Monthly Archives: March 2012

Random Thoughts: 3-29-12

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Excuse me for my absence from JK Gaming and Sports this week.  Wife is out of town, I’m shuttling kids to school and my Little League team began practicing this week.

-  In the minimal free time I’ve had recently, I sat down to try out the Tiger Woods ’13 demo.  In short, I mostly enjoyed it.  The difficulty has been improved tremendously and it feels like you actually earn every shot you succeed at, something that wasn’t true of any previous iteration.

-  I’ll no longer be PS3-less next week.

-  I can’t possibly be the only one who didn’t know that MLB played regular season games in Tokyo right?  I’m super thrilled for all the great opening games next week, but it seems like no one told me that Seattle and Oakland were playing a pair.  Then again, it is Seattle and Oakland….so….

-  The NHL playoffs are less than 2 weeks away and I cannot wait to break down all of the match ups, stay tuned.

-  The NFL made minor rule changes but the most significant is that regular season overtimes will now use the 2 year old playoff overtime rule.  No longer can you kick a field goal on the first possession of OT and win.  Now if we can just eliminate ties in the NFL.  It’s funny that the NHL, a league that was notorious for having ties, eliminated them but the NFL still has them on occasion.

-  Finally, it is Final Four weekend.  Enough said.

Peyton Manning in Orange; Why the Colts Were Right

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As a life long Colts fan, I feel like I am obligated to share my thoughts on Peyton Manning officially becoming a Denver Bronco this week.

It’s impossible to be a Colts fan and not feel weird about seeing the official unveiling of his number 18 Manning jersey at their press conference.  He’s only had one NFL team throughout his great career and, be honest, you probably thought years ago that he’d only wear Indy blue.

Last season was a giant wakeup call for the Colts.  Not only did they prove that they were completely unprepared to have Manning go down with injury, they showed how great Manning really is.  The number of weapons the Colts had offensively were a direct product of Manning’s ability.  How many great plays did Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and the rest of the offensive skill position players make in the 2011 season?  They were few and far between for sure.

The only thing worse than this……

I actually argued that if it weren’t for games played restrictions, Peyton Manning should have been the MVP of the 2011 season.  I’m also dead serious about that.  If the criteria is most valuable to your team, there’s no doubt Manning was.

I’ve had so many great memories watching Manning over the years, many games in person during our season ticket years.  However, I agreed with Colts owner Jim Irsay when he said it was time to move on.

We know that Manning can play, but with his multiple neck surgeries, can we be absolutely certain of that?  He’s on the wrong side of age 35 and won’t get better.  As a Colts fan, would you want your team’s quarterback to go down with injury and have another 2 win season?  I sure don’t.

After said season, you would be in the exact same spot you are now.  Except this time, your star quarterback is a year older and you’ve done nothing for your future again.

To assume the Colts make the playoffs with Manning in 2012 is ignorant at best.  The Colts were very old and spiraling fast.  I can only imagine the backlash from fans if Indy went 8-8 or even worse, under .500 WITH Manning.

Manning signed for 5 years in Denver.  There is no chance he plays 5 more seasons in the NFL.  Injuries will become more prevalent and age will take a bigger toll on his body.

…would’ve been this. Be thankful Colts fans, be thankful.

A factor the Colts were forced to look at was the incredible top two quarterbacks available in the draft, Andrew Luck of Stanford, and Robert Griffin III of Baylor.  It is almost poetic for Indianapolis really.  It can be argued that these are the best one-two QB’s out of college since the 1998 draft which featured Manning and Ryan Leaf out of Washington State.  Indy had a massive decision to make.  Obviously we know the results of both, but the point is that there hasn’t been a set of quarterbacks like this since that draft.

Every NFL franchise covets that long-time franchise quarterback and the Colts have the opportunity to do that this year.  Will they be successful in 2012?  Probably not.  Manning went 3-13 in his rookie season, just one win more than last year.

So it is time to regroup, rebuild, and give our future a look.  Every franchise has to go through it and fans have to learn to deal with it.  It’ll be tough going through a couple of bad seasons, but if you were following the Indianapolis Colts prior to 1998, you’re used to it.  The rewards will come in a few years, you’ll see.  It might be even tougher watching the Broncos make a deep playoff run this year and next, but we’ll get over it.

The NCAA Tournament, First Week

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It’s my favorite tournament in any sport.  I’ll take it over anything and everything and I won’t hesitate to defend it.  The NCAA basketball tournament reigns supreme and while it has its off years, it never disappoints.

