The Chicago Bears are on their way to another victory over the Minnesota Vikings. I’m ahead 35 to 7 in the 3rd quarter. My opponent has resorted to talking about my mom and my sexual orientation since he is losing so bad. Suddenly he disconnects from the game. This is usually how all the games I play online end. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a game of Madden while in the lead.

It’s a fact that nobody ever finishes an online game if they are losing by a wide margin. Not only that, but they aren’t face to face with you, so that allows them to say things that would usually cause their skull to get knocked in. Instead, they can hide behind anonymity and disconnect whenever they like. Remember the days of the arcade? Where your opponent would playfully trash talk. Nothing ever got out of hand. When your opponent lost, they would either bow to you, shake your hand or just tell you ‘nice game’ and walk away with dignity. I miss those days. Unfortunately, those days are gone.

The shortcomings of online gaming will never replace the experience you can get with gaming with a friend in an arcade or your living room. For now, games like World of Warcraft will work because they don’t require opponents to be online. But I still wish I could get in a full head-to-head game against an online opponent once in awhile and be able to finish a game in its entirety.

On April 7, 2008, I posted a blog called The Sims Online is Back, and it’s Free This Time. I was excited about this, because I loved The Sims Online. Unfortunately, EA executives weren’t behind EA Land to begin with, and the service will be closing. I guess they thought they’d let their developers play with it and bring it back online to see what they could do. It’s a great world to play in for gamers, but it’s obviously not the money generating monster EA wants it to be. God forbid they provide something that’s free.

When the Playstation was hot, I was poor. I couldn’t afford the system or the games. On weekends, me and the 3 guys I lived with would occasionally rent a Playstation from Blockbuster along with several sports titles and have a blast. Over the last few years though, Blockbuster has been lacking in their game offerings, and they haven’t offered console rentals at all.

Blockbuster is looking to change that now though, as they expand their game offerings. They are offering consoles and a wider variety of games for rental as they try to provide consumers with other options than movies, which Netflix is killing them on.

It’s nice to have other options for game rentals since the other video chains such as Hollywood suck at it. GameFly is an option, but it’s expensive and when I want to play a game, I want it now. I don’t want to have to wait 3 days to receive it. With the new options, it looks like I will have to give Blockbuster another chance to win my business back.

I love simulation games. Especially sports related simulations. Baseball Mogul is by far the best one out there. Before I had settled for the baseball games on the PS2, but they are too slow. I want to make executive decisions on my team and run simulations on them.  Baseball Mogul has always been good at providing this experience, but I noticed they added a feature that takes it even further. You can now be a manager of a team and make pitch-by-pitch managerial decisions. Shift your fielders to guard the lines or pull the infield in. Tell your hitter to hit to the right-side or bunt. It’s simply an awesome game for those with a strategic mind. This simulation doesn’t leave anything out. Real professional players, both major and minor league. It also keeps very accurate stats, unlike other baseball games (Example: Pitchers not getting credit for a save when they pitch the last 3 innings of a blow-out).

Don’t care for baseball?  They make football and basketball versions also. Free demos are available of each version. Check it out at sportsmogul.com

I used to like The Sims Online. I feel it’s better than Second Life as it has a way more features. The game does get a little boring unless you have a social interaction with other players. Here is the email I received with details all about The Sims Online return.

Dear Former Member of The Sims Online

Luc Barthelet,
“MaxisLuc”. users for years (e.g.

Yes, I said it! Games that you play on your own are dead. You are witnessing a switch in the gaming world to everything becoming multi-player. Muti-player games add such a new experience to gaming that soon nobody will want to play games by themselves anymore.

When games like Pac-Man first came out, they were mainly 1 player. You could play 2 players and switch off when you lose a man, but hardly anybody did this. Then later games like Double Dragon and Rampage came out where you could play with multiple players simultaneously. Arcades later made a comeback based on the competition of mutliplayer games in the mid 1990’s such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2.

With the Internet, you can play with thousands of other players. The dynamic that Halo 3 and World of Warcraft bring to your PC is unmatched by any single player game. The Wii is popular because it is mainly a party system that involves multiple players in your living room. This is the future. Soon games like Metal Gear will need to have some type of multi-player capability added to future releases or franchises like this will simply die.

While the arcade itself may be dead, arcade games seem to be making a comeback lately. Classic games like Pac-Man and Galaga are available on the XBox 360 and Wii. People of all ages are loving these games, and it seems to be feeding the need these days for a game that you don’t have to sit in front of for hours on end to enjoy. Long 20 hour epics such as Zelda sprung up long ago when it was realized that video gaming in the home was different from that in the arcades. People desired a deeper story with their games, and it was exciting to play into the night trying to find that magic sword or hidden room.

