Friday Funspot for 3/22

Starting off: PAX East. Can Anyone Spare a ticket?

So, I was unable to procure PAX East tickets, despite it taking place less than an hour from where I am. I am the sad, as they say. But it'll be interesting to see what comes out of PAX East. It's become the early-year go to point for announcements and first looks at upcoming games. If you're going (and not going to give me a ticket *grin*), do me a favor, will you? Roll a d20 and play a round of Super Smash Brothers for me, will ya? Gotta keep the history alive...

Next Up: Neverwinter's Third Beta Weekend...

I haven't read the NDA for Neverwinter, so I'm not going to say whether I'm in this weekend's beta or not, because I think the non-dislcousre agreements punishes revealing anything about the upcoming game with a lightning strike (or having to write a 15,000 word paper on SimCity's release.. I think I'd prefer the lightning bolt). But I will say this.. it's gone pretty much under the radar, and it will be interesting to see how a fairly major MMO release goes when it starts off as Free 2 Play.

Getting to third base with: Miami Heat, and rubber-band AI... and March Madness

For those of you who do not follow basketball, the Miami Heat have won 24 in a row, coming back from down 17 against (my beloved) Boston Celtics and then 20-odd points against Cleveland. If this happened in NBA2K13, we'd be yelling about Rubber-Band AI (or as Bill Simmons puts it, the NFW game, you know, the one where the Computer gets fed up with you beating it and turns it up to 11 and starts kicking your butt? The one where you end up throwing a controller before hitting the reset button and stalking away).. 

Also in non-video game basketball news, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, or more commonly, March Madness going on. I'm surprised that neither of the big video game providers has made a deal to offer free streaming of the games.. you think with the TV focus that they have now, it'd be a big seller..

Four on the Floor: Celebrating 20 years of NHL '94..

NHL.Com has an awesome article about NHL '94, which is hitting its 20th anniversary this year.. It's a great look about a game that inspired to many hockey players, and so many video games Not to mention this from Mallrats: "Breakfast? Breakfast, schmekfrest. Look at the score. I'm only in the middle of the second, and I'm winning Twelve to Two. Breakfasts come and go, Rene. Now, Hartford - the whale - hey... they only beat Vancouver once.. maybe twice in a lifetime."

(((Oh, and EA, remake Mutant League Football and Hockey. Please. I'm asking nicely. Don't make me beg. I will if I need to however)))

And Finally... (insert Jingoistic slogan here)

Good luck to the US Men's Soccer Team, which has a couple key games over the next seven days, tonight (Friday) against Costa Rica, and then Tuesday against Mexico. So, remember this everyone, USA! USA! USA! USA!