Author: jcalvert

I know that Wipeout has one of those cult following things going for it, but I have never really understood why. I remember playing the demo on the disk that came with my PlayStation (has it really been almost 10 years?), but I did not think that much about the game at the time. Somehow I ended up with Wipeout and Wipeout XL, back in the day when I was addicted to “buying” games. Seriously.

At some I am sure I played the games, but they did not have a lasting impression. I even remember the carefully placed Red Bull advertisements before I had any idea what Red Bull was – some sort of drink, but what kind?

The point to this entry is that I have been going through my gaming library and selling things that I no longer “have” to own. I came across Wipeout and Wipeout XL last week and my oldest son asked about the games. I told him that we could play if he was got good marks for behavior at school and at home (no sassing mom!) this week. Today I made good on my promise.

Wipeout XL is a blast! I cannot believe that I missed out on this game. The graphics still hold up nicely; sure, they are not next generation quality or anything, but they are certainly not bad especially with the PS2 option to clean up PSX graphics. The level designs are superb, the overall atmosphere of the game (graphics, menus, stylistic approach, music, etc) is simply great. And now I understand the cult following thing – the gameplay is second to none for a futuristic racing game. I am impressed by the wide complement of ships, and the fact that each one actually behaves differently, which in turn requires different strategy.

It is always cool rediscovering an old classic, and it is even more rewarding to experience a new (or rather older) game for the first time. I have so many untapped games in my library that I have a feeling that there are plenty more hidden gems besides Wipeout XL.

Of course now I have to resist the temptation to just go and preorder the Wipeout game for the PSP, but if Wipeout XL (and hopefully the original Wipeout) hold a good deal of replay value then I think I may have to join that before mentioned cult.

For anyone keeping up with my stupid Best Buy saga, things have finally been resolved in favor of the good guy (that would be me). Let me first say that I appreciate comments, suggestions, and well wishes from those of you that have posted. I am sure I would have continued to fight the good fight, but just knowing that pretty much everyone thinks that I am in the right, and Best Buy is out to screw us over made the fight worthwhile.

Yesterday I took my new iPod Photo along with all my old iPod stuff (box, manual, cables, head phones, etc) back to the store as soon as it opened. I found the first service person I could find, told the lady the abbreviated version of this sad, sad, tale, and then I demanded that I be given all the parts for the iPod Photo or I should be given a new iPod 40GB 4G. Either way the store was going to take back all my original stuff. I was damned determined to get the situation sorted out right then and there.

Of course the lady had to get the story manager, who happened to be the same lady (well, not really a lady; rhymes with switch) that “helped” me the night before. I figured it was going to get ugly.

In the end, I won. I did have to go through a ridiculously stupid process of exchanging out item for item. My original box for the new iPod Photo box; my original headphones for the new iPod Photo headphones. On so on and so forth. It was really unbelievable � the manager actually made (not really; more like show) me put the iPod Photo in the iPod Photo Dock to make sure that it actually fit. She was really being a true bitch. There I said it; sorry, I was trying to refrain.

Bottom line � Best Buy sucks, Best Buy customer service sucks, Best Buy Service Plans suck, Best Buy store managers suck, but perseverance pays off.

I now have a shinny new iPod Photo 40GB 4G. Nice stuff, that color display and pretty album pictures and longer batter life. Yea me!

For those keeping score at home, I have been trying to get Best Buy to replace my broken iPod. So far, so bad. I am not going to go into all the gory details, but I will say that on Monday I was told I should know something by Wednesday. On Wednesday I learned that the system board was bad, but nothing could be done until I spoke with the Geek Squad manager.

So today I finally get to talk to the manger and he agrees to give me a new replacement iPod. I win! Or so I mistakenly thought.

For starters, this whole buy it online, pick it up in the store is a shame. I ordered my iPod through bestbuy.com, picked the iPod in the store, and paid for my product service plan in the store at the time I picked up the iPod.

Guess what? If you buy online, your product info is not on the store system. So I have to go home, and come back with receipt info. But wait, there is more! Info in hand does me no good because apparently there is no way to replace an item in store that was purchased online. The standard Best Buy store software does not handle such a return. Freaking ridiculous. Oh yes, there is still more.

I get the store manger to work out the details of the exchange, so I am almost on my way. I was then shocked when I was told that I could only have the iPod, not the actual box. Sounds like a stupid policy, but I guess they did not want me to get an extra pair of headphones. Not sure how that would damage Best Buy, but I finally relented and told them to give me the damn replacement iPod so I could go home.

