Minecraft Monday - December 13

Since last week I just gave a text run down of my house I thought I'd go ahead and use some pictures to get an idea of what I'm doing as well as give myself something permanent to look back on. By the way, if you're playing Minecraft and can't figure out how to take screenshots you just need to press F1 to take away your HUD and then hit F2 to actually take the screenshot. Then just go look under the "screenshot" folder and voila, you can keep a visual record of your world. Anyways let's get this thing started.

This first shot is the outside of my house. You can see the beginnings of an obsidian chimney there on the left hand side of it. Also you can see my papyrus farm in the foreground...more on that later.

As promised here's a picture of my papyrus farm. It's not too huge, but it gives me almost a full inventory of papyrus when I go to collect. It's also not really that nice looking, but it's just there to serve a purpose. I might tidy it up a bit later, but for now I have bigger things to attend to.

Here's three pictures of the three main rooms inside my house. The first is my main hall/dance room, complete with smiling pumpkins and a jukebox/CD holder combo. The next is my treasure room, it's pretty basic, but something every Minecraft player needs. The more boxes you have the more you can sort out your junk.The final picture is my furnace room. I haven't counted up how many are exactly in there, but it's over 100...some might call it excess I call it just right.

This one is a little hard to see, but it's the walkway over to my smallest mine shaft. It doesn't really serve a purpose, but I just think it looks kind of cool. As a side note, that cobblestone you see is a monster room that was exposed and only a few feet away from my spawn point. Needless to say I died almost instantly upon first entering the world.

This is a series of pictures of Mine Station Number 1. The first shows off my Pyramid Sky Light, my own version of the X-Light 9000 from the popular X's adventure series. The next is a view from the top of the shaft that shows off my hard work and my river of obsidian that my chimney will come from. The final picture is an area I dug up to the left of the shaft with lave water falls. I've been digging out at the bottom of my shaft in hopes of finding Diamond. So far I've only hit 4 nodes, but I'm hoping digging 6 blocks up from the bottom in all ways will greatly enhance my Diamond stores.

Here's my final picture. This is the beginning of my personal library. The structure is 55 X 55 blocks, which means that it takes about 3,025 blocks to fill up the middle. Just this first foundation took me an entire Saturday. With the holiday coming on I'm hoping to get it finished soon.


Well, that's all for my world for this week. I'll keep updating my progress every Monday so check back to see how far I went. I'd also like to mention that Notch will taking the game to Beta on December 20th, so if you want to buy you have to do it now if you want to get it on the cheap and get every update from here on out for free. I'd strongly recommend doing this because even if you don't know if you love this game yet, an update he puts out might hook you on it and if you don't buy it now you'll have to pay extra for that update. Just something to think about. That's all for today. See ya some time, same place.

Saturday's VGAs (My 5 Biggest Observations) - December 11

(Note: I just want to point out that when I first typed the title in I accidentally typed Saturday's VAGs.)

1) I can't wait for Mass Effect 3- We basically didn't get anything too big from the teaser trailer, but teased I was. The thought of bringing the campaign to Earth is interesting, but seems a little Haloish. That said, if what I've heard about it being the new multi-player mode that makes it a little depressing. Let's be real Bioware, Mass Effect doesn't need a multi-player mode. I mean this is a game that's all about it's story and the combat is secondary. Leave the multi-player to the likes of COD and Halo; games with terrible stories that rely on their expert combat gameplay. Even if they do bring that into the new game it doesn't make me want it less. I would honestly pay the 60 bucks for this game just to see what happens to three or four characters (those being Ashley Williams, Grunt, Thane, and Wrex...my personal favorites), so they've basically got me into it no matter what the product looks like.

2) Blizzard gets robbed fro Best Studio- As you can see from my previous bullet point, I do love me some Bioware games, but nobody is better than Blizzard right now. Starcraft 2 took the best RTS of all-time and improved upon it in every way, thus making the new king of RTSs. That alone should've won them the award, but they also just put out an enormous expansion to the biggest game in the world, World of Warcraft. Blizzard put out two of the biggest games in the history of gaming in one year is amazing and should've given the award running away. I mean Congrats to Bioware, but they have no chance against the juggernaut that is Blizzard.

3) Neil Patrick Harris for Best Male?- I'm not saying NPH didn't do a good job as Spider-man, but this was a joke. As host he shouldn't of even been up for the award, let alone the winner. This just felt like a political thing that they gave out to give NPH more geek creed. On that note, even though I don't like Olivia Munn and think she probably fakes her way through geekdom; she has so much more geek creed than Harris and should've been this year's host.

4) No Minecraft for independents?- This was just crazy. There has never been a more popular independent game than Minecraft and it wasn't even nominated? The only reasons I can come up for this is that it's not a huge name brand among non-geeks and it's technically still in Alpha, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it was one of the biggest games of the year. If the VGAs wanted to help legitimize their awards shows they should've given this award to Minecraft and made all us geeks happy and get a deserving company some more publicity.

5) I'm going to be the blue guy in Portal 2- This one isn't really an observation, but just my opinion. Whenever I get to play some Portal 2 co-op I'm going to be playing as the blue guy...that orange guy looks like a total square.

I hope you enjoyed watching the show, I know I did. See ya later, some time, same place.

Minecraft Monday - December 6

With the arrival of my new desktop (which is amazing by the way and everything I ever dreamed of as an eighth grading playing Diablo 2 until the wee hours of the morning) my Minecraft playing time has hit an all time high. Since I had to start a new world I thought I'd just start doing a weekly post of what I was doing in the game (hopefully I'll be able to add a video version of this to Youtube, but that won't come until Christmas break when I have time to figure it out). Anyways here's the basic run down of my current housing complex in Minecraft.

When I spawned in the this new world I happened to spawn right on the coast of what I call "The Sand Desert". This is basically a huge area that's only sand with lots of cacti. Since I've already played this game quite a bit in other worlds I already had a general idea of what I wanted to do. I started out by making a little 6X6 mine shaft all the way down to bedrock, just to get some raw materials set up. That took me a few hours, but wasn't really that big of a project. Then I went out and chopped down trees until I had almost an entire inventory full of tree blocks to make into lumber. After that trying three or four days of game time I started building up my house. It only has two side rooms and one large entry hall, but each room is at least 10X10 blocks if not bigger. One of the rooms is my storage room that holds about 40 chests that are all categorized with signs. The other room is my furnace and at last count it holds right around 100 furnaces so that I can smelt cobble stone into solid stone in huge numbers. Also in that room are three chests that are completely full of coal for the smelting I do. I also built a glass walk way over to my small mine shaft. The cool thing about this is that you walk across the walkway and under you it goes all the way to bed rock. I've thinking about hollowing out the entire area under my house, just for fun. After I did that I went ahead and starting on my first major mine shaft. This one is a 20X20 mineshaft that is topped by a glass pyramid. The mine shaft isn't quite finished even after working on it for about a week and a half.

That's because I apparently dug into the biggest cave system I've ever seen. It seems like every new layer I dig down I found a new little nook that turns into a huge cave. This hasn't been bad of course because that just means that I've found tons of iron, gold, and diamond. I've been lucky in that regard because it makes my picks last longer. During this building I've also built a fairly large papyrus farm out next to my spawn point. I'm using this to get enough bookshelves to build my dream library. I'd say I have about half the blocks I need for this and should be able to finish it fairly soon. I also added a huge roof to the top of my house. It goes up above the mountain that sits next to my house and has an obsidian chimney that I hope to soon build up to the highest point of the map and make my large sign post for when I go out on adventures.

Other than that I've only done a couple of small things like making a deck by my house and things like that. I'm planning a few more projects to hopefully show on Youtube, but we'll see how that goes. Well, that's all for now. See ya next time, some time, same place.

Fallout: New Vegas Review December 3rd

I've been wanting to start writing some reviews of newer games that I've been playing, but haven't been able to find the time to 1) complete a game that merited a review and 2) take time out of an increasingly busy schedule to write up a review. I've finally been able to do both those things and have just finished Fallout: New Vegas. I know it's old as of now, but since Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games ever I felt like this was a good place to start. I'm going to give my review in five parts: story, design, game play, presentation, and overall. So, without further adieu let's get down to my first video game review.

Story: Fallout 3 and it's predecessors made up an amazing world for a player to live in and provided us with a great story that fit the world. New Vegas' main story line isn't as good as Fallout 3's, but the world as a whole has a much deeper, fleshed out story to tell. While playing through the game I found myself refusing to do the main story quests just because I wanted to see what was happening out in the Mojave and do all of the side quests. The best of these were the companion quests, which might be the best in the game. Without spoiling anything for anyone, Veronica's quest that involved the Brotherhood of Steel was one the longest, but most enjoyable quests I've ever done. It had me going from secret bunkers under a sand storm to irradiated vaults that I could barely even walk through. Another quest that I must recommend is Arcade Gannon's companion quest, which doesn't really  take a lot to do, but has a great pay-off, that I won't spoil, in the final mission. My final must see experience is anything involving the Super Mutant's of the area. You simply must go see best friend Tabitha and her friend Ronda. As I said the main quest didn't draw me as much as Fallout 3's did, but it's still very good and worth at least one play through to see the Legion and NCR's final conflict.

