Game of the Week: Virtua Tennis 2009 - Just in Time for the Culmination of Clay Court Season

If you’re anything like me, you’re passionate about tennis.

If you’re not that much like me, but you are a gamer, then there’s a good chance you love a good tennis video game, even if you have no interest in the real sport. And if your tennis affiliation lies in the virtual world, then you should hit your local game retailer this week – Virtua Tennis 2009 releases June 2nd!

Now, don’t you worry – I’m not going to start talking about the French Open that is going on at Roland Garros right now. I won’t mention that Andy Roddick isn’t fooling anyone by getting in to the 3rd round, or that it doesn’t matter as Rafa Nadal is unbeatable in France (and don’t talk to me about Federer beating him in the last tourney, Nadal owns him and you know it). I won’t talk about the women’s game, or about how I want Serena Williams to show the rest of the ladies in the world who is boss.

Instead, let’s talk about gameplay and how Virtua Tennis always delivers great gameplay like a slicing second serve by Nadal himself – easy to get a bead on, but with so much English on it that it takes a long time to master. The controls in the Virtua Tennis games are simple enough to pick up and play by just about anyone almost immediately. You can pop the disc into the tray of your console of choice (the game releases across all major platforms), and can start playing and having fun within minutes. At the same time, though, there are nuances and skills to be learned, and mastery of the game is a rewarding experience. And skills will be learned – there are 12 mini games to play, in the ridiculous style of past iterations of the franchise. All the fun (and they are FUN) to be had with them will build you skill for the career mode, where online rankings can have you compete with players around the world.

I love this franchise for its fun, arcade take on a great sport – anyone planning on getting it to challenge me on Xbox Live?

- Goodchild

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Tabloid Sports VS. Tabloid News

Living in New York City, there is always something interesting going on. There are 5 entirely different boroughs here, and you don’t necessarily have to be in Manhattan to be near the weirdness. Picking up any of the local papers, you have a great chance of seeing a story about the Boulevard of Death in Queens, or about ninja burglars in Staten Island. There are errant arrows piercing people in the Bronx, and cross-dressers impersonating Mets pitchers at night clubs in Manhattan. Brooklyn, of course, is not immune to this – click here and read all about our self mutilating sex offenders!

The problem with the aforementioned local papers here is that most of them are sensationalizing tabloids. Sure, there’s The New York Times, but there is one thing I find the Times isn’t tops for – sports reporting. While I never look at Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid rag for fear that even acknowledging its existence will rot my brain, the New York Daily News isn’t all that bad for a rag – the news may be a bit lacking sometimes, but their entertainment coverage (especially movie reviews) and their sports reporting is excellent. And so, I found myself at their site earlier looking to read about the Yankees (new) home opener earlier today. I tooled around a bit, reading some other articles when I came across this. And it made me a lot upset, and a little angry.

The story seems to be that a 9 year old boy, who received special education, was left alone by his mother. He got the idea in his head to try and jump off the roof with a makeshift parachute tied around his waist. He went up to the roof, which should have been locked and should have had an alarm, but found the door unlocked and unarmed. He jumped from the roof of the building and died shortly thereafter at the hospital. It is upsetting that the child’s mother left him unsupervised. It is unfortunate that the building’s roof was left open. It is terrible that a young life was extinguished because of what seems to be negligence on so many levels.

But aside from that, is the sensationalized portion of the story, and that angered me further. The reporters for the News spoke to the child’s best friend, who admitted to not knowing what his friend had been doing, or that his friend had died. Then he tells the reporters that he may have been imitating a wrestler from a wrestling video game. Now, this friend is an 11 year old who had already said he knew no facts. So, the reporters decide to run a story that mentions the facts (mother being absent, roof too easily accessible), but instead focuses on the wild theories of an 11 year old who was not at the scene and is purely speculating. The article mentions games as a tie in to the death of a 9 year old in the headline (what caught my eye), then proceeds to get the point of the event wrong and instead talks about the child’s love for a wrestling game (of which, the reporters get many “facts” wrong – the title of the game, the name of the wrestler – and his move – that might have been being emulated). The reporters even called the wrestling organization (WWE) for a quote.

