G'Day everyone its a raining Saturday here...... Its been a misserable week here weather wise…… Been raining nearly all week…… Could only take Maggie out for walks two days this week….. We have been hybernating inside for most of the week like bears…...

On the plus side I got the spend my entire Sunday watching College Football….. And it was much better than watching the Denver Broncos attempt to play football……

Speaking of the Broncos they lost to the Tennessee Titans last weekend 17-10…… And the San Francisco 49ers won their game against the Los Angeles Chargers….. So both results went against me…...

This weekend the Broncos will be playing the Las Vegas Raiders in Las Vegas…… The Broncos have not won in Las Vegas since the Raiders moved from Oakland in 2020……. This will be a terrible game to watch……. Both teams are complete dumpster fires…….. The only interesting thing about this game will be how the Broncos will find a new way to lose a game…...

As for gaming….. Well the hybernation period helped me play a bunch of games……. All of them sports games…… As mentioned last week I played all off the “2005” American Sports games…… And some other sports games thrown in as well……


ESPN NFL 2K5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2


Madden NFL 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2


ESPN NHL 2k5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2


NHL 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2


Major League Baseball 2K5 (2005 2K Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2


MLB 2005 (2004 Sony) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Baseball)


MVP Baseball 2005 (2005 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2


ESPN NBA 2K5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2


NBA Live 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Basketball)


This is the first thing I saw when I loaded up the game…… I can only discribe this as the “Calgary Cow”
Screenshot from NHL 2005 (2004 EA Sports)


This week I played…….

Arcade

Super Punch-Out!! (1985 Nintendo) - Sports (Boxing)


Console

ESPN NBA 2K5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Basketball)
ESPN NFL 2K5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)
ESPN NHL 2k5 (2004 Sega) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Hockey)
Madden NFL 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Football)
Major League Baseball 2K5 (2005 2K Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Baseball)
MLB 2005 (2004 Sony) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Baseball)
MVP Baseball 2005 (2005 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Baseball)
NBA Live 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Basketball)
NFL Blitz 2023 (2022 NFL Blitz Resurrection) - Nintnedo 64 - Sports (Football)
NHL 2005 (2004 EA Sports) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Hockey)
Tecmo Super Bowl 2023 (2022 TecmoBowl.org) - Nintendo Entertainment System - Sports (Football)

One thing I noticed that was a recurring theme this week was how the 2K games were much slower paced and in general more realistic game play and had much better graphics and presentation…….

While the EA games were faster paced leaning slightly more towards the arcade side of things and the tempo of the games was noticeably faster and the presentation was not as good as 2Ks……..

I am going to talk about the two heavyweights…….. ESPN NFL 2K5 and Madden NFL 2005……

ESPN NFL 2K5 is considered my many to be the best simulation NFL video game ever made……. It uses the ESPN licence very well……. Has all the ESPN graphics and some of the best ESPN personalities……. Using the voices of ESPN commintators and reporters this gives the game a great authentic feel……. Its really like watching a NFL game on ESPN back in 2004/5……. Chris Berman has even been modled into the game as host of the pre show/halftime show and post game SportsCenter type show…… It also has all of the ESPN music used during their broadcasts……. NFL 2K5 went all out to copy the presentation of ESPN as best they could back in 2005 on a console……. And they totally nailed it!

Presentation is one thing but it needs to be backed up by good game play and ESPN NFL 2K5 does not fail in this aspect either…… It has a fantastic gameplay…… It might play slower than Madden NFL 2005 in terms of player speed and the overall tempo of the gameplay (Frame rate is not an issue at all)…….. But it does feel much more like the real NFL speed of play…… This is one of the best NFL video games ever made…… Period!


Madden NFL 2005……. Is also a truly great NFL video game….. it doesnt have the presentation of the NFL 2K5 game…… But it does have one thing on its side…… JOHN MADDEN….. Who at the time was the colour commentator at ABC Sports……. And his side kick at ABC Sports was Al Michaels who also does the play by play announcing in Madden NFL 2005….. So this also brings authentisity to the presentation have the real life ABC Sports commentry duo in the game…... While it does not have the ABC Sports graphics and music EA still does a good job making up there own graphics but it does fall short of NFL 2K5 on this front….. EA went for top 40 charts? music for their soundtrack…. Featuring songs from “will.i.am”, “Green Day”, “Faith No More” and many other bands ive never heard off…… And to me it just falls flat…….. If you like that music then sure you will like the soundtrack but for me I couldnt find the mute option fast enough……. So the presentation is hit and miss…..

The game play however is a hit…… Its a bit faster paced than NFL 2K5…….. Players run a bit faster….. They stop on a dime and change direction in an instant….. The overall pace of the game is faster….. Its a little bit to fast though when comapred to the real NFL players…..

Both are great games and back in 2004 when these games were released it would have been like Christmas having 2 fantastic NFL video games to play……

And thats the same across the board…… Everyone of these game are great…… And are well worth playing for sports fans……

So comparing all the games which do I think is the best in each sport…….

