College Stats & Stuff for the Pac-12 (Week Eight)
Arizona breaks through ... Cardinal win The Big Game ... etc.
PAC-12 CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Best Wins:
- After three straight conference losses, Arizona finally broke through for Rich Rodriguez' first Pac-12 win, a 52-17 pasting of Washington.
- Thirty years after the famous run through the band, Stanford captured this year's edition of The Big Game, knocking off Cal, 21-3.
- Oregon State just keeps plugging along, defeating Utah, 21-7.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- Matt Barkley of USC has slid down the Heisman ladder, but he made some hay outside the spotlight against Colorado: 19-of-20, for 298 yards and 6 TDs. Barkley is back up to No. 13 in the nation in passing efficiency.
- Arizona State's Taylor Kelly is slightly ahead of him in that category, with a 67.0 completion percentage and averaging 9.3 yards per attempt.
- The conference rushing race is a mad sprint, with UCLA's Jonathan Franklin holding on at 125.4 yards per game, Oregon's Kenjon Barner right behind at 124.3, Stanford's Stepfan Taylor just a step back at 120.9, and Arizona's Ka'Deem Carey right there at 120.3.
- "Rich-Rod" and the Wildcats may be 4-3, but they are actually gaining more yards than undefeated Oregon, 549 yards per game to 529 yards per game.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: 3. Barner; 7. Barkley; 9. Oregon all-purpose player DeAnthony Thomas. Kelly dropped out after the Sun Devils lost to Oregon.
- Pac-12 in the AP poll: 2. Oregon; 7. Oregon State; 10. USC; 19. Stanford.
- Pac-12 in the BCS standings: 4. Oregon; 7. Oregon State; 9. USC; 17. Stanford.
- Oregon has lost the coveted "top non-SEC team in the BCS standings" slot to Kansas State, after its huge win over West Virginia.
- The Ducks still must face USC, Stanford and surprising in-state rival Oregon State. Even then, they might still have to hope for Kansas State to slip in order to get into the National Championship matchup.
- Washington knocked off then-high-flying Stanford, but has lost all of its other conference games.
The Banner Saga
When games are made with real effort, it shows.
I have seen my share of video games. Indie games. RPG games. Turn based games. Thematic games, especially those dealing with sword and sorcery. But rarely have any of them captivated me from concept like The Banner Saga. This game harkens back to true RPG based game play – featuring Vikings even! You rarely see a game featuring them as the main protagonists with so many details that even the most anti-RPGer would give it a look.
The story so far revealed is that of a band of people trying it seems to find themselves a way to survive in a world that has fallen out of order. The gods –their gods – have all fallen abandoning the mortals to their fate. Many glimpses into the trailer has your main character being asked questions dealing with what they should do or believe in due to the gods now all being dead. It’s a valid question – what do you say to give people hope, when the very beings that gave it are now gone?
This implies that there will be a rather decent plot afoot as not many games focus on how a group (if not society) so couched in belief is to move on when their whole focus for worship is gone. Along with the plot is some rather decent voice-overs, well-crafted music and an animation style that screams Don Bluth. This was all done by a team of merely three members. The production schedule isn’t speedy, but if merely three guys can do this level of work, then the bigger game studios should take notice.
Wesker plays Minecraft
CHRRRRIIIISSSSSSSS!!?
Sometimes when you watch a parody, you get it. You get what they were going for and even the in-jokes. Some are done so well that even viewers that don’t get the nods to the parody’s fandom are laughing. And then…you get this.
Part YouTube poop, part not so subtle jab at the fandom, this video is a strange mash up of Resident Evil and Minecraft. This video is random and relishes in it. It features two of Resident Evil’s gaming franchise most popular male leads, Albert Wesker and Chris Redfield. The two are parodied greatly with Wesker being the controlling and smug jerk but amped up to 11, and Chris once seen as simply naive to being as dumb as a brick.
Both are placed into the world of Minecraft, a world simply not ready for them. The video is more than likely made by using Gmod, a free animation suite that is known for letting people use PC character models in creative ways. It also allows users to make facial animations with it, giving characters dead fish like motions that are strangely funny.
Wesker finds himself in this strange land to encounter a chicken. He then demands said chicken to give him an egg, using the lines he speaks during Mercenaries in RE5 (in fact all speech is sampled from the games). The chicken out of fear gives him it – despite that in RE5 chickens tend to enjoy fighting you back.
