Day: May 2, 2008

PS3 Releases: week of April 28, 2008

on the shelves Grand Theft Auto IV (and special edition) – mentioning reviews of this seems besides the point. You’ve probably already decided at this point. (I’m passing for now.) FWIW, there are workarounds for the problems people have been having with glitches, but they really need to ship a proper fix ASAP. Iron Man … Continue reading “PS3 Releases: week of April 28, 2008”

on the shelves

Grand Theft Auto IV (and special edition) – mentioning reviews of this seems besides the point. You’ve probably already decided at this point. (I’m passing for now.) FWIW, there are workarounds for the problems people have been having with glitches, but they really need to ship a proper fix ASAP.

Iron Man is actually out today, not Tuesday, probably due to the movie. That also means there’s no reviews for it yet. Maybe I’ll just run this item next week instead since there’s nothing new that week. Maybe I’ll forget. Maybe I should stop my PS3 from Folding all day, download the demo and figure out something for myself? May is the month for Maybes.

in the store

Downloadable Game

echochrome {$10} – this is said to be really good (and has been out elsewhere for quite some time), but I haven’t played the demo yet. It’s playable on the PSP as well, which is unusual for these non-classic downloadable games. It’s much more thinking and less system capabilities.

Add on Content

– Rock Band {$2, singles only}
* “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins
* “Time-Sick Son of a Grizzy Bear” by the Mother Hips
* “Red Tandy” by the Mother Hips

– Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore {$1.50}
* “(You Make Me Feel Life) A Natural Woman” – Aretha Franklin
* “Against All Odds” – Phil Collins
* “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
* “Ain’t Nothing Life the Real Thing” – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
* “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” – Temptations
* “Alone” – Heart
* “Always Something There to Remind Me” – Naked Eyes
* “American Woman – Lenny Kravitz
* “Born to be Wild” – Steppenwolf
* “Careless Whisper” – Wham
* “Complicated” – Avril Lavigne
* “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – Queen
* “Do I Make You Proud” – Taylor Hicks
* “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” – Culture Club
* “Every Rose Has its Thorn” – Poison
* “Flashdance…What a Feeling” – Irene Cara
* “Greatest Love of All” – Whitney Houston
* “Here I Go Again” – Whitesnake
* “I Got You Babe” – Sonny & Cher
* “If I Ain’t Got You” – Alicia Keys
* “I’m Coming Out” – Diana Ross
* “It’s Your Love” – Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
* “Just the Way You Are” – Billy Joel
* “Ladies Night” – Kool & the Gang
* “Let’s Get it On” – Marvin Gaye
* “Love Will Keep Us Together” – Captain & Tennille
* “My Girl” – Temptations
* “New York, New York” – Frank Sinatra
* “On the Road Again” – Willy Nelson
* “Photograph” – Nickelback
* “Proud Mary” – Creedance Clearwater
* “Respect” – Aretha Franklin
* “Stand By Your Man” – Tammy Wynette
* “Straight Up” – Paula Abdul
* “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” – Fall Out Boy
* “Taking Care of Business” – Bachman Turner Overdrive
* “The First Cut is the Deepest” – Sheryl Crow / Rod Stewart
* “The Real Thing” – Bo Bice
* “When the Sun Goes Down” – Kenny Chesney & Uncle Kracker
* “Who Can it be Now?” – Men At Work
* “You and Me” – Lifehouse
* “You’re My Best Friend” – Queen

Game Demos
– Dark Sector

Game Videos
– echochrome (Trailer)
– Battlefield Bad Company (video blog)
– Kung Fu Panda (Trailer)
– Dead Space (2 Trailers)
– Turok (2 Trailers)
– NBA Ballers (TV Spot)
– “Fast Car” by Wyclef Jean (music video, back again)

PS3 Wallpapers
– echochrome (4)
– Kung Fu Panda (3)

over the horizon

05/02: Iron Man

05/06: Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare (game of the year re-release)

05/15: The Chornicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

05/19: UEFA Euro 2008
05/19: Top Spin 3
05/20: Haze
05/20: SingStar
05/20: Monster Madness: Grave Danger

