NFL 2012 - Week 6 Predictions

Here are Weekly NFL Predictions for the 2012 NFL Season for Week #6.

8:00pm EDT Thursday Game
Pittsburgh at Tennessee


1:00pm EDT Sunday Games
Dallas at Baltimore
Oakland at Atlanta
Cincinnati at Cleveland
St. Louis at Miami
Indianapolis at NY Jets
Detroit at Philadelphia
Kansas City at Tampa Bay


4:00pm EDT Sunday Games
Buffalo at Arizona
New England at Seattle
Minnesota at Washington


8:00pm EDT Sunday Game
Green Bay at Houston


8:30pm EDT Monday Game
Denver at San Diego


Record thus far: 46-31

Week 1: 11-5

Week 2: 6-10

Week 3: 8-8

Week 4: 11-4

Week 5: 10-4

MLB Playoffs 2012 - NL Edition

With only a few hours left until the first pitch, it's time to discuss the National League. Of the five teams representing the National League this year, only one is a surprise, that of course being the Washington Nationals, who got there by having one of the best pitching staffs in the league all season, as well as some good hitting in the latter half of the season when their lineup got healthier. While the Nationals will be without Stephen Strausburg, they still have a very solid starting pitching rotation with Gonzalez, Zimmerman, Detwiler and Jackson. The Nationals were a very energetic team all season, refusing to go down without a fight every step of the way. Near the end however, they appear to be somewhat limping into the Playoffs having lost 11 or their last 20 games. They will face either the defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals or division rival Atlanta Braves.

The Cardinals, who won the world series last year are led by a very health lineup, travel to the Braves, who have a very healthy pitching rotation. In the Playoffs there are two constants: First and foremost, defense matters. Secondly, the Braves have a poor playoff history. While the Braves have a great pitching staff, they are known for not being key in the clutch when they need it the most, the playoffs. With that in mind, the Braves starting pitcher is the right man for the job, as the Braves have won the last 22 games he's started. But given how both are playing at the moment, along with how things played out last year, I believe the Cardinals are still the favorites here to move along and face Washington.

The other second round series is all about pitching. Cincinnati and San Francisco are all about their pitching rotation. While I'm not entirely sure who wins this battle, the fact that San Francisco has the first two games at home is a huge advantage for them, especially since there is no play-in game for either club. The Reds are still the favorites in the series though, since they have similar play styles, but the Reds have a better rotation for the remainder of the playoffs.


Predictions
Wild Card Round: St. Louis over Atlanta
Second Round: Cincinnati over San Francisco, Washington over St. Louis
Divisional Round: Washington over Cincinnati


The reason I choose Washington over Cincinnati, if they should meet, comes down to the individual team matchup. Even when the Nationals were a bad team 3 years ago, they have always had a consistently good record against the Reds. I feel this trend will continue here. Alright, that's it for my Playoff preview of both leagues. Let's hope nothing controversial happens!

MLB Playoffs 2012 - AL Edition

After 162 games over the span of six months, the 2012 Major League Baseball Playoffs are finally upon us. While there are a couple of surprising faces in this year's playoffs, as always, there are some familiar faces. But in the end it doesn't matter, since all are competing for the title of World Champion.

In the American League you have the favorites, Eastern Champions, the New York Yankees. The Yankees had to struggle until the final day of the season with the surprise Baltimore Orioles, who until near the end had a negative run differential. The Orioles sort of have the Yankees number this season, and if they were to meet during the second round of the Playoffs, would surely hold the advantage by not having the first two games at home, but hold a winning record at the Yankees this season. More than likely that won't happen, since the Orioles face the Texas Rangers in the AL wild card game.

The Rangers hold the advantage over the Orioles this season, winning five of seven as well as 2 of 3 at Texas. The Rangers have been slumping of late however, losing 7 of their last 10, including five of their last six against Oakland, who passed them on the final day of the season for the AL West title. The Rangers have gone to the World Series the past two seasons, so they have experience on their side as well. But many want the upstart teams to be the ones to succeed this year.

The Athletics are the definition of upstarts. Picked by no one and viewed by less, Oakland came out of nowhere in the second half to play Detroit in the second round of the Playoffs. The A's are an unknown, but face a team that everyone thought would be there are the beginning. While momentum can be decidedly on Oakland's side, the talent is clearly with Detroit. In the Playoffs, defensive trumps offense. This is where this series will be decided, and where Detroit, Texas and New York can claim victory in.


