Author: jcalvert

Spoilers be damned, the USA just played a polar opposite game compared to the recent USA � England debacle. Team USA looked damn impressive tonight with a 3-nil victory. A few quick comments are in order:

Donovan was all over the place, and looked fantastic putting two in the net.

Kasey Keller was extremely impressive guarding the net. He made several impressive stops, including an unbelievable reach behind the back stop.

DaMarcus Beasley was back in action (after missing time with an injury), and he got the living shit kicked out of him 2-3 different times. Really nasty stuff on the part of Costa Rica.

Kevin’s boy McBride collected a stay ball into the net to give the USA their third and final goal.

All in all a nice performance, and I think it puts the US at the top of the table (for at least a day anyway).

I finally found a few spare minutes to update (and hopefully upgrade) the site. I have upgraded to the latest version of Nucleus CMS (the wonderful software responsible for this site) in hopes of providing greater security, less spam intrusions, and more flexibility with the site.

If you see some random error messages, broken images, and the like over the next few days, you now know why. Hopefully I will get everything corrected in due order. Please feel free to post errors that you encounter to this blog entry.

I am able to announce that I can continue to allow unregistered users to post comments to the site. I have installed NP_Captcha, a script that requires you to post a challenge (via random alphanumeric graphic characters) before you can post your comments. Small price to pay to prevent spambots from posting here. So take that you f’ing spammers!

Upgrade has gone well thus far; wish me luck the rest of the way!

I find it rather amusing that it has rained every day this week in Columbus, Ga., and I here I am writing about a dry spell. In my last blog entry I wrote about what a godsend the PSP has been for my gaming life; in short, it has revived my gaming experience. Now I have to bunker in for a long dry summer.

There is absolutely nothing on the PSP release list horizon that catches my interests for summer gaming satisfaction. In fact, there is next to nothing schedule for release this summer.

At this point I suppose I will try out some other games that I would not normally purchase just to spice up the action. I was pretty reluctant to pick up FIFA because of the $49.99 sticker shock, but I needed a sports game, and I was curious about FIFA, so I made it part of my initial preorder bundle. Of course it was delayed for a month, but what can you do? I played it a bunch the first week, but now the UMD is lonely, collecting dust on a book shelf.

What about the other PSP sports games? At this point I do not see any PSP sports games that have everyone clamoring praise over, so I will divide up the PSP sports titles into two categories:

• May be worth owning: MLB, Hot Shots


• May be worth trying: MVP, World Tour Soccer


• Probably not going to happen: Gretzky, NBA, NBA Street, NFL Street 2, Tiger Woods, Tony Hawk

To be fair, some of the “probably not going to happen” games have received average or better ratings, but I do not have the time, energy, or money to toil away on average at best games. Based on what I have read MVP and Tour Soccer are probably not worth my time, but it is going to be a long dry summer, so why not give them a go if I can get them discounted or on the cheap via eBay?

Because PSP releases have slowed to a crawl, I decided to pick up Brotherhood of the Blade, which is no doubt a quality title that I may have otherwise missed. I am reluctant to give any license money to MLB, but I think the dry summer and my curiosity will get the better of me with MLB (and perhaps MVP). I have played Hot Shots on the PSX in the past, and while the franchise is pure quality, I am just not a golf fan, so I hazard a guess that I will not get my money’s worth from the game. I know I would waste money on a NBA or hockey purchase, and I just do not care for the whole street thing. Give me SSX any day of the week for my “BIG” experience.

Virtual Tennis could be a solid title; it was on the Dreamcast. Problem is that I am not a tennis fan, so once again I may not get a good return on my purchase. Besides, the game is not scheduled for release until the end of August, so it is not going to help me fight the dry spell.

Alas, no football anytime soon except for the Street thing. Madden is too far away – it is not schedule for release until mid September – I really need some PSP football! As of now, NCAA Football is not scheduled for a PSP release, which I can understand since it may be hard for EA Sports to make money off a PSP college title, but I still find it disappointing.