As gamers are growing older, they have less time to devote to gaming. I myself don’t have the time to devote to games like World of Warcraft or Zelda. I spend a lot of my time on a train, bus or plane. This feeds my need for the 5 minute burst of entertainment that I get with an arcade type of game. I think many others share the need for these games so they can play for 5 minutes and just put it down and be done. Many cell phones have arcade type games available on them so that a player can play for a bit, put it down and be done while they are on the go.

I think in the coming years, we are going to find many more arcade “shoot-em-up” style cames making their way to consoles. We will be taken back to the years when games like Contra and 1943 was big in the arcade. Long live the arcade game!

Electronic Arts is the Microsoft of the gaming world. I can’t stand them and I refuse to buy their games because they truly do not care about their employees or customers. Here are 6 reasons why we should boycott EA.

They ruined SimCity

Electronic Arts bought Maxis back in 1997, acquiring the rights to the SimCity franchise. Ever since that moment, SimCity has sucked. What once was one of the best strategic simulation games was turned into a dumbed down game with SimCity 4. Then it was remade into a game that just plain sucks with SimSocieties.

They resell the same sports game to us year after year

Madden 06, 07, 08, NBA Live 06, 07, 08. They sell us the same game every year with slight modifications and updated rosters. The gameplay for Madden hasn’t really changed in years, and as a result the sales of Madden are starting to drop off. The same thing can be said for all of the EA Sports games. We haven’t truly seen and mind-blowing innovation with these games for over 8 years. Why buy them?

They shut out competition

In 2004, ESPN NFL2k5 hit store shelves at $29.99. Not only was it lower priced than Madden, it was a better game. Threatened by this, EA threw their assload of cash at the NFL and NBA for exclusive rights to make games based on those leagues. Now we are stuck with Madden with no chance of other companies to grow their own better NFL or NBA games.

Luckily another company got the MLB licensing. MLB08: The Show and Major League Maseball 2K8 are really good games. Much better than the MVP line of games were.

Their overseas technical support sucks

Have you ever had problems getting your EA game to work? Try speaking English to their support team. Better yet, try understanding them. Even if it’s something as simple as a problem with a CD key, you probably won’t be successful in getting EA Tech Support to help you at all. Gone are the days where they would actually troubleshoot issues between the game and your video card. Now when you call they just advise you to uninstall and reinstall the game. If that doesn’t work they tell you to get new drivers for one of your multimedia devices.

They treat their employees poorly

After the Enron debacle, we are in an age where ethics matter more than dollars. Back in 2004, EA settled a lawsuit with its employees over unpaid overtime. The suit, filed in 2004 stemmed from employees’ allegations that they were required to work long hours and weekends with no overtime compensation.

EA has made billions and billions of dollars yet they avoid rewarding their employees with the money legally owed to them for overtime. I’m sure for EA employees, this is just a needle in a haystack regarding employee/employer relations.

They fail to manage most of their web pages

EA sells a certain game, then they make a pretty web site to go along with it. After they have taken all your cash, they have no interest in supporting you anymore and they let the web sites go without maintenance or support. A perfect example of this is the Sim Theme Park page. It’s been titled Untitled Document at the top for years. You can’t find a patch for the original SimCity anywhere and if you’re still into the last good version of SimCity which is SimCity 3000, good luck finding any support or patches for that. They also shut down The Sims Online, which sucked but many people bought the game and might still want to play.

It would cost EA virtually nothing to still provide information and patches for these games, but they choose not to. Want add-on’s or patches for your game that’s 7 years old? Screw you! We already have your money!

I should be able to walk into a store right now and purchase a Wii, but thanks to Nintendo’s uncanny ability to piss me along with all the other potential buyers off, I can’t. I know I could buy a bundle online. I also know if I digg deep enough I could acquire one. I refuse to try too hard though. Do you know why? I shouldn’t have to! After a console has been out for more than a year, I should be able to walk into a store and buy one. Nintendo is intentionally creating a scarcity for the product and at this point, it just doesn’t make any sense.

I’ve decided that if a Wii isn’t at the next GameStop store I stop at, I’m forgoing buying the system altogether. If Nintendo doesn’t want my money, I’ll it into some electric underwear, or perhaps some gnomes for my garden.

I was thrilled to be able to pick up MLB 08: The Show for the PS2. I don’t own a PS3 to be able to enjoy this title. The PS3 has been out for 2 years and the PS2 aisle is getting smaller and smaller. I couldn’t even find a USB headset for a PS2 when I went looking for one a few weeks ago. Madden 09 is said to be released for the PS2. Will it be the last? Usually these types of big titles cease being produced by the 3rd year the next generation console is out. But with over 120,000,000 PS2’s in households, and the PS2 outselling the PS3, that trend might be erased.

These things are still attached to TV sets everywhere. Game publishers can still easily reach a large audience by continuing to publish games for the PS2. We might see games published well into the 2010’s. I’m glad. The PS2 is an amazing system and I’m not ready to let it along with all the stuff I’ve bought for it go yet.