UG - Madden 11 (Demo)

Don't call it a comeback, I've been here ... just the other week ... saying I would be back ... screw it. Like my previous post said, I was going to compare the demo of Madden to NCAA to decide which one I would want to buy. I have now had the chance to play both and must say that NCAA has proven to once again be the red-headed stepchild.  Even with NCAA receiving improvements, Madden still just feels like it is further ahead in mechanics, graphics, attention to detail, and on and on.

The first thing that scared me was I found out that Chris Collinsworth is one of the announcers and my first thought was holy schnikes, I hate that guy. After playing many games, I came to the realization that I might have been too quick to judge and I changed my mind about him...I despise him. However, the other announcer (some new guy) spoke the most often and he wasn't that bad so I will call this an improvement over previous years; however, I will still mute them.

The graphics are improved again with better use of lighting and shadowing to give a more realistic feel, but if you read my previous post you will know how I feel about graphical improvements (hint: those are supposed to happen). However, there were some issues with the graphics still. For example, when your players are in the huddle and they have their hands on their knees, they look like they have Parkinson's disease with their hands being all jumpy and vibrating.

pg - Google Talk Follows You!

Here's a fun fact about Google Talk. It follows you! ... Just like a creepy stalker!

Seriously, though, try this out. Sign in to Google Talk on your Android phone and start chatting with someone. Then sign in to Google Talk from your computer and continue talking with them. You'll notice that Google will stop sending responses to your phone and send them only to your most recent Google Talk session. Kind of cool. It definitely saves you from receiving tons of notification alerts on your phone.

p0w BitchZ I'm out!

UG - 3D jumps the shark

I admit I am not the biggest fan of 3D. I find it to be more of a fad and that media creators are already over using it (except maybe the porn industry who is under-utilizing it so far). I refuse to sit in my house wearing dorky glasses, hell I am already dorky enough and sure don't need any assistance. It also doesn't help that I tend to get headaches whenever I watch 3D. However, I have to say when "Step Up 3D" tells you to come see 3D like never before, then I think 3D has already officially jumped the shark. This could mark the end of 3D. Well, that might be extreme, maybe just the end of civilization as we know it.

UG - NCAA 11 (Demo)

Now mind you, this is just a review of the demo. Yes, I know the full game is out and this demo was released awhile ago so you might be thinking it is retarded of me to review this demo, well I'm going to do it anyways so shut up. See I am cheap and I only want to buy either this game or Madden and the Madden demo isn't released until next week. So I thought I would check out this demo and then that demo and then choose.

The graphics looked pretty good in the game and the new lighting effects do help make the characters look more real. Overall, every aspect of the game feels improved from last year; however, that is what I expect. If it wasn't improved, why the hell would you release a new game. The tackling felt much better and the running game is improved. I think they give too much credit to quarterbacks though and rushing the quarterback is a little too easy. In some of the games I played, I was able to get to the quarterback about 75 percent of the time, but only ended up with a few sacks and even when I crushed the QB as he was throwing it, his throws were still excellent. This got a little tiresome after awhile. And just because it is improved, I don't think that should instantly give the game a higher ranking than the same game last year or make you think you have to buy it to replace last year's version if you are happy with it. These are the sort of improvements that always makes me think of the Chris Rock skit where he talks about the father that brags about taking care of his kids and Rock yells, you're supposed to take care of your kids, what do you want, a cookie. And that is my sentiment on this as well, I don't see bragging rights in making minor improvements during the one year of coding time.

UG - Apple's press conference about iPhone 4 antenna UPDATE: More whining

Apple held a press conference today to discuss the recent news reports that they have a bad antenna design. My guess is that the Consumer Reports article really made this happen since that is a publication that is read by millions, including non-geeks. I think if it had stayed to the tech blogs where really only geeks visit and not your regular user, they never would have held it.

Wow, Apple started off their press conference by trying to drag other phone makers down with them. Instead of just getting to it, they are like wait, we have to show some other crap about our competitors, go yell at them too. I have an HTC Evo and I wasn't able to make my bars change depending on where my hand was. The most I saw was one bar go up or down, but that is all. I tried holding it every which way. I felt like Mr. Jobs put me back in elementary school when I would use the excuse that Jimmie was also doing it when I got busted shooting spitballs.

pg - Handcent SMS for Android

If you're looking for an alternative to the standard Android SMS application then this is it. Handcent SMS has customizable vibrate patterns, notification icons, themes, etc down to a per-contact level. Want lame iPhone looking bubble chat? Done. Want normal looking chat? Done. Want a widget that looks like an icon on your home screen that shows how many unread messages you have? Done.

With all its awesomeness-glory, Handcent SMS isn't without its flaws. Don't want advertisements? Sorry. They're in there, but at least they aren't in-your-face. Also, if you happen to be a Samsung Moment user then you "might" experience intermittent reboots whenever you recieve a new SMS message. The fix is to launch Handcent SMS as SOON as it boots back up and mark those messages as "read" or you'll be stuck in a reboot/loop nightmare. This problem seems to be fixed and re-appear with every other application update. Oh well. For now, I'm back to Google Voice SMS chat. Which, coincidentally crashes occasionally, too, but it doesn't take my entire phone down with it...

(9/10) [ when I have a version that doesn't cause reboots ]
(2/10) [ when I have a version that causes reboots ]

UG - Hoping stories of Droid X aren't true UPDATE: Droid X rooted

This is just a quick tirade. The blog sites and forums are buzzing with rumors that the new Motorola Droid X will be shipping with eFUSE that will protect the phone from any customization that messes with the guts of the phone (aka you installing a custom ROM would brick your phone). Now there is no evidence of anything happening yet and eFUSE has shipped with other phones, but it sounds like it wasn't enabled. No matter how this turns out, I hope other hardware manufacturers don't look to follow suit. Even having the option there sucks. I hope the geek buyers out there will watch this sort of thing and avoid those phones to send a message to manufacturers; however, the masses aren't geeks and they won't care what they buy so it probably won't matter anyways. I had an original Motorola Droid (that had e-FUSE, but wasn't put into use) and loved it. Mine had good build quality and I loved vanilla Android (I am not a fan of other UIs including Sense). I would love to buy another Motorola phone in future, but with this sort of shenanigans, I will be staying away from Motorola for now.