When Im not here, I run a website. www.CitizenGame.co.uk
News, Reviews, Forums, Video & Podcast - It's pretty good.

• 5Nov 09

  Whats Danny Doing #1

  Hello and welcome to my new blog thing where I post links to stuff I've been doing. Cool eh? Well probably not, but I hate people thinking I'm being lazy. Over the past few weeks I've been populating Gamespot and my own site with videos, reviews and undefinables, so here are a choice selection of content I've produced this month across the internets!

  Canabalt Review: (Gamespot User Review)
  Cheap & Cheerfull iPhone Game

  EDGE Review: (Cant Find it on Gamespots Database)
  Great Little iPhone game.

  GTA4: Ballad of Gay Tony Playtests (Video)
  - Multiplayer Playtest
  - Singleplayer Playtest

  Operation Flashpoint Playtest (Video)
  - Part #1
  - Part #2

  Newspaper Advertisment (The Times)
  My first mass-media graphic design is going in the Times on November 14th.

  Trailer Watch (only the best and worse make it)
  - Jailbait Hero

  Citizen Soapbox (our weekly user discussion groups)
  - Mobile-Phone Games
  - Spooky Games

  Citizen Gamecast (Eurogamer Episode)
  With brand new music, and in keeping with CG on-location podcasts, we were pretty hammered.

  We also covered the Golden Joystick Awards and the Eurogamer Expo in central London last weekend (thats me interviewing Gamespotter Joseph Barron). Expect video for that in 'Whats Danny Doing #2".

  In terms of games I've been playing the awesome Brutal Legend, Fifa 10, Operation Flashpoint 2, some great iPhone and Indy games (pick up Osmos on Steam if you have a few quid lying around).

  Hope you guys are all keeping well in the run up to Jesus Day. What have you guys been up to? What you been playing?

  • Posted Nov 5, 2009 10:33 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 10 Comments

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• 20Oct 09

  Citizen Game Returns

  

  
  My labour of love went live a few hours ago. www.citizengame.co.uk
  
  I've spent the past 4 months developing the site in our new location in London with a fantastic group of guys. I spent a long time brainstorming about the aspects of games websites, and games journalism that I feel are odds with the common gamer. The PR/Newswire cycle that ends when the game hits shelves, the lack of entertainment in an entertainment medium, and a lot more.

  This is my attempt at what games websites should be, or at least what I can get away with, with a team of freelance contributers with fulltime jobs. Weekly videos, the return our weekly podcast (new format), articles from some of the best games writers in the UK and loads more.

  Apparently I'm one of the most visited and followed users on all of Gamespot. In the 3 years on this site I've written articles, shot videos and covered foreign events from this humble blog. If you think my content was worth your time on Gamespot, I'd love for you to see whats coming up on on CG. It's a geniune attempt at creating a better type of games media.

  Join the revolution

  Danny

  • Posted Oct 21, 2009 12:23 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 14 Comments

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• 20Aug 09

  Not Dead

  Quick update, Im not dead.
  
  - Still no internet in flat in London (so havent been gaming online in nearly 2 months).
  - Got a job in London making websites and graphics for an online video production company. Unreal job, Im working on top level web design, running projects and organising sizable contracts. Its 110% awesome.
  - Sort of decided I dont want to work outright in games journalism. My design work is better split between the creative and business sides, and I'm being much better paid. I dont want to be in my thirties earning a crap wage. Even better, I feel more personally free to explore the areas of games culture I find interesting, rather than having to bend over to the money machine and cover stories that drive more traffic. Interested in doing more freelance work like i do now in radio. I have a plan, we'll see what happens over the next few months....
  
  - My 360 RROD'ed AGAIN yesterday, so playing my Ps3 more (ratchet and clank TOD is fantastic!). Its the DVD drive again. Out of Warranty, boo!
  - Still building the new CitizenGame. So exciting since the company i work for is local over a film studio and the guys have unreal amounts of knowledge in online video. Its nearly done!
  - Went on the London Eye, its really high!
  - London is bloody hot again, everyone has swine flu (like 5 people I know so far).
  
