Quick hit update

-Rams looked good tonight against Cincy in preseason game #3. They need to tighten up the run defense a bit and the punt coverage was awful. The defense created 4 turnovers so that was huge. Nice game considering 3 starters were missing from the offense and 2 from the defense.

-Batman: Arkham Asylum still kicks ass. Played a few hours tonight and had a blast.

-Microsoft got my 360 Elite back to me 8 days after I sent it off. Not a switcheroo but the same Xbox. That's pretty damned impressive. Had I known that I would have just waited, but now I have a 360 in my den as well as the one downstairs. Just need a hard drive and an HD-TV for the den. Absolutely no rush on that, though.

-Most importantly, our friends from Canada, Pete and Joyce, will be arriving Saturday evening to spend the week with us. They are just terrific people and we can't wait to see them. It's been almost 3 years so we have a lot of catching up to do. There will be a few drinks downed this coming week, I can assure you of that.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I picked this up today even though I am not a comic fan in the least. The game has gotten almost universal praise in it's early reviews and let me tell you, it has earned them. This is a first-rate game all the way. The production values are off the charts, the gameplay is very user friendly and it keeps you coming back for more. I stayed up way too late playing this one tonight; work is gonna be a bear in the morning!

This game is already on my short list for Game Of The Year honors. It's that good. If you like action games, this is a must-have.

Beatles Rock Band DLC pricing

Harmonix, makers of The Beatles: Rock Band, has announced the pricing for the downloadable albums/songs that will be made available after the game's release. I am a bit shocked by the pricing; let's just say people are going to be paying premium prices for premium music. The album to be released will be Abbey Road in October and it will cost a cool $16.98 to download the whole album, or $1.99 per song. Considering that 5 Abbey Road songs come with the game itself, that is really pretty pricey. And unfortunately, there is a hook: only by purchasing the complete Abbey Road album will you be able to play the side 2 medley ("You Never Give Me Your Money," "Sun King," "Mean Mr. Mustard," "Polythene Pam," "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight" and "The End") as a whole. That sucks.

It appears as though the following DLC albums, Sgt. Pepper's in November and Rubber Soul in December, will also carry the $16.98 pricing. That really is a bit much. It's the first news that I consider negative about the game. Still, I will be all in. But the more casual fans will probably be thinking long and hard about paying that much for DLC. This could be a bad move by Harmonix.

My wife

Barb passed both of her finals today, much to her relief. I had complete faith in her, but Barb is a nervous sort and she was really worried after taking the 2nd one, which was in a class that she was doing fine in, but less than her usual standards. When she got her grades, she called me in absolute delirium. I have not hear her sound so happy or relived in quite a while. It was great to hear her voice like that again.

It must have been some sort of natural high and it must have been powerful. Why do I say that, you ask? Because Barb, my lovely wife, volunteered to go up to Best Buy and pick me up a new Xbox 360. She even went to all of the trouble of identifying it was the new "Jasper" model, which is supposedly more reliable than the older units. Now that is a kick-ass wife.

I know I am such a baby; all I had to do was wait 3 weeks or so and I will be getting my other Xbox back repaired. And it is an unnecessary expense that we really don't need right now. Obviously I am spoiled and this is a luxury purchase. But the new model was an Arcade unit, so it was relatively cheap and with my buddy Pete coming in from Ottawa in less than a couple weeks, we are probably going to be doing some gaming.

I have decided to just keep the repaired 360 when it arrives and keep it as a spare for my son and me. It's not like these things have the greatest reliability track record. GameStop was only offering $70 for a trade in, so it is not really worth it.

So here's to my wife for passing her toughest class. And here's to natural highs and the rewards they sometimes bring. Thanks, honey!

Brett Favre is...

...a complete and utter douchebag. We get it, Brett. You crave attention. You are a media whore. You love to keep people wondering if you will or won't come back. You did it 3 years with the Packers, 1 year with the Jets and now 1 year with the Vikings. No one cares anymore for this self-made drama. I am sure Sage Rosenfels and Tavaris Jackson, who were competing for the Vikings' QB job, who (unlike you) had gone to training camp and put in all of the extra time and effort, are just thrilled to death that you are coming in on your imaginary white stallion to save the day once again. You tore up the Jets' team chemistry last year and you have just done it again to the Vikings this year. What a great guy you are.

