Do I hate Madden?

*SIGH*

I really didn't anticipate my first two blogs would be football related, but it is what it is, I suppose.

First off, I want to give a little shoutout to BlackBusterCritic (http://www.youtube.com/user/BLACKbusterCritic). His rant gave me a bit of inspiration to write about this, since it's been on my mind for a while now. Frankly, it's kind of hard to put this into words, and any of my friends that read this will probably look at me cross-eyed from now on. But hear me out:

I...I think...

I think I hate....

Madden....

No, not the man himself, John Madden. Although he seems to be getting more senile and predicable by the year, I have no major qualms with him. I'm referring to the annual video multi platform video game which carries his namesake. First off, let me give you a little history about football games and myself. I started out on 10 Yard Fight for the NES (now that's old skewl, baby), and it was mildly entertaining. It was only when a friend of mine let me borrow Tecmo Bowl that I took up a general interest in not only football video games, but football in general. Anyone who's played it, or played the superior sequel, the almighty Tecmo Super Bowl, needs no introduction to these masterpieces.

 Bo Jackson makin' it do what it do...plain and simple

So as I got older, my love for football grew steadily, and begin to overtake my love for basketball. During this time, I got a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis, so naturally I ended up playing John Madden Football, and the subsequent games thereafter. The 16-bit games were pretty fun, but as I started getting older, I kind of grew tired of the same ol' same ol' every year (certainly not foreshadowing or anything....). It was around this time when the Playstation came out, and my friend ended up getting one, as well as a little game called Gameday '97 (Warrick Dunn is a legend in my mind to this day because of that game). That game, along with AOL chat rooms and Goldeneye 007 for N64, took up many a weekend for me and my friends. 

Between 97 and about 2001-2002, I didn't mess with Madden that much. I guess the nostalgia from Gameday made Madden kind of boring to me at that time. It wasn't until Madden 03 came out where I finally got interested again. That was the year they overhauled the game engine, and it wasn't such a pain in the ass to run the ball anymore (indicative of Marshall Faulk being on the cover). I had just recently purchased an Xbox, so I figured I'll give the old girl (boy?) another go. Needless to say, I fell in love again. I couldn't put it down. What particularly hooked me was the Franchise mode (which I'm sure wasn't new, but like I said, I hadn't been playing it lately), involving contract negotiations, trades, and drafting rookies. I ate all that simulation stuff up. So for the next few years, it was a bit of an addiction for me, and I have lots of great memories to look back on (Madden 04: Me+Clinton Portis=trouble for your D). Now, I have to mention the Sega NFL franchise, because there was a great debate as to whether the last couple of games Sega Sports (now 2K sports) made were superior to Madden. In my opinion, that's a matter of preference in terms of presentation and control scheme. I preferred Madden's to the 2k series, but that didn't make them terrible games at all. The only thing I didn't like about the 2K games was that Randy Moss was effing unstoppable....

Anyway, in 2007 I bought Madden 08 for the 360, mainly because at the time, I didn't have another system. I also bought NCAA Football 08 (a game I got into in 03), but traded it in because everyone I played with never wanted to play that. They always wanted to play Madden. Now that I think about it, for the last few years, I've preferred playing NCAA over Madden, especially Dynasty mode. But I digress. I owned Madden for most of that year, but found myself never playing it. When I did, I wouldn't even finish games. Not even Franchise mode would hold my interest. But I kept it, mainly for the multiplayer factor in case someone came over (they usually didn't want to bother with any of my other games). Eventually it got traded in because I just couldn't stand looking at it on my shelf, knowing I wasn't going to play it. I kept this to myself primarily because it was weird (even to me) to not like Madden anymore. I guess you can say I was in denial. So 2008 rolls around, and with it, another Madden. This one sported a new look, and tightened play mechanics, all of which I was impressed with when I first got my hands on the game. I had numerous bouts with my friends when it first came out, and for the most part, enjoyed the game. Eventually I broke down and purchased it (though it was a couple of months after it came out), and, like the year before, I also own NCAA. So here I am, once again, with a game on my shelf, essentially collecting dust. Is it a bad or broken game? Far from it. It's probably one of (if not the) best Madden I've ever played. But for the life of me, I can't bring myself to play it. I've got about 10-14 games on my shelf I'd rather play, honest to God. What turns me off even further is that I know if I go and play my friends now, my skills will have probably withered into nothing, to the point where it won't even be competitive, and where's the fun in that?