  - Ate Ghanain food for the first time. Analysis: Delicious
  - Goin to see Deftones next week (love London!).
  - Watched the Arsenal match in a pub in Highbury last week (love London!).
  - Playing loads of Unreal Tournament 3 with bots, feel like im 13 again
  - Haven't bought a game since I moved here. I miss my HMV staff discount.....

  How you boys and girls doin?
  Very well I hope. Do share......

  

  See, very much alive.

  • Posted Aug 20, 2009 11:45 pm GMT
  • Category: Pets and Animals
  • 25 Comments

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• 3Jul 09

  London / UK Wannabe Journos Wanted

  ...hmmm..pets and animals? yea that'll do...

  Hi yea, so. The site myself and my friend Denis set up last year was fairly successful, we landed 35,000 unique visitors since January 1st, were mentioned several times on Kotaku, Steam, N4D and hundreds of other sites, and had a great time reporting from Leipzig and Blizzards Invitational. But we've learned a lot, but to cut to the point, a reboot is in order.

  Before moving to London i spent a few weeks programming and designing the new site, and organising a change of focus. Im aiming high with CitizenGame v2, very high. High enough that Its probably not right to post it on Gamespot, but in honesty this is where many of the CG contributors came from, so it makes sence to go fishing here before anywhere else.

  To cut to the chase if you're interested on colaborating with the launch of the UK's most exciting video games website, reply here or email me at dannyodwyer@gmail.com - Areas needed include:
  - Writers
  - Reviewers
  - Video Presenters
  - Tech (audio / video)
  - Web (programmers / graphics)

  Please have some version of your work available to see/read and its a big advantage if your based in London.
  If your driven, passionate about games and willing to put in the work, get in contact.

  I have a vision of whats missing in the games press, and what can be done to unite the core and casual into 1 portal. Managing the PR influence thats polluting the mainstream games press, getting out of the boardrooms and into the sitting rooms. More importantly, im no longer stuck in Ireland on my own trying to do it. This is no pipe dream, I have the ability and drive to get this done, I just need a strong team of people to help me pull it off.

  If you can help, get in contact.

  Im off to play more Burnout

  

  • Posted Jul 4, 2009 12:25 am GMT
  • Category: Pets and Animals
  • 12 Comments

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• 1Jul 09

  Living in London - Pros and Cons!

  It's been one calander week since myself and my lady friend made the final move to London and well over a month since I posted on my beloved Gamespot, so what better time than now to write an exaustive list of the better and worst points of live in Europe's largest city. LETS DO THIS!

  Green = Good Times
  Red = Bad Times
  

  The Tube - Though I'm sure (like rollercoaster testers) the novelty wears off, the underground is simply superb. Excellently well run, fairly priced (with an Oyster) and at least in my experience so far, puntual and fast. Buses aren't bad either. I've never seen public transport like it.

  Groceries - Oh man is stuff cheap here. Economies of scale is the winner over here with Basic fruit & veg, milk, meat, beer (shops and bars) and medicine being almost half the price in some shops. Even when you factor in the Euro-Sterling thing. Speaking of which...

  Sterling - A minor gripe. It just feels silly that I can go to Italy or Eastern Europe with my Euro, but have to exchange it for Queen-moneys when take a 1 hour plane trip.

  iPlayer, 4OD & Spotify - As a *cough* TV licence holder, I've access to all the free on demand and live broadcasts from national broadcasters. Watched Wimbledon live on my PC this week. No internet in my flat yet though, I'm posting this with my dongle hanging out my window, 150feet in the air. Spotify is genuis too.

  No Car - *sniffle*, I miss being able to drive to the local beach or mountains for a day with nature. At least the views here are amazing....

  Views from Apartment - (see below) I wake up in the morning and see south London glistening in the morning hue. Its glorious up here. Im a sucker for views, we can see hills 20 miles away from my old house in Ireland, so getting an appartment this high was fantastic. We're right beside the 2012 Olympic village site, which is facinating to watch being built. Free residents gym too, so bye bye love handles!

