jcalvert

Now Drinking – Black and Green

As spring turns to summer, what better way to beat the heat than with an ice cold Bud Light Lime? Screw the pundits; Bud Light Lime taste great on the beach, by the pool, and especially during a BBQ (or tailgate for that matter).

Jim Beam Black
Now for something a little different. A couple of weeks ago I was going to pick up some Jack to make some Jack BBQ sauce, but instead I went for the Jim Beam Black because it had a $7 mail in rebate. What a great deal; $22.99 bottle for ultimately $16 … hard to go wrong at that price.

I am not going to get all flowery and attempt to describe the aroma, hints of this or that flavoring, and what sort of aftertaste developed as the sips went down. Instead I will say that Jim Beam Black is a solid contender for a medium price bourbon. Its 86 proof (43% alcohol) is a little different than the norm; decent bite without being over powerful. I am sure the bourbon connoisseurs out there would chalk this up to Jim Beam Black being aged 8 years.

I am enjoying Jim Beam Black on the rocks, or as a mixer (Sprite or Diet Dr. Pepper). I do not regret the purchase, however I’ll probably tend to reach to some other favorites first. Makers Mark is still me “go to” bourbon, Knob Creek is still my “top shelf” bourbon of choice, and Wild Turkey 101 is still my favorite higher proof bourbon with a bite.

F1 in Texas

I really do not get the announcement earlier this week that F1 is returning to the U.S. in Austin, TX. Nothing against Texas (I am a native Texan), or Austin (love the Longhorns), however I imagine that most F1 fans would have been happy with an F1 return in Indy.

I guess it comes down to money – a 10 year deal at a F1 purpose built track has to be a big money deal. At least the U.S. is returning to the racing calendar. Can we get a U.S. based F1 team in time for 2012? Please.

U.S. World Cup Bid – 2018 or 2022

I am not sure if online petitions really matter or hold any sort of influence over decision makers. With that said I signed this one a while back to bring the World Cup to the United States in 2018 or 2022. The tally is now over 450K signatures.

We’re at a huge moment for the Bid. The official Bid Book is in FIFA’s hands, and the 2010 World Cup is about to kick off. The next month is our best chance to show FIFA that American soccer fans are as loud, passionate, and intense as soccer fans anywhere else.

Now that we’ve hit 400,000 supporters, our new goal is to reach half a million before the World Cup is over.

If you are at all interested in the U.S. hosting a World Cup, you should click here to sign the “Go USA Bid” petition.

PlayStation 3 Slim bundles to the rescue!

During my PS3 YLoD research and project I started looking at the PS3 Slim model. Since mid May Amazon has not had PS3 systems in stock; all PS3 systems listed were via third party sellers. The same is true for some other online retailers; the PS3 Slim is in short quantities. As E3 draws near, and in the case of Amazon and Game Stop, Father’s Day, it looks like some PS3 stock is finally going to be released. Please note that not all of these new bundles are created equally.

MLB 10: The Show – Target.com as available “in stores” only.
Little Big Planet Game of the Year Edition and HDMI cable – Amazon. This set is available for pre-order; shipping June 12.
Uncharted 2 Bundle from Best Buy.
God of War III – Game Stop “Father’s Day Bundle. Please note that the description shows an AV cable, not HDMI, and Game Stop is price gouging, listing their bundle at $399.98.

Other retailers will probably have similar bundles, which in general are good deals since the most recent 250GB PS3 Slim system price was $349.99. A pack-in game is a good value and reminiscent of the old days of console gaming when every system included a game.

I have not done enough research to confirm, but I believe that the most recent 250GB Slim systems included an HDMI cable. If not, the Amazon system is the best deal. It is at least worth noting that the Amazon screen shot does show the game and the HDMI cable.

It is also worth speculation that Amazon and Game Stop are calling their bundles “Father’s Day” which either implies timing (it is before Father’s Day) or these systems are expected to be in short supply, selling out in a matter of days, and eliminating the need to carry the bundle past Father’s Day. Color me with a shade of Oliver Stone.

I hope those of you looking for a Slim avoid Game Stop. It is absolutely ridiculous that they are $50 higher than everyone else. Then again, if you are planning to pick up God of War III, maybe you do not care about the higher price compared to the other bundles.

