The sports radio dials are juiced. Even non-sports radio is hopping with talk about steroids in baseball.
While waiting for the 6,000 mile checkup on our car today, I learned of Senator Mitchell’s report to Major League Baseball detailing the list of athletes linked positively to steroids and human growth hormones (HGH). I’ve been fascinated and disturbed in an accident scene way since reading Jose Canseco’s book Juiced. I wasted no time downloading the PDF from ESPN and searched through for our local Seattle Mariners and on other names.
The biggest surprise to me was the rocket, Roger Clemens (Update 3:20pm PST: Roger has hired attorney Rusty Hardin and vehemently denies the information in the report), but there were a few other names that raised my eyebrows, particularly other pitchers like Andy Petitte. When Ryan Franklin in Seattle was suspended for steroids, I realized it wasn’t only for homerun hitters, but why would solid pitchers like Clemens need the juice? Really, it was that important for him to stay in the game longer? It couldn’t be about the money with him … or could it?
10 Seattle Mariners juicing
A search for ‘mariners’ revealed 15 results including the following former or current (Update 4:17pm PST: a check of the Mariners active roster doesn’t show any current Mariners players in the 10 below so struck the “or current” part) Seattle Mariners players:
1. David Segui
2. Josias Manzanillo
3. Glenallen Hill
4. Ron Villone (pitcher)
5. Ryan Franklin (pitcher)
6. Todd Williams (pitcher)
7. Fernando Vina
8. David Bell
9. Jose Guillen
10. Ismael Valdez (pitcher)
Wow, 40% pitchers?
Selig responds
On my way back to the office MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was giving a press conference and detailing the three things he announced MLB would be doing right away in response to the Mitchell Report:
1. eliminate the 24 hour notice given to clubs prior to testing/screening.
2. mete out appropriate punishment for each of the players named in the report on a case by case basis
3. work with the player’s union to try and come to agreements on many of the other 20 recommendations made in the Mitchell report.
How will this impact future Hall of Famers?
If they are going to continue to keep Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame (HOF) for gambling, then I don’t think any of these players named should be in the HOF either. It will be interesting to see if that happens.
I continue to be disgusted by this whole issue. A sport I love is being ruined by performance enhancing drugs. This shouldn’t be an issue that is in dispute by the player’s union. They should want the game kept clean. If they do anything differently, I may have to become an MLS fan instead.
Yesterday you could start downloading the new Xbox Live dashboard update.
We had to update three different Xboxes and the process was smooth across all accounts, taking only a couple minutes. I noticed a lot of lag and problems actually using the service yesterday, but the download part went smoothly.
The first thing I thought when seeing the menu in the new dashboard menu was that it was a bit like the PS3 blade menu. I’m not sure the whole hover over dropdown menu thing is all that great a UI to copy emulate, but now it’s available on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.
I’ve always disliked how when you move down on the controller to cycle through choices in the dashboard it’s too easy to move left or right and thus reset the menu. They should fix that.
Now onto the best news relating to this update: the Black Sabbath Rock Band song pack is now available under the Game Content menu.
440 Microsoft Points to jam on “Sweet Leaf” “War Pigs” and “N.I.B.” This adds to “Paranoid” which comes with the Rock Band game. This is the second song pack we’ve purchased for Rock Band. We also purchased the Police pack (three songs) and one standalone song: “Juke Box Hero” by Foreigner. Harmonix that makes Rock Band promised to release new songs every week and so far has stayed with that cycle.
Xbox games as downloads
Among the biggest news in the dashboard update is that some original Xbox games can now be purchased for 1,200 Microsoft Points as downloads under a new category called Xbox Originals. More are planned to be coming soon with seven games available as of yesterday: Crimson Skies, Fable, Fuzion Frenzy, Halo, Indigo Prophecy, Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortext and Psychonauts.
This reminds me of what the Wii is doing with the Virtual Console and the PS3 with the PS1 titles. It’s kind of a sad way to try and double dip for games you might already own. We already have two Xbox systems, I’m not sure how many Xbox games we’ll be buying as downloads, especially if these games aren’t enhanced in any significant way over the original titles. I’d buy NBA Jam either the original arcade game if it was made available or the Xbox.
