Shark Claws

The Pinstripe Bowl

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:13:59 -0500

NEW YORK — In its first year of existence, Yankee Stadium hosted a gamut of “firsts:” first regular-season game, first playoff game and first World Series. Now, the Yankees’ home will experience a new first of the non-baseball variety — a college football bowl game.

Yankee Stadium will host the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 30, 2010, the Yankees announced at a news conference on Tuesday morning, held in conjunction with the Big 12 Conference, the Big East Conference, ESPN and New Era.

Among the Yankees’ brass in attendance Tuesday were managing partner Hal Steinbrenner, president Randy Levine and chief operating officer Lonn Trost. Steinbrenner and Levine both expressed the Yankees’ excitement to present an NCAA bowl game.

There’s a 150% chance I go to this game. 100% will be dedicated to buying tickets and attending the game, and the extra 50% will be dedicated to warmth, because the Bronx is fucking cold in late December.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez II. March 15, 2008

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:15:00 -0500

Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez II. March 15, 2008

Palin loves Canada's Health Care System

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:32:46 -0500

Palin loves Canada's Health Care System:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care — admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

Palin then commented on the time it ran on your wedding day.

9gag: Guys I have some bad news…

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:16:05 -0500

9gag:

Guys I have some bad news…

Lady Gaga comes to Rock Band

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:42:27 -0500

Lady Gaga comes to Rock Band:

The episode of Comedy Central hit South Park in which Eric Cartman sings Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on Rock Band comes to life next week, with the release of Lady Gaga Pack 01 and a special track from Eric Cartman.

—

Lady Gaga Pack 01 consists of “Poker Face,” “Just Dance,” “Monster,” and “Bad Romance,” meaning you can also relive the glory of LittleBadRomance.

Lady Gaga Pack 01 and Cartman’s “Poker Face” will be available next week for the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

I’m at the point where even if I just read the words “Poker” and “Face” in the same sentence, the song gets stuck in my head. Damn you Lady Gaga.

There was a time in my life when the world stopped when a Final...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:43:32 -0500

There was a time in my life when the world stopped when a Final Fantasy game was released. Even months before the actual launch, I would brace for the excitement. I’d record the commercials on my VCR and replay them over and over again. I’d read every magazine article, I would call game stores just to confirm when the game was getting released, and I would call them again just to make sure nothing changed. I would count down the days in my head (not on a calendar, I never look at calendars) to when I would be able to sit in front of the TV and power on my gaming console with the newest Final Fantasy game inside. A new Final Fantasy game was in stores, I wanted to be the first to get my hands on it. I actually wasn’t the first, but I was one of the first, but that was fine enough for me. The game was Final Fantasy VII. It was September 7, 1997.

Today is March 9, 2010. The latest Final Fantasy game was released into stores 12 hours ago. I was asleep when the first copy came off the shelves.

The greatness of Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy III (it was originally released as Final Fantasy III in the U.S. It’s actually the sixth game in the series, so I’ll refer to the series as VI moving forward.) is my favorite game of all time, one of the few games I can go back and play over and over again to completion. It’s the perfect Final Fantasy, which means it’s the perfect RPG. Great characters, engaging party system, involving combat gameplay. Most importantly, it has one of the greatest storylines and most shocking twists in gaming history. A group of rebels spend the entire first half of the game battling an Evil Empire and trying to stop them from using magic to destroy the world…only they fail and the Empire’s Court Jester (Kefka, one of the great villains in any medium) actually does destroy the world. I got into the series with Final Fantasy II (IV in the series), and that was an awesome game in its own right, but this was an entirely new level of gaming.

I loved Final Fantasy VI so much, as soon as I beat the final boss and watched the ending, I immediately started a new game just to go through the experience again. From Christmas 1994 to 1997, I must have played and replayed the game 10 times. 600 hours of my childhood was devoted to playing and beating Final Fantasy VI. And I wouldn’t change a thing. Those were 600 hours well spent. The graphics are outdated now, but I could pick up the game tomorrow and get sucked right into the storyline.

Holy Shit, there’s gonna be a Final Fantasy VII!!!

Around 1996, Squaresoft (now Square Enix) announced that Final Fantasy VII was being released for the Sony PlayStation. Being as rabid fan, the announcement of a new Final Fantasy was like the return of Jesus to a fundamental Christian. I couldn’t have been more excited.

