Gaming stuff

Red Faction: Guerrilla came from GameFly today. I have no idea when I will get time to play it, as things are busy around here and NCAA Football has been taking up all of my game time. Supposed to be a very good game though, so I will have to check it out at some point.

Also, the demo for IL-2: Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey was released yesterday. As a WWII plane nut this one has me interested. I downloaded the demo but have yet to play it. Another WWII flying game, Heroes Over Europe, is due for release in September. IGN released some new videos of this game in action and it looks really nice. Here is one of the videos:

Heroes Over Europe at IGN.com

My only worry is that these type of games can get really repetitive. There are only so many mission types you can do and escort missions can be a real pain in the ass. Hopefully some sort of random mission generator is included to give these game more replay value.

Newest member of the family!

We have a new family member at our house, an adorable little kitten named Sammy, which is short for Samantha. She is about 3 months old and has adjusted to out house great so far. Thankfully she has done a great job using her litter box and is eating and drinking just fine as well. So far she has been confined to our basement, but she is going to be turned loose on the entire household soon. I'll be putting another litter box on the 2nd floor so hopefully that will curtail any impulse she may have to potty somewhere she shouldn't. The whole family is crazy about her. My 4 year old daughter Laurel is especially thrilled that she has a kitty to call her own. I'll post some pictures later when I can.

NCAA Football 10 patch out for 360

The 360 version of the game got the patch today and I am tuning it as we speak. It will take a while for me to get the game the way I really like it, but so far the patch seems effective; the gameplay sliders are actually working the way they should. This will go a long way to making NCAA 10 a much improved game over past editions.

More Beatles: Rock Band tunes revealed!

Harmonix has revealed 15 more songs that will appear in the retail version of The Beatles: Rock Band. There are some great songs here, so without further ado here they are - along with the venues at which they will be played:

The Cavern Club
Twist And Shout
Do You Want To Know A Secret

Ed Sullivan Theater
Can't Buy Me Love

Shea Stadium
Eight Days A Week

Budokan
Paperback Writer
And Your Bird Can Sing

Abbey Road Dreamscape
Yellow Submarine
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With a Little Help from My Friends
Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows
Revolution
Birthday

Rooftop Concert
Dig A Pony
I've Got a Feeling

First off, I want to give major props for including I've Got A Feeling, which is just gonna rock all kinds of ways. It was never a given that it was going to be included in the game, so to have it verified is just awesome. I am also pleased as punch to see that Can't Buy Me Love, Eight Days A Week, Paperback Writer, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, With A Little Help From My Friends, Revolution and Birthday made the final cut. I was mildly surprised by Do You Want To Know A Secret and shocked by Within You Without You, but I am sure they will be fun as well. And Your Bird Can Sing will be awesome to play on the guitar and Twist and Shout will be a fun one to sing. The only track I could really do without is Dig A Pony, never one of my favorites. I just hope another rooftop concert song from Let It Be (specifically Don't Let Me Down) is not being left out because of it.

The latest trailer showing off the new songs has been released and it is awesome. See for yourself!

Added another NCAA team

I created my 4th team tonight, my alma mater, the University of Missouri-St. Louis Tritons. Of course in real life they don't have a football team and back in my day the were called the Rivermen. But no worries. I used the real Tritons logo and created some really spiffy uniforms. I think they came out pretty well but I have yet to see them in action. As mentioned that brings my created teams total to 4:

1. Affton Cougars
2. Saint Louis Aces
3. Amity Sharks
4. UM-Saint Louis Tritons

All of these teams are updated to the latest possible build. I am thinking of relocating the Aces since I already have 2 St. Louis based teams. I though about Colorado Springs (where the Air Force Academy is located) but could not think of a good abbreviation for them; the best I could come up with was CSA. If anyone has any thoughts on a good place to relocate a team called the Aces, I am all ears.

NCAA TeamBuilder update

I have updated my teams on TeamBuilder: the uniforms are much nicer and the rosters have been somewhat updated. I have also added a 3rd team, the Amity Sharks. If you have downloaded my teams previously, I would implore you to delete those and download the new ones. Yu'll be glad you did!

NCAA TeamBuilder

If anyone is interested, I have created 2 teams for the 360 version of NCAA 10: My old high school team, the Affton Cougars, and a fictional team, the St. Louis Aces. The Cougars run the Georgia Tech flexbone offense and feature my son John as the QB (even though he is currently only 1 year old!). The Aces play in a small dome and run the west coast offense. Please feel free to download them and let me know what you think! TeamBuilder is a lot of fun. There are tons of great teams out there, so be sure to look around!

NCAA Football double dip

With such overwhelmingly positive news about the patch for the PS3 version, I went ahead and picked up the 360 version and am awaiting the arrival of that patch, which should be sometime early next week. I am really looking forward to checking the game out once the patch drops. In the meantime I have started a career in the Road to Glory mode and it is a lot like last year's, which is to say quite fun. Not sure which team I will end up going with - I am a blue-chip QB prospect and Michigan would be the logical choice, but it will depend on who else offers me a scholarship and what the depth charts look like.

I also picked up the PSP version of NCAA Football last night and put some time in with it. It is surprisingly solid and reminds me a lot of the last PS2 version of NCAA that I played. This will hopefully keep me occupied during times when I am away from home and need something to do.

I'll be offering more NCAA updates as I play more, especially once the patch is released for the 360.

NCAA Football 10 - very positive patch news

Well, apparently the folks at EA have pulled it off. The patch for the PS3 version is already available and all indications are that it fixes the biggest issues, including the pass rush. Needless to say this is fantastic news and I will now be getting the game. NCAA has been my favorite video game series of all time and I was crushed to see how little love it was apparently getting from the developers. I must say that after last year's debacle, I had next to no faith that EA would properly fix the game and I am ecstatic that they seem to have come through. It still looks as though Madden will be in a whole different league this year, but if NCAA plays as good as everyone is saying, I will be thrilled - college football holds a very special place in my heart.

