Tag: Gaming

Washington Wizards to Offer Sports Gambling Broadcasts. Will My Attention Span Allow It?

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ESPN – The future of sports-betting-infused game broadcasts will be on display Friday, when the Washington Wizards host the Milwaukee Bucks. NBC Sports Washington Plus will produce an alternate broadcast for the Bucks-Wizards game that will feature a free-to-play predictive contest with a $500 prize, along with real-time sports-betting data and statistics that will be displayed on-screen throughout the broadcast. 

The predictive contest, “Predict the Game,” will ask approximately 30 questions throughout the game, such as: “Will Wizards forward Trevor Ariza score 10 or more points in the first half?” In addition, odds, point spreads and over/unders will be shown on broadcast graphics.

Inject this into my veins.

The only problem I can see with this is I already spend 75% of my time watching a game looking at Twitter. I can literally be looking up stats about the game, chirping opposing fans, or just tweeting out videos like the one of the Bears mascot literally dying on the field.

But that speaks to a larger issue with people as a whole; massive fragmentation of attention. This is the one area where Millennials really *are* the worst, albeit with good intentions.

We all try and do as many things as possible at once. We are masters of multitasking. We grew up with video games that required you to sneak past 20 armed guards, snipe a moving target’s face off from half a mile away, then escape an enemy base, all while collecting the necessary pieces of intel and disabling communications for enemy reinforcements. So anytime someone’s mom tries to tell me that video games are bad for kids I tell them to KICK ROCKS. Video games are the REASON I am able to focus on so many different objectives and deliverables all at once.

However, the downside of that is with my attention being pulled in so many directions I simply cannot sit down and do just one thing anymore. I can’t even tell you the last time I sat down and watched an entire game without picking up my phone or laptop. I guess high school? But even then you were IM-ing your buddies. It’s honestly like I graduated to better drugs because while in hindsight AIM wasn’t that great, I *still* get a rush of dopamine to the brain when I see this:

So am I excited for a gambling focused broadcast? Hell yes, in fact I’ve said for years that NFL games need to have alternative broadcasts featuring just a couple of guys f-bombing the coaches for bad decisions in between play-by-play. It would be like watching a game with your buddies, provide a little levity to sporting events that are already too serious at times, and ratchet up the entertainment value all at the same time. Would you rather watch that or Dan Fouts trying to remember where he left his keys?

Is Michael Vick Having the 2004 Madden Cover as His IG Pic the Biggest Flex of All Time?

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Michael Vick in Madden 2004 is the most dominant character in video game history. He was more dominant than Bo Jackson in TECMO, more dominant than Mike Tyson in Punch-Out, I would even argue he was more dominant than the Water Temple. Oddjob from 007? Kick rocks.

Just look at the dude’s stats from that year’s Madden:

  • Overall – 95
  • Speed – 95
  • Agility – 95
  • Acceleration – 94
  • Awareness – 80
  • Throw Power – 97
  • Throw Accuracy – 84

Absolutely outrageous, good luck stopping that. I know my brother and I smashed many a PS2 clickers trying to contain No. 7. So for Mike Vick to have that Madden cover from FOURTEEN years ago as his Instagram profile pic to this day is the ultimate flex. Just has to remind people that he was absolutely unstoppable and the GOAT video game character. If only he could have sat down and actually studied film and not murdered dogs like a complete sociopath scumbag then he could have been the greatest of all time in real life too.

David Price Embraces Gamer Persona and Launches His Own Twitch Channel

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Ya know, there’s really only one thought that came to my mind when I saw this tweet from David Price.

Look when you’re a World Series champion you can do whatever the hell ya want. That includes doubling down on the shit that allegedly gave you “minor carpal tunnel” last season. Play til your eyes bleed David because you earned it when you balled out in the playoffs.

See? All it took was a good postseason run to get people to stop busting his balls. Who am I to talk anyways? I just finished Zelda Breath of the Wild and was appalled when I realized that I had put 60 hours of my life into that game. You do do, David.

Sony is Jumping on the Cash Grab Bandwagon with the Mini Playstation Classic

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Sony is jumping on the cash grab bandwagon that is the mini “classic” console re-release. It really is nothing more than a shameless cash grab, but hey don’t hate the player. I have yet to pick any of these up because like a hoarder I still own half of these systems and can bust them out anytime I have a 6 pack of IPAs down in my parents basement over the holidays.