So what happened? What was once an mini addiction has become an unfulfilling novelty. One assumption is that it's the same game every year, only with slight improvements in a few areas. While this year saw more drastic revisions, for the most part, that stands firm, at least in my opinion. Another reason why I think it has soured on me is because I'm a bit of a conclusive gamer. I can play games that don't have a definitive ending, but I have a thing for the progressionary aspect of a game. I just recently played through Resident Evil 5 (an outstanding game that I've actually beaten twice since it came out) and I FINALLY got around to playing through Bioshock (and was mad at myself for waiting this long to play it). Both had the kind of progression and narrative I look forward to in a game (particularly Bioshock; that had one of the best stories I've ever experienced in a game, period). I'm in the process of playing through Metal Gear Solid 4, and so far that story line and progression has yet to disappoint. The point is, the bulk of time I spend gaming is usually on a story/campaign level. I'm not a big multiplayer guy, particularly online, since most of the people online are kids that don't know how to shut the fuck up or at least say something that's not complete garbage. Which leads back to Madden. Outside of Franchise or Superstar mode, there's not really much in the ways of progression in the game. Sure, you have the draft to look forward to each off-season, but essentially it's the same song and dance with every year you progress in the game. If this was my first time ever owning Madden, it probably wouldn't be that bad. But the whole thing sounds kind of tired to me, quite frankly. I recently rented NBA 2K9, another excellent sports title, and found myself having similar issues with it. They are both fantastic sports games, but they just don't hold my interest very long. 

I wanted to see if I could sort this out in my head a bit by punching this out, and if I'm lucky, anyone who's reading this will give me their opinion on this matter and provide some clarification in the process. In the meantime, I'll attempt to give Madden another go in hopes to rekindling that love I once had for it. Doesn't look good, though....

T.O. and ESPN's overwhelming underwhelment

Before I get into this, let me start by apologizing in advance to any Buffalo Bills fans that may happen to read this. What I'm about to say isn't meant to trash your team (or your city if you happen to live there) in any way.

So I'm watching ESPN yesterday, and I noticed that the SportsCenter anchors had that particular gleam in their eye that they only get when a certain individual does/says something newsworthy (as far as they're concerned, anyway). This individual is one Terrell Owens. Seeing as how it was such an exceptionally slow sports day, what with March Madness upon us and the beginning of the World Baseball Classic,  not to mention Lebron and D. Wade facing off again (I'm yawning just typing this), I guess they needed to go to their fail-safe ratings stimulus package, going so far as to have one of the anchors begin the show eating popcorn. One can only assume that the general consensus in Bristol was "T.O. news in March?!? America needs this story!!! I don't care what it's about! Just get all our talking heads prepped! Gogogogogo!". That is, until they realized what the story was.

There had been much speculation as to where young Owens would end up gainfully employed, and thanks to the efforts to international super agent and professional worm Drew Rosenhaus, that speculation is now over. Personally, I've been burdened with stress and worry for the past two days over where this terrible, terrible human being will be getting his next multi-million dollar contract. 

Wait. He signed where? 

The Buffalo...Bills? 

Well, that was...anticlimactic. 

Whatever happened to all the professional sports experts saying that Oakland or San Francisco were both potential 100% locks? What about the talks of him and Randy Moss teaming up on the Patriots? Just what happened to all the smexiness of this story?

Okay, I'll admit, that first batch of underwhelment didn't go down smooth. But let's shift focus on the lower, more occupied area of this glass of meh. After over a decade of mediocrity, the Buffalo Bills are back on the minds of the sports world! Now, they're only one step away from returning to those glory days when they won all those Super Bo...oh...wait...whoops. Sorry about that, folks. Somtimes I got so nostalgic, I start remembering history wrong. But that happens to everyone, right? But enough digressing. In all seriousness, this will make the Buffalo Bills a better team immediately, even if T.O. continues to use that coat of WD-40/Crisco amalgam for scotch guard on his gloves (would it have been simpler to say I Can't Believe it's Not Butter fingers instead?). His mere presence on the field should open up the run game, and stop the bombardment of double teams Lee Evans faced every single Sunday. I wouldn't put them in the playoffs just yet, however. Not until Trent Edwards can prove he can play an entire season without missing significant time under center. But that kind of talk is best left for September. What I really wanted to focus on was the reactions of both ESPN, and T.O. himself.

