Conspiracy_Victim

Well I'm STILL waiting for the Astros to aquire a starting pitcher. I'll take my chances with our offense (even the black holes in the lineup that are Ausmus and Everett [to a lesser extent]) but I'm nervous having Ron Villone as a starter. Still a lot of talk about Jeff Weaver and Ponson, but I'm not terribly optimistic.

Huh? Talk your player into staying? You mean underclassmen? Damn if you can I'm going to be pissed 'cause I've lost a ton of 99 rated underclassmen now that my dynasty has become THE football power in the nation. *goes to kick things around*

Yeah Hood that happened to me in the 2003 version. #1 Ohio State, #2 Houston (me), #3 Miami. Fiesta Bowl matchup: #1 vs #.....3? WTF! Anyway, just had to share my game o' the year. Rivalry game #13 University of Virginia at home vs. #14 Hampden-Sydney (me with my poor D3 school getting an upgrade). I jump out to a quick 14-0 lead at the half. They take second half kickoff and score in 3 plays to make it 14-7. Teams battle back and forth until early in the forth when they pick me off on a stupid deep out pattern (that pattern is almost NEVER open it seems BTW) and take it 65 yards to tie it up. We trade punts and go into OT. They score to take a 21-14 lead. I take one play and sneak my RB out of the Ace formation into the deep right. They get caught blitzing, I score. I take the ball and get 2 incomplete passes. They sack me for a 10 yard loss on 3rd to make it 4th and 20 at the 35. My kicker sucks ass since he's a walk-on (I lost 3 different kickers last recruiting period) so I send everyone deep and hit my slot receiver for 30 yards and a first down. I start breathing again. First down, my RB takes the lead play in for the score. They get the ball and on first down my DE Lamar Wiley (that 5* pass rusher I'm so glad I have) sacks the quarterback and knocks the ball loose, we recover, I win 28-21 in 2OT. Wiley is defensive player of the week with 6 TFL, 5 sacks, and a forced fumble. I get the Sports Illustrated cover and one of the lead story pictures. I also move up to #11. Damn that was sweet.

Yeah I noticed that there sometimes isn't a whole lot of difference between a 5* and a 3*. For the most part a 5* OL will beat a 3* DL, but the defenses usually react so quickly it's not that big a deal. That's why I usually stress my DB's so much, since they're frequently out on an island against receivers, and other skill positions. As to your team, I'd probably go ahead and say the Big East, maybe even the MAC since the teams in there stretch all the way to Michigan and Ohio. My team (in Virginia, mind you) just accepted an invite to the MAC to hold me over until I get the call to the ACC or another power conference. It's harder to make my schedule difficult enough to impress the polls, but I like not having to spend all my time trying to figure out a 10-12 game schedule. BTW I don't know if you were facetious or not, but my first year I was an Indy and went 9-3 with a fairly easy schedule (inculding an upset of #15 Notre Dame, lost my bowl game though) and finished about 30. So it is possible to have a cupcake schedule and still finish well. Then your prestige goes up, recruiting points goes up, and you're ready to get better athletes.

Man it always seems to know when to go to a nickel or dime coverage with me. The AI is a lot better this year than last year in regards to that. As to the playbook, I've actually changed to a West Coast offense. I recruited 3 or 4 decent WRs to go along with my pass catching TEs so a short passing game combined with my new tailback (speed around 70-73 and you can tell the difference) leads to a different style of ball control offense. BTW, my 5* recruit (Wiley) ended up with 21 sacks and was the DL of the year and 2nd team All-American. This year in the opener against Michigan St. (in my first season in the MAC no less) he gets 3 more. Looks to be a good start. In case you were wondering I'm playing varsity 6 minutes with the standard sliders. I never figured out how to adjust the sliders to make it more realistic so I basically leave them the way they are. Has anyone else noticed that politics seem to play a part in the awards? I've seen 1st Team All-Americans finishing 6th and 7th in positional awards. Anyway, I'm 31st in the nation after beating Mich. St. and I've got ranked opponents Nebraska and Virginia still on the schedule. Seeing as how my team shuts down the run I oughta stand a pretty good chance of winning both.

- Hmm..Sandman's Singapore Cane was an integral part of his character (and most of his matches). - Mick Foley's flaming barbed wire/rubber tipped (thanks HHH) 2X4. - Muta's mist of doom - Yes, La Parka's chair rocks the house just due to it's versatility.

