Malik
(10/19/09)
I said on Friday that
I'd only have a lot to really say today if the Seattle sports scene
looked really bad. Well, I think a long post is not worth it for the
performance seen by the Seahawks yesterday.
I mean if the Seahawks
will not put in any effort on the field, I will not put in any
effort on bitching about them. Between the defense giving up on
every play, the offensive line not giving a damn, and the special
teams doing whatever random shit they could to encourage a loss...it
was just a game with zero effort.
I think the one part,
however, that stands out the most is the lack of defense. The Cards
only called two main plays; a run and a short pass. There were no
trick plays, long or even medium passes, or anything that went
beyond a short pass or run up the middle. This was the easiest game
in the world for a defensive coordinator to play against, yet the
Seahawks didn't do anything against the Cards and their half-assed
offense.
When you play a team
that's as lame as the current Cards, you cannot expect much, but the
Seahawks came in with even lower expectations. We're not talking
about a good team in a good division. We're talking about a team
that's now tied for second in their division only because the
division is so damned weak and unable to muster anything beyond
lucky plays and a schedule loaded with six games against horribly
weak teams.
At least some things
weren't all bad in the Seattle sports scene. The Huskies lost by
seven points. I call that a good game when you're watching a team go
through a complete retooling and rebuilding. UW was horrible last
season, and now they show a spark of life that's quite ready to
explode next fall. In fact, if you look at the UW losses, there's
only been one (out of four) that has been by more than a touchdown.
It was seven points on Saturday, seven against Notre Dame in
overtime, and...well...UW is definitely putting in some effort and
making some good progress from the horrible team they were last
season.
Then there's the Sounder
FC, who have clinched a place in the post season on their expansion
year. Not too many teams can pull that off, and now the Sounders are
facing the potential of adding more hardware to their US Open Cup.
Malik |
Malik
(10/21/09)
I downloaded every
song that came for Rock Band DLC yesterday. Which is to say that I
downloaded the Queen pack.
I can't really say
too much since it is pretty obvious to most music fans that Queen
sounds like Queen. I mean they are the quintessential arena rock
band of the 1970's. If you don't know their music, then you should
make some effort to learn.
The only real
comments I can say is that the difficulty seems a little off on some
songs...at least on expert guitar. For example, Tie Your Mother Down
seems a bit easier than the lower tier ranked Fat Bottom Girls. The
same goes for Another One Bites The Dust seeming a bit low on
difficulty rank. Yes, AOBTD is a simple song for most of the guitar
part, but the
chorus can be a nasty
thing when you have a quick burst of alternating pairs of B and then
B+O.
Ok...I have one
more comment. For the guitar players, Harmonix needs to start
discounting or refunding for certain purchases. Either that, or they
need a warning label. Some songs have warnings that state there's no
vocals in a song and the band playing said song will not be able to
have a vocalist. Well, how about the same style of warning for a
song like Smokin' (Boston), a good deal of the Nine Inch Nails
songs, or Somebody To Love (Queen)...but a warning that says "You're
about to play piano, organ, or keyboard instead of guitar. We
apologize for the crap-tastic way we chart piano to guitar." I think
that would definitely make things more fun than not knowing you're
about to not play guitar.
In fact, since
Somebody To Love has such a lack of guitar, couldn't have Harmonix
substituted another song. Maybe something like Headlong. I mean
that's some good fast guitar without a ton of keyboard style crap.
Anyway, beyond
that one complaint, it is a good pack. I mean it's ten songs from
Queen. What more could you ask for? Well, maybe another ten songs
from Queen, but that's possibly taking things too far. After all,
it's Queen...and not Foo Fighters, who Harmonix feels needs about
100 songs in the game.
Malik |
Malik
(10/23/09)
Next week will at least
see a touch of the Halloween with Rock Band DLC. I'm talking
about a three pack of Rob Zombie, including the long overdue Dragula.
There's also some other songs (like a five pack of Wolfmother), but
when it's nearly Halloween, I think Rob Zombie is all that's needed.
Anyway, I'm still
not quite feeling as much love for Rock Band lately. I mean there's
Brutal Legend, and next week is also the release of The Ballad of
Gay Tony (GTA4 DLC). So, I think my downloading of RB DLC may take a
back seat for a while, with the exception of Rob Zombie. I also just
feel jaded to the whole rhythm game thing since I can't find too
many people to play with offline...and I just can't get my head
around online playing. It's not like I haven't given the RB online
play system a chance, since I did once with a friend. I just didn't
like the complete lack of the whole Rock Band vibe. A vibe that, for
me at least, includes beer breaks, joking around, and watching a bit
of bad TV when grabbing some food.
For now, I'm still
trying to play as much Brutal Legend as possible. I want the game to
be completed, for me, before Tuesday. However, I have one problem
with that scenario; I just don't like the pseudo-RTS stuff in Brutal
Legend. It's not a bad idea, but the game seems to have been both
built around the concept and completely lacking in being built
around it. For example, the game uses RTS style for all major
battles and quests in single player and uses the system exclusively
for multiplayer. However, in the single player, you seem to get
fewer explanations of the system than needed, and the game lacks any
real motivation to learn beyond the game over screen appearing
repeatedly.
The main problem,
however, is that the RTS system seems to lack a few basic ideas. For
one, you don't have any sense of a map, and you can look for enemies
or goals to accomplish and be hit by a sudden "if you keep going
this way, you'll forfeit the battle" when you hit an imaginary
boundary. Then you have some rather clunky controls since you will
find the same restriction on RTS commands as you do in the normal
hack-n-slash game controls...which is to say that you cannot enter
commands when you're being attacked, and this means that when in a
heavy battle you can forget on controlling your army and its growth.
The final big
problem I've found is that the game seems based around the idea of
pulling off team attacks with fellow troops. However, you rarely get
a chance to try out and learn these different attacks. The only real
time you have to learn the importance of these attacks is when
you're under attack...and at that point you may end up killing
yourself off by picking the wrong troop to team up with or being
sloppy with an attack you just can't understand without some real
time to practice outside of major fighting.
Anyway, I just am
not a fan of the RTS system. The game is great fun, and I can see
people enjoying the RTS engine. However, I can see more people not
liking it. If you hate RTS games, but love hack-n-slash, then you're
forced to use a genre you don't like (and probably didn't expect
based on the ads for this game). If you like RTS, like I typically
do, you'll probably be annoyed with how the system feels nerfed and
toned back to the point of being sloppy. Most of all, if you love
RTS and enjoy how they should be played (mouse), then the basic
controls can become annoying until you're in the fighting yourself.
After all, the only real charm of this system is how it will allow
you to fight along side your army and not just serve as
general/spectator.
Malik |
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