Archive for February 16th, 2008
February 16, 2008
House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return may be the most awkwardly titled game this year, but it’s coming to a Wii near you anyway. Combined with the publisher’s upcoming Sega Bass Fishing and Samba de Amigo remakes, it seems as if Sega views the Wii is a perfect platform for it’s old arcade titles. While the graphics in House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return may have aged badly, the gameplay thankfully retains enough of its charm to make for a pleasing diversion.
According to Sega, The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return will include both original games, including the branching story, six game modes, and bonus content. The game will be compatible with and well suited to the Wii Zapper, offering more horror-filled light-gun action for those left wanting more after Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.
We recently got a chance to play the game and wasted no time in picking up the Wii Remote and laying waste to some pesky zombies. We had a few issues trying to calibrate the game to make sure it was tracking the remote accurately, but once that hiccup was resolved, we settled into blowing countless zombies away. The game follows the same conventions as many others in the genre; you’re firmly stuck on-rails and shooting offscreen reloads your weapon.
Playing both games on a large plasma display, the graphics in House of the Dead 3 held up reasonably well considering it’s six years old, but House of the Dead 2 looked considerably worse for wear (much like its residents) especially in the cutscenes between stages. The game will feature as-yet-unannounced new content, as well as tutorial videos from the development team covering beginner and advanced techniques.
Despite its patchy visuals, The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return should be warmly welcomed by fans of the series. It’s infecting homes this March, so get those Wii Zappers ready.
-If Its Games
February 16, 2008
Ever since we got our hands on Donkey Kong’s DK Bongos for the GameCube, we’ve pined for a fun, percussion-based game on a Nintendo console. Rock Band has yet to be given a firm date for the Wii, so it’s down to Samba de Amigo, originally a classic on Sega’s own Dreamcast, to quench our thirst when it arrives later this year.
We managed to get a decent if brief hands-on with Samba de Amigo at a recent Sega event. Although there’s sure to be a plethora of maraca-infused songs to choose from in the final game, we had to settle for one: Samba de Janeiro, which, as it sounds, is a Latin song well suited to the Wii Remote maracas.
Gameplay appears to be the same as it was in the Dreamcast original. You need to shake your Wii Remote and Nunchuk in time to a series of notes that spread out from the centre of a hexagon. The notes may head toward any corner of the hexagon, creating six different positions (represented by reticules) in which to shake your maracas. You’ll essentially have high, middle, and low positions in which to shake either maraca. Every so often you’ll need to pose according to an onscreen example that shows what position to freeze in.
Initially we found it a bit tricky to get the game to recognise the position of our maracas, but we found that once we stopped worrying about how to hold the controllers and started treating them as we would real-life maracas, we were fine. Just like the real musical instruments, you have to position them vertically when shaking up high, horizontal when shaking at waist height, and facing downward when shaking at the lower position. After some trial and error, we got the hang of it.
The stage itself was set in a bright, sunny, carnival-styled theme park. With serious doses of bright colours, funky Latin beats, and a groovy little monkey dancing across the screen, we found it hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere and shake those maracas with gusto. Playing the easy difficulty level was a breeze, and once you’ve finished a song, you’ll receive a grade to let you know how well you’ve done.
The game seems to be quite early in development, and consequently we weren’t able to try other game modes or songs, or play with any other options. Even though developer Gearbox Software has had to make quite a pitch change from its Brothers in Arms series, it’s priming Samba de Amigo to be a fun party game for the end of the year.
-If Its Games
February 16, 2008
The industry-tracking NPD Group released its US retail sales data for January late yesterday, and the numbers showed slumping hardware sales down 25 percent year over year. The Wii and Xbox 360 in particular sold short of analysts’ expectations, as Nintendo’s console led the field slightly at the 274,000 mark, with the Xbox 360 bringing up the rear with sales of 230,000.
Today a number of analysts sent investor notes out explaining their take on the numbers, suggesting that Nintendo and Microsoft made decisions that they knew would lead to shortages.
