You know Ken "w00t!" Wootton as fuzzyslug. After this podcast, you might mistake him for a Playstation 3 evangelist for all the glowing talk about Little Big Planet, Ratchet & Clank, God of War, Resistance 2, Uncharted, and ass slapping. Speaking of ass slapping, we also totally talk about the sports. Listen for your chance to win a free game.
Next week: Jorune and Emperor of the Fading Suns...
Last edited by TomChick; 04-10-2010 at 04:02 PM.
Thanks fuzzyslug! As a fledgling hockey fan myself (our whole family seemed to be missing the sports gene until we got infected by Canada with the hockey), I actually enjoyed hearing about NHL 10 for the 360. It sounds like something we might like playing with our 7 year old cheering us on, and might even be the game that finally tempts him to give the console controls a try. If nothing else, it could be a comforting game to have around in the next month after the Canucks inevitably choke and leave us feeling all empty and broken-hearted.
Tom, do not make fun of adjective animals. You are part of the club you male, juvenile bird, you.
Last edited by ScurvyPig; 04-10-2010 at 07:00 PM.
Damned furries.
NHL is the finest hockey game ever made and is now very close to the MLB series for the PS3 in terms of the most realistic sports game around. My 7 year old son plays co-op with me and loves the game.Originally Posted by Gwendraeth
It is pretty weird that the trophy system for the PS3 tries to emulate MMO levelling and just forgets about the most important parts to actually make it addictive. Pop in a progress bar every time the player earns a trophy and add a bigger ding for when you go up a level and suddenly you're compelling thousands of gamers to skip work the next day because they only have 5% left to level 13.
Now they just need to start porting the 360 version to the PC, so we can finally have something besides an annual roster update for NHL 2002. Of course, I don't think the PC is even getting so much as a gussied-up PS2 port of NHL 10, this year. Not that there was a PS2 version either, as the two are inextricably linked and the cancellation of one apparently means the cancellation of both.
As they told some place I've never heard of called Blend Games:
Fortunately, they delivered on that experience for the 360 and (I assume) the PS3. But if they want to start talking about "the continuing decline in the sports PC market," they would do well to look in the mirror and own up to the fact that they've essentially been releasing the same damn game, year after year, for the better part of a decade."We will not be developing NHL 10 for PC and PS2 this year due to the current economic climate and the continuing decline in the sports PC market. We are going to focus on making the best possible NHL experience for the PS3 and Xbox 360."
They don't mention that they (EA) are very responsible for this decline. Chase a bunch of folks out of the PC market ("Hey, let's buy this NASCAR license!") and then stop making sports games for the PC.
I listened to this episode walking back from the metro after the last Caps game of the year, so needless to say, I was thrilled with the bonus topic. I'm glad fuzzyslug's formative years in Baltimore overcame his current residence in southern Pennsylvania, and he chose the Caps over the (shudder) Flyers. Or are the Hershey Bears nearby?
BTW: Tom, if you're looking for inappropriately named sports franchises, go no further than the Anaheim Ducks.
But Ducks are cute, so it's ironic! I still think the Capitols is possibly the absolute worst thing you could name a sports team. The only thing I can think that would be worse is maybe Losers. Pederasts would also be a bad name for a sports team. Also, Hershey Bears sounds, uh, dirty.
-Tom
If it helps, the Ducks used to be The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Though The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are pretty hard to top for shit sports team names.
Anaheim has pretty bad luck, I guess.
And pretty bad jerseys:
The Hershey Bears (named after the man and the chocolate) are very close by. I love having great minor league hockey so near. My son may be even more of a Bears fan than I am. The fact that they are a Caps feeder team is icing on the cake.
Tom, according to their website, "Wawa" is a Native American word for the Canada Goose that was found in the Delaware Valley. First Titans, now Native Americans... you'll be getting a sternly written letter from some civil rights group soon.
It's a good thing they didn't call them the Capitols then.
Last edited by Xaroc; 04-12-2010 at 07:36 AM.
Ducks jersey's look like this now:And pretty bad jerseys:
Laughing at someone who lost 91-36 in their first Madden game of the season would be cruel and mean. You disappoint me, Chick.
I'm sure whoever lost that game has a perfectly valid excuse... I mean, er, explanation... for their ineptitude.
I'm real bumed that I didn't get to play with you guys that night in Uncharted 2 co-op.
Listening to the podcast, the Capitals are named not for state capitals their name refers to the definition:
first-rate; "a capital idea"
That's not the worst, Ottawa has the same thing going too with their team being called the Senators. Montreal and Houston has the absolute worst, the Montreal Canadians and Houston Texans. Also the Washington Nationals is kind of bland too.
Great podcast! I loved it, mostly because fuzzyslug sounds like me. I think I would really like Uncharted too. Too bad there is no PS3 in my future.
I know. I kid, I kid...
Also, I'm preeeeeeetty sure Piggly-Wiggly is a fairly widespread brand. I remember stopping by Hugo's Piggly-Wiggly in Grand Forks, North Dakota, when I was a kid, and that's about as far north from Arkansas as you can get and still be in the continental United States.
I grew up in the western half of Virginia and the first time I heard of a Piggly-Wiggly was in a Jeff Foxworthy stand-up routine. I thought he was making it up.
There's a Canadian hockey team called the Ottawa Senators (Ottawa is the Capital).
BTW hockey isn't as intimate as you imagined. There are only 6 players on the ice at a time but they are constantly rotating with others on the bench. A player plays around 1-2 mins, gets off, someone else takes his place. So a team probably has over 20 players.
I love co-op gaming but I found the 3 player limit in UC2 to be be somewhat restrictive. I have a group of 4-6 RL friends who own a PS3; we all have UC2 but can't play together so we usually ended up playing something else like Vegas 2 co-op. I wish there were more co-op titles that support 4-8 players. Sounds like maybe we should give Resistance 2 a try? We don't play MP because my friends are too casual. I convinced them to try MW2 once which was probably a bad idea because now they never want to play MP ever again.
One thing that annoys me about UC2 MP is the load times and the patches. Why are there like 20 progress bars every time I select Multiplayer? Compare that to Modern Warfare 2 where I can be in a match 15 seconds after popping the game in.
The average NHL shift length is around 40 seconds*, actually. But yeah, 12 forwards, 6-8 defencemen, and some scrubs to take over in case of injuries.
*or at least this is what my coaches yelled at us when we stayed on the ice too long.
In other semi related news, I'm trying to bump one of Tom Chick's more obscure posts on Fidgit to the front page. I need about 70 more comments. Please help, thanks in advance.
fidgit.com/archives/2008/08/top_10_amazing_piece_of_dialog.php
wat??
Yeah it didn't work out so hot. Don't worry about it.
Heh, I just got back and saw that. Thanks for the attempt, Neuromancer, but I'm not exactly sure what sort of metric you're up against. I suspect I just need to wait until some folks get really upset about some review or other...
And raspberries to everyone who didn't help him out! But, FWIW, anyone who makes a point to drop by fidgit.com once a day is doing me a real boon.
-Tom
I imagine it's probably just page hits. Oh well, it was worth a try.
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