Mafia II

GameSpot has a walkthrough of a mission for this game here. It is super impressive. What I love about it is that it seems realistic as far as the shooting goes: it only takes two shots from a pistol to put down an enemy, while a single blast from a shotgun will do the trick. Way too many shooters give you superhuman opponents who can take 5-6 bullets before going down. I find that to be cheesy, unrealistic and frustrating. Here the shooting looks very well done.

The look of the game is very authentic to the time period, the mid 1940's. The voice acting seems to be top notch as well. All in all this looks like a supurb game in the GTA mold and it's one I will be paying close attention to. It is not due out until early 2010, so they have a lot of time to get things right.

Stupid Dave Roland...

That S.O.B. is tempting me to get NCAA Football 10 despite my promises to skip it this year. His impressions sound pretty good. (Actually he's only played one game, so I am just teasing.)

But I have been reading a lot of positive things about the game and the movies I have seen so far have been really impressive. There is supposed to be a patch coming out soon that EA says will fix the sliders, and therefore the lack of a pass rush. If the patch does what it is supposed to, I'll be picking this game up. Let's see if I can actually hold out for another week or so.

There is a deal at GameStop where you can trade NCAA 10 in for $40 credit on Madden 10 (to be released in mid-August), which I already have pre-ordered. So at the very worst, it would be like renting NCAA for a month for $20. See how I am already talking myself into this?!

DAMN YOU DAVE ROLAND!!!

Now THIS is a drug war

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Coordinated attacks in at least eight Mexican cities killed three federal police officers and two soldiers Saturday in what officials are calling an unprecedented onslaught by drug gangs.

Another 18 federal officers were wounded, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing federal police official Rodolfo Cruz Lopez.

The attacks were in retribution for the capture early Saturday of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, a high-ranking member of the drug cartel known as La Familia Michoacana (The Michoacan Family), Notimex reported.

Holy crap, these guys are serious. They basically declared war on the Mexican police department. This sounds like something out of a Hollywood B movie. It will be interesting to see what sort of response Mexico musters. Anything less than an all-out assault on these gangs will be seen as a huge sign of weakness. Stay tuned.

Dick Cheney: Asshole

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CIA withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress during the Bush administration on direct orders from then-Vice President Dick Cheney, current CIA director Leon Panetta told members of Congress, a knowledgeable source confirmed to CNN.

Constitution shmonstitution, Dick knows what is best for you! I am not advocating violence, but hypothetically, how much would you pay for just one punch to this lying prick's face? We'll start the bidding at $1000. Maybe that would wipe that perpetual sneer off of it...

Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood on the way

I just got a notice from GameFly that they have shipped Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood to me. This was #1 on my list, so I am eager to play it. Good buddy Dave Roland speaks highly of it, and I love the western theme, so I am hoping this one is worth checking out. The single player portion is supposed to be pretty short, so this seems like the perfect sort of game to rent rather than buy. I'll give impressions as soon as I can.

GameFly

I just joined GameFly so I can rent games rather than always having to buy them. I went for the plan that allows you to have only one game out at a time as I rarely ever have 2 games going simultaneously unless 1 is a sports game, and I usually buy those. For $15.95 a month you can rent one game at a time and keep it as long as you like. You then also have the option to buy the game if you'd like. With so many games that pique my interest, but not enough to spend $60 on, this seems like a smart idea. The 1st month is 40% off and you can cancel at any time.

I'll let you know how I like the service and if I think it is worth checking out.

Valkyrie - quick hit review

Barb and I watched Valkyrie the other night and I was pretty impressed - this despite the fact that A.) I am not a Tom Cruise fan and B.) I obviously knew how the story was going to end. Cruise gives a decent performance here; in fact I think he is a pretty decent actor overall. I just have a hard time separating his phony Scientology persona from his film roles. I guess when you come right down to it, that's my problem and it's something I usually get over before too long whenever I watch one of his movies.

Anyway, Valkyrie is the story of an assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler by high-up German commanders in 1944. The cast is full of familiar faces such as Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp and the always dependable Tom Wilkinson. Everyone in the cast shines, particularly Nighy as General Friedrich Olbricht. Director Bryan Singer is able to keep the action and suspense taut even though the eventual outcome is well-known by anyone with a smattering of world history. For this he gets high marks, as well as for pulling of a really handsome production of WWII Germany. The music is appropriately stirring throughout and the movie pays off with an emotion ending. If I were giving out grades, and I guess I am, I would give Valkyrie a nice, handsome B; it was better than I expected and I would recommend the movie to anyone interested in WWII history.

Gran Torino - quick hit review

I finally got around to seeing this movie as my wife and I watched it tonight. I enjoyed it; while it's nothing spectacular, overall it is just a good, solid movie, a quiet drama. A nice performance by Clint Eastwood is the center of the film. He does seem to be playing the role he usually plays, just at an advanced age, but he pulls it off with gruff charm and humor. I really liked the way the relationship played out between him and the 2 kids that live next door. They were excellent as well. My wife enjoyed the movie quite a bit too. If I was grading it, I'd give it a nice, solid B.

Up next is Valkryie. I love WWII history/historical fiction so I am looking forward to it, though Tom Cruise can be really hard for me to take at times. Still, the rest of the cast is stellar (it doesn't get much better than Tom Wilkinson, IMO), so it should be well acted and the story line is intriguing. We hope to watch it early this week.

Michael Jackson related news

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!