The greatest commercial ever

Brightening the affront to taste that was last night's MNF snoozer was the most spectacular commercial I've ever seen, a spectacular display of product placement that made me reconsider my decision to bypass Guitar Hero World Tour.

The next challenger to Madden

I caught this on Withleather and thought it was pretty strong. It's possible that football video games will eventually come to this, if not inevitable.

Your BCS bowl is in another castle

Cal has lost four out of five, but the one win did have possibly the greatest halftime show of all time.

Worth the trip to Hyattsville

I started playing Call of Duty 4 today and it might be the best first person shooter I've played - either it or Halo 3. It won Best of E3 2007 from G4, which is a pretty big deal. How good are the graphics? Check out this video starting at the 1:15 (-4:10) mark.

People in the crowd actually gasped.

The Call of Duty franchise has consistently delivered over the years, but has been limited to World War II combat. COD4 Modern Warfare is based in the present and makes the outstanding Tom Clancy franchises, which are also set in the present, look archaic. I played some COD4 and watched some of this week's episode of The Unit at lunch, and I honestly got the storylines and setting confused. That's high praise.

Stewie Griffin is all grown up

16 year old Cory Ryder tried to put a hit on his mother because she took away his PlayStation. The supposed hit man, who was naturally an undercover policeman, was to receive his stepfather's pickup truck as payment. He told a friend that he wanted to kill his mother while that kid's mother was in earshot, and she contacted the police to set up a sting. Ryder's lawyer is hoping for a jury of Asians age 8-16. Let this be a lesson to all parents who try to take away their kids' video games.

More menacing than Goodell

Bungie Studios, developers of the Halo series, is threatening to drop the hammer on Gilbert Arenas (italics were on the press release):

There are those of you doing things you shouldn’t be in Halo 3. Some of you have gotten a little too famous for your own good. This ain’t a church and there is no redemption or salvation once you have been judged. Apologies are now officially too late to save you.

The storm approaches.

Love, Bungie

That has to be intended for Arenas, right? I had heard that Arenas was going to avoid sanctions, but now it's anyone's guess.

The Oscars of video games

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards video game nominations (arguably the most prestigious video game awards) have been announced. If you take away the idiosyncrasies like including The Orange Box for PS3 and not XBox 360, and pushing Halo 3 and BioShock back to next years' awards but including Ratchet and Clank and Kane & Lynch while they haven't been released yet, it's a pretty strong group. The Skinny Post favorite Gears of War has seven nominations, topped only by Wii Sports with eight. A lot of PS2 games were nominated late in the system's life cycle, while there are zero XBox or Gamecube nominations.

The Top 10 Video Games of All Time

I've been working on my top 10 video games list for a while, but the problem was defining the criteria. Of course I'd rather play Halo 3 right now instead of the original Zelda, but Zelda's greatness in unquestioned. So as a video game addict, I'm defining greatness as to what degree I'm chasing the feeling I got when I first played these games. For example, when I play any new hockey game I'm hoping to achieve the same kind euphoria I got when I played the original NHL Hockey on Sega Genesis. I'm strictly a console gamer, so PC games were excluded.

1. Super Mario Bros. Nintendo Entertainment System. I don't remember whose house it was, but I was at someone's birthday party when I caught a glimpse of a television on top of a dresser between a wall and a closet, across from the foot of a twin bed. This kid had just gotten the Nintendo Entertainment System Deluxe Set, bundled with Super Mario Bros. and two other titles. It was unlike any toy I had ever seen. With it's bright colors and large characters, it made Atari and Commodore 64 games look archaic. It wasn't long before I got my own, as my other toys went the way of Woody in the first two thirds of Toy Story.

2. Final Fantasy VII. Sony PlayStation. With over 40 minutes of still gorgeous full motion video and the biggest virtual world ever seen, this 4 disc behemoth redefined the epic. Friends of mine would sit in my room and watch me play. As a cheer emanated from my room as I neared the end, my neighbor in college burst through my door draped in a towel, as his obviously frustrated girlfriend followed a few minutes later in an oversized t shirt.

3. Tetris. Game Boy. I was skeptical about Nintendo's cartridge based handheld system when it first came out, until the first time I played Tetris not tethered to a television. Sorting the endless stream of blocks was incredibly addictive, and led to the incredible lifespan of the Game Boy.