Here are just a few of the moments that stood out for me:

-  The “First Four”…I’m begging the NCAA to stop this nonsense.  Not necessarily the games itself, but pretending that these games are just as important as when the field hits 64 teams.  It is impossible to argue that the two games played on Tuesday night in Dayton were surprisingly awesome.  Western Kentucky overcame a 16 point deficit with just 5 minutes to go.  BYU trailed Iona by 25 points and rallied to win.

I still don’t know what this thing is, but I love it.

While these two games can be considered a couple of the best that the tournament had to offer, they still aren’t real games in the eyes of many.  For the committee to do this right, I think you really need to have ALL the teams who play Tuesday/Wednesday to be the final 8 at-large teams.  It’s still not fair to conference champions to play extra games.   Make the 8 at-large teams all 16 seeds and let the winners play UNC, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Syracuse.  Seeding is overrated anyway…that’s why so many good seeded teams go down.

-  UNC-Ashville vs. Syracuse.  The officiating was absolutely brutal in this game.  If not for the referees, I really believe we would have seen the first #1 seed lose in the round of 64.  UNC-A’s J.P. Primm was called for a huge lane violation, which was questionable at best.  It occurred on a crucial free throw attempt for Syracuse which resulted in two additional shots being made.

With just 35 seconds left, Syracuse was inbounding the ball up 3.  Syracuse’s Brandon Triche misplayed the ball and it clearly went out of bounds off him.  Officials signaled otherwise.  Whether or not a foul should have been called is irrelevant, the ball went off Triche and that was obvious.

-  VCU over Wichita State.  If you didn’t see this coming, you are not paying attention.  VCU’s head coach Shaka Smart became a household name at the NCAA tournament last year.  He took his Rams to the Final Four and showed no sign of stopping in their first game this year.  Expect Smart to get a more recognizable coaching job in the near future.

-  15 seeds.  My favorite moment in NCAA Tournament history is when 15th seeded Hampton shocked Iowa State in 2001.  I’ve never seen such genuine joy from a coach than what I saw in Steve Merfeld.  After Iowa State’s Jamaal Tinsley missed a shot with 1.2 seconds on the clock, Hampton’s David Johnson carried Merfeld across the court.  Merfeld was pumping his fists and kicking while being held.  It was such a cool moment.

My favorite NCAA Tournament moment, from 2001.

Friday saw the first 15 seed to win since that moment.  Norfolk State seemingly matched Missouri bucket for bucket as the game progressed.  They wouldn’t go away and they ultimately defeated the 2 seed Missouri 86-84.

Fast forward just a couple hours and Lehigh, also a 15 seed, would shoot down the almighty Duke Blue Devils. It was unreal and almost unfathomable.  The parity of college basketball is improving every year and it is great to see.

- Indiana defeats VCU.  The round of 32 saw my favorite team, the Indiana Hoosiers against Smart’s VCU Rams.  VCU controlled a good portion of the game but Indiana was resilient late in the game.

IU’s Will Sheehey helped take IU to the round of 16.

Will Sheehey’s shot with 12 seconds left had me jumping for joy and was a 2nd reminder that IU basketball is back.  The first of course, was the Kentucky game at Assembly Hall…….rematch on Friday by the way!

-  St. Louis and Purdue’s almosts.  These teams almost pulled off major upsets but came up just short.  Purdue had a chance to put Kansas away but still pulled off a valiant effort.  St. Louis meanwhile hung with Michigan State to the very end, but to no avail.

With 16 teams remaining, it will be interesting to see what develops now.  Obviously everyone will be talking about the Kentucky/IU rematch, but how far can teams like Florida, Xavier, Ohio, and NC State really go?

Sony’s Terrible Service

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The headline, while not misleading, may have you thinking of a number of ways that Sony fails.  That list is definitely a long one, especially when it comes to the Playstation 3 console.  I have no problem declaring the Xbox 360 to be the superior console on the market today, and honestly don’t even think it is close.  Both have their problems, but I’ve added another to Sony’s side this week.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 years ago, I purchased a used PS3 on Ebay for extremely cheap.  I did so with the sole intention of purchasing the only good baseball game available, MLB: The Show (to this day that still remains true about baseball games).  The Show is exclusive to the PS3.  I still have no regrets about it because The Show is easily the best sports sim on any console that I’ve played.  Also, having the Blu-Ray inside was a great bonus as well.

Last year around this time, a few weeks after MLB 11 came out, there was a major problem with my PS3.  The yellow light of deathoccurred.   This is the equivalent to Xbox 360′s semi-more frequent red light that occurred on the first version console.