On Nintendo’s side, Wedbush Morgan Securities’ Michael Pachter and the simExchange’s Jesse Divnich both suggested in their NPD recaps that the company’s attention was focused elsewhere.
“It appears that Wii shortages were compounded by diversion of supply to Japan in order to support the launches of Wii Fit and Super Smash Brothers Brawl,” Pachter said.
Such support appears to have helped, as Wii Fit reached the million-unit sales milestone in Japan last month, while Super Smash Bros. Brawl matched that feat earlier this month.
As for Microsoft, the company yesterday acknowledged shortages and explained its hardware sales position in a press release. According to the company, “Our retailers are telling us that Xbox 360 is selling as fast as they can restock, but due to this high demand, Xbox 360 is experiencing temporary shortages. We are working as quickly as we can to replenish inventory.”
Pacific Crest Securities’ Evan Wilson didn’t entirely buy into the company’s explanation.
“Microsoft has said supply constraints are dampening 360 sales, which is consistent with our checks, especially of the Elite,” Wilson said. “However, we find it hard to believe that an underestimation of demand led to significant constraints given recent sales volume. Constraints seem more likely due to component restrictions or an intentional drying of the channel in front of a new-product launch.”
Rumors of a new Xbox 360 hardware configuration featuring a built-in HD DVD player popped up earlier this year. However, if such a project were ever in development, it seems unlikely to see the light of day, at least in its rumored form; a recent string of HD DVD setbacks has the format’s primary backer Toshiba reportedly on the verge of abandoning it entirely. Other supposed features for the system, such as a larger hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi support, remain on the wish lists of many Xbox 360 gamers.
February 16, 2008
Frontlines: Fuel of War may very well be the first Xbox 360 game that comes close to capturing the sheer madness and wild nature of the famed Battlefield games on the PC. That’s because the matches in Frontlines can go all the way up to 50 players instead of being limited to just 16 or 24 players. We know this because we had a chance very recently to play in some multiplayer matches against the testers at THQ. We also have to report that we got a lot of kills, died a lot of times, and saw a lot of really cool things on the screen.
We played with the same version of the game that was sent to submission approval at Microsoft. Frontlines can have such a high player count because THQ will host dedicated servers for the game; most Xbox 360 games rely on one player to serve as the host. While the matches that we played had about 55 to 56 players at a time, we’re told that THQ plans on capping the limit at 50 when the game launches. That’s mainly due to testing and the fact that while the maps are big, they aren’t that big.
Multiplayer matches in Frontlines can have more than three times the number of players than in most Xbox 360 games. That’s a lot of chaos.
The game is set several decades in the future when a brutal war for dwindling resources erupts between the Western Coalition and the Red Star Alliance. The three battles that we waged let you play as a member of either faction, and you can form squads to work as a team to help your side prevail.
Considering that the developers at Kaos Studios previously worked on Battlefield 2 and the popular Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942, it’s not surprising that Frontlines feels quite a bit like–surprise!–Battlefield. However, it benefits from the larger player counts in the server. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for the Xbox 360 never captured its cousin’s sheer sense of wall-to-wall chaos, Battlefield 2, on the PC. However, Frontlines does capture that chaos because common sense dictates that the more people you have running around with assault rifles, rocket launchers, tanks, helicopters, and jets in a given area, the hairier the said area will be in battle. During the battle, we had all sorts of crazy things going on around us: helicopters exploded in midair and jets lawn darted into the ground right in front of us. Tanks and wheeled transports also careened around at high speed, with gunfire getting thick and heavy at times.
The action was almost a bit too heavy at times, though we were playing with slightly more players than that of the final population cap. And frankly, having to choose between empty battlefields versus battlefields with stuff going on everywhere, we’ll choose the latter nine times out of 10.
The first map we played was called Invasion. It’s a nighttime map where the Western Coalition has to conduct an air assault on a Red Star base. So the Westerners jump aboard their various futuristic helicopters and helicopter gunships to try to seize objectives, as well as blow up surface-to-air missile installations on the ground. The Red Star troopers have to stop them. This makes for a pretty intense battle with helicopters overhead, tanks and antiaircraft guns maneuvering on the ground, and small-unit battles for objective points.