Design: The major new design element in New Vegas is the introduction of factions into the game. These kind of act as a better representation of Fallout 3's good/bad scale. Basically what happens is depending on your choices and actions in the game you will gain or lose the trust of different factions. Doing something for one faction might lose trust with another faction even if you might not think it does right away. This makes the game feel much more real and dynamic. This design is evident from the onset of the game as I found myself being attacked by a faction right after I left the first town because I had saved that town from the faction that attacked me. This faction scale sometimes was frustrating because it sometimes closes off some quests for you if you're not friendly with a certain group. In the end though, that gives the game an ever-changing world that feels much more real than many games that simply provide you with a good/evil scale.

Gameplay: In Fallout 3 it was usually necessary to use the game's V.A.T.S. targeting system in order to kill enemies because of how terrible the aiming was. New Vegas improved the gun combat a lot by adding iron sights to the game. I was surprised by the amount of time I started spending out of V.A.T.S. because it was easier to kill things just using my iron sights, which is something I would never do in Fallout 3. This change may of caused me to use more bullets because of the many times I just sprayed bullets at approaching enemies, but the better control over where those bullets were going was well worth it. The other major gameplay improvement was how well the companions controlled this time around. There were many times in which I didn't even notice an enemy on the screen before my companion had taken them out. Sometimes this almost felt like getting cheap experience, but overall it was very helpful in keeping my character alive. The gun play and companions drastically improve upon the last game's which make New Vegas very enjoyable.

Presentation: This is the biggest area that New Vegas fails to improve upon Fallout 3. I only encountered three or four game crashes that all came past the 40 hour mark. That said this game is littered with bugs all the way through. For a Fallout or RPG fanatic this wasn't really that big of a hang up, but it was a problem. The graphics engine didn't look that bad, but it didn't really perform as well as one would expect from this big of a release. A game that has this much in it is going to come with it's share of bugs, but this one was just ridiculous. That said, sometimes these bugs were hilarious and I actually found myself hoping I would get the glitch in the beginning of the game that finds a players head spinning like the girl from The Exorcist.

Overall: I mostly felt that this game was at best a little better than Fallout 3 and at worst just more of the same, which is never a bad thing with a game that good. New Vegas has to be down ranked a little because where it improves on the last game it just does a little bit. I would've liked to see some bigger improvements, but I can't complain about getting to play through even more Fallout. This game should probably be bought as it took me 70+ hours to complete and it would be hard to put in that much time with a single rental. Either way I'd encourage most people to at least check it out and if you're a Fallout fan, get ready for some great story and gameplay that only a Fallout game can provide.

Final Score: 8.75

Update to the Update- October 28

So, I think I'm officially back to posting here for when I get the fancy to talk about video games/life. bitmob.com just wasn't doing it for me because I'd rather write review/news/experience stuff rather than the list type things they do. It's a great site, just not for me. I'm still pretty heavily invested in bleacher report though so this blog won't be updated as much as I would maybe like, but I'm going to try and write about games at least once a week as long as I have something to talk about. Of course, this is more for me to talk about cool things for fun than for people to look at them, but I plan to have some fun with this. Anyways, enough about that, expect a new post about Fallout 3 this weekend because I've been playing the crap out of that as of late.

Blog Update - October 16

So, lately I've been doing a lot of writing on bleacherreport.com because it provides a bigger audience than this blog and thought that maybe I'd just stick to writing about games on this blog. However, I just found a new website, bitmob.com that basically does the same thing bleacherreport does, but for video games. Since I'm going to posting a lot on both of those sites it's going to be difficult to find time to do both those and post on this blog. I think what's going to happen is I'll use this to post random thoughts and then try to post up links to bitmob and bleacherreport for any easy way to keep up with both. If I can think of another way to use this I will, but for now just expect the number of posts to go down a lot and just be a source to post links to stuff and maybe some thinks I don't want to post on the other two sites. Anyways, this is mostly for myself because it's not like I've put enough time in this to get any followers, but for now this is the end of my blog in it's current form. It was a short, but fun run. It will still serve it's purpose, just not near as often as it did before.

See ya next time. Some time, same place....actually now it's probably going to be a different place.

Monday Minecraft - October 11

Since I've started publishing articles on Bleacher Report I've had trouble finding time to do much else besides that so that's why this is a day late. Anyways, I haven't been playing Minecraft because of how unreliable my computer's been lately. Hopefully I'll get my new computer in a few weeks and be able to start playing before the Halloween Update.

Speaking of which I'm pretty excited for that to hit the public. The only thing that doesn't look cool is that Notch is going to make torches run out after some time. While this makes the game more realistic, but I use torches to tell me where I've been and I also like to carve out huge 30X30 strip mines. If I lose all my torches then it will be difficult to know exactly where I've been. Hopefully lanterns will be fairly easy to make, but we won't know for sure until it launches.

I'm really looking forward to this new "realm" that lets you travel quickly in the real world by braving this new ruthless realm. On his blog Notch posted a screen shot of the realm and it looks fairly scary, which seems to be what he's going for in this new update.


Notch has also said he's going to make new enemies that are actually difficult this time around and make it to where you need more light as you dig deeper to keep the baddies from coming. This should make the game even more interesting because right now the only enemy that even presents a tad bit of challenge is the skeleton. These guys aren't too tough, but if they get the jump on you they can do quite a bit of a challenge. I've seen on his Twitter that he has made a new enemy that we will all hate...which basically means I can't wait.

He's also said that he's going to include fish so you finally have a reason to use that fishing pole. I'm not really sure what he plans to do once you catch the fish, but I assume eating it is logical. He's also including a watch that helps you tell time, which I kind of don't see being that big of deal, and biomes, which basically means the weather will change, a cool cosmetic upgrade. Finally, it seems we're pumpkins, which is alright, but not that cool...and possibly some new block types. I'm hoping for something stronger than Diamond to be in there.

Well, that's all for now. See ya later. Some time, same place.

Sunday Stats - October 10

Another week, another shake up in my Heisman rankings this week. Some big teams lost and some hopefuls had less than stellar weeks. So, without further adieu let's get down to it, here's my Week 6 Heisman Rankings:


Honorable Mentions: Taylor Martinez, Justin Blackmon, Ryan Mallet, Andrew Luck

5) LaMichael James RB, Oregon- 848 yards rushing, 9 TDs- James had another electrifying week, but it was against Washington State. Because of that I almost gave this space to one of the three QBs in the honorable mention section, but decided to stick with James because he did have a three TD day and almost had 100 yards rushing and receiving.

4) Kellen Moore QB Boise State- 1336 yards passing, 14 TDs- If Moore wasn't undefeated he'd be off this list, no doubt about it in my mind because he just hasn't played the level of competition as Mallet and Luck. However, until he has a bad game or Boise loses he'll remain on the list, but won't be ranked too high.

3) Cam Newton QB Auburn- 1138 yards passing 12 TDs, 672 yards rushing, 8 TDs. I cannot ignore Cam Newton any longer after he rushed for four TDs and almost 200 yards rushing against Kentucky. He's like a poor man's Denard Robinson, but bigger. He plays in the SEC so it's going to be hard for him to stay undefeated, but for now he's here to stay.

2) Denard Robinson QB Michigan- 1223 yards passing, 8 TDs, 991 yards rushing 9 TDs. I knew this was going to happen, I could just feel it in my bones that Michigan would lose and Robinson would have a bad game. That said, he's still in this race and isn't done by a long shot. He may of thrown for 3 INTs this week, but he did have 2 TDs so it wasn't a terrible week for him. He has some work to do next week to regain his spot at the top of the charts.

1) Terrelle Pryor QB Ohio State- 1349 yards passing 15 TDs, 354 yards rushing, 3 TDS. The Buckeyes are going to be number one in the polls and they have an elite passer in Pryor. This past week he turned in his greatest performance ever through the air and as the season goes on he just keeps having big games. If he can have a solid performance against Wisconsin next week he could put a lot of space between him and the competition.

Well, that's all for today. See ya later. Some time, same place.

Saturday Shorts - October 9

Lots of big games happened today in the NCAA and I decided to skip going to the gym and eating dinner in order to watch them all. Here's my analysis of the games I watched and the games I only kind of watched.

Lets start with the big one, 19th ranked South Carolina came out and beat the defending champs, Alabama. When I flipped over to this game and saw that the Gamecocks were up 21-3 my jaw hit the floor. S. Carolina's Garcia was super accurate and went 17-20 for 201 yards and 3 TDs. I'd never heard of this guy before this game, but man did he play great early and then keep playing well enough to win the game. The biggest surprise though was that the 'Cocks held the Tide's running game to a measly 36 yards. Let me say that again...36 yards! Now that number is a bit warped because of McElroy having -28 yards rushing but, this is the same team that was dominating teams with their running game and had the defending Heisman Trophy winner in Mark Ingram. He only had 41 yards  on 11 carries, that is just ridiculous. I'm not a Bama fan, but I was hoping they would just go undefeated and play Ohio State for the 'ship so we could stay away from the Boise controversy. Not because I don't want a play-off, but because I'm tired of hearing about it. Hats off to the Gamecocks though, they played a great game and did what I didn't think anybody could do.

Up next is the game that could kill Denard Robinson's Heisman hopes. Michigan State came into the Big House and dominated Michigan. This is what I was worried about two weeks ago when I posted my Heisman Watch, but last week did something to take those concerns away, but now I'm right back there. Robinson still had decent numbers outside of 3 costly picks, but with this game on national TV his chances could be hurt a lot especially with Terrelle Pyror playing so well today.