In response to Phoenix, yeah sacks are a ton easier this year. My 5* recruit was a DE monster (6'7", 270, 4.75 speed) that I somehow managed to land. Needless to say he's starting as a freshman. I scoot him one man over (1 hit on the R1 button) outside the LT and on the snap speed rush him. Most of the time the tackle can't cut the angle and it's an easy sack. I've got 8 sacks in 3 games with him, including 4 in one game (against a tackle who apparantly played with cement cleats). As for playbook, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I don't have a back that's really fast enough to take the ball to the outside (they're rated 66 and 60, both power rushers) so I'm not sure about ball control. Right now I'm using Texas A&M because of the versatility in their playbook (I've got 3 good TEs, and A&M has 3 or 4 different Ace sets, as well as an I-back set and a 3 WR set). Play action looks cool, but it seems to lead to a sack more often than not. I can run the ball 4 straight plays, call a PA, and a DE is in my face before the QB can recover from the play fake. Haven't tried any of the Classics yet, trying to get a hang of everything before I give it a shot.

Only way I'd get an Xbox is if I can find someone to mod it to get all the extra crap on it. A couple of friends have it like that and have all sorts of arcade, SNES, Dreamcast, XBox, etc. games on it. Prohibitively expensive though.

Does anyone else's screen start to shake at times? It seems like when you have a televised screen and they open up with the matchup graphic at the start of the "broadcast", the screen shakes a bit. Man it's tough going in dynasty mode. I made an academic team (C- for just about everything) and replaced Navy. Pretty much got steamrolled. Had a decent recruiting class though (I like the additions to recruiting, makes it more in depth) including a 5* and a couple 4*, so we'll see how season 2 goes.

Yeah according to amazon the 4 disc edition of The Two Towers will be out on November 18. It looks like it's going to be like the other 4 disc set, with a lot of production featurettes, photos, DVD-ROM, etc.

Dean, you have become a part of my Smackdown watching experience. From the first note of Kidman's "music" the first thing I thought was, "Well, Dean's taking a nap". Then Rey came out and all was right with the world. BTW, will the image of Sally and Bobcat rolling around in the ring "wrestling" be enough to send you into convulsions akin to an epilipetic staring at one of those flickering rave lights, or will Torrie have to wander out there?

There is a lot of talk that Seven and Travis Bane will be called up to the active WWE roster soon. The two are currently developmental talents. Bradshaw also stated that the two would likely be called up soon in his recent WWE.com column. Credit: PWTorch.com I've kinda heard some about Seven (mainly from EWR) but not a lot about Bane. Any pertinent information, thoughts, opinions, etc.?

OK cool so I'm about where everyone else is. I've been running around the final dungeon and gotten Darc at 33, Maru at 34 (Great Hunter attack is AWESOME for levelling up), Kharg at 30, Ganz at 30, Paulette 29, and Volk 28. I'll probably level up a little bit more to be a little more secure because I heard the last boss is a pain in the ass.

To those who've beaten it, what were the approxiamate levels of your characters? It's not really a spoiler, so I'll say that I just got past the Maluise Tower and was curious about how I'm matching up. All my characters are about mid- high- 20 (except for my character with the gun, I can't get them to level up for shit and is currently 22 or 23).

This makes me kinda look forward to SK's review. I can't wait to see how he rips this apart. edit: Vince McMahon on Striperella playing a sleazy strip club owner. Who will make the truth/fiction comment?

STING'S ON FIRE!! STING'S ON FIRE!!

Why did Kane turn towards the ring? Do they have a live feed back from the crowd to the interview? Or is this inetrview just taking place about 150 feet away? WHO KNOWS??

So, all this time Kane has worn a mask because he's insecure? Well that's one way of writing off someone's gimmick.

Kane's a firebug again! But why won't the fire come from his hands so he can set various potted plants ablaze again?

OK so what's dead in the present box? Where's Andrew, 'cause HERE COMES GAIL!

Paging Dusty Rhodes, Mr. Rhodes please restart the match.

Some World War II posters encouraged women to work in the factories to produce war material while the men were off fighting. Most of these posters featured a woman wearing a red bandana and working at various heavy industry tools and/or machines. She was called Rosie the Riveter. That's it in a nutshell. What a use of a history degree. edit: Damn beat to the punch. I'll have to pay better (ok, some) attention next time.

NCAA Football 2004. I KNOW it's coming in tomorrow and not Thursday *hopes and prays*

And it's the match that NO ONE wanted to see! Please GOD tell me that Rosey becomes Hurricane's sidekick. I'd almost be willing to pay to see Rosey in a Robin-esque superhero outfit.

*sees local FX commercial* Damn Orlando Jones has his own TV show? First he gets a handhsake from the Undertaker now he has his own late night variety show. Talk about multitalented.