The Recycle Bin

It is Sunday morning, so that can only mean one thing; it is time for more stuffs!

• With each passing day, the Vick dogfighting situation keeps getting messier. ESPN.com reports that Vick is in trouble now that the Feds are running the investigation:
  

  “What can the federal government do to Vick?

  The USDA and other federal agencies will now be sifting through all aspects of his life. The dogfighting investigation easily could grow into examinations of his income, taxes and other holdings. If they find sufficient evidence, the federal agencies will submit it to the U.S. Department of Justice and then, possibly, to a grand jury for indictment.”

  At what point will Falcons realize that it is time to cut bait, regardless of Vick’s contract and salary cap? I say they should make the move now, see if they can get a serviceable QB (i.e. anyone but Joey) and then move Vick to Arthur Blank’s Georgia Force Arena Football team. I know. It is not going to happen, but one can dream.

• I am looking forward to today’s US Grand Prix, but I wish FOX would go all out and give us some HDTV for today’s broadcast. I doubt it will happen since we did not get HDTV for the Canadian Grand Prix. I was disappointed that Speed did not make it into Q2, and I thought a Ferrari would make the front row. Are they struggling of late, or is Lewis Hamilton just making it look completely easy? It is hard for me to believe that he is taking it to Alonso, and making it look effortlessly in the process.
• I have been able to watch some Le Mans; the first 30 minutes, a few hours last night, and an hour or so this morning. It is hard for me to get a feel for this one because my viewing time has been so limited. Too bad Team Corvette is not up front, and as usual Audi dominates. I was hoping that I would get to watch Jacques Villeneuve (driving for Peugeot), but I have only seen him outside of the car. Last time I checked, his team was running 11 laps back, in P3.
• Today’s Michigan NASCAR race will be interesting to see if Junior gets some boos; not like I am going to watch the pre-race stuff, but I wonder how his fans are going to react. I am not sure why (i.e. in other words, I am about to make a guess), but I do not see a Hendrick car winning today’s race. Look for something a little different – maybe Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin (he is due), or maybe Kevin Harvick. I also think a Toyota will crack the Top 10.
• I am going to write more about F1CE’s Evolution mode (hopefully later today). Great stuff. The concept is so simple that I cannot believe someone has not tried this before Studio Liverpool. Simple summary – run a lap with a lot of downforce, and then run a lap with less downforce. Compare lap times (including individual sectors and top speed). Which is better? The previous or current? Repeat and rinse as necessary. Like a trip to the eye doctor.
• I decided to try Folding@Home again overnight. When I checked this morning, there was a network connection error. I am not sure if this was due to Charter, the PS3, or Folding’s network. The net result is that I left my PS3 on overnight, which nothing to show for the effort.
• My wife had the kids give me Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Blu-ray), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Blu-ray), and the BD PS3 remote. Nice Father’s Day gift. I will have to report on these later this week. I have not watch a Blu-ray movie yet, and I have not seen any of the Pirates movies. High hopes for both.

All for now. Happy Sunday!

I ran across this Dallas Morning News article via N4G.com. The author paints a pretty dire picture for Sony:

“So Sony has two choices: slash the price (and a $100 discount may not be enough anymore) and hope that higher game sales can offset the hardware loss. Or get out of the home console business and focus on handhelds.”

I do not see that happening. I am not sure what Sony will do if things do not turn around by this time next year, but I assume they expect PS3 system and PS3 game sales to start improving as the holiday season rolls around.

Now this bit is just ridiculous:

“But Sony’s console isn’t seen as the system for the hard-core gamer, as is the 360. It’s seen as the system for rich people who already own a 360 and are looking for something frivolous to spend their cash on.”

Wow. This is almost like troll bait on a message board. Interesting read without that last part, and pretty much along the same lines as everyone else is reporting. Sony looks like they are in serious trouble.

I downloaded the PS3 Folding@Home client, and after creating a calvertgames team, I started folding. Then I decided I wanted to play F1CE. Oh well. At this rate, I doubt I will get many folds in because I am not keen on leaving my PS3 running 24-7.