LSU and Florida had a really good game that went down to the wire. LSU won in the closing seconds with a big drive that had a sweet fake field goal in it. This was the game of the week for me just because of how great the ending was. LSU seems to of found some of an offense, but with how well it's D is playing it might not need a great offense.

The final game I watched that was excited was the Arkansas A&M game. Ryan Mallet did some good work in trying to erase that Bama game from people's minds, but I'm not positive he's done enough yet. This was a good win for the Razorbacks and could hurt the Big 12 as a whole. This A&M team is going to be a tough out and if they can sneak out a win against someone like OU that could hurt their chances to go to the 'ship because A&M has two loses. That's all speculative of course, but I don't think anyone in the Big is unbeatable so this does seem like it's shaping up to be the actual year that a non-BCS school is going to play for a championship.

I'm going to save my Heisman Watch for tomorrow so I can wait to get my stats right, so see ya next time. Some time, same place.

Friday Night Lights - October 8

I'm going to try something different this week since my Oklahoma State Cowboys are on TV tonight and I'm going to do a live game reaction. This means that I'll watch the game and post updates as I see fit. (Note: I missed the first few minutes of the game because I was in the shower so this technically starts nine minutes into the first quarter).

1st quarter 9:00- Okay I missed the first few minutes, but here it goes. I saw that Dan Bailey hit a 52 yarder, which is a career long. I gotta say this guy is a stud.

1st quarter 8:08- Hate to see any player get hurt, even if its for the opposing team. It's not looking like Maurice Rolle is coming back in this game. Also excuse me if I get any of the Ragin; Cajuns names wrong...I'm not really familiar with their roster.

1st quarter 7:04- Man I wish Blackmon could have played this well when Dez was here...of course Dez would've needed to not get suspended last year. Blackmon already has nine TDs this year and he should get a few more this game, especially with how often their going to him early.

1st quarter 5:56- Three screens in a row? Hmm, I don't know if I agree with this strategy, but it could work since the Cajuns blitz so often....Update: 4 screens, I think I'm going to eat my words this is working well so far and really looks like it's going to hurt the Cajuns pass rush.

1st quarter 4:46- Oh my, Kendall Hunter is one of the best running backs in the game. I don't care that that play got called back because Chelf's hold had nothing to do with Hunter getting away from all those Cajuns in the back field...Just incredible.

1st quarter 4:40- There it is folks, Blackmon's first TD and probably not the last. By my count they threw Blackmon's way 5 times in this last drive and with how open he's getting I fully expect them to go his way even more. That was a great catch by the way, he wanted the ball badly on that play.

1st quarter 4:40- Update: The announcers just said it he caught 7 balls, not sure if that was just on that drive or overall, but still a mighty impressive 1st quarter.

1st quarter 3:52- Ouch, I fully thought Mason had the first down there, but he missed an open guy and it's 3 and out for the Cajuns.

1st quarter 3:45- Spoke to soon. Zach Craig got caught roughing the kicker. You just can't do that and now the Cajuns get another shot.

1st quarter 3:31- Finally Mason completes a pass, although the pressure almost got to him and it's still not looking too good for the Cajuns.

1st quarter 2:24- I love the shovel pass when it's used effectively and Aaron Spikes just ran it to perfection. Great play-call by the Cajuns.

1st quarter end- The Cajuns look like their at least going to get three points, but I expect they'll hit pay dirt and make this a 10-7 game early in the second quarter. Let's see what happens.

2nd quarter 13:14- Wow, I've been wondering since the Wildcat was invented when people were going to start using it in all goal line situations. I mean, think about it...you're basically running a QB sneak, but with someone who can actually run the ball. It just doesn't make sense to not put your running back behind the center and let him take a direct snap and punch it in. Hopefully this becomes the norm soon because it already should be. Anyway, real costly mistake by Craig, hopefully the Cowboys can answer.

2nd quarter 13:05- Welp, there's the beginning of an answer. What an electric return by Gilbert.

2nd quarter 12:04- Well, I was about to say you gotta love seeing those wide receivers blocking down the field, but it looks like they blocked a little too well and got called for a hold. Oh well.

2nd quarter 11:07- You just can't say enough about Justin Blackmon. That was a great catch that showed shades of Dez Bryant. In a year where there aren't too many great receivers Blackmon might be the best in the nation. For those scoring at home that's two TDs for Blackmon and a 10 point lead for the Cowboys.

2nd quarter 8:49- Mason is looking really good right now for the Cajuns and could keep them in the ball game if the Cowboys don't step it up on defense. Their pressure is just a few seconds late, but they need to get in there and hit him some to get him off his rhythm.

2nd quarter 7:38- It seems the Cowboys heard because the pass rush has gotten Mason off his game the past two plays and looks to of gotten the Cajuns out of scoring range.

2nd quarter 7:10- What the heck was Weeden thinking? That was way behind Blackmon and almost got taken to the house. You can't throw that ball...he looked like Brett Favre there.

2nd quarter 7:01- Terrible possession there, although there was a questionable no-call on that third down play.

2nd quarter 5:42- This seems to be the game of screens. I think about 75% of the play calls so far have been screens fro both teams...

2nd quarter 4:35- Jeez, you can't leave guys that open, I don't care how bad your competition is. This looks like it could be an actual game and OSU is going to have to step up if they want to win. It's now 17-14 Cowboys. Let's see if they can get some points before halftime.

2nd quarter 3:57- Crap, this is not looking good as the Cajuns just picked off a Weeden pass. I'm not going to put that on Weeden even though the stats will because he can't do anything about his man tipping a pass to the defender. Bad luck there and now the defense is in another hole and the Cajuns have major momentum.

2nd quarter 3:02- Great stop on third and short for the Cowboys. If I was the Cajuns I'd be going for it right now and it looks like they will. Good call on their coaches part.

2nd quarter 2:23- Wow, that was a generous spot, but I gotta give it up to the Cajuns for having the guts to go for it on fourth down. That had to be a little demoralizing for the defense, I hope they can get another stop.

2nd quarter :58- I'm loving that block by Spikes the Cajuns freshman RB. Even though it's not my team I got excited to see somebody out there putting his body on the line for his team. I still hope they don't score though.

2nd quarter :27- Hmm, that was some weird clock management by the Cajuns. They wasted about ten seconds instead of calling a play or a timeout and then went ahead and called a timeout. That was a little strange, but shouldn't really hurt them at all.

2nd quarter :21- This is embarrassing. The Cowboys shouldn't be losing to this type of an opponent, but it looks like they're going to be playing down to their competition as usual. I can't believe they're going into halftime down 21-17. Ugh.

2nd quarter :14- Good run, gives them a chance to hit Blackmon for a deep ball and at least three points. With their luck tonight they probably won't pull that off.

2nd quarter :08- They must be trying to play for a field goal there, that's the only way I can justify running the ball with 14 seconds left to go.

2nd quarter :01- Well, that's not too bad of a play considering they were either going to get a touchdown or get nothing with how long he held the ball. Weeden needed to get that out quickly, but getting an INT wasn't that big of a deal really, because they weren't going to kick a field goal from that far out.

2nd quarter end- Alright it's halftime and the Cowboys are down 21-17. I'm hoping they can come out and play well after getting kicked in the mouth. Weeden looked okay out there, but had a bad break with that INT, the 2nd one wasn't really a big deal, but he should come out playing better. Blackmon was playing out of his mind early, but needs to keep getting  open to help out the team. Kendall Hunter barely got the ball in the 1st half and they really need to get him the ball more. The defense needs to get to Mason a few seconds earlier and they should be okay. A turnover would be great, but they need to keep the Cajuns out of the end zone at all costs. Let's see what happens in the 2nd half.

3rd quarter 15:00- Here we go, time to see what the Cowboys are made of! Come on Blackmon/Hunter, pull us out of this mess.

3rd quarter 13:31- Nice adjustment by Blackmon. Weeden's are is a little weak, but Blackmon is playing out of his mind tonight. Also, notice that they came out running with Kendall Hunter. This is a great sign of things to come.

3rd quarter 12:24- That's what I like to see. Way to feed the ball to Hunter on the goal line and he does what he does best. Great job on that drive getting Hunter some much needed carries.

3rd quarter 12:22- Ugh, I liked the call on that onside kick, but that stinks to give up that field position.

3rd quarter 12:10- Well, I guess it doesn't stink that bad. There's that turnover I said we could use. Great job by Steven McGee.

3rd quarter 11:44- Blackmon gets his 10th catch early in the 3rd quarter. 18+ catches might not be out of the realm of possibility.

3rd quarter 10:55- Good throw and catch by Weeden and Michael Harrison. This game looks to be turning into a blowout for the Cowboys, but the Cajuns can score quick too so until the Pokes go up by another score I'm still hesitant to rule out a comeback.

3rd quarter 8:57- Ouch, that's a call that's really going to hurt if the Cajuns can't pick up a first from a 3rd and 26. They were driving for a minute there, but that hurt them badly.

3rd quarter 6:30- The Cowboys look to be well in control of this game and I think it's got to do with the fact that they've gone to the running game more, which is opening up the pass some more.

3rd quarter 6:04- Hubert Anyiam scores a TD. This is looking like a blowout for the Cowboys. They need to keep piling on the score though because the Cajuns did have a 21 point 2nd quarter so you know they can score. The defense also needs to keep stopping the Cajuns like they have been. Most importantly Hunter's got to get first downs and run some time off the clock.

