Once again I find myself preparing for a trip down south to see the San Jose Sharks take the ice live. I was lucky enough to be able to get tickets for a double header against the Vancouver Canucks on the 27th and the Colorado Avalanche on the 28th. I was going to do a full preview of both games like my last blog but some expected events have been happening since the league resumed play a day after the gold medal was awarded at the Olympics. The Sharks have hit a very rough patch with a current four game losing streak as well as massive problems overall. Going into the Olympic break as the number one team, they are now fifth in the league with two teams right behind them. In fact, the Phoenix Coyotes are only a point behind and because they are in the same Division as the Sharks (Pacific Division), the Cotes have the chance to steal the Sharks Division Title and rob San Jose of the threepeat. And yes, I did mean to type "expected events" because most long time Sharks fans know that the Sharks have horrid finishing power. Last year they floundered in the final months, barely getting the President's Trophy and basically surfing into the playoffs from the momentum they built early in the year. With so many teams already in a do or die situation, the lackadaisical Sharks barely put up any effort and were booted out of the playoffs early in the first round.
So, is this going to be a repeat of last year? Hopefully not, but the Sharks haven't looked solid since before the Olympic break and there are other numbers that show indicators that the Sharks might fumble this up again. Take their "giving up the first goal" for 14 games straight. With hockey being a game buit on momentum, the first goal is everything providing both confidence and a spark to the team that scores it. There are other stats that have gone off the deep end as well. Take the Penalty Kill, the Sharks are/were one of the best PK teams, usually in the top three teams in the league. Last game, they allowed two back to back goals on the PK. There Power Play, Faceoff Wins, and Penalty Minutes all have shown signs of a sloppy and unmotivated team. While I could list the players from the Canucks and Avs that I think will play a big part in the game on Saturday and Sunday, the way the Sharks have been playing, it could be anyone and everyone. So, I'm just going to single out two players, one per game and what they need to do to help the Sharks get back into the winning column.
Jumbo Joe Thornton, number 19, one of the best passers in the league and was number one with 64 assist until Henrik Sedin from the Canucks overtook him. When Joe stopped getting the big number assists, the Sharks started to lose. Thornton is an integral part of the team, like the quarterback in football, he sets up plays that score. He also has a great shot, something he doesn't use often enough. This is especially apparent in the playoffs where time and space (the two things Thornton uses to make those excellent passes) is in short supply and shooting first is usually the better choice. Instead, you see Joe cough up the puck, launch the opponent on a breakaway, and usually ends with the puck in the back of the Sharks net. With less than a month left of hockey, the games are picking up the pace - dramatically. They are ten times faster than in the beginning of the season and playoff games will be ten times faster than the games being played now. Thornton needs to start being more aggressive, think shoot when there is no clear pass, and use his size to do some damage in front of the net. He only has a few games left to get into this mindset and he needs to do it soon.
Next up is the other Joe - Joe Pavelski, number 8, and all-around utility guy. He plays center on the second line setting up a lot of the plays, he scores goals, he plays point on the PP, and plays defense on the PK. You can and will see Pavelski in almost every situation on the ice because he has a great hockey IQ. Unlike Jumbo Joe who seemed to lose some of his touch after the Olympics, after coming away with silver, Pavelski's game has been elevated, including getting the game winning goal a few games ago. All Pavelski has to do is keep rolling and try to get his linemates rolling as well. Clowe has finally scored a few goals and Seto has seemed to hit a stride as well. Hopefully, Pavelski's strong work ethic will rub off on some of the players and help put a little life into this titanic of a team.
McLellen has been trying to infuse some life into the team by bringing up some of the enthusiastic talent from team Worcester Sharks as well as mixing up the lines to try and find that spark. I am hoping that they figure it out in the next couple of games before I make my six hour trip down. I've already been to one horribly dull game this season and don't want to have to sit through two more. Once again, the questions of playoff failure are swirling - I just hope this time, the Sharks can prove everybody wrong and go the distance. But before they can, they need to survive the last weeks of regular season hockey.
Ever wonder what it would be like to work at a resource center for superheroes? Well if you have, all of your questions are about to be answered with Super Human Resources, a comic series by author Ken Marcus and artist Justin Bleep. A four part series from Ape Entertainment, about the Human Resources department of Super Crises International (SCI for short) and their newest employee, Tim from Temps-R-Us. Hilarity and conundrums ensue as Tim tries to learn the ropes of a job that not everyone is fitted for. A cast of oddball characters help (or hinder) Tim as he deals with everyday office work, that is if you're used to working with capes, claws, and radioactive half-lives.Take Zombor, flesh-eating zombie and SCI's main receptionist or the Wombat, a vigilante that lives in the basement of SCI. Then there's Roger, Tim's boss and SCI's resident homicidal maniac. If you are at all familiar with classic superhero stories, zombies, and the stealth-assassination arts - then you will definitely get a kick at Super Human Resources witty take on the everyday life of these odd individuals. Filled with a lot of comedy and parodies, the employees from SCI never take themselves too seriously, which is one of the things that makes this comic so enjoyable to read. 
