Malik
(9/14/09)
The greatest time of
year is now fully upon us. I'm talking about the NFL regular season.
Yes, the post-season is also good, but there's nothing like the long
road up to the regular season coming to an end.
It doesn't hurt that the
Seahawks are looking pretty damned good. Ok...they started a little
pathetic as "Crazy Feet" Hasselbeck was in full force to start the
game yesterday. Once he settled down (after two interceptions being
thrown into some incredibly stupid and dangerous situations, like a
double covered Burleson in the endzone) in the second quarter, the
game really started.
I think the pairing of
Hasselbeck with Nate "The Great" Burleson is going to be about one
of the best QB to receiver pairings the Seahawks have ever seen. I
still cannot believe how many passes were thrown to Burleson, and
how well Hasselbeck could thread the needle to get him the ball. I
also can't believe how strongly Mora is using the passing game after
the last few seasons of Holmgren's "we'll keep running, because it
has to work eventually" game plan.
In fact, I cannot think
of any player that didn't amaze me, or at least not draw my rage.
Carlson is an amazing tight end, Hasselbeck is back in his old form
as QB, Houshmandzedah and Burleson are a great pair of receivers (so
different from Holmgren's era of always pushing three to four
receivers each passing play and not knowing what to do with his
players), our offensive line was holding back the forces from
destroying the QB, the defense was powerful against anything the
Rams could throw at them, and Mora showed some of the innovation I
was hoping for with the trick play he had for Seneca Wallace. This
is a team that is back from a season of pain and shame and is ready
to pull off some great things.
Of course this is all
from a single game against the Rams. I mean it was not the Seahawks
alone that kept the Rams from scoring. I mean they did plenty of
damage on themselves and will, once again, be the worst team in the
NFC West this year. Plus, next week will be a better judge of how
Seattle is doing this season with them playing against the
49ers...who may not be a solid opponent, but are more game ready
than St Louis could ever hope to be.
On a final note, I just
want to say that the game left me most happy with one thing above
all else; the refs were actually making damned good calls and being
intelligent with their actions a good deal of the time. I mean when
they saw the 12th man on the blocking team when the Rams blocked a
punt and made a TD out of it...I'd normally expect the refs to not
catch that. With less than two minutes left in the half, I'd have
expected that to go unnoticed since Mora couldn't use a challenge.
Maybe this will be a good season all around...even for the
refs...for once in a long time.
Malik |
Malik
(9/15/09)
I'm aiming to get a few
Rock Band DLC tracks today. I'll, at the very least, get the new
Tenacious D tracks and No Time (The Guess Who). Beyond that, it's up
in the air. I'd like to save some money since I've been burning
money lately like it's the end of days.
I would, in fact,
skip all the DLC this week, but I need a break from The After Years.
I've been playing the final chapter and I just need a break from the
constant flow of "dungeon -> boss(es) -> dungeon -> boss(es), etc."
It's just too much of the same. For a game that started with so much
plot being involved, the final chapter sure evolved into a mess of
tedium. I'm not giving up, yet, but I would have loved some towns,
plot, and other things beyond a short cut scene between massive boss
fights. Anything extra would have been awesome.
The other thing,
going back to how I started this post, I need to worry about money
in regards to is that the new PS3 Katamari game (Katamari Forever)
is coming out in a week. I think this game is a must have
considering my obsession in the past over the previous three
Katamari games. I just hope it works out better than the mess that
was the 360 Katamari with it's DLC needed for everything enjoyable.
Assuming DLC is not a forced part of the game to get it's total
value, I should be happy. I mean the demo is pretty fun and
interesting...even if it feels like the controls have issues (in
particular with the R3+L3 180 degree turn not registering all the
time).
Now I just need to
find the cash for this game after blowing so much money lately
(Professor Layton 2, Beatles, vacation, other vacation related
expenses, more vacation expenses).
Malik |
Malik
(9/16/09)
I ended up downloading
four songs last night for Rock Band. I got both Guess Who and both
Tenacious D tracks. I was going to skip Hand Me Down World (The
Guess Who), but since I had about 200 Microsoft points left over, it
felt right to download this final track.
