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I admit I am a geek. I enjoy video games, photography, internet forums, and some would even say that the career I am trying to get into is geeky (historian/history teacher). So, now that it is established that I am a geek I would like to address a particular issue: women and gaming. Honestly, it is something that I do spend soem time thinking about. Most of my female friends shun video games. They think it is a weakness to chose the endeavor of gaming, as they label it as a waste of time. I have often wondered why they think you are a “loser” if you choose to include video games in your free time. I ran across a youtube video featured on Veronica Belmont’s website that gives insight on why females often feel the way they do about video games. I would like to share this video to those who are interested.

This isn’t to say that women don’t play games. I often play with a particular team on Left 4 Dead 2 where one team member is female. The four of us make a fantastic team, and it has been the best team that I have ever been a part of on any online multiplayer experience. Meanwhile I have a friend, whose wife indulges in gaming from time to time. I do think the amount of female gamers are already rising. I agree with Floyd and Alexander, that it might have to do with the prospect of trying out a console game after enjoying browser based games such as Zuma or Bejewled.

I also have one criticism of the argument presented by Floyd and Alexander. Although I do agree how women may be turned away from games by the exaggerated features on many female characters, but aren’t the male characters the same? Lets take two  male heroes from video games – Master Chief from Halo and Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. Do males generally look like that? Overly buff bad asses who have absolutely no fear? I think it’s fair to say that both male and female characters are overly exaggerated. Of course that doesn’t defeat the mindset that both male and female gamers give to the respective characters.

Men don’t mind to indulge themselves in playing the characters that are fearless. It exaggerates the best qualities in male warriors that are necessary for the games. The females are exaggerated for their looks and it of course objectifies women and that is why female gamers probably don’t like the games. Either the characters need to be developed more to suit the female gamers without  ruining it for the men. Maybe the characters need to be less like Lara Croft, and more like Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy Advent Children or Rebecca Chambers of Resident Evil Zero.

In my concluding remarks, I must say that having more female gamers would be a fantastic thing to have in the gaming community. Men wouldn’t be put down for their hobby, and it could lead to better relationships. I don’t think any reasonable guy gamers would object to playing with their significant others if they really put their heart into it. Otherwise, things like this could happen, and that is just a deal breaker all around.

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I don’t like to post videos often. I try hard to keep this blog devoted to politics, and modern world events. The problems is that too much just catches my eye. Today I wanted to share with you, the new Modern Warfare Trailer that was released. I have been waiting for this game for a long time, and now it is just about a month away from release. There was a new trailer released yesterday, and man, oh man is it freaking awesome. Check it out!

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After the Halo 3, I really fell off the Halo radar sort to speak. I kept waiting for the epic battle that the commercials were advertising, the second battle of New Mombasa. It was supposed to be an epic battle, the kind of battle that could end a war. Needless to say, when it didn’t appear in Halo 3, I was quite disappointed. As a result, I did not think Halo 3 was that great of a game. Well, Bungie, the creator of the Halo games, is back at it with another awesome trailer. This time it is live action and it is pretty neat. I just wanted to share it with you all. If I were you however, I would not base this as any indication of how cool Halo 3: ODST will be because you’ll probably be disappointed.

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Last week I commented on the one minute quarter demo that was avaliable for download by anyone who has a Xbox Live Gold Membership. You can click here to view that post. This is the commentary on the other demo that you could have gotten if you had reserved the game at Gamestop. This game features five minute quarters (instead of one) and two playable teams in the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. The game is not much different than the other demo in terms of the technical specs. There are no additional features, and there is still no gameplay announcing. This version of the demo only allows you to get a better overall feel for the game because you are not trying to throw hail marys every play because you only have about a minute per half with the ball.

