BCS got it right...almost.

BCS National Championship: Oklahoma #1 vs. Florida #2. Sure, Texas got left out, but blame that on a flawed Big 12 Divisional Champion selection tiebreak, NOT the BCS. This is the game we all deserve to see.
---my pick: Oklahoma keeps it close for awhile, but Florida pulls away in the 2nd half.


Rose Bowl: #5 USC vs. #8 Penn State. Winner of the Pac 10 plays the winner of the Big 10. Easy enough. No complaints on this matchup.
---my pick: Nobody wants to play USC right now. Sorry JoePa.

Orange Bowl: #12 Cincinatti vs. #21 Virginia Tech. Winner of the Big East vs. the winner of the terrible (this year at least) ACC...no complaints here either.
---my pick: Cincinatti wins in a close one.

Fiesta Bowl: #3 Texas vs. #10 Ohio State. I'm sorry, but Ohio State doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with BCS this year. Boise State is infinitely more deserving AND they are ranked higher in the BCS at #9.
---my pick: Ohio State gets embarrassed on a national stage yet again.

Sugar Bowl: #4 Alabama vs. #6 Utah. Utah deserves a BCS berth, no doubt about it. Too bad they had to run into Bama.
---my pick: Alabama takes out their frustration and wins big. Am I the only one who thinks Bama vs. Texas would be a lot more fun to watch in the Fiesta Bowl. Having said that, Boise State vs. Utah would be enjoyable as well.

Left 4 Dead Reviewed!

The first time you boot up L4D you are treated to an introductory cinematic. It likely goes without saying, but watch this movie! It very subtly keys you in on some basic concepts of the game. It’s the equivalent of a training mission in movie-form. Just another example of how well Valve seems to understand all the little things that go into a great gaming experience.

Jump straight into a campaign and you’ll be given the chance to choose between 4 survivors: Bill the Vietnam Vet, Francis the bar fighter, Zoey the horror movie buff, or Louis the IT guy. Aside from appearances, there are no differences between Survivors. You start the campaign in a safe location where you will choose which weapon to equip (shotgun or uzi) and pick up a health pack before beginning your journey.

Teamwork is paramount in this game. You will not have a good experience if everyone tries to lone-wolf their way through a level. In addition to the health pack mentioned above, you can carry a bottle of pain pills for a temporary health boost. You can use these on yourself of course, but often you will find yourself using them and health kits on your teammates, as keeping everyone in the fight is far more important than individual status in the game. Survivors who have their health taken to zero fall down to the ground and must rely on a buddy to help them up. Fortunately, the downed player can still fire a pistol and contribute since their savior will be helpless while reviving anyone. Dead players can be found in closed rooms for a quick respawn, though you start with half health and an uzi. Live together, die alone will be your mantra as you face the mass of undead standing in your way to safety.

continued on www.ozclan.com

Left 4 Dead demo Thursday!

For those who have pre-ordered, Left 4 Dead's demo will be available a week before anyone else. This MIGHT be able to pull me away from Fallout 3 for a night.

Maybe.

- V

Star Wars fans! Watch NOW!

I had to steal this from Jeff Green's blog.

This guy rocks.

-Van

Fallout 3

All free time is now given to Fallout 3.

11 hours into the game and I feel as if I've only scratched the surface.

That's it.

Van out.

Fallout 3, believe the hype.

I started playing Clive Barker's Undying on Saturday morning. Alone in the Dark didn't work out, and I was itching for a scary game. My first impressions of the game are good. The graphics are obviously dated and the controls are a bit different, but the game's story is intriguing and has already provided me some scary moments.

Fallout 3 wasn't scheduled to come until Nov 6th per Amazon's website. I planned to have Undying finished in time to dive right into post-apocalyptic mayhem. So much for plans, Fallout 3 Collector's Edition showed up on my door step Saturday afternoon. I tried to resist, but not really hard...Undying will just have to wait. So, will Resident Evil. Oh, and Advance Wars too. I thought, "Oh, I'll just install it and check out the introduction. Make sure it works well on my system and finish up the games I already started first. Yeah, right.

Fallout 3 has it's talons in me, and I don't want it to let go. I'll give a proper post about my thoughts on the game. Later. I have to go kill some mutant ants now.

Van out.

Doubly Disappointed

After coming off my "gaming-high" with Call of Duty 4, I felt like playing something a bit different. It being Halloween yesterday, I decided on a scary game. I recently picked up Alone in the Dark on PC cheap from GoGamer.com so I thought I would give it a go (would rather play Dead Space, but I'm 4th in line on Goozex). I installed it during Halloween day, preparing to play it Halloween night (as is only proper).

The production values for this game are excellent. I play at a 1680x1050 widescreen resolution and was very impressed by the visuals and effects. Unfortunately, playing with a mouse and keyboard is not optimal. Wait a second, did I say it wasn't optimal? What I meant was unplayable. I understand now why it was $9.90. Surely they are patching it though, right? Wrong. A quick search turns up that the PS3 version will have many of the problems in the PC and 360 versions corrected, even reports of a patch for the 360 to fix these problems...but nothing on a PC patch. The platform made for patching looks to be left out in the cold. Unacceptable. What sucks, is I WANT to play this game so badly. It looks so great on my PC. Oh well, I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for my scare-fix while I wait in line at Goozex for Dead Space.

/UNINSTALL

I logged into Steam last night, looking for a game to play before retiring to bed. I came across a new game called Samantha Swift and the Hidden Rose of Athena. Sounds gay, right? Yeah, it does. Undaunted by assumed gayness I took a look anyway. It looks like a fun little point and click adventure game and it has a free demo, so I thought, "why not?" I downloaded the demo to give it a try. I ended up not trying Sam Swift until this morning, instead trying once more to play the aforementioned unplayable Alone in the Dark last night.

Loading up the game, a splash screen pops up telling me I have 60 minutes available in my demo. That's fine by me, I can't imagine playing a demo for more than an hour anyway. I click on 'PLAY'...the 60 minute timer magically changes to '0' and I'm informed I have ran out of demo time. Sorry Samantha, you had your chance.

/UNINSTALL

Van out.