Somebody Wants a Wii

At Best Buy today, Aidan messed with the Wii and played with Mom. Dad was shopping for a new laptop bag - messenger bag. I found a great one - Targus Grove Sling.

The Targus bag is environmentally friendly, comfortable and much lighter than my old leather bag.

The Targus Grove Sling is designed to fit most 15.4” laptops. As part of the Targus EcoSmart™ Family of Products, the Grove Sling is PVC-free and features recyclable plastic accents and nickel-free metal to reduce the amount of toxins released into the environment. To keep your belongings protected, the sling features a quilted side-access laptop compartment and a MP3 player pocket with headphone pass-through. To help keep you organized the workstation includes a business card holder, pen loops, key hook and several accessory pockets. The large front storage pocket provides quick access to personal items and the mesh water bottle holder provides storage for beverages. The case features an adjustable sling style shoulder strap and padded handle for comfortable carrying. Constructed of durable nylon material, the Grove Sling features a modern olive color scheme with sedona accents for added style.

It is going to be perfect for school, teaching my night classes (where I need to bring my laptop), AVID Summer Institute, and any other trainings I will be doing).

All Pro Football 2K8 - Texas T-Rex

These are pictures of my first created team in NFL2k8. The Texas T-Rex. Named after Aidan's favorite - dinos. Thought the uniforms were pretty sleek. I was going after a Texas Tech look combined with Astros colors. Brick Red, Black, and Sand.
LARGE Slideshow Here

Gold - (QB) Steve Young, (TE) Iron Mike Ditka

Silver - (WR) Charley Taylor, (CB) Lester Hayes, (SS) Dick Anderson

Bronze - (T) Joe Jacoby, (DE) Dexter Manley, (CB) Terry McDaniel, (HB) Barry Foster, (WR) Wesley Walker, (FS) Nolan Cromwell

It's been a nice team so far. Young really can run well. He's gotten me a lot of first downs on short yardage vs. man coverage. Ditka is a HORSE. He runs so well with the ball after catches. I went heavy on DBs with this team. I just want to keep the other team from lighting up the score board and give my squad a chance. If I could make a tweak, I might trade a DB or two for another lineman. But, still learning with this group. Have yet to use Anderson's play stealing ability. I will try that tomorrow.

The Game is Back - Tomorrow!

All Pro Football 2k8

Cover of the game. Looks great. Nice animated shot of Jerry Rice, John Elway, and Barry Sanders. Best part about the game is how they are adding a huge number of legend players. 2K sports does not have the rights to the NFL or team names, but the game is fully customizable and it won't be long until there are files available with current teams, players, uniforms and stadiums. Until then, I will be happy to play in the 2k8 universe a bit. You customize and draft your own team from the legends and players they added to the game. The goal is to create and draft the best team.


This is a nice side-by-side shot of the Madden08 cover boy (VY is certain to break a leg now that he is the Madden cover boy) and a screen from 2K8. Interesting. Screens mean little when it comes to game play though and 2K8 should have that down. I just can't stand the Madden degradation of NextGen football. :(


This looks like a signature Emmitt Smith move to me. Scores and points to the stands with the ball under his arm. Looks perfect. Signature moves like this from legends will be cool. Can't wait to see Chuck Knoll and Gregg Lloyd!


Here are the 3 cover boys at the midfield coin flip before a game. Looks cool. Can't wait to see this game!


Johnny Unitas lives!

I am totally pumped for this game to come out for the 360. Of course, I'll need to get my 360 back from being fixed. Hopefully that'll happen next week. Seeing all the old Sega NFL 2K footage as I have been reading about the 2k8 game online in forums makes me really wish I would have kept my old Xbox and been able to play the old 2K games on it. I made a big mistake trading it in. But, who would have thought I would have this much trouble keeping a 360 working?

Regardless, it is costing me 0$ to get it fixed. So I won't complain. I just need July 17th to get here already! It will be great because that's the week I come back from my conference in San Diego. I'll be ready to play!

Friday night/Saturday morning at 1am SPIKE TV will have the first footage of this game on tv. I can't wait to see it.
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Great news... All-Pro Football 2k8 is coming!