So now we know why these systems have been in short supply. Sony has let the current production run clear in other to make way for a fresh batch of Slim models, complete with games, that they can announce at E3 – “Look what we are doing for PlayStation fans …”

It will be interesting to see if these new Slim models hold any improvements over the most recent Slim systems, or if we are going to see an E3 announcement of manufacturing improvements coming this fall.

*****

Sunday Afternoon Edit – Also found this bundle at EBGames: MX vs ATV Reflex for $389.97.

LOTRO – Free Online Beta

Just for shits and giggles I signed up for the Lord of the Rings Online beta to see if I can get in on some of the relaunch fun before the actual free to play relaunch this fall. According to Eurogamer:

You’ll be able to play up to level 50 – the level cap of the original version of the game, Shadows of Angmar – for free. In the LOTRO Store, you will be able to purchase “convenience items”, expansion packs, premium content, additional character slots, potions and character customisation options.

We imagine that the content available to buy in the Store will include that currently sold in the Mines of Moria and Siege of Mirkwood expansions, which between them have raised the level cap to 65.

The VIP offering will grant unlimited access to all premium content, priority server access, five character slots, a shared bank slot and a monthly stipend of points to spend in the LOTRO store “for one low price”. The price is yet to be revealed.

I would like to give this a go just to try out the Middle Earth world, and the concept of free to play is perfect for my pocketbook. I really need to upgrade my laptop to something more suitable for gaming.

One really interesting bit of this story concerns Dungeons and Dragons Online, which went free to play last year.

Since its free-to-play relaunch in September 2009, Dungeons & Dragons Online has attracted one million players, boosted revenues by 500 per cent, and even doubled the number of traditional subscribers to the game. A recent survey put it as the third most-played MMO in the US after World of Warcraft and RuneScape.

Of course that is not WoW is a distant contender, but I imagine the free to play concept will continue to catch on with other MMOs looking for their nitche in the market.

U.S. – Australia Final Thoughts

Today was an overall good showing for Team U.S.A. with a 3-1 victory over Australia. I agree with most of the points in this SI article.

I am scared about our defense; too sporadic for my taste. If Australia could have finished some of their chances, it could have been a different game. I am excited about our possibilities up front. Buddle was fantastic and Gómez has been fantastic.

Cannot wait until next Saturday when we take on England!

U.S. – Australia Halftime Thoughts

Team U.S. is up 2-1 at the half with mixed results. On the one hand, we took an early lead, lost it, but quickly managed to pull back up front. That has to be encouraging after a trend of falling behind in so many recent games. In the negative ledger is the continued concern with poor defensive play.

Buddle had a great header at the 31 minute mark to pull the U.S. up 2-1. Buddle is easily the man of the match at this point with two goals. Dempsey missed an earlier opportunity, as the Australian keeper just managed to push the ball past the post. I do not really know much about Australia, but getting chances against any team is a lovely sight to behold.

The defense just looks so shaky. While the U.S. missed their share of chances in the first half, we also gave the Australians too many opportunities. Hopefully this can just be attributed to Onyewu being out.

On another note, I really like the spunk Dempsey showed when he received a hard hip check; however if the yellow carries over under international rules, I have a feeling it will be one that he later regrets picking up.

Go U.S.A.!!!

.ORG, .INFO, .NET

Just for the heck of it I decided to pick up some additional domains earlier this morning to go along with .COM and .US. I doubt these pickups will receive additional traffic, but it just did not seem right to leave these available for someone else to reference.

U.S. – Australia Early Thoughts (First 20 minutes)

It was nice to see Buddle put the U.S. up 1-nil in the first three minutes, but how on earth does Findley miss a wide open net? Chances to score international goals, even Friendly tune-up matches before next weekend’s World Cup opener against England are few and far between.

Of course Team U.S.A. needs to come out of this one with a victory to give the team confidence and momentum going into England, but the defense has to come together. What a shame that Australia was allowed to easily take things to 1-1 at the 18 minute mark with a nice corner that should be been stopped. Without some significant improvement on defense, we are not going to make it out of group play.

YLoD Repair Notes and Reflections

One week after the repair, my PS3 is still running strong. At times during DVD or Blu-ray viewing, the fan gets noticeable loud, however that is nothing compared to the balls out crazy overdrive loud the fan kicks into while playing games. It is really random; cannot pick up a pattern to notice when the PS3 fan is going to decide to rid its case of some excess heat. While this PS3 has always had this issue, based on my knowledge of YLoD and listening to the fan post repair, I am resolved to the fact my PS3 will overheat again.

