The Recycle Bin

I have been debating picking up a new PSP Slim; the Star Wars PSP Slim limited edition bundle looks pretty cool, but at $200 can I afford something just because it looks cool? I have not checked on eBay to see how much my original PSP can fetch, but I figure it should be good for at least $75, which means I could get the Star Wars PSP Slim bundle or maybe the Daxter PSP Slim bundle for about $125. The real question is can I get my money’s worth from an upgrade?

I am planning on getting the new Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron games, which at $40 is a good reason to pick up the Star Wars PSP Slim limited edition bundle, making it about $85 (sell original PSP for $75 and Renegade Squadron by itself is $40). I am also fairly committed to Dungeons & Dragons Tactics, which despite poor mega site reviews, has received fairly positive user praise on metacritic.

I am also strongly considering Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, which was a great game on the PSX and pretty good on the GBA. Maybe I could sell my long forgotten GBA version for a few bucks? I am sure I can throw out “rare” or “collectors item” to pick up a few more bones.

I still think I need a football game, so Madden NFL 08 looms (should have gotten it for $12 off at Circuit City last week), but I am going to try to hold off on this one as long as possible. I think it may be better as a b-day or Christmas present. Madden 07 was not that bad, but I think I like to have quick pick up and play experiences, which probably contradicts the whole D&D Tactics and FF Tactics debate.

I finally played Tiger Woods 2007 (purchased it several months ago), and it looks like a solid game. Once upon a time I was a big video game golf fan, but I have not checked out a Tiger Woods game in years. I am not sure if it is an indication of my PSP or the actual game, but it locked up twice during my profile creation and a third time while loading the tutorial. Previous versions of Madden locked up, so maybe it is an EA Sports game issue?

I did not really play enough Tiger Woods to comment on the game, but I guess it does not matter much since Tiger Woods 2008 is out. The charter generation system is deep, the graphics look pretty, and the controls are fairly straight forward. This may actually be the type of game I need for traveling.

From a sports standpoint, the only titles I still own are WipeOut Pure (great futuristic racing title – but fringe at best as a sports game), Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution 2007, and of course Tiger Woods 2007. At some point I will probably pick up TOCA Race Driver 2, but I have not been in a rush to add a new racing title; just not so sure they play well on the go.

So if I go with a Slim, it is going to cost me money up front until I clear some items on eBay, but the major disadvantages are that I already have an extra battery, a Logictech case, and a screen protector (LCD stick-on cover) for my current PSP. I am not sure I can justify a new system plus three news games over four news games for less than the Slim bundles.

I need to make a decision tonight because I want the games in time for my FL trip Wednesday night. Will post an update later.

With apologies to Bowling for Soup, I almost picked up several games at Circuit City last night.

Madden 2008 for the Wii would be a great Christmas present for the kids, plus it was $12 off.  I decided not to pick it up yet, because we need to plan a little better – Santa, two sets of grandparents, etc.

Madden 2008 for the PSP, which should be new and improved over last year; also on sale for $12 off.  I decided not to get it because I did not play the 2007 version enough (sold it a while back), and I have just not been in much of a PSP mood.

DiRT for the PS3; because every console needs a good rally game.  In the end, I decided to wait to see if I could find it a little cheaper – $60 is a lot for an impulse purchase.

Heavenly Sword was also in hand, but how could I start something new when I have not finished Oblivion or Resistance.  Besides, there was that $60 impulse purchase thing again.

I thought about one of the new NBA titles, but I have read mixed reviews on all.  Which one is really the best?  Since when did I actually like the NBA again?  Probably a horrible purchase without waiting for a sale.

In the end I did not pick up anything.  I almost spent a couple of hundred dollars, but figured I was better off standing pat and enjoying what I already had in my library.  Of course all this almost buying prompted me to throw up a few older games on eBay to build a spending cache to help justify my next trip to Circuit City.