I then realize that they have given me an iPod Photo 40GB 4G. Nice, but I tell them this is a mistake. No one seems to care. At this point I get a little concerned and ask again for the software, manuals, etc because I figure something has to be different. The Geek Squad guy tells me everything is the same. Once again I relent and say screw it, and head for home with my new iPod Photo, happy that I have a working iPod.

As I was leaving the store I decide to go back to the counter and ask one last time for the manual. The Geek Squad guy realizes that he made a mistake � I should have been giving a regular 40GB iPod, not the photo version. The guy is nice enough to give the instructions.

So now I am home and I am an unhappy camper. I do not have the right software, I do not have the right dock (the iPod Photo Dock is actually different than my standard iPod 4G doc), and I do not have the photo cables that are included. It will cost me $70 bucks to get the right dock and cables, which makes this not such a bargain.

I guess I have to go back to the store tomorrow, demand a replacement 40GB 4G or the box and other crap.

Talk about the agony of defeat. This whole ordeal has been something out of Wonderland.

I got my repaired iPod back last Friday, but unbeknownst to me, the damn thing will no longer output any sound. So I went from a static filled output that did have output, to absolute silence.

So I go back to Best Buy last night and give them the run down. Of course the guy treats me like I have the Black Death and am trying to pull a fast one. I am not sure why customers have to justify why they are bringing in something for repair, but I guess if you have a 40GB G4 iPod, you have to justify your actions.

The manager-type of the Geek Squad tells me that his iPod specialist will be in on Wednesday, and if he cannot fix it then they will give me a new one. Of course I cannot get this in writing, so knows what will happen. I just want the damn thing to work again, and I do not care to have to wait another three weeks for the repair guys to do nothing, which is basically what they did last time. How can you swap out a HDD and not verify that the unit actually plays sound?

The Best Buy customer service has been horrendous. A decent store would just give me a replacement and return the original back to Apple as defective. According to the manager-type, there is sort of a lemon law in effect – I have to send it in for repairs four times before they will replace the unit. I am now on repair order two.

Next steps? I will wait until Wednesday to see what the iPod specialist can do – apparently he is something short of God, and the only person trained to do a little more than a soft reset. After that, if I do not get a replacement I will have to call my credit card company, and maybe call Apple.

It was a long week on the work front, so pretty much nothing in the way of blogging activities. A few random nuggets:

• Prince (yes, the purple wonder can still get his groove on) pulled in an astounding $56.5 million dollars in 2004, which was enough to earn him top honors on the musicians making money front. As a long time Prince fan, I am pretty impressed at this remarkable commercial comeback. [source: BBC News]
• I finally got my iPod 40GB 4G back from the Best Buy service center. The lack of service from Best Buy’s customer support really ticked me off. The service center at the local store pretty much sucks, the employees are unfriendly and in general they not at all helpful. The damage? They replaced the HDD, which has to be the most expensive part of the iPod. I am surprised that they did not just send me a new one.
• What is the big deal with “saving” Social Security? As a 34-year old, I have no plans to count on getting a government check in my future. Instead, I put away a decent amount of coin each month into my 401(k). I am not sure why everyone does not save. Just let the damn program go insolvent, and stop taxing us for an antiquated system that is no longer relevant in the 21st Century.
• I am inching every closer to finishing Champions of Norrath. I just do not seem to find the time it takes to finish this puppy, but it has certainly been worth the money. I have promised myself I will not get Return to Arms (the sequel) until I actually complete Norrath. For those wondering, I have completed the Arena, and about to enter the Hate Portal thing. That should be a pretty spoiler free description. I figure I will finally finish the game in 2-3 weekends if nothing unexpected comes up. Of course Gran Turismo 4 is almost here.
• Is Google stock really worth $187.40 per share? It is amazing to watch the history of this stock, which currently has an amazing P/E of 129.96. For those wondering, I am not a big stock market player � I pretty much always go the mutual funds route, so I probably have some Google stock somewhere. So what do I know? Maybe Google is actually undervalued. They are going to eventually own the data world on the internet, but I cannot stomach such a high P/E. [source: Yahoo! Finance]
• My online OOTP6 team, the Columbus Kudzu of the IOSBL, lost in the first round of the playoffs last night 3 games to 2. This was my first appearance in the playoffs in 4 seasons, so I was disappointed to see it end so soon, but I never really had any real hope to advance very far. Over the last few years I have lost my zeal for baseball (damn labor disputes), but I love playing OOTP, especially in this online league. If you are interesting in joining a great league, take a look at the IOSBL, and put yourself on the waiting list.