Other new dashboard features
Xbox.com has a complete list of new features which include some increased parental features like a game timer. Although our teens are getting a bit old for these type features, parents will be in favor of having the ability to lock down the machine so it can only be played X number of hours per day or per week.
Also full screen movie previews and “enhanced video codec” are nice additions. We’ve rented several movies through Xbox Live and from what I’ve read the service is doing better than many movie rental services online. Would be nice to see them offer higher quality HD movies at no additional cost. We’ve never paid more for the HD movies they currently offer, they are already fairly spendy comparatively.
Xbox Live has two major free updates a year, one in the Spring and another in the Fall. Overall, this update adds a few nice things, but nothing that puts them any further ahead of the pack. Xbox Live is still the best online gaming service and could finally see some serious competition next year when Sony releases their 3D HOME interface. If Sony does a good job with HOME, we might see Microsoft move, but they are in the pole position.
And then there’s the Wii which is still selling a ton of new systems but has the worst online experience of the three players to date. I don’t get where they are coming from at all.
How was your weekend? How many of you spent time trying to inflict pain on a character in a video game? A game about inflicting pain on your character complete with a band-aid in the logo? How about slingshotting “yourself” into some over-sized bowling pins? Bowling over mimes? Yes, mimes!
I couldn’t race to my wallet fast enough for PAIN ($9.99).
The unique mechanic of the game allows the player to load a character into a human-sized, ultra-powerful slingshot, and fire the character into an active, physics-controlled environment, filled with precarious and humorous situations. Players receive points by stringing together painful collisions and inducing chaos in the environment.
On Thursday afternoon you could buy PAIN from the Playstation Store. By Sunday all I could see was the ability to buy two PAIN characters: one of them in a Santa suit and the other a voluptuous woman for 99 cents each (Update 8:25am PST: A number of players commenting on the official PAIN blog are upset that these holiday characters weren’t included for free and that there is essentially only one level). Although they were still advertising PAIN in the header logo:
This morning I checked and still don’t see the ability to buy PAIN. Was the game pulled or does it no longer show once you’ve purchased it? Assuming you can buy and download PAIN on your PS3, the download clocks in at 201 MB.
Before you can start playing single or multiplayer options you need to go through a short tutorial and learn the controls. I found the R1 button for resetting the slingshot a little too convenient and kept hitting it by accident, but otherwise the controls are nice: X fires the slingshot, add or remove tension with the right thumbstick and adjust angle with the left thumbstick. During flight you can hold L2 and one of the buttons to pull off different air tricks including a helicopter, fart, leg split and cannon ball.
After the tutorial you can enter the single player PAINdemodium mode which is freestyle destruction with your character and two other single player modes. Once you score 1.5 million points in a single slingshot you’ll unlock another area. My best score to date is just over 670,000.
Multiplayer offers a twisted game of bowling (pictured atop). One player bowls with the slingshot character while the other tries to deflect the bowler with things like manholes, grandmas with walkers and more.
This game is twisted and deliciously entertaining; one of my favorite games in the Playstation Store thus far. I only planned to play for a few minutes in between Rock Band sessions (yes, we’re still enjoying that game) and PAIN drew me in for almost two hours of mayhem. There are some hidden areas (hint: don’t forget to look inside objects) in the PAINdemodium where you can score big points. See if you can find all of them.
It’s too bad there isn’t an ability to play online against your friends. For $9.99 if/when you can download in the store it’s still worth adding to your collection, PAIN on! Grade: B
Fish and aquariums rock. Fish create a serene environment with the sound of the water bubbling and swimming around. If you want to lower your stress level, the sound of water can really help.
I’d buy a gigantic aquarium for our home and office if not for one thing: the work required to clean, feed and maintain the beautiful tanks and pets. This has given me a soft spot for these virtual aquarium screensavers, since no work is required to maintain them. This afternoon I was delighted to see the screen pictured above and wasted no time clicking the Buy Now button for Aquatopia in the Playstation Store.
Check that out. Beautiful picture, especially at 1080p. Now look at it from a little further back.
Aquatopia requires the PS Eye camera that comes with Eye of Judgment. If you move your body or simply your hand in front of the PS Eye camera, the fish react to the movement.
