Media Motivates the Giants

I despise the New York Giants.  I really, really do.

I may even hate them.

They more or less embody everything I dislike about sports and the interaction between sports and media.  The Giants went 9-7 this year.  Losing games to inferior teams and winning games against better teams.  They are barely above average and, had the Eagles kicker not missed two gimme field goals against the 49ers (or any of the other numerous games they stupidly lost) they would not be in the playoffs. On top of it all they have a bunch of players that just won't shut the hell up.

"But those things did happen," you say.  Yes, I know, however, I've yet to make my point.

I think it's because of this crazy up-to-the-nanosecond news and constant coverage world we live in that the Giants won.  And are still winning.  They are a team that is fueled by talking heads in the media "picking" against them.  Even after they won this week against the 49ers days later Justin Tuck is talking to the media saying, and I'm paraphrasing, "you all just keep picking against us".  Ignore the fact that most of the "picks" I saw were actually for them to beat San Fran, there had yet to even be a "pick" for or against them in the Super Bowl.  Unless you want to count the Pats being (-3) in Vegas.  I don't, but if a betting line factors into a player/team's motivation, then my opinion of them has dropped further.

I understand the concept of bulletin board material.  And, if it's from an opposing team's player, then it makes perfect sense that that is something that might provide additional motivation.  However, the idea that a yapping instigator like Skip Bayless, or anyone of equal ridiculousness, has any bearing on how motivated a player/team is irritates me.

Their Super Bowl run in '08 was the exact same thing. They were an average team that would lose the games they were supposed to win and win the games they were supposed to lose. They made it into the playoffs and you know the rest: Asante Samuel dropped the game sealing INT, David Tyree makes a once in a lifetime catch (No, really.  It was once in a lifetime.  I'm pretty sure it's his only career catch) after Manning is nearly sacked, and Eli lobs the ball into the end zone for Plaxico Buress.

It's annoying to think about.  Especially the Eli lob TD to Buress.  Seriously, that's all he was actually good at until maybe two years ago.  He'd just throw fade routes to Plaxico and they didn't even have to be that accurate since Buress is really tall and could out jump pretty much every DB in the league.

What I'm getting at is this: the Giants suck and it'll really irk me when they win another Super Bowl (Yeah, I said "when".  Those retards have convinced themselves that everyone picks against them, so why shouldn't they beat New England).

- In Other News -

I finally found a source of income and whenever some says anything about a job the phrase "Calvin got a job" pops into my head.  It's from a Chappelle's Show sketch and it's quite funny.

Chappelles Show
Get More: Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs,Black Comedy,True Hollywood Story

"Bodyrock" - Moby

Batman: Arkham City

My little bro gave me the game for Christmas.  I heard how great it was (particularly its hand to hand combat design) so I was expecting something fairly awesome.

The game has an interesting opening, it looks great, sounds great (the voice acting is especially solid), but then the game starts.  The controls are generally clunky, but in combat they are much more fluid.  However, the hand to hand combat I heard about, the stuff that supposedly set the bar for brawling in video games, is rather underwhelming.  I've yet to encounter any real complexity in it.  You basically just point the movement stick in the direction of the enemy you want to hit and then press the attack buttons.  A little icon will appear when an enemy is about to attack you; you hit the counter button when happens.

You can realistically go an entire fight not being hit.

I wonder if there is something I'm not doing that will help me see what most others have.  If not, I fail to see how the combat is exponentially better than Uncharted 3's combat which is considered that game's weakness.  Yes, there are more ways to fight in Batman, but I still feel like I'm mashing buttons.

Probably the worst part of the game for me is that I felt constantly disoriented and unsure what to do next.

Maybe it gets better?  I shall see.

"It's Tricky" - Run-D.M.C.

My Top 10 of 2011

This is my favorite things (games, books, movies, events, etc.) crammed into one compact list.  Truthfully, though, I wanted to do a list of my top video games, but then I realized I didn't buy very many in 2011 because I didn't have moolah to do so.  Games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham City, Portal 2, Bastion, Rayman Origins are all games in my "pile of shame" (the 1st two I did get for Christmas).

With that out of the way, here's my list:

1. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
     - You fight DRAGONS! Need I say more?
2. Week long road trip to Yellowstone NP and Rocky Mountains with a good friend
3. Game of Thrones on HBO
     - I stayed up 'til 6am one morning watching the 1st 8 episodes
4. Luther
     - An incredible BBC show starring Idris Elba (The Wire)
5. Star Wars: The Old Republic
     - Released with just 11 days left in the year, but it is addicting
6. The Broncos return to relevancy
     - Even though it's all due to Tim Tebow
7. I got to eat a Jimmy's Hoagie after more than 10 years
8. Actually getting somewhere with the story I've been writing
9. Fantasy football and bball
10. The best photo I've ever taken

Honorable Mentions:
     - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, TeeFury, Contagion, Gears or War 3

I usually put a song that I like at the end of my blog, but instead I'm going to plug my favorite podcast:
     - Weekend Confirmed: The Video Game Show