All for now. Don’t forget to buy your significant other something special for Valentines Day!

After starting out on two-stars, I quickly decided that I was actually too good (hurray!), so I had to adjust to make the game challenging. It is amazing to see the difference between two and three starts. On two stars, the game more or less plays at your pace, it some to you, and you can knock it in the net relatively easy. Not so on three stars.

I was immediately surprised by the difference in difficulty. For starts, the game does not feel cheap. This is important for gamers that are not really that gifted. The CPU just plays within the bounds of being smart, not unrealistic. The CPU now takes charge of the ball on offense and aggressively seeks to move the ball forward and shoot when given the opportunity. Likewise on defense, the CPU moves forward to challenge the man in possession of the ball. Smart all around.

One of the things I noticed right away was the increase in fouls; not necessarily cards, but fouls are called much more frequently. The CPU also makes smart decisions about clearing the ball, or playing back in order to gain opportunities to move forward.

Since moving to three-stars my games are along the lines of 1-0, and I actually loss a game 1-0. That kind of sucked since it was the first time I have been defeated in WE8, but I was outplayed, did not mount a serious attack, and did a piss poor job of maintaining possession. In other words I deserved to take the loss.

I will continue to post more as the mood strikes.

This morning I completed my certification to coach U6 soccer in GA; at least according to the Georgia State Soccer Association. The course was only 4 hours, but it was actually entertaining, informative, and educational.

I played soccer for several years growing up, so I know the rules, theory, and all, but I had no idea how to “teach” soccer. I think this course will go a long ways towards helping. All of the drills should help the kids develop a sense of the game, and develop their skills in a fun, practical way. Hopefully.

Interesting enough, we ran drills for about 90 minutes, and surely enough I am bitterly out of shape. Man that sucks. I celebrated on the way home by picking up a chocolate malt from Sonic. I mean, why fight the power?

Wish me luck with the kids!

Last night I finally got to open my copy of Winning Eleven 8 that has been sitting on the table for the last few days. I am starting off my matches on 2-stars, using West Midlands Village, in order to get ready for Ted’s WE8 League @ SGN, but so far I am finding this level much too easy. Typical scores have all been in my favor: 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, etc. Too ho-hum even against Brazil, which I drummed 4-1.

I have never been what I would call an expert at WE, much less creative in the box, but with this year’s addition, I have been able to head balls in, first touch strikes into the net, and just hit strong blasts past the defending goalie. It could be a case of WE8 being slightly easier than WE7, or it could just be that practice makes perfect. Or maybe I am finally getting the hang of this game after the third PS2 release (3rd time is the charm).

At this point I only have a couple of observations. For whatever reason, I am finding control around the out of bounds lines pretty spotty. I do not remember the CPU taking over my player in past games, but it at first glance it sure seems like I have limited control over the player chasing the ball towards the line.

The ball physics around the net are nothing short of astonishing. While I have scored a couple of goals in the same manner – goalie punches the ball out, and one of my strikers collects and fires into the back of the net while the goalie lies helplessly on the ground – there is nothing scripted about the ball’s behavior around the box. It is really amazing to watch replay after replay to see how the ball moves, and how the players react.

More to come later.

Tomorrow at 12PM EST is the start of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. I know that in the US NASCAR is much more popular that pretty much any other sort of racing. With that said, NASCAR fans should watch because some of your favorite drivers are in the event.

“No less than nine full-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup stars are slated to drive Daytona Prototypes in the season-opening Rolex 24, February 3 – 6, and six of them were in action Friday as three-day testing got underway on the 3.56-mile Daytona road course.

Reigning NEXTEL Cup champion Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray and brothers Bobby and Terry Labonte will all drive top-of-the-line Daytona Prototypes in the 43rd annual running of North America’s premier endurance race. Busch, Kenseth, Biffle, Mears, McMurray and the Labonte brothers all got behind the wheel Friday, some strapping into a Daytona Prototype for the very first time. Stewart will miss testing this weekend while he competes in the Chili Bowl midget race and Johnson is scheduled to arrive on Sunday.” [Source: RacingOne]

You should also check out Geoff P.’s first blog entry for The Elder Gamer. When Chris (blog’s founder) has time to post, this blog is usually a great read.

It is hard to believe, but Gran Turismo 4 is almost here. The question is “Will any one care?” I am sure that GT4 will be picked up by a ton of gamers, but the release is almost anti-climatic. Gamers have been waiting for this title for a long (very long) time. A lack of online racing is going to piss off many a gamers, and no improvements to the racing AI and the lack of more CPU AI cars per race is going to dampen my parade.

