Stuff

- Another week, another crappy, pathetic performance by the Dolphins. After barely defeating the Titans (and really, we didn't beat that Titans, the Titans beat themselves) the Texans looked great against us. 17-15.

Man, we're really, really bad.

Our offensive line is abysmal. I'm not blaming Culpepper for the offense's lack of productivity, he is doing all he can to prevent getting absolutely killed back there. 21 sacks in four games. That is one bad offensive line. Really bad.

It seems like none of our players are stepping up and making key plays. Plays that will lift this team out of mediocrity. Wes Welker is our only shining light right now. Give that boy a raise.

- I'm really enjoying Doom. Once I got used to the mechanics again, the game has been a blast. Pure nostalgia. Don't know how much someone who never played the original will feel about the game though.

- A week ago my profile from Madden deleted itself. It just decided to reset to 0 and all my settings and sliders were erased. I was extremely pissed off, as I was pretty happy with the way the game was playing with my sliders (aside from the interception problem I was having, but it was getting better with constant tweaks).

So I've had to basically start from scratch, trying to find my slider settings again. It has been a real drag because I am about to play the Super Bowl in my franchise (Dolphins/Redskins) and I do not want to play it until I am certain I find the sliders I had before. Because of this, Madden has been put on hold.

- After reading the glowing review of NBA 2K7 on Operation Sports, seeing all of the positive forum posts, the extremely impressive gameplay vids at Gametrailers, as well as it getting a high recommendation from my buddy Sroz39, I caved in and purchased.

Now, anyone that knows me knows that basketball is not one of my preferred sports. I know very little about basketball and I only watch it when the Heat make the playoffs. And even then it is only on occasion. Yes, I'm one of those bandwagon fans. The last thing I expected myself to do was go out and actually purchase an NBA game.

Sure enough, I am enjoying the game. I do not know what I am doing half the time, but slowly but surely it is starting to sink in. I played a match online with one of my friends and the game played flawlessly. More evidence that EA just doesn't know what the hell they are doing when it comes to online play.

I have yet to start an "Association" yet, 2K's version of a franchise. I have spent most of my time practicing in the practice mode and playing the game's 24/7 mode, in which you create a player and take him up the ranks of street courts to earn enough rep to play with big NBA stars. It is a cool mode in concept, but it is extremely flawed, shallow and poorly executed.

You have to sit through countless cinmatics of your two chump friends giving you advise, encouragement, or ridicule after every match you play. These terrible scenes cannot be skipped (why, I have no idea) and they repeat themselves way too often. Once you create you character (which was pretty fun, with lots of customizable options for appearance), you do not have a way to go back and edit his appearance or accessories. I do not want to change my facial features, but letting me edit the equipment I am wearing, getting a new tattoo or even changing my hair style would have been great. You also cannot see any of your player's attributes, you don't really "improve" or advance other than learning a few new moves from some top players every now and then, and you cannot even see any of your career stats. Again, like I said, the mode comes off as very shallow and half-assed. There is lots of potential here for a different type of Career/Create-a-player mode, but it felt like this mode got very little attention. The cinematics for example look right of the Xbox version, and look terrible. This mode has a very EA feel to it. Meaning, great ideal, terrible execution.

But, the biggest problem I have with this mode is that for some inexcusable reason you cannot change the camera angle when you are playing the game. I do not like the default camera, but you are stuck using it in this mode. Again, why they left that option out is beyond me. With this mode's many faults, I am surprised that it is where I have spent the bulk of my time, and I have played maybe only 4 or 5 actual games in Quick Game mode. I think it is because it at least is a decent mode to get used to the controls with some opposition, since practice mode only features your offense on the court.

Graphically the game is extremely polished. The presentation while playing a game is top-notch, with great replays and decent commentary. The game's animation is fantastic, with extremely fluid and realistic movements. Practically all NBA players have their signature shooting animations, which is a fantastic feature, but probably wasted on me since I wouldn't know what ½ of these players shoot like in real life. If they can do this for100+ players, I see no reason why Madden shouldn't be implementing actual QB animations for every single starting QB in 2008. Yeah right, I should hold my breath.

Anyway, the game is fun and at least has given me some interest in b-ball, to the point where I might actually watch a few regular season Heat games this year. And I'm sure I'll begin to appreciate the game even more as I pick up more of the sports' nuances.

- I also am still playing PGR3. This game is a blast. My new obsession is buying cars to fill up my garages. The game's "garage" system is absolutely fantastic. So much so that I wish every single racing game would copy it. You get a virtual garage that you can walk through and see your cars. I should say, you get virtual garages, since as you fill them up, you open up bigger ones. Few games can show off the 360's power better than a walk through one of your virtual garages. They look absolutely fantastic. The lighting, motion blur, water effects (yes, there is water), are stunning. And the car models are absolutely pristine!!! I could spend 20 minutes just walking around each of my garages, admiring my beautiful, expensive cars, and snapping pictures of them.

Oh, and the racing portion of the game is very, very good as well. :P

- I've had my ups and downs with Gears of War. Sometimes I can't wait for it to come out, the next minute I am convinced it will be nothing more than a tech demo for the Unreal III engine and the game will be extremely shallow. Right now I am at my "can't wait for it to come out" mood after watching several high-quality gameplay videos from X06. The game is looking very impressive indeed and I just cannot wait to see what it looks like on my HDTV running at 720p.

I have my fingers crossed for this one (I already have it pre-ordered, so it better be good)