I think I have written enough about Ridge Racer and Wipeout that everyone knows I think the two games are quality titles with excellent replay value and both games provide a solid gameplay experience. What about the other racers? ATV Offroad? May be a good game, but I am just not into the ATV thing. Need for Speed Underground looks very underwhelming. Midnight Club 3 is going to be out towards the end of June, but I will probably hold off unless it gets great reviews that force me to open my wallet. This fall we will get Burnout, F1 Grand Prix (yes!), and WRC (happy days are here again, but why no CMR?), but the wait will be long, hard, and dare I say dry.

Anything else on the horizon? Midway and Namco both have collections (I need me some classic gaming action) coming out this fall, so no help for the weary summer gamer.

So if I have to hold out with what I have now, here is the current pecking order of my PSP library; pecking order subject to change as the long dry summer drones on:

• Brotherhood of the Blade – Brotherhood may not be the best game in my library, but it is getting the most play time since it is the current new shinny. Great for those hack-and-slash fixes, but could get a little monotonous if you are not a fan of the genera.


• Ridge Racer – This is a great game for pick up and play racing; possibly the best title on the PSP. I am not sure how long this game will last because I can only take so much arcade racing, but so far, so pleased.


• Lumines – Absolutely a great puzzle game, and Lumines is a great way to waste 20 minutes. There have only been a handful of puzzle games that have come close to the level of addiction seen in Tetris, and Lumines certainly fits the bill.


• Wipeout Pure – Wipeout is a fantastic racer in the mold of the classic PSX Wipeout and Wipeout XL games. I am not sure what else can be said; you either like stylistic futuristic racing or you do not. I happen to think Pure is one of the best PSP releases to date.


• FIFA 2005 – This game is sort of a wild card. It is not necessarily bad, but it is certainly not great. I think EA straddled the fence with mediocrity. We should expect more for our gaming dollar, but FIFA is typical of previous first generation sports games on console systems. FIFA is the only sports game I own for the PSP so you would expect it to get more play time, but I just do not find it that compelling. I have actually put it down for a while so I can give it a fresh go at a later date.


• Twisted Metal: Head-On – I think Twisted Metal loses out due to sheer numbers; too many games, not enough time for them all. I am a fan of the series, but something about Head-On has thus far failed to capture my imagination. Maybe this summer’s dry spell will bring it back to life. Time will tell.

There you have it; the first time I have written a 1000 word article in months. Must be the dry spell.

Not to be confused with the all important gameplay review element (how a game actually plays); my game play time seems to be ever diminishing. Thankfully this new PSP thing is perfect for the gamer on the go. The gamer with a life. The gamer that has to sneak in a quick turn at Ridge Racer or quickly level up a Druid in Brotherhood of the Blade between conversations with said gamer’s better half. Yes, the PSP is revolutionary, but in ways that matter to this gamer most – game play (time).

Seriously, my game play time seems to have been misplaced somewhere between the crapper and somewhere else that should not be mentioned on a family network. Of course there is the “life excuse” (as in get one and you will understand), but there is also the “my six year old son wants to play Zelda (or Need for Speed)” excuse. Joshua gets to play my PS2 and GC so much more than I do that I think I am going to become seriously jealous at some point. Why should he get to have all the fun, while I languish in gaming purgatory?

Of course I jest. Well maybe I am only a little bitter and slightly jealous, but only a little. After all, I can put Joshua on restriction if I need the TV or controller.

These days I may not have much game play time at my disposal, but most days I am able to get in some PSP action. Thankfully the PSP has this wonderful sleep feature that allows me to latterly play for a few minutes, sleep, play some more, sleep until tomorrow, play some more, sleep; you get the picture. The PSP is a dysfunctional gamer’s wet dream.

With the introduction of the PSP into my gaming library, I have actually been able to get my video game fix daily. In fact, assuming that I only have 30 minutes to play on a typical weekday, prior to the advent of the PSP I would just pass up gaming in favor of something else. With the PSP, I can easily get in that 30 minutes, watch a game of baseball, tighten up the graphics, and event talk to my wife.

Fantastic? You bet, but I have no idea WTF those guys on that advertisement are talking about when they tell their boss that they have to “tighten up the graphics.”