How about this: next season, for the first time in your life, make a big decision and stick to your word. Be a man. Stop being a wishy-washy douchebag who keeps teams hanging on while you constantly change your mind, even after they have grudgingly accepted to move on without you. Just stop it. Go dell some more fricking Wrangler jeans or something, will ya?

And just like that...

...my 360 Elite died. I was going to play a little Madden tonight (first time since release day) and after getting my gameplay sliders how I wanted them, I set up a game between the Raiders and my Rams. The game loaded, it started showing the crowd mingling outside of the stadium and wham! - the game froze. I rebooted the system and it froze loading up. I rebooted a 3rd time and I got the glorious Red Rings Of Death.

Perfect. Absolutely wonderful. My game-playing buddy from Canada will be in town in less than 2 weeks and my 360 just died. Microsoft said it should be back within 3 weeks after they receive it. Grand, huh? Maybe if I am really lucky, I'll get it back in time for The Beatles: Rock Band.

I'm going to bed.

Beatles: Rock Band - new trailer and complete song listing!

More The Beatles: Rock Band News & Previews

The final list of the songs included with the game has been confirmed, with one being held back as a surprise. These are the confirmed songs, with the albums they come from in bold:

Singles
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Paperback Writer
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down

Please Please Me (1963)
I Saw Her Standing There
Boys
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Twist and Shout

With the Beatles (1963)
I Wanna Be Your Man

A Hard Day's Night (1964)
A Hard Day's Night
Can't Buy Me Love

Beatles For Sale (1964)
Eight Days a Week

Help! (1965)
Ticket To Ride

Rubber Soul (1965)
Drive My Car
I'm Looking Through You
If I Needed Someone

Revolver (1966)
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
And Your Bird Can Sing

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Good Morning Good Morning

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye

The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
Dear Prudence
Back In the U.S.S.R.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter

Yellow Submarine (1969)
Hey Bulldog

Abbey Road (1969)
Come Together
Something
Octopus's Garden
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Here Comes the Sun

Let It Be (1970)
Dig a Pony
I Me Mine
I've Got a Feeling
Get Back

Love (2006)
Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows


It's a great list with some real surprises. I love it that they didn't just go with the hits and chose to include great songs like Dear Prudence and I'm Looking Through You. Of course full albums will be released as DLC with Abbey Road, Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper already confirmed. I'd like to see the With The Beatles and Help! albums get some more love. I'd love to see the whole catalog released, but I don't know how realistic that is. I am sooo psyched for this game!

This and that

Barb has her finals this week for her 2nd semester of nursing school. She is doing well (of course!) but the finals are comprehensive so she is quite nervous. She has been studying this weekend and went to school today so she could study in peace without having to worry about the kids (or me!). After this semester Barb has 1 more to go. Graduation is set for December 12th and Barb has had that marked on her calender for a long, long time. Hang in there, honey, you can do it!

The Rams opened their preseason schedule Friday night with a win over the Jets. The team came out with a much-improved demeanor over the last couple of years. I give all of the credit to new head coach Steve Spagnuolo, who will not let these guys coast the way they have in recent years. Spags is a go-getter and believes in playing with great intensity. It was so nice to see it come together on the field. There is still an overall lack of talent on the roster (especially at WR) and more than a few problems from the past few seasons, such as pass protection and pass rushing, still look as though they could be a problem this season. Blitz pick-up in particular looked pathetic as QB Marc Bulger was sacked 3 times in the 1st quarter. So while I am not expecting a miracle turnaround from the Rams this year, I do expect them to play with real heart and to compete in each game. If Spags can pull that off this year and win 5-6 games, he will be setting up a really solid foundation for the future.

I have put in a little time with Madden 10 and it seems very solid. The game plays much slower than NCAA Football and it is quite jarring at first, but this lets you see the plays develop and makes the game more a test of brains rather than just thumb twitching. I like that. The presentation is much improved (though it still needs work) and the game play itself is more realistic. It still needs to be adjusted in some areas: the CPU cannot mount a decent running game against you and rushing the passer seems too difficult, plus several other things (such as constant holding calls on extra points) keep the game from being nirvana, but it is the best Madden on this generation of consoles to date. Last year's Madden was an improvement. This year's is a pretty big leap beyond that. Kudos to EA for making Madden more of a simulation this year rather than catering to the arcade crowd. It was a bold decision and I hope it pays off for them.