The repair was straight forward; except for the ribbons and a couple of other places where I was not 100% sure how to remove a part or going in reverse, put a part back in place. Now that I know how the ribbon connectors work, I could probably do the job again fairly quickly. In fact, I would say that I have enough confidence to try this repair for any friends and acquaintances that have a YLoD PS3.

One thing I did that may be helpful for others that wish to attempt a “do-it-yourself” repair is that for each step or section in the strip down process, I put screws, ribbons, small pieces, etc into a zip-lock bag, and then labeled the parts for future reassemble reference. To explain, I ended up with zip-lock bags for HDD Brackets, Cover Plate / HDD Blue Screw, PSU, Bluetooth, (Step 17) Sprung Brackets, and Power – 4 Screws / Main Bracket 8 Screws (Step 14). For any odd sized screws along the way, I made simple paper labels which I then taped to the screw, and put in the appropriate bag. I think this approach helped the reassemble process go smoothly.

The only real concern I had was on the use of the thermal compound kit. I ended up with a little paste left over. Does this mean I used too little? If I would have used the entire shot filler material, would that have been too much?

At this point I have tested everything, which made me realize that if I have to move to a slim at some point I would really miss the front loading media slots for camera memory cards. I enjoy the convenience of sticking a camera memory card into the PS3 and immediately watching the images and videos in my living room on the 42” Sony Bravio. Of course I also use my laptop as a media server, so there would be a work around.

The only really odd thing I encountered was during my backup process. Once I got the PS3 running again, I immediately backed up all my save files, however some could not be copied; not allowed to be copied is a better description. High Stakes Poker and Heavy Rain come to mind. This may be worth further investigation.

In conclusion, I am obviously happy with the results. I got the satisfaction of fixing my PS3, learned a lot in the process (thermal compounds, heat guns, tons of PS3 parts, oh my!), and was able to recovery my PS3 data. I am not confident that this repair will last very long, however any time I get between now and a future Slim model was money well saved. The great thing about this project is most anyone can do it successfully if they take time to read a repair guide. Patience and a willingness to make a mistake (trying something new) would also help.

WKC 2 Includes Updated Original Plus Sequel

Sometimes I wonder why I read certain news with excitement. As is the case with this White Knights Chronicles 2 article that I found via N4G. The reality is that I really enjoyed playing WKC:I however I am nowhere near finishing it and I have not picked it up in weeks. Maybe this weekend …

As revealed earlier in the week, White Knight Chronicles 2 includes the original White Knight Chronicles in full. In an interview with 4gamer today, series director Toshiyuki Kusuda revealed that those without clear data from the original are going to be forced to play through the original’s story before starting up with the sequel.

If you do have a clear file, you’ll be presented with a choice of starting from the very beginning, complete with character creation, or continuing from the end of the first game. If you choose to start from the beginning, you’ll get to keep your items and such, but you’ll start back at level 1. This unfortunately also means that your character will be level 1 even when playing the online “live” mode. If you choose to start from the sequel’s starting point, your character will reset to below level 35.

Even if you did clear the original, you may want to replay it in the form that’s included with White Knight Chronicles 2. The game has been updated with the gameplay systems from the sequel. Kusuda feels that players of the original will be able to play it with a new feel thanks to the updates.

This story gives us several things to consider. First, having WKC 1 and 2 in the same package is a tremendous value. Second, those of us playing WKC:I basically paid $60 for the privilege of playing an unfinished game now instead of waiting for the sequel. Third, the developers have tried to make up for this and perceived gameplay flaws by allowing WKC 1 to be played again using improvements in WKC 2. Finally, I have not read that WKC 2 is confirmed for the U.S.

Let’s be honest, WKC is a nitche title with “cult classic” status. The mainstream press and most gamers could give a rat’s ass about WKC, so if you made it this far, there is a special place waiting for you one day in Gaming Nirvana.

Gran Turismo 5? What to play while waiting?

I know that this is somewhat older news, but I figured I would touch on GT5 for a minute after reading the Nürburgring news at the Official-ish PS Blog.

Nürburgring is definitely a favorite among GT fans, and I’m excited to share with you that Gran Turismo 5 will feature its three courses: the Grand Prix course, the Nordschleife, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours course.

