You know, that famous block/charge argument.

I'm extremely pissed when NBA commentators are using the "his feet are still moving" or "he's moving" as an argument against a charging foul call.

Fact is, it doesn't matter AT ALL if your feet are moving. In basketball rules, a charge should be called if the contact is initiated by the offensive player and if the defensive player was there before the offensive player, by about a step or a meter.

If the dude is still moving but still fronting the player and about a step ahead of him, receives the contact straight in the chest, it's an offensive foul.

Stop with the crappy and FALSE assessment that "moving feet = blocking foul".

It's not even a question of interpretation or judgment by the referee. It's a FACT.

EDIT : As for a jumping offensive player and a defender in front of him, the main concern is whether the spot where the offensive player will be landing is clear at takeoff.

In other words, if I jump to dunk, but there was a defender between me and the basket BEFORE I jumped, that would be a charge, unless the defender rotates or flails his arms or does something other than just standing up.

But if the defender slides under the offensive jumping player AFTER he jumped, then that's obviously a block because you have to let a jumping player come down on the ground if it was clear when he took off.

So, as you see, there should be at least 10%, if not 20% more offensive fouls in the NBA when those situations occur.

The Obvious Ones, or the "Lords of the League":

Kobe Bryant

Shaquille O'Neal

LeBron James

Yao Ming

The Veterans who never quite reached that status, but were (extremely) close:

Tim Duncan

Allen Iverson

Tracy McGrady

Vince Carter

Kevin Garnett

Dirk Nowitzki

Steve Nash

Young stars who could one day enter superstardom:

Dwyane Wade

Carmelo Anthony

Dwight Howard

Chris Paul

Kevin Durant

Chris Bosh

Brandon Jennings

Josh Smith (NEW ENTRY!)

Injury prone "big name" stars:

Amar'e Stoudemire

Gilbert Arenas

Michael Redd

Perennial All-Stars who were never superstars and will never be:

Ray Allen

Paul Pierce

Rashard Lewis

Pau Gasol

Jason Kidd

Finally, stars:

Joe Johnson, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Devin Harris, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gay Danny Granger, Baron Davis, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Chauncey Billups, Rajon Rondo.

Others (status "unknown"):

Greg Oden, J.R. (Earl) Smith, Al Horford, Andrei Kirilenko, Baron Davis

I won't enter the debate about Michael Vick's past criminal acts since I may get emotional. In one sentence, I think this whole thing has been blown up by the media and animal rights activists that it became extremely huge and unfair to Vick since people commit murder and/or rape on HUMAN BEINGS and spend less time than Vick did in jails for dogs.

Anyway. I love Michael Vick, exciting player who hasn't lived up to the hype but has huge, huge talent. And I'm an Eagles fan. I love Donovan McNabb too (and the whole team) and, once again, I think the media is extremely harsh on him. Now the combination of two teams/players I love in Pro Football makes this season very special to me (and it's the very first season I can watch in HD. Cool!)

That's about it.

Fun fact is, it seems that I usually like players/teams that people seem to hate or dislike for some reason. For example, I love Allen Iverson and I still think he's probably on of the best players of all-time, like, top 15. And the media hates him, as most NBA fans do. Why though? Well that's a good subject for another blog! (The same can be said for the likes of Kobe, Terrell Owens and many other athletes...)

I was one of those who learned to play FPS games on consoles, starting with the likes of GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on N64 all the way to Bioshock, CoD4, KZ2 on PS3. (All of that including games like Time Splitters 2, Halo and a handful of others on GCN and Xbox).For me, dual-joystick aiming is the best way to play an FPS since it's the only one I know. It feels precise, quick and natural.

So I get a bit confused when I read gamers write about how horrible console FPSs are and how those games are best suited for PC. Especially since PC gaming has always meant Diablo II, Age of Empire II, Starcraft, Command and Conquer, Dungeon Siege and other (quite old) strategy/hack'n'slash games to me.

Although I remember playing Doom and Duke Nukem more than a decade ago on a PC, I don't recall how the controls felt at all...

I'm sure FPSs play great on a PC with Mouse/Keyboard, but I'll stick with consoles since my only computer is a MacBook pro and I'm a Mac dude.

I was one of the (probably) few who tried and finished Killzone 2 before even trying the sales/online-play juggernaut that is Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare.In fact, the only other current-gen FPS I've tried since having my PS3 is The Orange Box (Half-Life 2) which was VERY good but had no online play, so I can't really compare.