A four part series, each comic will cost you only $0.99 and while each issue tends to be a little shorter than the average length (around 23-25 pages), the comedic relief is well worth it. The only negatives I have about the series is the spelling and grammar errors that are rampant throughout the first issue but are mostly resolved through the rest of the series. If you are up for a few good laughs, then I'd definitely recommend forking out the 4 bucks to pick up this series. And with this economy, you never know when you might need the experience to work in Human Resources, so this could come in handy. So if you're interested, make sure to see Zombor at the front desk. Just remember, he's on a low human flesh diet, so he might be a bit cranky.
After months of talk and a few name changes, Sony finally announced the PlayStation Move at GDC 2010. When I first saw Sony's motion controller I was kind of excited. Hearing how disappointed a lot of my Wii owner friends were about the lack of precision the Wii's motion controller offered, it seemed like Sony's stab at motion controllers might just fix the problem. After watching Sony's press conference at GDC 2010, I realized a few things that kind of had me scratching my head. Sony's going after the Wii?!?
It's one thing for consoles to duke it out over exclusives and holiday sales but it's another thing to actually enter a console's exclusive territory and bring the fight to them. To me, that's what Sony's doing, entering Nintendo's kingdom of "motion controllidarity" - something that no other console has challenged yet since the Wii released in 2006. There are two major things that bother me about Sony's approach to it's motion controller, Move. One is that 3+ years is a long time to build an install base and we all know that Nintendo built one killer base as the Wii was practically impossible to find for two holiday seasons straight. The PS3 on the other hand was slow to get out of the gate, and while this is a marathon not a sprint, the difference in console sales makes the move to unleash the Move seem a bit late in my eyes.The other thing that bothers me about Sony's approach to the Move is their promise to make it more than "a pointer", referring to the lack of innovative uses for the Wii's motion controller. Yet all the demos I saw where exact replicas of Wii games. Table tennis, boxing, odd party games that don't seem fun, and sword fighting games. Even adding Move support to games like LittleBigPlanet didn't seem that fun. I mean, the guy doing the demo seemed to be bored so what does that mean for us, the people who pay to play these things. I'm trying not to be too much of a downer, but I've been through enough peripheral releases to know that true third-party and innovative first-party support is hard to come by. Look at the PlayStation 2's EyeToy - I picked one up because I thought it would be cool to be able to do all the things they showed in the demo - but it really isn't. One thing is the fact that I looked like an idiot jumping around and waving my hands in the air trying to control the character on screen, which didn't always work, and found that I wasn't really having any fun at all. I thought that with advances in learning how to develop for the EyeToy would improve games but I still only found party games being released, nothing very interesting or new.Onto the PlayStation 3's Eye, once again I got sucked into picking this thing up, but for a different reason - there was an innovative game called Eye of Judgment that really did bring something new to the table. So much so, that the technology behind the game has moved on to other forms of media, even Hallmark has started using it. Unfortunately, Eye of Judgment was the only innovative game that was released for the Eye and nothing really new has come out since then.PlayStation Move is poised to seemingly correct this problem, but I'm skeptical that it will actually happen. Sony can't seem to keep long term support going for the PSP (as in lack of new IPs from both first and third party developers) let alone the Eye, so why is Move going to be any different? Plus, with everything Sony showed at their press conference, it looks like I'm going to have to buy four of the main Move controllers and four of the sub-controllers just to play some of those party games. If anyone has a few extra hundred dollar bills lying around, I'll be happy to pick Move up and give it a whirl.Okay, so now that I've got my "Bah, this is just a money sucking scheme from Sony" rant out of the way, I'll switch gears and talk a little bit about the things I do thing are going to be good and how this could change the gaming landscape. One is the Socom 4 demo (yay, they are bringing single player campaign back! Zipper's finally realized that not everyone likes to get trash talked by 12 year olds) which showed that you could use Move to play a game without waving your arms around like a mad man. It looked very precise and kind of fun. Plus, it was in HD, c'mon, we all know that Nintendo's biggest mistake with the Wii was not going High Def. While Socom 4 is a third-person-shooter, I think FPS games would be awesome with the Move, if they could do it right. Think back to Half-Life for a second. Remember having to use the flashlight? That totally freaked me out having to go through sections in the dark, but could you imagine using the Move to control the flashlight? Then with a flick of the wrist or a click of a button, you'd swap out to your gun and start shooting away while strafing with the sub-controller (stupid name by the way, they should have gone with the Sub-Move or something). While Silent Hill did this on the Wii, I heard that accuracy and precision really ruined the game experience. Wait, isn't that what Sony's promising with the Move?So on one hand, I think Sony's a little late to the ballgame and that they are just trying to find a way to make some more cash by sucking us dry. On another hand though, they didn't have to go this route. They could have just cranked out a bunch of sequels to their IPs and started porting them to the PSP . . . oh, they already have. But what I am saying is that they didn't have to go after the casual gaming market which shows two things - Sony realizes that they have to expand their umbrella once again to include as many people as possible and that they have an opportunity to use the opening Nintendo gave them when Nintendo went kiddy and Standard Def.Sony has a huge opportunity here if they play the PlayStation Move card correctly. One reason why my parents are trying to talk me into letting them buy a Wii is for those party and sports games. They look fun, and they are fun in the right context. One reason why I won't let my parents buy a Wii (other than it would totally ruin the zen like Totsuko vibe I have going in the media room) is the simple fact that I don't see any real depth in the Wii. When I try to think of some more "hardcore" titles on the Wii, I come up with Zelda, Mario Galaxy, and Metroid. While all of these titles sold exceptionally well and received great reviews - they aren't enough to make me want to play the console when family and friends aren't over. On the other hand, there's a lot of things the PS3 offers for those great solo game sessions and multiplayer frag fests. Plus, the PS3 is truly an anchor for my media room, acting not only as a gaming console and a Blu-Ray Player, but one of the main devices I use to connect with friends and family. And that is why I think Move could actually bite into Nintendo's territory a bit. But the games have to be there, it can't be just a copy and paste type situation. Sony has to come up with something new, something big, and most importantly something fun for hardcore gamers that don't like to just play sports games. This isn't going to be a console war, this is going to be a developer war - which one has the better guns and the better teams which will ultimately make the better games. And to answer your question, yes I will be picking up my very own Move later this fall. Let's just hope that this time, Sony's new motion controller won't be stashed under my bed like all the other peripherals of old.