Oh well, ebgames.com says the game is coming

“We are writing to let you know that we have changed the projected ship date for Gran Turismo 4 to 2/22/2005.”

Hopefully GT4 is not just GT3 with more cars and better graphics. We already got that with GT2 and GT3. I know I will invest some time and energy in the game, but not nearly as much as GT1 or GT3 – graphical updates are not really my favorite flavor of the day.

For many college football fans, today is the day that the Lord has made for football goodness. Coaches can now breath a sigh of relief (or anguish) as their unbinding verbal commitments sign on the dotted line. For fans, bragging rights begin, and spring football cannot come fast enough.

Yes, I am talking about National Signing Day. The day when grumpy old men put their hopes and dreams on young men (OK, kids) who officially commit to “their” schools. Yes, National Signing Day has arrived.

I am a huge college football fan, but I have never really pinned my hopes and dreams on signing day. Nor have I ever paid much attention to Spring football. I mean I do follow Georgia and what caliber of recruits they are landing, and what the depth chart looks like. Sure, I do all that, but some people get way out of control. Just look around the Internet – a whole cottage industry has been built around the high school recruiting process.

The fact of the matter is that no one really knows how a recruiting class will turn out until two to three years down the road. An occasional freshman will rise to early stardom, but these “horses” are the exception, not the norm. Besides, just because a school lands a top player does not mean that player will ever step on the playing field. Many recruits may fail to gain academic eligibility, others may grow home sick, and still others may decide to play another spot. It is a risky business pinning hopes and dreams on a recruiting class.

No time for a serious rant today. May your team get plenty of blue chip prospects!

I am going to do something I rarely do – cross post. In this case I figured it was worth while to post here, my recent post to the Sports Gaming Nation message board concerning Take Two’s newly acquired deal with the MLB. If you have not checked out SGN, it is a wonderful hangout, and one of the few places that I actually bother to post to these days.

I figured Take Two was rather small, but they actually have a market cap of 1.64B.

“Some analysts had speculated last week that despite Take-Two’s claim that the deals were “exclusives,” EA might be able to team up with Sony, say, to develop a baseball game for the PlayStation 2. But the agreements appear to close that loophole.

After the baseball players association announced its deal with Take-Two last week, EA officials dismissed the move, noting that baseball was one of the company’s least popular sports titles.” [reference]

Say what you want about exclusives, but it does not seem very smart of any sport to exclude EA … they are just two big, too popular, and have too much marketing money. It figures that the MLB would have its collective head so far up its ass that it would do something like this.

I bet at some point (if this is a long term contract) Take Two will be looking to dump this license.

OOTP is a great baseball game without a license, but I do not see EA or anyone else putting in the time or effort because I do not see an unlicensed baseball game making much of an impact in the console market. 10-15 years ago … maybe … but not today.

I have been pretty silent on the NFL exclusive deal because I do not see it being a big deal to the majority of football fans. EA and the EA Sports brand is huge. They already have the top selling football game in Madden, and the EA Sports brand already has exclusive deals with NASCAR and FIFA. Acquiring the NFL and eventually the ESPN brand just made business sense.

Not so with Take Two and the MLB. Perhaps I am coming across as an EA Fan Boy. Whatever, but I see Take Two and the MLB doing very little with the license other than blocking EA from making officially licensed baseball games. Maybe twice as much as Konami and the MLS did with their joint venture, but we all know that amounted to pretty much nothing.

In the end the mass market may not care. They may come to associate MLB = Take Two, but I would not be shocked if Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo (all of which are allowed to make their own MLB branded games) put together baseball games that sold better than Take Two. In the end, this deal (depending on actual finical terms) could hemorrhage Take Two and their stockholders.

I am sure others will agree that all does not see well with the world of sports gaming right now.

According to the Washington Post (Jan 27, 2005 online article) the Xbox pulled in a profitable quarter, which is big news for Microsoft.

“Microsoft also reported its first profitable quarter in its home and entertainment division, fueled by strong sales for its Xbox Live online gaming service and the popular Halo 2 video game. The unit reported operating income of $84 million for the three-month period, compared with a loss of $397 million in the same period a year earlier.

But Chief Financial Officer John Connors warned that the home and entertainment division would lose money again in the first six months of 2005, and likely won’t achieve consistent profitability until late 2006 or early 2007.”

For any doubters (and I admit that I was one) it looks like Microsoft is here to stay in the console business. Bravo to the US for once again having a profitable (be it only for a quarter) console manufacturer.

