C.J. Wilson is Fucking Psychotic

This is C.J. Wilson, "ace" pitcher for the Texas Rangers by default, since Cliff Lee decided to take his talents crawling back to the Philadelphia Phillies. Wilson was probably the most overrated pitcher in the American League last year (other than C.C. Sabathia), winning games mostly due to run-support.


This past season, C.J. Wilson achieved a feat so rare and infamous, that no one has ever accomplished it. He's the first starting pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball to lose the All-Star Game, an ALDS game, an ALCS game, and a World Series game all in the same season. Yes you heard right, the Rangers somehow made it to the World Series despite him and probably lost the World Series because of him.


Well now, Wilson is a free agent and he's going around team shopping. Allegedly, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States of America of Earth were interested in Wilson until he (and presumably his agent) demanded a $100 million contract. Yes, $100,000,000 No one is quite sure exactly how many years this contract would be, but based on the fact that he is 31, he doesn't exactly have a lot of years left in him to be a starting pitcher. Let's assume he plans to pitch until he's 37 years old, where he transfers to a relief pitcher or closer role. That would be a 6-year contract worth $16.6 million per year. I may be alone here, but who the hell would pay a known choker $16.6 million per year? Yes, a lengthier contract would cause him to earn less money per year, but who honestly believes he's going to keep pitching into his 40s?


At this point, C.J. Wilson will either find himself on a poor team with a poor contract or not any roster at all. My guess is the latter, because until the revelation about the Angels, I hadn't heard of any team having any interest whatsoever in Wilson.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - The Review

OK, to be totally honest, I haven't completed the game, but I am pretty close... at least depending on how lengthy the final dungeon is, which I keep hearing is totally awesome. It's hard to describe Skyward Sword in just a few words, so I'll do my best to explain the game in each category of scoring I use.


Gameplay


As I mentioned in my previous post, the gameplay is just awesome. The only time I've needed to recalibrate the Wii Motion Plus is when I'm away from the Wii for such a long time that the remote turns off. The game actually cleverly constantly finds opportunities for the remote to recalibrate, whether it's in combat, or making dialogue selections. All it takes to recalibrate the remote is to make a cross motion, which usually ends up happening in combat, or looking around in 1st person, or selecting items in the - or B menus.


Every item serves an important function, although the Slingshot has very few uses unless it is upgraded to the Scattershot, causing it to be ridiculously useful against wall-crawlers and groups of enemies. Unlike previous Zelda games where Link obtained literally shitloads of items that might serve a use only once, every item in Link's bag gets constantly used to the point that you might memorize the position of each item on the B menu.


Skyward Sword also happens to be the hardest Zelda game I've played since Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This is not a knock on the play control, or game design that is hard for the sake of being hard. The game is extremely challenging and features a smorgasbord of opportunities to die. Don't feel bad if you ever die, because it is going to happen.


Presentation


Although the Wii is clearly showing its age with Skyward Sword, the game mostly gets around the Wii's graphical limitations by presenting the game to look like an impressionist painting. Far away objects are made up of a few large dots, but up close objects are presented in great detail. The effect works fantastically, creating impressive draw-distance effects in every area, but most notably the Sky, where you can accurately judge distance solely on when objects appear to no longer be made of a few dots.


The soundtrack is orchestrated. What else can I say about that? Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel were both excellently scored, containing memorable song after memorable song. Although Skyward Sword doesn't contain any immediately catchy tunes, the ambiance serves a far greater purpose, making sure that every song fits the mood and area, sometimes causing the same area to have two different songs. There are also cute references to old Zelda songs here and there, but it isn't as blatantly obvious as Twilight Princess was.


The old formula of dungeon crawling has not significantly changed, but it has been tweaked for the better. Skyward Sword follows a series of threes: Three dungeons to get the three stone tablets to reveal Zelda's location, three intense trials (Silent Realm) and three dungeons to power up the Goddess Sword, and three more trials (including one final trip to the Silent Realm) to learn the location of the final dungeon. The idea of constantly revisiting previously visited areas worried some, but in actuality it's the same amount of retreading seen in previous Zelda games, discovering additional areas to regions previously visited.


Each dungeon is carefully crafted to make a unique experience, with only the first, the Skyview Temple, intentionally constructed like a "standard" Zelda dungeon to ease the player into the way dungeons are handled in Skyward Sword. Each boss fight is also memorable, even though Ghirahim and The Imprisoned are each fought three times. Some fights are reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus, although they stop short of climbing bosses to stab them in their weak points.


Story


In typical Nintendo fashion, Skyward Sword does not over-emphasize anything and presents a deep story without needless amounts of dialogue and cutscenes, a lesson that Japanese video game companies should take note of. Thankfully, Ganondorf is finally absent from the story, making way for a new villain in Ghirahim, who seeks to revive his master, Demon King, responsible for the goddess sending the humans to the sky in an ancient war. After some interesting plot twists and clever usage of old lore and names that have had no prior origin, Link discovers that the events of Skyward Sword have been destined to happen for thousands of years and that it is finally time to defeat the Demon King for good and send the humans back down to the land that will become Hyrule.


In somewhat of a side-story, Skyward Sword also serves as an origin story for the Master Sword, detailing how it came to be and why it exists in the first place. The results are a story that never needed telling in the first place, but it's pretty cool once told. Spirit guide Fi also serves constant comic relief, generally by constantly acting like a computer and never giving 100% probability on anything, even if it's painfully obvious.


Replay Value


It's a classic in the making, which I can't wait to play for a 2nd time on Hero Mode. Hero Mode is a significantly harder 2nd Quest, carrying over all treasures and upgrades, but causing hearts to be far more scarce and enemies to deal double damage. The extent of hearts being scarce is that they cannot be found in grass or off of monsters. Of course, Skyward Sword is difficult enough already, so a 2nd Quest can only be more infuriating! Yes, it's hard for the sake of being hard, but Nintendo games have had a lot of complaints over the years for being too easy.


Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10



Average Score: 10/10


Whereas I needed a lot of justification to give Uncharted 3 a perfect 10 and found minor flaws in Batman: Arkham City to give it a 9.5, giving Skyward Sword a perfect 10 was incredibly easy. The game simply has no flaws. I really don't know what more I can say than that. It is easily the greatest Zelda game ever made, a feat that some thought impossible. By simply saying it is better than Ocarina of Time, suggests that it is by proxy, the greatest game of all time. I won't be the one to make that claim, but I'm sure others will, while some others will claim that the bug-riddled and poorly-textured The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is somehow a better game simply because it literally has infinite quests and very good facial animation.