Next, we played the Runabout map. It’s an outdoor, daytime map set in a small valley where two bases oppose one another. We died quite a bit more on this map than we did on Invasion probably because both sides can open up on each other almost immediately. The Western Coalition doesn’t have to helicopter in at the start of the match. The middle of the map consists of a killing zone, with long fields of fire letting snipers have fun, but machine gunners can just open up too.
Rocket launchers are your friend when helicopters roam the map.
The third and final map that we played was also the wildest. It’s called Solar Farm, and it’s a playground for aerial combat. There are jet fighters, as well as helicopter gunships galore on this one, and you can have fun engaging in some wild air-to-air battles. There’s also plenty of action on the ground as the two sides battle for control of objective points. The geography on this map is really memorable, with giant solar collectors (they look like radio satellite dishes) providing bowls in the ground in which to fight. Our best moments occurred while serving as a gunner aboard a helicopter gunship. The chain gun is useful in air-to-air battles, as well as for mowing down opponents on the ground. Your lifespan can be measured in seconds, though. It seemed that helicopters and jets were blowing up constantly throughout the match.
Like we noted previously, these large-scale multiplayer battles come close to Battlefield 2’s 64-player slugfests. The key difference is that the maps are not nearly as sprawling as they are in that PC game, but they’re still big. Frontlines offers up some of the most frenzied online warfare that we’ve seen in a console game, which bodes well. It’ll ship for the Xbox 360 and PC near the end of this month.
-If Its Games
February 16, 2008
In an alternate universe, you’ve been playing EA Montreal’s cooperative-focused mercenary shooter Army of Two since November, when the game was originally slated for release. But since we’re bound to this physical reality for the moment, a universe in which EA instead opted to slide Army of Two’s release date back a few months for tweaking and polish, we just got to check out a nearly finished build of the game today at EA’s corporate headquarters in Redwood City, California. Both cooperative campaign and competitive multiplayer modes were on offer during our demo.
Compete for cash and prizes (in the form of better weapons) in Army of Two’s competitive multiplayer.
The good news is, the developers in Montreal have been using the extra few months of production time to examine what was already essentially a completed game to see how they could improve it. For instance, the heads-up display has been significantly refined and simplified, with less and smaller iconography crowding the screen now to afford a better view of the action. On the graphical side, the developers implemented a new lighting model that’s meant to better highlight subtle touches like the bump-mapped fine details on the character models, in answer to criticism that some parts of the game were previously too dark and visually bland.
One of the big changes is the new teammate-resuscitation system. Gone is the old tampon-based minigame, which literally had you staunching the blood flow from your compatriot’s wounds with a feminine hygiene product. Aside from looking a little strange, this mechanic also rendered the downed teammate completely useless and also took both players out of the game and completely interrupted the action when you initiated the revival minigame. Now, when you run out of health and go down, you’ll still be able to shoot from a prone position while you wait for your partner to come over and patch you up. They’ll be able to drag you to safety (while you’re still shooting), though you’ve got a bleed-out timer that ticks down all the while. If it runs out, it’s game over.
We got a chance to play some matches in the game’s two-versus-two multiplayer mode, called warzone. This mode drops both teams of two into the same battleground, filled with enemy soldiers that are hostile to both pairs, and starts throwing objectives at you one after the other. It’s essentially a race to see which team can complete each objective first; as soon as one team finishes a given goal, the next one will come up, so only one team will reap the cash reward from each objective. The type and progression of objectives presented in a multiplayer match is randomized, so you won’t ever know what you’re going to be tasked with next. Of course, you can always just kill the other team to stop them in their tracks before they can meet a goal.
The cooperative campaign offers all sorts of interesting tandem actions.