The perception I had, as opposed to everyone else, is that CoD4 controls and gameplay were too fast and Killzone's, while not perfect, were pretty good and felt more realistic.That being said, CoD4's online play require about 3-4 bullets to the body, excluding headshots, at most, to kill someone. Whereas in KZ2, you sometimes need 10 bullets to off someone, if not more, which is not entirely unrealistic, but can be bothersome.

As far as my performances go, I can't seem to get used fast enough to the extremely fast gameplay online. In fact my first few deathmatches I was around 1 kill : 10 deaths. Now I'm hanging around a 1:4/1:5 ratio, with 3 to 5 kills per round (my best yet is 5:5, but that was like a miracle). In Killzone 2, the first of the two I played, I started around a ratio of 1:2/2:5 with a bit more than 10 kills by game and now I'm always around a 1:1 ratio, with up to 30 kills per game, with a best of 30:22.

Multiplayer options are better in CoD4's though, with perks and custom sets. KZ2's are good though.

For the main campaign, Killzone 2's was pretty fun with fiery set pieces and great combat, CoD4's storyline/narrative was in everyway superior and made the difference as far as I'm concerned. Killzone 2 story was too cliché and predictable, except Visari's speech at the end which was pretty cool.

In the end, I think Killzone's 2 gameplay suits me better for Multiplayer / Online but Call of Duty 4's storyline/campaign is WAY better, which is why I like to replay some levels of the campaign and sometime online, unlike Killzone 2 which is exclusively online for me.

It's pretty much a tie... Two great games worth getting.

"LeBron's great performances last few games"

"Magic stave off LeBron's 49"

"LeBron has 44 in losing cause"

"LeBron's efforts not enough, Cavs lose"

"The King's team struggles"

If one doesn't know that the NBA consists of 30 teams, 16 of which makes the playoffs, 4 are left in each conference's finals, it would be easy to think that the NBA is essentially one man. No words on the great Magic performance in these playoffs, almost none on Denver's revival or LA's struggle. Mainstream media are on their knees before a 24 year old arrogant and overrated young man.

The NBA is one man. One only person whose stats, tatoos, efforts, dunks, commercials, words, etc. rule amongst a sea of 400 hundred-something worthless opponents. Of course, that man is the King.

The King is a King, so he's on every headline of every newspaper, whether he's hurt, blocks a shot, whines for a foul, misses 10 free throws in a game or averages a triple-double in one week. The King doesn't need to win to make the front page of a newspaper, he just has to be the King.

You see, the King commands respect from the men in grey, who have to obey and give him free opportunities at point from the stripe. The King rarely commits a foul, according to the referee, he's given much more freedom than the other simple players.

The King has to be on every highlight reel. He does the same dunk every single time, but that dunk is the King's dunk, so even though onlookers are sick and tired of it, the NBA has to make the King happy so they'll still put it on the highlight reel.

The King rules, no matter what. If the King only scores one point in a game, that point will be in this week's top 10 plays.

If the King is on the bench biting is nails, it's him the cameras will show, commentators going "Oh, look at such grace, you can't tell me you've been expecting that so early in his career" "He's scary good, isn't he? Look at those broad shoulders, that gracious headband and those marvelous shoes, the King knows how to look good, and he's gorgeous." "He should win every MVP for 20 years for being so great sitting on the bench, even though he's the King, he should have a throne by himself" "In fact, why does he even sit on the bench, because he the King, he should play every minute of every team every game forever"

Long live the King, for as long as he lives, the NBA will be great, everyone else s*cks but him.

Most people don't care about that. In fact, nobody cares.

I only felt like I had to write it.

And that's why I'm not stupid enough to write such a blatant opinion on a forum.

I just wouldn't be able to stand all those basketball "experts", "analysts" and "journalists" shoving LeBron down our throats longer. If you want NBA fans to like the player, stop acting like he's a God.

At first I was like "Cool, a potentially great player coming in." Then they started treating him like a superstar a month into his career : "Did you have any idea he was gonna be this good this quick?" was the sentence I heard the most during the 03-04 season where he should actually have lost the ROY award to Carmelo. And the man himself simply loves to be atop the NBA world.

This is sickening me.

Another message to the NBA, who doesn't care what fans think anyway, you're losing credibility by the years with poor refereeing and choking people with LeBron here and there.

But I gotta say refereeing was good in this game, maybe the first and only time in the playoffs that's gonna be true.

Well I know you don't give a ****. You'll probably say "hey look at this bitter loser".

You know what? That shot he just hit. GREAT shot, released perfectly before the buzzer. Superb. I mean it. The shot itself isn't bad to me. The bad thing about that shot is that we're gonna see it on SportsCenter (I watch Score Tonight, to be honest, but it's the same thing) EVERY F*****G DAY until the playoffs are over.

