Games and More Games

Football season is here and I am not one to be counting his chickens before they hatch. That's one thing a lot football fans love to do but I don't. You look at your favorite team's schedule (mine is the NY Giants) and figure out which games they should win. You can have them at 7-1 in a moment.

Fans of any give team are usually optimistic when looking ahead at the schedule. Maybe it's that if your team stinks there is no reason to look ahead but everyone I know who counts their chickens always counts in their team's favor. But if there is one thing I know about the Giants it's that some games that they should win they lose and some games they should lose they win. That's why they play them and why I don't schedule-guess.

I've actually been playing a video game lately. It's "Magic: The Gathering" for the X-Box 360. Sure it might not really count as a video game because it's a translation of an actual card game but it's the only reason I've had to turn on my X-Box in ages. Well, besides using it as my media center.

Magic: TG for the X-Box is a pretty good translation of the game. It's really only a small fraction of the vast trading card game but for a ten dollar download it's well done. The computer AI is alright. I've yet to play a human opponent on it though. I used to play the game all the time in the mid 90's with some of my buddies at lunchtime when we all worked together. It was a nice break in the workday and we had fun. It's fun to play again a little again.

Buying M:TG was also the first time I've spent money in the X-Box virtual marketplace. I've never bought anything before because unlike the iTunes store, where I buy games for my iPod, you can't spend cash at Microsoft's virtual marketplace. First you have to buy "Microsoft Points" and then you spend those points "Buying" things. Oh, and one point does not equal one dollar. Eight hundred point equals ten dollars.

So good luck figuring out how much something will actually cost you. Plus you could have points left over. You have to buy points in the increments that they sell them in. Those increments might be more than how many points what you want costs. It all reminds me way too much of Itchy and Scratchy dollars from an episode of "The Simpsons".

Speaking of the Simpsons their twenty first season opening show that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote was good. I'm one of the few people I know who still watches the show and that was a stand out episode.

There is still no new car for me yet but I'm feeling more mellow about that. Since I don't use one to commute their is no real hurry to get a new one. I think getting rid of my old car took a lot of stress away. It was twenty one years old (like the Simpsons) and a ticking time bomb of repair bills ready to go off. And I found out the right rear wheel was about to fall off. I was right not to trust it. I don't have the car repair skills to keep it running on the cheap and am glad it's gone. But what one should I buy and how much will it cost? Ahhh... the questions of modern life.

A video game I almost bought last week was Halo 3: ODST. By "almost bought" I mean I had the money in my hand and was at the store looking for the special edition (it comes with a X-Box 360 wireless controller) but the didn't have any for me since I didn't pre-order it. After I got home I read the reviews on the game and though they were good there were plenty of complaints that the game was short and not worth the money. Originally it was supposed to be released as an expansion pack but Microsoft decided to charge full price ($60) for it. I'll wait until next year when it's cheaper.

So that is some news that is all about games. Football and video. Too bad there is no good football video games anymore.