During the evening run of SportsCenter last night, they ran two significant segments (if my memory serves correctly) about the signing of T.O., what lead up to it, and the potential results/ramifications. However, as I'm listening to what ESPN's talking heads had to say on the matter, I kept picking up on this underlying tone of sulkiness for some reason. In my opinion, it seems the Sports Leader isn't exactly esctatic about small market Buffalo being the new home of their go-to fall guy. Especially after leaving the Dallas Guiding Lights (I have no clue if that soap opera is still on, and Dallas General Hospitals just sounds absurd), which helped produce a significant amount of ESPN's off the field stories for the better part of last year. But now, with no Ed Werner and crack team of spies, er, investigative reporters in place, where will they get all of their exclusives, such as when T.O. blows up on a staff member for bringing him cotto salami instead of smoked ham on his sandwich? America requests, nay, demands this information immediately! We don't care about silly things such as division record deadlocks, or breakout young talent. We want T.O., and lots of him. I think ESPN is feeling the pressure of giving us our supposed fix, not to mention actually making it interesting.

I wasn't fortunate enough to see T.O.'s press conference in full, but I watched the "highlights" several times, and let me tell you, it was a stark contrast to the one he had when he signed with the Cowboys. While Terrell was grinning from ear to ear three years ago (all while briefly stimulating the sales of popcorn), this was a much more subdued Owens we saw on Saturday. He seemed a bit unimpressed with Buffalo, and for the most part, treated the affair as though he was just going through the motions. Not that usual charisma and charm we see and hear from T.O. when he's in front of the camera. Well, maybe charm isn't the right word. I think swagger would be better fitting. Anyway, his slimebucket agent slithered on stage for his usual 2 cents he feels obligated to give during his client's press time (go figure), basically confirming that there weren't as many teams clamoring for Owens as he initially made it out to be. It just added to the already prominent blandness of this announcement. T.O. wasn't excited, ESPN tried their best to spin it into something interesting, and everyone else is left asking "Buffalo? Really?"

Here's what I think is the current state of affairs. T.O. liked playing for Dallas. I mean REALLY liked it. The most popular team in the league. Great owner. Great city. Playoff contender (when he arrived, anyway). Gigantic media spotlight. It was the best source of nourishment for the unquenchable thirst that is his ego. Plus he was getting paid, which to me, seems more important to Wormsenhaus than T.O. It seems that, besides staying in Big D,  T.O. would have preferred going to the Bay Area or even Foxboro, just so he wouldn't miss the warm, self-centered glow of the spotlight he so desires. But when you have a greedy assbag for an agent, and there's not a lot of options, you end up with the team that shows him..I mean, you the money. I get the feeling that Rosehaus sold signing with the Bills to T.O. like this:

"Look, you catch 10 or 12 touchdowns this year, make the Pro Bowl, and just stay on your bast behavior like you always do when you first sign with a team. When next year rolls around, we can get you on a team that you actually want to play for. Deal?"

Something in my gut is telling me that, unlike his previous stints with other teams, T.O. won't play nice in his first year. I think he starts grumbling the minute he realizes that there isn't much going on in Buffalo except football, and the cold, bitter winds of reality that the spotlight shielded him from begin to stiffen those 35 year old bones of his. He'll realize he's not getting any younger, wants to cement his legacy as the greatest wide reciever ever. He knows he can't do that without at least one Super Bowl ring. The grumblings get louder, and eventually he tries to force Buffalo's hand into releasing him from his contract.

That is, unless the Bills go 12-4, make the playoffs, and get him 120 catches in the process (because believe me, from what I heard yesterday, the CATCHES are way more important that the playoffs or anything else). 

Blog about a blog

*Pulling up my soapbox*

I'm going to start out by giving a few reasons for starting this blog. I, like everyone else in the world, have an opinion. Some of them fit within the majority, some the minority. I noticed that in a lot columns and blogs across the 'net, the writer tends to pay less attention to their audience, and more to their agenda. To a degree, it's not totally off base to think that way, but I've always felt that a person can not evolve their own thought process without listening to other opinions about a particular issue. Lots of times, however, the writers will not only refuse to acknowledge any other intelligent argument, they will go as far as leave incendiary remarks towards anyone who disagrees with them in the least. So one thing I hope to acheive is to open up some robust dialog between myself and anyone gracious enough to take time out of their day to read what I have to say, regardless of whether we agree or disagree. I have several topics that will potentially be focused on moreso than others (video games, sports,  politics, and maybe some pro wrestling), but I honestly don't see this blog having a specific "theme", at least not immediately. Any suggestions, complaints, ego-stroking praise, and monetary gifts are not only welcome, but encouraged (ok, maybe not the last one *looks around innocently*). 

Oh, what was the soapbox for? Just getting it in position for when I need it, lol.