Archive for September 2008
Boo Weekley is my new favorite golfer.
It’s been a great weekend for sports fans. Pennant race baseball, huge college football matchups, and a few overtime matchups in NFL week 3 have had me actively flipping the channels for the last two days. Even NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup race at Dover has been a nailbiter.
But this weekend’s Ryder Cup matchups in Louisville have made those other sports look like the minor leagues.
Call me what you will — a WASP-y republican white boy would do the trick — but there’s no denying that international competition can spice up any sport. Add in a team golf aspect, and this one carried way more weight than your standard PGA tournament. Similar to the Olympics, the only thing on the line in the Ryder Cup is a little bit of gold and a lot of pride. Also similar to the Olympics? The competitors seemed to care more about that gold than they ever have about the cash.
But what was most exciting about the Ryder Cup to me was that the United States — huge underdogs coming into the weekend — managed to beat the Euro team by putting together a squad consisting of three unabashed rednecks for a match played in Kentucky. And what a success it was.
The three rednecks were Boo Weekley, J.B. Holmes, and Kenny Perry — all rookies in Ryder Cup play.. Their weekend record was 6-1-3, for a total of 7.5 points. But it was over after day one, when Weekley had already gotten under Europe’s Lee Westwood’s skin, after celebrating a chip in in an early fourball match. From that point on, the crowd was as loud and rowdy as any crowd I’ve ever heard, and you can’t help but see that as a big factor in the win for the US.
All told, the United States ended up beating Europe 16.5 to 11.5 to end their 8 year drought. But more than that, they proved that team golf is a sport worth watching, and that, hey, maybe golf without Tiger Woods isn’t so bad after all.
Week 3 Mortal Lock
Cardinals (-1.5) over Redskins
Let’s see if I can get any closer than week 1, here. I’ve got Boldin and Fitzgerald eating the Washington defense alive.
UPDATE: 0-2. There’s always next week.
Things I want
In a moment of boredom and greed, I’ve now added a “Things I want” box to the right sidebar of the blog. Don’t expect to see much other than gadgets over there.
Can the iPhone cut it as a gaming device?
If you’ve been reading any of the news surrounding Apple’s newest refresh of their iPod product line, you may have noticed that they’re beginning to take this gaming thing seriously. In fact, since as far back as their App Store launch in late June, Apple has been pushing their two touchscreen devices as more powerful than the competitors’, hoping to become somehow relevant in the shadow of two portable gaming behemoths, Nintendo and Sony.
But it wasn’t until last Tuesday’s “Let’s Rock” media event – in which Apple refreshed their entire line of iPod hardware, right on schedule – that they really threw down the gauntlet. Along with the introduction of the new iPod Touch hardware, Steve Jobs went so far as to say that the iPhone and iPod Touch are “the best portable [devices] for playing games.” And to back it up, Jobs spent most of the event playing with demos of Spore Origins, Real Soccer 2009, and Need for Speed, all in front of an audience that was eating it all up.
But – all PR spin and corporate jockeying aside – it begs the question: does Apple have what it takes to make a successful gaming device?
From a hardware perspective, the iPhone is no slouch. Boasting a powerful graphics processor and Apple’s popular multi-touch screen, there’s no question that the iPhone has what it takes to run games well. But if there’s one thing that we’ve learned from the current console generation, it’s that system power isn’t everything. If it were, PC gaming wouldn’t be in its current swoon, and the PlayStation 3 and PSP – not the technically inferior Nintendo Wii and DS – would be topping the sales charts every month.
But what about software? One of the largest hindrances of any system’s growth is the ease with which developers can create games for it. It seems simple, but I think the concept is underrated – if a team has to spend twice as many resources developing a game for one system versus another, there needs to be an equally large financial incentive for them to do so, or it wouldn’t be worth it.
And, according to Spore’s Will Wright, there is no such barrier to entry with the iPhone. In a recent interview with PocketGamer.co.uk, Wright criticized other phones for their limited bandwidth and poor interfaces. With the iPhone, however, you “start to see the power. With the CPU power, you can do some really cool stuff.”
Even further, one of the iPhone’s great advantages over their competition in the software area is the ease with which developers can distribute their games. That is, there’s no hassle with packaging and shipping to retail outlets in the distribution of their games. They build them, they upload them to the App Store, and they sell them. Done.
What I perceive to be the iPhone’s largest challenge in entering the gaming area could also be their largest advantage – the control scheme. Deep down, the traditionalist inside of me is still having a hard time understanding how developers are going to be able to develop an intuitive control scheme using nothing but a touch screen and an accelerometer.
