Craig H

Zero Dark Thirty was fucking awesome. Goddamn, what a good movie.

Haters gon hate

Tebow needs to stay in football as long as possible. Otherwise, that dense fuckwit will be annoying us on TV when he inevitably runs for public office or when ESPN hire him.

That's how I feel about Magic. I've played MtG since almost the beginning. They're just now celebrating their 20th anniversary and I've been playing for 19 years. I got out of competitive Magic right before the Future Sight set was released. At that time, the only money tournaments were ones that Wizards ran and those were only GPs and PTs, I think. Now, it's absolutely exploded in popularity. Right before I stopped playing competitively, the most expensive single card I ever bought was a Cranial Extraction for $18. Now, card prices for Standard top out at around $80. Card values in general have skyrocketed. Shit, the MSRP for a box of Modern Masters is around $120, but my local game shop priced them at $230. In one box, I pulled 6 cards that are worth a total of $550. Tournaments have exploded as well with Wizards allowing online shops like StarCityGames.com to run money tournaments with prize money in the thousands. It's crazy. And one of these years I'll make it to GenCon. It's in my fucking state and it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive. Why I haven't been to one yet is beyond me.

Overeem is really fucking dumb. As soon as he started going ham without putting away Browne I figured he'd lose. Overeem may just have a worse gas tank than anyone else at heavyweight.

Anyone else with an iPhone 5 find that the battery now dies incredibly fast and the phone gets hot as hell? My battery life used to be incredible, but now the battery wears out quickly and a 10 minute conversation superheats the phone.

Preston is pretty awful. I used to think Kaitlynn was the worst, but Preston fails at everything. He's so out of place. He isn't remotely athletic, he doesn't have a big enough mouth to stir shit up, I'm assuming he's nowhere near attractive enough to create any issues with other dudes, none of the girls even want to trust him as a confidant or as a friend, and he's practically invisible to everyone else. The fact that they're still alive speaks to Knight's talents in The Challenge. Every time Preston is on scene though, no one wants to be around him, like he smells like egg salad sandwich farts. Sadly, the one guy from Preston and Knight's season will probably never be on The Challenge, and that was that hairdresser sociopath that like to stroke people's ears.

Lol Braun is going to apologize to everyone he threw under the bus. Apparently it took him two years to figure out the Lance Armstrong approach isn't the best one to follow. Whatever. Fuck him, googly bug eyed motherfucker.

Seize the day, Ryno! I'm sure he already understands that things could be worse, he could be the Cubs manager instead of the Phillies manager.

It seems appropriate that two of the biggest douchebags in baseball have crossed paths in this scandal.

*Nods thoughtfully* Holy crap, is that real, or from The Onion?

I liked the BikerTaker character more so than the other versions of the Undertake, but for in ring ability, ShootTaker is better than the others. Add me in the the group who thoroughly enjoyed Batista as Masahiro Chono. Evil younger brother Owen Hart will always be my favorite Owen Hart, primarily because that version of him was one of the best heels ever. Plus, you know, "And that's why I kicked your leg out of your, uh, leg!"

Managers arguing calls should be completely pointless and irrelevant if the calls would be right on a consistent basis. Every year though, gets worse and worse with blown calls and the solution can't be rotating all of the current umps out and bringing up umps from the minors. Replay itself isn't pointless if it ensures that most of these bullshit calls go by the wayside. However, replay still needs to expand to analyze balls and strikes. Shit, you don't even need replay. We live in the HD era where cameras can pick up exactly where a ball travels through or outside the strikezone. We're far beyond the point where umps squeezing out a pitcher or batter should even exist. Fuck. That. There's enough of a "human element" already on the field with every player wearing a uni. I don't need the additional "human element" of umps making the game about themselves or their agenda fucking up my game. And umps can gripe all they want, but we wouldn't be in this position if they didn't fucking suck at their jobs. Besides, it's not like they would lose their jobs. You're still going to need the home plate ump to call balls and strikes based on the info being fed to them, and they'll still need to make decisions without the assistance of a computer on if a player goes around or holds up on their swing, as well as if a pitcher is taking too long to throw, if a batter is taking too much time, if there is a balk, etc. Games take as long as they do now because of the sweet ass time pitchers and batters take, time they take because hardly ever do you see an ump penalizing slow play. Consider how long an argument between a player and ump or a manager and ump takes, and then take the time it takes for a pitcher to throw a pitch, then it's fouled, then the batter steps outside the batters box and looks off at...who knows what, then he steps back in, then the pitcher needs to get his call from the catcher, next is the prepping to wind up and if there is a runner on base, you need to check the runner, then there's the wind up, and a pick off throw is made and you have to start the whole fucking process over again.

Dammit anyway, why can't MLB get something 100% right. So, awesome, replay is being expanded and will include manager challenges...except that once a challenge is used there is apparently no penalty for the manager coming out later and arguing over a play. Well, WTF is the point then? How about this, do away with the pointless challenges and Just put an extra ump into the booth in every ballpark with a 2 or 3 HDTV setup so they can get a view at multiple angles and have them wired into an earpiece for the head umpire in the game.

I think my favorite Cards Against Humanity combinations have been: "White people like ____" :: "White people." "In Michael Jackson's final moments, he thought about ____" :: "Jerking off into a pool of children's tears." "What helps Obama unwind?" :: "YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!!!" The random Glen Beck white cards are amazing as well and are typically an instawin in our games.

