Running video games (and consoles) thread

I say go with the regular xbox, but that's just me. I don't play video games to get exercise. I play them to relax.

 

If all they'll play is sports games along with Call of Duty and Halo, get the 250 GB one.

Even just saved games will start to take up a lot of space.

And the extra space would allow them to install the games to the hard drive, which allows for quicker loading times.

 

No comment

 

The 250 gig will be well worth it in the end. If they want to download any map packs, they'll be at least .75 gigs apiece.

 

Can't wait to finish work this week. I've got a $30 gift card from Best Buy and got $20 from participating in a survey at my wife's job so, first chance I get, I'll be picking up the new Madden for $14. Very excited.

 

Well after playing Madden 12 all day yesterday, I have a few notes to add. Gameplay is smooth, but at times seems rushed with tackling/hits. Passing isn't any harder in All-Madden than it has been in the past, but I see EA still insists on having DL who drop back or MLBs be able to still swat down pretty much every pass that is around them.

My only gripe and it is a small one: Presentation. I just don't like the new layout. At all. I'm sure it will grow on me but it gives me headaches when I'm rolling through player management or my depth chart.

All in all it's Madden.

 

OK, since I'm a total dork, I've decided heading into my third year of dynasty mode on NCAA 12 to completely revamp the conference lineup just to see what the whole superconference thing would look like. Good thing is that you can go back and change it after a year if you don't like it.

Now, I understand some of the parameters that are out there in reality. Virginia Tech isn't likely to jump to the SEC, nor is Florida State, etc., etc. Also, you can't add a created team without deleting one, so you can't just add Texas State, UTSA, etc., to the WAC. But this is fantasy, not reality, so go with it.

The lineup:

SEC (16 teams) -- East: UT, Vandy, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, VT, Florida State
West: Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss St., LSU, Arkanpig, aTm, Oklahoma

ACC (16) -- Coastal: Duke, Georgia Tech, UNC, Miami, UVa, South Florida, West Virginia, Louisville
Atlantic: BC, Clemson, Maryland, NC State, Wake, UCF, UConn, Syracuse

Big Ten (16) -- Legends: Iowa, Michigan, Sparty, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Mizzou, Iowa State
Leaders: Illinois, Indiana, OSU, Penn State, Purdue, Bucky, Rutgers, Pitt

Pac 12 (16) -- North: Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Wazzu, Washington, Utah, Colorado
South: Texas, Texas Tech, Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Kansas

Big 12 (0) -- See ya

Independents (4) -- Notre Dame, BYU, Army, Navy

Big East (8 ) -- Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, ECU, Marshall, Temple, Kansas State, Memphis

CUSA (8 ) -- Southern Miss, UAB, Tulane, Houston, Tulsa, Troy, Louisiana Tech, Rice

MAC (12) -- East: Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent, Miami, Ohio
West: Ball State, Directional Michigan x3, NIU, Toledo

Mountain West (16, like it's 1998 all over again): East: Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, Wyoming, UTEP, New Mexico State, Utah State, SMU
West: San Jose State, Idaho, Boise State, SDSU, UNLV, Fresno State, Nevada, Hawaii

Sun Belt (8 ) -- Ark State, FAU, FIU, ULL, ULM, MTSU, WKU, North Texas

WAC (0) -- Gone-zo.

Four superconference champs (sans the MWC) get automatic BCS berths. Next six go to at-large selections. Will pretty much probably create a total disconnect between the two divisions, but that's where we're headed anyway. Should be a fun one-year experiment.

 

And ... crap. The game won't let you just wipe out conferences. Every one has to have at least four teams. Dammit. Back to work.

 

Yeah, I tried that once and it wouldn't let me do it.

I'm running with SMU right now, mostly because I love their uniform combinations, and moved them into the Big 12 along with UTEP, Houston and, IIRC, all the other small schools in Texas. I've got Texas, A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the same division. My division is pretty weak, fwiw, but my protected rivalry is with TCU -- so that's a plus.

I'm in my second year with SMU -- won conference and national titles in my first season (I cheated by increasing the attributes of some players ...) and am 3-0 in the second so far. The run-and-shoot attack is pretty fun to run.

Every other conference stayed the same.

 

Madden 12 has done something I never thought the franchise would do: Made me love preseason games.

The 75-player rosters are a blast. After each preseason game, you must cut players. After each season, you have your 53 and your draft picks and then the CPU adds players to your mix.

In Season 2 with Buffalo, I have an undrafted rookie free agent that might win the starting QB job. Just fun, fun stuff.

 

Really?

 

Yeah. You get a 75-man roster and your rookies through the draft do not have their ratings until the preseason and cuts are over. You'll get, for example a player with a rating 67 but with a question mark and in orange.

I don't play any preseason games, just sim and cut players. I pretty much put all rookies in at least second string so they get a decent amount of playing time to progress.

Still in season one of my franchise with the Bills and having a blast. Fitz is fun to play with despite his 80 throwing power.