Then a Creeper shows up and even it was no match for Wesker’s overwhelming smugness, it keeling over and exploding from far away after Wesker shoots it. It would have seemed that God has found a suitable place to rule only for his blundering nemesis, Chris manages to again foil his plans by simply smashing his head against the keyboard. Even in not trying, Chris ruins Wesker’s day which is what makes Wesker screaming in utter frustration ‘CHRIIIISSSS,' which is so priceless.
Sometimes trolling can come back to haunt you
Anonymity not always guaranteed.
The Internet is a sort of Wild West land, but with mostly pictures, video and text rather than gunslinging and smoky salons. There’s the law trying to police and keep everything civil and fair, thinking that it has say over things. Then there’s the rest of the Internet – the 99 percent - where it’s all no man’s land. Every type of voice, every thought, idea, stance, like, dislike and so on can be heard by a near unlimited audience depending on how much or little the forum the poster posted on is secured.
All under an anonymous handle that can be hidden behind with the right amount of caution. IPs can be hidden, e-mails made anonymous. The whole being anonymous thing was to allow people to be honest in what they say and to avoid consequences – especially net activists in not so welcome countries.
But another creature popped up in all this – the troll. Under that same guise of protection, trolls say and do things they (probably) don’t believe and would be less likely to say in public to simply cause mayhem and get a rise out of people. You try to argue them and they have your attention and have ‘won.’ You ignore them and the try and roll over your discussion. Even banning them gives them the rush of irritating a person enough to get such treatment.
So it was very odd that a very notorious troll by name of Violentacrez was after years of flourishing on large social site with thread boards such as ‘Rapebait’ and ‘Pics of Dead Kids’ was outed by his real life name. The man behind the name was exposed to the world as a 49-year-old family man, an unexpected image that most wouldn’t conclude with ‘Internet troll.’
This exposure cost the man his job and has his family shouldering threats and anger from those that were fed up with his online persona’s antics. And considering what those antics made him out to be a violent pedophile, the backlash was immense.
Violentacrez’ story is a cautionary one – that those who cause a ruckus online aren’t as safe as you’d think. Getting ‘dox’d’ (or outed) but a determined nettizen is not hard if they don’t like what you have to say. This sets both a good and bad precedent – trolls (especially the most egregious ones) will have to watch their backs because as much as they want to say ‘free speech!’ people also have the freedom to recoil and call you out on it.
But legitimate activists also hold this fear that someday someone will just as reveal their names to the public. And unlike Mr. Violentacrez where mainly a public shamming and job loss were all to knowledge occur, these people depending of where they live could face a lot worse – ask Malala Yousufzai.
Movie: The Movie
Yes, THE Movie.
I’m not a big movie goer. Or rather I tend to watch things off the beaten path. Why this is? Because movies have become (at least the popular big box office ones) very predictable. Yes, all ideas tend to have been done before; some better, some exceedingly worse. This is reflected in a good deal of movies that have come out in my opinion.
Every action, or romance, or horror flick, or even art house flick has had themes that were done before and are done not so intelligently, which just kills my urge to see and risk 2+ hours of my life being wasted. And considering just to watch a movie (not including food and all) costs at least $10, which can buy me dinner for two at a drive-through or a decent DVD or a few books. The risk reward is just not there.
So lo and behold a rather funny (if overly long – which may be another jab at film) parody of what movies are doing nowadays. The clip is a 6+ minute film trailer to push this as the film of all films. Almost every crazy weird plot point done by popular films is lampooned with a large random assortment of cast members, some parodying the roles (and the roles they are typecast as) that gained them fame in the first place. It was so long and random and ironically had this been a real film, gave away so many plot points (which was probably also intentional).
Toddlers & Tiaras with Tom Hanks
Funny send up of a rather unfunny show.
I will admit that I gave Toddlers & Tiaras the benefit of the doubt when it first appeared on TLC. It was about the lives of children in beauty pageants and their family members that push them to do such events. I wanted to believe that the kids were simply having fun and doing it like any other after school activity like soccer or music practice.
But all I got from the show were overly made up kids focused on looking as un-childlike as possible by going for this super unattainable beauty standard and really rather overbearing parents. The show honestly made me uncomfortable and I don’t even have kids.
Unlike other shows where you have parents steeped with kids due to medical or religious reasons, you can’t just get mad at the parents and their at times very selfish decisions. You get mad at the whole pageant circuit encouraging such behavior. So when I saw this YouTube clip of Tom Hanks sending said show up, I had to watch.
With his brand of humor he drags his ‘daughter’ (not really) into training for a local pageant to best a fellow actor in competition. He lives vicariously through his poor child, making her do such questionable things and showing comically how parents invest so much into winning than being loving parents.
