jcalvert

Codemasters Brings F1 Home

I was over at PlayStation LifeStyle checking out the latest news, and catching up on some older stuff after being out of pocket for a week, and noticed this F1 2010 article.

Are you kidding me? F1 is finally returning to the big boy consoles? In September? With Codemasters behind the development effort of F1 2010? Color me happy!

I’ll preorder this one as soon as it goes up on Amazon, but for now I will hold on to the 2007 release of F1: Formula One Championship Edition for three reasons. First, it is still a fantastic F1 hybrid racing game; fabulous fun running fast laps in the Time Trail mode. Second, it has the US Grand Prix at Indy. Third, the Codemasters’ F1 2010 is an unknown commodity, however their previous hybrid racing track record is solid.

US F1 – Anticlimactic Conclusion

The final chapter on US F1 came to an official close late last week as the FIA gave US F1 a firm hand, ending the dream once and for all.

The FIA has fined US F1 309,000 euros ($379,500) – the equivalent of the championship entry fee – and ordered it to pay the costs of the FIA disciplinary process. It also disqualified the team, “which definitively deprives US F1 of the right to take part, in any way whatsoever, in any competition.”

The remaining assets of US F1 were recently sold off at auction, where its sole tub netted less than $8,000.

Maybe a new US F1 hopeful will rise with the upcoming US Grand Prix in Austin in 2012. It would be nice to see a US based F1 team, or at the least a US driver. Wishful thinking.

Bitter Disappointment At The Hands of Ghana (Again)

How disappointing. Yes, as the announcers said, this US team should not hang its head in shame; hold ‘em high boys. Still. What could have been?

Once again the US went down early; this time inside of the 5 minute mark. I just do not get how we can have such poor defensive lapses, which is what happened again on the winner in the first few minutes of extra time as Ghana easily split the last two US defenders.

Making matters worse is that the US just does not have a top notch striker; a finisher who can consistently find the net. We had some chances, but there comes a time and a place where the chances have to find the back of the net. The US just does not have that quality up front that you know given the chance will win the day.

I am not sure where to from here. I’ll have to reflect on the bitter sting of this one for a while, as I am sure Team USA will be doing the same, with the realization that they squandered a golden opportunity.

Team USA Looks to Thwart Ghana

So this is it. Semifinals or bust. Ah, but first Ghana, a team that ruined the US in the 2006 World Cup.

In the 2006 World Cup, after finishing top of the CONCACAF qualification tournament, the U.S. was drawn into Group E along with the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ghana. Since three of the teams were ranked in the top 10 of the FIFA World Rankings at the time, it was considered a Group of Death.

The United States opened its tournament with a 3–0 loss to the Czech Republic. The team then drew 1–1 against Italy (ending up being the only opponent the Italian side failed to defeat in the tournament). The United States was then knocked out of the tournament when beaten 2–1 by Ghana in its final group match.

This time things are different, right? The US is playing well as a team, which was really the talk most often while I was in England and Scotland earlier this week. Of course, for the most part the US and our chances were dismissed, however to a man almost everyone I spoke “football” with was complimentary of the way the US plays as a team.

But more important, what’s truly caught the soccer world’s attention here, is how the Americans have played: not necessarily the results of their play, but the character of it. Their mistakes have been large, but they’ve recovered from them. When they might have given up — down against England, down against Slovenia, all but down and out against Algeria — they persevered. While other teams have suffered personality rifts or even outright mutiny, there hasn’t been a whisper of discontent out of the U.S. camp. They’ve become the embodiment of optimism here, of the power of hope and belief.

So there is hope, because a true breakout win today against Ghana means the US can actually make a run as the US are on the “easy” side of the bracket. The winner of US/Ghana will play the winner of Uruguay/South Korea, both of which are winnable games for this US squad. A win in the quarterfinals would take the US to the semifinals to most likely pair up with Brazil or the Netherlands. And then? Well, I am getting ahead of myself. First Ghana.

I have a feeling of hope and optimism that the US will actually put together a full game today, and not get behind early on a defensive lapse. If the US can continue to attack and actually land something in the net I think we will advance 1-nil, nay, maybe 2-1.

