Heading into the Expansion Draft a couple weeks ago, Houston had left their star striker and arguably the face of the franchise Brian Ching unprotected in a rather arrogant and hopeful move thinking that his salary would turn away interest from Montreal. In an attempt to further dampen interest from Montreal, Ching then publicly announced that if the Impact picked him up in the draft that he would rather retire than play his last year or two with a team other than Houston. Well, the Impact weren't fazed by any of it. Come Draft morning, Ching was their first announced selection. As you can imagine, this has sparked outrage throughout Houston.
This is definitely an interesting and somewhat unexpected move by Montreal. Clearly they're looking to build a team with plenty of veteran experience, and Ching certainly brings that experience. The question is, though, whether or not he will play for them. So far it isn't clear whether or not Ching will make good on his promise of retiring.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
It's Official: Arlo White Is Headed to NBC
According to this tweet from widely known Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl, former Sounders FC play-by-play man Arlo White has been hired by NBC:
The question now is, will White continue with Sounders FC broadcasts much like JP Delacamera and Taylor Twellman calling local Philadelphia Union games when they aren't calling natiionally broadcasted games on Fox Soccer and ESPN respectively, or will he solely devote his time to NBC?
You can read further here.
The question now is, will White continue with Sounders FC broadcasts much like JP Delacamera and Taylor Twellman calling local Philadelphia Union games when they aren't calling natiionally broadcasted games on Fox Soccer and ESPN respectively, or will he solely devote his time to NBC?
You can read further here.
Re-Entry Draft Next Week
This morning MLS announced the players available for the upcoming Re-Entry Draft, players who are either out of contract or whose club declined to pick up their option. It's notable that there are several goalkeepers on the list, most notably Vancouver's two primary keepers from last season Jay Nolly and Joe Cannon. Other highlights on the list include San Jose leftback Bobby Convey (who's leaving due to issues with the technical staff), DC United midfielder Santino Quaranta who should prove quite attractive to other clubs, as well as two strikers from FC Dallas (Maicon Santos and Maykel Galindo) who are already quite light on strikers.
The Sounders declined the options for Pat Noonan, Nate Jaqua, and Taylor Graham., which seems to be a bit of a no brainer seeing that for the past season they proved to be nothing more than dead weight. Jaqua has certainly made significant contributions to the club, carrying them through the Open Cup in the 2010 season, scoring nine goals in 2009, and scoring the series winner against Panama FC in the play-in round for the 2011-2012 CCL back in August, but he has been plagued with injury issues since the close of the 2009 season and hasn't proven to have much of an impact or place on the team since. Not much can be said of Noonan or Graham, they both saw very limited playing time with the first team during their duration with the team.
To view the entire list of available players, head here.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Game Review - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
Each year Activision releases a new installment in the Call of Duty series, and this year we're graced with the latest Modern Warfare. And as has come to be expected over the past couple of years, a handheld version of the game with an alternate storyline accompanies the console offering. Some are puzzled and outraged that Activision opted to contract n-Space to develop for the DS rather than the 3DS, other reviewers seemingly blaming n-Space for something entirely out of their control. n-space simply do not deserve to take the blame for a decision that was completely out of their hands. With that said, I'll first delve into the single player experience.
The campaign is quite short, but what little there is offers a decent amount of variety and overall is is quite fun. The player goes from defending a pipeline in Alaska, battling through a suburban neighborhood in Nevada and subsequently fighting to reclaim the Hoover Dam, assaulting an airport both in the air and on foot, to battling through battle-scared city streets in a Russian tank. Along with the tank mission, on multiple occasions the player assumes the role of a gunship providing cover fire for a team making it's way through the landscape down below. These levels go a long way towards fostering variety, and preventing the action from getting too stale or repetitive. There are some issues with these levels, however. Most notably the tank level. When there is a lull in the action, the level can feel really dead and lifeless, as you're driving through portions of the city with absolutely nothing going on. Not only that, the level of challenge in that level is a little suspect. At no point did I feel particularly threatened or near death.
That then brings up the issues of the AI's utter lack of any real intelligence, which can tend to be very frustrating at times. The enemy AI makes itself a sitting duck, simply crouching in the wide open and firing at you, allowing you to easily mow them down one by one. While you can get away with that on the lower difficulties, it isn't that simple on Hardened. While the AI remains astoundingly stupid, the increased amount of damage that you take with each shot requires a little bit of patience and strategy to take down the enemy/s standing between you and the next area.
Technically speaking, past the AI issues, the game is absolutely impressive. Animations look nicer for some returning guns (M40), the scenery is fantastic, and the amount of activity that goes on during battle such as jets or helicopters flying by overhead is a nice touch. To further emulate the console experience and add further production value and quality, n-Space made the addition of of bullet time events that can be found interspersed throughout the campaign. These events are where, after a door gets blasted open with a charge, you and your team enter the following room or area in slow motion. As has become an expectation, the game is impressive aurally as well. Oodles of voice work accentuate and add to the action, and the music is suitably dramatic when in tense and close-call situations.
