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 |
|
For Those Who Don't
Have Flash Plug-Ins...
Rested
XP News
Reviews
Videos Features
Forums
Archives Search
This Site Links
Contact Us Disclaimer
|
|
|