The objectives we saw in practice had us doing things like assassinating a particularly strong enemy, destroying a background element like a helicopter, or escorting an injured soldier to an extraction point. The cash you make from each objective will be tallied at the end of the match, with the richest team declared the winner–but you can also spend some of this money during the match to buy new weapons and upgrades, and to respawn faster when you’re killed. Army of Two will only ship with four multiplayer maps out of the box–though the two maps we tried were pretty well packed with different objectives, vehicles, and turrets to play with–but EA plans to make additional maps available for a fee on a monthly basis after release.
The core single-player campaign in Army of Two hasn’t changed much since our previous looks at the game, other than small tweaks like the new revival mechanic. We played a couple of missions from the middle of the storyline where Salem and Rios were chasing after a warlord in Iraq, and then later parachuting onto the deck of an aircraft carrier to take on a bunch of terrorists. Army of Two is now slated for release in early March, so come back then to find out if EA’s extra development time has paid off.
-If Its Games
February 16, 2008
Console gamers looking to vent a little road rage can prepare to be caught in the combination of headlights and crossfire once again, as Activision this week announced Vigilante 8: Arcade for Xbox Live Arcade. The series has been up on cinder blocks for some time, as this game will be the first new title in the Vigilante 8 franchise since 2000’s Nintendo 64 port of Vigilante 8: Second Offense.
Yeee-haw!
Billed as a remake of the original 1998 PlayStation vehicular combat game, Vigilante 8: Arcade won’t be a straight rehash of the original. Designed from the ground up to take advantage of today’s more powerful hardware, the game will feature four-player split-screen play, online multiplayer matches for up to eight players, and an assortment of downloadable content, some of which will be free.
Vigilante 8: Arcade is being developed by Isopod Labs. While the name might not be familiar to fans of the series, the startup studio’s pedigree will be. Isopod Labs was formed in early 2007 by Adrian Stephens and Peter Morawiec, cofounders of original Vigilante 8 developer Luxoflux.
February 16, 2008
Released in October of last year, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock introduced a number of new features to the popular series, doing a good job of catering to newcomers and experienced shredders alike. Developers are perfectionists, though, and are rarely 100 percent satisfied when putting their names on a game. For example, during a recent interview with Alan Flores, we learned that the lead designer of Legends of Rock (that’s him) would’ve liked more time to work on the game before it was released. We also learned that he has some ambitious plans for the next Guitar Hero game.
If Its Games: Neversoft had only a year to whip a new Guitar Hero sequel together. Looking back at that year, what about the game are you most happy with, and more importantly, what would you have done differently?
Alan Flores: Yeah, it was a whirlwind year. We were really excited to work on Guitar Hero, as we all loved and played the games quite a bit. I think I’m most happy that we made a game that is introducing new people to video games. I hear tons of stories about people who say stuff like “My wife (or girlfriend) never plays video games, but she picked up Guitar Hero III, and now she won’t put the guitar down.” It’s a pretty cool feeling.
I do wish we had a bit more time to tune and polish the game. However, we are really proud of what we did with Guitar Hero III, but of course with any game you make, there are a lot of things you think about doing differently after you’re done. But that just allows us to include those ideas and innovations into the next one…
Tougher difficulty levels are best avoided if you’re new to the series.
GS: How did the team scale the difficulty of the game compared to the previous ones? How do you answer claims that Guitar Hero III is significantly harder than previous installments and perhaps too hard for some newcomers? Is the series catering to its diehard fan base now?
AF: We tried our best to have a nice smooth linear ramp for the difficulty levels. That’s much easier said than done, especially given the accelerated development schedule. But, we did focus-test the heck out of the game and tried to integrate the focus testers’ feedback as best we could. Personally, I do feel the game is a bit too hard. It does seem that some of the songs in the end are punishingly hard to finish. However, the game is still quite accessible on the easy and medium difficulties, and that’s where the majority of the players reside. Now that we have one Guitar Hero game under our belt, we will continually try to improve the gaming experience for all of our fans.
GS: What do you need to do to keep Guitar Hero’s core gameplay from stagnating? What will we see in the next Guitar Hero that will keep it fresh?