Christopher Nolan Drops a Huge Bombshell About TDKR

In the latest issue of Empire magazine, Christopher Nolan dropped a very unexpected bombshell on the plot of The Dark Knight Rises: The story takes place eight years after The Dark Knight, making Batman now 39 years old. The possibilities are now endless, including the introduction of Robin. Nolan has said before that Robin will not exist as long as he is directing Batman movies and Christian Bale said he will not act in a Batman movie featuring Robin, but Batman is now pushing 40 and Dick Grayson has to be a teenager by this point. At the very least, the possibility of Wayne taking in Grayson after his parent's deaths is a possibility.

Skyward Sword First Impressions

It's a very pretty game. Anyone who claims the game has "bad" graphics is looking for the wrong thing. The game deliberately looks the way it does and it looks better overall because of that.


I just defeated the first boss and I've gotta be honest, I didn't expect the game to be this dark. I don't mean how Twilight Princess was BROWN BROWN BROWN and having to turn the brightness on your TV up to see anything, I mean that the story is pretty grim from the start. Skyloft is the only place in the sky with people on it. Like seriously, there are no other towns with humans. You're told right when you turn the game on about the legend of the goddess and the origin of Skyloft, learning that the surface world is pretty much fucked beyond belief.


I've heard nothing but praise for Wii Motion Plus and how well Link's swordplay is now, some claiming they will never want to go back to any other method of playing a Zelda game. I also read Gamespot's review that the control scheme is terrible and makes you wish you could just press a button to use the sword. My only issues so far with Wii Motion Plus has been having to re-center the pointer occasionally since the Sensor Bar has no function with Motion Plus, but it's a very minor issue corrected by simply pressing down on the D-pad when you're pointing at the desired remote position for "center". Gamespot claims you have to constantly re-calibrate the remote, but that is an obvious, flat-out lie to give the game a lower score. I only re-calibrated the remote once, before the first boss fight, but it turns out I had absolutely no reason to.


It's pretty easy to get distracted along the main quest. You can get the wooden shield upgrade fairly early on if your're willing to kill a lot of bats for hours, but there's no reason to since you can buy the iron shield after beating the first boss. Of course, I am a completionist, so I can imagine myself eventually fully upgrading the wooden shield despite what a piece of crap it is.


Review coming once I defeat the final boss.

My Thoughts on Tim Tebow as a Professional Quarterback in the NFL

Prior to the 2010 NFL Draft, this image was pretty much all I knew about Tim Tebow. That, and he was the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy (something I will be get into in depth on another day). When #1 Florida lost to #2 Alabama in the SEC Championship, it all but assured that Florida had no chance of going to the BCS National Championship Game that year (Alabama would go on to to win the national championship). It should be noted here that the Tebow-led Florida Gators won the national championship the previous year and he was the 2nd string QB when Florida won 2 years before that. So what is Tebow crying about in this image? He's won 2 NCAA championships. He was the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. He was without a doubt going to the NFL. What the hell is he crying about?


That was my first exposure to Tim Tebow, the rushing quarterback with an awful throw.

I next saw Tebow at the 2010 NFL Draft, where ESPN's "experts," including noted dick Mel Kiper, Jr., commented that a team would have to be incredibly foolish to buy into the SEC's and NCAA's hype of Tim Tebow and that he should not be drafted in the first round; a team that drafted him in the first round would eventually regret it once they realized that Tebow could not play quarterback at the professional level and was too arrogant to switch positions to a Halfback or Tight End. Denver Broncos head coach and general manager Josh McDaniels bought into the hype, drafting Tebow with the 25th overall pick. McDaniels was rewarded for his managment and coaching by being fired that season. After the Broncos were eliminated from playoff contention, Tebow started the rest of the games that season, proving his critics right as he struggled to complete passes, but had a talent for rushing.


With new coach John Fox, it was declared open season on starting QB and the position was up for grabs between Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn, and Tim Tebow. Orton eventually won the starting job, but compiled a miserable record. During this time, Tebow was named the 2nd string QB, ahead of Quinn. When it was clear that Orton would not help the Broncos at all, Fox and GM John Elway decided to give Tebow a shot, despite him being the clear antithesis of what Elway was in a quaterback. Since then, Tebow has won a ridiculous amount of games, despite having 11 total completions in his last 2 games.


Tim Tebow is an awful passer. Currently, Tebow has 88/187 passes (47.1%) for 1,259 yards with an average distance of 6.73 yards. He's scored 12 passing touchdowns and has 4 interceptions with 2 fumbles in 16 games played. He has 547 rushing yards, averages 6 yards per rush, 8 rushing touchdowns and 3 fumbles. Now stats are one thing, but you have to see how this guy passes. His passing motion is the goofiest fucking thing I've ever seen, reminiscent of how Kurt Warner held the ball crooked before throwing, but at least Warner was accurate and could consistently throw spirals. Tebow seems incapable of throwing easy passes and defies logic by constantly overthrowing teammates; the only reason he has so few interceptions is because his missed passes are off by a light-year.


And that's everything you need to know about Tim Tebow. He's a pretty mediocre QB with a talent for rushing, similar to Michael Vick, but he was much more successful in college.


Oh, he's also extremely religious. Like obnoxiously religious, taking part in prayer circles with his teammates and the opposing team before and after games. He always thanks Jesus after winning games, something that Kurt Warner also did, much to everyone's disgust. Tebow also gets talked about seemingly non-stop on ESPN, far more than his contemporary quarterbacks, like Sam Bradford, Christian Ponder, Colt McCoy, and Cam Newton. Every analyst who covers the NFL seems to have an opinion on him, most of them not favorable.


The fact of the matter is, Tebow should not be getting this much attention for being such a mediocre quarterback. There's a quarterback who had some similar stats in passing who also had a lot of media hype when he was a new guy.

Ryan Leaf. Leaf was drafted 2nd in the 1998 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers, Peyton Manning being picked 1st by the Indianapolis Colts. He went on to play "4" years in the NFL, missing an entire year due to injury and only playing 4 games in his final year. In his incredibly short career, Leaf recorded 317/655 passes (48.4%) for 3,666 yards, averaging 5.6 yards, 14 touchdowns, 36 interceptions, and 8 fumbles.