Good grief, this guy blows yet another game. How many freaking games is that so far this year? Un-f’ing believable.

The guy comes in against Washington after ATL manages to come from behind, scoring 4 in the 8th to go up 6-3. What does Knob do? How about 1IP, 2H, 3R, 2 f’ing BBs, all good for a 27.00 ERA.

Thanks to Kolb, the Braves go down to Washington 8-6. Absolutely ridiculous.

Kevin Mosley (kmosley) has returned to the Recycle Bin! When we last met, Kevin was the very first CG staff member, and currently spills his guts in his Gut Reaction blog and various message boards over yonder.

Enough of the pleasantries and fluff; Kevin is back and certainly welcomed!

Over the three-day weekend I picked up Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade for the PSP. The game is basically Champions of Norrath without the Everquest license; no official character types, races, monster names, etc. The mechanics of Brotherhood are the same as Norrath. I was going to same the same with a few exceptions, but there are so few that I would be hard pressed to think of any. To enter a new area you hold down the square button for a couple of seconds while a meter/gauge fills up. Does that count as a difference? The controls are also different since the PSP only has two shoulder buttons compared to four on the standard Dual Shock controller.

The character menu is the same as Norrath – four icons consisting of a sword, armor, potion, heart, and some other thing. Obvious stuff follows. The sword icon for weapons, while the armor icon for various pieces of armor, and the potion icon is for miscellaneous items such as health and power potions, rings, pendants, and even items to upgrade your weapons and armor (you guessed it, just like Norrath). The heart icon is for character info – health, weapon damage, attribute info, etc. There is even a book icon for current quest info, and the final tree type icon is for what else, the ability tree.

I can go into the backdrop story later; who cares about stories anyway in a hack-n-slash adventure? Right now I have a six level Druid, I have just left the city, and I have some sort of “sting” magic bolt that does a good deal of damage.

If you are into Norrath and Baldur’s Gate type games, then this one is a slam dunk. I am having a blast with it right now, and highly recommend Brotherhood until something happens (i.e. more time to uncover issues/flaws).

No, not another Star Wars post, but a Internet Archive Wayback Machine link to the olden days of Calvert Games. It is kind of interesting for me to see the evolution of the site; figured some other long time readers would get some giggles as well.

As long as I am digging up old crap, here is one from before I lost my gaming innocence:

“Announcement: New Sports Reviewer At “Sports Reviewers”
Sports Reviewers is pleased to announce the addition of a new member to its team. Jonathan Calvert brings Sports Reviewers his gaming expertise and ability to write outstanding, in-depth reviews. Some of you may already know Jonathan from his strong presence on Usenet. Enough with the pleasantries — Jonathan’s work will speak for itself. Welcome aboard Jonathan!
posted by Matt 8/10/2000 10:44:45 AM” [Source: Sports Reviewers August 15, 2000 Archive]

It has been a long time since those days; a very long time.

Overall yesterday was a great day for racing. As I indicated in previous posts (and comments), I immensely enjoyed the European GP, and the Indy 500 was a blast as well. I am not sure what to make of the Coca-Cola 600; it was so damn long (5+ hours) with so many cautions (22) that at times it was too hard to watch because there was no flow to the action. Let me run that by everyone again – 22 cautions (a Cup record), or better said, 25% of the laps were run under a yellow flag (103 of 400 laps). Amazing!

Don’t get me wrong; there was plenty of drama (Budweiser taking out Napa Auto … sorry, hard to resist), Vickers taking out damn near anyone he could hit, and of course the Labonte/Johnson dual through the final turn. I was pulling hard for my fellow Corpus Christi, TX native to pull it off, but unfortunately Bobby could not hold off Jimmy.

Bobby Labonte said it best:

“To finish second really isn’t all that bad, but to finish second kind of stinks, too.”