With a brand new game stuck inside the console, I called Sony to request service.  Having no warranty off a console that I purchased on Ebay, I expected to pay for it.  $129.00 was the bill.  More than half what I paid for the system…awesome.  They paid for the shipping but it took over a week for me to even receive the box.  After sending it out, it was another week before their warehouse received it.

This was frustrating to say the least.  2 weeks after the problem and Sony hadn’t touched the console yet.  After another full week of having it in their possession, I got an email with a tracking number.  Finally, they are shipping me my PS3.  It took another week and it finally arrived.  When it came, I immediately discovered they shipped me a different console.  It was the same model, but definitely a different console.

One month of waiting seems like forever when my favorite sports game is out and am unable to play it.  I’ve sent my 360 to Microsoft on more than one occasion and had a 10-14 day turn around….more on this below.

Fast forward to this week and my frustrations return.  Upon turning the PS3 on, I get a blank screen with my television telling me there is no signal.  I tried 3 different HDMI cords, 2 A/V cords, 2 tv’s, and nothing worked.  I tried every fix available on the internet without so much as a blip on the screen.

I called Sony and got a hold of someone who sounded like she was incapable of having a conversation without her screen telling her exactly what to say.  We went through all the troubleshooting options, each of which I already did, and discovered that I needed to send it to Sony for repair.  The cost?  $129.00.

Does this price ever go down?  We are on the verge of the next generation of console and gaming companies are still charging about half price of a new console for repair.

I asked her to confirm the date in which I last sent in my PS3 for repair, and she told me a date I already knew.  Indeed it was LESS THAN 1 YEAR AGO.

You’ll have to forgive me as I believe that is an insufficient amount of time to be forced to pay “full price” for another repair.  I’m told that the 90 day warranty from the repair is all they give.  90 days is nothing.  I wonder how many PS3 owners have ever used this 90 day repair warranty.  I’m guessing a handful at most.

I told the representative that this was absurd.  4 times over the next 2-3 minutes she told me “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do”.  I feel bad for customer service reps when people yell at them in anger because it isn’t really their fault.  However, I have a much better understanding as to why customers get mad….the reps aren’t apologetic at all.  They are reading their scripts and show zero human emotion at all.  That, to me, is offensive and as a customer, makes me feel unimportant.

After asking for a reference number for the call, so I could call back later to get right back into it, I thought it over for a bit.  I decided I’m not going to pay $129 for a system that worked for 11.5 months (minus the 2+ weeks of shipping and the 3 months of sitting dormant after I got rid of The Show).  Surely I could talk to someone and try and get this outrageous asking price down to the $50-70 range.

I talked to a robot gentleman and gave him the reference number and explained everything I had told the previous rep.  He told me all the same stuff and I then asked if there was anything at all he could do for me.  Of course he said no and that the $129 is set in stone, no exceptions.

I asked to speak to someone else who might have more authority to help.  I did this all while staying as polite as possible without pissing anyone off…even though they had done a terrible job of returning the favor.  This clearly wasn’t part of his script because in a completely nervous voice he asked “Uh….who would you like to talk to?”

The exact opposite of how my customer service experience with Sony went.

I bet the janitor could do a better job of helping, how about sending him my way.

I said just give me a supervisor or manager.   After a few minutes of Sony advertising, I was directed to a man who actually sounded like he gave a damn for a brief second.  After I told him my problem, he stood firm in telling me it would be $129 and went through the whole 90 day crap.

I asked him if he thought it was absurd that if an essentially new console stopped working 91 days after I had paid $129 to have it fixed, that I’d have to pay the same amount again.  He went on some spiel about how if his PS3 was in this situation that even he would have to pay full price to have it fixed.  Well, good for you buddy.  Way to make yourself sound real important in front of the customer.  I also didn’t ask about you and your console.

I thanked him for his time, but ended my saying I won’t be giving them any money to fix this  thing twice in a single year.

I was stunned at the sheer unapologetic answers and unwillingness to help that Sony was. It is really that much to ask that a system work for 1 calendar year?  Technically, it could break 4 times in a year and you’d have to pay for a repair every single time.  That is outrageous.

Even Microsoft sent me a brand new generation Xbox 360 after I had three separate issues with my system. Those were all with no charge too.

I quickly found many reputable 3rd party companies that specialize in fixing gaming systems.  One stuck out with overwhelmingly positive reviews and I went with them after a few hours of research.  As I type, my system is en route to RSOL PC.  I’ll discuss my thoughts on their service in the near future, but so far, it’s been a good experience.

