I had plans for Saturday. It's Iron Bowl weekend, after all, that sacred time in the heart of every Alabama native when the forces of all that is mighty and pure (Auburn) battle to stave off the ever-creeping tide of darkness and malignant evil in the world (the University of Alabama) on the gridiron.

I had a three-pronged plan to set in motion beginning bright and early:

1) Pound the Crimson Tide in as many games as I could in NCAA 07 to appease the Terrible and Vengeful Gods of SEC Football.

2) Prepare a huge bowl of Ruffles, complete with ranch sauce.

3) Provide moral support for my team, mainly by howling at the television with unfettered rage each time Alabama so much as managed to get a first down.

Only a few things on earth would make me miss the Iron Bowl. One of them involves Scarlett Johansson and probably isn't appropriate for this blog. Another, of course, is my boss telling me I needed to be in Los Angeles on Saturday to cover the launch event of the Nintendo Wii in SoCal, which is just what I'll be doing.

Honestly, I expect the Wii event to be decidely lower key than the craziness that has accompanied the PS3 debut. The general perception seems to be that anyone who wants a Wii before Christmas will be able to find one. Still, it's cool to think that I'll have been there in person to experience two of the bigger consumer entertainment spectacles in recent years. And if I should come back to the hotel late tomorrow evening after the first of the Wii's have been sold, only to find that Auburn has pounded the Crimson Tide for a fifth straight year, well, all the better...

For the past few days, I've been doing my best to enjoy basketball. I'm talking about real basketball mind you, particularly the NBA. The problem has nothing to do with basketball games, which I enjoy in small doses. It's just the real game that bugs me. It doesn't help that the start of the NBA season comes right when college football is getting really interesting and the NFL is reaching it's halfway-point. After all, why should I care about hoops when the Chicago Bears are 7-1?

More than that, though, there's a real sense of aimless transience to basketball that has always bugged me. Players move around all the time, teams change cities seemingly too much, and an NBA coach's career span is better measured in months than years. Moreso than practically any other sport, it seems like you're simply rooting for a logo than you are a team of players you admire.

But I'm not here to hate basketball. I'm making a sincere effort to really enjoy it. For a brief moment last weekend, I considered doing a weekly video blog discussing my 2006-07 NBA 2K7 season (where I've been playing as my Golden State Warriors, not exactly a glowing example of the NBA's best and brightest, granted) contrasted with the real progress of the Warriors. I still might, assuming I can find the time to play and watch 82 basketball games this year and then turn that into something relatively entertaining.

All of this said, I'm more excited about college basketball than I have been in years, partially because last year's NCAA Tourney was one of the best in recent memory, and partially because I've been playing and writing about College Hoops 2K7 lately. The game is looking good--though not necessarily as polished as its NBA counterpart. Which is sort of its charm, I suppose.

One of the nicest things you can say about College Hoops' gameplay is that some of the players on your team are really, really bad, especially when you're controlling someone other than the Dukes and North Carolinas of the world. It can be disconcerting, especially when you really need that game-winning J with 1.2 seconds on the clock. At the same time, it's fantastic because that's how college basketball is. Sometimes the kid makes the shot like Christian Laettner back in March '92, and sometimes he ends up a weeping heap like Adam Morrison in March '06.

Of course, the irony is that Christian Laettner, Duke legend, grew up to become Christian Laettner, middling NBA journeyman. Adam Morrison's pro hoops story has yet to be written. As does the story for the video game he's appearing on--March Madness 07, which won't be released until January of 2007. As it will be the 360 debut for the series, here's hoping EA is taking the extra development time to really overhaul a game that has stumbled a bit over the past few years. As NHL 07 for 360 has proven, starting more or less from scratch is not a bad thing, as long as you've got the right ingredients to cook with.

Of the 30 titles announced as the first wave of Virtual Console games for the Nintendo Wii, four of them are NES sports games. Five bucks seems about right for these games, and though I'm expecting that the novelty will wear off real quick on a good number of the games on the list (sports or otherwise), there is one exception: Ice Hockey. The classic strategic possibilities of skinny guy/normal guy/fat guy are timeless and make a suprisingly playable game, even almost 20 years after its release.

