Malik
(11/29/10)
Just like in New
Orleans, the Seahawks showed why the NFC West is a lame division
that has no chance beyond one team being eliminated in the wild card
round of the playoffs. Right now, St. Loius and Seattle are tied for
first in the division, both with a losing record. Tonight, we can
watch on one of the worst matchups possible for Monday Night
Football, another NFC West team pull within one game of first while
another falls further into mediocrity. Yes, nothing says Monday
Night Football like the failing 49ers and Cards playing each other.
Anyway, I usually will
just recap what went right and what went wrong each week for the
Seahawks. Well, what went right is easy enough...the team can blame
this loss on injured players without too much difficulty. I mean
without Mike Williams, the receiving corps just couldn't do a damned
thing right. The only special exception is Ben Omomanu, who made one
of the most amazing receiving plays I've seen all year; from right
around the Seattle end zone to a touch down in a brilliant one play
touch down drive. That's why I was glad to see Omomanu stay with
Seattle after the weird pre-season game of trades and cuts. When
Seattle was short on receivers a few years back, he was one constant
bright spot. That remains now.
I guess I can also say
Hasselbeck looked pretty good, until his team let him down so much
that he let his crazy-legs mindset come in and toss a few
interceptions and some damned risky or stupid passes. However, what
did you expect from the man after his receivers showed a lack of
ability to catch a perfectly lobbed pass that landed in their hands
before being dropped to the turf? Sadly, a good QB is not enough
when the receivers cannot catch and the running game looks more like
a limping game.
I guess I even could say
the special teams looked pretty good. I mean a block field goal to
keep the lead three points less out of the realm of impossibility
was a nice touch. Even nicer was watching a punt being blocked and
ran in by Earl Thomas for a touch down. I mean the defensive side of
special teams looked pretty good. It's not often a team can block
both a kicker and a punter in a single game.
On the darker side of
Seattle...well, there is everything else. The special teams could
not return kicks or punts for anything, the defense was a flat out
joke (hint: if it's a running team, don't neglect to defend against
the pass while failing at the rush defense), the running game was
absolutely lacking, and...it was all bad. The Seahawks will not be
able to pull off anything this season if they cannot shake this funk
they are in. When the season was just starting, the rush defense was
one of the best in the NFL, and the passing defense was not too
shabby. When the season started, our receivers could catch a ball.
When the season began, the Seahawks were healthy. It's going
downhill quicker than a lead balloon, and unless Pete Carroll can
light a fire under the players' collective asses, the season will
end with the Seahawks missing another chance to flounder in the
post-season.
Malik |
Malik
(11/30/10)
It's sad that the Steam
Give & Get Sale is pretty much over with. I only found out about the
sale on Sunday, but it was definitely one of the better Black
Friday/Cyber Monday deals out there. I mean the prices were a little
too good to resist. I managed to pick up one of the five game indie
game packs (5 games for $5) with VVVVVV, Beat Hazard (well worth the
$2.50 price tag yesterday), and Machinarium. In fact, in terms of
games, the previous week was pretty good with me also picking up (or
ordering online) Mass Effect 2 from K-Mart for $10.
First things
first...VVVVVV is one of the best surprise games I've seen in a long
time. I would have easily paid $10 for the game, if only I could see
what it really was before just getting it in an indie games pack. It
is fun, challenging, and just amazing. Plus, the retro style of
graphics (very ASCII style) is a nice way of showing that games
don't have to have cutting edge graphics to be a hell of a good
experience. However, in this case, I think the "low level" graphics
only make the game that much more enjoyable.
As for Machinarium...I
waited for this to go on sale to get it. I really wanted to get it
since it looked amazing visually (the visuals are awesome), and the
game play (at least from the demo) seemed like the old school
Gobliiins game from Sierra. I loved Gobliiins and love the art
style, so how could I go wrong? Simply put, while the game is fun,
in a way, Machinarium has a lot of puzzles with absolutely no clue
as to why you are doing what you are doing. It would be like me
putting someone in a room with a bunch of random office supplies and
not releasing my captive until they decide to put a pencil through
the bottom of the paper cup, tie a string to the end of the pencil
in the cup, dip the whole thing in a toner cartridge (which you need
to crack open by hitting it with the stapler), and then give this
weird assembly to someone in the neighboring room (didn't you see
there was a small hatch to a neighboring room? Well that's your
problem) and waiting for them to give you a Game and Watch game. Now
score 1000 points and use the coin that falls out of the game to
purchase a stick of gum from the randomly located vending machine,
and use the gum wrapper to open the door out of this room. Make
sense? If it did, then Machinarium is for you. If you love hand
drawn visuals, then Machinarium is for you. If you like a game with
thought provoking puzzles that makes sense...well, just walk away.