Wait what? Ryan Leaf completed a higher percentage of passes in his horrible career than Tim Tebow has? That doesn't make sense... They're also only a yard difference in YPC, yet Tebow is close to surpassing Leaf's total passing touchdown and isn't even close to his interception total....


Tim Tebow is some sort of freak of nature, who is absolutely terrible at passing, but when he does connect, he scores touchdowns. If he's not going to throw, he's a damn good rusher. So the Ryan Leaf solution was to make him a rush first quarterback? Oh wait... Leaf was an awful rusher, averaging 2.2 yards for a total of 127 yards with 16 fumbles.


I still can't comprehend why Tebow continues to win games. The statistics say that Tebow should be the next Ryan Leaf in passing, but rushes his team to victory, college style. Maybe that's why ESPN can't stop talking about him? All I know about Tebow is that if he ever learns how to pass, he has the potential to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He's already fantastic at rushing and has a low turnover ratio, so if he were to become accurate....


Don't be shocked if Tebow leads his team to a Super Bowl win one of these days. It certainly won't be this year, but sometime in the future, Tebow will win it all.


I just hope he doesn't pull a Kurt Warner and praise Jesus for teaching him how to throw. He needs to thank John Elway.

Big Changes Coming to Major League Baseball

This is MLB commissioner Bud Selig, former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. He is a man who is constantly citing "tradition" for not doing more to include instant replay, yet loves to fuck with tradition. Under Selig, we've seen the introduction of the Wild Card playoff spot, interleague play, and the merging of the NL and AL offices into a single MLB office headed by 1 commissioner. Now to be fair, I wasn't very interested in baseball when I was younger, but those 3 actions fundamentally changed the game of baseball. Now, Selig will be introducing 2 more big changes to baseball, but this time it's because the players want it.


The first big change is that the Houston Astros will be moving from the NL Central to the AL West in 2013. The 2 leagues will now have an equal number of teams, forcing at least 1 interleague series to be going on at any time for the first time since the 1998 league expansion. The second change will be the introduction of a 2nd Wild Card playoff spot, possibly as soon as the 2012 season. It is rumored that the 2 Wild Cards in each league will face each other in a 1 game play-in, which would increase the length of the postseason by 1 day.


I'm really not sure how I feel about these changes, but it seems to be evenly split among fans. The concept of a 1-game Wild Card play-in does interest me, especially because it increases the incentives for winning the division. As far as constant interleague play goes, it makes me question why 2 leagues even still exist. The reason for the interleague play was initially to revive interest in the public following the 1994 strike, but now it's just a novelty that causes groan-fest matchups. It's not like the 2 leagues are vastly different either, the only difference between them is the Designated Hitter rule.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is Looking Pretty Good, Final Fantasy XV First Details Hinted

Final Fantasy XIII-2 hits store shelves January 31, 2012, so more information about the game is coming out quite rapidly. When the sequel was first announced, details were slow to creep out, starting with vague facts like Lightning being missing and declared dead, Serah having a companion moogle that turns into a bow and sword, a mysterious youth named Noel, and some dude with purple hair and a big ass sword. Now, we know that 13-2 will feature a story that heavily revolves around time travel, drawing intentional comparisons from Square's time-traveling epic, Chrono Trigger.


Serah, now the main character, will time travel with Noel  to fix the timeline, which has somehow been altered to make Lightning disappear shortly after the ending of the previous game, causing everyone but Serah to think Lightning either died when Cocoon fell, or is crystallized along with Vanille and Fang.


The new combat system and story progression looks to improve vastly upon traveling a straight line only to have a massive side quest late in the game by instead having a system similar to Chrono Trigger after Chrono dies, having multiple quests that need completing, but can be done in any order. This system will be more sophisticated, where completing quests in different orders will affect the story, allowing players to replay the game with a different end result.


Final Fantasy XV may be far away due to 13 and 14 coming out in the same year, but series producer Yoshinori Kitase has already unveiled at least 1 detail that we might be able to expect: the elimination of turn-based combat. Kitase says that most RPGs are now action RPGs, obviously citing the rise of Western RPGs, so it's obvious that Japanese RPGs will have to change as well, because "That's a trend, and you ignore things like that at your peril."


Kitase might also be referencing the success of Kingdom Hearts and the work-in-progress of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which are both action RPGs.

2 Starting Quarterbacks Out for the ENTIRE SEASON; A Tale of 3 Matts and the USC Connection/Conspiracy

The starting quarterbacks for the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans are officially out for the rest of the 2011 season. This news has caused a dramatic shakeup in the AFC, making the AFC West race even more wide open and the chances for the Texans to make the playoffs have now decreased to exponentially low levels with the Titans looking to capitalize.


Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel is most well-known for being the only starting quarterback in NFL history to be granted the starting quarterback job after having been exclusively a 2nd string QB in college at USC to Matt Leinart, impressing everyone after he took over for Tom Brady after his season ending injury a few years ago. With Cassel out, backup quarterback Tyler Palko is expected to start in his first NFL game next week against the New England Patriots. With the Chiefs in their new situation, the AFC West just got much more interesting, unless the Raiders continue to improve with Carson Palmer at the helm.


Texans quarterback Matt Schaub was originally drafted by the Atlanta Falcons, but traded to the Texans in exchange for various draft picks. The Texans released QB David Carr, paving the way for Schaub to be their QB of the future. In his short time with the Texans, Schaub has been a quiet success for the young franchise, improving year after year. The injury to Schaub is devastating because they have the best record in the AFC and are only 2 games ahead of the Tennessee Titans in the AFC South. Should the Texans fall out of playoff contention, it opens the door for a multitude of teams including the Jets, Bills, and any team in the AFC West to all win the #2 Wild Card.


With Schaub out, infamous aforementioned quarterback Matt Leinart will get the starting job, although it's very likely given his past that he will be benched in favor of rookie T.J. Yates from the University of North Carolina. Matt Leinart is well-known for being a big-time draft bust, being the successor at USC to Carson Palmer, currently playing for the Raiders (2 mentions of the Raiders in 1 article!), and winning the Heisman trophy in 2004, 2 years after Palmer did it. Upon entering the NFL, he was expected to be the QB of the future for the Arizona Cardinals, but eventually lost the job to veteran QB Kurt Warner after consistently throwing more interceptions than touchdowns and an average completion percentage. Leinart was eventually released by the Cardinals in favor of Derek Anderson and was not considered by his former coach at USC, Pete Carroll, for a spot for the Seattle Seahawks. This is something of a 2nd chance for Leinart, the interception machine, who may be able to prove that his past performances were just youthful mistakes.