And I realize that people had the same concerns for both the Wii and the Nintendo DS, even though now they’re the two most popular consoles in the world. But still – how in the hell are you supposed to see what you’re doing if you’re too busy poking and jiggling the screen?
When it comes to their reputation, Apple may not be a traditional player in the gaming market but there’s no question that they have established their legacy as a producer of high quality hardware with mass market appeal. Much like the way that Sony smashed into the gaming market 15 years ago with the PlayStation, it seems almost inevitable that Apple will force their way into this market or spend a lot of money trying. And I think that this established appeal will be a huge boon to Apple in the coming months. Because, contrary to other multi-purpose devices like the N-Gage or Gizmondo, the iPod brand is an almost necessary part of any person’s gadget lineup.
But can Apple do it all with the iPhone? The cynic in me still says no. I think that there are simply too many variables in play for Apple to be able to successfully integrate gaming into their already saturated multimedia devices. Instead, I think we’ll see Apple get their feet wet with the iPod Touch and iPhone, and follow those up with a legitimate gaming device in late 2009 or early 2010.
Hurricanes’ Third Jersey Thoughts
The Carolina Hurricanes were the first team in the NHL to reveal their 2009 alternate jerseys today, showing off a new black jersey with their alternate flag logo as the main crest. Their main image is here:
And a second image I found hidden on their site is here:
My thoughts, after the jump…
New iPod nano released — “Color” me unimpressed
So much for the iPod fat. Apple slapped some new colors on the 2G iPod nano today and called it brand new.
Before:
After:
Welcome to the NFL, Eddie Royal
5:01 into his NFL career, Eddie Royal scores his first touchdown.
At least something is going right for Hokies fans!
Is Spore too weird to be popular?
After years of development, Will Wright’s Spore is finally here. Billed as a “massively single-player online game,” Spore has gamers everywhere hoping for another genre-changing title, just like Wright’s previous blockbusters SimCity and The Sims. And, as was the case with the previous two games, we’ve never seen anything quite like Spore before.
Starting with a simple microscopic organism, gamers are charged with the responsibility of evolving that organism into an intelligent species – one that can ultimately venture into space exploration and interact with other players’ species (as NPCs, pulled from a central Spore database) throughout the galaxy. Of course, as the scope of the game is so large, the possibilities and replay value are endless, at least in theory. As more people play the game, more species are created and more possibilities for interaction and experiences open up.
But can a game as fresh and off-beat as Spore succeed? So far, it’s hard to tell. On one hand, critics are already lauding the game for its creativity and vision, saying that the game’s originality will take it far. On the other, many are panning the game for a lacking direction and purpose, saying that the “creature creation” aspect of the game is where Spore shines, but that – beyond that – the game may be too open-ended to keep people interested.
To the point of the critics, Spore’s Creature Creator has been a huge success so far, with players around the world uploading millions of species to Spore’s databases. So it’s obvious that, at the very least, the customization aspect of the game is enough to hook players early. Whether the actual gameplay can do the same is yet to be seen.
The problem with a game like Spore is that it’s almost too innovative. Because it’s not just a new twist on an old game, it’s a brand new gameplay model altogether. Reminiscent of Peter Molyneux’s Black and White or – and this might be a stretch – Sega’s Seaman, Spore is a game that may be so off-beat that it alienates the casual gamer, so far-fetched that parents wouldn’t understand it enough to buy it for their kids.
With so many gameplay types and so much customization, Spore should be a hit that appeals to just about anyone. And if Will Wright’s track record is any indication, it’s a game that people could still be playing even ten years from now.
I’m just afraid that it’s too odd for its own good.
What about you? Any readers playing Spore or planning to play it? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Week 1 Mortal Lock
Bengals (-2) over Ravens
…and it ain’t even close.
UPDATE: Well, the game wasn’t close. And neither was I. Off to a good start!
Can Colt Brennan save the ‘Skins?
Just a few days after their opening day loss, some “scouts and executives” are already calling Washington QB Jason Cambell a bad fit for the Redskins’ west coast offense, says the Washington Post. Citing his “tall frame and long delivery” as potential problems, coach Jim Zorn is still working on preparing Campbell for the “quick-timing cadence of this scheme.”
Meanwhile, Colt Brennan — with his NCAA record 131 passing touchdowns and 70.4% completion percentage — waits patiently on the bench.
Brennan, the rookie quarterback out of the University of Hawaii, already seems like a better fit for Zorn’s offense. Through his first four preseason games, he led all NFL rookies with 3 touchdown passes, a 67.9% completion perecentage (36/53), and 109.9 quarterback rating.
So while Jason Campbell may have a lock on the job for now, Brennan may start getting some looks at the job if this offense is in the tank for a few more weeks. And, if his performance so far is any indication, he may not let the job go.