As for Beat
Hazard, the game is like a classic visualization option for a media
player. However, it's also like a game of Asteroids meets Robotron.
However, it's also like a rhythm game of sorts, since the strength
of your ship in this Asteroids like game is determined by the volume
and rhythm of the MP3 files currently playing. Add in the $1 pack to
play iTunes downloads, and you have the ultimate addictive
mini-game. It only gets a bit better when you see that your score on
a level will give your a higher rank (the game has a level system).
These ranks give new bonuses when playing, which gives you a reason
to "play just one more song" before quitting. It's also funny to
see, since volume and rhythm make your ship more powerful as they go
up, that a music game actually can have Metallica (if you have some
MP3s of them) be "easy mode". I mean play a short Metallica song
(there are a few of them) like their cover of Stone Cold Crazy and
the game become pure win.
On a final game
related note for the day, Gamestop annoys me. Golden Sun for the DS
was officially released yesterday. Some stores broke the street date
around Thanksgiving. Well, Gamestop informed me yesterday that the
game will ship today and be available tomorrow. It's this type of
slowness for the release of niche or unpopular games that turns me
off from Gamestop. Sadly, since DS games are on physical media
(cards or cartridges) and can be more likely to sell out and be
slower to be restocked (takes time to make more cards, at least
compared to optical media like DVDs), I pre-ordered with Gamestop. I
would say I should have gone with Amazon, but they have screwed me
on pre-ordering games before (like getting Super Smash Bros Melee
three weeks after release). Blah.
Malik |
Malik
(12/3/10)
I picked up Golden Sun
for the DS on Wednesday and have had a hell of a time putting the
game down since. The reviews for this game all seem to say the same
general things, which I just don't see in the game itself. I mean
the reviews seems to range in the 7-8 out of 10 scale, but giving
some damned weird negative points for a RPG.
The main
complaints I see are that the game is too easy and that the game is
too wordy. In terms of challenge, the game is not hard in combat.
I've had only one boss fight that bordered on me facing low HP
totals and running out of PP (equivalent to MP/magic points).
However, I'm still early in the game and have done some grinding to
afford equipment. Anyway, when did a RPG require excessive challenge
to be fun? It's not like I'm playing Blue Dragon (now that was too
damned easy of a game), and the puzzles still offer some damned good
mental workouts. Considering this is a Golden Sun game, the puzzles
really make up a good portion of the game and can be more important
in many instances than the combat. So, the puzzles do bring some of
the challenge that the combat is light on.
As for being too
wordy...what the hell? This is an RPG. RPGs require a plot to be
good, and on a system that has limited memory, text takes the place
of spoken dialogue. Add in that games like Star Ocean 3 and 4 were
never complained about for being too wordy (and compared to them, GS
is light as hell on text), and the complaint seems a bit out of
place. There is plenty of text, but it's rarely excessive. If
anything, the plot is nicely covered, and the dialogue feels more
natural by not being the most concise version possible. I'd hate to
have a new party member added without him/her getting a chance,
through dialogue, to explain indirectly who they are. Plus, since
this is a direct follow-up of the original GBA Golden Sun titles,
you need a lot of text to catch you up to the plot. Even if you
played GS1 and 2 on the GBA when they first came out, you have seven
years of no Golden Sun titles to lose your memory of those games.
Anyway, Golden Sun
is, so far, a perfect nostalgic RPG experience. It's addictive, and
the puzzles only make it more awesome. I think this game could be a
turn off to those who are not from the nostalgic era of RPG glory (SNES
and NES era), but I see no problem with that. This game is for fans
of the classics, and definitely for the people who would also enjoy
Dragon Quest IX. In fact, between DQIX and GS, the DS is having one
hell of a great year for RPGs.
To shift
subjects...I'm hoping a home game against the worst team in the NFL
can help the Seahawks return to the not-quite-horrible quality that
made them currently tied for first in the NFC West. Then again,
since the defense has fallen apart, the running game never started,
and the receiving corps have all forgotten to grab that oblong
object Hasselbeck keeps throwing at them, things don't exactly look
awesome for the Seahawks this weekend...or for the rest of the
season. At least football isn't lost since UW can make a bowl
appearance (the first since 2002) if they defeat the lame WSU
Cougars in Pullman on Saturday.
Malik |
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