  

  No Tayo Crisps or Decent Cider - Im Irish, I love Tayto crisps and miss them dearly. Most Irish children are raised on a diet of Tayto, its in our genes! Also I know understand why Bulmers is called 'Magners' overe here, its because another 'Bulmers' cider exists overe here, which tastes better actually. Not that it matter, im not really drinking as Im going to the gym.

  Entering Gamespot UK Competitions - The main reason I moved over actually. No more will I be denied access to sweet-ass-prizes because of the xenaphobic policies of Gamespot Uk (i jest!)

  Stuff to do - Its Endless. Theater, music, arcades, museums... you could never get bored here. And if you are, try living in Cork for a year....

  Price of Games - Though my 30% staff discount in HMV is now lost to me, the price of games in the UK are so insanely cheaper it makes me wonder why we pay so much back home. In fact Im now convinced the reason HMV Ireland were the cheapest back home was because they were using the UK pricing schema. Note to anybody in Ireland, buy your games in HMV!

  
  Thats all I can think of right now. I'll probably follow up with another next week, but for now its back to the problem at hand, job hunting! Im living in Stratford, East London for those of you who want to know. If you guys have any tips or comments about life in the capitol, let me know.

  Danny

  • Posted Jul 1, 2009 11:18 am GMT
  • Category: Travel
  • 34 Comments

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• 20May 09

  London Baby!

  It's official, my girlfriend was offered a job teaching Science in a school in Newham, so the big London move is a-go-go. Really excited at the moment (I've never had so much cancelling a net connection) but also trying to figure out the logistics around the big move.

  Quick few notes, this doesnt mean the end of my site CitizenGame.co.uk - We're still commited to running the podcast via Skype and if anything, being in London will help us do more news work for our UK audience.

  Updating my portfolio site like crazy, looking for jobs in anything from Web Design, Graphics, Video, Writing Production or Shoemaking. Its still work in progress, but any feedback on it would be greatly appreciated: http://www.dannyodwyer.com/

  Anyway, really excited, must go write my notice letter for HMV now.
  Its funny how things work out, today is exactly 1 year from when I first moved to Cork.

  Peace
  -Danny

  • Posted May 20, 2009 4:16 pm GMT
  • Category: Food
  • 21 Comments

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• 29Apr 09

  Brendan Sinclair Is A Ref In Fifa 09

  Playing Fifa earlier, as I tend to do with days of the week that end in with Y, and noticed (not for the first time) a striking resemblance. The ref in my Arsenal V Manchester United game (simulating tonights Champions League match) looks like a certain Gamespot news editor and podcast host Brendan Sinclair....

  

  

  

  

  Am I going mad?
  Do Canadians understand football?
  Does this post make me sound like a stalker?

  • Posted Apr 29, 2009 5:42 pm GMT
  • Category: Humor
  • 15 Comments

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• 26Apr 09

  Fat Princess BETA Walkthrough

  I've taken a step back from dumping Quake Live videos on Gamestop to record this little walkthrough of the closed BETA forTitan Studios's PSN exclusive Fat Princess. Currently the only video in the Fat Princess gamespace is a cringe-inducing episode of Gamespot AU's Crosshairs, so this one is for those of you who haven't had a chance to play the beta. For those of you who are playing, if you want a game my PSN ID is dannyodwyer.

  
  Profanity Warning - Its tagged as explicit.

  
  

  Thanks to Jody and Community team for sorting out a handfew of Gamespot users with the BETA keys.
  Show your appreciation by Voting for Gamespot in the Webby Awards.

  • Posted Apr 26, 2009 10:15 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 7 Comments

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• 23Apr 09

  CitizenGame Teaser - Quake Live

  Yea so enough stalling for time, here's a look at one of the game-footage-heavy bits from Episode One of Citizen Game where I take a look at online gaming gem; Quake Live. Just something small for you guys to chew on while we keep working on the show. It's been tough trying to fit it into our already busy daily grinds, but we're looking forward to wrapping up soon.

  
  Profanity Warning - Its tagged as explicit.

  Please, any opinions good or bad are welcome.
  Also, I know I said 'I.D.' instead of iD, so thats being re-dubbed later

  Cheers!

