Tabe

Man, that's a questionable quote to attribute to your mom. Just sayin'.

Had a long post typed, don't feel like re-doing it. Free games this week: ICO and GTA: Vice City Stories. Discounts: Sleeping Dogs, Kane & Lynch, Kane & Lynch 2, Real Boxing, Pixel Junk Monsters.

Ellen Burstyn pulls up the average. She's a solid 25 out of 10 in that. I'll give you that. She was really, really great.

They got a big gift from the refs right before that, though, with an extra 25 yards added onto a reception after the receiver stepped out of bounds. Replay reviewed it and still missed the call. But, yeah, they got boned on the final play.

Helton isn't a HOF'er. His peak was great - his 2000 season was ridiculous - but too short and too Coors-aided. Vlad is a HOF'er. 449 HRs, 10 seasons of 100+ RBI, great defensive player, career .318 hitter. Career OPS+ of 140. He's got all the marks of a HOF'er - very high-end peak, long stretch of excellence, no long slide of suckiness.

Legit jerseys can be found for good prices as well if you're willing to look. And knockoff jerseys tend to suck. Not always but generally. Speaking of which, on the jerseys on which they show actual photos and not stolen stock photos, the jerseys on nfljerseysupply.net looked awful, like this joke of a Barry Sanders:

Requiem For a Dream - Have heard lots of great things about this one over the years but can't say I was impressed. There's some plot holes and in the end, I think it just true too hard to be artistic. Not bad, with some really good performances, but not the beat movie I'd been told. 6/10, maybe 7/10.

This could probably easily go in the baseball folder but it's an example of the kind of analysis that just kills me to hear - the blowhard commentator who tries to explain away stuff when it's not necessary or delves into detail to try and look smart, while not actually being correct. To wit: watching MLB Network's highlight package of tonight's Yankees/Red Sox game - near as I can tell this is the 93rd time these two teams have played this year - and Saltalamacchia hit a grand slam in the 7th to put the Red Sox up. Jim Kaat was analyzing the replay and says something like "the catcher asked for it inside and you can see he left it out a bit". Only problem is, the replay showed with little dots the location the catcher asked for and where the pitch ended up - and the actual location was further inside than the requested target. So Kaat blamed the pitcher for leaving the ball out over the plate when, in fact, he threw it further inside. This is a good time to mention, also, that MLB Network seems to caught ESPN's disease of thinking there's only 3 or 4 teams in the majors. Every time I flip to the channel and they're showing an actual game, it's the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, or Cubs. Ridiculous.

are ramblings of a mad man. You're right, fast action hack n slash games where you have to click on the screen to move is clearly a brilliant design decision Never let it be said that I'm afraid to express a minority opinion, that's for sure. And thanks for the love, bro. Right back at ya.

I also have downloaded the two soccer demos but haven't tried either one yet. I know very little about soccer though so I won't have any great insights but can at least tell you if I find them fun Played a bunch more NHL 14 tonight. Finding the game very frustrating. Moved up from Rookie to Pro and tweaked the sliders - moved faceoff difficulty all the way down, turned down penalties on myself, and turned up penalties on the AI. Also bumped up my goalie's sliders a bit. Didn't help. Won about 5% of the faceoffs. Did manage to get a power play, which was nice, but still had a bunch against me. The opponent's skill level goes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up on power plays while your goalie's drops like a rock. The AI is scoring on probably 80% or more of the power plays against me which obviously is ridiculous. I got a 5-minute major against me tonight - which, in itself, was pretty cool - and the computer scored 3 goals on that power play in a span of abour 45 seconds, 2 of which were 50-footers. Your goalie gives those up way too easily. So, yeah, a frustrating night. Tired of losing faceoffs constantly, that's for sure.

I just bought the blu ray of this a week or so ago and have been meaning to watch it. $4 for a used copy, figured it was worth a shot. I saw an interview with Kevin James where he said he lost something like 80-100 lbs for the movie but has since gained it back. Asked how long it took to gain it back? "A day." LOL.

Devs say the PS4 is up to 50% faster than the Xbone: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/13/playstation-4-and-xbox-one-performance-compared-by-devs

Besides NHL 14, last night I also played: Galaga Legions DX - Not as good as the Pac-Man Championship Edition DX update but much better than I remembered from the demo. I'll be playing this one a lot, I think, at least until I get all the trophies. Diablo 3 Demo - Hey, it's Diablo for consoles. Plays really well, controls great, moves fast. Graphics are good but definitely not top-tier. You won't be confusing them with the quality seen in Ni No Kuni or Uncharted 2, that's for sure. Still, I liked the demo a lot and will definitely be buying the game at some point. IMHO, Diablo is made for consoles. The PSX version of the first game was a lot more playable than the PC version and this one plays real similar to that one.

