mulwin444

Slightly related to the BioWare discussion...the entire "Mass Effect" trilogy is available through EA's Origin download portal for $20 as a digital download.  It's my personal favorite in terms of a game trilogy and carries over your choices through all three games.

A's record between playoff appearances:

2007: 76 - 86

2008: 75 - 86

2009: 75 - 87

2010: 81 - 81

2011: 74 - 88

Anyone else want to suck for 5 seasons while you collect draft picks, gamble on questionable characters like Milton Bradley, over-the-hill Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, trade young players like Carlos Gonzalez, Gio Gonzalez, and Trevor Cahill and, generally, going year-to-year mixing and matching other team's failed pospects, aging vets seraching for another shot, mid-level MLB talent on a 1-2 year deal, young prospects traded for even younger prospects and high-priced gamble thrown in here or there. 

The A's do it out of necessity...is this really what you want?

Yeah, but is that saying much?

Obviously, not really.  "St. Anger" was a mess, which was emphasized in the documentary "Some Kind Of Monster".  I know they were going for raw and authentic rage but they end up with what sounded like a bunch of 8 minute demos...it was basically the musical equivalent of an unedited movie.  "Frantic" and "St Anger" were a nice start but three songs in, Lars' snare drum started to get annoying as hell.  "Death Magnetic" was a better effort although not near their best.

It doesn't surprise me at all. I'm just always astounded at the sound he gets. It's so full sounding. Just awesome. Basically, the exact opposite of Metallica's last few records. Their guitars sound like crap.

Both "13" and "Death Magnetic" were produced by Rick Rubin, but "Magnetic" sounded a lot louder which didn't help the sound, in my opinion.  It was, however, a vast improvement over "St Anger" which sounded like they recorded the guitars under water. 

It shouldn't surprise you about Tony Iommi.  Did you hear that Heaven and Hell album from a few years back?  His work on it was amazing.

Yes...love this album.   "Bible Black", Eating the Cannibals" and "Breaking Into Heaven" are some of my favorites off that one.  He did a solo album, "Iommi", that had some solid work on it as well, along with some work with Glenn Hughes.

Apart from the Dio led "Dehumanizer", this is the most "Sabbath" sounding album since "The Mob Rules".  There have been some good albums with Tony Martin ("Headless Cross", "Cross Purposes") but they all ended up sounding like side projects compared to the Ozzy/Dio albums. 

Any word on if he was riding a dinosaur?

I enjoyed the movie as well...JJ has done a great job balancing catering to the old Star Trek fans and making the movie relevant for modern audiences. 

Some of the controversies surrounding the movie are pretty hilarious as well (Alice Eve's "Bra" scene and Cumberbatch's character's ethnic origins)

Also, as far as online being part of PS+, anyone who doesn't have PS+ by now is not getting the most of their playstation. The fact that the same works across the PS4, PS3, and Vita is great, and the amount of free games you get the service, more than makes up for it. And it's still $50 a year, so it's not like they are charging extra after adding the online feature to it.

 

This month alone, you get Uncharted 3, XCOM: The Enemy Unknown, Saints Row: The Third, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Little Big Planet Karting for free if you have PS+ not to mention a bunch of Vita games which is great for me since I also have a Vita. They also announced for free games you get at launch if you have PS+ so I feel Sony does an outstanding job and will continue to do so to give you value with the service as to not making it feel like you're simply paying for online multiplayer.

 

 

Another thing with that, is they also said since they are adding online to PS+, they won't allow publishers to add any online passes to their games as they don't want any other hurdle on top of needing PS+ to play online.

They have a special at Best Buy if you have a membership there you can get a 12 month PS+ card for $40

Picked this up yesterday at Best Buy and it's a pretty solid album.  In the Ozzie-led Sabbath albums, I'd probably put it just below "Sabbath, Bloody, Sabbath"/"Sabotage" but ahead of "Technical Ecstasy"/"Never Say Die".  It's a shame they didn't include the 4 songs on the bonus disc with the standard issued album as they would have fit right in.  Overall, I'd give it an 8/10.

I am seeing them at Veriizon Amphitheater (Irvine Meadows) 8/28 so it will be interesting to see which of these songs they include in the set.

Even CoD games are a 24 month turn around. 2 studios alternate years. Treyarch and Infinity Ward.

That was an ugly scene at Infinity Ward between the main guys and Activision when they left with a bunch of their talent in tow to start "Respawn".  Not a huge first-person shooter fan but it was interesting reading about it in GameInformer.

I used to play games more but now I have like video game ADD and they don't hold my interest as much.  That said Origins was one of the first games I played in a long time that I didn't get bored of that I played all the way through and that's something I hadn't done with an RPG in years.  I did the same with DA2 but I defnitely thought it felt like they recycled some of the same stuff just to put the second game out and take advantage of the popularity of the first game.  I just had to do a quick search to see how far apart the games were and it looks like they were about 15 months apart between release dates.  In looking back DA2 almost felt like it was an expansion pack more than a separate game.    