If I say that enough, it may make me feel better about Georgia’s loss to Tennessee and Texas’ defeat at the hands of Oklahoma. Well, probably not, but I can at least justify a young and inconsistent Bulldog team going down at Rocky Top, and everyone knew Texas was seriously over rated this year. USC was a 41 point favorite over Stanford, so no matter how I spin my teams’ defeats there is no way Trojan fans can do the same.

So I have missed a good two weeks between posts.  Stuff happens.

What a crappy day for my football teams.  Georgia gets taken behind the woodshed and has the living tar spanked out of them, and Texas goes down to Oklahoma.  Crap.

The last three weeks have been filled with very little gaming.  Instead, any free time has gone to watching football (took in the Falcons-Carolina game a couple of weeks ago), catching up on reading, and I have started a running program.  I did manage to get in a little time on my PSP earlier this week on a “day trip” to Canada.  The usual staple – Pinball Hall of Fame – and I spent a little time with Taito Legends Power-Up (Qix and Elevator Action).  I think there are some things worth commenting on, such as the horrible analog nub controls on these classic compilations, and my general lack of enthusiasm for the PSP.  Maybe I am outgrowing gaming on the game, which would be a pretty sad state of affairs.  I do have a couple of trips coming up, so maybe things will change.

I have not fired up my PS3 for gaming in weeks (dare I say months).  Looks like a lot of changed.  Today I had to upgrade my firmware, download the new folding at home update, and check out some of the free content from the Playstation store.  The biggest thing I ran across in the forums that I have not frequented in a while are the rumors surrounding PS3 backwards capability issues.  Not sure where this will take us, but I think backwards capability is a major selling point for the PS3.  Most longtime Playstation owners have a catalog of PSX and PS2 games that they will want to play for the foreseeable future.  I know there are still several PS2 games that I want to play; too little time for all the great games.

I spent some time with Formula One Championship Edition running hot laps in the time trail mode.  The burr hit me right since I happened to be up early in the morning to watch qualifying for the Chinese GP.  Not at all intentional, but I could not sleep.  Formula One CE is still an outstanding title that for the most part did not receive its due in the US market.

I also spent some time with Super Stardust HD, which is easily one of my all time favorite shooters.  Decided to download the free version of Go! Sudoku; it is Sudoku, not sure what else to add.  I will probably splurge three bucks on Go! Sports Ski; it is cheap and looks different.

How about Jacques Villeneuve qualifying up front at Talladega.  Give ’em hell Jacques.

2002 was the last time Georgia rolled into Tuscaloosa.  In 2002, Georgia was an underdog; no one thought they would beat a physical Bama team, but our beloved Dawgs pulled one out with a last second winning field goal on their way to their first SEC title in 20 years.  This year, Bama is on a roll, and the Dogs are still licking their wounds from that chicken fight a couple of weeks ago (i.e. no SEC Championship for Georgia is in the works for 2007).

The Dogs are once again underdogs, but I think Georgia will surprise the Tide much like they did five years ago.  The reasons are simple.  Alabama is coming off an emotional win, and I think Georgia’s inconsistent offense will find some consistency on the ground and in the air.  If Georgia can manage to control the clock with their ground game, they will win a hard fought contest 24-20.  If not, it is going to be pretty unbearable around here listening to the Tide Rolling.

Came across this article on UGA radio announcer Larry Munson, and just had to post something for those of you that do not familiar with the Southeast or SEC football. Larry is pretty much a living legend, and he will be sorely missed as he starts to cut back on games beginning this weekend.

Take a listen here for some good stuff. Go Dawgs!

Earlier this week I took my Sierra Pro back to Wal-Mart for an exchange. I had read that maybe there were some quality control issues around this air rifle. The lady behind the returns counter was not going to let me exchange the Crosman; something to do with a no gun exchange policy. In the end, after calling her manager and the sporting goods department, I was allowed to exchange the airgun. Luckily for me, there was one other Sierra Pro in stock.

