Gaming Blogs – Page 16

The Best of The Worst – Teams to Turn Around In Sports Gaming

Now that we are well over half-way through the NFL season and the NBA season has already put some fans in the mind of ‘maybe next year’ there are quite a few teams to choose from when it comes to wanting a challenge or simply some sort of revival story to build a team around in a sports game.

Madden 13 –

Kansas City – Romeo Crennel has made Brady Quinn the starting QB in KC. Can you take this team of terribad from laughing stock to the playoffs? You will have plenty of youth to build around such as Eric Berry, Jamaal Charles, Dwayne Bowe and even Glenn Dorsey. Your first goal should be finding a decent QB to help this team achieve greatness.

Cleveland – The Browns are a perennial sad sack. While this is a team that has consistently under-performed there are multiple ways for you to take Cleveland to the next level. There are a lot of great young players on this team, but you will need to make a quick decision on whether to keep Brandon Weeden or move on in one of the upcoming drafts.

Arizona – Once again, you are getting ready to take a team that needs a QB answer (and fast)… see a theme here? The Cardinals have a couple decent players to build around, but you will have to take your time and figure out how to answer some tough questions – including whether or not you want to keep Larry Fitzgerald around if you don’t have a QB to throw him the ball. That could result in a lot of decent trade offers if you decide to put him on the trade block as well. While it may sound crazy, it is something to consider.

New York Jets – The Jets are a mess. One of the best things that could happen to this team is to get rid of their QBs… all of them. Then make a few decisions about how you want to build this franchise from the ground up. There are some players like Stephen Hill at WR that could be nice projects to build around, but then you have players like Darrelle Revis, Santonio Holmes and Shonn Greene that could be moved for draft picks so that you can build a team made to last rather than a team built to make headlines for publicity stunts (see Tim Tebow).

Jacksonville – More than just a team that has no real talent, they are constantly a threat to be moved to Los Angeles. Since EA Tiburon took the option to move your team to another city out of the game (they enjoy taking features away) you have to make moves and stay in Jacksonville to make this team better. If you win three games in your first season you can consider it a somewhat successful year. Get a new QB, trade away MJD and do your best to find some talent for this team that seems to be the biggest laughing stock of the NFL.

Carolina – The Panthers are one of the few teams on this list that have a QB in Cam Newton. On the other hand, they have a lot of other places on their team that need vast improvement. While they have a great MLB in Luke Kuechly they are pretty much limited to having just those players to build around. Make use of the trade block and build this team around future picks that you can get from trading away players like DeAngelo Williams, Steve Smith, Jonathan Stewart, Chris Gamble and any other player you can do without.

Dallas – Talk about a team that makes you scratch your head. The Cowboys are consistently picked to be a playoff team but in the end it is their egotistical owner that really makes the worst decisions for the future of this team. Make a new story for the Cowboys that will allow them to make smart personnel decisions. This means getting rid of the most overrated QB in the NFL – Tony Romo. Also, you may want to consider getting what you can for DeMarcus Ware.

Oakland – The first step in this team growing was the death of the Crypt Keeper, Al Davis. The next step is building this franchise to be more than glorified Speed Ratings. Make a decision on how you want to build the offense and defense – that means possibly taking a chance on Terrelle Pryor or going in a totally new direction. Then start building the defense into something to be feared like it was in the 1970s.

NBA 2K13 –

Cleveland – The Cavs are a young team that has a cornerstone in Kyrie Irving but that isn’t enough as they need to work on getting this talent to be more than potential prospects. They need to grow up fast and that could mean a lot of work for you in Association Mode.

Washington – The Wizards are laughingly bad. Sure, John Wall is amazing – but really they are flatout awful. Get ready to trade a lot of your best players like Okafor just to get some prospects.

Detroit – Only a few years ago the Pistons were powerful and feared. Now they are hilarious to watch on the court. They look more like a team getting ready to face the Globetrotters than an NBA team at times. This is a team built around unwanted journeymen and bad trades. It will take you a few seasons to turn them around – but it will be worth it.

Sacramento – Considering the fact that the Maloofs are looking to move this team to Las Vegas, you can tell that they are in need for some improvement. The Kings were once one of the best teams in the west, but now they are often forgotten when people talk about NBA teams. I forget they exist half of the time. I call them the Wizards of the west.

