Making my video game weinie go crazy.

Ronnie to Rickey!?! Where's the Patrick Cobbs Love?!

I swore to myself I wouldn't get all crazy for the new Madden this year, as last years was just a pile of crap. The defense was to hard to stop the pass till you got to the end zone where you just picked off the passes one out of ever 3 times, the running game was a non factor, and the dynasty mode took to long during load times.

My fear isn't that Madden is getting worse however, its that I'm starting to lose steam to try and learn the game as I get older. I'm starting to think back to simpler days of Pro Sports Talk Football and smile. I'm really hoping the game sucked and not that "its passed me by."

Anyway, Jon Robinson over at ESPN has a great article about Madden 10, coming out in July or August, about some of the new features in the game.

Here are some High Lights.

New Dog Pile Fumble Recovery

"For the first time in series history, when the ball hits the ground, it doesn't just go to the guy who randomly touches it. In "Madden NFL 10," players will pile on the ball, and gamers will need to pound the button that is shown on the screen to try to wrestle away the rock. As the button commands change on the screen, the ball can switch hands numerous times until the refs actually dig through the bodies and declare a winner. "

I like that, however it's going to play to the "quick fingered"(giggle) players as apposed to who really has the best chance at getting the ball. But hey, its cool.

"Pro-Tak" system that helps control engaging players.

"This includes nine-man gang tackles, a brand new pocket for the offensive line, steerable blocks, steerable tackles and the fight for the fumble feature that really lets you fight for that ball at the bottom of the pile. "

I'm interested to see the "steerable blocks" and how that can help the oft shitty runing game.

Pocket Pressure Rumble Controller.

"So now, when your quarterback is under pressure, your controller will actually start to rumble. And now, when you feel that pressure, you feel that rumble, you can flick the right stick and do an automatic avoidance move."

Love this idea, if only they can attack something to you ribs, that way when you don't get out of the way, it feels like your getting crushed. That would be cool.

The WildCat

"Just as we're adding the Wildcat, we're also making sure our defenses are ready for the Wildcat."

Gag me. I love the Wild Cat, but I know people who will use this as there only offense. And I call those people Douchebags. And they should be hunted.

Getting all tough and stuff with Player Ratings.

"Our intention this year was to make the elite players stand out." "Peyton Manning still strut around with a 99 overall rating, backups such as Matt Leinart can only watch as their overall rating drops from a 85 to a 62."

That's what I'm talking about. The days of starting your team with Kirby Dar-Dar are over. Great players dominate bad ones, just look at Brad Johnson last year.

Then They talk about the officials and other visual stuff, nothing interesting. But I must say, even though I told myself I wouldn't get all excited about this game as I didn't enjoy last years almost at all, I'm getting excited about this game.

This had better not be a joke

You remember being in high school or college and you realized way too late in the game that you've spent the entire night hitting on a girl who was really just a cock tease in the worse kind of way?

(I can't say this has happened to me. Not because I have awesome game or anything, I'm just too shy/terrified to approach a woman. I have a creepy stare from across the room until the cops, bouncer or a random dude threatens me with bodily harm for "stalking." GHB works for me!)

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, Nintendo announced that Punch-Out is coming to the Wii in 2009!

Glass Joe, still everyone's bitch.

Big, now on the Wii

I wonder what I'll look like...

winning an NBA championship

I, as many of you know, am an avid gamer. I love me some Halo3, Mass Effect, GTA and the like. I own a XBox 360(gamer tag Moose034 if you wanna test your skills)(no for real add me as a friend, i'm lonely). As a sports fan, i'm also am a master of the Sports Video game. Madden, College, MLB, and of course, NBA 2K8.

While playing 2k8 the other day, I was thinking of ways to improve my dynasty and asking myself the question, how do I build a Championship contender? While if I were playing all 82 games, all I would need is a great ball handler, a good 3 point guy, and a good defensive lowpost/ great rebounder. I could probably do OK with say, Devin Harris, Brent Barry, and Dwight Howard. I would do better than OK. I would win at least 75 games, and a championship every year.

But this gaming experience wasn't about playing, but about simming. I know that line up would get drilled in the sim game by just about everybody. This is when my real NBA brain came into focus.

What does one need to win a championship? Is it an all fast break 3 point shooting team? Is it a slow defensive minded grid it out team? Then I came to realization that it isn't even really a team at all. Its about the stars on the team.
Here is what I mean.

You need 3 things to have a championship team.
1. A top 10 player overall.
2. A top 25 player(s)
3. People who serve a specific role on the team.

I chose the Raptors for little reason as they were decent, with upside, and had some good contracts I could trade away. I don't want to bore you with "look how good i am with this game talk," so long story short, In year 2, i won a simmed championship with this roster, Bosh(top 10) Gerald Walace(top 25), Caldaron(penetrating PG), Kapono(3pt guy) Bargnaii(stretch the Def Center), and Chris Duhan(back up points).
Each guy had a role that was used, that covered up other weaknesses.

I know, Its just a video game.

Its not how the real NBA works.

You need stuff like team chemistry, and veteran Leadership, and deep pockets, yada yada yada.

Or is the NBA just like the video game?

This formual seems rather simple in explanation, and surly thats not all you need to suceed in the real life NBA.

Well, lets just take a look back as the last few NBA champs.

O0s Spurs - Duncan - top 10,
Manu/Parker - Top 25
Finley - 3 point, Elson/Oberto - Low post defender/rebounders, Bitch Ass Bowen - defensive guru.

05 Heat - Wade - top 10
Shaq - top 25
walker - strech d 3 point, Payton - solid D back up PG, Haslem - Rebounding low post.

early 00 LA Lakers - Kobe/Shaq - top 10
Kobe Shaq - top 25
Role Players - Derrik Fisher, Rick Fox, Rober Hory

90's Bulls - Jordan - top 10
Pippen - Top 25
Role Players - Rodman, Grant, Armstrong, Paxston, Winnington(ok maybe not winnington)

94-95 Rockets Hakeem - Top 10
Drexler/Hory - top 25
role players - Maxwell, Elli, (starting to get into teams I don't remeber much of their role players, I'm sure grunge dave will pipe up with some I left out)

The list can go on.

In fact, the only team in the last 25 years who doesnt' fit this mold is the Detroit Pistons of a few years ago. The reason for this is they ran into a crazy disfunctional Lakers team that was imploding from the inside out. There maybe something to this thery after all.

As to not make this a SUPER long post, I'll come back in a few with how this theroy plays out this year for our little mavs, and for the rest of the NBA.