Yesterday I opened the new gun and two things immediately noticeable. First, this gun was new; it contained some extra packaging that was not included with the first gun. I am pretty sure that the first gun was used because the seal was not tight, muzzle break was not clean, and in retrospect it was definitely missing some of the extra packaging described above. Second, the included scope does not have any markings on the horizontal and vertical dials that will allow me to zero in on a neutral (or default) setting before trying to tune the gun.

Out of the box, without the scope, I was shooting much better compared to the first gun; groupings were tighter and I was much closer to the bulls-eye on my targets at 10 yards and 20 yards.

I put the scope on earlier this afternoon (halftime of the Falcons’ game), and I was quickly back to not being able to hit the side of a barn. While the first gun was always too low (at longer distances) and almost always too far to the left, this new gun seems to be always high and to the left.

I run out of daylight, and while I am still making some adjustments, I am not encouraged because the vertical dial did not “click” when I first turned it. The two screws holding it in place were sat at an odd angle, so I decided to take them out and reseat the top of the dial; now it clicks. The documentation mentions taking off the protective caps, but this scope does not have any caps. At least I cannot find any removable caps. The cover that I took off did not have anything that could be easily adjustable, so I must be missing something. I really have no idea where the dials should be set to start shooting. For what it is worth, the scope included with the first gun had some sort of range indicator that showed clicks to distance, but this one just includes click numbers. If I cannot figure this scope out, I may have to call Crosman to see if they have some advice, or maybe exchange the scope.

A squirrel hunting I will go … after I get the gun sighted in correctly.

Who dem Texans?

If you want a blueprint on how to build a winning team, just take a look at the Houston Texans these past two seasons. Start with the defense, fix problems with your offense, and sit back while the wins start piling up.

Also, listen to nothing any idiot on ESPN or any other sports show says about your draft choices.

I could call out quite a few people to eat crow about the Bush, Young, or Williams debate. There is no way shape or form that drafting Reggie Bush made sense for the Texans. Anybody that actually followed the team and watched them every Sunday could tell you that. Vince Young is a more interesting discussion, but Houston wanted to see if David Carr was going to be a franchise QB. So they drafted the best defensive player available that fit their most glaring need.

Williams is playing like Super Mario this season.

Thank you, oh thank you Atlanta for Matt Schaub. He is exactly what David Carr was not – cool under pressure, makes great decisions, and doesn’t lose games for you. Houston did need a running back, they did NOT need Bush, and they got Mr. Green. A punishing back that can carry the load, he has been worth every penny invested so far this season.

I’ve been forced to watch the Texans for over two years now and I have the same feeling when I witnessed Jacksonville turn the corner. Except this time, the Texans have an awesome offense that can put up 35 every game.

I was pretty excited last week, but waited to see them again before writing anything. I’ve seen enough. First time the Texans are 2-0 in franchise history!

My brother called me from London yesterday and asked “Have you ever played a game called World of Warcraft?”

It turns out that he’s been playing on the European servers for quite a while now. I imagine a lot of this is going on all over the place. By “this” I mean that there are a bunch of older gamers playing WoW that don’t mention it for fear of being exposed to the world. So we go along leading these false lives of responsibility and maturity only to creep back into our fantasy worlds every evening.

I learned from my guild mates that my brother needs to purchase a US version of WoW in order to access the servers over here. My brother and I grew up on Dungeons & Dragons – the original – so I should have guessed that he would eventually find WoW.

FYI, I now have three level 70 characters. Swarn (priest), Fwarn (hunter), and the newest member Twarnnd (shaman) make up my senior WoW family. I am going to level a paladin and a mage, and that will be it for me. There is just so much to do beyond leveling in the game that five 70s is probably my limit.

It is always a good day when Ferrari finishes at the front of the pack. As I alluded to below, I hate that Ferrari clinched the Constructors’ Championship on a technicality (Mclaren being dismissed), but I love Raikkonen and Massa finishing one-two this morning at Spa.