Classic Gaming Memories: Atari

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I thought I might as well start at the point where my gaming experience originated with the Atari video game system.  As a child of somewhere between 4 and 6, the Atari was my first gaming system.  Sure it is primitive, but at the time it was something different and unique.

I must confess that the system I had was not the original Atari 2600, which featured the wooden casing, 2600 junior which was a very cheap 3rd edition of the system.  It was released in 1985.

My first game system. Don’t be jealous.

This was gaming simplicity at its finest.  The controller was a simple joystick that had a single button to accompany it.  Games were mostly blips on the screen that had minimal objectives, though some games do stand out…and I’ll share those later.  I should also note that due to my young age, or small hands or for whatever reason that seems odd now, I held the controller upside-down.  The reason for this was for closer placement of the button.  The button was in the top left corner and for some reason, I thought it felt better to have the button in the bottom right so I could use my left hand with the joystick.  Apparently, I knew what I was doing since nearly every controller design now has the d-pad or stick on the left.

My style of holding the joystick also meant I had to play every single game with an inverted X and Y axis.  I don’t know how I managed to do it, and I certainly could never train myself to do it now, but in retrospect that was quite a feat.

128 colors and graphics that made the NES look like something from the year 2025, the Atari 2600 wasn’t flashy.  It did the job however, and that was more than enough.

Pitfall was probably the best known game for the system.  It was the 2nd highest selling game for the system behind the extremely disappointing game Pac-Man.  Pitfall was also a unique side scrolling adventure game.

I jump on what now?

Essentially you had 20 minutes to cross ponds of alligators, jump scorpions, and maneuver around other obstacles without dying.  You are supposed to find 32 treasures and achieve the highest score possible.  I remember playing this game more than any other.

Another classic favorite of mine was the puzzle game Q-Bert.  I remember getting tens of levels deep and spending countless hours trying to figure out how to complete levels that continued the climb in difficulty.

With all the great games this system produced, I’d be doing a disservice by not admitting that I owned what many consider the worst game ever made….E.T.  Not only the worst game, but almost single-handedly destroying the Atari company and the future of video games altogether.

Bad memories returning….MAKE IT STOP

I never really knew what I was doing.  I remember running around with E.T. and constantly having play halted because I fell in a giant pit.  Getting out of these things were massive chores.  Then when I did get out, 5 seconds later I got to do it all over again.  What fun!

There’s so many great memories with this system and a large number of games that I had a ton of fun with.  Playing Combat with 2 players, getting to an impossible level in Moon Patrol, and controlling Snoopy in The Red Baron were great times.

It’s certainly not the best time I’ve had in video gaming, but it was my first time.  Sure the games are almost all terrible now and have little to no replay value compared to games even a few years later, but at 5 years of age, there was nothing like it.

MLB 12: The Show 2nd Impressions

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As I fall more and more into routine with this game, it has become extremely familiar to it’s predecessors.  I’m also loving it more and more.

I’ll start with ball physics that are making things happen that I didn’t see in previous iterations.  Balls in the dirt bounce much more unpredictably when the catcher attempts to block them.  No longer are we forced to endure the ball going completely to the backstop or bounce right in front of the catcher.  I’ve seen the ball go to several different spots from in front of the catcher, to the side, straight up, and half way back.  It’s a great variety with runners on base as it makes you decide whether to advance or not…a decision that was obvious last season.

Off the bat, the ball continues to amaze me as well.  The back spin on the ball is incredible when it hits the ground.  It’s also good on come-backers to the pitcher.  I had the bases loaded with 1 out and hit a one hopper back to the mound.  It hit the pitcher and bounced to his left where the first baseman picked it up and tossed it to the plate for the force out.  Very cool if you ask me.

I’ve continued to play Diamond Dynasty and am disliking it more and more.  It’s an overwhelming mess when it comes to the setup.  There seems to be no organization to the mode.  It is such a hassle to put players into your lineup, move them to and from reserves, and manage your Major Leaguers.   It’s also ridiculous that your starting pitchers lose a game played when they aren’t starting, thus making rotations meaningless.