Talk about over saturation.

Like that "block" in game one on Howard, that was a HORRENDOUS non call and a foul as obvious as Dick Bavetta being more of a clown than a ref. He had at least another block I saw, which was clean, no problem.

So freaking what? I'm not watching a Cavaliers game again, EVER.

EDIT : Oh of course, they'll refer to LeBron's 3 as a Miracle Shot. It was a fade away 3 pointer from about 23 feet. No hand in the face. But if a dude like JR Smith, Michael Redd, Iguodala or even Caron Butler makes the same play, it will still go way below a normal LeBron dunk in some SportsCenter top 10.

And don't come and tell me LeBron's dunks are great. Look, he sucks at variety. He simply elevates and jams it in.

'Oh look, Trevor Ariza just posterized a dude in heavy trafic, and Rudy Fernandez did something as great! And Tyrus Thomas dunked over Chris Bosh, that was amazing.'

'Shut up, dude, LeBron had a break away one handed normal dunk, the closest player was 40 feet away, that's much more impressive, and deserves top spot on every top 10 EVER'

Soon they'll be putting LeBron's free throws on Sportscenter. Or they will be showing him on the bench during a live game, that's much more interesting than an actual game. If he buys a CAT it'll make the cover of Sports Illustrated.

In 54 minutes (3 full games) :

My team has a 83-overall GK : I had approximately 80 shots on target, 40 shots off target and 50 shots blocked by mostly non-moving defencemen. One ugly backhand bouncing goal in traffic at the very end of a 5-0 game.

Other team with one 73-overall GK : approx. 90 shots. Maybe 15 off target, 10 blocked. 10 goals.

I had more attack time, more faceoffs won, more better opportunities to score.

12 penalties for my players, 2 for the opposition, resulting in a total (not a joke) of 3 seconds of power play.

How is that supposed to be fun?

I played a game once. I obliterated the other team in Shots (56-28 ), attack time (2-to-1), faceoffs won (3-to-1). And I lost 2-1.

Great.

My better scorers (88-overall, which is freaking great) have between 8% and 14% Shots being goals this season.

Other teams, as well as in real life : most OK players are over 10, good players over 15 and great players over 20%.

I sometimes wonder why I even bother. It's a GREAT game, great gameplay, graphics, etc... It's simply insanely hard and unrealistic.

And games are supposed to be fun.

EDIT : Oh yeah. Of course

I just played another game. In fact I wanted to, then the game started...

They scored on their first two shots.

I was pissed, so I started another. I was leading like 3-0 for the first time in my life I think, middle of the second period. Then they scored 5 straight goals in less than 10 shots.

And how come my "poke checks" don't work and theirs do?

Yes. Now I really want to play the game.

I hear a lot of people calling the league the best and most popular in the world.

It's hard arguing against 4 teams in the top 8 of the Champions League two years running if I'm not mistaken. And last year 3 of them were in the Semis.

The league's good, we all know.

As most European Leagues, most of the best players on the best teams are NOT from England, in fact, most of them are not even from Europe.

Look at Man U regulars : Ronaldo, Tevez, Vidic, Park, Berbatov. I know Man U has some good UK players, but out of 6 players who scored 5 or more goals, only one from UK : Rooney.

Arsenal : 15 players have started 20 games this year. None from England, 5 from France, 2 from Spain, 3 from Côte-D'Ivoire. Their best scorers are Adebayor (Togo) and Van Persie (NED).

Chelsea : Has 3 or 4 regular players from UK on their starting 11. Top 6 scorers : 2 frenchmen, 2 from Côte-d'Ivoire, a German and Frank Lampard (ENG).

Liverpool : Take out Gerrard and Carragher, who are captain and co captain, and you'll have a hard time finding a Brit in the rotation. It's the only team of the Big Four to have a Englishman as their top goalscorer. But he's the only one who scored this year.

Lower seeded teams like West Ham or Tottenham do have a majority of UK-players on their squad. But the good teams don't.

This pattern may be seen in most big European Leagues like Spain, France, Germany or Italy.

But at least, they are big on the international scene (Italy has won in 2006 against France, Germany has been to the Finals in '02 and semis in '06, Spain has won the Euro) whereas England has been a non-entity for years.

Which is why arrogance coming from Brits who deeply believe they rule the world of football annoys me.

Without Africans and South Americans, European Leagues would suck. I just wish African and South American countries would have the money be able to keep their great players and create [more] solid leagues. They have talent beyond anything European countries could ever hope.

What sickens me even more is that it's an direct product of capitalism and colonization.

I'm not American, not European, nor African nor South American.

Just one dude with an opinion.