I can't say too
much about these tracks. I mean Tenacious D is fronted by two guitar
players who are known for some powerful and technical playing. So,
it should be no surprise to say both of these tracks are pretty
brutal on guitar. Rock Your Socks is pretty simple, however,
compared to the other two Tenacious D tracks found on the game now.
That's not saying too much, however, since there's still a lot of
fast playing and tricky chord shifts going on.
Tribute, on the
other hand, is a hammer-on nightmare (or playground...depends on
your feels about hammer-ons). The only real challenge, however, is
in the final solo that almost ends the track. That's where you'll
come across some bursts of stuff that comes from the Green Grass and
High Tides play book. Still, it's nothing out of the realm of a
fairly solid expert guitar player...but some overdrive may be called
in for some of this to make it less of a session in torture and more
of a fun time.
The Guess Who
tracks are nothing insane or simple. They are good middle level
songs on guitar, with a blend of some fast parts and some weird
chord changes. These, however, are songs for fans of The Guess Who.
So, to myself, these are awesome tracks. No Time is a song that I've
always wanted in Rock Band, so I would call No Time the one definite
"must buy" track of the week for myself.
On a final Rock
Band idea for today, I think the tiering on The Beatles is
completely f#@$ed up. I played some last night with my mom on
expert. We'd play with me on the higher tiered of guitar or bass,
and her on the lower. It didn't take long to see that a maximum
difficulty bass song usually fails to compare to a lower tiered
guitar song. I wish these could have been handled better, since I
hate replaying a song repeatedly while someone struggles due to a
tiering system being misrepresented.
This doesn't even
mention the fact that most of the maximum tier guitar songs seem
easier than an almost maximum tier guitar song.
Malik |
Malik
(9/18/09)
I was running short on
anything worth saying for yesterday. It's been a hectic week of
working when I should be at home, and other not-so-fun stuff.
On the other end
of things (fun stuff), it looks like Katamari Forever is coming out
earlier than expected. It was due to come out next Tuesday, but
assuming I don't leave Gamestop angry, the phone call I got from
them last night says to pick up my copy today. That's definitely a
great way to start a weekend. I just hope this is not a game like
the 360 Katamari...which means DLC and paying are not two terms
needed for full enjoyment.
I think my weekend
will probably see me beating this game before Sunday is done. At
least if I can tear myself away from football long enough. When you
have a season that looks so good (just check out highlights of last
weekend to see how awesome this season is shaping up to be for so
many teams...especially check the Adrian Peterson run of doom), it
will not be easy to avoid the NFL. Add in how important the Seahawks
game will be this week, and how it's a statement of how the NFC West
should shape up to be as #1 Seattle faces #1 San Francisco face each
other.
I think with
Katamari and NFL, it will be hard to think about much else. I don't
see myself playing much of The After Years for a while. It doesn't
help that the games final chapter is nothing more than one massive
dungeon. I loved the lack of fighting and heavy doses of plot in the
first part of the game. When it ends with just two giant dungeons,
it's hard to remain enthusiastic. If I wanted a pure dungeon
crawler, I have plenty of better options that don't involve watching
a lack of plot with some really cool potential plot related
scenarios. It's like having Dante's Divine Comedy turned into some
bland action game. Oh...wait...I guess that's the future of gaming.
All plot needs to be erased and replaced with non-stop action that
tarnishes the original material and how it could be an awesome
storytelling engine.
On a final note,
Rock Band DLC is pretty blah for me next week. Yes...more Pearl
Jam. I mean this should make them the most overly used band in Rock
Band after Backspacer is released. I mean two whole albums, some
bonus live songs...what next...Pearl Jam is just too ingrained into
Rock Band and it needs to stop about now. Even if I liked Pearl Jam,
I'd still be annoyed with their over-proliferation into the game. I
mean I do love the music of the Foo Fighters, but if another Foo
Fighters album or pack came to Rock Band, I'd be pretty damned
annoyed...while I still would download it.
Malik |
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