I have a fond place in my heart for another Nintendo hockey title, Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey, which was the first game I owned after buying a Nintendo 64. Months before I ever got hip to (or could afford to buy) Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 (my all-time favorite N64 game), I was obsessed with the ridiculously fast-paced on-ice action of Gretzky 3D. I'll gladly shell out ten bucks to download Gretz for the Virtual Console if they ever bring it out.

Perhaps the biggest NES exclusion from the VC list (at least from a sports point of view) is the original Golf. Despite only having one course, there was practically limitless replay value to be found there, and it's another game that should be well worth the five dollar price tag.

Having played practically all of the upcoming PlayStation 3 sports games, it's time for a Sixaxis progress report. I've been critical of the PS3's new controller in the past mainly for its bewildering lack of rumble features but, in the spirit of not looking back, I suppose it's time to finally accept the Sixaxis controller's tilt functionality and take a look look at how it will affect PS3 sports game. Here's how the upcoming crop stack up, with the standard disclaimer that the impressions here are based "unfinished" code and improvements can still be made. Best to remain optimistic, you see... 

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
How it Works: The Sixaxis controller is used to engage the spin of the ball in mid-air. You hold down the X button and then tilt the controller in the direction of the spin you wish to enact on the ball.
Bottom Line: Adding spin once a ball is in the air has always been a dubious concept in the Tiger Woods series, but the approach on the PS3 isn't any more or less intuitive than the old system. As with many of the tilt options described here, you can easily turn it off and go back to the old control setup if you wish.
The Future: There are lots of possibilities for golfing with the Sixaxis. Short of actually swinging the controller like a golf club, which would be dumb, one obvious possibility is to use the angle of the controller to serve as the angle of the club face as it strikes the ball. Tilt it upwards to get underneath the ball and add some loft, angle it down for a punch shot.

Madden NFL 07
How it Works: Out of all the EA Sports games, Madden makes the most use of the tilt controls. On offense, you can call a fake snap or control your lead blocking moves by moving the controller forwards or back. On defense, it's all about hit-stick moves and jumping the snap.
Bottom Line: The fake snap thing seems to be the best implementation so far but, regardless of context, you're still only moving the controller either backwards or forwards. Some variety of motion would spice things up.
The Future: Power and juke moves tied to the tilt controller are practically a foregone conclusion in future versions of PS3 Madden. Perhaps a pump fake move would make sense as well.

Fight Night Round 3
How it Works: Throw a head butt. Ram your knee into your opponent's soft bits. Jam an elbow in his grill. Go for the low blow. All of these illegal moves are controlled by jerking the PS3 controller either backwards or forwards.
Bottom Line: The moves are easy to control and loads of fun when you connect, but when's the ref going to step in and stop all of the cheating?
The Future: How about bobbing and weaving with the Sixaxis? Sounds good, right? Even better--find some way to make Fight Night's too-complicated counter system work with the new controller.

NBA 07
How it Works: You would expect a first-party Sony game to have a head start on the competition in terms of implementing the tilt controls and NBA 07 is a good example. You can spin, do crossovers, and juke moves, all by moving the controller in various directions.
Bottom Line: The biggest assortment of moves of any of the sports games I've played so far. Sony's NBA series has had its gameplay troubles over the years, so here's hoping the promising Sixaxis-enhanced controls are complemented with a decent basketball engine.
The Future: Well, free throws would be an obvious first choice. Wait, no, someone already got to that first…

NBA 2K7
How it Works: Channel your inner Steve Nash with the new free throw controls in NBA 2K7. Move the controller back, wait for the player's animation and, just at the right moment, snap the controller and the ball will drop through the hoop. Deep knee bends and pre-shot finger-licking optional.
Bottom Line: It's cool that the free throw controls are tied to each player's individual animation--which makes timing each player's shot different--but in the end, it's still just a free throw mechanic. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Future: Compared to the plentiful and intuitive controls in NBA 07, this seems like a paltry effort. We're waiting for the shot stick controls to move to the Sixaxis in future NBA 2K games.