With Black Ops last year, n-Space made great strides towards improving the multiplayer experience with the addition of features such as perks, join in progress, and the ability to freely select your secondary weapon (confined just to a pistol in previous installments). Defiance continues improving the multiplayer experience, adding a couple key new features and refining a couple others. The two primary new features introduced by Defiance are macros and load outs, allowing you to preset your preferred match set-ups and weapon and perk configurations. Another notable change is the ability to customize availability of certain weapons and perks, rather than simply having to choose general match parameters like "Pistols-Only" or "No Explosives" the host now has complete control over what weapons the players in the match use. This proves to be a significant change, as if there is a specific weapon that particularly bothers the host (shotguns immediately comes to mind), they can disallow that weapon. Further refinements can be found in a new tier system for both weapons and perks. Previously in Black Ops, a player could assign any weapon and any perk to either slot, which would often lead to incredibly overpowered set-ups (such as dual assault rifle and the perks Stopping Power and Body Armor). The tier system lends much needed balance, limiting the player to carrying around only one powerful primary weapon and preventing the exploitation of multiple high-powered perks. Not only does this give much needed balance, it forces the player to really strategize and put more consideration into their set-up.
Along with those general improvements some newly introduced modes (Gun Game, One in the Chamber, Sharpshooter) provide a fun twist on the typical run-of-the-mill deathmatch. The real highlight proves to be Gun Game, a race through twenty levels, each level represented by a weapon and a kill with each weapon progressing you on to the next level. The inclusion of the ability to decrease your opponents level by knifing them adds a layer of strategy on top the mayhem.
Overall, Defiance can be seen as a step forward in one regard (multiplayer) and as a step back in another (single player). Clearly to make way for the multiplayer improvements, n-Space really cut down on the variety of single player modes. Where Defiance has only campaign, Quick Play, and Challenge Mode, Black Ops on the other hand had Arcade Mode, the Killhouse, and Zombie Mode in addition to those three. It is understandable why those modes/features don't make a return in Defiance, but that doesn't mean that it isn't frustrating. When it's all said and done, though, the multiplayer and the replay value that it grants the game is what truly matters.
The campaign is quite short, but what little there is offers a decent amount of variety and overall is is quite fun. The player goes from defending a pipeline in Alaska, battling through a suburban neighborhood in Nevada and subsequently fighting to reclaim the Hoover Dam, assaulting an airport both in the air and on foot, to battling through battle-scared city streets in a Russian tank. Along with the tank mission, on multiple occasions the player assumes the role of a gunship providing cover fire for a team making it's way through the landscape down below. These levels go a long way towards fostering variety, and preventing the action from getting too stale or repetitive. There are some issues with these levels, however. Most notably the tank level. When there is a lull in the action, the level can feel really dead and lifeless, as you're driving through portions of the city with absolutely nothing going on. Not only that, the level of challenge in that level is a little suspect. At no point did I feel particularly threatened or near death.
That then brings up the issues of the AI's utter lack of any real intelligence, which can tend to be very frustrating at times. The enemy AI makes itself a sitting duck, simply crouching in the wide open and firing at you, allowing you to easily mow them down one by one. While you can get away with that on the lower difficulties, it isn't that simple on Hardened. While the AI remains astoundingly stupid, the increased amount of damage that you take with each shot requires a little bit of patience and strategy to take down the enemy/s standing between you and the next area.
Technically speaking, past the AI issues, the game is absolutely impressive. Animations look nicer for some returning guns (M40), the scenery is fantastic, and the amount of activity that goes on during battle such as jets or helicopters flying by overhead is a nice touch. To further emulate the console experience and add further production value and quality, n-Space made the addition of of bullet time events that can be found interspersed throughout the campaign. These events are where, after a door gets blasted open with a charge, you and your team enter the following room or area in slow motion. As has become an expectation, the game is impressive aurally as well. Oodles of voice work accentuate and add to the action, and the music is suitably dramatic when in tense and close-call situations.