This is it! Go USA! USA! Let’s cheer for our boys and the Red, White, and Blue!

PSP Shows Its True Colors – Part I (Digital Comics)

I am going to write another post focusing on the games that helped me pass the time during my recent trip to Scotland. Yes, PSP and gaming have been a long time coming. Before I get to that article, I thought I would post a quick update about the PSP Digital Comics Store (and reader).

Prior to my trip, I downloaded a handful of free comics – nothing really special, and no big name super hero comics. I would rather read Spiderman, Captain America, Batman, and Green Lantern instead of free copies of what was being offered in the store. There were no DC titles on offer, and I thought the Marvel collection was really limited. No current titles, very little of any series runs from my youth, and pretty much nothing that I wanted to throw money at before I determined the usefulness of the PSP Digital Comics reader. So I went with the 20 or so free titles on offer.

Archie and Donald Duck and a handful of other titles were not too exciting. I suppose these were on offer to have something available for everyone.

I was impressed with The Ghoul, which while not great, was at least entertaining. I am undecided if I want to pick up the rest of the story; probably will look towards some reviews first. Atomic Robo was also a title that I enjoyed, maybe even enough to complete a run if the title ever goes on sale. Cages, NeoZoic, and Snake Woman were decent, entertaining reads, but I doubt that I will move past the initial free titles unless I just have money to burn, which is not likely to happen any time soon.

Being a Star Trek fan, I really enjoyed Mirror Images; I think it was my favorite of the free titles. I never got into Star Trek titles even when my comic reading and collecting was at a fevered pitch. I’ll pick up the rest of the series at some point down the road.

The actual PSP Digital Comics Reader is a surprisingly good tool for reading comics. It is simple to use, the auto navigate tool is well done, and at any point you can zoom in and out as necessary. Sony just released a new version, with some minor features and enhancements. If you have not tried this feature out, it is worth your time (assuming you are a comics fan or have been one at someone point in the past), and the free comics mean that you are not really committed.

Yesterday Sony had an exciting announcement for the PSP Comics Store – DC titles have landed. I say finally, and thank you! Before my trip I wrote that it was just a matter of time with DC Universe in the works. Thankfully a nice initial offering has been provided, along with a free preview of Superman #700.

I have not done a lot of research on the PSP digital comic format; I assume is proprietary, which may be the only thing that holds me back from really throwing some money towards some titles. That and the lack of some of the titles and issues that I would actually like to buy/read. I wonder how long Sony is going to be in the PSP market. There is a lot of talk about the PSP2, but who wants to throw money at digital comics on a dead platform? Not that the PSP is going anywhere, but if the digital comic format is not portable to a current (thinking iTouch) or future (obviously PSP2) device, it would be hard for me to invest any significant money into PSP digital comics.

The summary is that I am pleased with the PSP Digital Comics reader, but uncertain of the longevity of the format. I think caution is the watch word; I’ll proceed carefully with a few purchases and some more research.

Site Slowdown – Scotland or Bust!

I am going to be off line much of the week, working in Edinburgh. Been there before; hope to have some good ale along the way in the fine drinking establishments.

This is the second time I have been in the UK during the World Cup. Last time I was in London; I guess the Scottish crowd will not give much thought to England’s hopes and dreams. I am bummed that I will miss the U.S. / Algeria game, which will probably be ending about the time we are wrapping up work for the day on Wednesday.

College Football Annual Time (Again)

Like a bad drug, or an otherwise undesirable habit, each year I insist I will swear off throwing $$$ after the yearly crop of annuals. It never works. I am hopelessly addicted.

For my upcoming Scotland trip (16+ hrs travel time counting wasted hrs trying to go from here to there) I picked up …

Phil Steele’s 2010 College Football Preview, which features Auburn and Alabama on the cover. Steele advertises his annual as the most accurate preseason magazine over the last 11 years.
Lindy’s Sports Southeastern 2010 Preview, which features Georgia’s A.J. Green on the cover.
Athlon Sports Southeastern 2010 Preview, which agrees with Lindy that A.J. is worthy of being placed on a cover.
SportingNews College Football 2010, which is yet another regional annual with Green on the cover.
Athlon Sports Pro Football 2010, which has nothing to do with college football annuals, but I decided to pick it up since it features Matt Ryan, and I wanted something to balance out my college football reading material.