  • Posted Apr 23, 2009 11:25 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 6 Comments

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• 20Apr 09

  I (heart) QuakeLive

  Capturing loads of footage for a peice I'm doing on Quake Live at the moment. Had a stroke of good luck at the end of a brutally close match that was too good not to upload. For those of you who don't know QuakeLive is a free to play version of Quake 3 Arena that runs inside your broswer, or in fullscreen. Even my terrible graphics card-less laptop runs the game, and it cant even run it from a CD. Im totally hooked!

  If any of you are playing it, add me to yours friends list as 'dannyodwyer' for fun, chat and maybe more

  If your not, then get on board: www.quakelive.com

  • Posted Apr 20, 2009 10:00 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 16 Comments

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• 14Apr 09

  Video Feature: Red Faction Guerrilla Demo

  I've been neglecting my blog here for a while, spending most of my time developing content for my own site. Howver I hit 100,000 page views today so I wanted to do somthing just for here. I've been recording loads of game features for my sites upcoming monthly show, and so I took the equipment and recorded this little walkthrough of the awesome Red Faction Guerilla BETA demo. This is available for preorder folks in the US, but totally open to anybody on European gamers who register on THQ's website and here. Both Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are available but you can only opt in for one. I got a key for the demo beta last weekend, and have been enjoying it since.

  I narrate the demo for the full 12mins so check it out if your enjoying a lazy Tuesday like I am. It would be in HD, but we still cant post HD uservideos on Gamespot, so just squint a bit

  For those who missed it, yeterdays blogpost is here for your time wasting pleasure.

  Currently Playing:
  And Yet It Moves
  Resident Evil 5

  Currently Listening:
  Static-X - Cult of Static
  Santogold - Santogold

  • Posted Apr 14, 2009 3:15 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 10 Comments

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• 12Apr 09

  ...And Yet It Reviews

  Hey everybody,

  Just a post about stuffs. I recently reviewed a great indy game called '...And Yet It Moves'. It's a superb game available via Steam which is worthy of anybodys time. Check out the video below and click here for the written review. I've been trying to practise my writing skills as much as possible these past few months(reviewing games I wouldn't play usually and such), so any feedback (pos or neg) would be greatly appreciated!

  
  
  

  
  Insanely busy at the moment working on video for my own website, but also had the chance to review Peggle a week ago. (Click here for the Gamespot version of that). I'll be posting a super huge update about that video content once we've wrapped on it. Its been months in creation for a good reason, cant wait to have it done and out there for internet consumtion. The site still has loads of news, podcasts and reviews going up in the meantime. Oh and I was on radio again last week explaining to the nation of Ireland about the wonders of 'OnLive': check it out!!!

  Apart from that I'm awaiting word about my girlfriends possible job in London, im working 35 hours a week in the only recession proof CD shop left in the UK and training for the annual Cork City Marathon (up to 12km a day now - good bye flab!).

  Happy Easter everybody, oh and cheers to everyone whos visited my blog here on Gamespot over the past 18 months. Just had a look and I'm a stones throw from 100,000 views, which is pretty bewildering, thanks again!

  Peace!
  - Danny

  PS: Summers coming!
  PPS: Red Faction BETA is pretty amazing, might put up a video on it soon.
  PPPS: Blitz: The League 2 is perfect for people who cant play football, but love rupturing testicles!

  • Posted Apr 12, 2009 7:46 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 10 Comments

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• 22Mar 09

  Irish Eyes Are Smiling

  

  The countrys suffered a collective hangover this morning, the aftermath of last nights national party at Irelands victory in the Six Nations Rugby Tournament, and more importantly the first Grand Slam for the country in over 60 years. For anyone who enjoys those passionate moments in sport, check out the link below and listen to commentators scream, shout and cry just like everybody crammed into living rooms and pub's across the nation yesterday evening.

  WATCHY LINKY LINKY CLICK

  • Posted Mar 22, 2009 9:34 pm GMT
  • Category: Sports
  • 13 Comments

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• 19Mar 09

  Resi 5 Schwag Dolls

  We're giving one away with each copy sold in HMV. Along with a much more forgetable t-shirt.