I like music. All sorts of music. I can listen to Wyclef Jean, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Kanye West, IAM, Louis Armstrong, old school french pop, Rolling Stones, MC Solaar, you name it.

Sigs like "92% of teens listen to rap, if you in the other 8% that still enjoy REAL music, put this in your sigs."

Not only is the first section of this sentence completely false, but the second is preposterous.

92%? Who? Where? It's about half that percentage people.

There is no REAL music. Music is music, and that's it. You don't like rap, good for you. You don't like metal, so what?

Fact is, most people who hate rap have only listened to mainstream rap (Lil Wayne, Kanye West, 50 cent) and don't know sh*t about other rappers, the ones who write lyrics so deep about society problems there are master degree thesis written about them (NOT a joke). The ones where you can feel pain, love, hatred, humanity in it. Of course you won't get anything decent listening to "Candy Shop" or other crappy rappers who talk about pimped out rides and big boobs.

Most teens who convert to rap are only attracted by lust, luxury and h*es. That's what labels produce because it sells.

That's a society problem, not a music problem.

I don't like metal. I'm not saying it sucks, I just don't like it like one don't like broccoli or pork, whatever. I like most rock, punk and stuff, except when it's completely mindless.

And yes, there are as many bad, pointless, mindless rock/punk/metal/whatever bands as there are rappers.

I just feel sorry for people who hate one type of music because of its name or image. Read the lyrics of the song "Changes" by Tupac and come tell me it sucks. Do the same thing with "The Point of No Return" by Immortal Technique.

Stop being ignorant and overzealously proud of what you like and open your freaking mind.

Yes.

Duke lost.

That makes me happy. I don't like Duke. I don't hate the players of the coach. I just don't like Duke, like I don't like the Spurs, or the Mavericks, or the Colts, or the Flyers or the Gators. Don't even bother asking why, I couldn't even answer you...

That being said, Memphis lost, so I'm still only 3 out of 4 so far in the Elite Eight, with a possibility of another 4 / 4 tomorrow.

Oh, and 'Nova are making a serious case for winning the tournament. They played incredible last two games. Doubt Pittsburgh will be able to go through them.

Why not?

I was lurking in the PC Games Forum, just for fun to see what goes on in there.

(It always seemed sorta taboo, since I'm no PC gamer... I own a MacBook. Well I can run Diablo II and some other old games, which is enough for me. But I haven't played a game on my laptop for like 2 years... Maybe I'll star a barbarian someday...)

Anyway, I was trying to read some of the gamers' rigs, and it made my head hurt. There are so many signs and numbers like :

"4 GB DDR2-800 OCZ SLI-READY RAM" I know that's RAM (Live memory?) and it's 4 gigs but everything in between seems like Japanese to me.

"Tagan BZ Series 800w PSU" That I don't understand AT ALL. Not that it would be useful anyway, but still.

"Cooler Master RC-690 with custom side window" What?

"XFX GTX 280" Yeah sure...

"AX78-ABIT MOTHERBOARD" What the hell is that?

"Phenom X4 9500 @ 2.31GHz" Well I guess that's speed.

"Radeon HD3850 512MB" That may be the HD card?

"Intel Core 2 Duo E8400" I have Intel Core Duo too but that number is nuts, I don'T get it.

"EVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB" That's the graphics card? I remember like 10 years ago dudes were talking about GeForce 2 or 3.

Anyway, it was fun.

P-S : I'm NOT dissing PC gaming and/or gamers. In fact I'd like a great gaming PC but I stick with my MacBook for school and PS3/Wii for games. And I'm not certain about spending like 1500$ more in gaming when I'm getting married in like 10 weeks. PC games, from what I've seen, look awesome. I've seen some screenshots and it's amazing.

Anyone seen the game?

How freaking lucky Duke was in the last seconds? They didn't deserve that game and they'll get crushed by 'Nova. And I mean CRUSHED.

That's about it, great NCAA tournament all around though.

Grand Theft Auto IV received a 10 from GS and high scores from most critics around the globe.

So, after some 10 months, I've decided to actually try the game. I was reticent at first because of the whole "killing stuff for fun", thuggish, get-rich-or-die-trying image I had from previous games and commentaries. I started playing, it starts slow, very slow, you do some small jobs like lifting a dude or beating up a dude for some reason. People owe cash to other people or some other stuff, try to kill'em for some reason, you kill people mindlessly and I've got no real clue what the point is.

I love going around the city into shops and talking to people or simply driving the extremely loosened-handling cars. The story is interesting in they way that the protagonist is fun.

It seems all you have to do is kill people for some obscure reasons, steal stuff, beat people up and lifting some dudes to some places around the city.