I'm not sold on either of these replacement quarterbacks taking their teams to the playoffs, but then again, Alex Smith is one of the best quarterbacks in the league this season with the 8-1 49ers, so anything can happen. At this point, Rex Ryan has to be thanking the gods of football for Schaub's injury.

The Return of Darkseid (Kind Of)

Darkseid, the dark lord of Apokolips is back... for Justice League, which is a comic that retcons the story of how the Justice League was formed. In the comic, the heroes will unite against their first common foe, Darkseid. The unspeakable one is a fitting choice for their first villain since Superman alone cannot defeat Darkseid and gives reason for every member of the team to unite.


Darkseid features a minor redesign, but the important details are his scarred face, his goofy hood-looking thing, and the blue and black color scheme. This will be Darkseid's first appearance since his death in Final Crisis when the goddamn Batman killed him with a god-killing bullet.


Thankfully, Darkseid's death appears to remain canon, making Batman that much more of a badass, surviving his Excellent Adventure through time through the power of friendship. As much as I love the character of Darkseid, comic books revive characters too frequently and too soon, as seen in the aftermath of Blackest Night and Brightest Day which revived popular characters who were killed for the express purpose of having them star in Brightest Day.


Here's to hoping Darkseid torments the Justice League in their early days, but Batman's god-killing efforts don't get erased without a very good reason.

Fighting Sports Lay Eggs, the College Football Landscape Changes, and the NFC West Crushes East Coast Teams

I believe this image best sums up the weekend in sports. It all started with the big UFC heavyweight fight between 2 undefeated fighters, Cain Velazquez and Junior Dos Santos. Velazquez is best known for knocking out Brock Lesnar, probably the most overhyped fighter in UFC history (which is saying a lot). Dos Santos is known for being Brazilian and UFC's best boxer, which are not 2 things you usually think of being together. The match was huge because it was going to be the first in many of a 7-year deal between UFC and Fox to broadcast UFC fights for free on basic television. In a move that was originally seen as highly questionable and downright stupid, UFC and Fox decided to only broadcast the main event in television, rather than showing undercard fights.


The decision to not show undercard fights proved to be incredibly stupid since Dos Santos won by knockout after only 64 seconds. Velazquez foolishly left himself wide open to attack and Dos Santos took advantage of the opening and quickly took down his opponent. Since the fight, UFC commissioner Dana White has been acting like the little whiny bitch he usually is, making all sorts of excuses for not having undercard fights appear on the broadcast, including blaming Fox. UFC tried this trick 2 years ago with CBS, but the aftermath of that fight had ridiculous antics that reminded people too much of professional wrestling and set UFC and mixed martial arts back by several years. Fox took a huge chance on a 7 year deal, but as long as they schedule multiple fights for their events, they should be fine.


In the other fighting sport, the sweet science of boxing, Manny Pacquiao faced off against Juan Manuel Marquez for the 3rd time. Marquez has repeatedly insisted that he should have won both of their previous fights, which were a draw and split decision victory for Pacquiao, respectively. In this 3rd fight, the crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Marquez, so when Marquez ended up losing on majority decision, they loudly booed the results. The fact of the matter is that even though Marquez did land some huge punches, boxing is scored by rounds and in most people's scorecards, the fight was a draw or 1 round edge to Pacquiao, especially considering Marquez's incredibly shitty 12th round. Based on the judge's scorecards, that ended up true with 1 judge scoring in favor of Pacquiao due to the 12th round. Had Marquez actually tried to win in the 12th, he would have won the fight. Pacquiao definitely didn't look his best, so if Floyd Mayweather still dodges Pacquiao at this point, he will forever be known as the most hated undefeated boxer ever and contributor to the death of boxing.


Oh man, college football. In college football, the mantra is that you're only as good as your last game. Records don't mean much if you're beating nothing but bad teams or losing to top-tier teams. But come on Stanford and Boise State. With Alabama losing to LSU, you've got to win every game to even be considered for the national championship! For once, the new BCS standings make sense, with Stanford and Boise State taking big drops and their victors making huge climbs. Stanford and Boise State losing made the potential national championship game between LSU and Oklahoma State that much more expected and retarded. LSU can't score touchdowns against even decent defenses, but Oklahoma State allows lots of points. It's a college version of Raiders vs Buccaneers, but because it's college, the game could really go either way.


If you bet $400 that the entire NFC West were going to win their games today, you could have won $8,000. It wasn't a smart bet considering that the Seahawks were facing the Ravens, the Cardinals were without Kevin Kolb against the Eagles at Philadelphia, and the 49ers were only 3.5 point favorites against the Giants. Yes, you heard right. The Seahawks beat the Ravens, the "best" team in the AFC, the Cardinals beat the Eagles in Philadelphia, the Rams beat the Browns by 1 point, and the 49ers beat the Giants by a touchdown.


Playoff races got a hell of a lot more interesting, seeing the Lions have a pitiful performance against the Bears, the Jets blow it against the Patriots, and the AFC West being a stupidly close race. As it stands right now, here are the playoff standings:


AFC

1. Houston Texans
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. New England Patriots
4. Oakland Raiders
5. Baltimore Ravens
6. Cincinnati Bengals

NFC

1. Green Bay Packers
2. San Francisco 49ers
3. New Orleans Saints
4. New York Giants
5. Detroit Lions
6. Chicago Bears

Do any of those 6 teams in the AFC look at all impressive? The Texans have had a really easy schedule with only 2 of their 7 wins coming against teams with winning records, 2 of said easy victories against the Dolphins and Colts. The Steelers have been swept in the season series by the Ravens and lost to the aforementioned Texans. The Patriots have had a pretty tough schedule, but back-to-back losses against the Steelers and Giants with a rebound against the Jets aren't impressing anyone. The Raiders are in the incredibad AFC West which is still wide open thanks to the Broncos embarrassing the Chiefs. The Ravens may have swept the season series against the Steelers, but they lost to the Jaguars and Seahawks and nearly lost to the Cardinals. The team is clearly as bipolar as the Cowboys, but no one in the media is willing to admit it. The Bengals are an incredibly young team facing disaster with multiple injuries. At this point, no one in the AFC is safe and highly unlikely to win the Super Bowl.