AF: We really do want to keep the integrity of the core gameplay, but there are a couple of areas where we are going to innovate: music, gameplay, and hardware.
On the music front, we are getting calls from major bands about wanting to be a part of the Guitar Hero phenomenon. Of course, we can’t really talk about that right now, but I think people will be stoked with the music we have coming this year. I hear lots of people saying things like “Hey, I really want to see band X or band Y in there.” And now, due to the success of the franchise, you’re probably going to see band X, band Y, or maybe both in the game.
On the gameplay side, combined with the hardware innovations we’re working on, I think people will see that there’s more to Guitar Hero than pressing buttons at the right time. We can’t wait to show everyone the cool new features we’ve been working on since before GHIII shipped. We can also add lots of little things to make the guitar playing feel more like you’re playing guitar.
Neversoft was one of the first developers to really embrace user-generated content way back in the good old days of the PlayStation 2. Fast-forward to 2008 and the next Guitar Hero…We are investigating the notion that the experience is not just about playing popular songs, but letting people create their own music. We can’t go into specifics right now, but creating, recording, and sharing music–all within the game–is a big opportunity to reinvent the Guitar Hero experience.
GS: Your competition has delivered two more instruments–vocals and drums–which are distinctly different from the guitar and bass. How do you plan to keep pace? Will we finally see the infamous Drum Hero surface in the near future? Can we expect various Hero games to tie into each other?
AF: Our goal at Neversoft is to continue to make the best game possible. People have been speculating that we’re going to add drums and vocals for some time now, and the infamous Drum Hero/Villain rumors have been going around. RedOctane has been working with a pioneer in the music game genre for a couple of years. He made the first arcade game using a drum controller. So, if we were ever going to make a drum controller, his input would be instrumental in delivering a kick-ass drum experience and a quality product.
GS: Has the more aggressive pricing and release schedule of Rock Band’s downloadable content (DLC) made you rethink your own stance on DLC?
AF: Well, we focused more on delivering songs to the player on the disk. We shipped with significantly more songs because we made that our focus. I suppose we could have held some content back and then delivered it via DLC at an additional price. But why? We figured it was better for fans to get it on the disk so everyone, even Wii and PS2 players, could enjoy them.
As for the pricing…as a developer, we don’t really have control over that. But I will say this, since Guitar Hero III has released, we’ve released a number of songs for free. Cool stuff like the Halo theme on Thanksgiving and “We Three Kings” on Christmas. We don’t have to give stuff away for free. We’re just doing it because it’s cool. It’s a way to give back to our fans. The fans helped make Guitar Hero III a huge success, so we’re going to continue to deliver cool free stuff as a way to say thanks. And on this President’s Day weekend, we’re giving away Aerosmith’s “Dream On” for free!
The availability of new guitars won’t render your existing hardware redundant.
GS: We’ve heard plenty of rumors about songs appearing on the next Guitar Hero tracklist, entirely new band-themed Guitar Hero installments and even a DS-based portable Guitar Hero. What’s the Guitar Hero road map for 2008? Will there be multiple products this year? Can we expect any new hardware iterations?
AF: Yeah, there will be multiple products. Our goal this year for the Guitar Hero franchise is to bring more great music and amazing bands to fans and to give new ways to experience this game. Today, we just announced Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which we are really excited about. We believe that superstar bands, like Aerosmith, are just one way that we can redefine the Guitar Hero experience.
In terms of new hardware iterations, we continue to focus on setting the bar for innovation and quality and continue making the best equipment out there. We want to make sure that advancing the guitar hardware allows people who bought a guitar with a previous game to still use it to enjoy the next game.
GS: What band represents the “holy grail” of the Guitar Hero franchise–the one act you’d stop at nothing to include? Will we finally see some of the most oft-requested acts (for example, Zeppelin, AC/DC) showing up in upcoming installments?
