Blazer88's profile on TV.com

Madden at 20 and other football related thoughts by Blazer88

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:41:03 PDT

I have no plans to buy Madden 09'. I bought last years as I usually buy one per generation and was pretty disappointed in it being the first one I had played since like 2001.

The big deal about this years version though to me is that the game is now in its 20th year. Yeah, you heard me right. This made me think two things right away. First was, man I am old. I was more than alive when the edition came out though I actually didn't buy a Madden till the PS2. I love football for sure but when your younger and money is so much harder to come by I always felt that sports games were second tier, and I still do even today. The second thing that came to mind was, how old is John Madden these days? I looked it up and Wikapedia puts him at 72. Wow.....that is old for a guy. It made think a little more about whether what EA is planning to do with this game because the truth is John Madden isn't likely to be around for too much longer and even if say he is around for another, say 10 years would you still want to use him at 82? So yeah clearly the series under its current name has to be in its twilight years. Will EA replace him with another name you think? Not sure there is anyone out there who could, maybe they will just call it NFL football, assuming they keep the licence under lock.

On another note we are in the NFL preseason. I looking forward to the regualr season even though I have a feeling I won't be able to see the games I want to seeing as how I am in Ohio which will totally suck.

As you know last year the NY Giants pulled off a mmajor upset in the Superbowl. One player was quoted as saying that nobody gave us chance, which was true but of course it was for good reason. The Giants were mediocore team all year with average QB, in other words the exact opposite of the Pats. But as the saying goes the best team doesn't always win.

This year it is pretty tough to say how the Patriots will do. I pointed out after the game last year that thier weakest link in that game was clearly thier offensive line which while it did great all year long for some reason didn;t have the ability to contain a team that they had already beaten like a month or so earlier. The Pats seemed to have made moves to address that issue though it remains to be seen how well as of yet. They lost thier first preseason game, however many starters didn't even play in it, including Tom Brady who didn't play at all so I do not think theat is fair game to make assumptions on. The next one on sunday against Tampa Bay should give a better indication.

While the o-line has new blood there is also the question of the Pats secondary which has been competely decimated from last year looing Samuel and Gay I am not sure why both players were not pursued but maybe management felt it was time for a change there after all both players in the end failed the team. Gay was scored on at least once and I think maybe even twice while Samuael dropped an interception that was thrown right to him and would have ended the game had he caught it. But still the defense did hold well most of the game so playing the blame game at this point is useless. It'd been nice to keep them but they gone. Asante Samuel on his press conference having been signed by thr Eagles said he just wanted to win a championship. Really dude? So you joined the Eagles? Who knows maybe they will be substantually better tis year. It could happen. I have no idea how the Pats new secondary will do at this point. Its still kind of messy area and they just signed another new guy, his name escapes me, like yesterday.

Will the Pats be perfec tthis year? that is one of the questions kicking around. I donl't think so is my answer. It'd be ice for sure and the schedule they have should help but that is assuming that teams they weren't that good last year still are not.

The Dolphins I think will be. I don't see how any additions can improve a team that only won a single game last year that much. The Bills were actually a decent team last year so they may very well be dangerous this year. The Jets now have Brett Farve at the helm which I think will improve them but I think it is totally questionable how much. Farve has the all time TD record but he also was drafted as starter, barely missed a game and has played forever now. He is 38 in case you didn't know. So really he got that record more by playing as long as he has without getting injured muchj. A better and more telling record id that he also hoold the interceotion record, which if you watch him play is like what he should be known best for because it happens all the time. Witness thier final game with Giants last year where Farve's last throw was, wait for it now, interecpted. Oh and by the way he already complining about his arm only like 3 days into practice. He play the Redskins on Saturday. I will be watching. Honestly though I can't imagine the Jets be incredibly better than last year. The Pats will play them at least twice this season. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

On another note I am not too thrilled with the no push out rule the NFL has put in place in the endzone. So now no matter what I reciever must catch and land in bounds. That would be ok but the rule as it was was designed to not encourage defenders to purposely knock people out of bounds. Seems kind of cheap. But I guess we all will see how it effects the game this season. Harder to make TD's I would imagine.

Now Reading: Under Fallen Stars by Blazer88

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:58:24 PDT

On to the Threat from the Sea book 2: Under Fallen Stars

From the back cover....

The sea war rages up and down the Sword Coast, leaving the busy harbor of Baldur's Gate in flames. Following his mad quest, the evil Lakhovas has found a gateway into the protected waters of the Sea of Fallen Stars, and now no coast is safe from his marauding armies of the deep.

The invasion from the depths of the ocean spills into the Sea of Fallen Stars. Ancient undersea cultures and their human neighbors must unite for the first time in the struggle against the evil warlord Iakhovas.

