Author: Chris

Chris is the brains, brawn, and height behind most of At The Buzzer. He drinks four gallons of milk a week. Email him at chris@atthebuzzershow.com.
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Review: NBA 2K12

Chris

2K Sports had every reason to mail it in.

They won, after all. Not only was NBA 2K11 one of the most critically acclaimed sports titles in video game history, but it also managed to wipe EA Sports’ series from the face of the earth in the process. EA’s NBA Elite was a glitch-ridden, buggy mess, so bad that the company canceled development of last year’s title and didn’t even bother with one for 2011.

So no one could really fault 2K for resting on their laurels and giving us the standard roster update. After all, Madden’s been doing it for years.

Instead, they took the definitive basketball experience and made it even better. Continue reading “Review: NBA 2K12”

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Sunrise, sunset

Chris

As an esteemed and highly reputable journalist — or something thereabouts — I’ve had the luxury of working in this field for longer than most folks my age. Really, I started dabbling in the field about a decade ago in high school, although it wasn’t really serious until the start of my sophomore year in college.

Journalists are strange creatures. They flock to jobs in a dying industry (although it’s not dying as fast as most folks think), they make jokes few understand (about things like double trucks and dangling participles), and they are more often than not behind the times (one recently departed co-worker still has no home computer and furrowed his brow every time someone mentioned “the Twitter”).

For those stuck working at daily newspapers, they may also be stuck keeping very erratic sleep schedules. Continue reading “Sunrise, sunset”

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Review: Deux Ex Human Revolution

Chris

I know what you’re thinking. “But Chris … a few weeks ago you said you don’t like shooters!”

First of all, that’s not true. I said I don’t like most shooters. There are exceptions. Despite being unfamiliar with the series, I liked enough of what I saw from previews for Deus Ex: Human Revolution to give it a shot, especially since it was free for me to play it.

What followed was an experience in unstoppable roaming turrets, devastating punches, never asking for this, and a game that ultimately does a lot of things very well, but nothing truly great. Continue reading “Review: Deux Ex Human Revolution”

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Adventures between the foul lines

Chris

I’ll let you in on a little secret about me that I’m sure you’ve been dying to know: I never played baseball as a kid. Not T-ball, not Little League, not anything. Maybe that makes me something less than the ideal American (I can just imagine Shaun giving me crap as we speak), but it’s the way things worked out.

See, I’ve always played a lot of sports. I did organized basketball and soccer for eight years, and was pretty decent at both. I picked up Ultimate Frisbee in high school and won three intramural titles in college (and was pretty damn good). I tried out for the tennis team in high school despite not having played competitively. Even now, I still play most of those — as well as stuff like racquetball and volleyball. Hell, I was a lineman for football in eighth grade, and I hate/suck at football. I guess I’m kind of a sports junkie.

But baseball never happened. I’ve always liked the game. I can remember watching the Reds sweep the A’s in the 1990 World Series with my dad. I played wiffleball growing up and loved hitting home runs. But somehow I never had the chance to play.

So you can imagine my concern when I had the chance to play on a slow-pitch softball team for work. Continue reading “Adventures between the foul lines”

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Tales of Disappointment

Chris

My love-hate relationship with the “Tales of” video game series goes back almost a decade now. Don’t get me wrong — there’s a lot more love than hate. But sometimes those emotions are two sides of the same coin, after all.

I was introduced to the series through a ROM of the Super Nintendo’s Tales of Phantasia back in high school. At the time, I was impressed by the idea of a fighting-game-like battle system in an RPG — it seemed like a nice change of pace from turn-based, menu-heavy systems.

That game was decent, but I wasn’t really a huge fan until the summer of 2004, when Tales of Symphonia hit the GameCube and redefined my view of the series and RPGs forever. Continue reading “Tales of Disappointment”

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Review: RHCP’s “I’m With You”

Chris

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around for a while. Hell, the band was started before I was born.

Since 1983, RHCP has had a weird mix of consistency and disarray in their lineup — Anthony Kiedis and Flea have been there from day one and Chad Smith joined the group more than 20 years ago, but the early days involved a lot of drug use and rotating people. For their new album, “I’m With You,” the Chili Peppers are introducing new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who replaces longtime member John Frusciante.

That change, coupled with the band’s continued evolution and musical development, results in a different sound for RHCP’s 10th album. But different doesn’t necessarily mean bad — in fact, there’s a lot to like about “I’m With You.” Continue reading “Review: RHCP’s “I’m With You””

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Call of Doody

Chris

I hate Call of Duty. There, I said it.

Okay, it’s not that simple. We had to set up some background stuff first. I mean, I don’t just hate something for no reason — even the Hate Round on the podcast doesn’t support that. If you’re going to spend time hating something, you have to make it a calculated thing, not something spur of the moment.

First things first: I’m not a big fan of shooters, Call of Duty or not. They’re not real high on my favorites list. I’ve played a few over the years that I’ve actually liked, but the list is pretty short and each one has its own reasons. Continue reading “Call of Doody”

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Games for a concerned gamer

Chris

I consider myself a pretty serious gamer. I might not be as prolific as I once was (hello, middle school years!), but I probably spend a good 10-15 hours a week playing games of some kind.

I consider myself a pretty serious gamer, yet I’ve bought exactly three new titles in 2011.

One of those was Marvel vs. Capcom 3, a must for a fighting game fan like myself. One was You Don’t Know Jack, which wasn’t even a full retail release (we reviewed that game in the first episode of At the Buzzer). And the last was Pokemon Black. Sure, I managed to milk a lot of time out of catching them all — and by catching them all, I mean catching about 20 that I like, ignoring the rest, and spending the rest of my time battling/breeding — but there was still a pretty noticeable lack of games that I cared about.

Looking ahead, though, there seem to be a ton of games I can get behind.

Continue reading “Games for a concerned gamer”