4. Grand Theft Auto III. PlayStation 2. It set the standard for sandbox gameplay, which basically refers to the unlimited freedom you have to continue the game's narrative or to just wreak havok as you see fit. There was just so much more to do in the world of Liberty City than in any other PS2 game, and numerous imitators were spawned.

5. The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo Entertainment System. The first game which featured an internal battery to save your progress (previously games used passwords or started you at the beginning when you turned the system off), it was also the first true adventure game, with never-before-seen nonlinear gameplay and equipable weapons and items.

6. Super Mario 64. Nintendo 64. The third launch title on this list, this silky smooth 3D platformer set the standard for all 3D games at the time, as well as the proper use of an analog stick on a console. Tomb Raider was released on PlayStation as a competitor, but the controls of Mario 64 set it apart.

7. Super Mario Bros. 3. Nintendo Entertainment System. The moment it was revealed in the climax of The Wizard, it became the most anticipated game of all time and it did not disappoint. The best selling non-bundled game of all time, the graphics were unlike anything anyone had seen, and the gameplay was deep, althought the story wasn't.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Nintendo 64. When OoT came out, the question most commonly asked was "How is anyone going to improve upon this?" The most revolutionary aspect of the control scheme was the "Z targeting," where you could hold a button to strafe an enemy. The number one reviewed game of all time according to gamerankings.com.

9. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Sony PlayStation. This old school 2D adventure game proved that you didn't need a third dimension for a good time. The role playing aspects had been done before in Super Metroid, but this title featured amazing animations and an all time soundtrack.

10. Soul Calibur. Sega Dreamcast. Widely considered the greatest fighting game of all time, the graphics were such a cut above anything seen of PlayStation or Nintendo 64, and the 3D gameplay was also next generation. The number two reviewed game of all time according to gamerankings.com.

Honorable mentions: Chrono Trigger, Contra, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Final Fantasy III, Gears of War, GoldenEye 007, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Halo, Halo 2, Herzog Zwei, John Madden Football, Metal Gear Solid, NHL Hockey, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Metroid, Tecmo Super Bowl, Tekken 3

It's not as bad as Barry Bonds, but...

Gilbert Arenas is by a Beamonesque margin my favorite NBA player, and by a similar margin my favorite celebrity blog, so it kills me a little to call him out on this. I'd like to let him slide, but now he's treading into my arena, so to speak. It's incredibly obvious that he's cheated his way to the rank of Colonel, Grade 1 in Halo 3. How can I tell? Because most of his matches are under five seconds (an average game lasts about 7 or 8 minutes). Apparently, he starts a 2-on-2 game against a friend, each with a dummy teammate. The dummies then quit, and Arenas racks up experience points. Arenas basically admitted this to The Washington Post. This plot was first uncovered in the Bungie.net forums, where they want him executed with extreme prejudice.

Still, I can't get that mad at him. I've certainly racked up some Achievement Points in a less than legitimate manner, and I've never shied away from using money plays in any sports game. It's his time and it's not as if he's using this "glitch" to get a contract as a professional Halo player, which is an important difference between what he's doing and BALCO customers. But now I'm a lot more hesitant to add "Agent Arenas" to my friends list.

The National Pastime?

There's an RBI Baseball slurp piece up on The Escapist that has some surprising statistics regarding sports video games. It's not surprising that Madden is the top selling sports video game, but how about the fact that NCAA Football is a "a close second." (It's also mentioned that the terrific Fight Night and horrible NBA Live franchises rank ahead of the MLB 2K series in terms of sales). I looked up the sales charts for July (NCAA Football 08 was released 7/17) and NCAA ranks 1st, 4th, and 6th on various platforms. All-Pro Football 2K8, a direct competitor to Madden, ranks 19th. MLB 2K7 was released 2/27, so sales for the month it was released might not be a fair comparison. Nevertheless it ranked 8th and Sony's MLB 07 17th for February (the six month old Madden 07 ranked 14th), up to 8th and 9th respectively for March.

When I say Bartman I ain't talking about the Cubs

I'm starting to hear details about the upcoming Simpsons video game (not related to the movie), and I'm starting to get excited. There is a minigame where you can play Apu's favorite video game - Sitar Hero - which features a controller with 60 buttons. (You can play the song Pour Some Curry On Me) It has long been established that you will fight blood thirsty dolphins. There may be a Japanese game show where you fight Mr. Sparkle. It's usually a bad idea to get your hopes up for a licensed video game, but this one sounds outstanding.