NFL - ESPN NFL 2K5 (2004 Sega)
NHL - ESPN NHL 2k5 (2004 Sega)
MLB - MVP Baseball 2005 (2005 EA Sports)
NBA - NBA Live 2005 (2004 EA Sports)

Yes its a split decision….. I dont like Basketball so I like the more arcade like gameplay of the NBA Live game more…….. And baseball is slow enough as it is that it really does get better with the faster pace of play a video game can offer……. So again I prefer the arcade like action of MVP Baseball…… And as for the Hockey games….. well its the same story as the NFL games where I prefer the more realstic game play and presentation……


The Man…… The Myth…….. The Legend…… Jon Dowd…...
MVP Baseball 2005 (2005 EA Sports)

We can not mention MVP Baseball 2005 without talking about Jon Dowd…… Jon doesnt play in the MLB……. In fact Jon does not even play baseball…… Jon Dowd worked for EA and was in charge of creating the players looks and giving them the attribrutes so they looked and played like the real life players……… So how did he end up in MVP Baseball 2005 as the most over powered home run hitting player in the entire game???

Well that is because Jon Dowds attributes are based on a real player……. A player that EA could not get the licence for….. the 2004 National League Most Valuble Player and multiple Home Run Hitting Record Holder…….. Barry Bonds…….. As they had to find a replacement for Bonds…….. a generic player was to be used to fill the roster….. To avoid being sued by Barry Bonds the generic player had to be white…… And right handed (While Barry Bonds is black and left handed)……. So Jon Dowd being white and right handed created a player that looked kinda like himnself in the game as the generic player and gave the player his name……… And thus the legened of Jon Dowd was born……

The MLB even has an interview with the real Jon Dowd on their website……

This week I plan on going back further…… and playing the first 2K sports games that were on the Sega Dreamcast……

NBA 2K - (1999 Sega) - Sega Dreamcast - Sports (Basketball)
NFL 2K (1999 Sega) - Sega Dreamcast - Sports (Football)
NHL 2K (2000 Sega) - Sega Dreamcast - Sports (Hockey)

I will also be playing some other games im not sure yet what they will be….. But there will be more games played…..

As for non gaming……. Who knows…… This rain is meant to stay around untill Thursday or Friday……… So I dont know what I will be able to do this week…...

Quoting: itscalledrealityI can't stand people calling it a "Friendsgiving", are your family not your friends?

No..... Family are not friends..... At least in my case......

Quoting: itscalledrealityI do have an idea to change the name of this weekly thread to: Weekend Player's Club

I like the idea of the name change...... And yes I know I havnt been strickly playing by the rules as I talk more about what I have played during the week because honestly I dont know what I will play on the weekend...... I tend of play whatever I feel like and it also depends on the weather as to much how much time I will get to playing games....... So I for one welcome our new name changing overlord......

Also I hope you had a good birthday last Tuesday mate
You didnt mention it in your post so I hope it was not a disaster!

Well thats it from me…… Have a good week everyone…...

After thoroughly enjoying video game historian Jeremy Parish's retrospective on the NES version of Bomberman (and also the series' very first spin-off Robo Warrior/Bomber King, which was released on Wednesday, I decided to play a hack of NES Bomberman this weekend. Rounding off the selection of "fan-made sequel"-type ROM-hacks that I've included in my Weekend Play List posts for the last three weeks, this pick is Wario Blast: Pillage and Plunder on Rice Beach, which turns the NES title into a follow-up to Wario Blast Featuring Bomberman! for the Game Boy.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, Bomberman himself does not appear, though the game does feature nice touches like Wario using the Mario series' Bob-Omb enemies in place of the Bomberman series' standard bombs, along with including new music based on Wario Land (also for the Game Boy, and later re-released as a two-pack with Wario Blast.


"Cooler than Mario, smarter than Sonic..." Less shouty than Johnny Turbo...
I don't have a second video game pick this time, but the other thing that I plan to spend my leisure-time on is nevertheless gaming-related: Since I played through both Zool and Zool 2 last week, this weekend I intend to revisit the two novels from 1995 which were set after the games, in order to round off a complete run-through of the original 1990s releases in the franchise (recent remake Zool Redimensioned is still on my list for a later date).

They're easily the best video game spin-offs from that era that I've ever come across - instead of trying to turn the games into something that they're not, as so many such products used to do, the two books act as another sequel, and do a bunch of worldbuilding to boot - I dare say that the entire Zool series, short though it is, would be worse off if the books didn't exist. There's heaps of fun animated movie/Saturday-morning cartoon style writing in these, and I'm really enjoying what I've read so far.

Quoting: itscalledrealityI do have an idea to change the name of this weekly thread to: Weekend Player's Club

I think it's a bit more fitting considering the original title was meant to specify a list of Weekend Play, however the related word `playlist` kind of captures this but is limited to music/audio. So I think Player's Club still highlights the weekly list aspect as well as the original intention. Let me know your thoughts for a thread name!