In the NFC, the Packers are unquestionably the best team in the league, but week by week more flaws are exposed, particularly with the Packers' defense. Tomorrow, the Packers face the Vikings. Last time, the Vikings nearly pulled off the upset victory and if their offensive coordinator is any good, they could pull off the upset this time. The 49ers are an overtime loss to the Cowboys away from being undefeated and find new ways to improve week to week, but their secondary isn't improving. The Saints are a good team, but that loss to the Rams just one week after blasting the Colts is very telling about the team's arrogance. The Giants are a great team in a tough division with an even tougher schedule, so it remains to be seen if they will even qualify for the playoffs. The Lions are... a fraud. They went the first quarter of the season undefeated until they were halted by the 49ers and lost the next week to the Falcons. Coming off their bye week, they played like shit and acted like shit against the Bears, acting like brats when they were losing big against a divisional rival. The Bears have looked better and better each week, quietly being one of the better defenses in the league and have a very peculiar stretch ahead of them as they run the AFC West gauntlet the next 4 weeks.

Basically, at this point I have no idea who will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl because they're all so mediocre. In the NFC, my favorites to go to the Super Bowl are the Packers, 49ers, and Bears, all winning if they make it.

Young Justice - Bruce Timm and Paul Dini Aren't In Charge and That's OK

Yeah, I have to apologize for not reviewing this show sooner. Young Justice does not take place in the Bruce Timm DCAU, nor is it related at all to Teen Titans, despite having a nearly identical setup. Young Justice is also not based on the comic of the same name, which was about a team that succeeded the Teen Titans in the Tim Drake era, before eventually reforming the Teen Titans. It's more of a fusion of the two, also liberally pulling characters and tweaking their ages for the sake of "what if?" For example, the Robin portrayed in Young Justice is Dick Grayson, not Tim Drake. By the time Superboy arrived in the DC Universe, Dick Grayson was already into his 2nd costume as Nightwing. Miss Martian is another recent addition to the DC Universe, added after the "One Year Later" story which saw Tim Drake approaching adulthood.


ANYWAY, Young Justice does not take place in the DCAU, nor does it utilize any of the same voice actors in the same roles as shown in those shows, with the exception of Jerry O'Connell as Captain Marvel. Some voice actors who previously did work in the DCAU return in different roles, but the only one with a major role is Khary Payton who voice Cyborg in Teen Titans, which is not part of the DCAU. One notable voice actor who reprises a role is Bruce Greenwood playing Batman again after Batman: Under the Red Hood. The voice actors for each role are perfectly cast, with my favorite being Nolan "Nathan Drake" North as Superman & Superboy. North does an excellent job adjusting his voice to portray a younger, more angst-ridden Superman, while also voicing an experienced Superman.


Some complaints have been made about Young Justice not being in the DCAU or adhering to the comics strictly. You know, I don't remember the DCAU following the comics strictly. Didn't they give Tim Drake Jason Todd's origin? Didn't they completely ignore the continuity snarl of Hawkman and Hawkgirl? Didn't they completely erase the idea of Hal Jordan? Yeah, that's what I thought.


The show also has important feature that not enough western cartoons have: the passage of time. Each episode clearly lists a date that events take place, establishing that time is passing and these heroes will grow up. I don't have hopes for Nightwing making an appearance because its stated that Grayson is 13 at the start of the show. Although Grayson and Todd are the same age and they were Nightwing and Robin concurrently, I don't seem to remember Nightwing still being in high school, unless my memory is shoddy.


The show kicks ass so far, having only minor hiccups along the way like Robin's insufferable habit of using words that make no sense without a prefix and Miss Martian's catch phrase of "Hello Megan!" Despite those wacky problems, the show is still well-written, but not along the lines of Batman: The Animated Series. I would compare the level of writing to Justice League Unlimited, which was more like a TV adaptation of the comic The Brave and the Bold.


Check out Young Justice Friday nights on Cartoon Network at 6:30 PM, HD where available.

The Florida Marlins are Dead. Long Live the Miami Marlins!

It's been known for a few weeks now that starting in the 2012 season, the Florida Marlins would be changing their name to the Miami Marlins. Initially, the reason the Marlins claimed the state as their location was because they were the first professional baseball team in Florida and tried to get state-wide appeal in a state that does not traditionally care about sports other than football, despite having a very large Cuban community.


The Florida Marlins have actually been a pretty successful team in their short history, winning 2 World Series titles, which is far more than the 0 titles won by the Padres, Rangers, Astros, Brewers, Mariners, and Nationals, who are all at least 20 years older. The Marlins have also accomplished an incredibly rare feat: they have only qualified for the playoffs twice. In case you can't put 2 and 2 together, that means that so far, the Marlins have never lost a playoff series.


The reason the Marlins are rebranding themselves is because of their stadium which is a far more modern facility. Their colors do make sense, blue for the ocean, yellow for the beaches, and orange for the sunset, but goddamn those colors together are ugly as sin and remind me of such eyesores like the Denver Broncos' orange jerseys and the Houston Astros orange and yellow striped jerseys from the 80s. Thankfully, we won't be subjected to ugly ass jerseys very much.

This is their full slot of jerseys. The Home and Away jerseys are actually really great and are similar to the Giants' jerseys. Their Alt 1 jersey is just plain blinding and reminds me again of how awful the Giants' alternate orange jerseys are. The Alt 2 and BP jerseys are also surprisingly good looking, so their color scheme isn't totally stupid looking on a jersey. Their caps, however, are a different story.

This is where their new logo really shows off as being horrible looking. For reference, this is what the old cap looked like:

The logo was nice and the coloring was great on a black cap. The new logo just doesn't work with a black cap and especially with that ugly all-orange cap. The new caps do preserve the old look of the Florida Marlins cap with the marlin facing right next to the letter, but honestly this was an opportunity for the Marlins' cap to just be an M in the team colors.


Well whatever, the Marlins have only become a more colorful team to be annihilated by the Giants next year.

Batman #713 - The Final Batman Comic Before The New 52 Reboot

In many ways, Batman #713 is very similar to Batman #703, written only 10 months prior. It's a one-shot story and it's written by the same guest writer, Fabian Nicieza. Before the New 52, Nicieza was the long-time writer of Robin and then later the writer of Red Robin's latter half. Obviously, that makes him highly qualified to write Tim Drake's character, having written the character for an extended period... except Tim Drake appears in a single page in the issue with no dialogue.