The funny thing about all these annuals is that I never save them; not really a collector of annuals. If I was a collector (or was a collector in the past) I bet I would have a crap load of money on my hands for people that enjoy buying old annuals.

All of these annuals may be somewhat of a letdown in light of the recent realignment activities and discussions. If I have some time, and anyone is interested, I will post some impressions.

U.S. 2 – 2 Slovenia

I have been trying to collect my thoughts on this one for the past couple of hours, and other than saying we were completely screwed by the ref, I am not sure what else to post.

The funny thing about such a poor call was all the other poor calls. We actually drew a yellow card after a ball hits Findley in the face?

Robbie Findley got a yellow card in the 40th minute for a hand ball in Slovenia’s penalty area, an automatic suspension for the Algeria match because he also was cautioned against England.

I would love to see the replay again because I saw a face-plant, not a handball. I don’t think it is a horrible thing that Findley will not be around for the next match because he just does not have the experience to know WTF to do with a quality ball.

There were other poor calls, but ultimately the U.S. put itself in a poor position going down 2-nil at the half. The first goal was completely unmarked; nice riffle shot which froze Howard. The second was typical of a U.S. defensive lapse on a counter attack.

As poor as Team U.S.A. played in the first half, they were great in the second half. Loved the emotion and the attacking style of play. Hope they come out for more of that against Algeria next Wednesday, a game I am sure to miss due to a work assignment in Scotland. Oh well.

So it goes. The U.S. is still in the hunt, but has to hope for some sort of miracle. I think the U.S. can advance with a U.S. win over Algeria and two England wins (Algeria and Slovenia).

Go U.S.A. !!!

PSP Digital Comics

I started playing around with the PSP Digital Comics store recently. Mostly because I was curious, partly because I am getting ready for a long flight, so I figured what the hell, may as well see if there is anything worth checking out to make my trip go by that much quicker.

I have to admit that in my younger days (lasting into college) I did a fair amount of comic reading and collecting. These days not so much. Not sure when I last purchased a comic; maybe as an attempt to get one of my boys interested in comics. They will not touch the things, which is funny to me because comics were such a big part of my youth.

Impressions? Where are the new comics? How come the comics cost so damn much? Where are the DC titles?

I figured I would download the latest Spiderman, Captain America, Avengers, Batman, and Green Lantern, which were some of my favorites, but not necessarily in that order. I found some Spiderman, Captain America, and Avengers titles, but these were mostly older runs. Great if you are a collector, just curious about the older days, or looking for some interesting reading. The store has 25 titles from Amazing Spiderman (1963), and 46 from 2003. The problem here is that the 2003 run ends in 2008. Similar story for Captain America and Avengers. Where are the new books?

Where are all the DC titles? Green Lantern, Flash, Batman, Superman, etc. With DC Universe coming to the PS3, you would think the comic store would get its DC game on. I could not find any DC titles in the story; if they are there, they are well hidden.

Now we come to the price. I am sure that $1.99 is probably a much better deal than buying physical books, but I expected these to be substantially less. Maybe $.50 to $.99 to represent that digital media was cheaper, and significantly easier to recover costs once the actually digital copies were produced. Silly me.

The good news is that the story has a few free comics (21 as I write this article); mostly an interesting variety from different publishers. Of course it would have been too much to ask for Marvel to throw up a free comic. As I said the variety is interesting. I downloaded a Burke & Hare research based graphic novel. Picked this one up since I am going to be in Edinburgh, Scotland; doubt it will make for aside comments and small talk … you never know!

The reader itself is actually nice and makes good use of the PSP screen. I am just a little disappointed in the actual digital comics library that is available.