New Orleans – This team got the equivalent of a bailout from the NBA. Chris Paul said bye-bye and now they are being built around the unibrow of Anthony Davis. New Orleans needs more than yet another Kentucky product with an IQ less than his scoring average to turn this team around.

Orlando – Dwight Howard is gone. This move was similar to that of LeBron James leaving Cleveland. How will you bring the magic back to Orlando?

MLB 12 –

Cleveland – Talk about a team with a chance to make big strides with a new manager. Terry Francona is the new skipper and you will have to make a few moves to bring some pitching and power to this lineup.

Houston – Do something… anything. Even if it means creating a steroid infused Roger Clemens to come back and pitch this team to at least 20 wins. It is a bad time to be an Astros fan, but now that they are moving to the American League it could make for a fun journey… albeit – a long and tough one.

Colorado – They made an incredible run a few years ago, but this team needs pitching in the worst way. Take it upon yourself to manage the thin air and find a way to make Denver cheer for a team not called the Broncos.

Miami – They just fired Ozzie Guillen and now they are selling off their players. This is a team that will take a lot of patience to build into more than a one-year wonder. Do it the right way and you will have something to be proud of in the end.

Pittsburgh – This team was on the cusp of making the playoffs in 2012. Take the power in the steel city and bring this team back to their past glory. They have a great ballpark and with players like McCutchen to build around it could be a lot of fun.

Oakland – One of my favorite movies of the last few years was Moneyball. Billy Beane took a chance in using stats and fantasy baseball type of projections to build his team. Take it to the next step and help them win it all.

Seattle – My favorite player of all-time is Ken Griffey Jr. When I saw him go back to Seattle to finish his career it was bitter-sweet. I would love to see this team be more than just a great pitcher like Felix Henandez – they need better players and that starts with you making the moves to bring the talent back to Seattle.

NHL 13 –

Who cares? The NHL season is dead and the sport of hockey on its way out of almost every person’s consciousness.

Pick any team you want – but the best of the worst would be the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Stop Pulling The Trigger On Madden 13

Having trouble running the ball or making plays on defense? Your problem could be as simple as putting your finger on the RT or R2 button. If you tend to play Madden at a high speed or simply try to run down your opposition using the ‘turbo’ button you will notice that taking your foot off the gas a little will actually make the game play a bit better for you.

When you are trying to run the ball on offense take a little time to devote to not pressing the sprint button until you are well past your line of blockers. This is all due to the way the game has been programmed from the AI/CPU perspective. You will notice that every player on the opposing team will actually increase their speed once you hit that sprint button. This means that when you are early in your running plays and try to sprint through an open hole, you are actually inviting the other team to get there faster and stuff your play.

The same occurs on defense, but in a slightly different manner. When you see the CPU pitch the ball outside and try to get a running play to go around the edge and you move with your MLB to stomp it with the sprint button, you will almost always notice that the play will end up going for bigger yards than it should have. This is because the same principle exists on the other side of the ball. Keep your finger off the sprint button and you will notice your team will play much better.

College Football’s Negative Impact On EA’s NCAA Football Franchise

Over the past few years I have been a staunch supporter of NCAA Football over Madden NFL. EA Sports has truly dropped the ball on both games in multiple ways over this entire generation of consoles (PS3 and 360). Many can blame the glitches and problems on the apparent dependency that developers have on releasing software updates and patches through online interactions. While these kind of ‘hot fixes’ are vital to software (including games) it seems to have left the door open to sloppy development over the course of a year. This isn’t even the biggest problem facing EA’s NCAA Football at this point – it is the college football landscape itself.

Bye Bye BCS… Hello new broken game development.

In case you haven’t paid any attention to college sports over the last few years, there have been teams moving from conference to conference more than Bobby Petrino switches teams (and women). On top of conference changes and re-alignments, the NCAA has recently approved the move to a new playoff system (finally). This is welcome news to the people that still pay attention to the NFL’s minor league affiliate, but for gaming fans it is a dreaded issue that is too far into the future to allow them any sort of desire to want to invest in more broken games without any sort of tournament or playoff system for college football gaming. Why waste time and money on a game that changes faces so often?

College football is a joke in many ways but when it comes to the hypocritical billion dollar deals for the services of ‘amateur’ athletes with coaches that make millions of dollars a year over networks like ESPN – why is it that the gaming end of things is so strangely broken as well? College football is a farce and NCAA Football is a digital farce that continues the NCAA’s views that making money off of college football is paramount. The broken BCS system is just as broken in the video game as it is in real life but now there are gamers clamoring for something worse than fixing issues that plague a game… they want options.