05/27: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
05/27: Hail to the Chimp
06/01: Afrika
06/01: Legendary: The Box

06/02: Civilization Revolution
06/03: LEGO Indiana Jones
06/03: The Bourne Conspiracy
06/03: Kung Fu Panda
06/05: The Incredible Hulk

06/10: Dragonball Z: Burst Limit
06/10: NASCAR 09
06/12: Metal Gear Sold 4: Guns of the Patriots
06/13: Grid

06/23: Battlefield: Bad Company (and Gold Edition)
06/24: Beijing Olympics 2008
06/24: Hellboy: The Science of Evil
06/24: Wall-E
06/29: Guitar Hero Aerosmith
06/29: Soulcalibur IV

06/30: Heist
07/01: Rapala Fishing Frenzy

Game 28: Brewers 4 – Cubs 3

Brewers 16-12, -1.5 (3rd) Cubs 17-11, -0.5 (2nd) POTG: SP Z!!!! (HR [1/13]; 6.1 IP, 7 J, R, 2 BB, 3 K) Runner Up: SS Ryan Theriot (3 H), RF Fukudome (4 H, CS, 2A) Yes, there was a dumb move with a guy recovering from injury in this game. It wasn’t Soriano: Gallardo has … Continue reading “Game 28: Brewers 4 – Cubs 3”

Brewers 16-12, -1.5 (3rd)
Cubs 17-11, -0.5 (2nd)

POTG: SP Z!!!! (HR [1/13]; 6.1 IP, 7 J, R, 2 BB, 3 K)
Runner Up: SS Ryan Theriot (3 H), RF Fukudome (4 H, CS, 2A)

Yes, there was a dumb move with a guy recovering from injury in this game. It wasn’t Soriano: Gallardo has torn ACL.

The Cubs are going to have games were defenders make bad plays, pitchers don’t get the jobs done, and people get out running the bases. What I hope never happens is the Cubs have a game where the pitcher suffers a knee injury so bad they’re balled up on the ground in pain and the manager allows them to continue to pitch. That was many times worse than the loss of one game.

I think, when Gallardo went down, every Cubs fan with any sort of memory flash backed to their favorite freak Mark Prior injury. Maybe it was the time he got hit by a batted ball for you, but I think most went with the Marcus Gilles collision game. Even though none of his major arm injury he’s had has definitely been linked with that incident, I don’t know of a Cubs fan who would’ve let him go back out on the mound if it happened today. Dusty let him pitch three more innings, and we all live to regret this. When Yost let Gallarado go back on the mound, history was repeating itself.

Given the Brewers bullpen, Gallardo probably needed to be in as long as possible to get the Brewers the win on this one day, but there are times as a manager you must look at the big picture. How much more damage was done to the knee and how many future games did Yost cost his team by letting a prize pitching prospect play hurt? It wasn’t the World Series, it wasn’t the last days of the season, it was just game 28 of 162. Yost lost his perspective.

The cold math is the Brewers won the game, but everyone will now project them for 2 or 3 less wins on the season without Gallardo. And that may be the difference, but as a fan of baseball, I’m disappointed.

Cubs fans have to keep this game in perspective as well. It feels like the first game the Cubs lost that they really should’ve won, but at least they got to May 1st before taking one of those. There are real concerns about Kerry Wood, but Marmol being the closer may have meant Wood just blows the game an inning or two earlier. Soriano probably should’ve been double switched out of the game, but sometimes you’ve just got to learn those lessons the hard way, and it’s better to learn those lessons in Game 28.

Buried in all of this was Z being awesome yet again. I was really hoping for a 1-0 victory, but I guess you don’t always get what you want. On ESPN after the game, Buster Onley credited Z’s good start to an improved K rate. His Ks are down on the season, I have no idea what he meant. Walks are down which is how Z makes it work, at least for now.

Regardless of how he was used, Marmol was his usual untouchable self. That’s good.

Also buried was the hitting. Even though they were in position at the end, the hitters didn’t do all they could’ve. When Ronny Cedeno comes off the bench for half the team’s walks (2) and Z has half the XBH (2), something’s a bit off.