Sleep Deprivation
August 19, 2008
I have mentioned this before, but I have been thoroughly enjoying the Olympics this year. The past couple of Olympiads, I have had a hard time getting interested. A large part has been the crappy coverage. This year, there is more sports and less human interest stories and fluff. Unfortunately, this Olympics has also been causing a good deal of sleep time to be missed. I am finding myself staying up way too late at night watching instead of going to bed. And it doesn’t matter what time I go to bed, I tend to wake up at 5:30.
The primary NBC coverage begins at 7 and usually lasts until 11. That might not be so bad if I went to bed then. However, at 11:30, the Olympics coverage switches over to the USA Network. Quite frankly, they have been doing an even better job than NBC. That is, they show almost non-stop events.
Last night, for example, they had on the awesome beach volleyball match between the two Chinese teams. The winner would face the USA team for the Gold Medal. It was a very intense match see-sawing back and forth – quite enjoyable. They followed it with some table tennis. Being a former college dorm champ in table tennis, I found it quite enjoyable. Past nights have included badminton, field hockey and polo amongst others.
Alas, the Olympics come to and end this weekend and I can hopefully get back to a normal sleep pattern. Until then though, it looks like a few more late nights.
Madden 2009
August 3, 2008
Well, it’s that time of year again. Time when the new football videogames for the year come out. Or rather football (singular) videogame comes out. Yes, that’s the Madden franchise and yes I am anything but a Madden fan. I long for the days of the old NFL 2K series. They completely beat the tar out of Madden.
Football used to be the number one video game I played. Not since Madden bribed the NFL and got an exclusive license to produce NFL licensed video games has that been true for me. I know Madden has always been the #1 football video game, but for me it has always been lacking.
Each year since the bribe, I hopefully await the release and hope the folks at EA Sports dont sit on their exclusive license and actually work to put out a good video game. This is true for any genre, but competition breeds better games and video gamers are the winner. Hate to beat a dead horse, but these exclusive license means we video gamers are the losers.
I bought last years version of Madden after withholding the previous season. I should have rented it first. I played it for a month or so and then was just so frustrated it hasn’t seen my TV screen since. I still occasionally play the NFL 2K5 Xbox edition because its still the best football gameplay out there.
So, I was excited this year when some of the rags were heralding the praise of Madden 09 as finally entering the HD and next generation era. Once again, my hopes were raised. I was also excited to learn that a demo version would be available on the Xbox 360 a couple of days ago. I downloaded it on day 1.
Unfortunately, the demo leaves you wanting more and really doesnt give you much idea what the game really is like. And EA Sports should just throw that stupid Tron like IQ Quiz at the beginning. In my mind, complete trash. Definitely not a place I would spend any time in the game. The meat of the demo isn’t much better. It’s way too short and way to limited as to what you can do to get a feel for the game. I can say the graphics are definitely improved over the last few editions.
Thus, I cannot make a decision on purchasing the game. I so want a football video game that I can enjoy and play often. I will have to shell out a few bucks for a rental or two to see if the game is up to my standards. I truly hope it is and I really hope its a purchase I can make. Maybe someone needs to make a Tecmo Bowl (yeah, right) arcade game for the Xbox 360. That would get more play time from me than past Maddens.
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