I tried an online DD game for the first time and it was horrid.  While the lag honestly wasn’t bad at all, there is a massive delay in the timing when it comes to swinging.  This is completely unacceptable.  Anything shy of offline timing isn’t good enough.  How can you play baseball like this?  If you aren’t swinging before you know where the pitch is, you’ll be late and miss.  This leads to the pitcher throwing nothing but pitches way out of the zone because they know you’ll have to swing if you want to make contact.  By the 3rd inning, it’s simply a random guessing game with no skill involved.  The Show’s weakest spot has always been online play and this year appears to be no different.  What a shame.

I think it’s great that the classic stadium pack continues to be unlocked for those who paid for it in previous games.  I bought it in MLB 10 and they were unlocked last year and this year as well.  Why can’t other companies follow suit….I’m looking at you EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA.

I jumped into a play now game (I won’t start a franchise until Operationsports.com’s full minors rosters are released in a few weeks).  I played Oakland at Chicago Cubs with me controlling the Cubbies.  I used analog pitching, analog + zone hitting, and everything on All-Star.  I also lowered a few sliders one click, mostly everything that has to do with speed.

I got destroyed 5-0 but I left a lot of runners on base.  I was also trying out a few things that I wouldn’t have done in a franchise game.  Unlike a lot of gamers, I want the game to be as difficult as possible and present the biggest challenge without feeling like I was cheated.  Winning 120 franchise games means the difficulty is not hard enough.

As before, you can save the game highlight reel to your PS3 dashboard and upload to youtube.  Check it out:

I still have yet to play a co-op game, but the remainder of time before I start my franchise will be dedicated to finding the perfect sliders and trying to endure Road to the Show games.  I’ll also try to improve my Challenge of the Week status.

So far so good when it comes to MLB 12.  This game continues to get better and better and is showing why it is the premiere baseball game every single year.

Initial MLB 12: The Show Impressions

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Well the day is officially upon us and MLB 12: The Show is available on Playstation 3 and PS Vita.  I’ll be talking solely about the PS3 version of course.

Upon inserting the Blu-Ray, I was asked if I would like to install 10 GB of the game to the PS3 hard drive.  It would significantly reduce loading times I was told.  Thankfully I had other chores and activities to tend to because it took roughly 20 minutes to install.  If you played MLB 11, you know that the loading times were abysmal and possibly worse than any game I’ve ever seen.  While I didn’t play prior to installing, a few menus and a quick RTTS game showed exactly how much better it was in comparison to last year’s game.

The Show has always had great audio clips and opening videos featuring key moments from the previous season of Major League Baseball.  I was treated to a 2-3 minute video of the sequence of events that led up to what many consider the greatest night in regular season history.  I’m of course speaking of the wild card races in the AL and NL.  Watch it, it is spectacular and a pleasant reminder of how great this sport can be.

Any time I pick up a new game, I go into the options menu.  I like to see everything that is available so I know what I can and cannot tweak.  I immediately notice how familiar everything is and I adjusted a majority of settings to what I had last year.

MLB 12 features a new way to pitch and hit (to a lesser extent).  I tried the new pulse pitching in practice mode.  I feel like I gave it a good chance and I’ve come to the conclusion that I would get a massive headache if I had to endure pulse pitching over the course of an entire game.  I’m sure someone will enjoy it, however I am not one of them.   I’ll stick to last year’s analog pitching that I liked.

As for the change in hitting, it’s a combination of pure analog controls (introduced last year) and zone hitting, which utilizes the left thumb stick.  This was asked about a lot from the community and SCEA delivered.  If you enjoy analog hitting, this gives you full control of where the bat goes.  Turn the PCI on and you can see exactly where the bat enters the zone.  This is a lot to try and do and with a little practice, I hope to be able to use this mode.

Next, I jumped into Road to the Show.  RTTS is what all other sports games now have a version of.  You control one player, start him in the minors, and try to reach the big leagues.    I’ll admit, I become less and less interested in this mode every year.  There simply isn’t enough to keep me coming back.

The one RTTS feature I’ve been clamoring for is the ability to see every pitch in the field.  SCORE!  You can now see and attempt ONLY your at-bats, and play every pitch in the field.  After playing this way a couple of times, I felt the games took too long.

I then tried a game with “Result pitch only.”  This showed every single at bat in the game, but only the final pitch of each at bat.  Unfortunately, it meant I had to sit in the dugout and watch my teammates make out after out.  The fielding was great because it went by faster than seeing every pitch, but still kept you on your toes not knowing if you were getting the ball.

My ideal RTTS setup would be seeing the “result pitch” in the field and just my at bats on offense.  SCEA, make it happen next year.

