biased, but I think my last comments in the thread (check out page 10) were pretty much on the mark, but your mileage may vary:

“In general, I think the game is fun. Warts and all. Hell, I could pick out flaws in any game, it’s just that some of the ones in NCAA Football are glaring. Besides, I am very passionate about college football.

This is a guess, because I am not part of the mass market, casual gamer crowd … at least not yet. I think the focus groups (or whatever EA uses for these types of things) decided that gamers want high scoring games. Focus on offense. Focus on big plays, exciting hits, and high powered offense.

Look at the Madden tournaments as examples of offense out of control. Those games would feature higher scoring if the games featured longer quarters.

The truth is that we, the more niche sports videogame simulation fan, enjoy defense, ball control, running the option, etc. It is not what everyone else wants, so the majority rules. We can only hope that sliders allow us to adjust the game closer to our liking. Big oops this year on the sliders.”

Anyway, the rest of the thread is a good read. Check it out. And yes, I have been looking for an excuse to throw up more eye candy.

Give them what they want. GT5 Eye Candy.

I spent a goodly amount of time with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue today. Sure, it is eye candy, but it is the candy everybody wants.

At this point I only have a couple of Gold Trophies to earn in the C Class events. Race C-3 (Cappaccino Time Target) and C-9 (FF Challenge). I have a Silver Trophy in the former (1:39.570 is my current fastest time), and a Bronze Trophy in the latter (I need to work at this one). I will give it another go again tonight, and I should have some time tomorrow to see if I can knock off one or both.

I had a blast getting the Gold Trophy in C-8 (Honda Integra Mission) at Daytona. It was not until I switched to manual, and picked up the draft from almost every car I passed, that I actually found my way across the finish line first. I never considered that manual transmission at a super speedway would be important, but it made a difference. Catching the draft was incredible exciting. Enough so that I am seriously consider picking up NASCAR 09. Daytona Gran Turismo style, getting ready to watch the Coke Zero 400, some beer, and of course Tori will also do the trick.