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True Swing Golf, again

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True Swing Golf
Thanks to Bill, now I’ll have to rethink my feelings on True Swing Golf. He says it’s a blast. He also notes what other reviewers have pointed out – you can’t have a bad swing. That sounds like bad design. Maybe it is, but it isn’t a deal breaker:

Here’s the strange thing, though: it’s almost impossible to mishit a shot. Using the stylus on a regular shot always seems to result in a nearly straight outcome, no matter if you’re contacting the center of the ball or not. That sounds like an absolute deal breaker, and it should be, but course management, even with straight shots, is very challenging, and I can’t seem to stop playing. The effects of lie and slope are almost flawless, and in particular, it models shots to uphill greens better than any golf game I’ve ever played.

I like reading Bills reviews and he’s usually spot-on, so now I’m considering TSG again. Man, I wish my Blockbuster rented DS games!

Another double bogey

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I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m pretty excited about True Swing Golf for the DS. Having played (and hated) Tiger Woods I was really looking forward to TSG. Eurogamer had good things to say about it last year, but now things aren’t looking as peachy. Gamespot gives it a poor score and Modojo dogs it pretty bad, too. Of course, perrenial grade-inflater IGN.com gives it an 8.0, so there’s that. So what to do. I don’t trust many online reviews, but reading Gamespot’s pointed out that character progression is almost non-existent. That’s a bummer, it’s what I was hoping would be there. From the gameplay and graphics I really thought this would have some type of RPG elements, but it looks like there’s nothing there.

It’s unfortunate that the game is a stinker. I had high hopes, but I guess I’ll have to wiat.

Buckeye Blogging, Week #11 (8-2)

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Choo choo! All aboard the Pittman Express! Now boarding for the State up North!

Nothing like a warm-up a week before the Buckeyes roll into Ann Arbor to play the team-that-shall-not-be-named. OSU played its last game at home against the Northwestern Wildcats. They looked like Wildcats for about the first 3 minutes of the game and looked liked something else the other 57. OSU never looked out of it, of course, but watching Basanez drive 80 yards for the first score was a little disconcerting. Of course, NW does have a top ranked offense but still! This is the Buckeyes! No one comes into our house and does that. And they paid the price.

I have been impressed with how much Troy Smith has improved. I’ve mentioned before that his throwing motion has always looked awkward to me. I’m not sure what it is but it’s never looked fluid to me. But he has really been making strides and I think he’s made a lot of progress. This offense is still relatively young so I’m pretty excited about not just this year but next year as well. Running for 300 yards is pretty impressive. Things are looking good for the Buckeyes as they prepare for you-know-who.

I mentioned to a guy at work how quickly this season has flown by. Buckeye fans (as well as other college football fans, I’m sure) go through phases of anticipation, thinking about football season. There’s thoughts of the next season right after whatever bowl game we’ve played in. Then there’s a big burst of activity during the high school all-star games and the OSU Spring Game. Interest wanes a bit during the summer, but about the beginning of August comes around, our minds quickly turn to the inevitable season. This year there was, more than most, a feeling that it could be The Year. While those hopes were dimmed after the Texas game, there was still hope. The flame burned out in Happy Valley and here we are now. Time has flown. Here’s to hoping we go out with a bang and end up in a BCS bowl. The season may not have gone how we hoped but it has still been exciting and the future looks bright.

Buckeye Blogging, Week #8 (5-2)

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Poor Indiana. They’ve been the Big Ten’s doormat in football for a long time. OSU hasn’t lost to them in (now) the last thirteen attempts. That’s not an Indiana slump, it’s futility. Nevertheless, under first year coach Terry Hoeppner, they’re playing very un-Indiana-like. They were 4-2 going into Saturday’s game and were playing decent football. Honestly, though, no one gave them a snowball’s chance.

OSU was heavily favored and pretty much dominated the whole game. Sure, there were flashes of good play by Indiana (the stripping of Ted Ginn Jr. comes to mine), but they were just overmatched. The defense flexed its considerable muscles, holding IU to a paltry 113 yards offense. The Buckeyes offense had a usual Indiana-effort, racking up 464 yards. Not too shabby. Everyone looked good on both sides of the ball and the game was pretty ho-hum. The game was never in question.

But the officiating?! Holy crap on a stick, this is one of the worst officiated games I’ve witnessed in years. It’s unbelievable how many bad calls were made and how many obvious calls were missed. The aforementioned Ginn fumble was a bad no-call. His forward progress had obviously been stopped but the whistle was never blown. Bad mistake. On IU’s kick-off, D’Andrea called for a fair-catch and then muffed the kick-off, the whistle was blown entirely too early and IU was robbed of a turnover. Even when they went to instant-replay, Indiana was hosed on a nice shoe-string catch that was overturned. Huh? And the most egregious call? After Ted Ginn took a kick-off 95+ yards to the house a flag was thrown. The call? A personal foul, a hit to a “defenseless player”. That is the biggest joke of a call I’ve ever heard. If you are on the playing field and you are wearing PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT, you are not defenseless. And what are you doing to qualify being “defenseless”? Tieing your shoes? Picking up the tee? What a joke.

In the end, OSU wasn’t perfect but still laid the wood to an overmatched Indiana. Go Bucks!

Buckeye Blogging, Week #6 (3-2)

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Not much to talk about this week. The Buckeye went into Beaver Stadium favored by 3 points and came out with a hard-to-accept loss. Both defenses played well but I thought OSU’s defense dominated this game. If Troy Smith doesn’t throw the interception that was returned to the 1-yard line, OSU has a pretty good chance to win this game. The loss to Texas was a heartbreaker. This loss was frustrating.

