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Malik (12/20/10)

The NFC West continues it's path of complete chaos and disorder.  I used that same line to start my post last Monday, and it still rings true.  I mean all four NFC West teams ended up losing this week.  San Francisco did it in spectacular fashion on the NFL Network's Thursday national game.  Then at 10AM yesterday, the Rams failed against the in state rival Chiefs, and the Cardinals gave the Panthers their second win of the season.  In fact, the worst team in the NFL is the Panthers, with only 2 wins.  Both have come from NFC West (the 49ers were the first) teams that cannot show the NFL and the country that the NFC West is a NFL division and not a college division 2 conference.

Anyway, Seattle rounded things out at 1PM yesterday by hosting the NFC best Falcons.  At least, for being a playoff contender, the Seahawks lost to a great team.  I mean the Chiefs may be a potential play-off team, but they are not in the same level of play as what the Falcons have become this season.  Hell, the Falcons currently sport an amazing 12-2 record and were the first NFC team to clinch a spot in the post-season.  For that, I can forgive the Seahawks for looking like a lame duck, instead of the mythical imaginary Seahawk.

In reality, this was a gut-punch of a game.  Seattle started with a 7+ minute drive for a touch down to start 7-0.  In fact, since the Falcons were so slow in their first drive, Seattle had the lead at the end of the first quarter at that same 7-0.  This is a glimmer of hope since Seattle is one of the worst first quarter teams out there.  However, it all started to go down from there.  At the half, the score was 10-17 (Falcons up, of course).  This doesn't look too bad for a team like Seattle, which has been a second half team all season.  However, when Hasselbeck starts to get worried, then it looks bad.  In fact, Hasselbeck was pulled before the third quarter fully died down and Whitehurst was given another chance to show he is an NFL player and not some lame team mascot.  Considering how he was heralded when traded for from the Chargers, one would think the official team mascot is Whitehurst.

What can one say about this game?  It was bad.  Hasselbeck showed he has no patience as he threw a third quarter game of catch with the Falcons (hint, Matt, you want to not throw to the people in a different uniform than what you're wearing).  The Seattle offense also didn't help with a nice burst of penalties.  Should the 12th Man of Qwest Field be causing the other team to commit errors?  Why did Seattle have all the false starts?  Anyway, it wasn't all bad since the defense looked a damned bit better than one would expect against a team with a 12-2 record.

Well, I will not dwell on a loss to the best of the NFC.  Plus, the play-off dream of misery is still on.  The Rams and Seattle both have a 6-8 record, and the 49ers have 5-9.  When the 49ers meet up with the Rams on Sunday, the true image will come clear.  If the 49ers win next week, and when Seattle loses (a road game against Tampa Bay is never a good thing for the Seahawks, even in good winning years), the standings will be three sets of 6-9 going into the final week of the year, when the Rams face Seattle at Qwest.  I think, unless the Rams can beat the 49ers (who only seem good at laying NFC West opponents to rest) we will see the first, that I know of, play-off game in which the home field advantage lies with a losing record.  Yes, one more loss for the Rams next week, and the NFC West winner will be a true loser.

Malik

Malik (12/22/10)

I got Fallout 3 as an early Christmas gift.  It worked out pretty well.  I mean I do have a couple of games lined up, but there's a problem with each of those.  I have Red Dead Redemption in the wings, but I feel way too uncoordinated for a game that doesn't allow for nearly as much forgiveness as Fallout 3.  I also have Mass Effect 2 waiting, but at the same time...I'm still working up the patience to play that game since the first Mass Effect was anything but what I'd call fun.  I only bought ME2 because it was $10 on Black Friday, so it will be waiting for me when I finally reach the dull times of (probably) summer when games are few and far between.

As for Fallout 3...I was reluctant to buy the game when it launched since I am an old school Fallout fan, which means I'm a fan of the top down view with turn based combat.  After playing for a bit, I do miss having a real party to cover my sad ass, but I'm not nearly as against the game as I could have been.  However, I do still have two major issues, but they are early on in the game type of issues.  For one, I cannot get enough crap back to a vendor to sell it, so I'm always flat on my luck when it comes to caps (money).  The other problem is that when I finally find some money, I cannot find a damned merchant that carries any 10mm ammo.  Since I'm mainly braving the wastes with a 10mm pistol or a 10mm SMG, this requires some creativity I don't know if I can come across without some new ways of thinking.

Anyway, that first problem all comes down to the classic Bethesda idea of first person RPG gaming.  They love to limit how much you can hold based on your strength...and otherwise strength is not the most important stat for many styles of playing.  Sadly, since Fallout 3 is without magic, I cannot do the simply solution from Oblivion (make a strong short use feather spell to raise your capacity).

Anyway, I'm having more fun than I expected with this game.  However, I'm also facing a good number of deaths.  In fact, that uncoordinated issue that stopped me from Red Dead Redemption is raising it's ugly head far too often.  I've seen deaths from giant scorpions, raiders, traps, super mutants, traps, more traps, another type of trap, and jumping off a bridge.  I should be better than most of these deaths (not the super mutant...he just messed me up like a pro), but at least, unlike Red Dead Redemption, I have a nice quantity of medical supplies on hand.

In fact, part of the first problem of Fallout 3 (the capacity issue, which ties into money) is solved by many medical items and all ammo taking no room in your inventory.  That's a damned bit better than Oblivion, when an archer better be strong to carry enough arrows to explore a dungeon and not fall back to a secondary weapon.

Malik

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