For the next year, I would go to book store or an EB Games, just to leaf through the magazines for any information about FF7. In the internet era, I would just go to IGN.com for the latest news, or hop onto XBox Live and download the trailer. Back in 1996, I had to wait a month for an issue of EGM or Game Players and hope they had at least a couple of gameplay screenshots.

Right before I went to high school, my parents finally got a computer that could hook up to the internet. They figured I would need to go online in order to do research for History papers or English essays. I figured I could go into video game chat rooms to talk about playing Final Fantasy VII.

Me: man, i can’t wait to play final fantasy 7. it’s going to be the best game ever!!!!(@@!$(!!!
Creepy Old Guy on the Internet: 16/F , u?

Disappointment

It finally came out on September 7, 1997. The date is still burned into my memory. I figure I could develop a case of Alzheimers and the government could perform mind control on me and I’d still remember the day Final Fantasy VII shipped. On the ride home from the mall, I must have read the instruction booklet three times (even back then, I could read really fast). I couldn’t believe the game was actually in my possession, the three CDs just begging to be placed into the PlayStation tray.

I played it for about a month and I loved every step of the way. The graphics and cut scenes were revolutionary, the mid-game twist was and is the greatest in gaming, the game was fun. But after I had struck down Sephiroth for the last time, watched the ending.

I didn’t feel like playing it again.

I might have gone through the game again at some point, but I don’t remember. It’s the most popular Final Fantasy game of all time, one of the seminal video games of all time, but to me, it wasn’t as good as the last game. If I had to pinpoint why I didn’t like it as much, I would go right to the moment Sephiroth’s sword pierced Aeris’ torso, killing her in the most shocking video game twist ever. Like the Final Fantasy VI twist, it completely changed the tone of the game, but the second half of Final Fantasy VI was about finding your party members and bringing them together for one final battle against Kefka. Final Fantasy VII followed up its twist with more depressing twists like Cloud actually being manipulated by Sephiroth to the point where everything Cloud said was a lie. The storyline becomes much less engaging after Aeris (the best character in the game) dies.

As it turns out, Aeris’ death marked the end of an era for my fandom of Final Fantasy.

The end of an era

The next year, I got Final Fantasy VIII, which was fun, but its storyline is so forgettable I didn’t even remember the basic premise of the game until I replayed it last year when it was released on PlayStation Network. I didn’t even get Final Fantasy IX. I did buy Final Fantasy X, but never beat it. And Final Fantasy XII came out four years ago and I don’t even know what the game is about. That was the story of Final Fantasy in my life. Games that weren’t as good as the last one.

Western developers have taken over the RPG genre, featuring morality systems, open world gameplay, and branching storylines based on the player’s decisions. Games like Mass Effect and Fallout have taken the place of Final Fantasy as RPGs that don’t just push the genre, but push video games forward. Not only does Mass Effect have great characters and a great storyline, but the series features one of the best storytelling devices I’ve ever seen in a video game: Importing saved games. So the choices the player makes in the previous game affect the entire series as a whole. After playing and beating Mass Effect 2 last month, I immediately wanted to start a new game and play through it again. I haven’t felt that way about a game in over a decade. Not since Final Fantasy VI.

The 13th edition of the Final Fantasy series comes out today, and from reviews I’ve read on the internet, the game is far too linear, more a dungeon crawler than a traditional RPG, let alone an open world Western RPG. It has still gotten high scores and praise for its storyline and combat system, but I’m apprehensive. I honestly don’t know if I’m even going to like it, or whether I’m just buying the game out of tradition, because for the last 20 years, I’ve gotten the first Final Fantasy game of the current video game generation.

It’s a far cry from September 7, 1997.

"But grit isn’t just about stubborn perseverance - it’s also about finding a goal that can sustain..."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:03:00 -0500

“But grit isn’t just about stubborn perseverance - it’s also about finding a goal that can sustain our interest for years at a time.”

- Jonah Lehrer, “The Truth about Grit” (via niner)

Grits is a food of aboriginal American origin common in the Southern United States, consisting of coarsely ground corn.

Grits is similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta. It also has a resemblance to farina, a thinner porridge.