More PSP Woes – DRM Incompatibilities

Over the weekend I started transferring some of my digital movies included with my Blu-ray library to my PC. Lord of the Rings trilogy, X-Men trilogy, and a handful of others. Something to help pass the time while traveling.

For the most part I have been selecting iTunes; I swear one of these days I should get a Mac. At any rate, one of my movies (the Lord of the Ring animated movie from 1978) was WMV format, which does not really matter except that I do not use Windows Media Player and it would be nice to have all my movies under iTunes.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that none of my digital movies would work on my PSP! Actually, I should not be surprised, because of DRM incompatibilities with the PSP, but seriously, this is disappointing. None of my music or movies will play on my PSP.

On the bright side, Remote Play with the Slim seems to work well, and my Slim has not accidentally powered on one single time (knocking on wood, crossing fingers, and other types of voodoo).

What is the big fuss over motion control?

Until we see something innovative, I could care less about Sony’s and Microsoft’s efforts to captivate the gaming community with motion capture games.

From a PS3 centric perspective, PlayStation LifeStyle thinks Microsoft just screwed the pooch.

Fans and media alike were present earlier tonight as Microsoft decided to go ahead and present their upcoming motion sensor, essentially EyeToy clone, Kinect. Well, it appears that things got very strange very fast and may have just cemented the PlayStation Move’s victory.

Many of the titles bore an awfully close resemblance to the titles included with Nintendo’s Wii Sports title, accompanied by supposed lag issues and an overall lackluster experience. One new Star Wars title did make it’s debut, although many have stated that the preview was almost definitely pre-rendered.

What does this mean for Sony? It means that Sony has a breakaway with an empty net wide open, all they have to do is tap it home, and by “it” we mean the PlayStation Move. If Sony can manage a solid presentation while making the key component of their presentation quality games, they will most definitely have earned big points in the motion controller (or lack thereof) battle.

I really have not been following the Move and Kinect (formally Natal) too closely, but it will be interesting to see if either publisher can move past the “been there, done that with the Wii” feel. According to kotaku, out of the gate, Microsoft’s entry does not sound too promising. Will we see similar opinions on Sony’s Move?

Braves Return Home – Retain First in the NL East

After the longest road trip of the year, featuring a split of 4 games against the Dodgers, another split of 4 games against the Diamondbacks, and finishing up with 2 wins in 3 games with the Twins, the Braves are returning home with a 6-5 record.

I consider this a major victory after being so terrible on the road earlier this year.

As I wrote prior to this road trip, the Braves just needed to be up to the task in order to set the plate for the back half of June; of course some serious NL East head-to-head action looms in July leading up to the break.

While the Braves were out west they managed to put some distance in front of their rivals. The Mets are lurking and playing well, just 1.5 games back. The Phillies are stumbling, now 3.5 games back, but you know this is only a temporary situation.

Monday will be an off day before hosting Tampa Bay and KC.

Go Braves!

PSP Gets One Last Chance (Again)

I am not sure how many times I have written that I am giving my PSP one final chance to make itself useful; dare I say worthy of not sitting in my dresser drawer. Each time I write something along these lines I threaten to sell the PSP; cash it in for something while the cashing is good.

There are a couple of problems with this approach. First, my original PSP-1000 (AKA “the brick”) is old and dated. It is not really worth that much on the open market, with limited trade in value. It is kind of hard to just throw it away, so I keep holding on, holding out hope that our love will rekindle. Second, when I want portable gaming, I actually need something to help me waste away the hours. I could go in the iPad/iTouch direction, but I actually like being able to play a decent sports game on the PSP. The DS is always an option; nothing like a good Mario game for a long trip.

I am going to be out of country for a few days next week, with one of those long-ass European flights heading my direction. This is the perfect opportunity for portable gaming, music, and movies. My little proprietary 4GB PSP memory stick Duo may hold a couple of movies, but little else. If I want to really increase my capacity, I will have to layout close to $60 to move up to a 16GB Duo stick, which of course is worthless because my iTunes movies and music will not play on a PSP. Unless of course some of my iTunes media is DRM free; not sure if there is a quick and easy way to check.