So why Nicieza? And what is the "final" Batman story about? An unseen narrator begins telling the story of Bruce Wayne, but rather quickly steers into a completely different story, that of Dick Grayson and how he became Nightwing and later, Batman. There's actually an overarching story being told alongside DIck Grayson's story, very similar to the Batman: The Animated Series episode, "Old Wounds", with a very similar conclusion; I'm pretty sure Nicieza owes Paul Dini some sort of royalties now.


A major part of the latter half of the story is depicting how Damian has grown up and continues to learn since first appearing in the "Batman and Son" story. Grant Morrison took very special care with Damian Wayne in order to make sure he was not rejected by fans the way Jason Todd was. Although Damian still has a mixed reception, no one has outright negative views on him, and Nicieza clearly did his research on Damian before writing an entire book narrated by him, something Peter Tomasi did not for his previous and current runs on Batman and Robin.


The comic is short and not nearly as long as the finale to "The Skeleton Key" in Detective Comics, but it's still a fitting (abrupt) end to the pre-New 52 universe. The main reason Nicieza wrote on the "final" Batman is because Tony Daniel was re-assigned to be the writer for Detective Comics and probably spent all his time brainstorming the big giant shock of the last page of issue #1.


I really wish a final story starring Bruce Wayne had been the subject instead, especially since his planned ongoing solo title, Batman: The Dark Knight, was delayed to hell and beyond to the point of inducing groans in the idea of keeping David Finch for the New 52 relaunch, while Batman Incorporated unceremoniously had its final 2 issues cut for later use in an oversized one-shot comic that will bridge the events of Batman, Inc.and Leviathan Strikes, despite the old universe no longer being canon.


Batman #713 is relatively easy to find since few people paid any attention to the final comics before the relaunch, even now, 3 months later.

Musings on the Penn State Scandal

The biggest non-political news this week is the Pennsylvania State University scandal. Allegedly, former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had been molesting boys in the school showers for the past 15 years... or possibly more... and was caught by then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary. McQueary then reported what he saw to athletic director Tim Curley, but the story ended there; neither McQueary nor Curley reported what they knew to the police.

This isn't just a scandal, it's a conspiracy. The amount of people who had information on what Sandusky was doing and how many victims are involved has a map.

Click for full size.

As you can see from the map, the knowledge of what Sandusky was doing went all the way to the top, up to PSU president Graham Spanier. The scandal became public when Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly indicted Sandusky on 40 counts of sex crimes against young boys after a 3-year investigation into allegations were brought to attention in 2009. Since the scandal broke, Sandusky has been banned from PSU's campus and has had most of his history whitewashed from the university. Graham Spanier has resigned as president of the university, several football officials have either been fired or resigned, and head coach Joe Paterno was fired after having been employed at Penn State since 1950. After Paterno's firing, a riot led by 10,000 students broke out on campus which involved riot police using tear gas and the flipping of a news van.

The whole situation is disgusting. When it comes to child molesters, Sandusky wasn't just some guy who was touching boys inappropriately, he was forcing them to perform fellatio on him and he had anal sex with them. Fellatio and anal sex with 10-year-old boys. These kids are going to be scarred for life and will more than likely never recover from the pain of abuse unless they are blessed with amnesia.

There's been a lot of criticism of the call for Joe Paterno's resignation/firing, but the fact of the matter is that there is no way Paterno could not have known what was going on for 15+ years, especially if McQueary told him what he saw. Paterno isn't guilty of anything legally, but he failed to report what he knew. For that reason, Penn State had good reason to end all ties with Paterno effectively immediately.

The students have been disgusting, too. Although a majority of the students called for Spanier's firing, the student riot protesting Paterno's firing was boorish, hooliganistic, and classless. High school students across the country have seen the riots and the scandal and you can bet that Penn State's enrollment will crash.

The last step besides the criminal court proceedings are for the NCAA to ban Penn State from appearing in the Big 10 championship or BCS standings for the next 10 seasons, the amount of time the abuse went untold to the police. The behavior by everyone at Penn State, from students to teachers to administrators, shows that Penn State values football and the deification of Joe Paterno over basic human decency. For that reason, there is no reason that Penn State should participate in football championships for quite some time until the culture changes.

This is the last I'll say on the matter because the rest is up to the courts...

The New 52: The Best and Worst of the Relaunch

It's now Month 3 of the DC New 52 relaunch and it's pretty clear at this point which are the best and worst titles and will remain as such until the creators of various characters decide to take over. So far, every member of the Justice League is being treated very well, with the exception of Detective Comics, which is being written dark just for the sake of being dark. Tony Daniel had 2 great runs on Batman, but it seems that he has no idea how to write Bruce Wayne anymore, feeling compelled with his new creative freedom to write garbage. Despite that, Batman still has 3 other great titles, Batman, Batman and Robin, and Batman: The Dark Knight.


Superman is being treated very well, especially in the pages of Action Comics where Grant Morrison is giving Superman a brand-new origin story along the line of the Golden Age, but with modern twists and keeping with his portrayal of Clark Kent and Superman looking like 2 different people. Morrison is clearly no fan of Clark Kent being a wallflower or even someone who intentionally tries to be quiet; he has written Clark Kent to be an activist, wanting to expose the corruption in Metropolis and become a successful journalist while edging out the competition from his rival from a different newspaper, Lois Lane. The relationship between Clark and Lois has changed for the better. I've never understood why in the hell Clark was ever attracted in Lois, so maybe now he can find someone who isn't loud for the sake of being loud, unless Lois Lane decides to quit acting like a 5 year old. Action Comics is also easier to write for Morrison because of the new origin story, being able to write a very under-powered Superman.


On the other hand, Adam Glass is ruining everything about Task Force X, the Suicide Squad. Glass claims to have grown up as a fan of the Suicide Squad, but it's pretty obvious he was only interested in stories about villains rather than the purpose of the book Suicide Squad. The purpose of the Suicide Squad (and it's spin-off, Secret Six) was to show the bad guys acting like actual people with personalities and emotions that drove them to lives of crime. The fans' favorite part of the recent Suicide Squad was seeing Deathstroke drink coffee and playing Scrabble with people on the task force, but apparently Glass hates that. Now, the Suicide Squad is all about KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE THATS WHAT BAD GUYS DOOOO!!!!!! FUN!? BAD GUYS ARENT ALLOWED TO HAVE FUN, THEY KILL PEOPLE AND TRY TO KILL EACH OTHER!!!!!!!!111!!! Worst of all however, is how Glass has destroyed Harley Quinn's character and background. In Batman: Arkham City, Harley Quinn gets yet another new outfit, but her personality remains the same as its ever been. Suicide Squad turns Harley into... an idiot. Sure, Harey was a ditz beforehand and only became a psychologist by sleeping her way to a degree, but she wasn't an idiot. Even worse, Harley isn't some psycho who dresses up crazy anymore, now she has a "skin condition". Are we supposed to believe she ended up getting the exact same accident the Joker went through?


