 Malik
(9/10/12)It has been a while since I posted anything. I normally would say that followed with some excuse of being tired, overworked, or some other reason. However, I am fresh off almost two weeks of vacation and vacation definitely doesn't let one post when half of the time is spent in a location without technology (beyond a TV that can pick up three channels). The Seahawks are back in the new NFL season. I wish I could have seen a better result, but the 16-20 loss to the Cards is not beyond what I could have expected. I mean the Seahawks are playing with a new QB and the new season always begins with some question marks hanging over it. The same question makes only become larger when you're dealing with scabs in the black and white stripes. In fact, I think the most likely thing to cause me to dislike this season will be the substitute officiating crews, who are easily showing that they do not know the rules. I mean when Pete Carroll had to run on field and remind the crew that Arizona couldn't use two time outs consecutively, there's a problem. When Pete Carroll later uses a fourth time out in a half, it only becomes more obvious that the MLS may not have the worst refs for this season. The obvious question, beyond the refs, was what QB situations would turn out in the new season. I mean Manning is back in Denver after a year off, Luck and RG3 are both starting as high profile draft picks, the Seahawks are starting a third round pick in the pocket, Arizona has to still deal with the questions of Kolb versus Skelton (Kolb wins in this one), and...well, the QB shuffle this season is definitely an interesting event going into the new season. I think Wilson looks like the man for the Seahawks. If it wasn't for either the O-line failing him or Arizona having too strong of a pass rush, I think Wilson could have easily picked up another 50+ yards. For what it's worth, he played like a professional starting QB despite never having a second to look at his receivers from the pocket. I think his stats would have looked even better if Baldwin or Edwards could have caught the passes in the endzone that came so damned close to being the game winning touchdown at the end of the 4th quarter. Plus, while Wilson had an interception, it was a garbage one (a long bomb at the end of the first half to try to make a final play with the clock expired). The real lesson learned from yesterday is that the Seahawks can do good this season, if they can avoid injuring bad starting QBs and keep the better 2nd string off the field (Kolb should be the starter for the Cards with how he handled coming in off the bench). Also, Seattle needs to give Wilson protection, or he will never get a chance to show what he can do...besides Wilson showing how well he can scramble. Also, the Seahawks need some work on play calling. There was a stretch when Lynch got the ball every down, and this led to an easy job for Arizona (just defend against the run)...and then the final drive when mixing in a little Lynch would have made for some yards when they were needed. Anyway, it's only the first game. The season is fresh, and except for the 49ers (who dominated Green Bay for their entire game), the division is not out of the Seahawk's grasp. Malik |
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Malik
(9/13/12) Finally, Nintendo has announced the release date and pricing for the Wii-U. It took too long, in my opinion, for this information to come along considering the launch is November 18th, which leaves only about two months until the launch for...I was going to say for kids to start saving up some money, but in this economy $300 or $350 is a hell of a lot of money. In all seriousness, the only smart move in this, that I can see, is that the Wii-U will launch before the holidays, instead of being a timely blunder like the 1st quarter release for the 3DS. However, even with that one blunder out of the way, $300 is a lot of money, and $350 is just insane from a product that still hasn't appeared to do the important thing of showing that Nintendo will have full support of the development community. While seeing a Batman game on the Wii-U looks like a small shift from kid friendly and third party ignored, it is a port of a year old game that was already on every competing console (and PC) a solid year before. It goes on like that with other games that try to show third party and mature game support. What I'm trying to say, in simple terms, is that once you break the old standard $250 price limit, especially when the economy is still shakey, this is no longer a family or kid console and has moved into being a mainstream console in price factor. If you don't have the solid and strong support of numerous games, right out of the gate, then this is a bad proposition. It only looks worse, to me, when for $50 more, Nintendo will offer an additional memory card, a charging cradle for the game pad, and a collection of minigames (Nintendoland) that one would expect to be a free pack-in from Nintendo in any other generation. I have honestly quit being a fan of Nintendo after watching my 3DS collect dust and go through obvious PR issues. The Wii was bad enough to suffer through, but with the 3DS added to the list, I don't see Nintendo as being in touch with reality anymore. They just don't seem to understand what it is that the gamers of the world want. They do know what their fans want, but the only people left to call "fans" are becoming few and far between and only want an occasional glimpse of a fat plumber in red. After seeing the previous three console generations from Nintendo, I knew they needed a game changer. However, instead of building on the only concept from the past 15 years that worked in their favor (motion; which was then imitated by Microsoft and Sony), they have apparently moved away and are once again trying to find out who they are as a company. I have some predictions of the obvious. First off, this, unlike the Wii, Gamecube, and N-64, will be a holiday console launched by Nintendo that is not hard to find on store shelves leading up to Christmas (just like trying to find a 3DS a week after it launched). Secondly, a price cut and some other incentives (maybe Nintendoland free with all consoles) are going to come along within one year of launch. Third, a less than solid prediction, that Nintendo will be out of the console (at least non-portable consoles) market in about five years going the way of Sega. On top of that, with smart phones offering so much more each year in terms of a gaming experience, Nintendo may be entirely done with hardware in a span of ten years at the most. By the way, I'm not even going to discuss TVii. I mean this is Nintendo just trying to show two things. One, they can do what has already been done by Roku, the Metro interface on Windows 8 and the 360, and the PS3. Secondly, while it may add a small touch of live TV features, I'll believe it when I see that it will work with having a cable box that basically all cable providers force upon you. Malik |
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