Prediction
Wild Card Game: Texas over Baltimore
Second Round: Detroit over Oakland, Texas over New York
Divisional: New York over Detroit


Come back tomorrow morning, the day of both Wild Card Games, as I detail the National League Playoff Picture.

NFL 2012 - Week 4 Predictions

Here are my Weekly NFL Predictions for the 2012 Season for Week #4.

8:00pm EDT Thursday Game
Cleveland @ Baltimore

1:00pm EDT Sunday Games
Carolina @ Atlanta
New England @ Buffalo
Minnesota @ Detroit
San Diego @ Kansas City
Seattle @ St. Louis
San Francisco @ New York Jets
Tennesse @ Houston

4:00pm EDT Sunday Games
Oakland @ Denver
Miami @ Arizona
Cincinnati @ Jacksonville
New Orleans @ Green Bay
Washington @ Tampa Bay

8:00pm EDT Sunday Game
New York Giants @ Philadelphia

9:00pm EDT Monday Game
Chicago @ Dallas


Record Thus Far: 25-23

Week 1: 11-5

Week 2: 6-10

Week 3: 8-8

Borderlands 2 Review

Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed and brave Borderlands, which was one of only a few games which stood its’ ground to Modern Warfare 2. By focusing on cooperative play with a loot system and RPG mechanics, the cel-shaded shooter found a place among many gamers to garner downloadable content and a highly desired sequel. While Borderlands 2 has brought a welcome number of changes, it’s also brought something undesired, which is something most gamers won’t really know how to describe.

Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the original, wherein Handsome Jack wants to enter the Vault for mysterious reasons, and you, whom he tried to kill, wants revenge. In order to do that, you’ll need better guns than what you start out with. The game’s major hook is the loot system, where you kill enemies to get more and better guns. While the game progresses you’ll want to go from White to Green to Blue to Purple and finally to Orange to get the best weapons. However, you’ll constantly be checking your guns to see if a White gun outclasses your Orange one. It feels somewhat archaic and not all that thought out in the end. Borderlands 2 also expands on its’ level design, with the number of areas being easily quadrupled.

Every area in Borderlands 2 is enormous, but there’s very little density. Most areas are dead, forcing you to struggle with the terrible driving mechanics a lot of the time. Like the first game you’re going from place to place to achieve your goals. These areas would be better served by either being shrunk or not existing at all. It feels like Gearbox tried to pad the game’s length in ways that really weren’t necessary since the game already has enough content. In the end this hurts replay value since an average playthrough will be 40-50 hours instead of 25-30. Since Gearbox wants to promote people playing through the game multiple times with different classes, stretching out the game’s length is a misstep because it’s harder to replay it at that length. There’s more padding here, which comes down to how the game handles difficulty and its’ general gameplay.

Enemies in Borderlands 2 scale to your difficulty, averaging between two levels below to one level above your current level. People refer to this as “treadmill difficulty” which is something you see in Skyrim, as well as the original Borderlands, but it was contained to Mad Moxxi’s Underdome. This is done instead of creating a proper difficulty curve and scenario for every instance. It feels lazy and cheap to do so, and offers no better rewards. While the game promotes you being a badass, nothing is badass about wasting time on the same fight for a few hours.

Borderlands 2 introduces a Badass Rating system, wherein you earn tokens that you can spend on stat bonuses, such as increased weapon damage, reduced recoil, and more health. It does a good job getting you to play the game in different ways, but the rewards feel like a drop in the bucket some of the time. Even though you get bonuses to help, the game still feels uneven in terms of gameplay. Sometimes you’ll consistently miss shots at point blank range against a frozen enemy and fumble with the controls when enemies are in close proximity. If you manage to get through it all though, the game does have some great writing.

Borderlands 2 has a somewhat dark humor to its’ story, with characters that have a lot of personality and life to them. Gearbox has done an exceptional job at bringing the characters and world of Pandora to life. You’ll also be able to enjoy this world with other people easier due to the improved network options. Instead of having to start a game online and hope others join, you can just switch your current game to be open to everyone or no one. It’s nice to see such vast improvements in these two areas of the game, disheartening to see other areas get glossed over or take a step back.

In the end, Borderlands 2 is a step back from Borderlands in a lot of ways while taking a major leap forward with the universe that was created. If you want more Borderlands, it’s recommended to buy the downloadable content for the original or simply start a new character. Borderlands 2 will leave you feeling empty and disheartened, which is sad considering the game seems to have so much heart.