3rd quarter 5:49- Crap, look what I said. The Cajuns can score quick and they just did. This isn't terrible because our offense gets the ball back to, hopefully, put up more points, but the Cajuns scoring is not what we needed right now.

3rd quarter 5:42- Apparently this game is going to come down to who can get the most kick return yards. Good return by OSU, not quite as good as the Cajuns though.

3rd quarter 2:04- Oh, I could've seen that pass interference going either way.

3rd quarter end- Alright, going into the fourth quarter we're at 41-28 Cowboys. It's looking good right now.

4th quarter 13:21- Well, we're not outta this yet. Looks like we still might have a ball game on our hands.

4th quarter 11:52- This is what we got to keep doing, getting first downs and keeping the ball away from the Cajuns.

4th quarter 9:44- Dan Bailey has a cannon on his leg. That kick was good from 60 yards. He's a god. That makes the score 44-28 Cowboys.

4th quarter 8:28- It would seem Bo Bowling doesn't like being tackled. Pretty nice return.

4th quarter 6:22- Bad choice Brandon...you gotta just keep the clock rolling and not take a chance when up. In other news Dan Bailey can not miss.

4th quarter 6:01- Well if that last field goal didn't seal it up then this fumble recovery did. Pretty good job in this win for the Cowboys. A little too sloppy in the first half though. Let's get some garbage stats, boys!

4th quarter 4:59- I don't know about that touchdown to Youman. I think they should just run the ball and not even bother to pass when up this much late. It's kinda like rubbing salt in the wound, but I guess you gotta get some style points after that sloppy first half.

4th quarter end- Well that's all she wrote folks. The Cowboys came out with a vengeance in the second half and got a big game from their star skill position players. Hopefully they can take this back to conference play and get a few big wins. Hat off to the Cajuns though. They played hard against a superior team and gave me a scare for awhile.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Throwback Thursday - October 7

This is going to be another non-video game throwback because of the recent transaction my Minnesota Vikings made. That's right, we reacquired my favorite player ever, the one, the only, Randy Moss. In honor of this I thought I'd do some research and make my top 10 wide receivers of all time list. So without further adieu, here it is, in order of 10-1.

10) Marvin Harrison: 1,102 receptions, 14,580 yards, 128 TDs. Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison is the most reliable tandem in NFL history. Harrison went to 8 Pro Bowls and was selected First-team All-Pro 6 times. His most memorable performance though came in 2002 when he caught 143 passes in a single NFL season.

9) Terrell Owens: 1,020 receptions, 15,225 yards, 144 TDs. Statistically TO should probably be higher, but his off the field stuff hurts him for me. He's a great player and went to 6 Pro Bowls and made All-Pro 5 times, but he killed teams from the inside out and that has to count against him somewhat. Still though, I've been very impressed with him this year so far.

8)Steve Largent: 819 receptions, 13,089 yards, 100 TDs. First off, Largent is from god's country, Oklahoma. Second he was a crazy good WR without a lot of height. Kind of an early day Wes Welker and put up huge numbers all the time. I wish I'd been around to watch him play because I've heard he was a joy to watch.

7) Issac Bruce: 1, 024 receptions, 15,208 yards, 91 TDs. Bruce was a major driving force behind the Greatest Show on Turf. Bruce led the new age of wide receivers, which are the type of players we are still seeing today. He and the rest of the Rams ushered in the first of the "spread"ish style offense Mike Martz brought to the game.

6) Paul Warfield: 427 receptions, 8,565 yards, 85 TDs. Warfield doesn't have near the stats of other guys on this list, but he was one of the first to perfect the art of making big plays down field. He played in a different era where teams ran the ball much more and still posted huge numbers. He was one of the first and one of the best.

5) Cris Carter: 1,101 receptions, 13,899 yards, 130 TDs. All he does is catch touchdowns. He twice caught 122 in a single season and was part of one of the best offenses of all time in the 1998 Minnesota Vikings.Carter was an 8-time Pro Bowl and 3-time All Pro selection. Not only that, but he basically trained the number two person on this list as well as Larry Fitzgerald.

4) Michael Irvin: 750 receptions, 11,904 yards, 65 TDs. Irvin's career was cut a little short or his numbers might be even higher. That said his most important stat is his three Super Bowl rings. In the end winning is everything and Irvin's Cowboys won a lot.

3) Don Hutson: 488 receptions, 7,991 yards, 99 TDs. Much like Warfield his numbers aren't as high as others, but he was a pioneer of the position. Not only was he a great receiver, but he also played safety and kicked for his team. A great throwback, all-around player.

2) Randy Moss: 935 receptions, 14, 604 yards, 151 TDs. In the sense of pure ability Moss is probably the greatest WR to ever step on the field. He's 6'4, runs a 4.3 40, and has a vertical leap that's out of this world. Add to that great  hands and an uncanny ability to come away with the deep ball. If he had the work ethic and injury luck of the man above him, I fully believe he would be number one in every statistical category. That said, he doesn't have that same drive and luck and will probably always be number two to the next man.

1) Jerry Rice: 1,549 receptions, 22,895 yards, 197 TDs. These numbers probably won't be touched anytime soon unless Moss just starts piling up TDs. Rice might not physically be the best, but he's close. He does however have the most drive to be the best and it's likely that nobody will ever be as good as Rice was over his entire career.


Give 'em a few years: Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Warcraft Wedsenday - October 6

I've officially canceled my account at least until Cata comes out, mostly due to the terrible lag I've been getting in my dorms. I'm still going to do some write ups on wow, but they probably won't be very long. With that said there are two things I've read about this week that interested me and, while most of you already have probably heard of them, I'm going to post my thoughts anyways.

The first thing that caught my eye was that Blizzard released a release date for Cata. Now the day their planning to bring it out isn't to terribly surprising because it gives them a chance to use BlizzCon to build up some more hype (not that it really needs it), but the thing that did surprise me was that they announced it right now. I mean, if they really wanted to create giant amounts of hype they could have waited for BlizzCon to announce the date. That would've gotten a huge reaction amongst the crowd. I mean people would've gone rabid with anticipation, but they choose to do it fairly quietly, which leads me to believe they might be planning something HUGE for BlizzCon. The two most likely things are a Diable 3 release date or an announcement of the new MMO they're working on. It's possible that they didn't want Cata's release to over shadow this other possible big announcement. No other option really makes much sense to me because they could have used this announcement in a big way and they really just sent it out without too huge of a ripple.

The other big thing I saw was that Blizzard has decided to place a hard cap on guild size at 600. I don't really know if having big guild sizes makes it more difficult on Blizzard, but I really think this was a mistake. I'm not personally in a guild that goes over 600, but I think it stinks for those that are. And if the gripe is that it will be easier for them to get guild achievements I think that's lame. It's also easier for them to tackle content because they have more warm bodies to pull from and I haven't really seen that as a big reason for the change. I just feel like Blizzard is going to change this at some time in the future because it's going to kill those big guilds and those players are going to be pissed and possibly leave the game. I feel like they should be trying to make everyone somewhat happy, especially when it comes to people's in game friends in such a social game.


See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Total Sports Tuesday - October 5

(Note: I didn't do a Minecraft Monday update because my computer blue screened and I lost my save world so I just couldn't make myself write about it, that said I'm very excited for the Halloween Update).

This post is going to be my first article on BleacherReport.com, but I figured I'd post it in both places, anyways here it is.

The Minnesota Vikings: The Chester Taylor Effect

  Coming into the season the Minnesota Vikings seemed to be poised to make another run towards the Super Bowl after last year's effort ended in failure. However, things haven't gone the way the team had hoped. Many different theories have been making their rounds, which range from injuries to key players like Sidney Rice or Cedric Griffin and the fact that Old Man Brett Farve seems to have aged a decade in the past year. The one theory that has gotten next to no lip service in the media is the offseason loss of Chester Taylor.

  In the past many wanted to trade Taylor for a top of the line wide receiver or quarterback. However, those people missed out on what an important part of the offense Taylor was. Not only was he the best back on the team as a receiver out of the back field, but he was also the best blocker at that position on the team. This made him one of the best third down backs in the league because of his versatility and earned him a valued spot on the squad. In addition to these roles he also played one more, which could of been his most important role of all.

  With a back like Taylor, who had 1,200 yards the year before Adrian Peterson was drafted, the Vikes were able to bring in a capable back at key times to give Peterson rest. The key word in that last sentence was capable, because in the three years since Peterson was drafted Taylor average close to four yards per carry and had over 40 catches the past two years. With this production off the bench the Vikings could use Taylor in place of Peterson and not lose too much on the field. 

  This is key because anyone whose watched Adrian Peterson play knows that he gets a large chunk of his yards in the second half when he has worn teams down. With Taylor giving Peterson time to get a little rest, Peterson was able to come in even fresher than he would have and dominated defenses even more. In fact, I once did a check of the game logs and in the majority of the games the Vikings won since 2007 Taylor got at least 10 touches and in most of the games they lost he got less than 10 touches. 

  Now obviously the loss of Chester Taylor isn't the only factor in slow start to the season, but his loss shouldn't be overlooked because he meant more than people think to this team. Hopefully, someone like Toby Gerhart can step up into Taylor's role. Until that is proven we could be in for a very long season as Peterson wears down without his old trusty sidekick.