Who doesn’t want to do some GT style racing at Nürburgring? The problem is more along the lines of who is waiting for GT5? I guess most of the PS3 user base, but good grief, what a wait. GT5 better be something special or I have a feeling that it will get killed in the mass market gaming site reviews.

Some good news for simulation style racing fans is that GT5 should have a nice damage model since a NASCAR license is included. Then again, it’s the GT series we are talking about, so I have my doubts. I am sure I will jump in like I always do … I just think the GT series has lost some luster.

GT1 was ahead of its time. GT2 was a great sequel; more of the same, only better. GT3 was a nice PS2 graphical upgrade over its PlayStation counter parts; however it was really nothing special. I enjoyed GT4 and spent countless hours with it, including a boatload of playing time in my PS3. In my opinion, GT4 is the best game in the GT series. Too bad my youngest son cracked the game disk. GT HD Concept? What was the point? It was just a throw away demo to let us know that GT5 was in the works. I have gotten almost no value from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue; I cannot think of the last time I have given it a go. Maybe I will in the next few weeks just to remind myself why it goes unplayed.

More than anything else, I would like to see a GT/Daytona Prototype type game similar to Le Mans 24 Hours – great sense of speed, extremely long races (seriously, you could go 24 real life hours), and a grid of 18-24 cars (do not remember the specific number). I bet that is too much to ask, and is something better left for PC simulation racing. If it could be done on the Dreamcast and PS2 … well, it would seem like some publisher would be able to pick up a license on the cheap.

Before my PS3 died, I was getting some quality time with Ferrari Challenge. I know it is not a great game, but it provides me with a decent simulation experience and a decent racing challenge.

Over the last couple of days I spent some time with F1 Championship Edition. The Turkish GP inspired me, so I ran some Time Trail hot laps at Istanbul, and then Montreal in anticipation of next week’s Canadian GP. This game is great fun for me running hot laps. It is hard for me that this 2007 release is still the only US F1 release. What a waste of a great license.

Really old Minis coming to a PSP near you?

Lock ‘n’ Chase? Maybe even Burgertime? I stumbled upon this article earlier this morning during my coffee time.

There was once a time and place where I would keep up with all the classic games and collections as they were released onto newer platforms. From a historical standpoint I wanted to see the classics of my youth preserved for future prosperity. I also enjoyed playing them again on a modern system (say PSX, PS2, now PS3) because I no longer had to drag out my older consoles – Intellivision, Colecovision, NES, etc.

I would gladly throw a few bucks ($2.99 would be a fair price) for Lock ‘n’ Chase and Burgertime. Hopefully these games will be released individually instead of being inclusive to a more expensive collection.

Gamers Grow Up

Eurogamer posted an interesting summary article showing that games are no longer just for kids. As if we didn’t know that already …

A new study by research firm NPD has found that the average age of gamers is now 32.

The report, titled Gamer Segmentation 2010, is based on an online survey completed by nearly 19,000 people. It found that the oldest gamers, with an average age of 42, fit into the Avid PC Gamers and Offline PC Gamers categories.

In total, 4 per cent of respondents were classified as Extreme Gamers. They are said to spend 48.5 hours per week playing games. Overall, the average time spent playing games per week is 13 hours.

Of course if there was an online survey, I wonder how many kids had a chance (or even bothered) to fill it out. I know my 11 and 9 year-old boys would not be allowed to fill out some random survey.

My average time gaming per week has dwindled over the years. Nowhere near 13 hours a week these days.

Madden 11 – Yes, Another Yearly Pre-Order

Oops, I did it again. Over the weekend I put Madden 10 on eBay, and pre-ordered Madden 11 to take advantage of a $20 off/credit promotion.

Order Madden NFL 11 for the Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360 and get $20 off a future video game purchase. The promotion code will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account up to two (2) business days after your product ships. This offer will be extended to all existing pre-orders. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time. Offer valid for one purchase per customer.

Couple the credit with free release day delivery (for Tuesday, August 10, 2010) shipping, and Madden 11 was just too attractive to pass up.

As if I never seriously considered Madden 11 not being a day one purchase. There was a brief (must have been fleeting too) moment earlier this year during my Madden Ultimate Team foray, where I considered that maybe I would just stick with Madden 10 for two years running. Crazier things have happened; for the first time in the history of the series I did not pick up the newest NCAA Football release.

So I am football less for the next 10-11 weeks. Maybe it is time to go retro with Tecmo Bowl Throwback.