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

The 6th or 3rd Star Wars moving (depending on your view point) has already kicked some serious ass in the box office, and continues to do well with $15.9 million in earnings yesterday. Revenge of the Sith pulled in $108 million during its opening weekend, including $50 million on its opening day. Very, very impressive. Total US gross to date is $215.9 million, which means that someone is making some serious coin if you consider that the production budget is listed at $115 million. [Source: The Numbers, supershadow.com]

Geoff Pinello (geoffp) from the former Elder Gamer site (Chris’ old blog) is now part of the Recycle Bin! I met Geoff as part of Chris’ OOTP IOSBL, and am delighted that Geoff is going to contribute to the Recycle Bin. I will let Geoff do his own introduction, but I expect Geoff to write about this, that, and the other with his takes on racing, and PC gaming among other topics.

Welcome Geoff!

I never have considered myself a bandwagon jumper or a fair-weather fan, but I have always enjoyed watching Sam Hornish Jr. race, which is the main reason I am pulling for him in tomorrow’s race. I am not really sure why I latched onto Sam; I guess it is just one of those things where he was winning when I started watching the IRL, and winners get lots of exposure, so I was able to focus on Sam. In much the same way I latched onto Jacques Villenueve when I started watching F1 even though Damon Hill was the eventual Champion, so I have to think I am not all about bandwagons. The same goes for Jeff Gordon – he was winning when I started watching racing in 1995, so he was getting tons of press, plus I had to pull for someone that was close to my age when all the other Winston Cup mainstays were closer to my uncle’s age.

Anyway, I am going to be pulling for Hornish and the Penske team tomorrow, but all eyes will be focused on Danica Patrick, who starts on the 2nd row (4th position). Admit it – you are pulling for Danica to do well. If she does well, then the face of racing forever changes.

I do not follow the IRL enough – when I watch races, I always enjoy them, but I do not find anything compelling enough to make me *want* to watch the events. Shame on me? Maybe, but a few years ago I argued that the IRL needed to become more like NASCAR and really put an emphasis on the personality of its drivers in order for the IRL to capture the public’s imagination. I still feel that way; besides the occasional article on Hornish, and now all the focus on Patrick, the IRL continues to fail to fly the banner for its drivers. NASCAR may rule the roost, but so many of NASCAR’s top drivers have come from open wheel racing that the IRL has to learn to market its product better.

For the last several years I have watched the Indy 500, as I will tomorrow (God willing), and as I have for the last few years (except for Michael Andretti’s last 500) I will pull for Hornish. Regardless of who wins, I hope for dry weather, an exciting race, a photo finish, and for the IRL media types to finally capitalize on the personalities behind the wheel.

If you own a PSP by now you are painfully aware that the screen is super sensitive and scratches every time you sneeze, or you are about to come to the realization that you are going to scratch up the surface of your PSP any day. Either way, the PSP’s screen is made out of fragile stuff. I have done nothing but the kids’ gloves thing with my system, but it still has a stray mark or two. Sony should either improve the screen to make it more scratch resistant or supply these stupid little screen covers (clear plastic overlay type of thing) that I have been hunting high and low (A-Ha reference for those keeping score at home) for the last few weeks.

I am not sure why, but these plastic covers are almost impossible to find. Either demand is extremely high or the accessory companies did not anticipate demand so they only produced the covers in limited quantities. I am going to assume that demand is high because PSP owners left and right are scratching up their pretty little screens. I have looked for the overlays at all the usual suspects (online and retail stores), but everyone has been sold out. I finally found the Pelican Screen Guard at the Panama City, FL Wal-Mart. The store had 75 or more of these things, all retailing for under $9.

What do you get for $9? Not one, but two screen guards! Hooray! I am not sure why two are included, but I suppose two screen protectors are better than one. The screen supposedly guards against surface scratches, and provides glare protection. As I mentioned in my previous post, I could not see squat when playing my PSP on the beach, and the Pelican Screen Guard’s built in glare protection did not help the cause.

I think the Screen Guard plastic is made out of that plastic stuff that sticks to windows (think of oil change windshield stickers or parking stickers that go on the inside of your windshield), and is easily applied to the surface of the screen. You start by pealing away the back cover, carefully line up with the PSP’s screen, and gently apply; pretty straightforward stuff. My Screen Guard went on very easily, and once I pushed a few air bubbles to the side of the screen, I was good to go.