AF: Well, we had this idea for the end of Guitar Hero III where you play the Top Gun theme by Harold Faltermeyer over the credits. But we weren’t able to clear the song…All kidding aside, first as a fan of the game and now as someone who has an opportunity to work on it, I’d love to see epic bands like Zeppelin and AC/DC in the game. And, there are also lots of other great acts that have yet to appear; bands like The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, the list goes on forever. I’ve got a feeling that you’ll see some of those guys in the next game.
GS: Thanks for your time.
-If Its Games
February 16, 2008
Sony’s MLB: The Show baseball series has long been the crown jewel of its sports games. Far from just great baseball games, the last few entries in the series have been fantastic sports games with excellent depth and features that are often ahead of their time. Consider the ever-evolving road-to-the-show mode, first introduced as a career mode in MLB 06. This year, the road to the show will provide you with even more feedback for your player progression and more to keep you busy as the season progresses. To illustrate, we’ve been playing through the road-to-the-show mode in our preview build of MLB 08 to give you two different perspectives on the mode: one from the infield and the other from the pitcher’s mound.
Brian aka “Dirtbag”
Back in the halcyon Jason Giambi days, the Oakland A’s brashly referred to themselves as “dirtbags,” so its little wonder that I gave my created shortstop–whom I added to the A’s roster for spring training–the very same nickname. There’s just something special about hearing MLB 08 play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian refer to you as “dirtbag” every time you come up to the plate. I’m a Cubs fan at heart, but because I wanted to play shortstop in road-to-the-show mode, your best bet for landing in the MLB is to find a team that’s talent-thin at your chosen position, thus the decision to bring the Dirtbag back to the A’s.. Besides, if Dirtbag makes it big, I can always demand a trade on his behalf later.
Base running isn’t one of Dirtbag’s strong suits.
One thing that the Sony MLB series has really nailed of late is getting you into the action that matters for your created player–and only the action that matters. Whether it’s fast-forwarding to your next scheduled appearance (especially nice for pitchers) or taking you to the next play in a game that you are involved in, you’re always engaged in MLB 08. That’s definitely the case for Dirtbag; as a shortstop, it seems like you’re either fielding the ball or covering second base several times per inning. It’s a bit more interactive than playing, say, first base, where the majority of your defensive job involves, well, standing on first base.
So with more ground balls coming your way, you’ve got to be on your toes. This is especially true because Dirtbag probably isn’t as fast as he needs to be in the game. Getting to line drives takes some quick reaction times, and as a result, I’ve decided to make speed a focal point for Dirtbag’s spring training routine. Doing so is simply a matter of spending the training points you earn over the course of a game by accomplishing various tasks put forth by your manager. These tasks include both defensive and offensive tasks–though it seems the more specific tasks come when at bat. In one case, your manager is looking for a hit; in another, he might be looking to get the opposing pitcher’s pitch count up and ask you to take a strike. In yet another, he might be literally begging you to find a way–any way–to get on base during a particularly bad dry streak.
Unfortunately for Dirtbag, dry streaks tend to be the norm for him–at least in the early goings of spring training. At the peak of his spring training powers, Dirtbag was batting a healthy .308 with five runs batted in, but that quickly dipped to .245 after a long string of games without a hit–which was painted in clear black and white thanks to new and improved post-game player progression screens that show you exactly how your player is improving (or not).
As it has been in the past, MLB 08’s guess-the-pitch feature is very tempting when at bat. To guess a pitch, you simply press the R2 button and choose the type of pitch with a face button. You can also guess the location of the pitch with the analog stick. If you’re successful guessing the pitch type, location, or both, the strike zone will illuminate. A pitcher’s favorite pitch types are tied to the X, circle, triangle, square, and shoulder buttons–in that order. So if you typically guess the X or circle pitch (whatever type it is), you’ll find a good percentage of success.
After a failed attempt to steal home, opposing base runners learn that testing Shank Dogg’s arm from the mound isn’t a good idea.
Another bone of contention regarding Dirtbag is base running. It’s all too tempting to use the shoulder buttons to get a few steps off first base. However, if your reaction times aren’t lightning-quick, the pitcher will pick you off with ease.