I haven't messed with the sliders yet. I'll definitely take a look. My style of play doesn't involve a lot of control in the offensive zone so maybe I just won't be getting a lot of penalties. So be it. I played a game on Rookie last night just to remind myself that I have some clue what I'm doing That was all well and good but I still ended up getting four penalties for shooting the puck over the glass. GRRR. The one game I played with it was fine. But that was a really fast one played with the demo.

Will they have to pay him, "Straight cash homie?" ER'BODY ONE CLAP! I'm pissed you beat me to posting this.

Yeah, that was pretty great. I've missed having Olbermann doing sports.

Busting out a Bear Bryant hat on the sideline would be pretty great too.

Wasn't just the trot, it was the spitting on the ground in front Chris Johnson the third baseman. Bush league move. I don't have too much of a problem with the guy watching his homer - though, really, he's a pitcher and should know better - but spitting like that is always going to piss people off.

Ellen Barkin. You captured her perfectly with this sentence.

It's from The Onion and Subway is NOT happy about it. Rightfully so, IMHO. That's satire that could end up legit damaging their brand.

Started playing NHL 14. There's a definite learning curve involved and I'm not there yet - I started on All-Star difficulty and lost all 7 games I played (though one was a BS loss with 1.5 seconds left in regulation). There's definitely been improvements in player movement and so on but a lot of the things that bugged me with NHL 10 (the last one I played) are still present in NHL 14. Specifically, the AI for the opponent is always better than the AI for your computer teammates. My defensemen are quick to flee the offensive zone, yet they are somehow constantly beaten back to my defensive zone. On faceoffs, when there's a tie-up and fight for the puck, my teammates never help. AI teammates go offside way too often on offensive rushes, unlike AI opponents. On the default setting, there are waaaaaaay too many fights. I'm using the Detroit Red Wings - best franchise in pro sports, tyvm - and they average like a fight every 2 or 3 games, if that, but in this game there's 3-4 per game. And the opponent AI never commits penalties. 1 power play in 7 games? C'mon. If control changes to a new guy that's standing still and you're already pressing up, for example, on the stick, your guy won't start moving - he'll just stand there. And so on. Lots of stuff like that. And most of that I'll get used to and I'll eventually start dominating like I always do, I'm just not there yet. The one are I'm REALLY struggling with is faceoffs. Faceoffs are completely different in NHL 10 and I basically never win them. In the first 5 games I played, I won one faceoff. Then I watched a video on Youtube and got myself to be able to win like 10% of them. I'm sure there's just something I'm not doing or that I'm not timing right but I have no idea at the moment what that "something" is. I'll keep playing though! EDIT: I forgot to mention the commentary. It's as bad and repetitive as any previous year. Example: One of my guys got a 2nd penalty in a game. The announcers then berated me for taking penalties when behind - except it was a game I had never trailed. It calls Jakob Kindl both "Kindl" and "Keendl" - same announcer, different pronunciation. Multiple repetitions of the same stuff even with just a couple games. Other context-incorrect statements, too.

About as relevant as the AAA single season record, and the same level of competetion, except the minor leaguer who challenges that won't be walked so he can't tie and pass it. . . . Worth noting (again) that Japanese parks are smaller than their American counterparts and that the ball itself is smaller as well. They changed the ball this year, making it harder, which has led to a home run boom. Balentien has 21 games to break the record - and he missed the first 12 games of the season with an injury. Just for giggles, here's an article from Baseball America listing the single season home run records for every minor league: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2011/09/for-the-record-minor-league-home-run-leaders/ In the modern era, it's hard for me to wrap my head around a guy piling up 40, 50 home runs in a single season and not moving up. Ron Kittle set his record in just 127 games and got called up in time to play 20 games for the White Sox. But how the heck do you not call up a guy hitting .345 with tons of power sooner than that???? One guy on the list is a particular favorite of mine - Joey Gallo, who set the Arizona League record last year with 18 HRs. After he set that record, he got called up to the Spokane Indians. He has RIDICULOUS power. He hit a grand slam that went over a light pole in right field in Spokane that had to have traveled around 500 feet. Unreal considering how the ball simply doesn't carry here. He's hit 38 HRs in 106 games at A ball this year. Just 19 years old, too.

Yeah, I'll definitely have to check that out. Sounds great.

I dunno, I think blue mesh might get you some funny looks.

Thanks man - the demo is in my download queue I bought NHL 14 - digital version - and it's still downloading so I likely won't have the Diablo demo ready to go until tomorrow night (#$%#$%#$%#$% DSL) but I'll definitely give it a shot. The IGN review pretty much said exactly what I hoped they would. I'll try the demo and then wait for the game to drop in price