KingPK

Yeah, the four hour Cornette one is pure gold. I forget the names, but he tells a story about two wrestlers picking up a hitchiker in Alabama and pretending to get into a fight in the car before one shoots the other with a blank and makes the hitchiker run for his life. His rants on Vince Russo and Bischoff (he HATES the both of them) is what makes it. I can't even begin to transcribe it; you have to hear it yourself.

The rare Grand Slam Ban?

Seriously, Dustin Pedroia is just fucking insane at the plate right now. Batting over .600 over the past week and he has 5 RBI tonight. He's a darkhorse MVP candidate especially with Youkilis out.

You need to buy a separate HDMI cable to get 1080p.

BAL: 18 points Washington Atlanta Baltimore Buffalo (3.5) N.Y. Jets New England (16.5) Tampa Bay Philadelphia (7.5) Pittsburgh (6.5) Tennessee (4.5) Dallas San Diego (9.5) (2.5) Arizona Indianapolis (9.5) Green Bay (2.5) Oakland

I just recruited the jet pilot. Oh yes, the fun truly begins now.

Has potential. Don't know how many will get the reference, though. EDIT: Do you take requests, since I'd love to hear Smells Like Teen Corpses.

This is the start of a REALLY big stretch for the Rays as they play nothing but divisional opponents the next three weeks, including two series with the Yankees and two with the Red Sox. Then they play Minnesota at home in a big series with Wild Card ramifications. They need to at least split the six with Boston to all but lock up the division.

Something I really like is that this game is definitely much lighter in tone than the first; there's a good dose of humor involved and Venezuela is a much brighter and prettier locale to travel around than dark, depressing, polluted North Korea was.

Aha, another reason why I wouldn't like the change: it probably wouldn't be commercial free anymore.

Well, the Browns won the North in my Madden franchise. Granted they did it with a 7-9 record, but still..... Seriously I can't wait to get this season going.

Yeah, people can drop into your game at any time to go through the story or just screw around. Kind of like the system from Crackdown. You can set it to only allow Friends or Invites so you won't have random assholes dropping in and pissing you off.

I picked it up today. Plays very much like the original with a few refinements. You also recruit people like a helicopter pilot to ferry you around and send you supplies (there is no "Merchant of Menace" anymore). Plus, there isn't a "Deck of 52"; each faction has a group of High Value Targets (HVT) that they want you to take out.

I much, MUCH rather have a VOD service as I like being able to pick and choose what I want when I want. I work kind of an irregular schedule and don't have a DVR so I would hate missing something.

(Fake edit: I realized after the game that I didn't save any of the highlights to upload.) Ok, so I had one of the most epic Madden games ever last night in my franchise. It was the AFC title game, Pats-Colts in Foxboro. Indy starts the fun in the 1st with a 75-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne, so I counter on the very next drive with a 75-yard TD pass to Jabbar Gaffney. Fast forward to 3 minutes left in the 4th with Indy up 29-21. I pick my way down the field and get Moss on a comeback pattern for a 10 yard TD followed by the 2-point conversion to tie it up and send it to overtime. Then......then something happened that never ever, ever happened to me in a Madden game. Indy gets the ball and gets into my territory, but I stiffen and am able to stop them on 3rd down around the 38. Surprisingly, Indy brings the punt team out to try and pin me deep. Hey wait, the punter is holding the ball......FAKE!!! Hunter throws a fucking wounded duck that is caught at the 25 for a first down. Two plays later, Vinatieri puts one through for the win. It took me a good 15 minutes to get over that. The computer NEVER calls a fucking punt fake. NEVER! Ugh.

It's the same one where Dustin Pedroia is batting cleanup tonight.

Fun fact: The Patriots and Colts 1st string offenses combined for a grand total of 0 touchdowns in the preseason.

Only taking into account the divsion here, New England completely demolished all three divsion foes in nearly every game last year (the closest was a 20-10 victory against the Jets in Week 15), including beating the Bills by a combined 94-17. The Jets have improved, but I still think the Bills and Dolphins are fairly comfortable wins.

The fact that it was something like the 15th title change of the year might have had somethig to do with it.

First of all, it's ONE White Sox fan accusing ONE Cubs fan of dwelling, namely me and you respectively. Get that right. Well, in Czech's mind a handful of Boston fans = "OMG teh entire board is in Massachusetts!", so you can forgive him there.

I absoutely loved the Andersons squash with them throwing the jobber at his partner because they were tired of beating him up and wanted fresh meat. Six teenage girls on a bus with the R&R. Good thing the internet (or Chris Hansen) wasn't around at that point.

That tag title match was kinda weird with two face teams alternating playing heel, but it wasn't bad. Every other match in the first part was, though. Dustin was pretty pudgy when he debuted, wasn't he?

I think 9-7 is a bit pessimistic for the Patriots. The division still isn't very good and they have the NFC West to beat up, so they should break 10 wins fairly easily. The o-line and secondary are definitely areas of concern, but I like to think that when they get a healthy unit back together, things should be fine.

I've never seen the full event, so it's something to look forward to after I order 24/7 tomorrow. EDIT: Or tonight, which I just did.

The LB problem seems to be a chronic thing when it comes to Madden. I suffered my first Franchise loss to the Steelers last night because Brady threw three INTs to leaping linebackers. For those who have trouble in pass D, I found that holding the strafe button (left trigger on the 360) before trying to swat a pass really helps because the defender looks back towards the ball and it gives you more control.