Gamers want to edit players, names, conferences, polls, ranking calculations, awards, coaches, CPU intelligence and many other facets of their game. This is all simply because that whenever EA Sports slaps together their annual sports titles they are constantly closing off customization more than opening it to users for a better experience. Maybe they should take a look at how much games like Counter-Strike can become huge in the PC market – all because of modders and an active user base.

NCAA Football 13 went from $60 to $45 rather quickly this year. It was as if it was a hyped up movie that hit theaters for a week before going to DVD and your local Big Lots bargain bin. EA Sports has proven over this generation of consoles that there is no level too low for them to stoop in terms of laziness and development to keep your money coming in with their effort consistently falling. This isn’t to say that Madden NFL doesn’t have issues mind you (we will hit that later) – but with the NCAA season coming to a close and many college football fans looking to next year we must wonder – what is EA going to do in NCAA 14 that will keep gamers from thinking “I’ll just wait until next year – if at all.”?

Let the 2K College Football rumors begin.

Increasing The Longevity of Your Franchise Mode In Sports Games

In any sports game it is often the most desired game mode but it is also one of the hardest to have any sort of real longevity with – Franchise/Association/Connected Careers Mode.

Sports gamers often have to deal with a few different issues that keep them from playing more than one season (or even just one season). If you are one of the many gamers that suffer from these issues we will supply you with a few different solutions for giving you a more successful and longer lasting personal career/franchise mode.

Winning Too Much, Too Fast – Most of the typical elitists out there will get on your case if you are winning ‘too much’ and tell you that you need to turn your sliders up a few notches. While this might be the case (and often is) there are other means of making your game a bit more challenging.

The first is playing the game in a manner that takes your superior decision-making out of the equation and allowing the game to provide a decent challenge. In football games you will often see either an ‘Ask Madden’ or ‘Suggested Play/Pitch’ option – use that to the utmost and avoid making any changes to that play in order to keep the AI functioning. You will often notice that the CPU ‘cheats’ as you change plays on the fly. This is often a function of the game trying to challenge you. The AI doesn’t have the complex decision functions that you have in your head (yet), so be sure to let the game give you the challenge it is trying to give you.

Secondly, you may want to stop turning off the system before you lose a game. Losing sucks but you know what sucks more? Playing and winning every game, every season and then losing interest because your team is ‘so amazing’ that it is boring now. Do yourself a favor and be honest about your infatuation with winning every game. No NFL team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins has gone undefeated and one the Super Bowl. No Major League Baseball team has ever gone undefeated and the same can be said for pretty much every other league and sport around. Build your team and allow for the game to challenge you.

Thirdly, turn up the difficulty (there I said it). If this means turning the human sliders to ‘0’ because you are the greatest Madden gamer of all time, do it. Really the only person you have to answer to is yourself and it is mind-boggling to me how many people will say the game is too easy when they really aren’t challenging their gaming abilities past what they feel is ‘fair’.

Broken Progression – This was and is an issue with the hardcore Madden community as well as every other sports game. No one is ever happy with the way players grow in sports gaming – ever. It is much like anything else with people – you can’t make everyone happy all of the time. The best approach can be found in 2K Sports games and Madden 12 where you can go and edit the ratings of any and every player in the game to your heart’s content. Yet, there are still people out there that want to complain about that even being an option because they expect some sort of magic progression system for players.

Sadly, outside of the option to edit every rating for every player you will have to take it upon yourself to learn how the progression system ‘works’ and make it work for you. Madden 13 is largely dependent on production and XP growth based on what your players are doing on the field. While this makes a lot of sense to people it is totally wrong in the eyes of others that think some sort of mythological ‘potential’ rating is the way to go.

Too Easy To Build Team – Do yourself a favor and unleash your inner Billy Beane. Start building your team as if you’re on the strictest of budgets. Limit your potential contract offers to a set amount and you will quickly find that quality players are much harder to come by.

Another direction is to build in the exact opposite manner – spend big money on big players. A good starting point is to determine/find a franchise player. Whether it is a quarterback in football or a cornerstone like Albert Pujols in baseball, put your money where your hopes are and make it a big contract. This will help limit your spending in other parts of your roster.

