The ScooterBlog

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So there I was, chilling out until Danielle was ready to go to our parents’ place. I decided to play Hot Shots Golf for the first time in, well, quite some time. I decided to load up the game and shoot down a challenge or two with my favorite golfer in the game, Logan.

On the sixth hole I played, hit my first drive on the Desert course perfectly, 253 yards out … then took a 3-wood, rolled it on to the green, and right in the hole! Yep, a DOUBLE EAGLE! Maybe the best golf shot I’ve ever made in a video game ever.

What’s the most fulfilling single play or shot you’ve ever had in a video game, or maybe more typically, a sports game? This I think for now is mine.

P.S. – I work Tuesday and Thursday, I’ll play a quick Hot Shots round with anyone after close. I played a game against Marty, one of our regulars on Saturday, he got me by three strokes (9-under to 6-under), and I only did as well as I did due to amazing putting, my game sucked, and I had a Triple Bogey to kill my chances.

Curse you hurricanes! Due to the fact that Danielle is tight on the fundage this week, as well as I, and due to the likelihood that gas will be $2.90 a gallon on Wednesday, minimum, we’re taking a Wednesday off. It totally sucks, we’ve done Wednesdays, she’s been so willing to drive down and see me every week during the week (no, there’s no forcing here, it just ends up working out better in a time sense). So this will be the first Wednesday we’ve missed in six months. LAME!

I suppose it could be worse … we are going to hopefully have a three day weekend for Labor Day, which is nice, but I guess we’re both so selfish with wanting to be with each other, even one day is no fun.

A quick word from your friendly neighborhood Scooter … fill up the gas tank ASAP. Oil just went up $5 cause the supply just got cut 10% from closed refineries in the Gulf Of Mexico. Mark my words, the $2.70 gas will be $2.90 tomorrow, I’m sad to say.

Also, my prayers to everyone in the path of the storm, I fear when I wake up, New Orleans will not be what it once was. My bro Alex and my LJ friend are in the path (it’s Alex’s 4th hurricane since leaving town … get your ass back here!), so I pray for their safety greatly.

I’m curious if anyone in the little circle of friends here is either a Google Mail or a Skype user. I’m trying to give both of these services a shot, but it’s no fun if you don’t know anyone using them!

** I’m a dope … I also meant to say Google Talk!! **

This hasn’t been the easiest of weeks. Prolly, a very good week, but not without some sense of realizing that I need to stop being worried about what’s going to happen, where I’m going to be in three months or less, what I’ll be doing, and where I’ll be living (well, there’s all of three options for that, but one I definitely prefer!). If I do the actions I need to make it happen, the rest is going to work, it just will.

In a perfect world, I’d know all these answers tomorrow … since it isn’t a perfect world, I don’t, and might not for a few weeks yet. But at least now, the actions are in motion to make it happen. Thank goodness!

So yes, chalk me up, add my mark to the wall, count me in as the latest peep that has decided to try Nintendogs … and is hooked!

I believe the technical name of the disease is the “Animal Crossing” effect. The effect when a game initially looks silly and cute enough (and sometimes graphically non-appealing) that it would keep a 6 year old occupied, but not a grown adult. Yet, when you play the game, you realize within moments, sometimes seconds, that you are hooked and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Welcome, Nintendogs.

I bought the Dachshund version, actually was really easy to pick which version … strictly on sentiment. The one dog that I really liked growing up was my grandpa’s Shih Tzu named Tiger, so that’s exactly what I’m starting with … a Shih Tzu named Tiger!

So far, the experience is limited. A couple of walks, one bath, one trick learned (the normal “sit” one), and one very fruitless attempt to toss the Frisbee in the park. Guess I need to work on that one, because I’m down to $400, and eventually, the money is just going to run out!

Anyways, this all does give me an idea … how about a Nintendogs weekly challenge! Any ideas? Would it be taking your custom dog to the best Frisbee score? Is there a fair way to do one?

So you know you’re hopelessly addicted to a football game when you have to restart your franchise twice to perfect it. Yep, that’s my Bengals! I just began my franchise last Friday evening and played my first game, but already, I’m wanting to change it all up. Two things:

1) The “free agent” trick - This trick is as old as Madden and you’d think they’d somehow make it work better, but the player always gets first dibs at a free agent, there’s no real “bidding” system, you just give the player what he wants. And when the game comes out, there’s some pimp free agents, like Dan Neil and Ty Law (both 95-plus!). You sign them, then trade them off for the best draft pick available. Or keep them and trade guys for slightly less draft picks. Nonetheless, it’s a nice cheat to get first rounders.

Not to mention, you can trade for last year’s first rounders, usually with a second round pick.

2) I want to try and re-sign certain players that I didn’t try and re-sign right away this time around.

That’s just the beginning too …. see, sports games are becoming more like RPG’s every day!

I realize that words have great strength, so I’ll say this word with conviction … I hate what Jack Thompson is doing with video games and lawsuits.

The latest salco? The Columbus sniper, Charles McCoy, is being implicated along with the makers of The Getaway, Dead To Rights, and Grand Theft Auto (yep, he’s piling on Take 2 again, big shocker here). Apparently when McCoy left to Vegas where he was caught, he had a PS2
with him and these games, so ol Jack can prove that if Charles didn’t play these games, the one person who died in the sniper shootings would be alive today.

If he can connect these pieces and find 12 morons to buy it, then he should be selling oceanfront property in North Dakota … namely Bismarck … in January!

My takes are these.

1) This isn’t a case of a kid being influenced. Granted, apparently Charles McCoy has mental problems, but is it Take 2’s responsibility, and Namco’s, and others, to screen their buyers for mental issues before they buy a game? Not so much to me, and if you suggest it is, you begin
to crawl into an unrealistic paradigm, one that can’t be fairly judged.

2) Jack should at least single out the games where it is criminals doing the shooting. Dead To Rights has a renegade cop avenging the death of his father, not nearly the level of pointless violence (although the game has it) for no reason that GTA offers.

3) In the end, this kind of lawsuit only furthers a behavior that I detest … that blame is a dish best passed around the table until you stick someone with it. The courts, and lawsuits in general, are there to properly attach blame to where it needs to be, and this doesn’t do that.

If suddenly, entertainment is responsible for people’s actions, then the slippery slope that leads us down in incredibly dangerous, and in the end, is tantamount to censorship to an amazing extreme. I don’t like that path.

No, Jack’s not always wrong. He’s right about the Hot Coffee mod, Take 2 left the industry hanging on that one. But, these “cash grabs” sicken me, completely.

No, this space isn’t dead or for rent, there’s gonna be stuff posted soon, need to think of some things I want to post on. They’ll be coming soon.