At the end of spring training, the A’s organization offered Dirtbag a one year contract with its Double A team: the Midland Rockhounds. According to the player progression, he’s currently rated fifth out of five shortstops in the organization. Still, that didn’t stop Dirtbag from demanding a two-year contract with the Rockhounds. My guess is that he might need even more time in the minors before he’s ready for the big show.
Shanker aka “Shank Dogg”
When I was initially contemplating my starting pitcher creation, I wanted to choose a name that would strike fear into anyone who stepped into the batter’s box. I wanted a name that conveyed a willingness to deliver some chin music to batters brash enough to crowd the plate. I envisioned someone right out of the mold of a roid-raging Roger Clemens or half-blind Ricky Vaughn. In the end, though, I decided against Heater Von Pegsalot and just named him Shank Dogg (luckily “dawg” is one of the available nicknames).
As far as pitch selection went, Shank Dogg obviously needed his signature four-seam fastball. I rounded him out with a slider and sinker in order to cajole chasing from batters waiting on the heater. This was, at least, the theory going in.
Although every major league team seemed content with its existing rotations, this was misleading. After all, Shank Dogg only needs to be better than the worst guy on the rotation to earn his starting gig. As a tribute to my hometown, I decided to have Dogg tryout for the Seattle Mariners.
Spring training didn’t start out as smoothly for Shank Dogg as I would have hoped. Just days into my tryout, I was plugged into the starting rotation, facing the likes of Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. Even worse, Dogg’s “overpowering” fastball was only clocking in the low 80’s; not something that was going to intimidate any big league players. As a result, I made bumping up the velocity of Dogg’s four-seamer a top priority.
After getting shelled during his first two starts (11 earned runs in just eight innings of work), Shank Dogg started to fall into a groove. Although he would only see four or five innings of work because of his low stamina and high pitch counts, he managed to rack up back-to-back player-of-the-game honors, pitching nine straight scoreless innings. Admittedly, he had a lot of help from Ichiro’s range in centerfield. Shank Dogg was well on his was to signing a big time contract and leaving his mark on the sport of baseball.
Then the Cubs came to town. In Shank Dogg’s final start before contract negotiations, he had his worst outing yet. One main issue was Dogg’s inability to retire batters quickly. Often, long batter-pitcher duels would result in Dogg throwing 10 to 15 pitches before walking the batter or having someone line one into the gap. Yeah, Dogg had some control issues (just adds to his mystique), but he was definitely getting hosed by the home plate umpire. This only compounded the problem because Dogg’s low clutch rating made him even more erratic with runners on base.
There goes another one
February 16, 2008
TechWeb - If Nintendo succeeds, then it would be the first time that the Wii has taken the lead among new-generation home video game consoles.
February 16, 2008
Macworld.com - Nintendo’s popular Wii game console will displace Microsoft’s Xbox 360 as the new-generation game machine, iSuppli said Thursday.
February 16, 2008
Reuters - Activision Inc on Friday unveiled a new “Guitar Hero” video game focusing on the rock band Aerosmith, taking the billion-dollar franchise in a new direction.
February 16, 2008
NewsFactor - Sony’s PlayStation 3 may be just hitting its stride. Two reports indicate the PS3 is moving upmarket fast, and one of them projects the video-game console could be number two by the end of this year — and in first place by 2011.
February 16, 2008
NewsFactor - Activision, publisher of the enormously popular computer game Guitar Hero, will release a special version of the game built entirely around the music of the band Aerosmith in June. The game will play on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Playstation 2.
February 16, 2008
AP - Utah is offering tax rebates to The Walt Disney Co.’s video-game unit if it creates at least 500 jobs within 10 years.
February 16, 2008
Eidos Interactive Ltd., one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, has confirmed that Death Jr.: Root of Evil, a spine-tingling, humorous platform shooter from developer Backbone Entertainment, will be released on Nintendo Wii in summer 2008.
;)