Can’t Pick A Team – This is something that most people find to be a common problem and it is often the primary reason why a single-player career mode/franchise mode ends within the first three seasons. You have a few options that can help you in this journey to finding longevity in franchise mode.

The first option is finding a team that needs a lot of work. Often you will find the most fun in building one of the worst teams in the game. In Madden, you will often find that a team like the Browns needs quite a bit of help. In that same breath, you can use teams like the Indians, Marlins or Astros in a baseball game or a team like the Sacramento Kings in basketball games.

The second option is changing your team after a few seasons. Thankfully, in most sports games this is an option after every season. If you win a few championships with a team and you want a change of pace, quit that team in the off-season and take the worst team in the league and try to build them into a contender that will last long after you leave. The best way to see if you have truly built a great team is to build them up and then find a new job. Track the progress of your old team and it will be like watching a Chia Pet grow wild.

Yet another direction you can go with a team in franchise mode is setting up an online story for people to follow. This will allow you to have a deeper connection to the team you are using and a bit of ownership to keep other people updated on what’s going on. In many cases, you will find that it gives you the ability to become a better storyteller. Also, you should take this as an opportunity to completely change the team to your liking. While this is certainly something that most people think when going into their career mode they usually let their interest go by the wayside.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 – Multiplayer Impressions

If you weren’t among the millions of people that were waiting outside of your local gaming store last night at midnight – do not fret. The Black Ops 2 multiplayer is something that isn’t going to surprise anyone that has played Call of Duty before. The game handles just like the games of the past. However, there are a few things outside of the ‘new’ score-streaks that make Black Ops 2 a bit different from other COD games.

The first Black Ops game suffered from major problems with lag and hit detection. Black Ops 2 is noticeably better in this aspect because it seems to handle a bit smoother and simply feels more fluid when either aiming or simply moving around the map. This doesn’t mean that everything is great and wonderful in the COD universe though. Many things seem like they will never change and that is almost always the case with Call of Duty games.

Quick-Scoping Is Still There

Perhaps one of the most annoying aspects of Call of Duty games is the persistent presence of quick-scoping in the game that takes advantage of what feels like a more and more simplified shooter game. Another issue that follows this is aim-assist, if a player walks past or near your cross hairs you can expect to see your weapon movie with them slightly. This, once again is another reason for people that hate Call of Duty to stay away from it and play Battlefield 3 or Halo 4 (a fantastic accomplishment for 343 Industries).

Recoil Is Still Minimal

When aiming down sight you will notice that firing your weapon is still relatively simple to do without a lot of movement from the firing (recoil). Some of the weapons (especially the MP7) are slightly more unstable than their Modern Warfare counter-parts, but that doesn’t mean they have a lot of recoil issues. This is yet again another factor that many people simply don’t need to ask about. Call of Duty has never had any issues or dedication to being a simulation experience. This game is about jumping in and shooting up your enemies – everything else is out the window… including recoil.

Class Customization

This can either be the great equalizer or the worst part of a COD game. If you look at the problems that were in MW2 (Danger Close with Scavenger coupled with RPGs and NoobTubes (grenade launchers)) you will see that the new approach to perks and class customization are going to be key in making your experience something that is not only all your own, but also something that is practical, tactical and effective.

We will be devoting the coming months to some of the newest games. Christmas lists are starting to fill up with dreams of putting digital bullets through digital skulls in our favorite shooter games. NoobTubeTV will be there all the way through to help you become a better and more informed gamer.
Happy Hunting

Assassin’s Creed 3 R.E.A.L. Review

Assassin’s Creed 3 is just like every other AC game for the most part. That is generally the idea when you are playing a game franchise like this. However, it is still an amazing accomplishment in gaming from the aspect of a great storyline (with a twist that occurs early on in the game); As well, the relatively seamless controls for a fast-paced free-roaming game. While the controls are smooth, there are also a few issues with character movement that prove to be (at times) annoying enough to make you turn off the game out of frustration.

The attack and counter-attack system is thankfully simple but it borders on being too ‘dumbed down’. The other issues with controls are more related to wonky camera angles and how you occasionally get caught on trees, rocks and even small animals within the cities. This is often an issue that can be alleviated by a patch, but I wouldn’t hold my breath as this game won’t have a patch for some time (if trends continue).