I’m curious if I left Aquatopia running if I could also do the fold@Home project. If that’s not an option, Sony, please tweak the title so it can do both. If I could do that I’d leave Aquatopia running more. Good stuff. The PS3 just keeps getting better and better.
Update 3:00pm PST: After posting I learned that until November 29, the Playstation store is running a special time sensitive deal:
Calling All Cars, fl0w, Pixel Junk Racers and Everyday Shooter are reduced to $4.99 each until November 29th.
Might want to pick these up too when you buy Aquatopia. Only title I haven’t tried is Calling All Cars, but I’ll likely be buying that one before November 29. fl0w is probably the weakest one of the others. The guitar sounds in Everyday Shooter are wild.
Did somebody say Rock Band launch at midnight? While I was luke warm on Amazon Kindle, I’m boiling hot on Rock Band. And so apparently are others in our area.
Tonight Rock Band for the Xbox 360 sold out within minutes while there were still Special Edition versions of the PS3 Rock Band to go around with no crowd. A definite benefit to PS3 owners. Despite the title, tomorrow I’ll be cracking the box seal and testing my drum skills. We might hit the local Fred Meyer when they open at 7am and Best Buy which opens later to see if we can get the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band.
Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 was available tonight as well as the Wii Zapper (only one of them sold at Wal-mart, plenty left). Another gun game, Time Crisis 4 looks hot for the PS3. Didn’t see High Velocity Bowling for the PS3, but that’s another title I’ve been looking forward to playing.
Going to be tough getting any work done this week. What games are you looking forward to this holiday season?
Three levels of difficulty are offered: easy, medium and hard. I haven’t beaten Shredder 11 on ‘hard’ yet. Would like to see somebody put Star Wars chess in the Xbox Live Arcade. Speaking of Chess, there is Chessmaster on the Xbox but nothing on the Xbox 360 so far that I’m aware of.
So if Microsoft won’t publish a chess arcade title, why is Ubisoft waiting on Chessmaster? …. Ubisoft wants to allow cross-platform chess play, running on their own servers. Xbox 360 users pipe in through Live. PC, Mobile, PS3 and Wii users pipe in their own respective ways. And anybody who wants to can play against anybody else, regardless of platform. It’s CHESS, for crying out loud, not Shadowrun. It shouldn’t be hard to implement, technically. Bureaucratically, however, it may be extremely difficult.
If this theory is close to reality, that’s sad. In the meantime if you want to play against human opponents online, Free Internet Chess is one good destination. I like their motto: “we do it for the game, not the money.”
Since hearing the news a week ago, I’ve been rolling over the abbreviation in my mind: MLS. The official Major League Soccer website is located at mlsnet.com.
Like a lot of kids I played soccer as a kid. Wasn’t particularly good at it and remember getting kicked a lot in the shins. Yes, I had shin protectors but they always seemed to slide down. And oranges. Ate a lot of oranges during the middle of the matches. They weren’t soccer games, they were matches. I remember our team name had something to do with dragons. Dragonflys?
Leave it to my wife to find the photo above from 1977. Yowsa, has it been that long? 30 years since I played for the Terminix International Dragons! Looks like we had Wolfman Jack as the coach. I don’t remember anybody else on the team. Wouldn’t it be something if by posting this picture somebody comes forward that used to play on this team? In that vein, I’ll say one more time for Google’s posterity: Soccer 1977 Terminix International Dragons.
Moving on.
Naming the MLS team in Seattle
The MLS team in Seattle doesn’t have a name yet, will be playing in the same stadium as the Seahawks (QWEST Field) and the season of 30 games runs about the same time as baseball season: April - October. Kind of a bummer that it runs concurrent and seems strange that it takes six months to play 30 games.
In other countries they call soccer football, so maybe the games are presented weekly like football only at the wrong time of year. From the standing shown there seems like a frequent number of ties. In sports, ties are lame. Don’t they have overtime?
As you can probably tell, between now and 2009 I need to get better educated on the world of Major League Soccer. You can help me on that journey in the comments or by trackback in from your blog. If you are from the Seattle area, are you looking forward to MLS in 2009? Here we’re about to lose the Sonics, and we’re going to replace them with MLS? I don’t know.