Happy Madden Day! (and some Beatles Rock Band news too!)

Today is the official release day for Madden NFL 10. I will be picking up a copy for the 360. Everything I have read so far says that this is the best Madden yet for the current generation of consoles. It is supposed to play quite differently than NCAA Football, so I will have an adjustment period. But the good news it is also supposed to play better than NCAA Football, so I am really intrigued. I prefer the college game over the pros, but I love football in all shapes and sizes. It should be quite a challenge trying to build my Rams (who are properly rated as pathetic in Madden) back up to the top of the NFL heap.

In other awesome news, I read that 2 more full Beatles' albums will eventually be available for download for The Beatles: Rock Band. One of those is the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is a great album but honestly not among my favorites. The other one however is Rubber Soul, which may very well be my favorite Beatles' album. It's a toss-up between Rubber Soul and Abbey Road, and of course Abbey Road has already been announced as the first available album for download. So my 2 favorite Beatles albums will be available for the game. I will be keeping my fingers crossed for more full length albums, particularly A Hard Day's Night and The White Album. I am thinking that an edited version of The White album may be what we end up with, which I understand; do we really need Revolution 9 on Rock Band? I think not. But I hope they don't get too crazy with what they cut, if that is indeed how they go about releasing the White Album.

The Big Boy

John is growing like a weed. I thought I'd post a recent picture to show how much he has grown. He is really getting around well and of course he gets into everything. He has a terrific sense of humor; he loves to make people laugh. He also has his really sweet moments when he will come up to you out of the blue to give you a hug and a few love pats. Let me tell you, those moments rule.

We love you John!

Cash For Clunkers has been good to us

Barb and I traded in our 1996 Jeep Cherokee (which had over 160,000 miles on it) in at the local Chrysler/Dodge dealership. Previously I had been told that the Jeep may only fetch $500 in trade-in value. With the Cash For Clunkers program, it's value for trade in was $4500. Chrysler then matches the amount the government pays, meaning we got $9000 in trade in value for our old Jeep. We used this to purchase a brand new Dodge Grand Caravan, which we have been wanting for a long time since we now have 6 in our family; no longer will we have to take 2 cars if we want to take the entire family somewhere.

Barb and I are both thrilled with the van. Now long trips won't be so bad (the van is equipped with a DVD player for the kids) and taking the whole family somewhere will no longer be such a pain. We are very thankful for the opportunity to get the van we have wanted so badly, even with Barb currently out of work. The program really worked for us and I hope it is working for others out there as well.

Red Faction: Guerrilla & IL-2 demo impressions

Got in a little time with both of these games and have some quick thoughts about them. RF:G is an open world sandbox type of game, along the lines of a GTA clone. I am only about an hour into it but so far it has been enjoyable. The game controls pretty well on foot and in vehicles and the aiming/shooting feels pretty good too. The environments are destructible and that is supposed to be the big draw here. It seems like the missions will get repetitive after a while, but without actually going through the game more, that's really just a guess. It appears to be a quality title through and through, but it's probably something that would be better as a rental for me. That feeling may change as I get deeper into the game, but with limited gaming time, that may not happen for a while, or even at all.

I was nicely surprised by the demo for IL-2. I wasn't expecting much but the game looks fantastic and offers different levels of realism as far as how the planes control. Targeting an enemy was easy as was leading the target when firing away with your plane's machine guns/cannons. The ground assault mission was a little more difficult because the targets are basically stationary, so you really come up on them fast. This game definitely has me intrigued and I will be checking out the full version. Again, my one concern is the repetition of the missions in flying games such as this, so perhaps a rental may be best. Either way, I will be playing this game in September. With Heroes Over Europe due out a week before IL-2, I will definitely be getting a healthy fix of WWII flying action. I only wish one of the games was set in the Pacific theater instead of both being set in Europe; I love my Japanes Zeroes and the F4F Wildcats and the F4U Corsairs. Oh well, maybe some day.