The biggest surprise so far has been the quality multiplayer game in AC3. While it is typically some form of deathmatch (what else do you expect from an assassin game?) it is challenging enough to remain fresh as you try new strategies and grow in your knowledge of sneaking around the maps and jumping your enemies in surprising fashion.

The story is decent enough and it will pull you in like the trailer from a major motion picture. The downside to this is that the voice acting and the intelligence of some of the CPU AI is enough to make you want to stick your head in a microwave and hit defrost. The American Revolution is a great time period for a game like this to take place, and the character development is nice (albeit obvious) as far as it goes for the protagonist(s).

Assassin’s Creed 3 is a quality game with relatively high replay-ability. You will want to go back and try to perfect every mission as you learn new techniques. There is also enough depth in the multiplayer for you to play it exclusively if that is your cup of tea. If you love Assassin’s Creed as a series you should certainly invest in the $60 for this game.

This game delivers on everything it promised and the multiplayer was surprisingly addicting.

R.E.A.L. Rating = 93/100

Deductions were taken for the somewhat wonky control issues and the annoying CPU AI/voice acting.

Assassin-Nation: Assassin’s Creed 3 Is Less Than Twenty-Four Hours Away!

Sharpen your blades and work on your parkour. Assassin’s Creed 3 is coming out at midnight tonight and it looks like it could be the best one yet. This is the first time I have pre-ordered one of the AC games over the course of its existence, but it recently grabbed my attention with the inclusion of a barter economy and the idea of defending trade routes among other things that may seem small but will hopefully make the game a more enthralling experience overall.

This game is looking more and more like Red Dead Redemption in many ways as well. The concept of hunting different animals and building your own homestead is something that is quite common in many Rockstar games and AC3 looks to have caught on to that fact.

Have you pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed 3? If not – you still have some time!

Developing Players In Madden 13

We recently talked about building your team in Madden 13. There are many different ways to do this strictly by picking up talented players that

SaraMccrop — You can help save these players without a team. Please just make sure you take the time to play with them!

are rated as such. On the flip-side, there are also many other players out there that are diamonds in the rough. You can make it your mission to take some players out of the late rounds of the draft or even pick them up during the preseason as other teams give up on them because of low overall ratings.

You need to take some chances on players you might not know about and that will often mean scouring the free agent market during the pre-season for a player that could make all the difference for you in the current season or simply develop him into a future star.

There are a few different ways to look for a player that might ‘fly under the radar’. The first is to look at position specific ratings and determine if they are what you are looking for in a player at that position. Assuming you even need someone at that position.

Quarterbacks are some of the easier ones to look for as far as ratings go, but they will often be the first ones to go during the preseason. Look at their Throw Power and Throwing Accuracy ratings. If you run a West Coast offense you don’t need a QB with 95+ THP, but you do need them to have good-to-great accuracy when throwing short and medium routes. If you prefer a more vertical passing attack, you will want someone with a higher THP (like 95+) and a better accuracy for deep passes. The moral of the story is – If the shoe fits, pick up the QB you need. As you develop a QB you should focus on improving their passing ratings first rather than some sort of speed increases.

Runningbacks are a different breed when it comes to determining what is a ‘steal’ (assuming you need one). The first thing you will notice is that developing a runningback will be costly if you want to increase their SPD rating. If you want a ‘fast’ HB, make sure he is fast before you pick him up. As well, pay close attention to his ratings in Carrying and Injury/Toughness. A decent HB can have his season and career derailed if he takes a shot from a powerful MLB or Safety. The ratings for a HB that need to be increased in order to develop their market value are the AWR and Carrying ratings. Use your XP on these and your HB will be a force to be reckoned with… or traded in his late 20’s.

Receivers are among the most common diamonds in the rough. They are also the easiest to stock up on and never use… therefore, losing a roster spot just to carry a potential talent. Receivers need to have the obvious CTH (catch) rating, but they also need to have a few others that you can easily build up if you get them enough playing time and touches. The AWR rating is something that can effect a WR as he needs to be able to know when the ball is thrown and where to run his routes. Also, there is an issue of getting your potential diva WR the ball often enough to build him up. I am currently in a situation where I have eight (8) WRs on my team. I have turned the Browns into a pass first team, but in the process I have also over-stocked my team with WRs. Here are a few of my current project players –

Offensive Line is another easy place to upgrade players, but you should really make sure you draft them with great ratings first. It isn’t often you will put an under-rated O-Lineman on the field to protect your QB. On the other side of this argument, you can always grab a lineman with great strength and size, put him on the line and try to dominate with the running or passing game (whichever is his focus for XP) and develop him in that fashion.