Sunday Stats - October 3

I wanted to post a story in this post, but I think I'm going to use the space today to look back on yesterday's NCAA football games and post my updated Heisman rankings. You're also going to get some basketball in your football because I'm going to do what I forgot to do yesterday and give out my preseason NBA Award watch list. So, let's get to it.

Heisman Rankings-

1) Denard Robinson QB, Michigan- 1008 passing yards, 7 TDs, 905 rushing yards, 8 TDs. I think I'm going to take back what I said last week. I still don't think Michigan is going to keep winning...at least against teams like Ohio State, but I fully expect Robinson to win the Heisman. This guy could legitimately put up 2,000 yards passing and rushing. There's just doesn't seem to be any way this guy doesn't win the Heisman.

2) Kellen Moore QB, Boise State- 1069 passing yards, 11 TDs. Moore jumps up two spots for me this week not because of what he did, but because of what other guys did. I think Moore will be around all year, but I'm fairly confident that he's looking at finishing 4th in Heisman voting at best. That said, Moore can sling it and, even though the Broncos got jumped this week they might still have a shot at the BCS. Mostly because, unlike most other undefeated teams left, they don't play anybody.

3) Terrelle Pyror QB, Ohio State- 1015 passing yards, 12 TDs, 373 rushing yards, 3 TDs. Pyror only slipped because he got hurt and only had a decent game with 76 yards passing, 2 TDs, and 105 rushing yards.The good news is that came the Buckeyes won, the bad news is they almost lost to a pretty average Illinois team. He should be able to pick it back up this week and regain the second spot with a decent chance to challenge Robinson.

4) Ryan Mallet QB, Arkansas- 1438 yards passing, 10 TDs, 2 rushing TDs. Mallet only slips because the Hogs were off this week. I think he's going to come out swinging next week and regain his old spot in the rankings.

5) LaMichael James RB, Oregon- 712 rushing yards, 7 TDs. Going off for three TDs in a huge win over Stanford shot James up my chart. I have a feeling he'll fall a bit after that huge win, but he does play on one of the best offenses in the league so he might be able to hang on. Only time will tell, but for now I gotta give the Ducks props for dominating the second half of that game.

Just Missed: Andrew Luck, Mark Ingram, and my homer pick, Justin Blackmon.

NBA Award Predictions-

Defensive Player of the Year- Josh Smith, Atlanta Hawks. As I've said I'm biased towards Smith, but I really think Dwight Howard's D is overrated and only wins because of his huge blocks and the fact he gobbles up defensive boards. Let's be honest though there's really not that many great big men in this day and age so you expect someone with his skill set to dominate that position. This award should go to someone whose covering the best players in the league, the Lebrons, the Kobes, the D-Wades...not someone who gets to play against guys like Salem Dalenbert and Marcus Camby. Hopefully the award that's been going to the wrong guys for many years (read centers) will show the little guys some love this year.

Sixth Man of the Year- Lamar Odom, LA Lakers. I really don't see any competition for Odom if he stays helathy. Nobody coming off the bench is as talented and as big of a match-up problem as Odom. This award is his to win.

Rookie of the Year- Evan Turner, Philadelphia 76ers. I'm tempted to put John Wall here because of the recent success of fast rookie point guards. However, he also has Kirk Hinrich and Gilbert Arenas on his team, both of which are proven point guards. Evan Turner on the other hand can play the 1-3 and be great at it so he will start immediately and be able to produce on a team that, on paper, could make a leap forward this season. A backcourt of him and Andre Iguodala is going to be nasty.

MVP- Kevin Durant, OKC Thunder. Lebron is going to lose stats to D-Wade and vice versa so if they don't get 72+ wins they're both out. Kobe is much more concerned with the 'ship and will save some for the play-offs. Nobody else is close to Durant right now. He's going to win this award barring injury and could win the next few if he keeps up his recent level of play.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Saturday "Shorts" - October 2

This post will be by no means short, but I just can't wait to post it so screw the title this is my preseason NBA rankings and a bit of analysis. Enjoy.

30) Minnesota Timberwolves- With Michael Beasley, Johnny Flynn, Wesley Johnson, and Kevin Love they have a decent young nucleus that could someday turn into a play-off team. That said the Wolves always seem a few years away and this team is no different. Sidenote: Anybody remember the days of Sebastian Telfair being heralded as the next great point guard? It's too bad homeboy didn't pan out.

29) Toronto Raptors- They lost Bosh and that's going to hurt for at least a few years, but they do have some good young bigs in Ed Davis and Joey Dorsey, with the potential for another one in Soloman Alabi, who could be a great shot blocker. Plus, with the continued development of DeMar Derozan this team will always be fun to watch. The veteran leadership of Leandro Barbosa, Andrea Bargnani, and Jose Calderon they could win a few games, but don't expect them to win a bunch of games.

28) Cleveland Cavs- They really should of traded Lebron to get some value out of them because now they're stuck with two guys in Mo Williams and Antwan Jamison who are number two options at best and can't carry a team. J.J. Hickson could develop into a good player, but outside of him there's not much in the way of potential on this team. Their best hope is to win the lottery and start over.

27) Detroit Pistons- I really think this team could be competing sometime soon. They have lots of young talent in Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, Terrico White, and Greg Monroe. They also have some really good veterans, most notably the majority of the core from their old championship teams, Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton, and Ben Wallace who can take a leadership role for this team. In addition to those vets they also have Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva who can both score in bunches if nothing else. Honestly I could see this team jumping up quite a few spots this year if things pan out well.

26) Indiana Pacers-Danny Granger is going to win games on his own. He's one of the best scorers in the game and has been playing mean defense the past few years. The rest of the team is pretty dreadful. Paul George is a great player, but does pretty much the same thing Granger does so his effectiveness could be lessened. Roy Hibbert could turn into a good defensive big someday, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Hopefully Granger can get some talent to come help him out because he's a great player and deserves a better team.

25) Golden State Warriors- Steph Curry and Monta Ellis are going to score like mad, David Lee's going to be a double-double machine and the rest of the team will be super athletic. However, they won't win a lot of games unless they start playing much better D and that athleticism turns into great playing. That said, the combo of Lee and Ellis could improve both player's stats and will make these guys great fantasy players.

24) Sacramento Kings- Tyreke Evans is a legit superstar in the making and will soon become one of the best players in the West. They also added DeMarcus Cousins, who gives them a legit option in the post, something they haven't really had since Chris Webber was taking this team to the Conference Finals. However, the rest of the team is a long way from competing, but with some good draft picks the past two years they seem to be heading in the right direction.

23) New Jersey Nets- Devin Harris is a speed demon who puts up big time stats when healthy. His partner in crime, Brook Lopez, is not my favorite player, but he is becoming one of the best young bigs in the game. They picked up some good young players in Derrick Favors and Damion James in the draft who could help fill out the roster. Plus, they have one of my personal favorite players in Anthony Morrow, who is a long range sniper that will put up points in a hurry if you let him. They could make a jump this year depending on who stays healthy and how the young talent develops.

22) LA Clippers-So much young talent on this team it's crazy. This roster reminds me of the Warriors in the past, but hopefully for the Clips this talent actually turns into wins sometime soon. Blake Griffin could soon be an all-star and Al-Farouq Amini can ball when motivated. Eric Gordon is lights out from anywhere on the court, Willie Warren is a good scorer, Eric Bledsoe is a solid point guard and Jon Scheyer knows how to win, if nothing else. Not only that, but they have good vets in Baron Davis and Chris Kaman. All that said, I really have doubts, mostly because this is the Clippers and something always happens.

21) Washington Wizards- Gilbert Arenas is one of my favorite players to watch when healthy and John Wall was a great college player, whose game should easily transfer to the League. They also picked up Kirk Hinrich...wait, they have three really good points guards? And basically nothing else? Yep, they'll be exciting as usual, but probably won't be doing anything for quite awhile.

20) Memphis Grizzlies- This roster looks crazy good on paper. Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo, Zack Randolph, the list goes on. But Gasol is coming back from an injury and I'm not sure Gay and Mayo are going to mesh that well. I can see them competing in a few years, and could make a push this year, but realistically they're probably a year away. This team will be a force this next few years, especially if Xavier Henry and Hasheem Thabeet develop into good bench players.

19) New York Knicks-I really don't think Amare has the skill set to carry a team on his back and needs another superstar to help him win. Unfortunately, I don't see another superstar anywhere on this roster and can't see them doing any better than 8th in the East. Anthony Randolph has some crazy raw athleticism, which is always fun to watch, and Kelenna Azubuike has one of the best names in Leauge.

18) Philadelphia 76ers- This team is like the knock off Atlanta Hawks. The whole roster has good size and is really athletic. Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala are going to make a pretty fun pair to watch and Elton Brand will get his. Brand doesn't really fit in with this team, but he's still a good player who they should trade and get some value out of him. Their bench is also rounding out nicely with lots of good young talent and, if they can get in a big who better fits their style they could compete pretty soon.

17) New Orleans Hornets- Chris Paul can do a lot, but the rest of his team is getting older and not really getting better. Although, putting Paul together with Trevor Ariza could become quite the exciting duo. But without any legit options down in the paint they probably won't go very far.