Matrix and me

So last night I'm getting ready to settle in for what was sure to be a 4+ hour evening of baseball watching when I get a call from a phone number with a Texas area code. Since I had just given my number to some sketchy people for some craigslist sales, I thought nothing of it, but when I picked up, I was told that the call was from Gamestop (the evil empire of video game retailers) and that I was to hold for a message from Shawn Marion. I thought to myself, he must be going pretty far down the list of media outlets to relay trade demands to be calling some blogger with a few dozen readers, but apparently he called to tell me that NBA Live 08 would arrived today at Gamestop. I told him "Live sucks, 2K has been where it's at since Dreamcast, and by the way take your $20 million and don't be talking all this noise," but he just said "Matrix" in a high pitched voice and hung up.

The numbers are in, and they're big - eight leg big

Halo 3 flew off the shelves last week, to the tune of a mind blowing $170 million in sales in the first 24 hours alone, better than the openings of Spider-man 3 ($151 million opening day) or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours). It may be unfair to compare a movie's opening to that of a video game because preorders figure heavily into a video game, but the book comparison is more apples-to-apples. The cheapest of the three editions of Halo 3 retails for a little less than twice the cost of Potter, but with the discounts offered for new release books at most stores, consumers were paying more than twice as much. These numbers weren't completely unexpected: Microsoft was expecting to best SM3 (sounding a lot like the cast of Entourage regarding Aquaman) with $155 million in opening day sales, which would have been an improvement over Halo 2's $125 million in opening day sales.

I preordered my copy way back in March, the ridiculously opulent $129.99 Legendary Edition with a full size Master Chief helmet and two bonus discs, and it finally arrived Friday. I've been playing it no quite around the clock since, but I did stop watching football yesterday during the 4:00 games to play. The gameplay is incredibly diverse, featuring locales such as swamplands, mountains, metallic towers, organic tunnels, and of course space stations. A staple of the Halo franchise has been the inventive vehicles, and this iteration is no exception. Several battles put the AT-AT battles from the beginning of Empire Strikes Back to shame.

It hasn't been all candy and nuts for the Halo 3 launch. An enormous number of the middle-priced Limited Edition were plagued with faulty boxes and scratched discs. Also, some 99.9% complete beta copies were leaked, resulting in some XBox Live accounts to be banned until 9999 (not a typo). Still, it's a historically successful release and leaves little doubt that video games are a mainstream form of entertainment.

The mother of all jumbotrons

Get a load of the new Verizon Center jumbotron! Click here for a 286 kb, full size version. Does it looks like there's a blue Capital inside or is it just me? It looks unbelievable, but I'm a little sad because that means that my NHL 08 will be a little out of date. Props to Capitalfanatic.com for the pic.

The best sports game ever

I picked up NHL 08 last night and it rocked my world. Starting in 2003 EA let you control dekes with the right analog stick, allowing such ridiculous moves as deking backhand, putting it between your legs forehand, and shooting it with the stick between your legs. Last year, EA let you control shots with the R stick - you pull back to wind up a slapshot, push forward to shoot it. It didn't feature a full plate of features, but it was certainly a step forward in the genre.

This year's edition adds On the Fly AI. More so than any sports game I've ever played, the computer adapts to your playing style. For example, if you try the wraparound a few times in a row, the other team's defensemen will wait for you to turn in front of the net. If you try to cut off their passing lanes, they will take the puck more directly to the net and try to use you to screen the goalie. It comes across as incredibly authentic - if you can make the counter adjustments. Otherwise it's hard to score and harder to maintain a lead. There are other touches that add to the realism: if a shot trickles through a goalie's five hole, he'll keep his legs together and reach around with his glove to stop it.

And the graphics are so good it looks like a Pixar movie about a hockey game. Look at the shot of coverboy Eric Staal skating by his bench, the bench itself in particular. The sticks look photorealistic, the gloves pretty damn close. Gary Thorne and Bill Clement actually keep up with the gameplay, which has been problematic in the past. The Dynasty mode has been fleshed out, with two way free agent dialog, a salary cap, salary floor, and rookie cap, and a full minor league system.

This is a must to pick up in the biggest annual video game sale: the Toys 'R' Us Buy 2 Get 1 sale. It goes on until Saturday at least, possibly until next Saturday. Gamespot reports cutscenes are choppier on the PS3 version, so I'd recommend the XBox 360 version if given the chioce. Just because the NHL continues to be completely irrelevant as a spectator sport, NHL video games can still be highly entertaining.