Year: One
Season: Winter
Day: Five
It’s been snowing for two days straight! The Money I earned from my sales to Van is almost completely gone and I don’t have enough Fodder to last through the season. I’ve been trying to clear the snow from the fields to try and save what little grass is still alive but to no avail. Luckily, my crops have fared much better and I was able to harvest all of the Strawberries that I had planted earlier. My income has been drastically cut once again because now Miel no longer produces any milk and I have to survive on the few eggs that I get daily. I only have five more days to survive until the Spring comes but I’m not sure if I’m going to make it. It’s become a waiting game, if the weather would just cooperate; I’d be able to get more Fodder once a few rows of grass grow in. I’m really starting to hate snow.
Year: One
Season: Winter
Day: Seven
The snow has finally stopped and the weather seems to be clearing. I’m hoping that this means we’ll have an early Spring and the grass will start growing in the field soon. My Fodder levels are still dangerously low but with Van coming tomorrow, I hope I’ll be able to make enough money off of my sales to give me enough money to order more Good Fodder from the city. Thus, I focused a lot of my efforts on fishing, unfortunately I was very unlucky coming back empty handed. My luck has been rotten for all of Winter and it’s making me nervous, I’m supposed to propose tonight at the Winter Festival!
There was some good news though, when I came back from fishing, Takakura had just arrived from the city and it was time to give Miel the Miracle Potion I had ordered the day before. I saved money by using my Brown Bull Ryutaro, which is exactly what I need to be doing with all the financial problems I’ve been having lately. Takakura took Miel to the Barn and gave her the Miracle Potion, he said that now all we have to do is wait and see if she becomes pregnant or not.
After finishing up all my chores around the farm, I put on my Sunday best, put the Blue Feather the Harvest Sprites gave me in my pocket, and headed out to the Winter Festival. A light snow started to fall as I walked down the path that leads towards town. I turned back to look at the farm as I tried to decide how I was going to propose, when I noticed that there was a small patch of green in the field. I hurriedly ran over and swept off the light layer of snow to find that what lay underneath was fresh green grass. Knowing that the farm was saved, I couldn’t help but burst out into a wide grin. Seeing this loving green grass that was barely a couple inches high gave me the confidence to continue on and pop the question.
Once at the Winter Festival, I waited anxiously for her to show up. I paced, I fidgeted, and I ran through a hundred different ways to ask with none of them sounding like how I wanted it to. Then, she finally arrived looking stunning as usual with her sweet smile greeting everyone at the Winter Festival. It took me some time to finally get to greet her as everyone else in town seemed to want to talk to her as well. After finally catching her alone, I asked her if she wanted to take a walk with me up to the North Pond. She agreed and as we walked we talked about the weather, the farm, and about the various crops that I was thinking of planting for the Spring. I couldn’t help thinking, “I don’t want to talk about this! I want to just ask now!” But I knew that I should wait until we got to the North Pond, which seemed to be miles away.
Once we arrived, I was a bundle of nerves as everything from “I think we should get married” to “do you like this Blue Feather?” went through my head. I realized I hadn’t decided how I was going to ask . . . I didn’t have a plan on what to do next. As she stared into the North Pond, I stood behind her a bit, fumbling with the Blue Feather in my pocket when I pulled it out unconsciously to look at it. She turned around and gasped. I was at a complete loss of words when she asked that if the Blue Feather was for her. I could only nod and handed it to her. She told me as she held the Blue Feather that her father proposed to her mother just the same way and she never would have imagined that she would ever get a Blue Feather of her own. She hugged me and said yes then told me that she had to go tell the others. As she ran down the path towards town, I couldn’t help but think “I didn’t even get to kiss her” as I stood in shock until I realized . . . she said yes . . . Celia said yes.