NHL 2K7
How it Works: A tale of two control features. I could barely get the 2K-touted checking controls to work but the Sixaxis-enhanced crease control system is better than I expected, once I got used to it. Push the R3 button to go into first-person view then move the controller to position your goalie's vision cone. Once your opponent shoots, you aim your blocking cursor at the target icon to stop the shot. It takes some practice, but works as promised and is actually pretty fun.
Bottom Line: The goalie stuff works fine… the checking, not so much.
The Future: As with Tiger, there's a lot more you could do with the controls here. Face-offs, anyone? But, for now, I wouldn't mind some tweaks to the checking controls.

F1 06 is coming to the U.S. You can't tell right now, but I'm squealing with glee.

It's been too long since we've had a Formula One console game here. Call me an apologist for EA's sometimes halfhearted attempts with the license from years ago, but it's always been my opinion that even mediocre F1 is better than no F1 at all. And while I still have questions about the depth and controls in Sony's F1 06, there is absolutely no denying that it's one of the best-looking games on the PlayStation 3.

While in Barcelona for X06, I got real close to picking up a PSP version of F1 06, even though I can't remember the last time I picked up my PSP for anything other than watching English sitcoms on a memory card that Ricardo periodically lends me.

The worst part about it? After months of being down on the PS3 (mostly becuase of its exorbitant price), I'm now sitting here wondering if F1 06 will be the game that causes me to crack open my already bone dry wallet and shell out the cash for a console once the game arrives in 2007.

So what's your F1 06? Is there a game or two out there that will cause you to pull the trigger on a PS3 (or a Wii, or Xbox 360 for that matter) no matter what the fiscally responsible side of your brain is telling you? Come, let's commiserate our future financial doom together.

Everyone's got a complaint about console controllers--the original Xbox's controller was too big and clunky, the N64 thing was just odd, and the Sixaxis might as well be redubbed the Suxaxis. But, one day in the not-too-far-future, we might not need controllers at all, thanks to researchers at Washington University professors, who managed to hook up the brain of 14-year old to a machine that allowed him to control a game of Space Invaders with his mind.

Now, I'm all for getting rid of controllers altogether--the price drop alone would make it worth it--but the apparent inevitablity of intellect-controlled gaming has some scary consequences. "Blaming the controller" for your failings will be a thing of the past. Manage to suck it up in a game and, sorry to say, it's probably going to be because you just weren't smart enough. That's going to be a tough pill to swallow for folks everywhere.

Also, what happens to the future of flinging your controller in a blind fury after a frustrating game manages to suck out the last vestiges of your human logic and leaves you slathering, slobbering beast? It's not like you can hurl your mind against the wall. At least not yet... perhaps the folks at Washington University are working on that next.

Welcome to Blur Lines, a periodic column I write devoted entirely to the world of racing games. You can read the last entry in the series here.

With the Tokyo Game Show and Microsoft's X06 both in the books, the last two weeks have seen the battle lines drawn for the rest of the fall and the early portion of 2007. Depending on how you view it, 2006 and 2007 will be highlighted by the war between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, the battle between Xbox Live and Sony's Network Platform, or the battle between Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD. Of course, this being a racing column, there is one more contest that's relevant here: that between Gran Turismo HD versus Forza Motorsport 2. With both games recently on display, I thought it would be a good time to take a step back and examine where both games stand and, perhaps more importantly, where each is headed.

Having seen Forza Motorsport 2 in Tokyo and played the game in Barcelona, it's clear the team is aiming on delivering a worthy successor to one of my favorite Xbox racing games. As strange as it seems, I was heartened by news of a delay for Forza 2, if only because it seemed like the game announced at E3 2006 wasn't going to be much more than Forza 1.5. Now that the game has slipped to early 2007, and based on what I've seen so far, it seems like the Forza team is prepping something more substantial than what Peter Moore was talking about at the E3 press conference.

