Today is the day, today is the day

It's finally here. After months of anticipation and painful waiting, this year's version of Madden is released today. Madden 08 is particularly special to me since this is the first next-gen version of the game I'll be playing. Some adaption will be needed I'm sure but after taking God's team (the Dallas Cowboys) and re-working a few crucial things, not even the supped-up Patriots will be able to stop me.

New this year is the "Weapons" feature which adds some depth to the strategy of the game as well as makes the good players even better and more valuable. Also, for the first time ever in the Madden series, a player has achieved a rating of 100. Devin Hester's speed is certainly worthy of the honour, but I think that something like this should have gone to a more established player. Like how about giving Peyton Manning 100 in awareness? He certainly is worthy.

What I can only hope is that a few issues are addressed. Firstly, how about some sort of AI that would cause teams to switch ineffective starters mid-season if they're struggling? It would certainly add some more realism into the game to see an inept Kurt Warner pulled in favour of a promising rookie like Matt Leinart.

Also, while most statistics will develop and regress over time, attributes like speed, strength and throwing power will never increase. They should be able to over time since their real-life counterparts can by simply hitting the gym.

While I could go on for a long period of time, I'm sure that, even if you are a Madden player, you might have left the site by now so I'll give one last quarrel before heading out to pick up my copy of the game: Why do no players get injured in mid-week? Players pick up cuts, bruises and sprains all too often in practice. Excluding a factor like that devalues the game's realism. At the very least, could it not be a toggle-able option for franchise mode?

Expect a review tomorrow if I can pry myself away for enough time to write one.

Soccer has returned!

And it’s not even the shoddy North American type. That’s right; the Premiership of England launched over the weekend much to my delight. Finally, there are more options than the MLS and U-18 stuff that have been going on since Man U captured the title last spring.

Week one had one shocker I managed to witness in spite of the fact all the games are broadcast at times that aren’t really conducive for those who stay up late (work related, trust me) on weekends.

The shocker I speak of is that Reading was able to keep the defending champs at bay and hold them to a nil-nil draw; at Old Trafford no less. Even more shocking was that Wayne Rooney, everyone’s favourite English soccer hooligan, will no doubt miss some time after falling and suffering a hairline fracture in his foot. It’s looking like this season won’t be too much of a cake walk for the Red army. At least with Carlos Tevez finally coming in, the blow of losing Rooney for nearly two months won’t be as painful.

Also, I could never fail to mention the fact that my boys of Blackburn defeated Middleborough 2-1 in a come-from-behind victory to be included in the massive tie at the top of the fixtures.

Right back at it

Barry Bonds didn’t waste any time to extend the distance himself and Hank Aaron’s home run mark. Last night Barry went deep against Nationals starter Tim Redding for number 757 of his career. But here’s the thing, does anybody even care anymore? Barry is the home run king now. Any updates are meaningless because he is only setting the bar slightly higher for the next guy who comes along, years down the road. Be it, Griffey, A-Rod, Pujols or maybe a kid like Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder, they better hope Barry doesn’t go on some kind of tear and put his final mark too far out of reach.

Also, wouldn’t it be hilarious if an American League team was able to actually get Aaron out of retirement and use him as a pinch hitter? Imagine if he could actually catch Bonds and re-solidify himself as the all-time home run king. It’s a bad movie waiting to happen.

A new king is crowned

Hate him or love him, Barry Bonds is the new career home run leader.

Last night against Mike Bacsik, a journeyman who will now forever live in infamy, Bonds came up big, going three-for-three, but there was no hit bigger than his third. Barry drove a 3-2 pitch to right-centre field, the deepest part of the AT&T Ballpark, into an incredible swarm of fans, waiting to pounce on the historic baseball.

Bacsik, whose father was also named Mike and pitched in the big leagues, actually shares a distinction with his son: He pitched to Hank Aaron when Hammerin’ Hank was sitting on 755. While the elder didn’t give up a shot to the former King, there also wasn’t as much pressure on him since Aaron was already well past Ruth’s mark.

After Bonds had rounded the bases and celebrated with teammates, family and friends, Aaron himself appeared on the outfield video-board to congratulate Bonds in a touching and classy recorded piece. I understand Aaron not following Bonds around to see the historic and didn’t understand why he was taking flak for it; this piece should erase any of the criticism that the legend had to endure.

And, for the record, I never had anything against Bonds through the years, except for two minor and actually quite loser-ish things: firstly, Bonds was never in any of the more recent MLB video games. There was always a guy on San Francisco named something Joe Young or John Dowd and you would have to waste your time going in to edit the player if you wanted that tidbit of realism back. Secondly, in old school video games, Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. were retardedly good. There was hardly any way to get those guys and it was even cheaper to play with them.

So, now, with 756 out of the way, let all those jackasses out there keep arguing (a losing cause) for that asterisk.