Switching to the Chase, I hope we will see another tweak in the format next year. I hate that Gordon’s points lead was dismissed at the start of the “playoffs,” but I do like the idea of awarding bonus points for victories. There should be some sort of “home field” advantage for winning the “regular season” – say a 20 or 30 point bonus, which would be equivalent to 2-3 wins. I am going to go with Gordon or Stewart to win the Championship; too close to call … going to say Gordon.  [edit:  forgot that Gibbs is leaving GM, so that is really going to hinder Stewart’s chances; Gordon is still the pick.]

The Falcons will take another one on the chin today, this time at the hands of Jacksonville. It will not be pretty; the Jaguar defense will stifle the ATL’s rushing attack, and poor Joey will suffer sacks, hurries, and another couple of picks. 27-13 Jacksonville.

Planet F1 has an interesting on Stepneygate, the regular spying that goes on among the F1 teams, and some details of how Ron Dennis handled what could only be described as a blackmail attempt on the part of Alonso.

The fact that the FIA cannot demonstrate exactly where Mclaren gained a technical edge from Ferrari indicates a case not entirely proven, but proven enough for the FIA to send a big warning shot across the bows of any other team that might want to develop a relationship with an unhappy employee in a rival team. They have shown that Coughlan tried to get a lot of information out of a willing source and then denied most of it.

Something had to be done, be it a hard line on Constructor points, huge fines, or drivers points. I am glad that the FIA did not decide to rebalance the Constructor points; kick out Mclaren and be done with it. To be honest, I do not know enough about the ins-and-outs of what happened to know if Mclaren actually gained and used some advantage(s) that should in turn have lead to being excluded from the 2007 Constructors’ Championship.

With the revelation that Fernando Alonso might have threatened Ron Dennis with going to the FIA clucthig his e.mails unless he was made No.1 in the team – forcing Ron to go to the FIA himself – adds a further twist to the case. If that is so, why didn’t Ron just get his I.T. department to send the various inboxes.

This is pretty damning and shows sad desperation (win at all costs) on the part of Fernando. Ron had no choice except to go to the FIA to put the ducks on a table.

In the end, this is just a sorry state of affairs that shows how far F1 has fallen, the power of corruption, and does nothing to inspire confidence that the sport can return to happier days.

Plenty to write about today, but I am going to summarize.

Dale Earnhardt Jr will drive the No. 88 car.  This is a pretty good move.  Junior gets to stick with the 8 theme, Bush already owns the No. 88 in the Bush series, and the 88 has Cup Championship pedigree.

Belichick got off relatively easy, with a 500K fine (or about 10% of his salary).  The loss of draft picks is hardly a punishment since the Patriots already have a stockpile for the 2008 draft.  Some cheaters always win.

By now everyone following the spy-gate crap in F1 knows that McLaren was fined an unprecedented $100 million and expelled from the 2007 constructors’ championship.  That is a lot of cabbage.  The biggest surprise for me was the implication of Alonso, who has not been penalized because he received immunity for his testimony.  Pretty crazy stuff.

Greg Oden is done before he started.  Not even sure what to say about this one.  Unreal.

Much to my surprise, there was a Wii waiting for me when I got home tonight.  Yesterday ebgames said my order would ship September 14, but the darn thing was already at home today.  If I knew it was that easy, I would have ordered one a long time ago.

Since this is for the kids (technically that is what I told my wife) I have to wait until Christmas before I can give it a go.  After all, Santa is going to place it under the tree.  Let me go on the record and say that there is a hell of a long haul between now and Christmas.  How can I have a new system for 90+ days and not even check it out … “just to make sure it works.”  My wife would string me up if I just decided “Happy Columbus Day” or some such.  Of course the kids would get over it, but I would have to endure the life of a monk.  Thanks, but no thanks.

I still think I am going to have to figure out a way to check things out.  Just to make sure the Wii works.  And if a little Madden gets in the way, so much the better.  After all, it is my duty to make sure the kids are not disappointed Christmas morning.  How else will I know if the thing is busted?