In terms of direction, the Forza team is also going after what they know--namely realistic physics, a big car list, online play (this time for up to 12 players), and customization that will, frankly, put the previous Forza to shame. Consider the approximately 4,000 layers for paint/vinyls/decals for each car, as well as the ability to save design templates and share them with friends, a photo mode where you can upload and download your creations to the Web, and so on.

All of these things sound interesting, certainly, but it's the stuff that Microsoft isn't talking about yet that has me intrigued. The first thing that comes to mind is how Forza 2 will interact with the upcoming Xbox Live Anywhere initiative. Back before the Xbox 360 came out, J Allard used the next Forza as an example of the kind of things Xbox Live Marketplace would be capable of--buying new cars, new paint jobs, new parts, etc. At E3, Microsoft once again used the next-gen Forza as an example of what Xbox Live would be capable of via the 360, your PC, and mobile phones. But so far, it's all just theory and marketing talk. Hopefully the details on exactly what you'll be able to do between different platforms, and more importantly how much it will cost you to do so, will come sooner than later.

Of course, flights of marketing-driven, tech-focused fancy are a specialty of Gran Turismo creator Polyphony Digital. Sometimes those fantasies come true; it's still tough to believe, for example, how much content they shoved onto a single PlayStation 2 disc in Gran Turismo 4. But, with the upcoming release of Gran Turismo HD, Kazunori Yamauchi and his crew are taking things to a whole new level of crazy. Consider the brief, one-track demo shown off at the Tokyo Game Show--a graphically staggering masterpiece that was surely one of the better looking examples of what the PlayStation 3 will be able to do.

The only problem is, with the dual-game format of GT HD, the track on display will only be one of a handful available in GT HD Premium pack, which will also include only about 30 cars. GT HD Classic, on the other hand, will have more than 700 cars and more than 50 tracks, but all of these will be merely retooled versions of previous Gran Turismo assets. Certainly, it's a lot of content, but it's content we've seen before… just at lower poly counts.

However, when it comes to the future of the GT series, the differences between the Forza approach to game-making and the Polyphony Digital approach becomes apparent. Sitting in on Kazunori's hour-long presentation on the GT HD roadmap, you see a host of online features that will eventually form the basis for the game going forward. The basics, such as online racing, time trials, and car collections will be there, but then Yamauchi launches in to his plans to make GT HD a conduit to purchase and collect new cars on the PS3--an iTunes for car nuts, if you will. Thanks to the power of regular content updates, you'll have new cars on a regular basis in GT HD, you'll have AI updates, and damage eventually added in. Yes, you'll even have car customization at some point too.

Just listening to him talk, it's easy to get swept up in the possibilities of it all. Paying the Sony equivalent of Xbox Live points for new GT content on a regular basis? Sure, count me in. But before downing too much of the PD Kool Aid, it's important to remember that the developer has a history of over-promising and under-developing. Remember the whole online fiasco with GT 4? You'll forgive me, then, if I don't exactly completely buy into Yamauchi's vision as gospel. And that 2006 release date in Japan? I'm not on board with that one either.

Of course, I say these things out of tough love for the GT series; it's always been one of my favorite game series and will surely continue to be. If even a modest percentage of the items listed by Yamauchi make it into GT HD at some point, I'll enjoy them tremendously.  That said, Yamauchi has said that the public's response to GT HD will be the basic building blocks of whatever eventually becomes Gran Turismo 5--and whether or not the game will be merely a "packaging" of GT HD and its subsequent updates or something altogether new is as yet undetermined.

One other thing regarding both games and how they stack up after TGS/X06: The importance of the rumble feature in racing games cannot be overstated, and its absense in the GT HD demo was unmistakable. It dramatically changes the driving experience, and not in a good way. Running offroad, or bumping into walls simply isn't the same anymore, and it's amazing how different the feel of "car" is in your hands when the rumble sensation is gone. Conversely, the rumble in Forza 2 is even better than before--likely because the rumble motors in the Xbox 360 controller are capable of more subtlety and power. The result is a stark reminder of how bad a "feature" the PS3 tilt functionality continues to be.