  Honestly I think it's the best free schwag I've ever seen. Street Fighter 4's special edition has to 1.5' low quality figurines for an extra €40 on the standard game price (€85 in total). These bad boys have removable weapons, arms with 4 seperate moveable parts (elbows can bend up and sideways like in us real hoomans) and the detail is pretty amazing.

  Hope this doesn't come off as bragging, just wanted to post this because I'm shocked Capcom were sending these out to fans of the game for free. Its pretty brilliant in my opinion. The game was hardly going to struggle to sell.

  By the way, I haven't bought it yet and I feel I owe Capcom now

  Should I?

  

  • Posted Mar 20, 2009 2:39 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 12 Comments

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• 4Mar 09

  Twit for Tw*t

  http://twitter.com/dannyodwyer

  I've joined teh dark side.
  Follow me for chat, fun and maybe more

  Also, Peggle coming to XBLA, EXTREME FEVER!

  

  • Posted Mar 4, 2009 2:24 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 14 Comments

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• 2Mar 09

  A Year of Podcasting (+ Killzone Game Night)

  It started out on this blog, so it seems appropriate to mention this here. Today (March 2nd) is the anniversairy of the Citizen Game Podcast, which myself and good friend Denis record every week. Over the past twelve months we've taken the podcast to the Blizzard Invitational in Paris, to a crazy weekend of gaming at the Liepzig Games Convention, from the radio studio in my hometown, to using rockband mics while we paid for our new studio setup in Cork City.

  Its been a pleasure to do every week we can (think we missed 4 weeks last year), on our lunchbreaks, in between working shifts, minutes before plane trips, hung over and/or on a normal day. Just a quick thanks to everybody on Gamespot who gave us feedback over the year. Since the podcast started we've launched the site which has gradually driven and retained more and more traffic each week, to the point where we have multiple daily updates, a wonderful news and reviews staff, and have been mentioned on Kotaku, The Escapist and many other gaming blog and media sites throughout the year.

  For anybody who's interested, we're going to record and a special birthday edition of the podcast in about 30minutes, which should be availble on the site and via iTunes in the next 2 hours.

  Also, if anybody is interested, were running an open Killzone 2 game night tonight and your all more than welcome.Details on the main page of citizengame.co.uk (sorry, my links dont work).

  Thanks again to everybody who supported the site and podcast over the past year. Looking forward to another year of exciting developments.

  Thanks again
  -Danny

  
  

  • Posted Mar 2, 2009 4:36 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 7 Comments

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• 24Feb 09

  Leaked Killzone 2 Commercial

  So today, while we were working on the show, I got impatient and decided to record and upload a video to the site this week. The first thing that popped into my mind was a Killzone 2 parody trailer, and today we recorded, edited and uploaded just that to the site. It was a quick process and a day off work well spent, but the punchline of the video makes me laugh and cringe every time I watch it. The basic idea is the truth that dispite what all the early reviews say, the only real reason anybody is buying Killzone 2 this week is because of its lush visuals.
  

  Click away, probably NSFW though.
  
  

  I sware the actual show is far more family friendly then this and last weeks video features. I think it's my way of getting the filth out of my system because God knows if I do ever get a job in the industry I wont get away with this stuff, haha.

  In other news, sites popularity still rising, loads of reviews being done and life is still good. SF4 is brilliant.

  Oh and my Skate 2 review is up on Gamespot here if you fancy a read

  

  • Posted Feb 25, 2009 2:09 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 13 Comments

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• 16Feb 09

  Kotaku Love

  Just had an interesting weekend, and in the mood to summerize it all while I eat my 3-days-off celebration breakfast which consists mostly of sausages. Pigs taste Yummy!

  So the 3-pronged marketing plan we've put into force on the site seems to be working. First is Google where our google-news hit ratio is pretty damn high on any articles we post up, 'UK podcast' returns us on top pretty often and their bots love crawling our site for content daily. The second is a podcast union im trying to form which I cant really talk about, and the third is quite obviously the upcoming show.

  So i decided on Wednesday to create a Valentines themed video to creep in a link on Kotaku, the internets leading games news blog. This started by setting up a voting pole on the site, and using my off-work time on Thursday and Friday evenings to edit it all together, culminating as a rushed YouTube post and email to Kotaku on Saturday morning 10mins before i sprinted to work.

