:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/1038948/GYI0061271781.jpg)
By now, you may have realized that I write this post on Monday nights. Since this weekend was a long one, I'm shortening this post before I slip into a tryptophan-induced coma. So for your enjoyment this week: a FIFA 11 mini-review and some bitching about the British media. I may duck in with another post later this week to make it up to you.
Which Button Do I Press To Take A Dive?
I am terrible at video games. As I was growing up, my parents were reluctant to allow me the indulgence of a gaming console, but far be it from me to blame it on them. I'm just not very good. That being said, I love FIFA 11. At the moment, I'm obsessed with the "Be A Pro" feature, which allows me to be terrible with one player while the rest of the team tries to compensate for my ineptitude. It goes without saying that my usual choice is John Carew. The game also allows you to take a specific pro through a career as either a player or a manager. There's no limit on attributes for your created pro, which led to the unfortunate occurence of my created pro instantly starting for Aston Villa and taking the captain's armband off of Petrov by the season opener. Which, don't get me wrong, someone should probably do at some point, just not a rookie midfielder who I made up on a whim.
FIFA's big thing is "realism", which has some advantages, but also results in me giving the ball away. A lot. Defenders are a lot better in this game than they used to be, or in the case of Arsenal, better than they are in real life. The game has also incorporated "player types" in order to make individual players unique in their own special way. I've yet to notice, however, whether or not Steven Gerrard runs around the pitch like a terrier with a coke habit and a poor understanding of tactics. I'm giving FIFA 11 an unqualified recommendation. And that recommendation is: play Birmingham City on "Easy." It's loads of fun.
Read All About What?
Headline writers. Specifically, headline writers who write misleading headlines. Like this: Ashley Young still aiming to win his spurs with England. Earn his "Spurs?" Really, The Guardian? I see what you're doing there, and I don't like it. Is it not enough that Stuart James has been setting up blind dates between Ashley Young and the Worst Jowly-Faced Man In Football for the better part of a year? Tabloids are the worst for this. If it's not something rhyming, it's just plain ignorance. There's nothing in either of these articles to justify the stupidity in the headlines. So why are they there? This is probably why the media is dying.