Some of the quips were downright hilarious (him showing off the pageant walk) but some like him refusing to hug the kid after they lose was rather bittersweet cause you get that vibe from the parents on Toddlers. One can only hope some of them see themselves on TV and see how disturbing they look to the rest of us.
Gateways
More than just Portal 2D
I am normally an RPG geek. I tend to like games that aren’t but so liner, yet that give a decent story to mix things up a bit. But I also do like a random puzzle-style game. You know, something to tickle the large slab of meat between my ears. Portal comes to mind. Something fun, smart and with a story that intrigues to boot!
So yeah, I’m not averse to branching out of my comfort zone. But I found a sort of spiritual cousin to Portal – Gateways.
Gateways is both a puzzle game and a plat former. You are a scientist trapped in a large sprawling lab with only your wits and your trusty gateway gun. You gun has the power to make portals through walls, giving the game a 2D portal feel.
The ability to run and jump through portals to gain speed and land in new areas is something it also shares with Portal. But it expands on that, letting the gun create multiple portals causing the world to shrink and enlarge relative to your size, making multiple copies of you due to its capabilities to ‘go back in time’ so that you in effect are helping yourself, walk (or grapple) the surrounding walls and basically do physics defying stunts.
And considering how absurdly large and challenging the lab you are in is, you will need every trick in the book to escape. You can purchase Gateways from Xbox Live for only 245 Microsoft points.
College Stats & Stuff for the Big XII (Week Eight)
Wildcats in the fast lane ... and Klein in the driver's seat ... etc.
BIG XII CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
What did we say in this space last week? Oh yeah ... "if [Collin] Klein outplays [Geno] Smith on Smith's home field, then he's going to jump right onto that Heisman stage." Well, look who's on the Heisman stage now.
Best Wins:
- Klein and the Wildcats already had the big win over Oklahoma, but the win in Morgantown puts them right on the BCS championship track: Kansas State 55, West Virginia 14.
- Texas Tech kept themselves on track for their K-State showdown this week with a 56-53 overtime win over TCU.
- Is Texas still around? Yes, they are, and they beat Baylor, 56-50.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- Last week we mentioned that Texas Tech was leading the conference in defense. It still is, but after giving up 516 yards to TCU, it's not by as much as it used to be.
- This week the Red Raiders get to try to stop Klein, now the national darling. He's No. 5 in the conference in rushing with 78.7 yards per game, which puts him at No. 63 in the nation. Plus, he's leading the conference in passing efficiency, and is No. 2 in the nation there.
- He has 10 TDs, just 2 INT, a 70.5 percent completion percentage and is averaging 10.0 yards per attempt.
- Smith had his first two interceptions of the year against the Wildcats, with the world watching. He slipped to third in the conference in passing efficiency, which, of course, is still good for No. 4 in the nation.
- Joseph Randle of Oklahoma State continues to hold down the fort for actual running backs in the Big XII after gaining 151 yards in the Cowboys' win over Iowa State. Randle is the only conference player averaging over 100 yards per game, at 127.5.
- The Cowboys are No. 7 in the nation in rushing, No. 8 in passing and first in the nation in total offense. And they are No. 54 in the nation in total defense.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: 1. Klein; 6. Smith (down from No. 1 for the prior several weeks); 8. Texas Tech QB Seth Droege.
- Big XII in the AP poll: 4. Kansas State; 8. Oklahoma; 15. Texas Tech; 25. West Virginia.
- Big XII in the BCS standings: 3. Kansas State; 8. Oklahoma; 14. Texas Tech; 19. West Virginia; 23. Texas.
- The Red Raiders can throw the conference standings into a three-way tie if they defeat Kansas State.
- But you can't completely rule out Oklahoma State, despite a loss to Texas. The Cowboys could run the table against the Wildcats, Red Raiders, Mountaineers and Sooners. Not likely, but possible.
- Oklahoma, meanwhile, plays host to Notre Dame in a huge non-conference game that could put the Sooners back in the BCS hunt.
- But it's unlikely they'd climb back over Kansas State (who defeated them), and the Wildcats are sitting pretty, given that No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Florida would have to play each other in the SEC title game.
College Stats & Stuff for the Big Ten (Week Eight)
Lions continue to march on ... Wolverines head to Lincoln for first time in a century ... etc.
BIG TEN CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Best Wins:
- Penn State continues to surprise, as it put an end to Iowa's mini-surge with a 38-14 triumph. The Nittany Lions are now 5-2 and 3-0 in the Big Ten.
- Michigan also stayed unbeaten in the conference with a 12-10 survival contest over Michigan State.