After playing a couple games, one with the Steelers and one with the Cards, I got some new impressions about the game. Here they are:

Running the ball is still going to be hard but possible. I said this in the last post but playing with five minute quarters gave more insight. You are going to have to know your RB. A power runner isn’t going to run well on the outside and a speed runner is going to get smashed on the inside. I suppose that is fair. With the game being slowed down considerably it is easier to run because you can see the blockers where they are going and you can see the holes open up but it is still difficult because since the game is slowed down the RB is slow. An example can be seen when I tried to run the ball with Chris Wells on the inside. He is a faster runner and I would just get tackled by a linebacker to D-lineman if I ran up the middle. If I ran on the outside it was a bit easier. It was also hard to run on the outside with Willie Parker but if I used him on the inside he did better. Still the RBs averaged closed to 4.0 ypc.

Authentic Throws look odd. On my previous post I liked the authentic throws but now playing two full games I don’t know if I do. It is true they look authentic but if you throw a bullet pass that generally means the QB is throwing the ball harder and quicker. However there is no animation for a quicker throw. So bullet passes look pretty close to a 10 yard lob pass. It seems a bit odd to see Kurt Warner bring the ball up slow for a throw to only throw a bullet pass. It doesn’t look quite right. Could this be due to the slow down of the speed of the game? If so that will be adjustable and possibly fixable.

OL is a lot smarter. Not all the time but most of the time they will try to accuratley block for the ball carrier. Previously they may block a guy who would be two or three guys down on the list of defenders that needed to be blocked. With that said, you don’t have forever to throw the ball, and the defender can still get to you. Thus it seems like a nice mixture.

That is all I had to say on the 5 minute per quarter demo that I hadn’t already said in Part I. Overall I think this game is going to be about an 8.5/10 when the game is released on August 14, 2009. I hope this helps some people in making a decision. I will be buying it for sure.

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In the video game world, reviews generally do not come along for a demo. However, Madden 10 is one of the biggest anticipated games of the year. Madden 09 was a fairly horrible game for the popular franchise. If I am not mistaken people were fired and replaced at the head of EA sports for those who worked on the 09 title. Madden 10 being under new control has caused fans to be giddy and anxious over the August 14th release – so much so that this demo has been highly anticipated. There are a lot of fans who are waiting for this years title to see how it holds up. Madden COULD get a lot of losses if they don’t put up a quality title.So I think it would be a good idea to take a look at the demo to see how it faired when compared to the complete Madden 09 title.

Now unlike most modern demos Madden 10 is not close to the final product. Honestly most demos released these days are the final product but one can only play a few minutes of the game. I did reserve Madden 10 at Gamestop however at the time of me downloading the demo, playing it, and writing this review I have yet to pick up my code to make the quarters 5 minutes long. Instead I decided to try out the 1 minute quarters to try and get this review out at soon as possible. The only game able to be played it between the Dallas Cowboys agasint the New York Giants in Giant stadium in the snow. You can change the difficulty – which I tried playing on most difficulty levels. I played a total of four games – two with Dallas, and two with New York.

So what did I think? What is different? What did I like? Well, here we go:

(?) Madden 10 has no in-game audio from the announcers. That may be a good thing.In the August 14th release will have the in-game audio commentary. I hope it is good and not horrible like the EA Tiger Woods 10 title. Seriously one has to mute Scott Van Pelt to play that game. It is bloody awful in that game. Nothing can be said about the demo though.

(+) Real players and coaches on the sidelines – REFS TOO! One thing oddly which was missing from last years title was coaches on the sideline and the referees. There are real player models on the sidelines which is something that I am really happy about. Before you wouldn’t see them when you looked at the sideline and it was annoying. Glad to see they are added this year.

(+) Cool cut scenes – QB showing talking on the phone to the offensive coordinator in between plays is just one example. They show players on the sideline celebrating or even after a big play on the field between two players. There is also an on the field intro reminiscent to the MLB09 intro to each game you play.

(+) Animations are a LOT better. This has a lot to do with the next section but overall the graphics and player models seem to be a lot better. The way the players move, for the most part, seem realistic. I don’t like how after an interception the defensive back doesn’t tuck the ball into his body – instead he goes Deion Sanders style. That is just asking for a fumble in my opinion.