These two comics pretty much accurately describe the New 52. There is no middle ground in this New 52, there is only excellent or atrocious. At first glance, Red Hood and the Outlaws was looking to be the worst comic of the relaunch, but with one more comic on the slate, it's really obvious that Suicide Squad is worse (but only sightly).


Another surprise standout of the New 52 is Aquaman, which is receiving a pleasurable treatment from Geoff Johns painting Aquaman as more Arthur Curry than Orin, following the events of Brightest Day. In the pages of Aquaman, the king of Atlantis decides to renounce his throne and live on the surface in an apartment with his wife, Mera. Mera seems like a mindless slave in the first issue, but the 2nd issue shows that Mera is really just fascinated by the surface world and everything that Aquaman (or is it Arthur now?) experienced as a child when his father (real father or step-father now?) took him around the world so that he would see everything the world would have to offer. If it weren't for Grant Morrison's undying love for Superman, I'd say Geoff Johns' treatment of Aquaman is the best of the New 52.


Justice League on first glance seems like it would also be great, but it's one of the few just plain average books. Jim Lee is a fantastic artist, but his art can't save Geoff Johns' incredibly slow story-telling in a story that will initially tell the new story of how the Justice League formed. Issues 1 and 2 have been filled with a lot of "So what can you do Batman?" to the point of groaning. Batman is apparently back to being an urban legend before Batman, Incorporated, so it results in Hal Jordan incredulous that Batman exists. I thought Johns was a huge GL fan? Why couldn't Hal just ask the Guardians if Batman was real and if he had any super powers? The writing is uncharacteristically inconsistent, but the art is always great with no hiccups. Maybe issue #3 will turn the tide around, because so far DC's new flagship title is just boring.

Recapping the Weekend in Sports (Because the NBA Lockout Has Finally Struck Games)

Obviously, I have to start this post about the weekend in sports by discussing the (1) LSU vs (2) Alabama game on Saturday which was hyped to unbelievable proportions as being the "Game of the Century." Well, the so-called game of the century ended up with a final score of 9-6, decided by a game-winning field goal in overtime. As far as LSU was, they were as good as they could have been against Alabama's impressive defense, scoring only because of their impressive kicker. On the other hand, Alabama's kickers cost them the game, only getting 2 field goals out of 6 attempts, their longest tries from the 46 and 34 yard lines. You can bet that the 2 kickers from Alabama, especially Cade Foster, cost any slim chance of them making it to the NFL with such a piss-poor performance. Yet somehow, the new BCS rankings revealed that Alabama only fell to #3 behind Oklahoma State, staying ahead of Stanford. You know, last time I checked, scoring no touchdowns and whiffing 4 field goals is incredibly bad and much worse than two teams that have perfect records in Stanford and Boise State. Once again, the BCS shows their bias by keeping an undeserving SEC team alive.

In the NFL, there were 2 big games that were overhyped to monstrous proportions: the New York Giants facing the New England Patriots for the first time since 18-1 and the 2nd meeting of the season between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. In the Revenge Bowl game, we were granted the pleasure of watching a game that was 0-0 at halftime, the first time the Patriots have been held scoreless at halftime since the early 90s. The 2nd half was a much different game, led by Tom Brady leading quite the impressive drive in less than 3 minutes to secure a 3-point lead with less than 2 minutes left. Eli Manning has been talking this whole season about how he is one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL and should be considered every bit as good as his brother or Tom Brady. Most in the land of ESPN scoffed at this comment since Tom Brady is their God, but Eli Manning led an even more impressive game-winning drive to win by 4 points with 15 seconds left. Tom Brady threw 2 interceptions; Brady is quite possibly having his worst season as of yet. The Giants victory snaps a 35-game winning streak by the Patriots at home and delays Tom Brady and Bill Belichick from passing Don Shula and Dan Marino by 1 more game. The rate the Patriots are playing though, they may have to wait a while longer since they have the Jets at New York next week.

The game of the night was between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers in their first meeting since Week 1. Going into the game, you'd be hard-pressed to find a neutral sports journalist who could easily name the best team in the AFC. I'll get into more on that later. In Week 1, the Ravens demolished the Steelers and many were wondering what was wrong with the Steelers. As they won more games and beat the Patriots however, many fools believed the Steelers had righted their ship while the Ravens had an idiotic loss against the Jaguars and nearly imploded against the Cardinals, two of the worst teams in the league. At the end of the day however, the Steelers played the role of the Patriots and the Ravens played the role of the Giants, with both games ending in eerily similar fashion.


The top 3 AFC teams, the Patriots, Ravens, and Steelers, are all terrible teams. Yes, they are the best in the AFC, but compared to the Packers, 49ers, Giants, and Lions, these AFC teams are a joke. The Patriots have the 32nd rated defense in the league, a weak offensive line, and only one reliable wide receiver, even though they have on of the top 10 quarterbacks of all time. The Ravens have the 2nd best defense in the NFL, but their offense is just plain terrible. Joe Flacco is an average quarterback who regularly makes boneheaded decisions and can't seem to understand when it's better to rush or pass. The Steelers have the #1 rated defense in the league (for now) and a strong offense, but once they get to the red zone, they choke. When the Steelers run into a team that doesn't allow rushing touchdowns, like say the 49ers, they won't be getting easy points.


How bad is the AFC this year? The team with the best record in the AFC for the next week.... are the Cincinnati Bengals with a 6-2 record. The Houston Texans are in 2nd place with a 6-3 record. The Ravens and Steelers are the 2 wild card teams, with the Patriots at #3 and the Chiefs at the default position of #4 leading the incredibly bad AFC West with a 4-4 record. The Bengals, a team led by 2 rookies, are the best team in the AFC. Wrap your head around that. The Jets are in 7th place, with their only hope of a playoff berth coming with games against the Bills and Patriots, while also hoping the Dolphins don't start becoming serious now that they've beat the Chiefs. The Bills have been exposed now as been pretenders, losing games one after another after initially being one of the 3 undefeated teams alongside the Lions and Packers.