The hardest players to develop are Defensive Linemen and Linebackers. The reason being that they develop most of their XP through tackling statistics. The issue is that tackling stats are broken in Madden 13 and the interactions between defensive players and offensive blockers is shaky at best. You will want to increase the Tackle ratings first and then move on to increase every player to ‘Big Hitter’ status so they cause more fumbles as well as increasing their Hit Power ratings.

Depending on what type of coverage you run for your defensive backs you will want to focus on their coverage ratings as well as their press ratings. If you are running a lot of man-coverage with your CBs you will want to increase their MCV ratings first as well as their Press rating if they are a physical type of player. Their XP is generally determined by how many INTs they get during the course of the year and if you can develop a talented defensive backfield you will be almost unstoppable.

When it comes to safeties you will want to look at how you have them playing as well. I have a defense made up of ‘enforcers’ like Laron Landry and TJ Ward… if you come across the middle you will end up with a broken jaw because these are like Honey Badgers… they don’t give a s**t! Make sure you up their Zone Coverage ratings as well as their tackling and hit power as they are often the last line of defense if someone does get past your front-seven. The last thing you want are a bunch of DBs trying to ‘tackle’ like Deion Sanders.

Kickers require a lot of field goals in order to increase their stats. The bad thing about this is that most people want to score touchdowns rather than kicking a lot of FGs. Whenever you want to increase your kick power you will notice that it starts to get really expensive after awhile. Your best bet is to pick up a kicker with a high kick power rating starting off.

Punters are along the same lines as kickers. How many teams really ‘want’ to punt? Try to pick up these players as you go and hope that they have the high kick power ratings that you need rather than try to build them up.

Medal of Honor Warfighter – Review and Impressions

At first glance you might look at Medal of Honor: Warfighter with a cynical mindset. Afterall, the original ‘rehash’ of the series was lacking to say the least. What you will notice right off the bat is recoil in your weapons from the gameplay perspective. This game is a more arcade-like game from the run and gun perspective on multiplayer rather than the Battlefield 3 perspective of objective based gameplay and XP development.

Warfighter’s maps seem forced and cluttered for the most part. While the Frostbite 2 engine is a nice addition and it gives the ability to destroy cover, etc. there doesn’t seem to be a lot of longevity to a game that isn’t based on larger maps with a lot of cover to destroy. Once again, EA is finding a way to put out a game as a stop-gap measure rather than trying to really overtake Call of Duty.

Here is a quick run-down of what you should expect if you are on the fence about buying Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Pros –

Fast Gameplay – This game plays more like Call of Duty or even the 2010 iteration of MOH, but it is a welcome direction for people that prefer EA shooters over Call of Duty but still want faster gameplay and an overall more ‘reflex driven’ game. The recoil of the weapons makes for a less point and shoot feel, but the small maps and close quarters along with a more assault driven attitude of game-modes makes Warfighter a faster experience overall.

Full Weapon Customization – You can pretty much build up any of your weapons to your own specifications. New barrels, new sights, optics, etc. The best part of being able to do these things is that they give you a feeling of ownership and creativity that actually matters. Call of Duty has accessories for guns, sure… but for the most part they are unnecessary ‘bling’. The only thing is that with the maps and game-types in Warfighter, is it really that vital to have all these options? Only time will tell.

A Somewhat Intriguing Story – It isn’t often that we can say a FPS title has a story worth paying attention to. Medal of Honor feels more like the movie ‘Act of Valor’ than some sort of half-cocked terrorist fiction. On the other hand, maybe that is exactly what it is… *shrug*. Warfighter grabs the gamer by the heartstrings with a story that feels very real in today’s modern terrorist obsessed culture. However, it is also a game about terrorists being chased around the world.

I think I have played this game before.

Cons –

Feels Like A Stop-Gap COD Wanna-be – The bad part of MOH: WF is that it feels like Call of Duty without the urgency. Call of Duty is fast paced, run and gun, twitchy and an overall ADHD experience. Warfighter is all of those things without the twitchy control feel. This makes for a fast paced game with sluggish handling. I appreciate the effort to speed up the feel but this game needs to make up its mind.