16)  Phoenix Suns- Anytime you have Steve Nash on your team you're going to put up points...and a lot of them. I think they're going to fall back quite a bit after losing Amare, but they probably did the smart thing in not paying him and getting money to someday get another big stud and maybe this time that stud can actually take this team the distance. Until that day comes though Nash is going to throw out dimes and the Suns are going to rain threes and lose in the playoffs.

15) Charlotte Bobcats-These guys play mean defense and that will always get you wins and make you a tough out in the play-offs. But, I really don't see a guy on this team who can take over a game when you need him too. Gerald Wallace is an amazing defender and gets by on offense with his athleticism and Stephen Jackson can score, but isn't the kind of guy who can really just take a game over and close the door. Until they find that guy they'll be on the outside looking in, I'll watch every game I can though because I love to watch Tyrus Thomas play, because his raw athleticism just jumps off the screen.

14) Houston Rockets- If Luis Scola can keep up the play he had during the summer this team could become a player in the west, but with Yao Ming coming off an injury I don't seem them competing for any more than a playoff spot. They do have Patrick Patterson and Kevin Martin so they might be able to prove me wrong, but I just don't see it any championship gold in their future.

13) Milwaukee Bucks-I love this team. First, they have Branden Jennings who has mad swagger and game to back it up. Anytime he talks up his game I love it because I like to hear athletes talk trash and just be conceited overall. They also have John Salmons, Andrew Bogut, and Michael Redd...all good players. And then they went out and added Chris Douglas Roberts, Tiny Gallon, and Larry Sanders. All three of which have tons of potential to be good players in their own right. My favorite is Larry Sanders because he plays amazing defense. Besides my OKC Thunder and the Heat this is going to be THE team to watch for me this year because of all the good young talent I want to see.

12) Denver Nuggets-I don't care what Melo says, he's not going to be all there this year and the Nuggets could suffer from it. I think they have too much talent to not make the play-offs, but they probably won't challenge for the 'ship. At the very least they'll be fun to watch with J.R. Smith and Chris "The Birdman" Anderson.

11) Dallas Mavericks-Dirk is going to keep them in games and they have some good talent. Unfortunately the talent is all old. Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, and Caron Butler are all getting up there and will probably start to downslide sometime soon. Some people think this team could challenge the Lake Show, but I just can't see it. It's about to be time to start rebuilding and they might want to look into trading off Dirk for some young talent before they're left in the cold.

10) Utah Jazz- Deron Williams is the best point guard in the League and I don't care what anyone says. With Jerry Sloan's system this team could be really good because Paul Milsap and Al Jefferson will probably be really good in the pick and roll with Deron. They don't have too many good shooters though so that will hold them back from going very deep in the play-offs though.

9) Atlanta Hawks-Ok, I'm going to level with you and say that I'm super biased towards the Hawks because Josh Smith is my favorite player in the league. They do have some great players with guys like Joe Johnson, Al Horford, and Mike Bibby. Their bench is a little weak, but I still think they could make a move this year. I don't think they will crack the top four in the East, but I could see them beating at least one of them in the play-offs and making a decent run. With the talent in the East I don't think they have a shot at making the 'ship, but the Conference Finals could happen, if lots of things go their way.

8) Portland Trailblazers- This team used to be so hot and now lots of people seem to be forgetting about them. Much like the Mavs and the Nuggets they have one really good star player in Brandon Roy and a few good secondary players. The main reason I put them higher than those teams is because they have lots of quality bigs to throw at teams. that'll help a lot in playoffs. The other reason I have them higher is because I think Roy is a better player than Melo and Dirk.

7) San Antonio Spurs- As much as  I hate the Spurs you can't count out Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. Those three alone will get them in the playoffs, but they also have quality depth in Antonio McDyess, Richard Jefferson, DeJuan Blair, James Anderson, and George Hill. This will probably be there at the end and make at least the semi-finals depending on match-ups.

6) Chicago Bulls- I'm really high on the Bulls and almost put them third on the list, but I had to keep them back here at six because I don't know how well Carlos Boozer will fit in the offense. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's going to work, but it's not the sure thing the teams above them are. They will be right there with the big three in the East all year and could easily challenge for a spot in the Conference Finals. Derrick Rose will light the court on fire with his speed, Korver, Brewer, and Deng will get buckets, and Joakim Noah will try hard. That might not sound like high praise, but trust me, it is for him because nobody out tries that man on the hardwood.


5) Orlando Magic- This team will, yet again, be a tough out in the play-offs. Dwight Howard is the best big in the League and will be for the foreseeable future. When you add Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson, and Chris Duhon you get a team that's going to cause lots of problems and be a match-up nightmare for anybody outside of maybe the Lake Show. They also have some good bench players in Mickael Pietrus and J.J. Reddick. It's going to be a tough year to win games in the East when this is the third or fourth best team.


4) Oklahoma City Thunder- Kevin Durant is going to win the MVP. It's that simple, Lebron is going to lsoe some stats to D-Wade and Durant has crazy hype coming out of the summer. Not only that, but this team is going to be GOOD. Russell Westbrook is poised to become a great point guard after a good summer and Jeff Green is one of the best do-everything players in League. They also have Thabo Sefolosha, who might be the best backcourt defender in the league. They also brought in a quality big in Cole Aldrich and that bench will just continue to get better and better. You know this team is going to play great defense and, with Durant dropping 30 points a game, they'll be challenging the champs in the West.

3) Boston Celtics- The Celtics are old and their window is probably going to close soon, but I think they have at least one more year before it shuts completely. You know what you're going to get with Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce. They also have some great younger guys in Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins. Rondo is going to win games on his own and is quickly become one of the best guards in the League. I could see them beating the Heat because the Heat don't have a point guard close to Rondo's skill level and the Celtics have so many old quality bigs to throw at people in the play-offs.

2) Miami Heat- We all know about the Big 3 and how excited everyone is to see Lebron, Wade, and Bosh play together. But their bench and secondary players are what's going to make or break this team. They have quite a few quality bigs in Big Z, Jamaal Magloire, Juwan Howard, and Udonis Haslem. Add to that a great shooter in Mike Miller, a solid PG in Mario Chalmers, and a pretty good rookie in Da'Sean Butler this team is poised to make a legit run at the title and might have a chance to win quite a few over the next few years.

1) LA Lakers- The Show is the defending champs and probably still has the best total line-up in the League. They returned most of the key players from last year and added solid rookies that could've been lottery picks in Derrick Caracter and Devin Ebanks. Not only that, but they picked up Steven Blake and Matt Barnes, two solid role players. The rich get richer and the Lake Show will be going to the 'ship at the end of the year.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

First look Friday - October 1

Ok, NBA 2K11 comes out in four or five days, but IGN has posted their review of the game and it got me pretty excited for the game. First off, there's the new Jordan Moments mode where you get to play as Jordan through ten of his most memorable games/moments of his career. This alone is going to make me go rent the game even though I'm not the biggest Jordan fan. Really I was always more of Rodman fan, but to go relive some of those cool moments and play against the likes of Bird, Magic, and 'Nique in glorious HD is more than enough to garner at least a rent. And after that you get to import a rookie Jordan into any current franchise and play through his career in My Player mode. Can you imagine putting Jordan on the Heat or even the Hawks and the crazy athleticism that team would have? It would be incredible to play. That's not all that has me excited though because I've heard that in your My Player mode you get to do cool new things like Press Conferences and inking your own shoe deal. Of course it takes a lot of work to get to that point, but man it seems like a good step in the right direction for this mode in the future. Hopefully they continue this work in the future. Supposedly the realism is going to get a whole new level this year, which is crazy considering how good last year's update was. My pocket book is stretching thin, but I really think that I might go ahead and buy this game even though I usually have a strict policy of only buying a new sports game every other year and this year was my Madden year. I suggest you go check out the review on IGN to get a full preview, but this game is looking to be amazing.

Well, catch ya next time. Some time, same place.

Throwback Thursday - September 30

Ok, so while there are lots of great games coming out something big has happened in my life that really brought me back to the past that doesn't have anything to do with games. That's right friends, the WWE has finally released a Chris Jericho DVD set....nine hours of the greatest wrestler of all time. I know lots of people look down on wrestling, but I've always been a huge fan of the sport. Let's get past the fact that it's fake (sorry if you didn't know) and realize that this man soap opera is super entertaining and these guys are great athletes. If you or I tried to pull any of these crazy moves we'd surely hurt ourselves or someone else. So let's remember, the results are fake, but the pain is "mostly" real. Anyways, that out of the way I've been watching this anthology for awhile and have been thinking about who my personal favorite wrestler are and thought I might make a couple of lists. One of favorites today and one of all time with my reasonings included. Now, this isn't best in the game because you won't see John Cena or even Stone Cold on my list, but just a list of personal favorites. Anways, let's get started.

Top 5 Today- (note: I'm leaving Y2J outta this one and going with younger talent, rest assured, he'll always be my favorite).

1) Randy Orton- Holy cow, I can't get enough of the Viper, even if that moniker is ridiculously lame, but man he's the greatest in the game right now I think. It doesn't matter if he's a heel or face he's got the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He's just dominate and it shows when he won his 6th title soon. Oh, and when he goes into stalking mode I turn into a school girl and just get giddy with excitement.

2) CM Punk- Turning Punk into a heel is the greatest thing that ever happened to this man. I literally used to hate his guts as a stupid baby face, but now that he's got his heel persona as leader of the SES I can't get enough of him. I wish they could make a few more good stables and have an all out war ala DX and the Nation of the Attitude era. maybe that'll happen soon, fingers crossed.