Agree on that...the quick turnaround time definitely showed, which some have contributed to EA's influence on churning out a new game every year in certain franchises.  You can do that with game like Call of Duty that have a 5-10 hour single player and depend heavily on multi-player to sustain it between releases, but it's difficult to have a even  a 24 month turnaround time for 30+ hour RPG and have it be successful.  Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 had a 25 month gap between releases and elements stils felt rushed (journal, elevators in Normandy, not being to holster weapons, shortened "Priority: Earth" and "Citadel" campaigns).  They were originally going to release an expansion to Dragon Age II called "The Free Marches" but it was cancelled due to DA IIs lackluster reception and choice to focus on the next game.

Dragon Age Inquisition will be using the new Frostbite 3 engine from DICE, which has been showcased recently with 14 minute promo for Battlefield 4, so definitely excited to see what an extra 1 1/2 years development will do to the game quality.

Seeing the new Donkey Kong Country game makes me buy a Wii just for it. Brought back a lot of memories.

I got the the Anniversary Edition of the Mario Brothers they made available for the Wii a couple of years back and, watching my son play,  it's amazing how much of those games I remember.   

Surely it's not hard to find affordable .750-.800 OPS hitting 2B who can play solid D.  I mean, just compare him to other 2B...wait, that won't work.

That is a lot to make up for!

Although, I didn't think it was as good as "Origins", I still enjoyed playing it for the most part.  I liked the idea of rising from nothing to become the "Champion of Kirkwall", enjoyed the characters of Varric, Isabela, and Aveline, liked both the post-release DLCs, glad they adopted the "Mass Effect"-style dialogue wheel and voiced protagonist, liked the ally/rivalry system, enjoyed the team banter as they walked between missions....a lot of positives.  I especially liked the Arishok and the Qunari, I thought they were the most interesting part of the game.

The negatives for me were the re-used environments and spawning enemies...it felt very cheap and cartoonish and spoke to a very quick development time.  Also, the story's narative went all over the place:  Was it Kirkwall against the Qunari?  Was it mages vs templars?  They had good things about them but it felt like they hadn't decided on a central theme.

DA:I will be in development for 3 1/2 years by the time it is released so hopefully BioWare to get it up to par with what they had with the Mass Effect series.

Don't forget the Fallout games too

Those can come to a solid 50-60 hours each but I felt they were easier to get through the Elder Scrolls games (Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim).  I especially liked playing New Vegas....Obisian is a solid developer. 

"Dragon Age: Inquisition" was just anounced by BioWare for Fall 2014 release which I'm sure will be another 50+ hour games in the near future

Picking this up as well...

As for the hours, it seems most games range between 8-20 hours depending on side quests and DLC

The last Mass Effect game , if you did all the conversations and side quests, was 30+ hours

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is on the farthest end of this spectrum...it's like stepping into Vegas casino.  One sidequest plus diversions can take you up to two hours by itself.  Add in the DLC and you are getting near 100 hours.

HK's deal is fine...2B is a tough position to find good offensive/defensive combo.  At .750-.800 OPS + above defense is a solid player

Aybar's deal is decent, I guess.  He's a still a mental midget and, if given the choice, I would have kept Segura.

Reagins oversaw the Wells for Napoli/Rivera deal, assuming one of the worst deals in the MLB, one that had listed as "untradeable" by analysts, and asked for no additional minor league talent or cash back in return.

This was one of the worst organizational moves in franchise history and universally panned (except for a few on the board)

I'm not pining for the Reagins' era...

I only bite on trading Bourjos if we get a legit 2 starter

I guess we cheer if he racks up some more saves against us, right?  Maybe the players will get lucky and get to sniff his jock...

Hey guys, I just finished talking with some people I know in the front office, who requested anonymity.  They said they were content to ride this season out with what we had and make changes after the year was over, but then they read this thread and realized something, anything, needed to be done and done now.  I can't say what, but expect big changes soon.  And pat yourselves on the back, your thread got it done.  

Exactly...the front office has thought about waiting to make moves until they saw homebrewer get completely unhinged and start shaking his virtual fist at them.  Now, it just got real.  My own inside sources told me that Arte has a red phone in his office that lights up whenever someone loses their sh!t on a message board and, let me tell you my friend, it is ringing like crazy now.  Expect sweeping changes...they just needed the match to light the fire.  

No, the experiment isn't over...he's still signed for three more seasons

Rocky won a title

 

Beaneyball never has

...but you get the undying love of mathematicians and statisticians everywhere which, you know, gets you the most important "Better Then Anyone Expected" trophy.

While Hawpe is doing well in Salt Lake, I would have much rather seen the Angels call up Kole Calhoun. 

I'm sure the intention is to give Calhoun regular ab's at SLC which he won't get on the MLB club

.271 .357 .853...pretty good for a part time player