Thursday, January 17, 2008

Work!

So yeah, my blog time has been nil of late -- sorry about that. I do have good reason, though. I have a lot of crazy job stuff going on right now, most of which I cannot get into just yet. Ok, I can't get into any of it right now.

Suffice to say I have been really busy the past week or so and I doubt the workload lessens anytime soon -- and it's JANUARY.

I'm still pissed (sorta) about College Hoops kicking the bucket. I know Todd had his fill with that series but I still thought it brought a lot of solid gaming to the table. And it's still SO far and away better than March Madness that it's just another thorn in the side of sports gamers.

Let's recap:

EA's best game -- MVP Baseball -- dead due to licensing.
2K's baseball game remains an unfinished mess.

NFL 2K -- dead due to licensing (All Pro Football doesn't count, sorry)
Madden -- rehashed, recycled, and redundant

CH2K - Dead due to licensing $$$
March Madness -- The only option. And it's a bad one.

Let's not forget the exclusive licenses for PGA, FIFA, NASCAR, Arena League (that still cracks me up), and NCAA Football.

How much longer until the NBA and NHL follows suit?

Part of me is infuriated by all of this -- but another part of me....doesn't care all that much. Five...six...seven years ago I would have cared quite a bit, but after sports games went 100% console my love for the genre waned a bit. User mods and interface design make the sports gaming world go round, and without that, it just wasn't the same. Well, the games were the same. The games are *always* the same. But you know what I mean.

I haven't turned my back on sports games as much as sports games have turned their back on gamers like me. And that's fine. It's not the end of the world. So EA can snatch up all the licenses that they want. It certainly won't make the games any better. History has taught us that.

I'm still playing the Pirates of the Burning Sea beta. A lot. Fun game. WEIRD game in many respects but a lot better game than I anticipated it being.

After that I'm looking at:

Frontlines (PC)
Sins of the Solar Empire (PC)
Turning Point (PC)
MLB 2K8 (360) Yeah!!!!
Dawn of War Soul Storm (PC) Seriously -- YEAH!

I'm also knee deep in the Wii. Ashley and I have pre-school and pre-post-school homework Wii sessions. She loves that machine and really...so do I. I think I may bite the bullet and get MLB Power Pros.