Too Little, Too Late – With the likes of Halo and Call of Duty coming out in the next three weeks MOH is looking like something to buy if you have $60 to throw away. This feels a lot like the 2010 release of Medal of Honor where it had a toe-hold for a couple weeks before Call of Duty came out and made people forget about playing a game with a lumberjack on the cover.

A Possible DLC Money Pit – One of the most annoying aspects of this current generation (and future generations) of online console gaming is downloadable content. Sure, DLC is something that is a must for games like Medal of Honor, but in reality you are starting to see a trend of games that come out with DLC already planned to take money out of your wallet. Purchasing Warfighter brand new comes with access to a couple new maps but in reality it isn’t much of a perk if you don’t plan on being completely devoted to this game for the next year. I don’t foresee Medal of Honor being played by many people when Battlefield 3 is already successful enough with its community and Call of Duty gamers will get their annual re-hash and pour money into DLC and ‘Elite’.

Have You Seen My Baseball? – Five Reasons To Look Forward to MLB 13

When I was younger I was a baseball fanatic. Ken Griffey Jr. posters adorned my bedroom walls and every summer consisted of a run down the driveway to see the sports page and look for the latest home run count. I am either extremely lucky or unlucky to have grown up during the height of the steroid era of baseball. Thankfully, my favorite player was never implicated in any of the investigations. Unfortunately, the second half of his career was marred by injuries and he never set the all-time record for home runs.

The moral of this story is that since his retirement I have had little reason to pay attention to baseball. I chose not to purchase MLB 12: The Show because there were enough changes going on next season that I figured I would save my $60 for that. Now that we are one day from the World Series and two teams I don’t follow are playing for the title; it’s time to start looking at next year.

Extra Wild-Card Game For Playoffs – This year we saw an addition to baseball that was a long time coming. The addition of an extra playoff series (even if it was only one game) that allowed for another reason to hope for the unlikely to happen with a second wild-card slot. 162 games in a season can often prove to be a marathon that most people stop paying attention to in the months of June and July. This year we saw the likes of the Indians and the Pirates have hopes of the playoffs dashed in the middle/late-middle of the season. The fact that they still had some hope was largely due to the extra playoff spot. In MLB 13 we should hold this as a sign that playing a full season of 162 games might not be a complete waste if you can squeak into the playoffs with an underdog team. Look out for my Tribe next season as we will be making a push with a new manager and hopefully a few new players.

Houston Moves To American League – One reason it was easy to pass up on MLB 12 was due to the fact that the move of Houston to the American League was announced. It takes away from a Franchise Mode when you know that after the first season you will not be able to realistically move a team to another league. This is minor from most perspectives, but it does take away from the immersion if you are in a sports game for the long-term. Even if it is one of the worst teams in all of professional sports.

Harper, Cespedes and Trout – These three players are bringing me back to baseball. It has been a long time since baseball has had a face to bring people to the sports page every day. Bryce Harper is arrogant, sure… but he is one hell of a ball player and his talent is finally more than just some sort of YouTube homerun derby video. Yoenis Cespedes almost saved my fantasy baseball team this year and let’s face it – he plays on Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s. I love the opportunity to watch teams like Oakland play moneyball and develop talent however they can. Mike Trout almost gave me faith that a rookie could win the MVP award and deserve it just because he is a solid player all-around… rather than some sort of brutish homerun king that can’t play defense. Next year could be the year that Trout really jumps to the fore-front as a true MVP contender.

Spring Time – Face it, baseball starts during the springtime. It is one of the few signs that the weather is about to get better after a long winter. I am already dreading the arduous drive to work every day during January and February. Opening day in baseball is unlike that of any other sport. When we see MLB 13 on the shelves it should give us hope that the snow is about to melt and we can get back to enjoying the weather outside… not to mention some of America’s past time.

Faith In Sports Gaming Renewed – Every August we are blessed/cursed with EA Football games. America’s favorite sport is largely football. However, when it comes to sports games – MLB: The Show and NBA 2K are the best ones out there. After the NFL season has come to an end we are often left with that pit in our stomach that there is no more football to watch. However, when we get that first smell of baseball it is hard to let it go. The smell of the leather with a baseball glove over your face, the sound of a hanging curve getting smashed into the bleachers and the feel of freshly mowed grass under your cleats should be enough to make you forget about football… at least until the draft.