Archive for July 23rd, 2004
by Tom on Jul.23, 2004, under Uncategorized
Ergh. Rough day yesterday. Took my cat to the vet, took my son to the doctor, took myself to the asylum. Ok, the last part isn’t entirely accurate, but it was getting there.
The cat went to the vet because he’s got “crystals”, which is pretty much along the lines of kidney stones in a human. If untreated, it can cause the kidneys to back up and kill the cat. We caught it early, but between x-rays and tests and medicine and good ol’ “food you can only buy at the vet so we can charge double”, we’re talking over three bills.
The boy, in contrast, is ok. The doctor visit for him was a follow up because he had what looked to possibly be bronchitis in an x-ray. He got a little medication and he was fine. It was detected very early so it never really got to the point where you’d hear anything. He wasn’t coughing or anything, so the only way we knew about it was a bit of heavy breathing and a hunch with an x-ray.
Softball sucked because I got pulled again midway through the game. No one ever says that they’re going to pull me, I just end up overhearing someone else or go to go out to my position to find somone else standing there. And the thing is, it’s only one person who feels the desire to get me off the field, but he ends up running the team as the game gets going. Anyway, I got pulled in the fourth, and I stuck around for a few innings to see us come back from a deficit (a possible third straight win???), but ended up leaving the bottom of the 6th (just as we were batting) with the score tied because Cole was being a cranky. I didn’t get to see the final score, but I did get to stick around long enough to see the guy who replaced me at second drop a simple fly ball that would have been the third out. Defensive replacement my ass.
However, I tried to make up for it by picking up ESPN NFL 2K5 for my PS2. Hell, it’s only $20 ($15 after rebate from FYE). I did a quick run through it last night after I got home from the game (as much as Cole would allow) and it’s got a good deal of potential. I love the layout, and the ESPN interface adds a touch of realism to it, moreso than the generic “Madden” network which was cool back when it tied in with Fox Sports, but with Madden on MNF, it’s just not there anymore.
I wanted to read some reviews about it before I picked it up, but to be flat out honest, $20 for a new PS2 game generally eliminates the need for “informed purchasing decisions”. Sega (yes, that Sega) is attempting again to drive a wedge into the Madden dominated NFL video game market, which is no easy task, but by dropping their price point down over 50%, they’re definitely going to get the game into more than a few homes that wouldn’t have bought it otherwise (yours truly included).
The review will come later for it, because I want to get some serious time into it before I can be objective. Most games are usually cool because they’re new. It’s after the honeymoon period is over that you learn the flaws within the game, and what really annoys you about it.