So, after all of this, what's the bottom line here? Summed up, as both series move forward, Forza 2 is taking small steps in a proven direction while Gran Turismo HD is prepared to take a massive leap into no-man's land. Where will they end up? It's anyone's guess. What's interesting isn't just the differences in both games, but also their similarities; and those similarities start at the top. Listen to series director Dan Greenwalt talk about Forza 2 and, amidst the technical talk of friction coefficients of asphalt and sampling rates of his game's physics engine, you'll hear him talk about creating a passionate experience for car-lovers and fans of racing games.

Similarly, Kazunori Yamauchi has spent the last ten years of his life devoted to crafting one of the most heralded and painstakingly detailed odes to car culture ever seen. During our recent press visit to Polyphony Digital's studio in Tokyo, Yamauchi was asked if he considered himself a game-maker anymore, or rather a creator of an obsession. Without hesitation, he flashed that ear-to-ear grin he's so quick to share and responded, through his translator, "Yes, precisely."

When you hear him talk like that, you almost want to believe everything he tells you.

So I'm extremely happy to be going to Tokyo for TGS and then on to Barcelona for X06. I'm even happier to be staying in Barcelona a few days with my wife for a short post-TGS/X06 vacation. But before I go, there's a few things I have to take care of. And I don't just mean the insane amount of packing, charging-of-accessories, and other related prep-effluvia. I'm talking important stuff. Sports stuff. Game stuff. Stuff that matters.

1) Auburn/LSU - On a day featuring seven big-time college football games, there's none bigger than this one. Lots of people have been saying Auburn/LSU series has become the premier rivalry in the SEC and I can't really disagree with that. There are major implications for this game, especially for Auburn. Should Auburn beat LSU at home, and Michigan pull out an upset over Notre Dame, my Tigers will be solidly in the #2 or #3 spot in the rankings and poised to make a run for the BCS trophy.

As for the NFL, well I'll be on a plane bound Narita on Sunday so I'll need to...

2) Set the Tivo. I'm going to miss the next two weeks of college and NFL games and, when I get back, I plan on spending an entire weekend catching with the Bears games I missed. Of course, missing two weeks of NFL games means I'll also be utterly clueless when it comes to...

3) Setting my fantasy football lineups. I've got two fantasy teams going right now, the first being an internal GameSpot league (in which I lost my first game to that degenerate Raiders fan Tim Surette, and the second being run over at The Huddle, where I managed to win my first game). All I'll say is this: If Carson Palmer doesn't play better than he did last weekend against the Chiefs, then I'm going to straight up beat someone down. Which brings me to...

4) Fight Night Round 3 - I just got this in the mail via GameFly. I played the heck out of this before it came out but haven't played the game since. I'll try to bang out a few achievements tonight and tomorrow before I leave but it's going to be tough mainly because I also received...

5) Project Gotham Racing 3, which arrived in the mail today. Circuit City had the game for $20 and I simply couldn't pass this one up, as it's one of my favorite racing games of recent memory. Having just bought an HDTV, I can't wait to get back to playing this game the way it was meant to be played - in glorious high def.

With this much to do in two days, it'll be a wonder if I make it to Tokyo with more than two pair of underwear.

See you cats on the flip-flop!

Welcome to Blur Lines, a periodic column I write here in my GameSpot journal devoted entirely to the world of racing games. You can read the last entry in the series here.

Some nights my wife works late and, often times, those are good nights. It's not because I don't want to be with my wife, mind you, but rather that those late nights mean I get to spend a bit of my off-duty hours here at my desk playing games I normally don't get a chance to touch. Over the past year, those games include one of two titles: World of Warcraft (a habit I just kicked for the second time) and the original GTR FIA Racing.