I’ve been saying this for so long now; I don’t even know why I continue to do so. Video games do not ruin children – bad parenting does. If a parent leaves a special education student alone, that is bad parenting. If a child plays a video game and thinks it has anything to do with reality (or if the child thinks wrestling has anything to do with reality), then the parent is not teaching the child to separate fantasy from real life, and that is bad parenting. Blaming the multimedia (be it games, television, movies, etc) that the parent uses to raise their children by proxy is a cheap, lazy and pathetic excuse. These are the people social services should be taking children away from.

Did you see that I’ve been writing reporters throughout this? It took two people to write this article up, and neither of them thought it might be a good idea to talk about the facts. Neither thought the story about a negligent mother would fly. Neither thought to focus the story on the door to the building’s roof being left unlocked or its alarm being disabled – how about using this incident to create an expose on slacking landlords who don’t keep their buildings up to code, and the dangers they might present to children? Instead, it took two people to sensationalize the speculation of a non-witness 11 year old into an article about video games convincing children to act violently and unpredictably.

In my opinion, these “reporters” should be ashamed of themselves for using a child’s death as an excuse to concoct shocking, scandalous crap. And the Daily News should be ashamed for running this, when there were NO facts supporting it. From now on, I think the only tabloid I will read will be the best paper in the country – The Onion.

- Goodchild

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Special Post: Japan Wins World Baseball Classic 2009

We don't usually post about sports, but it was a pretty historic moment and I have to show some love to my Japanese heritage. Baseball is America's greatest past time, and along with the U.S, the South American teams have traditionally dominated the sport. The World Baseball Classic is the World Cup of baseball featuring a slew of major leaguers and each country's best players. It takes place every 3 years and in 2006, in it's very first year of existence, Japan defeated Cuba to become the World Champions. Now in 2009, Japan are the champs once again as they defeated the U.S. in the semi-finals and defeated Korea in the finals last night.

So congrats to team Japan, but I definitely consider myself an American.... and America, you need to get back to the basics, stop crying about potential injuries that may affect the regular season, and step up your game! Now here is a longer blurb by Goodchild which I believe he wrote during the 9th inning.

- Sonic

Iw. Akuma.

That’s not to say I think Akuma is gross or anything. Actually, he’s always been my fav Street Fighter character. If I ever get around to getting and playing SFIV, I’ll go online and kick your ass with him.

Promise.

No, this is more about Iwakuma, pitcher for the Japanese World Baseball Classic team.

First off, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on what might one day be a much bigger deal here – an international tournament for baseball that truly gives any real team a chance at becoming the best in the world. Secondly, I just wanted to say that I’m an American. Brooklyn born, I live in Brooklyn now, and I see no home but New York City for me in the future. I’m never going to move to Europe, or Australia. I’d like to visit them, but who knows if I’ll ever get the chance. I love my country and as hokey as it might be, I root for team USA in whatever the competition is.

Except soccer. I only look that dumb.

Back to the classic and Iwakuma. So, this Iwakuma guy is insane, he kept Korea to 1 run in 7 2/3 of baseball, didn’t even allow a hit in the first few innings. And the Korean pitching wasn’t shabby, either. Japan had 1st and 3rd, no one out – Korea got out of it without giving up a run. Japan had the same situation again – Korea gets out with only 1 run given up. Tight pitching, excellent defense and sound fundamentals, and something else you don’t see in the MLB – a reliance on constructing runs by stringing together hits and aggressive running – or, not just sitting back and waiting for the home run. This is exceptional baseball, something only National League fans get to see here in the USA, and even then not all too often. This is the 5th time in the WBC that these two teams have met, they split the previous meetings, and this one just went into extra innings.

This may not mean anything for the MLB season, of which I am waiting for with baited breath (GO BLUE!!), but I feel that this is one of the best and most exciting games I’ve ever watched. I seriously think I could watch these two teams play all season long and love ever game.

But, Sonic forgive me, I think I’m pulling for Korea. I was certainly pulling for Japan in ’06, but with Japan shaming team USA in the semifinals (hey, at least we got there this time); I kinda want Korea to win just to stick it to them. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I think the WBC is really coming around – I really feel that by the next time it comes around, it’s popularity will have grown exponentially – around the world, and even in this country. This really is great for the sport, and it has me super excited for the MLB season.

Whoever wins this game, congratulations to both teams for their excellent showings, and for entertaining the hell out of baseball fans all over the world.

And, no matter who we might be rooting for, I think we can all agree that we all win on a night when Steve Phillips says so little. Now, if only we could get Joe Morgan to shut up …

+ Ichiro delivers as Japan Wins WBC Title [NBC]

- Goodchild

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