Nintendo has led the charge on this trend with the NES Classic Edition

and the Super Nintendo Classic Edition

And people went fucking BANANAS for these things. Legit sold out for months. Something about the nostalgia of video games you grew up playing coupled with the fact that they’re miniature drove people wild.

Meanwhile, SEGA is in the corner like “What the hell? We’ve been selling the same goddamn thing in Urban Outfitters for YEARS!”

Anyways, Sony is jumping into the fray with their own mini system, the Playstation Classic, and I have some questions.

There will be 20 games playable on the PS1 classic and as of right now only a handful have been announced.

“It’ll be out on December 3 in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia, and includes games like Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, and Wild Arms. There’ll be 20 bundled titles in total, but those five are the only ones announced at the moment.”

$100 bucks for Final Fantasy VII? Pass. Hard pass. Throw in Metal Gear Solid 1, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, maybe Spyro and then we can talk.

What else should we throw in there? Full disclosure I never owned the PS1. After N64 I went over to the Dreamcast because I’m a goddamn contrarian before coming back to the mainstream with the PS2.

So what other games does this mini system need to have for you to buy it?

Even though it looks like the biggest piece of shit ever created, I am still dying to play the 1997 release, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout.

Give me all the gloriously bad games and I will somehow wind up giving you $100. But with the garbage thats been announced so far? Can’t do it guys. I gotta save those crisp bills for the N64 classic, which you just know is coming sooner than later.

I mean I’m currently balls deep in Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch so its not like I need any more video games, but this is the only “classic” miniature system I’ve ever really been hyped for. Sure I have TWO N64 consoles in my apartment currently, but what I don’t have is a miniature version of it.

Nintendo Brought the Heat at E3. Lets Break it Down.

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If you’re reading this then I assume you already know, but for those who don’t, E3 is the annual video game convention, Electronic Entertainment Expo, and its where publishers showcase new and upcoming games. Its where new consoles get announced, new titles are revealed, but most of all its where all the blazing hot trailers are released for upcoming video games. And Nintendo brought the heat this year.

To be honest, this is the first year I’ve been excited for Nintendo’s E3 announcements, probably ever. The Switch is the first Nintendo system I’ve owned since N64. As I’ve joked about before I have absolutely zero brand loyalty, so good luck marketing to me. I went from the original Nintendo to Sega to N64 to Dreamcast to PS2 to Xbox 360 back to PS4 to Nintendo Switch. So yea, not a lot of continuity in there. With so few console exclusives that are actually worth it theres little reason to stay loyal to just one system.

But I am back on the Nintendo bandwagon and they’ve crushed it out of the gate with phenomenal games like Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Outside of that though theres been a lack of great games on the new system. Nintendo gets accused of going to the well too often rehashing the same franchises over and over again like Mario and Zelda, but when the games are this good then who cares?

The most glaring absence had come from one of Nintendo’s most popular properties ever; Pokemon. Whats unique about Pokemon is that its never made the jump to home consoles for a standalone game. They’ve always developed core games for mobile devices like the Game Boy and the 3Ds. There have been random games like Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap to name a couple on home consoles, but no core games where you gotta catch em all.

That is until now.

Naturally, the news of Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Evee! leaked a few weeks ago so it wasn’t a huge reveal, but it was awesome to see the old Kanto region I grew up in as a fully realized 3D world. I am going to buy the absolute shit out of this game on Day 1.

Its essentially a remake of Pokemon Yellow, which dropped on Game Boy in 1998 and earned a 10/10 from IGN. But it won’t just be a port since they had to build this 3D world from scratch and it will also introduce new elements to the series such as adopting some gameplay features from the massively popular Pokemon Go iOS game. Then of course there’s this little guy.

Its a Pokeball controller that you throw to catch new Pokemon. Lets be honest, it doesn’t really matter what this costs because I am 100% going to buy it.

Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Evee! will both be released on November 16th so get your pre-orders in asap.

Super Mario Party was also announced, which will be the first game to really encourage playing the Switch with friends. You could say Mario Kart already did that, but that was a port of an old Mario Kart game rather than a brand new game so I’m giving the edge to Mario Party here. Plus this is the first game to really take advantage of the Switch technology, just check out the trailer below.  This one drops on October 5th.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced and it looks glorious. They really pulled out all the stops for this one by including every single character thats ever appeared in a Smash game. Ever. The roster is gigantic. We got all the originals plus we got Sonic, we got Charizard, hell we got Solid Snake himself. This is going to be the best drinking game since Mario Kart 64.  This one drops on December 7th.