3) Kofi Kingston- His high flying style and crazy athleticism is exactly what I love to watch. He's not the greatest worker in the world and doesn't exactly work the program people want him to. Which apparently killed his momentum a while ago when he was getting crazy push and then worked an angle with Orton and went off script which pissed Orton off. That said, nobody does a better Money in the Bank match and I could watch him wrestle all day.

4) Jack Swagger- When this guy is a heel he's awesome just because he gets so high on himself. When he first won the 'ship I was laughing my head off every time he got on the mike. Plus, he's from Oklahoma so I can't hate on him too much.

5) Michael Tarver- Okay, obviously this guy isn't really that great, but I love his gimmick. That he can knock someone out in 1.7 seconds. If only they really used that he could get over and could be a new age Goldberg. Hopefully that happens because I love his looks and his t-shirts. I really hope he goes off at some point.

Top 5 Ever-

1) Chris Jericho-The best ever. Best promos, most funny, great in the ring, by far the best heel to ever live. Truly the best to ever step foot in the ring.

2) The Rock- Right behind Jericho...I mean had I picked up wrestling earlier I might lean towards Rock, but as it stands nobody can take Jericho's spot.

3) Goldberg- So fun too watch because he was just so dominant in the ring. I mean when this guy would come in and just destroy people it was amazing. I still remember when he was in an elimination chamber match in like 04 (possibly the first) and just killed 4 of his 5 opponents and only lost to HHH when H got a sledgehammer in the chamber. His Spear on Jericho was disgusting...I literally jumped outta my seat. His intensity made him one of the best ever. 

4) Booker T- Personal favorite tag team was Book and Golddust. I can't explain why, but I loved those guys and Book doing the spinneroonie was so sweet. Plus he's got a great look and a real powerful style that was just fun to watch. As his career progressed I felt like his gimmick got crappy, which hurts him a little.

5) Shelton Benjamin- I've never wanted a guy to get over as much as Benjamin. I loved this guy and hope he comes back at some point. He was so athletic and did some amazing things in ladder matches. While Kofi Kingston has become great with the ladders it won't feel right not seeing Shelton doing MITB matches anymore.

Well, see ya next time. Some time, same place.

Warcaft Wedsenday - September 29

Ok, internet has been terrible of late and I haven't been able to play any wow lately. That said I've seen some things that really have me excited for Cata.

First off, we're getting back Honor titles. Back in the day when the titles were implemented I wasn't at the level cap nor did I have a good internet connection (story of my life it seems) and I couldn't play enough to ever really get a title, but dad gum did I think they looked cool. I think it's a neat idea to have to go out and earn a sweet title for your faction, hopefully that means more world pvp, but we'll see. As I've said in the past I always was a fan of world pvp, even when I was trying to level in Hillsbrad and got dominated by Alliance everywhere I went. But still the idea of total war all across the land is very compelling.This is the World of WARcraft after all. I might even have to transfer over to a pvp server before the expansive drops.

The other big thing I think looks cool is the archeology skill. Anytime I can get some more insight into the lore of wow I'm all for it. Hopefully they can make this fun and compelling and not just a stupid grind to get a cool mount. Not that it's not cool because that thing is banging and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Fingers crossed.

Hopefully next week I can get some playing time in or I might have to change this theme day for awhile. See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Total Sports Tuesday - September 28

Note: Internet's been pretty crappy this week so I'm posting all my past entries today. Hopefully this doesn't happen much anymore.


Well, the Vikings finally won a game a couple days ago. I can't say I'm really that much more hopeful for the season. I mean, here's the thing, this is obviously a quarterback league (which is unfortunate because I miss the days of defense and ball control winning games) and ours is terrible. Favre may of gotten that one TD on Sunday, but only because Harvin made a great diving catch, and he still managed to throw two INTs...against the Lions!? I'm sorry, but how is this guy better than Tavarious Jackson? Or for that matter Donovan McNabb? It just seems like he's finally showing signs of aging and I really don't see how the Vikings will even make the play-offs unless he starts to pick it up a lot. It's pretty sad too because everywhere else (except WR) seems primed to make a Super Bowl run...let's be honest, Adrian Peterson is easily the best RB in the League.

In other news, preseason basketball starts soon. I really can't wait because basketball is probably my favorite sport...I watch at least one game per day during the season and probably watch well over a hundred games per year. Plus, let's be honest, just seeing what the Heat are going to do is going to be amazing. Then you have Amare in New York and Durant continuing what he started over in Europe. And you always have to watch out for the Lakers and their defense of the 'ship. Oh, and I can't wait to see Gilbert Arenas and John Wall in the same backcourt together. I could literally go on all day, but I think I'll quit for now and come back in a few days with a league preview.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Minecraft Monday - September 27th

Hopefully you've heard of the game Minecraft by now, but if you haven't I'd suggest going and checking out videos on Youtube (I'll recommend looking at stuff by Seananners, X, and awesomemattg they're my favorites). Then you should go buy it because, since it's in Alpha, it's only like 13 bucks and you'll get a lot of play time out of it.

In this space I'm just going to post updates about what I've been doing in Minecraft (someday soon I'm hoping to start uploading videos, but until I get my new computer that's not going to happen). Obviously since no one can see my map this is mostly for me to chart my progress on my "domain".

The other day my map got deleted when something messed up with the Seecret Friday update so I've had to make a brand new map. Luckily, as I was walking around I found this sweet arch that's just giant and was begging to have a castle/fort built into it. So far I haven't really gotten a lot done on the castle part because I was watching awesomemattg show off his quarries and I decided I wanted to make one. I also wanted to make one just a little bigger than his and tailor it to my personal tastes, which mostly means I build a huge tower out of planks in the middle that goes from bedrock up to cloud level. Currently I'm not super far down yet...probably halfway, but I should finish it by the end of the week, which is when my castle will get built. All that's up in my castle thus far is a side room that contains about 20 chests, filled with various things and a wall of furnaces...about 30ish in all that pump out clean stone by the boat load. Right next to the chest room is my lava spring incinerator that I basically copied from mattg and X. It's nothing special, but it serves it's purpose. I've also started clearing out the front of the castle to build a grand entrance to the fort...it's about 1/3 done and is going to take awhile. But it's not going to take near as long as the waterway I'm trying to build to my second digsite. This is probably going to be my most difficult undertaking so far because it's so far to the location and it takes forever to fill it with water, let alone build it. I'm just hoping to finish it as some point and not just get fed up and quit.

That's all I've really been doing in Minecraft lately outside of the random cave exploration (there's actually a huge cave system inside my fort, which is really cool). Hopefully next weeks update will see a few of these projects completed.

See ya next time. Some time, same place.

Sunday Stories - September 26th

Update on earlier post: Vikings won...despite Old Man Favre tossing two INTs. Yes, I spell his name wrong on purpose because I hate him. I really wish we could of somehow traded for Mike Vick or something, that 40 year old man needs to go sit in his Lazy Boy.


Anyways, I don't really know what I want to do with this day yet so for now I'm just going to tell a story that I think is kind of funny. Today we're going back to yesteryear as I recount one of my more humorous tales from my baseball playing days as a high school freshman. Hopefully this isn't a "you had to be there" tale, but if it is...who cares, I'll probably be the only one to read this.

So to set the stage I'm sitting in the locker room with my friends Bilbo and Mark. Also in the room are a few random guys, this guy Comstock and a senior Fike. Now to give a little background Fike is a triple black belt whose dad runs the local karate school. Plus he's about 6' 5 250 pounds of solid muscle. Comstock on the other hand is about 5'8 and 175 pounds. Fike also has this girlfriend, Jessica, who he's very protective of, so of course, Comstock waltzes up and asks, "Hey Fike what would you do if I made out with Jessica?"

Fike looks up with a glare in his eye and mutters, "Chop your head off with my hand."

Comstock, unable to take a hint, says, "Ok, but what if I just touched her?"

Without missing a beat Fike gets up and stares down at Comstock and says, "If you touched her? Well I'd have to rip both your hearts out with my hands and make you eat them before you die. How's that sound Comstock?"

Comstock finally senses he's in trouble and bows his head and walks away and Fike turns his head to Mark, whose like 5'4 120 and says, "You got anything to say about it faggot?"

Mark looks like a little dog who just got yelled at, and is practically crying as Fike turns away and goes back to cleaning his catcher's gear.

Well see ya next time. Some time, same place.

Saturday Shorts - September 25th

(Note: Internet was down yesterday so I'm posting this a day late).

Just some quick news that I've seen over the week.

Denard Robinson not withstanding we had some shake-ups in the Heisman race this weekend. Ryan Mallet came out throwing against Bama...throwing interceptions that is. His two touchdowns (one on the ground) may of kept him in it for now, but having three INTs is no way to make a statement against the number one team in the nation. On the other side of the gridiron Mark Ingram looked like he was back to his old ways, going for 157 yards and two scores. He's looking to be back into the race and with a few more big games against the SEC competition could make him the second ever repeating winner. Much like Ryan Mallet, Andrew Luck missed his chance to get a big "Heisman moment" against Notre Dame on TV this week. Also like Mallet, Luck still isn't out of the race after throwing two INTs and one TD, but he missed out on a great chance. Terrelle Pryor on the other hand had a huge day (albeit against greatly inferior competition) getting four TDs passing, one rushing, and one receiving. That's six touchdowns ladies and gentlemen...one receiving...for a quarterback! That's a huge day and could help him out a lot come ceremony day. So here's my current list, complete with stats and a little analysis:

1) Dernard Robinson- 731 yards passing, 4 TDs, 688 rushing, 2 TDs. Even though he only played about a quarter this week Robinson made his presence known with 129 rushing yards and two TDs. We'll see if Michigan can keep winning come league play to see if he can stay on top.

