Chicago Bears NFL Jersey

I’m very excited to finally own this jersey because it’s my first football jersey.  Although I have had the chance to buy a few in the past, I always passed on them because I didn’t like the quality of the jersey, the price, or the team.  Quality was a major factor because up until a few years ago, football jerseys were made pretty flimsy.  The numbers and names were screen printed and would rub off easily, the polyester material would rip easily, and the way they were tailored seemed awkward to me.  But then around the late 90’s the quality improved and that got me really interested.  Suddenly jerseys would use better materials, screen print was replaced by stitching, and the new tailoring made them much more comfortable to wear.

Unfortunately the price was still high, so I refused to buy one until I saw them on sale.  Well, my patience paid off because I was not only able to attain a football jersey on clearance, but also a jersey from a team I like.  Now just to give you a little background on why it was on clearance, was because it was Reebok brand.  A few years ago, Nike took over the NFL licence which led to stores putting all the Reebok brand appeal on sale and clearance.  I don’t mind buying jerseys like this because you’re getting good quality for an even better price.  Though I must confess, these new Nike football jerseys have phenomenal quality.

My jersey is of the Chicago Bears, and for some reason I have always loved the sports teams from Chicago, minus their baseball teams.  The jersey is from Reebok’s Premier line, which makes it a medium quality jersey, where you get some patches stitched on.  I actually prefer this quality because it’s quality that can handle everyday use.  The colorway is clean and simple, a solid navy blue, with orange and white highlights.  My only complaint about it would be that it uses the silky type of polyester that can scratch easy, but what can you do since football jerseys don’t use the same polyester that baseball jerseys use.  Other than that, this is a wonderful jersey that I can’t wait to wear in the summer.

Chicago Bears:

http://www.chicagobears.com

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YY-llIahvk

Homer Simpson Papercraft

This Homer Simpson papercraft was created by Ninjatoes.  It comes with the papercraft sheet and instruction sheet.  There’s a lot of stuff to printout, so I suggest you print the instructions in black and white ink.  I would also recommend you make two copies of the papercraft sheet because one copy will be the one you cut and build, and the other can be used as a guide sheet.  This papercraft seems easy, but after all the cutting and gluing you will realize that it’s actually challenging.

The difficult parts were the small parts such as the arms, fingers, ears and nose.  Since there were a lot of parts to glue, it also took longer to build because of how much time I had to wait for pieces to dry before connecting them together.  Needless to say, patience and tweezers were both needed in this build.  While the instructions are color photos, I was still lost on certain sections of the build and had to improvise.  The easiest parts to build were the pants, shirt, and shoes.

Once completed Homer looks pretty cute, and accurate to the cartoon.  The arms of my papercraft are a little warped, but I’m okay with that because it’s barely noticeable.  My favorite part of this papercraft is the head because of how much detail went into building it (the printout even includes Homer’s comb over hair).  In fact just building the head alone would be sufficient to have as a nice display piece.  I had a great time building Homer Simpson, and hope to do another Ninjatoes papercraft in the future.

Homer Simpson Papercraft:

http://ninjatoes.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/homer-simpson

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roWtEj5_7CA

Playstation 4

So with Sony holding a major press conference on Wednesday, which everyone assumes will be the unveiling of Playstation 4; I decided to make a list of the things I would like Sony to include in this conference.  First off, I want them to focus on games and nothing else.  Going after the people that like social media, downloadable content, and Playstation Move is useless because only the hard-core gamers will be the ones watching this conference.  People that actually like those other features will probably wait until the console is well established before buying a PS4.  For now it’s all about the hard-core gamers that only care about playing good games.

With respect towards the games, I want them to launch PS4 no later than November because they can take advantage of the major title games that should release around that time; GTA5, The Last of Us, and Tomb Raider.  If there’s one thing I hate about a new console launch is when the developers promise good games to come, but you have to wait a year for them to release.  By launching around the Fall, they will have quality games to begin with and will give people a reason to buy the system.  This also gives time for games that aren’t quite finished, the time to properly complete such as; Star Wars 1313, Phantom Pain, and The Last Guardian.

While everyone expects Sony to also show next gen graphic games, I would prefer they just stick to the games that have already been mentioned.  Their selling point should be what will release and not what might release one day.  By focusing on the games that have been mentioned, Sony will then be able to just advertise products that people can actually buy.  What Sony needs right now is people buying their products, and not waiting until a certain game releases a year or two from now.  Obliviously they should show something next gen, but it shouldn’t take away from their launch titles.

Other things I would like them to mention in the conference is the price, around $300 to $500 would be ideal.  To have backwards compatibility for at least PS3 games.  While this feature might ruin sales for PS3 consoles, Sony is better off letting that horse die than to keep wasting money on it.  If they do mention downloadable content, it should be for PS1 and PS2 games that cost under $5 to $10.  I think they’re better off selling those games for cheap, than to not sell them at all.  Memory for the new console should be easy to upgrade and if it requires a Sony brand hard drive, it should be affordable to upgrade, so people can get use to downloading content without fear of taking out a bank loan to pay for an upgrade.  These are just some of the expectations I have for Wednesday, and if Sony does deliver most of what I have mentioned, I will be there on release day to buy a new PS4.

Why the video game industry needs piracy

A great debate that is popular among video game enthusiasts is what it takes for a video game console to become the number one seller.  I’m by no means an expert on video games, but the other day I did develop a theory on what it takes.  My reasons are based on the years I have been around friends and peers that are into gaming.  So what does it take for a video game system to become a best seller?  Well I believe it is the unscrupulous opportunity to play pirated games.  It’s almost been a maxim since childhood that all the popular systems are the ones that let individuals play pirated games.

The first system I noticed that allowed people to play pirated games was the NES.  Back in those days kids would own less than 5 video games, and would either play rented games or borrowed games if they wanted to try other titles.  Then when pirated games came along, everyone discovered that you could now own 5 or more games on just one cartridge.  While the NES really didn’t have any competition at the time, pirated cartridges created a culture that made people expect a black market for video games.

After the NES, I owned the Sega Genesis and I never heard about pirated games for that system or the Super NES.  So in a way, both those systems were on an even playing field because none of them had the pirated game advantage as far as I knew.    After those systems Sega, Panasonic, and NeoGeo all released highly advanced consoles, but they never sold well because they were extremely expensive.  As a result, pirated games were never made because no one owned the systems.