I have hated Madden for a long time. I have tried my best to convert to it this year because it is the only football game in town. But, it has done nothing but frustrate me. This is the best video game news I have heard in a LONG, LONG time:2KSports announces ALL-PRO Football 2K8

Many sports game fans likely remember the date as one where the landscape of the football gaming world dramatically changed. On that date the announcement was made that Electronic Arts had secured exclusive video game rights to the NFL, effectively cutting the NFL 2K series out of the race. Despite predictions of doom and gloom, and the series' two-year absence from store shelves, it seems you can't keep a good football series down. Today's official announcement of All-Pro Football 2K8, a game long-rumored to be in the works, confirms that the team at 2K Sports is back on the virtual gridiron, preparing a football game that looks to make up for what it lacks in officially licensed teams and logos with the kind of hard-hitting, authentic gameplay the series has built its reputation on.

I am pumped! Great News.

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XBOX 360 Headset

Tonight I decided to spend my Best Buy gift card from my "not so secret" Santa on a set of AWESOME Xbox 360 headphones: Turtle Beach Ear Force X1.



These are great. You can not only listen to the game audio on these things, but also do chat through Xbox 360 in game. Very cool. They should be here sometime next week.

This means I won't have to worry about turning down the audio on my tv when Aidan is sleeping. :)

Also, I am thinking about spending my Target gift card from my step-mom Fran on a set of wires to connect my 360 to the computer monitor and play HD quality games. My bro-in-law Brian says it is the only way to go. I just haven't had the balls to drop the money on it yet. The cable is 40 bucks. I just hate spending $ sometimes. But, this might be worth it... and it's not my money, really. It's a cool gift.

The gift of explosions, touchdowns, and online gaming. Awesome.

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Game of the Year?

Gamespot has been giving out their video game awards over the past week for 2006. Today was "Game of the Year" -- their most prestigious honor. It went to a truly great game and one on my system - Xbox 360

Gears of War (X360)
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Developer: Epic Games

It must have taken a lot of guts for Epic Games to put together a game like Gears of War, but above and beyond that, it must have taken some kind of preposterous level of talent, time, money, and effort. The result is an action game that simply makes most other action games look bad. Of course, Gears of War isn't all about its technology; a number of simple, brilliant design choices are part of what makes this game so much fun to play.

Gears of War is the game that actually fulfills those outlandish promises we've been hearing from the likes of Microsoft and Sony about how earth-shattering the so-called next-generation games will be. OK, OK, we believe it. It's easy and tempting to call this the best-looking game ever made; but Gears of War is a complete package, offering much, much more than pretty visuals. It's a game that takes one of the most basic concepts in gaming--the shooter--and pushes that concept further than any other game has done before.

Gears of War's influences are apparent, and most of them are cinematic in nature. Take all of your favorite science fiction action movies, mash them into one, and put yourself in the starring role, and there you go. Better yet, put yourself and a friend in the starring roles; you guys decide who will be the sidekick. Other games have offered cooperative play in the past, but again, Gears of War does it better. An intuitive tactical combat system, visceral close-quarters shooting, likable characters, a highly replayable campaign, an intense competitive versus mode, and a great visual style all contribute to making Gears of War such an amazing game.

Developer Epic Games has long since earned a good name for itself thanks to its outstanding multiplayer-focused Unreal Tournament series. It's almost startling, then, how a game like Gears of War could come out and practically eclipse the company's past accomplishments, as great as they've been.

I was psyched to play a little bit of this tonight... and now I can't wait to play. There is no doubt in my mind it's the best game I have played this year - bar none.
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Wii would never buy a PS3

Just one man's opinion, but I would never buy a PS3. The launch is tonight at midnight. People are already resorting to stealing them:
Armed men take off with PS3s

Sad.

MSNBC: Die hards line up for PS3

Nintendo is doing the right thing. Their launch is just after the PS3. When all the kids that can't get a PS3 (and can't afford one because it is $600 bucks) are upset and sad, they just might turn and buy the more inexpensive Wii.

Sony is hoping PS3 can revive their entire company. It has been in the crapper for the past few years. Some of it is because they just have not been able to get the PS3 made and have slipped behind some companies like Samsung in consumer electronics innovation. I am thinking that this might be a death nail for Sony if it can't pull off a huge PS3 debut and if fans are not wowed. Early reports are mixed about the new system. Backwards compatibility is not working like they said it would.

I am hoping that Gears of War prompts more people to buy the Xbox 360. It's probably the one game I would buy right now. I will wait though until after Christmas and pull some money together. 60 bucks is just ridiculous for games.

It's one of the reasons that our video game club at school has so much interest. Kids don't want to drop $60 hard earned bucks on a game that stinks. We talk about the games, show video reviews and are even going to start trading them each week. It has been a fun club and I hope it gets even better with the launch of two more great systems.

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