As a former Challenge of the Week winner, I had to jump into this mode and give it a go.  This year it is now completely free so everyone has the same chance to win.  This week features Adrian Gonzales at Fenway, versus C.C. Sabathia.  I immediately noticed the very low scores on the leader board and groaned.  The bonuses are extremely difficult to obtain and the pitcher is filthy.  This is a lethal combination.

Last year’s game had noticeable lag spikes and times while playing CotW.  It has been smooth sailing this year (a great sign for online play).  I already have a huge complaint and it is a complete lack of feedback after each pitch.  I have tried every button combination and am unable to pull up the feedback window.  This is essential to me as it shows me the pitch thrown, my exact timing, and it shows me precisely how I can adjust.  Because of this, I felt like I had no patience at the plate.  I struggled mightily and never felt like I had a chance to compete.  Everything else looked and felt the same, but the fact that I was terrible leads me to believe that I’m extremely rusty, or the lack of feedback is killing my confidence.

So it was on to attempt Diamond Dynasty.  You are told to create the home town of your team, its nickname, abbreviation, and colors.  I went with what I typically go with it games like this, the Fort Wayne Vipers.  However, after clicking ok, I was told this name was already taken.  WHAT?  Someone actually used Fort Wayne Vipers?  So I went with Indiana Vipers and sure enough that was taken as well.  First off, I’m curious as to why you aren’t allowed to use the same name as someone else.

Turns out the nickname must be unique.  That is the most ridiculous thing ever.  Essentially what that means is after the first hour or two, all the common names like Bears, Lions, and Vipers are gone.  At the very least they could have not allowed common city plus nickname.  After about 10 minutes of self debate, I went with Fort Wayne Green Vipers.  I used a lot of green in the colors.

After finally getting to the team lineups page, I realized how complicated the setup appears.  You are given a handful of majors players, none of who are actually in your lineup, and a bunch of scrubs who you can train with earned money.  It took another 15-20 minutes just to get a lineup set with a mix of these players.  I never actually started a game for fear of not being able to finish and not knowing if I can actually quit the game and return later in this mode (something you can do in franchise or exhibition).

My wife is a graphic designer and wanted to design my logo, jersey, and that jazz.  Even she was amazed by the amount of detail you are afforded.  Seriously, for someone with no design experience, even basic setup is entirely overwhelming.

As for the game play itself, this is MLB: The Show.  Not a lot has changed honestly.  That’s not a bad thing either.  The game is solid and there is little to complain about.  Many of the fielding woes from the past are fixed.  The ball physics are a minor improvement but it is very noticeable.

I won’t get started on a franchise until the Full Minors roster from Operationsports.com is released.  The guys over there do an amazing job with every single minor league player as well as tweaking every Major League player.

Random Thoughts 03-05-12

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Sometimes instead of a well thought out blog post, I just want to jot down some quick thoughts with little to no elaboration.

-  MLB 12: The Show is released tomorrow on the Playstation 3.  I cannot begin to explain my level of excitement for this.

-  I’m not afraid to admit that I am not a fan of Mass Effect.  ME3 is released tomorrow as well.

-  As written previously, this is the time of year I badly wish for a College Hoops game.  Please someone, make College Hoops 2k13.

-  Speaking of College Basketball, all of the major conference tournaments get underway this week.  I’m especially looking forward to the Big Ten Tournament.

-  Rory McIlroy became the world’s number one golfer over the weekend.  I’ve followed him rather closely the last few years and he could very well hold this spot for a long time.

-  With Peyton Manning’s contract about to take a huge turn, expect some big news over the next few days.

NCAAB Conference Tournament Coverage on ESPN3

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With most mid-major conferences already underway with their tournaments, you may see an explosion of them on the ESPN family of networks.  As a huge college basketball fan, I’m offering a little reminder to you that ESPN3.com offers up not only nearly every game seen on the ESPNs, but a plethora of games you can’t see anywhere else.

Not only will you get first and second round coverage of all the rarely seen conferences, but it is high school basketball championship time.  ESPN3 frequently shows many state basketball championships for boys and girls.

ESPN3 is available at their website, if your internet provider offers it, as well as on Xbox Live for gold members.

It really is a great service that gives you coverage of mainstream sports as well as a lot of fringe sports you could never find on television.

Bioshock Infinite Release Date

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Bioshock Infinite has an official release date:  October 16, 2012.  Mark it down and be prepared.

There isn’t much else as far as news for the game, but it is always exciting to know just when you can have your hands on one of the blockbusters.

We’ll also be treated to more and more gameplay over the next several months I’m sure.

1912′s city in the sky will be available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.