Even if I get past all the iTunes library and memory storage issues, the PSP-1000 has such a short battery life that I own two batteries; this allows me to keep throwing juice at the PSP for those long 10 hour trips. When Sony gets serious about the PSP2 (or whatever it will be called), 12+ hours of battery life is an absolutely minimum requirement.

I am looking at my PSP library and just do not see a whole lot that is captivating, and most of the games are downright worthless on the secondhand markets. I will probably pick up MLB 10 and/or FIFA 10 World Cup, and maybe one other game just to give me a distraction.

Maybe after this trip, my PSP and I will come to some sort of common agreement with mutual satisfaction. If not, well, I guess it is back to the drawer for my chastised brick.

The Luck of the Draw (England 1 – 1 USA)

Well, the defense let us down again in the early going, but all was made right with the world when Dempsey squeaked one into the net in the 40th minute.

Sure it did not exactly happen that way, but one of my favorite sayings that I learned from my dad applies. Sometimes I would rather be lucky than good.

A draw is a great result for Team USA, and it was well earned, improving our chances to advance.

Going forward I think it is imperative to pull out Ricardo Clark, and get Herculez Gomez into the mix at some point. I am not even sure what we can do different on defense, but thank God Onyewu is fit.

Go USA!

Madden 11 – Blocking Out Franchise Improvements

I stumbled upon a couple of interesting Madden 11 articles this morning, which will eventually take us into a digression into why EA sucks donkey balls. It’s not as if I do not enjoy Madden, I do, however at some point enough is enough.

First, from joystiq, the Madden 11 developer diary talks mostly about blocking improvements. If they get this one right, and blockers actually block, lead, engage, and play with a little common sense, I think Madden fans everywhere will rejoice. It is just a damn shame that it has taken so long for the developers to decide it is time to overhaul the blocking. Seriously, WTF is wrong with them. The side-by-side video of “old” blocking vs. “new” blocking is amusing. As if there was some revelation on the part of the Madden team? “Boys, we better do something about the blocking before someone notices.”

Second, a user comment in the joystiq article lead me to some commentary bemoaning the lack of Madden 11 franchise improvements, especially considered to NCAA Football 11, which looks like it is innovating it online dynasty mode instead of just tweaking.

Let’s be honest. Without competition, EA will continue to stagnate. It’s clear that the Madden developers should concentrate on gameplay; however at this point in the current generation, the gameplay should already have been fully defined, with only incremental steps necessary in each subsequent version. Ooops. That’s where we are; we are getting an incremental improvement in blocking AI. Thanks EA.

Minor improvements can only take us so far. EA also needs to offer new features, modes of play, and serious updates to the features gamers really expect – pretty graphics and online improvements. You can laugh about the graphics and animation, but I call for a reboot in the look and presentation.

In my younger gaming days, I spent massive amounts of time in dynasty and franchise modes. These days, with work, kids, and a whole host of other non gaming commitments, I no longer have the time to invest. That does not mean that I do not want to see improvements in the way the AI helps handle off-season matters and online league play. Something akin to OOTP management style gaming via online franchise or dynasty modes would be completely captivating.

The crux of the matter is that there is no one to push the Madden and NCAA Football teams, so why bother putting in a serious influx of cash for R&D efforts? After all these years, NCAA Football is finally getting back the mass substitution feature? You have to be shitting me that the EA is even bringing this up as a new addition to the game.

Last year was the first year that I skipped NCAA Football; I just do not see improvements from the PS2 games, and for that matter the PSX games – NCAA Football was glorious 7 years ago. Now the NCAA Football team is working on dynasty mode improvements, which is great; WTF is the Madden team doing with their franchise improvements? Not a damn thing. Why? They do not have to spend a single red cent because there is no competition, which means no incentive.

I have already preordered Madden 11, and am strongly considering returning to NCAA Football this year because of the announced dynasty mode improvements in this year’s game. So I am part of the problem; like a damn drone I keep putting dollars in EA’s pockets. Why? Because I love football; like so many other gamers I have loved Madden and the NCAA Football series for years. I want to see improvements. I want the games to be fun. Mostly I want to see real innovation.