Seems more interesting to watch live than golf or bowling, but I think the Sonics might be more entertaining. Think I’d take hockey over MLS based on what I know at this point. Not bashing the sport, have to learn more.
Ranking live sports
The following are the order of games I enjoy watching in person.
1. NFL.
2. MLB.
3. NBA.
4. Other
What are your rankings like?
Any readers who are huge soccer fans? I asked my friends on Twitter if they had any soccer quotes and darkmoon responded with an enthusiastic (or was it sarcastic?) “GOALLLLL!!!” C’mon, no love for soccer?
How about casual soccer fans? Ever seen a MLS game live in your area? The tie thing aside which I don’t care for already, I’m somewhat interested in experiencing a soccer game live. Maybe I’ve been missing a really fun sport.
Just got back from the store and picked up Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. $43.79 at Costco, not too bad.
I remember fondly how Nintendo used to come out with a new Mario game with each new system launch. That pattern went away, but who doesn’t love these Mario games? I’m looking forward to breaking open the package and getting lost in the gameplay. Some of my favorite gaming memories are with that red hat plumber. Super Mario 3 is my all time favorite Mario game and on my top five videogames ever list.
Also on tomorrow’s to-do list, work (it’s hump day!), reading a new book I also bought tonight on Flash CS3, more work, blogging somewhere between, and in the meantime filling up this shelf with CDs:
We were out of shelf space to keep our CD collection in order. I’ve spent the last few weeks going through our collection and re-ripping to MP3 at 320kbps. We’re up over 4,000 songs and there still is over a rack full of CDs to go through. Some of the CDs, I’m learning are scratched and need to be repaired if possible.
According to iTunes, which is the primary tool being used to archive the collection, we’re up over 30GB. I’m pretty sure we’ll be under the 80GB limit of my wife’s iPod fifth generation. After the CD ripping is done I have to go back and finish inventorying our DVD collection. We need another shelf for those too. I’m still using the handy program Delicious Library on the Mac (review) with the iSight camera to keep our CD, DVD, games and to a lesser extent books in order.
Have you been keeping up with your inventory duties? Remember, if you have a fire or loss, your homeowner’s (or renter’s) insurance policy requires an inventory of the items. Might as well be proactive instead of reactive.
Listened to music on the Zune most of today but never did figure out how to get my plays to register on my Zune profile on the official Zune website? Seems from the Zune forums like I’m not alone.
Dinner calls. See you on the other side rested and refueled.
Break time waster: try parking a car as a man and woman in this totally sexist Flash game. I don’t know if women will laugh, but men will.
For the record, I think the whole stereotype about women being worst drivers is BS. There are plenty of lousy male drivers out there. Still, it was a woman who hit my son and wife in the middle of the crosswalk four years ago.
While doing grocery shopping today we came across this bottle of Mountain Dew Game Fuel ($2.28 at Winco):
I looked around to see who else had already written about this and saw a fair amount of commentary and some pictures of the cans (Jake at 8bit Joystick has a nice review) and some on the plastic bottle which were part of a Halo 3 promotion and supposed to be produced for only 12 weeks from the middle of August. However, a cursory search didn’t reveal many folks talking about the aluminum bottled version (more rare?) — although a search on eBay revealed a few sellers ($4.99 a bottle + $6.99 shipping? Ouch.) — so I decided to create this post with pictures. Check your local Winco, they had a whole bin full of them at our local store in Puyallup. Still seem kind of pricey at $2.28 a bottle to me, but they feed into the whole collector’s thing.
There is an official website that goes along with this promotion at mountaindewgamefuel.com where you can learn more about the drink. 230 calories per bottle, and then there is this promo video which makes me a bit nervous tasting what’s inside.
As for the taste? Kind of like Cherry Pepsi, but sweeter. Did I get the sugar shakes like the gamers in the vid? No foaming at the mouth, no.
Keep in mind I’m a water guy, preferring an icy glass of water over other drinks. I tried the Game Fuel with an open mind but just too sugary for my tastes. If you can find it at your local Winco or have already tried it, what did you think of the taste?
And what about these promotions? Seems like a good branding opportunity.