  When I got back on Saturday evening my desktop (still left on - sorry planet) was littered with MSN messages, and emails. Apparently our mention on Kotaku had driven 6 thousand people to the YouTube video in hour. The video was pulled because of 10 frames of unforunatly places Hentai at the end of the video, and the internets scrambled into acting, searching out our site for the content. Over the weekend our site transfered 200 Gigabytes of information including a low-res and high-res copy of the video, and a few thousand downloads of our podcast. We've had a nice bump on iTunes America as a result of new subscriptions and a lot of new members on the site.

  ...and the best part is, our server didnt crash. (success!)

  Black box testing of that ammount of digital traffic is impossible, but over the weekend we learned a lot about how much the server could handle, how bandwidth disapears so quickly, and which service to stream out content from.

  In other related news, my good friend Dale was onto some big-wigs in Capcom about press kits for games, but apparently they, among many others, use Metacritic as a benchmark for a websites ability to get kits. Unfortunatly, though Ive been in contact with the games editor of metacritic a lot over the past 2 months, we need a lot more content and hits to get submission. He says probably a year of work, but he seems to like us (irish surname always helps) so Im planning to get on Metacritic by the summer.

  These sausages are really delicious.

  Going to stick up my first editorial of 2009 on here near the end of the week. Been out of action here too long. Hope everyone is still alive and saving up for the next 2 weeks of gaming. SF4, Sonic Collection and Killzone 2 are on my list. Whats on yours?

  
  

  • Posted Feb 16, 2009 12:46 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 13 Comments

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• 10Feb 09

  Forbidden Love

  Just a quick blog. A good friend of mine, and news editor for my website has just had an editorial published on The Escapist. Most of you would know the site as the home of 'Zero Punctuation', but the site is also host to a great array of editorials from amateur and professional writers.

  His article is a true story about Team Fortress 2 and his girlfriend, who I've had the pleasure of playing L4D with many a time. If you have some time, check it out, and maybe leave a comment.

  HERES THE LINK, CLICK IT AND WIN AT LIFE!

  Pretty exciting times at the moment, we've been shooting and editing CGTV for the past 2 weeks and its shaping up really nicely. Been playing a load of Professor Layton with my better half for the past fewdays, totally brilliant game.

  Oh and if anybody is playing much Skate 2, let me know and we'll game it up some.

  
  

  • Posted Feb 10, 2009 4:49 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 12 Comments

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• 1Feb 09

  Football!

  I'm not a huge fan of American Football, and it's another American sport that isn't received that well received in this corner of the world. To us any athleticism is stunted by the constant stopping and starting, to us it looks like a game of skill swallowed by tactics and statistics.

  Which oddly enough seems to be the attraction to other people. I think its a knowledge thing. Most of the time when I catch a late-night match on NASN, I'm praying for an interception, fumble or Hail Mary. Probably because that's about the weight of my understanding of the game. With the exception of Brutal Sports Football (Amiga) there is only one American Football Game I've ever been able to grips with. Many an evening myself and my brother would sit around my Sega Mega Drive and boot up the NHL/NFL Double-Cartridge to sink our teeth into Madden 95.

  My brother, who now works in sports television, always had a great skill when it came to tactics no matter what the sport. He has an eye for learning how to take out opposing teams. I'm severly lacking in that department, but I had one thing. I had the Hail Mary, and I used it ignorantly often!

  1st and 10? - Hail Mary
  4th and 84- Hail Mary
  Field Goal - Screw that, fake Field Goal - Hail Mary.

  My simple 9 year old brain couldn't get to grips with the finery of plays, audibles and fakes, but I figured if i learned that one play well enough, I could dishearten my brother enough to win the odd match.

  I don't understand Football, much like most foreigners don't understand our games. But tonight, like millions of others around the world, I'll stay up until 11pm with my dad, get a few beers and enjoy the global event that is the Super Bowl. A spectacle of skill, athleticism and wonderful American exuberance.

  Happy Super-Bowl Day America!
  I'm praying for a few Hail Marys

  • Posted Feb 1, 2009 4:20 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • 17 Comments

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