2) Terrelle Pryor- 939 yards passing, 10 TDs, 269 yards rushing, 3 TDs. Pryor is probably on top right now realistically because I don't think Michigan can keep winning with that terrible defense so at the end of the season I think Robinson will slip a little. I really think this guy has a great chance to win it.

3) Ryan Mallet- 1438 yards passing, 10 TDs, 2 rushing TDs. I find it funny that Mallet has two rushing TDs and minus ten yards rushing. I understand that it's because he gets sacked, but it's just funny to see that stat. I think Mallet will bounce back and has a legit shot to overtake Pryor...really, for me, those two are who it's going to come down to unless Ingram keeps averaging 9.3 ypc.

4) Kellen Moore- 873 yards passing, 8 TDs. I'm not really a fan of Boise State. It's not that I don't think they should play in the BCS or anything and to be fair they did beat my least favorite team, OU, a few years back so I like them for that, but I just can't find anything to like. Moore will probably rack up crazy stats the rest of the year, but if Mallet, Pryor, or some other player from a big conference has comparable numbers I can't give it to Moore.

5) Mark Ingram- 308 rushing yards, 4 TDs. This maybe a little soon to put him in the top five, but good golly is he playing well. He's going to keep this up and he's going to have a shot at the end of the year if he doesn't get hurt. Plus I just can't bring myself to have a list fully populated with quarterbacks.

Just missed: Andrew Luck and my homer pick Justin Blackmon the wideout from Oklahoma  State...eight TDs in three games? Dez Bryant who? Just kidding Dez I love you.

The other big sports news of the week it would seem is that the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings are in a good position to pick up their first wins this week. I've probably just jinxed my Vikings, but hopefully I'll also jinx the Cowboys because I don't like them at all. I mean if someone else could just take Dez off their hands and then the stadium exploded I'd be okay with that.


Finally, Dead Rising 2 is coming out soon and I can't wait to get my hands on that. Since money's tight (and really when is it not when you're in college) I'll probably wait and see if my brother buys it and if not I'll have my mom rent it for me next time I visit home. That said I couldn't be more excited for it, I've never technically beat the first game, but I've put in a good 40 hours of just killing zombies for fun. That shows how a great a game it was...if you can play a game for 40 hours and not even care about the story you know you have something amazing. Especially if it's someone like me we're talking about who plays games like Halo through on easy just to get the story and then never plays it again.

Well, see ya next time. Some time, same place.

First Look Friday - September 24th

If any of you guys out there are Game Informer subscribers then you'll be sure to of noticed the Fall Out: New Vegas that led off the Preview section. As someone whose played every Fallout through multiple times I can't tell you how excited I am for this to come out. As I've said before I'm a big fan of the post apocalyptic setting and Fallout is one that always delivers a good scenario in that mold. I really like the idea of a desert setting along with the New Vegas setting as it seems like it's going to lead to some feelings of being all alone with the super mutants when you brave the open desert. Rummaging through the buildings of Fallout 3 was simply breathtaking and super scary when you were running low on ammo (something that seemed to happen often), so I'm a little scared that we might lose a little of that awesomeness that made me feel like Will Smith in I Am Legend when we go to a more deserted place. That said I'm still super excited.

In the new GI they talked about a few of the traits in the game and that got me wondering what kinda cool stuff they would have in the new game. I was a big fan of using the less helpful traits in 3, such as the talking to kids one and the guardian angel one. Even though these didn't really make me a killing machine they still gave me a great time. I'm also hopeful the bounty hunter contracts from three will come back in a big way. That would be awesome to get to run around in the open wastelands making contract killings. Speaking of bounty hunters why has no one made a game for this generation about those guys in Star Wars? I mean they're easily cooler than Jedi and it would give people something else to play besides lightsaber games.

I seriously can't wait to grab this game the day it comes out...hopefully it will be as good as the last one and as good as I was hoping Metro 2033 to be. Well, see ya next time. Same time, some place. 

Throwback Thursday - September 23rd

First and foremost I haven't been able to do much in the way of posting recently because my internet connection has been so terrible recently. Hopefully that's sorted out and I can get back to doing dailyish posts.

Anyways, on to the throwbacks. For the past few weeks I've gotten kind of bored with Diablo 2 and have moved on to some other old favorites, namely Goldeneye. My brother got a N64 for his birthday and let me borrow it for a month so my friends and I could recreate the dorm room Goldeneye battles of yesteryear. At first it was awesome because I was the only one who could remember how to play and was winning games with scores like 22-2 and other ridiculous wins. But as we continued to play everyone caught up and now it's more even which really is more fun because it's an actual challenge.

Goldeneye is such a great multiplayer game because it's a split screen you can play with your friends and, with the lack of sophisticated aiming like in current titles, everyone is on a fairly even playing field. One of my friends is a Halo god and you can barely ever kill him because he'll just headshot you from somewhere you can't even see and win. In Goldeneye he can't really do that because the aiming mechanic is so old. Really the best way I've found to play is to use the crouch mechanic and then strafe using the C-buttons. I'm sure there are more effective ways to play, but this seems to win me a lot of battles when neither person really gets "the jump".

The only thing I don't like is how easy it is to steal kills from far away with rockets. This is the bane of my existence and I'm currently trying to outlaw rockets as a playable loadout (just as we've done with Oddjob). I can't count the number of times I've had my kill stolen by some jerk with a rocket. Now I don't really care if you steal a kill with a gun because then I still have a decent chance at also killing you or getting away, but most rocket shots into someone else's firefight end up in a double kill...the cheapest thing ever.

So if you've got a chance to pick up this bad boy and give it a replay (or go buy the new Wii remake) I'd recommend it because this game mostly holds up and is an awesome time with friends.

See ya next time. Same place, some time.

Saturday Shorts - September 4th

I still haven't really decided what I want to do with this day, but I'm thinking I might just post my rp stuff from Warcraft because I need somewhere to put it. However, since today is the first full day of college football I've been really busy watching games and haven't really had time to think of anything to write  so I'm just gunna cover a few short topics for today.

My Oklahoma State Cowboys absolutely destroyed WSU tonight, which admittedly isn't that impressive, but a wins a win. Kendall Hunter had an amazing 2008 campaign and after being hurt last year he's picked it up right back from where he ended. I said two years ago he could/should contend for a Heisman if the team was any good and tonight's game proved it. He went for around 250 yards and 3 TDs and just dominated an overmatched WSU squad. The real test will come when Big 12 play starts, but it probably won't matter what he does because we'll probably only win 4-7 games this year. Justin Blackmon also had a great night with 4 total TDs, 3 receiving. I'm much more hesitant to get excited about this because he's had big games in the past and then played terrible in the rest of the games. The new QB, Old Man Brandon Weeden, had a good first showing and was super accurate, going 22-30 with 3 scores. The most exciting development was the play of the defense. Before the two starting DTs went out the D was dominating in every facet of the game and continued to play fast and smart when the DTs went down with injuries. Again, this is a lesser team in WSU, but still I'm much more excited for this season than I was before the game started. We'll just haveta see how next week goes against Troy.

The other big news for me this week was the US sweeping the prelims. I'm not quite sure if we'll be able to win this whole thing, but I feel like we have a good shot to at least make the championship game. Our biggest problem is going to be teams with size because we have a lack of it. Hopefully they can overcome and take home the World's for the first time in awhile.

Well, that's all for now...tune in next time; some time, same place.

First Look Friday - September 3

Now obviously I'm not going to be getting any actual first looks at the games I want to talk about on this day, but there are quite a few games I'd like to talk about that haven't come out yet. Think of this as more of personal preview of sorts. Today's first look is a little game called Rage by a little known developer id Software, who made games like Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstien.

This new game they have coming out this time next year is being called Rage and it's a post apocalyptic shooter with some car combat and racing thrown in for good measure. Personally I love when developers use a post apocalyptic setting in games as it just has a really cool feel to it. My favorite being Fallout 3, but I also liked Metro 2033 (more the idea than the actual game) and to a degree Borderlands (it's more of a back water alien world, but it feels post apocalyptic). With a developer like id you  know you're going to get a great shooter with a really moody atmosphere and from the current screen shots you can tell that at the very least this is going to be a beautiful game. I'm not usually a graphics whore, but dad gum this one is doing it for me.

Not only does the shooting aspect of this game seem sweet, but I really think the car combat could be cool. Back in the day I used to play Twisted Metal: Black and Road Rage all the time and if this game can come close to that one it could be awesome because you'll get a great shooter with some cool car combat tacked on. It's been said that they're going to let you custom upgrade your vehicles which should be legit. Here's hoping I can get a Wayne's World Pacer with chain guns for side mirrors and a rocket cannon in the back seat...with  tiny flames on the side of course.

I'd like to encourage you to go check out the trailer on id's website if you have the time, but I gotta get outta here and go play some WoW. See ya next time some time, same place.