GS Beta by Blazer88

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:44:40 PDT

If you haven't seen it there is the link to the Gamespot bets site. I got to say I like how it looks and right now I am current;y posting this blog in it. Feature-wise I am much happier with the blog posting as it has a real spell checker now since the old one was pretty lame. It kind of looks like a more polished version of Giant Bomb.

http://beta.gamespot.com/

Now Reading: Rising Tide and other ramblings by Blazer88

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:50:54 PDT

Finished the last of the Lost Empires group books and am moving on to the Th Threat From the Sea trilogy. The First book is called Rising Tide.

From the back cover

From the murky depths of the Shining Sea rises a prehistoric menace who commands a rising tide of invasion to crash over the shores of Faer�n.

Iakhovas has plotted for long, bitter years to regain the powers that were torn from him by an angry goddess. Now, nothing will stand in his way, and the face of Toril will never be the same again.

Oblivious to the growing danger of the undersea civilizations, the surface world is about to awaken to a new horrifying threat from the sea.

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On the gaming front I beat God of War 2 like a week or so ago. I was pretty happy with the ending and how it sets up GoW3. Been playing Forza 2 on the 360 and Pikman on my Wii lately. both are cool.

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E3 2008 is over as you know and the word is pretty uneventful. Will there even be another next year? The cry for a return to form seems to be getting louder this year from the inside. Bring it back to the people!

Anyway despite my view of the Sony press conference it seems the roundtable disscussion some journalists were privy to afterwards was much better and oh yeah I still want one and hope to have a PS3 this year.

My Quickie E3 Report by Blazer88

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:56:20 PDT

So much reading to do in school so not enough time to do a rundown pf the E3 press conferences as I did in the past.

First I thought MS's was the best. The had most games that were in real time and the more impressive announcments. FF13 helped a a lot.

Nintendo's was fun to watch as usual but nothing spectacular. That add on the the Wiimote if it works should be helpful with the accuracy problem. Looking forward to the new Wii Sports game and Animal Crossing too.

Sony,....*sigh*. Lat year I seem to rememeber I thought Sony had much improved and maybe even had the best show, don;t remember exactly. This year,.....not so much. In fact I found it pretty boring. Resistance is ok I guess. I haven't yet played the first but I always thought it looked pretty mediocore and this didn't look muh better. I do want God of War 3 but yeah that trailer was not very good. And MAG,....Ok here is the thing Sony now has 3 titles that are focussing on online play heavily, all FPS and two them seem to feature no single plaer experience at all (SOCOM and MAG), I just don't know how well this stuff will work on a console,..any of them. Fact of the matter is these types of games have been done before and are actually a dying breed as games like Quake and Unreal have shown they are just not selling well any more. And worse large team based games almost never do all that great on consoles because that is stuff of the truely hardcore FPS player, many console gamers like to solo rather than work together. I don;t know though maybe it will be different but I still don't see any these becoming mass market big time sellers.

Oh and on a side note I was pretty impressed with EA's stuff. What change huh? Probably the best I have seen from EA in awhile lineup-wise because it wan;t so sequal focussed or filled with me-too games.

School part 2 and Now Reading: The Nether Scroll by Blazer88

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:38:34 PDT

So I forgot to mention that I finished my schooling for my associate degree about 2 weeks ago. I only got about a week of rest though since I was still in the hospital for one of those weeks and now as of today its back to the grind witht he beginning of my bachelors degree program in IT/software engineering.

I finished Star of Cursah last night and it ending up being way better than I though it would be. Anyway though I have moved on next to the last of the Lost Empires series of books, The Nether Scroll.

From the back cover....

Ansoain has been murdered, and her son Galimer taken hostage.

Druhallen, a young magic user, must avenge the murder of his teacher and rescue her son from dubious fate. But not everyone is telling Druhallen the truth.

Druhallen and his companions must brave the ruins of Dekanter to find a missing artifact...

The Nether Scroll.

Without the Nether Scroll Galimer may die. With it Druhallen may go mad.

What lurks in the darkest corners of the haunted Weathercote Wood? A race for the possession of one of Faer�n's greatest artifacts is on, and the Beast Lord himself is in the running!

A young magic-user sets out to avenge the murder of his teacher and save her son from a similar fate. Facing evil and treachery, he must brave the ruins of Dekanter to find a missing artifact that might be a clue to the source of all magic in the Forgotten Realms.

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I did by the way get started back on trying to get through God of War 2

Now reading and other things going on by Blazer88

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:30:54 PDT

Not a fun month friends. I have since last month been in and out of the hospital,...mostly in really with reoccuring pancreatitis. The main treatment for this is pretty much starve you to lets the irritation go down since there is little else they can do. In my case they pulled a few meds that weren;t the problem first, then my gall bladder and finally it seems after that didn't work they went back to meds may have gotten it right this time. Things were compicated by me also haveing C.diff and ulcerative colitis to boot. During my stay I finished my last book and started a a new one called Star of Cursurah.