I was going to write, “But wait! There is more!” but that made this entry feel sort of cheap, so I am going to restrain myself from getting too crazy with this write-up. Moving along … a “bonus” system polish cloth (just an eyeglasses cleaning cloth) is also included. So for $9 you get two Screen Guards (in case the first one gets scratched?) a polish cloth, and the entire package is backed by Pelican’s 3-year product warranty. Seems like a good deal to me, and I can only imagine all the scratches that have been prevented by Pelican’s new PSP Screen Guard. My PSP is protected at last!

I enjoy the Sporting News because each week I get straight sports talk without the crap that goes for sports in Sports Illustrated. I could go on and on with a SN vs. SI rant, but I have done that in the past. As it stands, SN gives me great NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, and MLB (yes, I am slowly, at long last, getting over the last labor dispute) coverage week after week. I would love to see them cover soccer (at a minimum the MLS and US National team), but I could only dream.

The May 27, 2005 issue had a couple of “Speed Reads” that I wanted to tackle. First, in the NFL coverage Dan Pompei said the following:

“Why are so many people up in arms because the NFL won’t allow Mike Nolan to wear a suit on the sideline? Don’t these people have a baseball game to watch? A barbecue to attend? Personally, I do not see this as Armageddon. And I understand completely that the NFL has to abide by its contract with Reebok and have all coaches wear Reebok attire.”

I too understand contracts, but the NFL (and Reebok) should show some class and allow Mike Nolan some sort of exception. A coat and tie would bring some much-needed class to the sideline – maybe I am too nostalgic, but there is something dignified about seeing a coach in a suit on the sidelines. Sports are just too damned commercialized when a coach has to wear Reebok (or any other brand) of sporting apparel instead of a coat and tie.

In the College Football “Speed Reads” Matt Hayes said the following:

“Someone please tell me what I’m missing here. Georgia defensive tackle Darrius Swain was sentenced to 45 days in jail – JAIL – after driving for a third time with a suspended license, and Bulldogs coach Mark Richt says Swain’s punishment will be his time in lockup. Here’s a thought: Any college athlete who spends time in jail never should be allowed to play again. Period.”

I admit that I am biased, being a Georgia football fan, but I do not agree with Hayes. As far as I can tell, Richt runs a pretty tight ship, and the current administration is very willing to suspend players as deemed necessary. I think I would throw in a couple of game suspensions on top of the jail time, as a deterrent to other players, but I would not kick a player off the time for driving with a suspended license.

I made it back from the Gulf Coast today! Nothing like a trip to the Redneck Riviera to get my batteries recharged! Fun in the sun, good food, great weather, beer (lots of it), baby sitters (thanks mom!), quality time with the wife and kids, and more beer (really, lots of it). Wow, life is good!

It always sucks to get back from vacation and find a mailbox full of spam and other unwanted junk mail. I dread checking the email at work, so I think I will not think about that for a few days.

Looks like the bots have been spamming the site again – sorry about that. I just spent 30 or so minutes cleaning up the mess. I guess it is about time that I upgrade the site again to try to get a more sophisticated spam bot killer. Maybe in the next day or two … maybe.

While spending some quality shopping time at the Panama City Beach Wal-Mart I noticed that many of the PSP value pack add-ins (power adaptor, cloth cover, head phones, etc) where for sale. That should give us a strong indicator that Sony is getting ready to push out a batch of non-value pack PSP units; I would guess a MSRP of $199, but I guess they could still push the envelope a little higher and see what they can get for the hardware.

Speaking of the PSP, I finally got a screen cover at the PC Wal-Mart. More on this later this weekend. I also leaned that unlike the GBA, which looks great in bright sunlight, the PSP sucks in the sun. I was very disappointed that I could not play my PSP more in the bright FL sunshine.

For those of you still reading, I plan to post more in the next few days, so stay tuned for actual updates. As shocking as it sounds, I am ready to write again. Finally!

I will end this post by thanking all those who have defended our great country by serving in the US armed forced – a special Memorial Day thank you from your humble host!