Frustrating because of all the talent on the OSU football team. We have, arguably, three of the fastest wide-outs in the country and we didn’t start throwing the ball down the field until the third quarter. Frustrating.

So once again our future is in doubt. There’s a chance we can still win the Big Ten, but that’s a long way off. We’ll just sit back and see what happens.

MMORPG Sports (Part II)

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I originally planned on one big article on the convergence of MMORPGs (or MMOGs in general) and sports games. After I finished the first part of the article I realized there is a lot of ground to cover. So this is the second part of my article on MMOSG. This is also submitted to the September edition of the Blogs of the Roundtable (specifically, Topic Choice 1E(xploratory): Pick a genre of games and discuss how it would benefit from adopting some of the game mechanics of another genre. If the merging of the genres would create a new genre, discuss the core gameplay and boundaries of the new genre..)

[Read more…] about MMORPG Sports (Part II)

MMORPG Sports (Part I)

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A while back I mentioned I had been playing a Golf MMORPG called Shot-Online. Since then, I’ve been back for a round here and there and my overall impression of S-O is that it’s an ambitious game that is fun to play and actually has players that are fun to be around. It got me thinking about Sports games as MMORPGs. Or at least MMOGs. Call them what you will, but I’ve seen them mostly referred to as MMOSG (Massively Multiplayer Online Sports Games). I wondered if there were other games out there trying the Massively Multiplayer genre of gaming. I also thought about where this “genre” of games could go. We already have online sports gaming that’s been relatively sucessful but I think there could be more. I don’t think role-players and sports fans are that far removed. They both pore over their players “stats” and play to their strengths while shoring up their weaknesses. The MMO “sphere” is ripe with possibilities.

This is a two-part article. The first part will be what I’ve found while I’ve looked for games that fit the MMOG mold. Part two will be some thoughts I’ve had and where I think this could go.
[Read more…] about MMORPG Sports (Part I)

Buckeye Blogging

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There are very few things I love more than Ohio State Football. My wife and kids and extended family are about the only things (okay, that may be hyperbole). So this year you’ll be seeing a smattering of my commentary on OSU football. I know some of you buttonMashers are Buckeye fans but I recognize some of you don’t really care about sports. Apologies in advance, but Ohio State is too important not to mention.

Less than four weeks until the season starts and I’m already getting excited. This video (from Blog for Sports Gamer) will give Ohio State fans the chills. Man I am pumped about this season. Want to know how to make an OSU fan drool with anticipation? Show him this article.

Things are looking good for the Buckeyes and it’s defintely good to be an OSU fan. Are there any other readers out there that share this passion for college football? I’d love to hear about it (unless you’re a Wolverine)!

NCAA 2006 Impressions

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I’ve had some time now with EA’s latest NCAA offering. Here are a few impressions I have. They’re first impressions and not all of them are good:

  • The “Impact Player” is a godsend. A lot of people are saying they make a good player unstoppable, but for a young dynasty, they are saviors in shoulder pads.
  • Home Field Advantage should not make such a pronounced difference when I’m playing Brown
  • I haven’t noticed the same “dropped passes” problem a lot of other people are talking about. So far so good for me.
  • The computer can finally run on a good defense. The “juke stick” makes running a blast. Something is now forcing me to take my finger off the turbo-boost. I know it was there in ESPN 2k games before this but it’s making the running game a lot of fun.
  • In-season recruiting hasn’t paid off any divendends but it’s cool in theory.
  • The discipline system is borked. It sucks and I wish it would go away.
  • Can we please get a mid-game save? I would love that more than any other enhancement of all time
  • Can we please hire someone to make a realistic crowd? It’s like they’re not even trying.
  • My Dynasty is modeled after my High School. We are the North Royalton Bears. We are not the Bearcats. The announcer seems to have numerous brain-farts during a game. First it’s, “The Bears are lined up…” and then we get “The Bearcats take the lead!” Is it that frickin’ hard to fix this? It’s been going on since 2004!
  • And while we’re fixing the announcer, someone hire an English major to fix the grammar. If I hear, “The Bears is ready to kick off” one more time I may lose it.
  • The graphics have received another minor upgrade. They are due for an extreme makeover

That’s my first pass. I’ll elaborate on some of these after I’ve played a little more. I’m only a third of the way through my second Dynasty season as the North Royalton Bears. It isn’t easy being an Academic school in the MAC. We’re getting our butts handed to us each and every Saturday.

Sports Gamer on NCAA 2006

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The Blog for the Sports Gamer is quickly becoming one of my favorite blog stops. Moreso right now because one of the contributors, bill, is filling us in on his experiences with NCAA 2006. I’ve cooled on the NCAA series due to 2005’s lacklusterness (is that a word?). Bill (who is a Buckeye like me) did what every other Buckeye Fan does when they get the newest NCAA title — the play OSU vs. Michigan (the greatest sports rivalry of all-time). Bill has a recap of the first half and the second half, along with his impressions of NCAA 2006. Of course, OSU was victorious, as they have been the past 3 out of 4 years. Go Bucks!

So now, after reading these initial impressions, I am contemplating an NCAA 2006 purchase, something I thought I may pass on this year. I’ll probably still wait until its price comes down a bit, but as it stands now, I think I may be NCAA’ing it again this year.