Overall Score: 6 out of 10

+ Good Writing
+ Good Art Style
+ Lots of Areas to Explore

- Treadmill Difficulty
- Music is Unmemorable
- Has Unnecessary Padding

Scabs R' Us

The NFL Replacement Referee Act of 2012 has been a resounding failure, getting worse as the season progresses. While there were some opening week jitters, the replacement refs were mostly competent. People thought these guys were okay and the regular referees looked bad as a result. The second week had more problems, but could still be defended from time to time. The peoples' view of the regular referees started to turn. This past weekend however, having culminated with the last two games, have been an unmitigated disaster. While the New England Patriots may call foul with a questionable field goal, no one can cry more foul than the Green Bay Packers, who last night had a game stolen from them by the replacement referees.

The final play of the game is and will forever be under the microscope. Was the ball a simultaneous reception by both Jennings of the Packers and Tate of the Seahawks? While the referees determined that yes it was, which means it's a touchdown since the ball in those situations reverts to the Offense, anyone with a clear view of it, either from afar or close could see that Tate didn't even have an arm on the ball. When you see the replay, Jennings caught the ball, got both arms around it, went to the ground and had the ball in his chest. Tate had one arm above the ball, maybe near Jennings' neck area, but nowhere near it to say he had at least partial control. What resulted was baffling, what can only be described as a black eye for the NFL, as the league forced them to kick the required extra points minutes after everyone left.

Throughout this whole ordeal, the NFL has tried to maintain order over the Referee strike, claiming that everything was fine, and the replacements weren't costing teams games. After Monday, the league can no longer claim that. While the game from both teams was particularly ugly, the referees ended up deciding the result of the game. That is not what referees are there to do, and after this game, it is perfectly clear that this experiment is a failure. The league needs the people who know the rules and procedures back on the field. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but now.

NFL 2012 - Week 1 Predictions

Welcome one and all to the 2012 NFL Season! It's been 7 months since the New York Giants won their fourth Super Bowl, once again over the New England Patriots, but now a new season begins tonight. So what better way to commemorate a new NFL season than to begin a new year of NFL Weekly Predictions? I can't think of anything better.


Dallas @ NY Giants
- The Giants host the Cowboys tonight with the Champions Season Opener, which is a rematch from Week 17 last year when the Giants manhandled the Cowboys to win the NFC East. While both teams are not looked at highly, I expect the Giants to hold serve against the Cowboys.

Indianapolis @ Chicago
- Andrew Luck is the new QB in Indy, but the Bears Defense has always been tough under coach Lovie Smith. I expect them to give Luck a warm welcome with many sacks due to their poor offensive line, allowing the Bears to cruise.


Philadelphia @ Cleveland
- When these two teams played in the pre-season a couple of weeks ago, the first string of Philly outclassed Cleveland. I expect the same to happen here, but for real, not practice.

St. Louis @ Detroit
- The Rams were the second worst team in the League last year while the Lions had a highly touted offense. While the Rams have a new head coach, I expect the Lions to show the Rams why they're the Rams.

New England @ Tennessee
- While the Titans finished the year strong, they have looked less than impressive in the off-season and have a new QB at the helm. Considering they're facing the New England Patriots, I expect nothing less than a mild blowout.

Atlanta @ Kansas City
- The Chiefs are enigma. They won the AFC West two years ago. They started poorly last year, fired their head coach, and got to 8-8 under Romeo Cronell, who isn't a good coach. I don't expect a stomping like the Bills put on the Chiefs last year on opening day, but this won't be close.

Jacksonville @ Minnesota
- While Maurice Jones Drew will play for the Jaguars on Sunday, he'll more than likely be a bit out of synch after holding out all off-season. I expect the Vikings to start strong, but eventually end up holding off the Jaguars for a close victory.

Washington @ New Orleans
- This is probably the most interesting game of year for the Saints. After all of the suspensions and controversy, they start out at home against the Redskins, who've been mildly quiet this off-season. While the Redskins winning would be a surprise, I can't see how they can stop Drew Brees short of injuring him or the replacement refs being so bad that the Redskins win.

Buffalo @ New York Jets
- The Jets only scored one Touchdown all pre-season. The Bills have a great defense. But so do the Jets. I expect this one to be low scoring, but the Jets have a tendency to win close, low-scoring games, so I'm going with them.

Miami @ Houston
- The Dolphins haven't looked pleasant all pre-season. They have a new QB that looks lost, and have a defense that looks inept. Going against the Texans, and a top tier QB in Matt Schaub, I expect a blowout here.