If you think that a name-change is the right way to go, run with it! I like the Weekend Players' Club name, too - my crazy mind humourously parses it in a manner akin to this old comic, in the nicest way possible.

Quoting: StoneColdSpider

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This is the first thing I saw when I loaded up the game…… I can only discribe this as the “Calgary Cow”
Screenshot from NHL 2005 (2004 EA Sports)

What the hell was that?!

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderAlso I hope you had a good birthday last Tuesday mate
You didnt mention it in your post so I hope it was not a disaster!

Yes, this! Please tell us that it went alright.

Completed Orion Trail. This is fun and I will keep it on my HD for a little longer. Started VirtuaVerse. Feeling the art and sound track. Doing my best to stay stuck and figure things out.

Next weekend is a big boardgaming meet with my ppl. This weekend is all outings. Today is Animecon, followed by dinner with friends then checking out Black Panther 2. Tomorrow is an all day date with gf with some b movie trivia thing during mid-day.

Quoting: PenglingQuoting: StoneColdSpider
Also I hope you had a good birthday last Tuesday mate
You didnt mention it in your post so I hope it was not a disaster!

Yes, this! Please tell us that it went alright.

My birthday went well enough. I decided to just take the day off and enjoy myself. I actually went and saw a really good movie in a theater (something I haven't done in the middle of the day for a long time). The movie was Banshees of Inisherin which is a spiritual successor (?) to In Bruges a very funny dark comedy. Banshees of Inisherin includes the same cast of Colin Ferrel and Brendan Gleeson as two drunk Irishmen best buddies where one of them decides they no longer want to be friends. The movie is very Irish and very different from In Bruges but equally as hilarious. It is a sad sad dark dark Irish tale and a very intriguing movie. After the movie I exited the theater and saw it was pouring rain. Luckily I had broken my umbrella earlier in the week so I was forced to rent an ebike and fly as fast as possible to get home out of the rain. For dinner, I couldn't find enough people to eat expensive steak so I opted to have dinner alone at a nice sushi restaurant. I drank a whole bottle of saki to myself and went home and passed out.

Overall a pretty swell birthday with no obligations.

In other news, setting up my PC again has enabled me to dip back into my GOG backlog. I finished Kero Blaster which is a sweet and short little game with plenty of charm.

I also have been digging into Loop Hero again, albeit slowly.

Decided to try Dishonored this week. I did the tutorial and the first mission. I like it so far. I get very heavy Theif vibes from the game, but I think a lot of that is the setting, perhaps.

I think my play through of Metro and Soma has really influenced my game choices. I'm definitely trying to play very stealth heavy and minimize kills. The world building / lore is pretty cool as well.

I'd actually have weekends off for the next three weeks, but my schedule was shifted yet again. I think in the nearly 7 weeks I've been at this new job, I've only had one week where I worked my normal shifts. I think it'll hopefully normalize once I'm done with my training and I don't have to be shadowing other people anymore.

For me still Wotr. About to finish Alushinyrra, just killed the fulsome queen. Probably more of it tomorrow. Already looking forward to 3rd playthrough, trying other paths will be a challenge as i would miss Aivu too much. Give her a slice of raspberry pie. Pretty slow game, core is kicking my ass.

Quoting: itscalledrealityMy birthday went well enough. I decided to just take the day off and enjoy myself. I actually went and saw a really good movie in a theater (something I haven't done in the middle of the day for a long time). The movie was Banshees of Inisherin which is a spiritual successor (?) to In Bruges a very funny dark comedy. Banshees of Inisherin includes the same cast of Colin Ferrel and Brendan Gleeson as two drunk Irishmen best buddies where one of them decides they no longer want to be friends. The movie is very Irish and very different from In Bruges but equally as hilarious. It is a sad sad dark dark Irish tale and a very intriguing movie. After the movie I exited the theater and saw it was pouring rain. Luckily I had broken my umbrella earlier in the week so I was forced to rent an ebike and fly as fast as possible to get home out of the rain. For dinner, I couldn't find enough people to eat expensive steak so I opted to have dinner alone at a nice sushi restaurant. I drank a whole bottle of saki to myself and went home and passed out.

Overall a pretty swell birthday with no obligations.

Im glad you enjoyed your birthday :)
when you didnt mention it in your post I was worried it was a disaster.....

Quoting: Pengling(recent remake Zool Redimensioned is still on my list for a later date)

I finished both of the Zool novels, completed Wario Blast: Pillage and Plunder on Rice Beach, and then I went on to buy Zool Redimensioned this evening and just powered through that too (it works perfectly under Proton). I loved every second of it, it was great - I'd happily buy a Zool 3 in that style!

Last edited by Pengling on 20 November 2022 at 8:34 pm UTC

Quoting: PenglingI finished both of the Zool novels, completed Wario Blast: Pillage and Plunder on Rice Beach, and then I went on to buy Zool Redimensioned this evening and just powered through that too (it works perfectly under Proton). I loved every second of it, it was great - I'd happily buy a Zool 3 in that style!

Sounds like someone has been busy this weekend..... I havnt been though