I thought it would be fun (for me anyway) to share what I want and why. For starters I am primarily a sports gamer, so you can imagine that I am going to *need* a couple of sports titles. The same goes for racing: a system just is not a system with out a good racing game or three. Beyond that I need some sort of diversion that is really good for pick up and play style gaming.

I do not have unlimited funds, but I figure that I can swing the system plus 2-5 games. So here goes …

• FIFA Soccer or World Tour Soccer PSP. I really have no idea which game will be the better soccer title.


• Baseball. I really would like a quality portable baseball game. Right now MVP Baseball is the only one listed as a launch title. If I get a portable game for 50 bones, then I am not going to buy a console version this year, so I have to be really cautious with this selection.


• Football. Damn, no can do here since nothing is listed.


• Archer Mclean’s Mercury. This looks very interesting, and different; thus worth picking up because it looks to fit the pick up and play mold perfectly. Still, $50 for a marble madness clone is kind of a hard sale.


• Ridge Racers. I am a huge fan of the series.


• Wipeout Pure. Looks freaking awesome (in my best schoolboy voice).


• Twisted Metal: Head On. I love TM, TM2 and TM:Black, so Head On looks interesting. Still, will it pack enough replay value to warrant a full price, day one purchase? Not really sure … more research is in order.

So right out of the gate I am over budget by at least a couple of games. I am going to wait as long as possible before deciding to pick any of the above titles.

Other items of interests, but not necessarily launch day titles/purchases are Formula 1 2004 (this would rule if it were a decent simulation), Grand Theft Auto (may be interesting to see what RockStar games does with the PSP), Puyo Pop Fever (I can play Puyo Pop all day, but not for $50), Gran Turismo 4 Mobile (the PS2 GT4 may be all the GT that I need), Colin McRae PSP (could be a true system seller for me if it plays well).

And for the record, I am not one of those gamers that mind that many PS2 type games are going to be on the PSP. There is a reason that I enjoyed certain games on the PSX and PS2, so having PSP versions for on the go play is all the better in my book. With that said, I still hope to see innovation, but I doubt we will see much out of the gate.

So PSPs are finally available for preorder from ebgames.com and gamestop.com. Of course mom forgot to tell the greedy bastards running the bundle scams that they should play nice. Come on, four hundred freaking duckets for a PSP, an accessory, and three games at ebgames.com? Actually it is a little better, when I first put together this entry the listing said, “Three games of your choice from a select list of launch titles.” The “select list” part was very bothersome, but now the listing says, “Three games of your choice from the finalized list of launch titles.”

Still, four hundred? If you figure $200 for the system + $150 for three games, you are still having to shell out $50 for an accessory. That pretty much blows.

gamestop.com is not much better. They give you the choice of two bundles at $379 (system + accessory + 3 predetermined games) or a $479 bundle (system + accessory + 5 predetermined games).

Bundles suck for consumers. Not only do you not get to buy what you want, but the stores price them out the nose. I know when it is all said and done that I will end up with anywhere from 2-5 launch games, but I want to actually be allowed to select the games, and I sure as hell do not want some crap accessory.

For the first time in years I decided to do a preorder at a brick and mortar – the local ebgames. They told me that I only had to put $20 down, that I did not have to buy a bundle, and that I did not have to buy anything other than the system. Period. End of story. So I thought.

The nice lady told me that I “should” get one since I was number 61 or so on the preorder list. I do not really like the sound of that, but it is better than a $400 commitment to some unknown bundle. So today I decided to call the same story, play stupid (not very hard for me), and ask about the PSP.

At this point I am allowed to put down anywhere from $20-400. The $400 part sounds kind of ominous, but at this point there is no bundle to buy. Once they have pricing and availability from Sony they will call preorder customers and let us know the procedures to secure our PSPs. That really sounds like a bundle waiting to happen. Finally, after I asked about guaranteed availability, the guy said I should get one. When asked for the number of preorders so far, he said 31.

Not that it matters, but 31-61 is a fairly wide range. Not to mention the vague and ambiguous responses to my questions about preordering guaranteeing me a system. You know the brick and mortar bastards are going to also require some sort of stupid bundle.

I want a PSP, but I care not for bundles (as if you could not figure that out by now). The question is, “Am I prepared to walk?” Part of me says “F’ it!” – the other part of me is really looking forward to a PSP.

I have no idea if I can trust the brick and mortar to deliver me a launch day system, so now it may be back to a ebgames.com preorder.

Life is full of flavors, trying to decide which one to pick is half the fun.