(+) Authentic QB throws. As said earlier this section sort of combines with the last paragraph. The first time I played the game I was the Cowboys. Every time I first play a new football game I analyze the QB throwing animation. It is a big part of the game to me because QB happens to be my favorite position and I want it to look authentic. This year is another step towards that. Tony Romo does that little weird windup before his throw. Eli Manning doesn’t do it – he has his own which I am not sure if it is correct because I know that most QBs don’t do that windup. Manning’s windup seems faster though, so it isn’t that noticeable. The Quarterback also seems to LOOK where he is throwing, something that EA hasn’t been able to get right for a while ever.

(+) You CAN run the ball. In the previous edition of Madden it was nearly impossible to run the ball. This what turned away most fans from the 09 title. You could have LT, or AP, and only average 2.8 yards per carry with an ALL pro-bowler offensive line. Now running the ball didn’t seem easy (mainly due to the speed of the game – mentioned later) but it is possible to gain a good amount of yardage as an average. I was able to use Marion Barber fairly effectively.

(+) Big plays are more difficult to make. Nothing infuriates me more than cheesers in the online competition. I am sure the plays still exist and people will find a way to practically cheat but it appears that big plays are much more difficult to make. People seem to be forced to have a  game plan and set things up. As I stated earlier I played 4 games before writing this and I only had one big play of about a 30-40 yard pass. I tried probably a good 10 times for a long ball. The only one I got completed I actually was not looking for the deep pass but it was there and I took it. The cpu cornerback caught up and if forced my receiver to have to make a better play on the ball.

(+) Fumble/dogpile mini game is not annoying. When I first read about this addition I said that that feature was totally going to be annoying. Although I only played 4 games w/ 1 minute quarters and there was only two fumbles where there was a dog pile it seemed like a good addition that allowed for a more realistic feature. Football can change hand in a dog pile and I like that feature being thrown in. Basically it is a meter and you have to try to keep the bar in the middle of the grid by tapping one of four buttons repeatedly (and the button does change). Sometimes it is hard, and sometimes it is easy. I think it depends if your team initially falls on the ball or not.

(+) The Music is good! It is not music from a band or a rapper but it is instrumental music. The music reminds me of Pirates of the Carribean for some reason – don’t worry it is NOT the same music – but it does get you pumped up.

(-) The game has slowed down quite considerably. Apparently this was done in an attempt to be “more realistic,” however, I find it so slow that it is not realistic at all. I know many quaterbacks when interviewed have said when you take a 3 step drop you need to get rid of that ball generally right then and there. In the demo they can take about two or three 3-step drops if they needed to. There seems to be NO speed what so ever in the game. Football is more fast paced than that.

(-) Offensive line is very too good. As I eluded to in the paragraph above, a quaterback has a long time in the pocket. Too long if you ask me. It was quite difficult to get to the quarterback when I was the Cowboys. I did seem to get to the quarterback better when I was the Giants and the Giants do have a better defensive line. Still there was one time that Eli stood in the pocket for about 10 to 15 seconds. However, the human team’s offensive line seems to be a bit more vulnerable. I fumbled the ball because I got sacked so hard a couple times.

Overall this game pretty much met my expectations. I am not disappointed at all. The game speed can be changed to be faster (at least that is what the demo says) so I have to give my expectations for this game a 9/10. I had over hyped it a bit in my head but I STILL think this will be a game with a rating of about an 8.5 to a 9.0. I think this will be a great year for Madden. I just hope the game is a bit better than this and the announcing is not disappointing.

Any questions? Please feel free to ask (via the comment section) and I will try my best to answer. I am going to go by gamestop later today to pick up my demo code to get 5 minute quarters. That way I will get a better feel for the game. I will post an update after I play a few rounds with 5 minute quarters.

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