Still no appearances by Fox McCloud though which is a goddamn shame because Star Fox 64 is one of my favorite games of all time and any Star Fox I’ve played since (Gamecube) was hot garbage.

For any Fortnite fans out there, the massively popular free title is now available on Switch too. So you can jump off the flying bus while literally riding the bus.

A couple of other freebies now available on the Switch include Pokemon Quest and Fallout Shelter. Quest is definitely a freemium type of game meaning you’ll likely have to put some money into the game to progress quickly, but I know Fallout Shelter has been out for a while to decent reviews. Both probably aren’t enough to be a great standalone game that you’d pay for, but as a free title you can play on the go? I’ll take that.

So if you were on the fence about buying yet another system, now is a pretty good time to jump into the Switch. Just make sure you get the Pokeball.

 

Hero Helps His Wife Prep for Her MLB Broadcasting Debut by Playing Video Games

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Yahoo – Jenny Cavnar didn’t have long to prep before providing Colorado Rockies play-by-play. She found out she would have to fill the role the day before the game, so she didn’t have a lot of options to get in some last-minute practice before her play-by-play debut. That’s when her husband hatched a plan, according to Joon Lee of Bleacher Report. He would play “MLB: The Show” and she would call his game..They fired up the game, selected the San Diego Padres as the Rockies’ opponent — since that was the matchup Cavnar would call the next day — and gave it a shot.

Shoutout to this guy for getting massive brownie points for helping his wife prep for the biggest day of her career while ALSO playing PS4 at the same time. His wife is getting called up to the big leagues, literally, to not only call a professional baseball game which is huge, but also be one of the first women to ever do it. Pressure cooker like you read about.

So what does my man do? Johnny on the spot here with the idea to have his wife simply call his game of The Show. He gets to do absolutely nothing while not even really having to talk to his wife while also appearing to be the most helpful husband in America.
This guy is bred for greatness. I feel like this should be a Miller Lite commercial or better yet Dave Chappelle should re-enact this scenario for an episode of Great Moments in Hookup History.

PS – I’ve bought two baseball games in the 13 years since the MVP Baseball franchise breathed its last breath in 2005 because every game since then is hot garbage. If I ever run for public office that will be my platform. #MakeMVPBaseballAgain

Madden Pro Going Nuts Reminds Me of The GOAT Madden Meltdown I Saw in College

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Look we’ve all been there. I’ve smashed more clickers than I care to admit and so have all of you. Glass houses guys.

But, this dude flipping the fuck out reminded me of the GOAT Madden meltdown I witnessed in college. I was playing my roommate and I was feeling myself so I picked a shittier team, knowing it would drive this kid up a wall if I took it to him with the 2008 Raiders.

You know the unbeatable 2008 Raiders that went 4-12 behind stud No. 1 overall pick, and my boy, JaMarcus Russell. If there ever was a guy built for a fucking video game it was this dude. Absolutely awful in real life, but in a video game he had an absolute cannon and he could run his balls off. Thats all I need boys.

So in case you forget just how truly shitty this team really was back in 08, here was the starting skill position players:

QB: JaMarcus Russell
RB: Darren “Run DMC” McFadden
WR: Javon Walker, Chaz Schilens, Ashley Lelie, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Ronald Curry
TE: Zach Miller

Not exactlyyy Murderers Row, but the Raiders did also have Nnamdi Asomugha before he fell off a cliff and DeAngelo Hall patrolling the secondary. (Thats called foreshadowing guys)

So anyways, I am scoring *at will* on QB scrambles out of the shotgun, HB screens, and 70 yard bombs in the air. If JaMarcus Russell saw how much better he was in Madden than in real life I think he might actually kill himself. But to top it all off the Oakland defense is smothering my roommate with interception after interception after interception. My roommate is fucking BOILING and I’m not a huge trash talker so I’m just waiting for the straw to break the camel’s back.

Well that would come in the form of my SEVENTH interception of the day, which also happened to be a pick-six that put me at 70+ points on the afternoon…in the 3rd quarter.

“FUCK THIS GAME!”

Roommate stands up and absolutely Gronk spikes the $50 PS2 clicker into the fucking floor. Let me tell you, I have never seen a piece of hardware fly into so many pieces as that Playstation clicker did. We had to have a closed casket funeral for that PS2 clicker.

And that my friends is why you don’t stream yourself playing a game of Madden because we are all one bullshit play away from rifling a clicker through the goddamn window.