From the back cover...

Lurking in the ruins is a horrific tale of greed, power, and revenge.

The Protector crawls forth, the shade of a dead city whose rulers refuse to die, and young companions in two distant epochs learn of a dreadful destiny they cannot escape...

...and a deadly threat to all they hold dear.

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On the game front I obviously have not been playing any. I am still looking to get back to God of War 2 though,....hmm, maybe Sunday huh?

On the school front I finished my last ****for this degree but probably won't get the A I should have since I had to turn in a few things without fixing them since I had no access to a computer in the hospital though hopefully it doesn't bring it down too much.

On the gaming news front I see Diablo 3 has been announced and I am soooo happy about that having lost interest in WoW awhile ago and having only mild interest in Starcraft this was what I was waiting to hear and yeah I am glad it isn't an MMO.

The Spore creature creator is out there if you missed it. Its available in two flavors, the very limited trial version and the full version that you have to pay for. Real preorders are now being taken for the game as well. I may actually pop for the fairly expensice Galactic Edition too which is not something I do often.

E3 coming up....wonder if it will be any good. Not really much out there for 08' yet that I know of and what of 09'?

There are flyers out there showing an impending 360 price drop by the way. Like $100 less I think, bout time MS since it was well overdue. My only gripe I have about them now is how slow they are is changing the 360's guts all the while it seems Sony is rolling right along changing the PS3's.

I still do not have one of those btw. A PS3 that is. Just do not have the money right now, still. I still want one though especially since it seems to be getting some game I actually care about now.

Guess that it for now.

Now Reading: Faces of Deception by Blazer88

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:30:28 PDT

Started the second book in the Lost Empires group of books, Faces of Deception. From the back cover.......

Atreus of Erlkazar

Hidden from his powerful family's enemies behind the hideous mask of his own face. Sent by the goddess of beauty on an impossible mission. Driven to find a way past his own flesh, into a soul torn between destiny and love.

Deep in the ancient valleys of the enigmatic Utter East, Atreus will finally look into the...

Faces of Deception

Return to the Utter East in a new Forgotten Realms story by veteran author Troy Denning! Atreus has come a long way to drink from the Fountain of Infinite Grace. Will the greed and prejudice of others stand in his way, destroying the fountain and its ancient guardians?

Now Reading: The Lost Library of Cormanthyr and other stuff by Blazer88

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:52:24 PDT

Part of the Lost Empires stand alone group of books of which there are 4 total.

From the back cover....

The Lost Library of Cormanthyr.

Is it just a myth? Or does it still stand... somewhere in the most ancient corners of Faer�n?

An intrepid human explorer sets out to find the truth and what starts as an archaeological expedition soon becomes a race against time as an undying avenger is determined to protect the secrets of the ancient, xenophobic elven empire of Cormanthyr.

The Library of Cormanthyr -- is it a myth, or a lost piece of history? A contemporary explorer-scholar sets out to learn the truth, but what starts as a research project soon becomes a race against time as an undying avenger strives to keep the secrets of the elves hidden.

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In other news I am still working on GTAIV of course and I like 50% something percent into it and its still fun. I suppose I could be done if I stuck to the main mission but I do the other stuff too though i will admit I have been ignoring most of my friends in the game as it just gets anoying after while to be taking every one to go bowling or whatever. I would say my only really big gripe with the game is that in some cases they actually took out the full open worldly part of the game as far as the missions are concerned. By this I mean the game during the missions often forces you to do things a certain way like in some mission you have to ride a motorcycle, or the car you parked outside prior to entering the mission disappears as you when you start it preventing you from using. Ah well.

God of War 2 Redux and My GTAIV Moment by Blazer88

Sat, 03 May 2008 15:34:05 PDT

I decided to do an experiment with God of War 2 because I really want to be able to finish the game. So I sepnt $20 for a brand new copy of the greatest hits version and lo and behold it makes it past the spot where my other copy experiences its hanging problem. so now the only issue I have is when I will get back to playing it as I am a little absorved by GTAIV at the moment. So I guess i will go to that after I am finished with the main game of that and am satisified with any fun I can have with it after that.

As for my favorite moment of playing GTAIV so far...

Well for me it was when I jackad a car and the the guy I took it from tried to take it back. That in itself is nothing new as it was in previous games but in this case the guy didn't manage to get me out as I drove off and rather just managed to open the door. The funny part was he hung on though and was dragged for a little bit while still hanging on to the door as I drove.

Anyway,..it was funny to me.