Yesterday Bill Harris posted an interesting article suggesting that Sony and MS need to make a price cut now:

“… the PS3 is a $599 boat anchor right now. They have to cut the price by at least $100 and they have to do it as soon as possible.

Somewhat surprisingly, so does Microsoft. They don’t have nearly the kind of momentum they need to get the installed base they’re projecting for this generation. I’m expecting a major price cut from them as well, and by major I mean $100.”

Who will blink first? Very interesting question. Bill thinks MS should take the initiative, which would make Sony look even weaker.

I think at this point, regardless of which PS3 games are released in the next 6-9 months, Sony’s numbers are not going to climb much except for the holiday period (November, December, and January will see higher than average PS3 hardware sales). My suggestion would be to reduce the price of the system by $75, and throw in some sort of bonus. If Sony really is losing a ton of money on each system sold, I doubt that they can stomach a $100 (or more) price drop. They should be able to throw in some type of bonus, but their problem is they do not have a great pack-in type game. I would suggest that Sony offer a bonus along the lines of a mail-in rebate for three Blu-ray movies, a PS3 game, a Sixaxis controller, or HMDI cables. Sony could even be creative and several free PSN downloads. A $75 price drop plus a bonus worth up to $60 may not get the system anywhere close to a $299 price point, but I think it would be enough incentive to start moving some hardware.

Long time readers know that I have pretty strong opinions about “mature” games, violence in said games, and excuses for why kids commit violent acts inspired by Doom. It has been a long time since I could pull in Doom reference, so be patient, and work with me. Has it really been 14 years since Doom took the world by storm?

I am still catching up on a huge backlog of reading materials. Today I found this ditty about Manhunt 2 (PSP and PS2):

“… a quick kill with some wire cutters could involve a stabbing or cutting. Wait for the ultimate gruesome kill, thought, and witness a man’s testicles and pieces of vertebra being ripped from his body.”

“Manhunt 2’s content will no doubt set the mainstream media into a frenzy …” [source PSP July 2007, pp. 28-29]

Granted, this will be a “Mature” rated game, so any kids reading this blog should not apply for admission. I am not one to go into a censorship speech; everyone can be offended by something. In the case of Manhunt 2 and flying testicles, I am not offended, but is Manhunt 2’s content a little too over the top? I know there are plenty of R rated movies where flying testicles, castrations, and the like are implied, but I doubt they actually show the grisly goods on film. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. Not my taste, but thankfully we live in a country where we do not have to worry about censorship of gaming content that offends someone else.

I think this is a little too over the top, but I am sure that people want to play this stuff or there would not be a sequel to the original Manhunt. When is enough really enough? I think that game developers should be able to express their ideas in the same way that movie directors convey their stories. Nudity in games? It is about time for games to move past the “games are for kids” stigma once and for all. As long as the ESRB can keep game ratings comparable to movie ratings then I am all for flying testicles. Just for the record, in case it needs to be said, flying testicles (or any other body part for that idea) are not my idea of fun.

Brace yourself for the next round of game banning when politicians get wind of Manhunt 2’s over the top violence. Let’s just hope that someone with some common sense will realize that the game should not be banned. Enforce the ratings, so when the next Columbine is connected to Doom (or Manhunt 2), remember that these games are not made to be played by little kids.

Today should be a great day of racing, which The 24 Hours of Le Mans starting in just under an hour. Thankfully I noticed the SPEED listing in the newspaper, while trying to see what time US Grand Prix qualifying started. Oddly enough, the paper did not list the F1 coverage, but it looks like qualifying coverage starts at 11AM.

I need to see if I can dig up my “Le Mans 24 Hours” PS2 game, which is something of a yearly tradition. Back in the day, I loved that game; I wish someone would go for a new update.

Happy racing!

