Figured she’d be a member of the Horde.

“I said collate THEN bind!”

This year, Eat My Bomb will hold the first World Series of Bomb Video Game Tournament with the ultimate champion receiving the coveted Golden Copier Award. Tournament details are still being finalized but the World Series will feature Player vs. Player in both solo and team formats in games such as Unreal Tournament, Ghost Recon, Quake III Arena, Myth II, and other games where murder is easily facilitated across TCP/IP.

Why a Golden Copier? To celebrate a long standing tradition in Ghost Recon of everyone meeting at the copy machine in The Docks map. Get there first and you’re a winner. Get there second and you’re cannon fodder.

A tournament structure including the participants will be posted soon as well as updates on the tournament’s progress. Stay tuned.

This weekend, with spring rapidly approaching, I picked up EA Sports MVP 06 NCAA Baseball for the PS2. As a New Orleanian, Tulane University Alum, and baseball fan, this was a no-brainer as the statistics and team ratings in this game have Tulane at the very top with an A+ rating.

Using the EA Sports MVP Baseball physics model, MVP 06 provides a no frills solid baseball game. You can play any team in any of the major and mid-major college conferences with each team’s ability based on their 2005 finish. Texas #1. Florida #2. Tulane #3. (This post is less about gaming and more about pluggin Tulane Baseball - roll wave).

In reviewing the game, let’s start off with the positives. I own several sports related PS2 games which feature play-by-play announcers including the Madden series and this game, by a landslide, is superior in terms of the announcers sounding natural. The play-by-play announcer is Mike Patrick of ESPN (Sunday Night Football) and if you happened to be in another room listening to someone play the game, you’d think you were just listening to a regular broadcast. Sorry Al Michaels, your “I end every sentence on a crescendo” play-by-play in Madden is severely trounced by this release.

The sound quality, including chatter between players - both relevant and irrelevant - really add to the experience. For example, if there’s a man on first and less than 2 outs, you’ll hear your infielders in the background talking up a double play ball.

Another outstanding tie-in is the music between innings, which is the same music used by ESPN during the College World Series. The music quality is excellent and provides a seamless liaison between innings.

Movement of the fielders with the analog stick is a little jerky at times and takes some getting used to. There are several methods of batting and fielding. Classic mode allows you to swing the bat simply by pressing the X button. However, for more control, EA has added the “Load and Fire” function which allows the batter to swing the right analog controller back to load up for power, and forward to swing the bat. This feature also has a bit of a learning curve as the player intuitively wants to fire the analog stick as fast as he can. This WON’T work. A smooth back and smooth through attack is the only way you’ll get base hits in this one.

Pitching control is excellent as each pitcher has certain pitches he is more adept at and you have exceptional control over location IF, and this is a big if, you are able to time the press in the perfect zone in the pitching meter. For those of you who are big baseball fans and understand pitching, the game has a very good sense of working a batter. In other words, if you keep throwing a batter outside fastball pitch after pitch, he will eventually catch up to it. Mixing speeds and locations, throwing unexcpected pitches at the right time, and throwing inside are all essential to success in the pitching department in this game.

From an overall presentation standpoint, this game is average. There are no flashy cut movies between innings or over the top graphics. The graphics are actually surprisingly rudimentary - almost RBI Baseball-esque. However, the gameplay itself is fantastic and quite enjoyable.

For those of you who have enjoyed the MVP Baseball series from EA in the past, you’ll surely enjoy this release. MVP 06 is an excellent baseball game and for under $30.00 is a worthwhile purchase. I give it 8.5 scrimps out of 10.

Play Ball!

Boxing and Ferris Wheels - I smell a Tony

For those of you like me who used to play Mike Tyson’s Punch Out or Ring King for the original Nintendo for hours at a time, I give you a 21st century boxing game that doesn’t necessarily have the charm of the Super Macho Man and Company, but has good graphics, easy to master controls and side features that make Fight Night 2 worth the pickup if you’re a fan of boxing games.

One criticism I’ve read about this game is that the controls are difficult to master. For someone who was never great at mastering all the epileptic combos of old standups like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Virtua Fighter, I found that the controls were easy to master and intuitive in their assignment. For example, the interface of every fight is from the side and your guy is on the left. Thus, L1 on the PS2 dodges or leans back to avoid punches. It would have been awkward to use a button on the right side of the controller to dodge to, what is in essence, to the left side of the screen.

The game includes the usual suspects, jab, hook, uppercut, body blow all from either hand – however, it also includes “Haymakers” which involve using the analog stick in a combo movement to get more damage on punches.

The sounds of the game are excellent and really enhance the gameplay. There is a resonant thud that accompanies each landed hit - with the thud being more pronounced with a more pronounced hit.

Different camera angles during slow motion replays add to the hilarity of knockdowns

You can control what your player looks like in the setup mode - i.e. hair, skin tone, width, etc.

One drawback of the game is the method used when your player is knocked down. When this happens, you have to line up both the right and left analog sticks separately over a green circle on the middle of the screen. The circles are wobbling and are very resistant to moving where you want them to go. This method seems a bit arbitrary and it may be that I just haven’t mastered it yet…or that I still long for the days of tapping the x button as fast as I can like a lunatic.

While not tested for this review, there is also a networkable function to fight either your friends, or others on the network. If you’re a fan of boxing games, and like games that you can play for small bursts at a time, I highly recommend EA Sports Fight Night 2. Besides, who wouldn’t want to name their character Scrimp Tastic and be gleefully surprised to see Tastic on his waist band!

Oh, the bullets outside are frightful.

OK, so it’s been a while since I’ve formally made a post but I’ve acquired several games in the last few months (hurricanes make me want to spend money on electronics). Thus, here is my Winter Games ‘06 list.

Resident Evil 4 - On order from Amazon
World of Warcraft - Get to Level 40 by the Ides of March (et tu Dragnut)
Hot Shots Golf 4 - On order from Amazon
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Halfway finished - had put it down - but urge to murder germans has returned

Happy Gaming and Happy New Year, everyone.