With Black Ops last year, n-Space made great strides towards improving the multiplayer experience with the addition of features such as perks, join in progress, and the ability to freely select your secondary weapon (confined just to a pistol in previous installments). Defiance continues improving the multiplayer experience, adding a couple key new features and refining a couple others. The two primary new features introduced by Defiance are macros and load outs, allowing you to preset your preferred match set-ups and weapon and perk configurations. Another notable change is the ability to customize availability of certain weapons and perks, rather than simply having to choose general match parameters like "Pistols-Only" or "No Explosives" the host now has complete control over what weapons the players in the match use. This proves to be a significant change, as if there is a specific weapon that particularly bothers the host (shotguns immediately comes to mind), they can disallow that weapon. Further refinements can be found in a new tier system for both weapons and perks. Previously in Black Ops, a player could assign any weapon and any perk to either slot, which would often lead to incredibly overpowered set-ups (such as dual assault rifle and the perks Stopping Power and Body Armor). The tier system lends much needed balance, limiting the player to carrying around only one powerful primary weapon and preventing the exploitation of multiple high-powered perks. Not only does this give much needed balance, it forces the player to really strategize and put more consideration into their set-up.
Along with those general improvements some newly introduced modes (Gun Game, One in the Chamber, Sharpshooter) provide a fun twist on the typical run-of-the-mill deathmatch. The real highlight proves to be Gun Game, a race through twenty levels, each level represented by a weapon and a kill with each weapon progressing you on to the next level. The inclusion of the ability to decrease your opponents level by knifing them adds a layer of strategy on top the mayhem.
Overall, Defiance can be seen as a step forward in one regard (multiplayer) and as a step back in another (single player). Clearly to make way for the multiplayer improvements, n-Space really cut down on the variety of single player modes. Where Defiance has only campaign, Quick Play, and Challenge Mode, Black Ops on the other hand had Arcade Mode, the Killhouse, and Zombie Mode in addition to those three. It is understandable why those modes/features don't make a return in Defiance, but that doesn't mean that it isn't frustrating. When it's all said and done, though, the multiplayer and the replay value that it grants the game is what truly matters.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Sounders Lose Two in Draft Dealings
The Sounders stood to lose a starting quality player to this afternoon's Expansion Draft, and as it turns out, they lost not one but two. Announced as the ninth pick, James Riley will not actually be headed to Montreal. Montreal traded him with Chivas USA for Justin Braun and G. Mayan in return. After the Impact finished announcing each of their ten picks, they made the announcement that they had acquired Tyson Wahl from the Sounders for allocation money in return.
It's definitely quite a blow for the Sounders to lose both starting fullbacks from last season, but the Sounders still have a very capable left back in Leo Gonzalez and worthy replacement on the right in Zach Scott. In a recent interview Adrain Hanauer expressed that one of the areas that he and the front office were looking to bolster in the off-season is defense, so it wouldn't be entirely surprising if they find a replacement for Riley and perhaps Wahl as well.
The remaining list of draftees is below:
It's definitely quite a blow for the Sounders to lose both starting fullbacks from last season, but the Sounders still have a very capable left back in Leo Gonzalez and worthy replacement on the right in Zach Scott. In a recent interview Adrain Hanauer expressed that one of the areas that he and the front office were looking to bolster in the off-season is defense, so it wouldn't be entirely surprising if they find a replacement for Riley and perhaps Wahl as well.
The remaining list of draftees is below:
- Seth Sinovic (SKC)
- Sanna Nyassi (Colorado)
- Josh Gardner (Columbus Crew)
- Jeb Brovsky (Vancouver)
- Brian Ching (Houston)
- Zarek Valentin (ChivasUSA)
- Justin Mapp (Philadelphia Union)
- Bobby Burling (San Jose)
- Collen Warner (RSL)
Monday, November 21, 2011
Expansion Draft Protected Lists Revealed
It's that time of the year again, the Expansion Draft held to help supplement and build the roster of an incoming expansion team. It was done in 2008 for the Sounders, in 2009 for the Philadelphia Union, last year for the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers, and now this year for the Montreal Impact. There are several notable players that were quite surprisingly left unprotected, such as Brian Ching from the Houston Dynamo (who in fact threatened to retire if Montreal selected him), one of the Columbus Crew's top goal-scorers last season Andres Mendoza, Sporting Kansas City's captain and Designated Player Omar Bravo, and Freddy Adu who was recently acquired by the Philadelphia Union, among others. Seeing how big name players that clubs are taking a gamble with, it will certainly be interesting to see if Montreal resists the temptation of a more expensive player or not when they submit their list later on today.
To view the complete protected and unprotected lists for each team, head here.
To view the complete protected and unprotected lists for each team, head here.
Sounders Claim 2012-13 CCL Group Stage Berth
Thanks to the LA Galaxy claiming the MLS Cup Sunday night, the Sounders have claimed a berth in the 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions league group stages. Because the Galaxy claimed both the MLS Cup and Supporter's Shield, they can only hold onto one of the awarded CCL group stage berths and thus their second one falls to the team with the second best regular season record. Because they were Cup runner-ups, the Houston Dynamo get the opportunity to play in to the competition, and because the Sounders claim the Supporter's Shield berth, the play-in opportunity that they were awarded because they won the US Open Cup fall to the team with the third best regular season record, Real Salt Lake.
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