I figured while I was searching for porn and watching the Braves finally win a game, I would download the latest PSP firmware upgrade (v3.50). BTW, not really on the porn part; figured I better say that since this post is coming to you tonight from my work laptop. Damn shame it has come to this, but what can you do?

So I go to the option to apply the new upgrade, but I am told I do not have enough battery to run the upgrade. This is true; I am down to a single bar. I go fetch my PSP AC adaptor, and guess what? The same damn message. I even remove the battery (just running on the power adaptor), but it looks like I have to have a charged up battery to apply any sort of firmware upgrade. Seems like I remember having this issue in the past, but I usually keep my spare battery charged up so it has not been an issue until tonight.   That or I am pissed that basketball and hockey are finally over. OK, you got me. I am pissed that I cannot apply the firmware upgrade; I could care less about the NBA and NHL.

Seems like a pretty poor design by Sony to not let us run firmware upgrades off of the AC adaptor power. I now have to wait until tomorrow morning (so the battery can charge). Good grief.

PS3 Fanboy posted an article about Sid Meier’s desire to shift focus to console gaming, specifically the PS3. The column ends with this gem:

“Now, before people take to the streets and start screaming about how Civilization couldn’t work with a controller, keep in mind that he has not specified at all what his next-gen projects are. Also keep in mind that the PlayStation 3 supports bluetooth keyboards/mice as well as the obvious USB support. So if Civilization did come out for the PS3, there’s no reason to automatically assume he would ‘dumb it down’ for consoles. Still, it’s much more likely that we’ll see entirely new games released, though you can pretty much be guaranteed sure they’ll carry at least a shred of the classic tactical style gameplay he’s known for.”

Interesting. I have Civilization II for the PSX. If that system can handle a Civilization game, I fell certain that the PS3 can make do without too many worries.

Interesting article posted by pcworld

“Of course what Sony calls “more you can do with it,” most intelligent developers would equivocate with the same sort of learning curve that killed the Sega Saturn. No one’s disputing it’s more powerful at this point, but wrapping a Honda Civic around a V12 won’t win you any races.”

When you (at least me) spend this much money of a game/entertainment system, you want it to last for a long time. Sony claims they are on a 10-year model with all PlayStation systems; hopefully the PS3 is no different. I have not picked up any Blu-ray movies yet, but there are several on my wish list. It would suck if Sony pulled the plug in a couple of years. I really do not see that happening, but I never thought I would write about Junior and the Sega Saturn in the same blog post, which in this case was a stretch. Sue me.

Tonya’s laptop had another malfunction today. This time the Dell Inspiron 6000 decided it did not want to power up. After playing around with it for a bit, I did get it to turn on, but it was only running on battery power.

Lucky for me, I remembered my good friend Brad at Dell – he is my personal “Online Community Outreach Liaison.” Well, not really solely dedicated to me, but I like to pretend that he is just looking after me. After a couple of emails, we decided that the best thing to do would be to setup an onsite customer support service call, to replace my motherboard and the AC adaptor. I got back to Brad too late to have this setup for Monday, but I have absolute confidence that Dell will come through for me and be on site Monday or Tuesday. I think they must love me.

Seriously, I am going to be down for an eight-count this Monday, so hopefully Brad (or one of the service reps) contacts my dear wife to setup an appointment to fix her computer. Thanks Brad. I love you in a non inappropriate sort of way.

At some point I am going to drop the façade about this being my “wife’s computer” – I use it for OOTPB, WoW, and blogging. Another update will be in order after this latest problem is fixed.

There are rumors aplenty going around that rumble is returning to the PS3 Sixaxis controller, yet no one from Sony will confirm that a new controller is imminent this fall.  Why?  I guess I am ignorant of all things marketing (kind of like I am ignorant of good beer), but I would think it would be a good PR move for Sony to announce that a new Sixaxis controller, complete with rumble, will be available this fall.