- Nebraska came from 12 down in the 4th quarter to eke out a 29-28 win over Northwestern.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- Nebraska sophomore Ameer Abdullah has had to take on a bigger role with Rex Burkhead hobbled with a series of injuries, bu the smallish back has proven effective and durable, netting 101 yards on 19 carries against Northwestern. Abdullah is now averaging 87.9 yards per game, putting him at No. 48 nationally, despite a pair of games in which he had only single-digit attempts.
- The top of the rushing chart is still no surprise: Denard Robinson of Michigan, Le'Veon Bell of Michigan State, Montee Ball of Wisconsin and Braxton Miller of Ohio State. All four were considered strong Heisman candidates at various times in 2012. Now only Miller is getting any meaningful Heisman buzz.
- Miller's 11 TD passes (vs. 5 INT) and 10 rushing TDs ought to put him high on the "points responsible for" chart, but it turns out he's behind Nebraska's Taylor Martinez, who has 15 passing TDs and 6 on the ground. And he's also behind Penn State's surprising Matt McGloin, who has 14 passing TDs and 5 rushing. Both Martinez and McGloin have played one fewer game.
- The Huskers' combo of Martinez, Abdullah and Burkhead (when healthy) has them at No. 12 in the nation in total offense, but they will need their defense (7th in the conference) to toughen up to win the Legends Division.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: 5. Miller. The Buckeyes' close win over Purdue, and Miller's injury in that game, dimmed his star a bit, apparently.
- Big Ten in the AP poll: 9. Ohio State; 20. Michigan.
- Big Ten in the BSC standings: Ohio State is ineligible, but after a week with no teams in the BCS top 25, Michigan comes in at No. 22 and Wisconsin sneaks in a No. 25.
- Speaking of ineligible, the Buckeyes have a showdown with Penn State in the "Ineligi-Bowl" this week.
- Both teams are undefeated in the conference.
- Michigan travels to Lincoln for the first time since ... 1911. Yes, it's been 101 years since the last Wolverine-Cornhusker game in the state of Nebraska.
- With Michigan's win over Michigan State, the winner of this week's game will have the inside track on the Legends Division.
- In the Leaders Division, the the "Ineligi-Bowl" contenders out of the title game picture, Wisconsin looks like a lock, given that the other three teams are all 0-3.
College Stats & Stuff for the ACC + Notre Dame (Week Eight)
'Noles back on track with win over '90s rival ... Duke keeps surprising ... etc.
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE [Scores] [Standings]
Best Wins:
- Duke knocked off Tobacco Road rival North Carolina in football, 33-30. Yes, the Blue Devils are 6-2 and 3-1 in the conference. No, Coach K is not branching out into football. It's David Cutliffe, former Old Miss coach and Peyton Manning guru.
- Florida State buried Miami, 33-20, in their old-school Sunshine State match (if the '90s qualify as "old school").
- Future ACC semi-member Notre Dame went to 7-0 with a 17-14 outlasting of Brigham Young.
Stats Smorgasbord:
- It's still the Seminoles on defense: 226.5 yards per game allowed, good for No. 2 in the nation.
- And it's still the Seminoles on offense: 520.1 yards per game gained, good for No. 10 in the nation.
- There's only one runner with more than 100 yards per game: Giovani Bernard of North Carolina with 132.5 per contest.
- That put Bernard at No. 5 nationally. How come no one's heard of him? Well ... he missed two games, and the Tar Heels are 5-3. But his last three games: 262, 177 and 143 yards.
- One reason the Blue Devils are succeeding: three receivers averaging more than 5.0 catches per game, putting all three in the top 100 nationally: Jamison Crowder, Conner Vernon and Desmond Scott.
Football Factoids:
- ESPN Heisman Watch: [2. Notre Dame LB Manti Te'o]; 10-T. Clemson WR DeAndre Hopkins. Florida State's E.J. Manuel dropped off despite the win.
- ACC in the AP poll: [5. Notre Dame]; 11. Florida State; 14. Clemson.
- ACC in the BCS rankings: [5. Notre Dame]; 12. Florida State; 18. Clemson.
- Duke is bowl-eligible for the first time since 1994, when it played in the Hall of Fame Bowl.
- It was the Blue Devils' first win over the Tar Heels in Durham since 1998.
- Duke gets a reality check this week with a trip to Tallahassee.
- Meanwhile, back in the Research Triangle, N.C. State gets its shot at North Carolina. The Wolfpack followed up its huge upset of the Seminoles with a narrow escape at Maryland.