Last night I preordered the kids a Wii Play Bundle from ebgames.  I know that I have been anti-bundles, but in this case, I did not have to order anything extra (i.e. no crap games and accessories), and I only ordered what I wanted.

My wife and I decided that the kids needed (yes, *needed*) a Wii for Christmas, which means that in a few months I will have something new to write about, and more importantly play.  I would not have done the preorder deal, but I have not seen a Wii in store for months, and these days, I am feeling much too old to do the stand in line thing.

For $349.96 plus shipping and tax (which really means $402.26) I got a Nintendo Wii system (including a remote controller, nunchuck, and stand), Wii Play (which includes a Wii remote), a Wii Memory SD 2.0GB, and a second Nunchuck Controller.  Not a bad deal if it actually comes before Christmas (shows it should ship before September 14), but I have no idea if I actually need the stand and the memory card.

I assume we (er, I mean the kids) are going to get a few sports games like Madden, but Christmas is still 90+ days away.  Of course my kids may rather have a an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock that actually tells time, but that is what having three boys is all about.

Over the last few days, I have inadvertently picked up a new hobby; something else to compete with my limited videogame time. Air rifle target practice. The targets being standard paper targets, beer cans, and backyard squirrels. Those pests have gone too far – chewing up pecans that trash the yard and deck, running across the house (maybe even getting into the attic), and the critters get into the crawl space. The squirrels need to die. Seriously.

Labor Day weekend I picked up a Crosman Sierra Pro 1000 FPS Break Barrel Rifle from Wal-Mart. Fancy stuff for a pellet gun. I probably should have done a little more research, but the squirrels were becoming a bit much, and this .177 pellet gun seemed like a good solution to the problem. Silly me. I decided that I “would give them a chance” by going with a single pellet shot instead of a bb-gun that took a lot of pellets. No bang, bang, bang with this puppy.

I am getting ahead of myself.

Out of the box (after spending 10 minutes to attach the scope) I had a hell of a time getting the rifle sighted. My first thought was that I just suck. I cannot see (-4R and -3.75L), so why would I expect to actually be able to hit the side of a barn with a gun? Everything with the scope was low of the mark, so after adjusting the scope to the highest setting, without much success, I decided to take the damn thing off. Straight away I was much better, but figured that something still has to be wrong because I was still a little low. After messing around for a while, I decided to try to remount the scope. Why include a nice 3-9×40 scope if it is worthless? Besides, I need to be able to hit squirrels in the pecan tree, so I am going to need the power of the scope to take out my targets.

After putting the scope back on, I finally got my shots to group pretty well at about 15 yards out. Not bull’s-eye good mind you, but good enough to start thinking about the squirrels. Or maybe a target a little further out. After moving my targets an additional 10 yards out, I was really low on my aim, but my grouping seemed to be OK. I could not figure out if the pellets were losing a fair amount of velocity over such a short distance, or if the gun/scope was just not sighted correctly.

All in all, I was fairly frustrated because I felt like I should be hitting dead center on my targets more often than not. After doing a google search or two, I learned that there may be some quality issues with this air rifle. Apparently it is made in China (as if that says it all), and is not known for its accuracy. For those of you interested in this sort of thing, the best I can tell is that the Crosman Sierra Pro is a Wal-Mart branded Crosman 1000 or Remington Summit; kits and maybe muzzle brakes are slightly different among each model.

I decided that maybe there was a problem with the gun, so I took it back to Wal-Mart, but have not checked out the new gun yet to see if it affords me better results.

Grouping problems notwithstanding, I have been having a blast shooting at targets and trying to get the gun sighted. Yesterday I also had a moment of truth. One of the varmints decided to show itself, and I took prompt action. My aim was accurate enough to take the sucker out in a single shot at about 20 yards out.

Stay tuned. More air rifle action on the way.