Old Guy Game Guides: Fight Night Champion- Pugilistic Programmed Play Progression

As a fan of boxing with little to none of the genetic requirements to be skilled or aggressive enough to pursue it myself, using video games has always been the main available substitute.

Unfortunately, they originally looked like this.

Denver 2012: Day 4

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

July 6th 2012

Our destination was the Rocky Mountain National Park, which contained a large amount to experience and required a fairly long drive to reach. We planned a very early exit to insure we’d have time there before the late afternoon, when the summer thunderstorms tend to hit. After our regular ritual of morning discombobulations, we started the trip around a quarter past nine.

We still would have been on track for a lunchtime arrival, except for one small problem:

It was us.

Superman: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

No, I haven’t started a new series of Amalgams; I’m talking about Man of Steel.  If Warner Brothers wants to copy the successes of Marvel’s films; they really should have watched the first Spider-man before tackling Superman, to let the mantra in the title get drilled into their heads.

Before I get on my comic nerd soapbox, I need to clear something up.  I’m all about seeing superhero movies.  Even though I descend into humorous (hopefully) geekly rants about most of them, I greatly enjoy watching interpretations of the characters I love on the big screen.  Flaws and all, I enjoyed Green Lantern.

 I even enjoyed Daredevil and Ghost Rider. 

Heck, though thinking about them at all made glaring issues obvious, I enjoyed the experiences of watching Superman Returns and Batman and Robin. 

I am not a tough audience. 

Yes, I complain and gripe about things done “wrong,” but I also gain a great deal of pleasure watching the movies.

I did not enjoy Man of Steel.

 Neither did my wife (who thought it was too dark and violent) or daughter (who asked near the end, “Do we HAVE to buy it when it comes out?”) There were serious problems over and above the stuff I’m going to start ranting about now.  I’ll get back to those later.

Denver 2012: Day 3

Day 1

Day 2

July 5th 2012

We had a slightly later awakening this day, and Anabelle only wanted corn flakes for breakfast. When she told me it was, “So your cheerios don’t get soggy,” enough guilt washed over me to guarantee her eggs any style, any time she wanted them…for the rest of her life.

We left several times.

No matter how much planning was involved, there always needed to be several “run back in”s whenever we left the house.

Family Fight Festivities

The first boxing matches I remember seeing were down in the basement with my Grandfather. Whenever they’d visit, we’d move the little TV down there to my Grandparents’ bedroom to allow him to watch “The Fights.” Being an old Italian from the Bronx in the time before political correctness existed; he would root for “the white guy.”

To clarify: he was watching said fights on Proto-Telemundo and Ur-Univision UHF stations in Spanish. The only way he could see any picture at all through the static was by running about twelve feet of tin foil off the antennae and across a nearby picture frame. Honestly, with that image and sound quality, “white guy” was more akin to the lighter shade of chess pieces being referred to as “white” than any racial delineation.

Denver 2012: Day 2

Day 1

July 4th 2012

It Isn’t Really Sweet or Scientific, Is It?

One of the down sides of having an occasionally photographic memory and a hyperactive imagination is pretty much every major mistake I’ve made leading to lost opportunities not only constantly replays in my head, but also generates all sorts of “What if”s showing where the opportunity could have led.

For a pleasant change, it is not connected to a personal screw up or chickening out, but boxing figures in one of the most dramatic “What If”s in my life.

Denver 2012: Day 1

Doubled Down Out West

Or

Rocky Mountain Hiatus

July 3, 2012

Having learned the previous year that the Denver area contained far more to offer than we originally thought, a double sized vacation was planned.  All of us would be there the first two weeks, while my family would remain for two more while I came home and returned to work.