While it may appear appealing to some people, I'm not convinced by the whole point of this game. The city is great, breathing and all, cops are incredibly inefficient or simply dumb and characters are funny and interesting for some. Cover system is cool.

I'm still not convinced. Since I got it kinda cheap, I'll play a few more missions, if it doesn't get better, I'll sell it.

I guess it's just not my type of game. It's sad because there are some very interesting elements about the game and I usually love wide open worlds (see Fallout 3)

People, in life, whine.

People on gamespot whine A LOT.

About reviews (especially) , about the site construction, about whiners (like I'm doing right), about lemmings and sheeps, about PCs, 360s, PS3s, Wiis, about the moderators, about how that system shouldn't sell that much, about how that game is better than another and everything. Everything is a reason to whine.

Now I'm all for the freedom of speech, as long as it's not racist, intolerant, or downright insulting.

It's really annoying.

Are you people never satisfied? If one game gets a 9.0, 5.0, 10, 7.5, etc... then thousands are going to cry and shout that it deserved lower or higher. It's like nobody noticed that you can do your own reviews and blogs.

And others just have bursts of anger like "**** you Gamespot, that game deserved 10! You s***" or "All of 360 or PS3 or Wii or PC owners are sheeps". or "That game pwns that one".

How can you people manage to be so annoying?

Yep. It's true. 100 days.

It's coming fast at me. Well that's what I want, so there's no big deal actually. But sometimes I think "well I'm only 21 and I am taking a HUGE step in my life".

If you people wanna get married some day. Think about it. It's a lot of money, organization, and sweat. Especially if you're not already living together and are both college students. It makes matters a wee bit more complex. But it's all fun. In the end, I'll be happy. Well I am right now, but still, I'll be happy!

What's funny though, why I wanted to post this on GameSpot. Is that the exact same day I'm getting married, I'll be a 1-year old gamespotter and my parents will celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary.

Oh, and KillZone 2 is coming out tomorrow!

Good, good.

For the first weeks of december I got so busy with school work I didn't play much games except Fallout 3, which sucked me in for like a month. Now I'm done with the main quest, I gave it to a friend so he can try it for a few weeks.

Now that I have a lot of time. I continued where i left off in MGS 4 and I started really playing LBP.

Only one word to say : WOW.

Seriously I've never been happier of my console choice than this last week. I'm sure the 360 has some great games (I own a Wii too) and it would be worth it.

But man, are those games great or what? MGS4 has great gameplay, the story's gripping, great graphics and I LOVE weapon customization. And it's fun!

LBP is undeniably the cutest video game ever. And my GF LOVES it. So do her sisters. The levels are short but extremely fun to play. Character customization is SO nice. I've never laughed so much playing a game for years. And I've only played in the story line.

So I'm happy!

Let's start this off.

I went to the local store (Archambault) where I know they usually have lower prices on the first week of release. I was right, as the Blu Ray 2 discs special edition was only $29.99 instead of $42.99.

$29.99 plus taxes : @33.85. Then I had my gift card my girlfriend gave me for my birthday I still had $23.78 on.

And Then I learned that I had gained a $10 gift because I was one of the first 1200 to buy the Dark Knight. I couldn't use it on the purchase but still.

I actually paid $10.07 but they gave me a 10 bucks, so I'll say they only made 7 cents out of me...

Anyway, it was funny.

When I bought the 80gb PS3 bundle with MGS 4 I knew I was going to play a superb game on a great console. What I didn't knew was that I wouldn't have enough time to actually enjoy that AAAAE game, the only one of this generation according to Gamespot.

Why am I talking about time?

Being a full-time university student with 4 jobs eating another 20-25 hours in my weekly schedule, long periods of spare time is hard to find. In the summer time, I could find 2-3 hours straight with nothing else to do (IF it was raining, because I can't stay inside if the weather is nice, basketball calls). So MGS4 was continually in my PS3, as I loved it and didn't have another great game yet anyway.

But then school started. Well now I can't really play for long periods of time (except for this last week where I was stuck on Fallout 3) because of all those things I have to do. Being in my first playthrough I want to watch all the cinematics to understand the story. So I'm never sure about what I'm about to witness, will it be 2 hours of great gameplay or 10 minutes with 90 other minutes of cinematics I don't wanna skip or stop?

That is why, in essence, I don't play MGS 4 anymore. I'm not dissing the game. I'm sure when I'm done with it it'll get a 9.0 or 9.5. It's very good.

It's just too bad I can't enjoy it every now and then when I have 15 or 30 minutes to spare.

Can't wait for the holidays!