Blip blop bleep

I spent time yesterday playing two games that I would consider difficult.

The first was God of War. (My first PS3 game(s) was, in fact, a set of PS2 games.)

The second was Madden NFL 10, which I'm going to continue to complain about because I've uncovered yet another issue. (Notice that I'm still playing the game.)

Almost every video game has different difficulty settings because some people want to be challenged and other people suck. Variations in difficulty are achieved in a few different ways. One of the most common – in games based on the principle of death – is to increase the relative "health" of the enemies that the player is required to kill. In a way, this process literalizes the "to beat a dead horse" metaphor, which is a pretty appropriate metaphor for many of my attempts at God of War.

But this same principle wouldn't work for Madden. Increasing the "health" of football players would just lead to fewer concussions and not necessarily increase the difficulty. Madden's tack, it seems, is to instead increase the level of bullshit in order to up the challenge. The result is that the opposing team's players make plays that no footballer should ever make.

...

Madden is increasingly difficult to write about as well. It just frustrates me. My hope is to definitively put it to bed with a slew of Christmas games, but the problem is that it's one of the few games I can play with Bryan on a regular basis. But even he was frustrated by the game's difficulty determining devices, so maybe we can finally stop playing this disappointing blip in the Madden franchise dynasty.

Quote of the Week:

"When [Tiger Woods'] career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now."

-Phil Knight, a man who has a few blips of his own