Compare that to the vastly superior NFC with the Packers in 1st place with a perfect 8-0 record, the 49ers in 2nd place with a 7-1 record, the Giants in 3rd place at 6-2, the Saints in 4th at 6-3, with the wild card spots belonging to the Lions and Falcons at 6-2 and 5-3, respectively.


It's pretty obvious at this point, but the NFC is all but assured the Super Bowl this year.


Oh, Thursday Night Football has its first game this week between the Raiders and Chargers in what should prove to be an incredible lulz-fest. The Chiefs tied the division last week, but with the Chiefs, Chargers, and Raiders all losing today, Thursday will prove to be crucial to winning the AFC West, especially since Denver is fucking everything up with their big win against the rebuilding Raiders. This AFC West non-drama-drama is like last year's NFC West drama all over again!

Superman Gets Yet ANOTHER Origin Story - Action Comics #1-3 Partial Review

The New 52. Just thinking about this decision confuses me. It's not as retarded as things like "One More Day," "One Moment in Time," and "Brand New Day," but it does make you wonder what DC was going to do if the New 52 concept had not come about.


Superman was finally done being all mopey and realized that the world does need Superman and that he represents above all else: truth, justice, and the American way. Batman was busy creating an army of Batmen all over the world, while leaving Gotham in the care of Dick Grayson as the 2nd Batman and his son, Damian, as the fifth Robin. Wonder Woman was finally getting out of an awful storyline where her history was retconned to the point of stupidity. I mean seriously, what kind of story do you write next? Superman had pretty much every story exhausted. Batman was going on this ridiculous crusade because he temporarily had access to complete omniscience. Wonder Woman was... written incredibly badly...


The only solution from DC Comics was to reboot the entire universe, in some cases as drastically as possible. Speedy, Aqualad, Wally West, Ted Kord, they're all gone. Superman has been given a new origin story, Bruce Wayne now works with his son, Damian Wayne, together as Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman returns to her Amazonian roots, being the fierce warrior most writers were too chicken to write about.


Today I'm going to cover the 1st 3 issues of the new Action Comics, which for the next few months, will detail how it is that Superman started his career and eventually gained the costume he wears in the present (the redesigned battle armor).


Action Comics #1 begins what may be weeks or possibly months into Superman's career. What nobody expected is that Grant Morrison decided to get really old school and pull story ideas from the Golden Age. Superman cannot fly yet, leaping tall buildings in a single bound instead. He is just barely faster than a speeding bullet. And lastly, Superman is only slightly more powerful than a locomotive. Superman's powers are still developing, and apparently, he's much stronger and faster than he was when he first revealed himself to the world. General Sam Lane wants Superman captured and he hired Lex Luthor (whose origins are totally unknown at this point), to help with his weaponry and brilliant mind. Meanwhile, Clark Kent works for The Daily Star, The Daily Planet's rival newspaper company where Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen work.


Grant Morrison has done it again, writing a future classic in the making. There is no one else I would trust with a Superman story (origin or not) and Morrison is delivering so far. I'm hoping Morrison stays on post-origin, because I would love to see what DC plans for George Pérez's Superman, Grant Morrison's Action Comics, and Geoff Johns' Justice League.


So far, so good. Full review once the origin story has been completed. Look forward to the full review in a month or two.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

11/1/11 has come and the middle of this epic gaming season has been marked by the release of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. What seems like ages ago, Naughty Dog began work on their magnum opus, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, a game that would combine realistic physics with an engrossing story and fuse them together to make the most movie-like experience ever seen in a video game. Needless to say, it was a success, and now Uncharted 3 is getting all sorts of accolades, including claims that it is the greatest game since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Grand Theft Auto III.


I'm here to say that all those accolades are very well merited. Everything about this game is in a word: perfect. The facial-graphics are nothing mind-blowing, but they are an improvement over even the previous iteration. What is impressive graphically, is that the programmers managed to program an entire ocean and desert that will never be experienced twice when played on multiple playthroughs or even multiple continues. Drake walks differently in every single location, depending on where in the story you are, how Drake is feeling, and whether he is alone or with companions. To say that the animations are ground-breaking is the tip of the iceberg. The game looks even better in 3D, something I could not say with confidence about Gran Turismo 5 and Batman: Arkham City.


Everything wrong with melee combat has been fixed in this 2nd sequel. Drake can now counter melee attacks (though not as freely as Batman), he can throw enemies, and he can set off enemies' grenades. The entire opening chapter serves as a way to teach how melee combat has changed to fantastic new levels and its actually quite common to get into a fistfight with heavily armored foes in the middle of a firefight. Gun controls are as great as ever and there's even more guns to use now. The thing that made me say "wow" most though, was how frequently Drake uses the entirely collapsible environment to attack enemies, whether is with glass bottles, curtain rods, or even fish.


This is a game that cannot simply be played through twice. While Uncharted was infamous for its incredibly slow third act (after finding Sully alive and before finding Francis Drake's skeleton) and Uncharted 2 was notably slow in the final act, only redeemed by the incredibly visuals of Shambala. Uncharted 3 has no such problems, having chapter after chapter that absolutely must be played through twice. Besides that, the multiplayer component has been improved to levels that could only have been dreamed of in Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3's multiplayer mimics what a real level could look like, pitting Drake and friends against the bad guys.


The story... Wow. Naughty Dog has somehow outdone itself even after featuring El Dorado's true form, and finding the lost city of Shambala. There is much more at stake this time, but the biggest shock of the entire game comes right at Chapter 2, which details how it is that Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan met 20 years before the events of Uncharted 3. I can't spoil anymore than that, but basically, when Francis Drake finds something and gives multiple warnings not to seek something, you should probably not seek it.


Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10


Average Score: 10/10


Perfect. Masterpiece. Flawless. Unrivaled. Game of the Year. Game of the Decade. It's going to be incredibly difficult to top Uncharted 3 by any game or even some movies. As much as I'm looking forward to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, I'm not confident that it will as good as Uncharted 3 was. As far as when or if Uncharted 4 will come? I have no idea, but if they can somehow top even this, I'd like Naughty Dog to wait it out for the next console generation.