—Guy who edited the Grits page on Wikipedia, “Wikipedia”

Big Ben needs a stronger pimp hand

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:42:24 -0500

me: http://deadspin.com/5487565/big-bens-night-out-in-millyvegas-what-the-bartenders-saw?skyline=true&s=i
Tarik: man, what an awesome life
minus the rape allegations
me: i think it just sounds like he needs a friend to run interference on all the hoes
Tarik: oh man, i wish i could be that friend
me: if i could live life all over again, i'd make friends with a famous athlete or actor
cuz then basically your entire job is screening for all the hoes who throw themselves at him
Tarik: living the dream
me: thats what tiger's problem was too
he needed a friend to take care of all that shit for him
Tarik: if someone asked me what i did for a living
i would say i'm a hoe screener
i would say it with pride
me: i would make business cards
i feel like that's a legitimate job
because every athlete needs a friend to make sure the skanks he messes with knows the deal
Tarik: yeah
either hoe screener or skank checker
or pimp hand
me: pimp hand i consider a classier title
Tarik: definitely
me: thats for athletes like derek jeter or actors like george clooney
and even tiger
for ben roethlisberger, your job would be skank checker
Tarik: derek and george don't need it
me: sure they do
Tarik: nah
me: just to make sure what happens to big ben doesnt happen to them
Tarik: they don't get in trouble like everyone else
me: yo son, thats because their pimp hand is strong
Tarik: but look at the chicks they mess with compared to big ben
me: i guarantee they have a friend who's job is to basically weed out the skanks
Tarik: they actually deal with chicks who have their own careers and are doing shit in their life
me: yo son, thats only the ones we know about
Tarik: big ben picks up anything with legs, titsm and ass
me: along with a lawyer, he needs to hire a pimp hand
to manage the hoes
the pimp hand needs to be able to drive the girl home in the morning, send her roses or money
and most importantly, make sure she doesn't talk
i wish i could get in touch with roethlisberger and let him know this
Tarik: me too
i would offer my services to him as his pimp hand
me: i would gladly accept the position of pimp hand at my current salary
Tarik: fuck yeah
free travel
free alcohol
free bitches
and he will probably buy shit for you when he's out shopping
me: and u get to watch football games for free in a luxury suite
that would be the best job

Unfortunately for Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron is not kidding...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:38:00 -0500

Unfortunately for Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron is not kidding around here.

This was the best year I can remember to bet on the Oscars. All the signs were pointing towards The Hurt Locker sweeping the awards, yet all the money was going towards Avatar because it was the biggest movie of the year.

For disappointed Avatar fans, this is the best thing that could’ve happened to the movie. As Titanic proved, being the biggest movie of all time AND winning the most Oscars including Best Picture is just an embarassment of riches. Most people now say it’s overrated, and it’s hard to find anyone who’s a hardcore Titanic fan 12 years later. Its legacy is a poorly written love story that teenage girls saw over and over again, not one of the best disaster films of all time or the defining blockbuster of its era.

If Titanic had lost Best Picture to L.A. Confidential or Good Will Hunting, its legacy would be better remembered, similar to how former box office champions Star Wars, E.T., and Jaws are so fondly remembered decades later. People say only teenage girls saw it over and over again, but it made $600 million in 1997 and 1998. There obviously had to be some guys who liked the movie and are afraid to say it in fear of being mocked and degraded by guys like me. People naturally try to avoid looking like they’re just on the bandwagon, even if they are. It all stems from the natural desire to be an individual even though everyone’s tastes and opinions will always be similar to many others. People want to go against the grain. With movies, there will always be two types of movies where backlashes develop: box office blockbusters and Academy Award winners. Titanic was both, so people turned against it, to the point where James Cameron lost his next Best Director and Best Picture nomination, to his ex-wife of all people.

Avatar is the biggest blockbuster of all time. There will always be people who loudly express how much they hate it. The Most Popular anything always has its naysayers. But losing the Oscar gives Avatar a legacy Titanic didn’t have: The film that should have won*.

*Even though it really didn’t. The Hurt Locker was the best film of the 2009. Kathryn Bigelow deserved every Oscar she won. Suck it Cameron.

movielove: inothernews: Queen of the world.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:20:19 -0500

movielove:

inothernews:

Queen of the world.

inothernews: “Yahoo, Mom and Dad! Look!” - Jeff...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:37:37 -0500

inothernews:

“Yahoo, Mom and Dad! Look!”

- Jeff Bridges

Well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.

