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Malik (11/23/09)

The Seahawks suck. That about sums it up. In a season when it looks like the Seahawks have reached the bottom, they just keep doing worse. I mean a few weeks ago, against the Cards, Seattle managed a franchise record low rushing game of 14 yards. How can a team do worse? I mean that has to be the bottom, right?

No. It can get worse when that record low was broken, again. Seattle managed 4 yards...FOUR YARDS!? How does a team do that bad? I thought Forsett would have been able to at least get a good running game going, despite an obvious blow-out defeat in the works as Seattle faced the 8-1 Vikings. Well, nothing worked out. The Vikings showed the single best Favre performance, at least in completed pass percentage. That was Favre and the Vikings both having the pass completed percentage records broken. Only Seattle could allow Favre to look that good. I honestly think the Seahawks are the worst team out there right now. St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Detroit have some bad performances, and worse records, but I think the overall games, on paper, would show Seattle in last place. Except, in true failure fashion, Seattle will even be losers in the draft because they manage to win more games that don't matter.

I would go on about my usual complaints (the O-line), but the team is just broken. That's all there is to it. The real solution is fixing a huge hole at GM. Tim Ruskell needs to be removed, so the Seahawks can undergo a few years of rebuilding to eventually return to the glory that they once were a part of.

On a different note, I bought Lego Rock Band on Saturday. I played a fair amount, despite being laid up with a migraine on Sunday, and having work on Saturday and Sunday. I can't say too much, since it's Rock Band. Anyone who cares about the game franchise already knows the main points.

The one thing that I do enjoy about Lego Rock Band is how it has some of the fun features of the past Lego games. You cannot lose (which even applies to expert difficulty...you fail and then come back after losing all your points), and you get to build a lot of fun extra things by collecting new Lego elements by completing sets. It's the best of Lego and some of the best of Rock Band (without the great pause countdown from The Beatles), and has a mostly good sound track (except for some overly pop stuff). It even has some major challenges in the game, especially from Kung-Fu Fighting on expert guitar, despite having a kid and family friendly outward appearance.

Anyway, I'll just say that my favorite part is how the game took a page from the 1980's. You have some bonus challenges (required to progress through the career mode of the game) that require using "the power of rock" to do the impossible (like a Night Ranger video would have). You have to destroy buildings, fight off ghosts, stop a giant octopus attack, and many other impossible feats with "the power of rock". It's cheesy, but it is so damned great for any nostalgic geek who grew up on 80's videos and Legos.

Malik

Malik (11/25/09)

Life just keeps coming fast and brutally hard. I just had to say that as my lame excuse for a lack of constant posting lately. Between real life responsibilities and...well...other real life responsibilities, I just seem to find no time for doing much in the way of fun, and not much inspiration to have fun if I even had the time. If it wasn't for the pure joy Ratchet and Clank bring me, and the fun nostalgic charm of Lego Rock Band, I think I wouldn't even have the right mind for even doing any gaming.

Of course, if the real world becomes too much, one can always escape into fantasy. That's a nice theory, at least. However, sometimes fantasy can be worse than reality.

For those who don't know the tale of Erik Estavillo versus the world, it can either be a sad, funny, annoying, or amazing journey. It started with a lawsuit that was dismissed against Sony. It then continued just this week with a lawsuit against Microsoft and Nintendo. Now it's on to WoW/Blizzard and it seems to not have an end in sight.

While I want to appreciate that someone has the call to raise a fight against the evils of the world, this is just blowing my mind away in utter confusion. On one hand, it reminds me of a certain lawyer (who was dis-barred) from Florida. You know who I'm talking about and don't want to even mention the name of. However, at least that one made a bit more sense, from a twisted perspective. This latest round of lawsuits from Mr. Estavillo is just beyond anything I can comprehend. For one thing, the Nintendo/Microsoft suit mentions how it's too expensive to pay $100 for his 360 to be repaired, but apparently the money raise lawsuits is still an option. I mean legal filing is not cheap, and if he has a lawyer (which I'm doubting), that's even more expensive.

On the other hand, this individual is wanting to call Winona Ryder and Depeche Mode's Martin Lee Gore as witnesses in a lawsuit about the monthly fee for playing WoW. I think that summarizes this; Wow!

Sadly, this only reminds me of two important facts. The first being that the American court system is broken and being abused like a red headed step-child. While the system is open for "the small guy" to tackle the giant evils of the world, it also leaves the system open to abuse. In particular, it leaves it open to a world of people who view the legal system as the same things as the lottery. All you have to do is win one stupid and/or pointless lawsuit and you could be set for life. It's like Lucky (Tom Petty's character on King of the Hill), who earned that name for getting a large settlement from Costco when he slipped on some pee in the men's room. This is the type of reason why I love some European court systems that have a retaliation clause of sorts; if you sue and the lawsuit is found to be completely without merit, then you end up owing the entity/defendant you brought suit against.

The second fact is that this is the type of face that the average non-gamer sees of the gaming world. I mean this is enough of an event (even if it's a non-event) that it makes the news, and then it leaves the overly stiff types who can't get over "games being for kids and losers" seeing just that; someone acting like a kid (in all the worst ways) and acting like a loser looking for a quick buck.

Anyway, this will probably forever be a problem. People like suing when it means you can make a living without ever contributing to society. Now there's something to be, in all sarcasm, thankful for for Thanksgiving.

On a final note for the day, the Harmonix people released the list of next weeks DLC early. I guess we haven't had enough Dave Grohl or Nirvana lately, so we can all be thankful for some more. Seriously, I love Nirvana and I have always appreciated Dave Grohl's stuff in nearly every form. However, this seems to be going beyond excessive for Rock Band. At least this will round out Nevermind, since the three missing songs are the three pack of Nirvana for next week. Even if there's some version issues (like all but Smells Like Teen Spirit being live or unplugged versions).

Best of all, I think Night Ranger is oddly appropriate right about now. Considering they did so much with music videos on the power of rock (like deflecting bullets with rock), it fits being Lego Rock Band friendly since Lego Rock Band has "power of rock" related challenges. Now if only these challenges can be redone to be played to Night Ranger music! That would be awesome!

Malik

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