San Francisco @ Green Bay
- Last year's NFC Championship Game that didn't happen finally happens. I feel that the Packers will be angry for the opening part of the season, meaning an easy win here. While Alex Smith is adequate, the Green Bay Defense is just a little bit better to provide the difference here.

Carolina @ Tampa Bay
- Last year, the Panthers demolished the Buccaneers in both games. While the Bucs got better in the off-season and the Panthers got worse, the difference between them is still definite for me to say the Panthers will win this one.

Pittsburgh @ Denver
- Out is Tim Tebow, in is Peyton Manning. While the Steelers lost here last year in the Playoffs, I expect them to come out for revenge early and often, hoping to end Peyton Manning's career. Especially when he has a history of not playing well against them.

Cincinnati @ Baltimore
- The Bengals are an up and down team season by season. Last year they were up, this year they will most certainly be down. Given that this is the Ravens' last shot at a Super Bowl title before their defense enters retirement, I expect them to come out guns blazing once again.

San Diego @ Oakland
- San Diego doesn't have a good record in the opening month of the season under Norv Turner. While they've constantly struggled, given that Oakland is once again in a year where people expect them to break out, I don't. I see San Diego winning this game, albeit close because it's on Monday Night Football.


That's it for Week 1. We'll see how I do.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 Review

When New Super Mario Bros. released for the Nintendo DS in 2006, little did we know we’d be getting a plethora of Mario games the likes of which we haven’t seen since the NES era. After another 2D entry on the Wii, which featured 4-player cooperative play, Mario and Luigi make their way back to the portable space on the Nintendo 3DS in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for nothing short of a coin grab by both plumbers and Nintendo.

The most prominent feature of the 3DS system is that it can have glasses free 3D. This is a feature that does grab your attention most of the time, and in New Super Mario Bros. 2, this is no different. The game’s 3D effect is nothing short of lazy, making the depth of field go up by blurring the background. This ruins the texture work of vistas in the background, and does cause problems when turned all the way up. The best solution for this is by having the 3D slider partially up, being no greater than halfway for the best viewing experience. It’s disappointing since Nintendo usually has been the ones revolutionizing the tech.

Despite that, the levels look good, and have a definite flow to them. While some hardcore gamers will decry the easiness of the series, New Super Mario Bros. 2 is deceptively difficult. While the game wants you to collect coins, they often set up situations where your best interest is to rush in order to get them. The levels however are designed against you doing so, causing you to lose power-ups and unnecessary deaths along the way. Additionally, each level has 3 Star Coins hidden throughout them. While a definite majority are out in the open and will be found through simple exploration, a good portion of them are hidden cleverly throughout each level. It adds a bit of replay value if you desire to collect them all.

That’s a good thing since the game, straight through is relatively short, taking players three to five hours to beat. Most players will rush through the game though, since the game doesn’t start with a “Save Anywhere” feature like Super Mario 3D Land. Instead, it’s a step back to the previous New Super Mario Bros. games where you save after a Castle, and can Quick Save anywhere, but if you lose your progress, you’ll be put back at your last Main Save. Another thing that’s just like the original New Super Mario Bros. games is the music. Almost every track is ripped from previous entries with the exception of adding small vocals to them. It makes the game feel rehashed and uninspired at times, despite being enjoyable to play.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is simply more Mario. It’s not a groundbreaking entry into the series, and feels like it needed an extra year of development to provide a better experience. It’s fun, but it feels more like an Expansion than a proper sequel.

Pros
- Coin Rush is where most people will spend a lot of time in to get 1 million coins
- Level design is good, and rewards usage of different power-ups
- A Good Challenge

Cons
- Controls feel slippery, causing unnecessary deaths
- Cooperative Play is tacked on and pointless
- 1 Million Coin Reward is a joke, and not worth it

Score: 6 out of 10

The Unknown Powerhouse

With a little over a month to go in the 2012 MLB season, the playoff picture is finally beginning to materialize. While the Yankees are atop the AL East, the Rays and Orioles give chase. The Tigers are trying to rundown the White Sox in the AL Central, while the Rangers have a sizeable lead in the AL West. While Tampa Bay is sure to get a playoff spot, the Orioles, Tigers and Athletics are in competition for the second AL Wild Card spot. In the NL West, you have the Giants and Dodgers battling for West Coast supremacy, while the Reds are finally distancing themselves in the NL Central from the slumping Pirates and the semi-consistent Cardinals. But in the NL East you have what should be the talk of the baseball world, even though many focus on things that while important, shouldn't be the reason people are talking.