Jeff Bridges, 2009 Best Actor, The Dude.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:33:00 -0500

Jeff Bridges, 2009 Best Actor, The Dude.

thedailywhat: Oscars: BINGO.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:56:23 -0500

thedailywhat:

Oscars: BINGO.

"When I see a game promoting itself by saying it’s “movie quality,” do you know..."

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:46:08 -0500

“

When I see a game promoting itself by saying it’s “movie quality,” do you know what that says to me? It says that videogames are not as good as movies. It says that the more gaming emulates film, the better videogames will be. And that’s bullshit.

It’s a disservice to videogames to claim that your title is good because it’s as entertaining as a movie. That essentially discredits the hard work of game writers and directors, who have a hard enough job as it is in trying to convince people that games are a legitimate work of creative entertainment. The last thing they need are having members of their own industry implying that credibility comes from a direct comparison to other mediums.

There’s a real problem in the games business of people latching onto more established forms of entertainment instead of trying to establish gaming itself. It all goes back to that ludicrous Citizen Kane argument. People need to stop asking when gaming will get its Citizen Kane. They need to ask when gaming will get another Super Mario Bros. They need to ask when gaming will get another Shadow of the Colossus. Videogames should be compared to videogames, because they are an artistic and creative medium in their own right, and deserve to be treated as such.

”

- Destructoid columnist Jim Sterling on videogames promoted as interactive films.

nbaoffseason: Grant Hill pets Sundiata Gaines.

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:26:01 -0500

nbaoffseason:

Grant Hill pets Sundiata Gaines.

This made me laugh.

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:08:00 -0500

This made me laugh.

Manny Pacquiao singing “Nothing’s Gonna Change My...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:27:13 -0500

Manny Pacquiao singing “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You” on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

I’m enjoying the new tradition of Pacquiao singing on Kimmel before each of his fights.

EXCLUSIVE!!!: Tiger's Wife loves money

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:30:46 -0500

EXCLUSIVE!!!: Tiger's Wife loves money:

Tiger Woods wife is moving back in with him.

RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively that after three months of estrangement, Elin has agreed to move home with Tiger.

It’s a big development in a marriage that seemed unlikely to survive after Tiger was linked with at least 14 women and exposed as a serial cheater during his marriage.

But after going away with Tiger and their two children last week, Elin agreed earlier this week to move back home.

She is currently renting a house about a mile from the home they previously shared.

On Wednesday, Elin and Tiger spent approximately three hours together at the house where they will once again live together. They were in the backyard, and a source close to the situation told RadarOnline.com exclusively that at one point Tiger kissed Elin on the cheek three times and they hugged.

Well, isn’t that sweet! Unfortunately, Radar didn’t have any news of whether or not Elin responded to Tiger’s love letter, which read “Do you like me? Circle YES or NO.”

Floyd Mayweather Jr. interview on Pardon the Interruption hyping...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:05:53 -0500

Floyd Mayweather Jr. interview on Pardon the Interruption hyping his upcoming fight with Sugar Shane Mosley. But of course, Wilbon and Le Batard are sports fans, so they mostly ask him questions about Manny Pacquiao. I don’t see how anyone but the most passionate Mayweather supporters/stalkers could watch this video and see that Mayweather gets shook whenever the Pac-Man’s name gets brought up. He dodges every single question, and Mike and Dan start laughing at him by the end of the interview.

Floyd fears Manny.

Fuck Frodo

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:39:49 -0500

me: that article makes all these heroic figures seem like such douchebags
Tarik: the only one i disagree with is gandalf
me: yeah i think that was a stretch
Tarik: cause in the end not killing gollum helped to destroy sauron
cause at the last minute frodo became a douche
me: "the ring is mine."
that scene is awesome
Tarik: and it's cause of gollum that the ring was destroyed
me: cuz sam just starts crying like a girl
and gollum has to save the day
Tarik: if bilbo had killed gollum
the ring would have been taken by sauron
and the world would be destroyed
me: gollum is the true hero of lord of the rings
Tarik: and he sacrificed himself to save us all
unlike fag frodo
and sam who sat there crying like a bitch
me: if sam was a hero he would have pushed frodo into the lava
instead of crying like a child with a skinned knee
Tarik: yeah, i would have kicked frodo in
me: i would have kicked frodo in as soon as i saw he was hesitating
fuck frodo

--Discussing the Cracked article about movie wise men: http://www.cracked.com/article_18443_6-famous-movie-wisemen-who-were-totally-full-shit.html