Yesterday, I got a chance to spend some time with the SimBin folks behind the sequel, GTR 2, in preparation for today's hands-on look at the game. It was time well spent. Not only are the developers of this game an impassioned bunch, but it's interesting to hear how this disparate group of former modders-turned-developers (based everywhere from Austin, Texas to Vara, Sweden) have managed to crank out three highly respected racing sims in a market that, in recent years, has had no patience for the genre.

The things I like about the previous GTR are all found in the sequel: the laser-like focus on the physics of the car, the tires, and the asphalt; the sense of total immersion after settling into the cockpit view after turning a few consistently flat-out laps; the overwhelming mix of relief and accomplishment you feel once you've nailed the slight drift you need at Monza's Variante Ascari... and so much more. There's also a new driving school mode which seems like a lot of fun, as well as some 24-hour races which I'm in no way insane enough to tackle.

Sure there are things that need improving. I still think the menu system needs work--it's too complex and imposing--and I think the sounds of the car engines could use a bit more punch and variety. But these are the kind of criticisms that can be handled in our upcoming review of the game. I come here not to bury GTR 2, after all, but to praise it. 

It's just too bad this has to be a PC game. Don't get me wrong, the PC has long been the haven of some of the best racing games of all time but, for just as long, the cost of entry to PC gaming has been a barrier against opening up the genre to a new realm of consumers and potential racing fans. Certainly, releasing the original GTR for Xbox 360 (as THQ will do sometime in 2007) is a good step forward while titles like Forza 2 and the Gran Turismo HD mean the sim-racing category is far from dead. But it just seems to me that there's more room for more.

I'll be keeping a close eye on how the Xbox 360 version of GTR sells. If I'd had the time (or, more accurately, if I'd remembered to do so), I would have asked the folks at SimBin how they felt the new generation of consoles stacks up to developing on the PC. From a hardware standpoint, are the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 viable as first-release platforms for the latest generation of racing sims like GTR 2 and its sequels, or will that forever be the territory of the PC? I wonder how their answer would stack up against the producers of console racing games such as Kazunori Yamauchi or Forza 2's Dan Greenawalt.

Like everything else in the industry, I suppose it has to do with money. While the GTR series would likely sell more copies on consoles (at least in the States), the development costs for PC games are probably lower than that on the 360 and PS3 which means that, for smaller operations like SimBin, their game debuts on PC first and, if they (and we) are lucky, is ported over at some later date. Which brings me back to the sales of GTR for Xbox 360, and how I hope it does well enough to at least afford a console version of the sequel.

Someone once said that the closest Americans ever get to a Zen-like state of enlightenment is when driving their cars. I'm not sure if the sweaty-lipped, vice-gripping, sub-vocalizing state I was in last night while turning laps at Monza in GTR 2 and waiting for my wife to call was the kind of thing that Bodhidharma was talking about, but it sure felt right to me.

GTR 2 is due for release in September 2006. Find the demo here.

Details are starting to leak about The Tragically Hip's upcoming CD, World Container. It's set to drop on October 17 and the first single, "In View" is available for listening on the band's Web site.

The new CD is being produced by Bob Rock and, based on the single alone, the group is going for a more lush, and far more pop-oriented approach this time around, especially compared to the stripped-down jangly affair that was In Between Evolution. The Hip have dabbled in straight pop in the past, yet always depended on Gord Downie's thoughtful, elusive lyrics and unique voice to lift the songs into something a bit more profound. From a melodic standpoint, "In View" might be the most straightforward tune the band has ever produced--its simple and catchy hook hasn't left my mind for days. I even kinda like the cheesey-sounding keyboards; they fit the uplifting spirit of the tune nicely.

What I find most curious to about the song is how little the lyrics matter here--another departure for the group. "In View" is one of the few Hip songs I can think of where the lyrics are literally overwhelmed by the melody; almost to the point of it being an afterthought. As I go through the day with the song in my head, I'm humming the tune far more than I am singing along with the words. Not a bad thing, I suppose, but from a band with such a tradition of strong lyrical content, I'm hoping the rest of the songs on World Container make up for the throwaway nature of "In View."