In second place, you have the Atlanta Braves, the team that is synonymous with Post-Season failure. A team that won the NL East consecutively for over a decade and only managed a handful of Post-Season wins, including 1 World Series title. As of writing this, they are 7 games behind Baseball's best team, and the focus of this article, the Washington Nationals. At 76 wins and 46 losses, they hold baseball's best record by two games over Cincinnati in a tougher division, with more runs scored, less runs allowed, 2 cy young contenders in Gonzalez and Strasburg, 3 gold glove contenders in Zimmermann, Desmond and Bernadina, a rookie of the year contender in Harper, and an MVP contender in Desmond. But ultimately they are a team that, because of their lack of time in the spotlight doesn't really get the credit they deserve.

While it's true they haven't won anything, over the last few seasons they've constantly been improving, and this year, while many thought they would be competing for a playoff spot, few thought they'd be on top of the baseball world. They never go down without a fight, playing every last out. They have consistently gotten help from every player on the team, particularly when injuries have occurred. No player has really gone missed this season for the Nationals, as it seems like 2 players pick up the slack for when one of them goes on the disabled list. After years of being the laughing stock of the league, every single player on the team is fighting back, and it's making a city that has long gone without a Championship proud.

While the Yankees and Rangers are odds on favorites to win the World Series due to their storied and recent playoff history, don't be surprised if they end up facing this year's 'Little Engine that Could,' the Washington Nationals in the World Series. Because they are baseball's best team, and have consistently proved it all year.

Nightmare Fuel

While talking about the upcoming release of Dead or Alive 5, Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja was quoted with the following:

Unfortunately Metroid is kind of out of our league as it’s Nintendo’s game, but we’re still in close touch with co-creator Sakamoto-san, so we want to do something with him moving forward definitely. It really depends on what he wants to do with the game first.

...

The following question comes to mind: "Would Nintendo really be that stupid?" It's safe to say that Other M was both a critical and sales failure to Nintendo, in addition to destroying the image of character of Samus Aran for almost everyone, and destroying any coherent lore there was about Metroid because of it. While the majority of people blame Team Ninja for it, others blame series Creative Director Yoshio Sakamoto of Nintendo for many of the games' poorer elements. The reality of the fact is that all parties involved with the project share part of the blame.

Yoshio Sakamoto bares the blame for his depiction of the Series Protagonist Samus Aran, as well as the Metroid universe, since it was him, after all, that wrote Other M's story. He is also to blame for Jessica Martin, Samus' English Voice Actress, who he picked out himself, despite not being a native English speaker. He also decided that the game's story must be literally localized for all languages. Outside of the story, Sakamoto forced Team Ninja to use the Wii Remote only for the game, and adding the first person element via threat of shutting the project down. He also decided that the series staple, the Gravity Suit, would be depicted by a "serious-natured" purple aura instead of the standard purple suit with blue visor. In the music department, Sakamoto insisted upon ambiance for the standard fare of music instead of a more traditional and expected Metroid soundtrack.

These decisions, by and large, made fans upset, and a backlash ensued. This, in tandem with scathing reviews by journalists and fans alike led most gamers to stay away from the title until the game received gashing price cuts, or outright refusing to buy it altogether due to the story, and the controversy about how sexist against women the game was, particularly with a female protagonist, that was at the time, and maybe still is, highly respected and loved among gamers.

Then there comes Team Ninja's contributions for the game. Their CG team, D-Rockets, helped put together the story in Other M in movie form. Team Ninja also produced several gameplay mechanics are at fundamental odds with the core structure of Metroid games, finding items, and exploring new paths to find shortcuts for speedruns. The game mechanics introduced Other M vehemently discourage players from doing these things, including fighting enemies later on since they are basically a chore at that point. You can't even get 100% item completion before the game's final boss, which is ultimately a story-based unlock.

The quote from Hayashi is troubling to Metroid fans, as well as Nintendo fans who have been desperately hoping for a new Metroid game to be announced, hopefully paired with the retconning of it due to its' terrible story and complete mediocrity in almost every other area. It shows that Team Ninja doesn't realize that their mechanics are not what's best for Metroid, nor does it give the indication that Yoshio Sakamoto believes he did any wrong with Other M. While it was his dream game, he made it a nightmare. Giving it back to Team Ninja, especially after Other M, would be more fuel to the fire to killing the series, if it isn't already dead.