I love No Mercy, but VPW 2 is so much better. For starters, No Mercy suffered from some bad slowdown in 4 player ladder matches and 1 on 1 cage matches. Even still, from the day No Mercy came out, there would always be 4 of us who would be playing No Mercy until 4 or 5 am on Fridays or Saturdays. We went through at least 3 controllers because of how fast we would be railing on the shoulder buttons for reversals or to fight off being KO'd. It was like all those years of playing Track and Field finally paid off with regards to super fast button tapping. However, VPW 2 is better because it didn't suffer from that slowdown. It had the MMA mode, the awesome Kings Road mode (and dammit, every wrestling game should feature a Round Robin mode), and a better moveset. I was really disappointed that there was never a VPW 3 to build off of No Mercy. Other than that, it was Fire Pro 6 Man Scramble, Fire Pro D, or Here Comes the Pain as far as wrestling games we'd get together and play. Few things are as funny as getting a group of friends together for Fire Pro, with 2 or 3 of you understanding how Fire Pro works, and watching the other 2 or 3 just fall on their faces in frustration because the way they play WCW Revenge/WM2000/No Mercy didn't translate to Fire Pro. The cool thing was that Fire Pro was so engaging that they wanted to figure it out and they did. As for wrestling games I wish I could have played, I really wish I could have played Giant Gram 2000 and King of Coliseum 2. I acquired GG2K via questionable (i.e. Usenet) means, but I could never get it to work. I never played KoC2 because I never wanted to go through the hassle of modding my slimline PS2. That said, I've played a ton of wrestling games, and my breakdown of favorites by system would go something like this: Arcade: (1) Wrestlefest - Duh; (2) Champion Wrestler; (3) WWF Superstars NES: (1) Tecmo Pro Wrestling; (2) Pro Wrestling; (3) WCW Wrestling Quick note about those last two: I only ever beat Great Panther once and never even made to Great Puma, and I never beat the Vader looking guy at the end of WCW Wrestling, only ever getting as close to a 2.9 pin count. SNES: (1) SFPWXP - This was the first game I ever played on an emulator and I probably played this more on the emulator than I did most games on the SNES; (2) WWF Royal Rumble; (3) Saturday Night Slam Masters Genesis: (1) WWF Rage in the Cage - I was one of the few with a Sega CD and this was one of the few games I had for it. Second place would be WWF Royal Rumble, except it was better on the SNES. Saturn: (1) FPW 6MS Playstation: (1) FPW G; (2) WCW vs the World; (3) WWF SmackDown! 2 PS2: (1) FPW R; (2) WWF SD! Here Comes the Pain; (3) Galactic Wrestling; (4) Def Jam 1 or 2 N64: (1) VPW 2; (2) No Mercy; (3) WM 2000; (4) WCW/nWo Revenge DC: (1) FPW D; (2) Toukon Retsuden 4 Xbox: lol, yeah, no GC: (1) Day of Judgment 2 360: (1) Uhhh, WWE All-Stars?

And Ledesma and Williams work for 2K as a result of the buyout and my understanding is that they're on a trial deal. Their futures with 2K live and breathe with the success of 2K14.

The thing is that two of ttheir main devs (Ledsema and Williams) worked for THQ and are now working for 2K Sports. So what is going to happen? But anyways, I have started a blog We need to let 2K know that we want a Simulation Wrestling game too. http://wwe2k15.blogspot.com/ This blog will be used to post ideas, suggestions, and issues that have plagued the more recent games of the genre. If you have any ideas for future blog entries feel free to leave a comment. Until then; "Wrestling games aren't fighting games." No one is going to give a crap about this blog. You would be better off trying to do this on OS where 2K has community managers that mine the people on the forums for ideas.

I think the series peaked with NCAA 12. That was when it became apparent the series wasn't going to go any further aside from some little changes here and there. I still don't think they've ever fixed the issue with psychic DBs with super speed and super powers, and the running game has remained an all or nothing affair.

BTW, Kris Bryant is a monster. He's the closest this org has had to someone like Trout or Harper, even if he isn't on their level. Feels good to have a player with this much potential.

Good on him. I'm glad he's finding continued success with the Yankees. As much as I groused about the guy, he would play hurt and would want to start every day, although that would be to the detriment of the team in 2009. Even still, he never exactly loafed or quit, and I appreciate that. Small sample size and everything because it's only been 17 games, but he's OPSing a hair under .900 and has 7 homers since joining the Yankees. With the Cubs, he had cracked 17 homers in 93 games and had an OPS around .750. Anyway, he's 4 shy of 400 homers, but he's 37, so it's unlikely he reaches 500 even if he approaches 35 homers this year. If he has a couple more seasons like this though, and maybe even adds a World Series ring to his resume while the sun is setting on his career, but without reaching that 500 homers mark, does he make the Hall of Fame? By Bill James' standards, he's borderline right now. A couple more years similar to this one, and I think he's deserving of it. Definitely not 1st ballot, but he should get in. What do you guys think?

How else will people learn about dead babies in Florida if they aren't watching Nancy Grace?

The money train finale was so awesome and the last shot of the Strike Team with this look of "holy shit..." on their faces is classic. Best TV show ever, only seconded by Friday Night Lights. So if FNL is still on Netflix, that is definitely worth a watch. Sons of Anarchy is on Netflix as well.

Oh, and while you weren't looking piranesi, someone painted the Jolly Roger on your ivory tower.

Cardinals are 6-9 since Molina went down with an injury. Better hope he makes a full recovery because I don't think your little bitch boy Matt Holliday is going to be enough.