While watching the Braves/Twins games (Braves just blew a 2-0 and a great start by Hudson) I read a lot of rants about introducing a new controller.  Why would Sony offer some sort of rebate or refund for those of us with “original” Sixaxis controllers?  Why would Sony offer some sort of trade-in deal?  It is funny how we have such short memories.  I do not remember the year (let’s call it 1996) Sony introduced a new dual stick analog controller for the original PlayStation.  Shortly thereafter, Sony introduced the now famous Dual Shock controller.  No rebates.  No trade-ins.  Just a take it or leave it approach.  The Dual Shock because the standard controller.

The current Sixaxis controller is so damn light that I am all for a new version, complete with rumble support, because I assume it would be heavier than the current version.  Hopefully any new version would be backwards compatible with PS2 (and PSX) games, which would make the new controller a “must have” for me.

This morning I had to go to the hospital to do some pre-registration crap for my upcoming surgery.  I figured this would be a good opportunity to break out my PSP for the first time in … well a long time.  I am not sure when I last turned on my PSP.

I spent a decent amount of time with MLB 07 The Show, which reminded me of a couple of things.  First, the PSP really is a great system, if you wanted a portable PS2 experience.  Second, MLB 07 is really, really good.  MLB 07 Perhaps one of the top three games on the system, right up there with Winning Eleven and Lumines (and maybe Pinball Hall of Fame, which is one of my all-time favorite games).

For all the positives MLB 07 offers, I am only going to mention the negatives.  Yes, I am in a bitchy mood because I am out of Sweet Water 420.  What can you do?  The load times suck, but that is pretty much the case with all PSP games.  It is hard to get precision pitching placement because of the terrible analog nub controls (once again, this is a problem on my PSP games).  The commentary sometimes gets a little off, or slow, or behind the play.  Finally, it takes too long to finish a 9 inning game.

If you have a PSP, and you are a baseball fan, and you can get past the negatives listed above, you owe it to yourself to pick up MLB 07 The Show.  This is a solid baseball game.

Five weeks ago, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he was leaving DEI, it was a big deal. Yesterday, when he announced that he was joining ranks with Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports, the world was stunned. Well, at least they were in this part of the country.

How big was Junior’s news. Not only was it front page worthy from the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, it was worth three articles on the front page. Think about it. Three articles about Junior, all above the fold; actually they went past the fold, taking up three-fourths of the front page. Now that is big news.

Those fans in Smiths, AL (less than 30 minutes from Columbus, GA) were howling like a cat in heat. Seriously, a couple of the Smiths folks interviewed by the paper were shocked that Junior “joined the enemy.” Ghastly, no? How could he? Why that double crossing SOB just teamed up with Gordon. His daddy must be rolling over in his grave.

This is some funny stuff to read, and perhaps more fun to write about. Troy Johnson’s sports editorial was one of the front page stories:

“With all the confusion created by Wednesday’s announcement, there are legions of NASCAR fans today who have no idea who they’re supposed to hate.”

Now that Junior is with HMS, maybe he can switch from sponsoring Budwesier to Sweat Water 420. Hey, crazier things have happened. After all, Junior is now sleeping with the enemy. Something like that.

Speaking of crazy, before I forget; kudos to Chris for two (count them two) posts in one week. Shocking stuff. I guess the world is going to hell in a hand-basket.

For those of you moaning and groaning about no real rosters available for Out of the Park Baseball, read this. We’ll see how long certain companies continue their practice of publishing games with unlicensed MLB rosters.

I bet Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans are going nuts, bitterly disappointed about joining the ranks of Jeff Gordon.  A couple of weeks ago the local newspaper ran an article that said Earnhardt Jr. merchandise sales had actually increased since he announced he was leaving DEI.  What happens to all that merchandise?  eBay?  I would assume there is too much of it on the market for it to have any real value.

Bud or no Bud?  My money is on Budwesier going over to Hendrick Motorsports.  Junior and Bud have too much of a good thing to have it any other way.

If Junior has the resources and the backing of HMS, and he does not win a ton of races, then we can say that Little E is over rated.  However, if he finally wins races (and a Championship) he will become ungodly popular.  This should be fun to watch.