Mass Effect Review

Made by the company behind the fantastic Baldur's Gate role-playing games, Mass Effect is the first sci-fi RPG I've ever played, and it's fantastic.




The main plot line involves a baddie named Saren who wants to wipe out humanity (and everything else) by finding and unleashing a race of intelligent machines called the Reapers. The scope is monumental, the look sleek and futuristic and the soundtrack well composed -- all things you would expect from a game of this type.

However the little things really make this game stand out. There are many subtle nods to actual science such as naming a location after Stephen Hawking and a type of ammo made up of Bose-Einstein condensate. The alien races are truly alien - both in look and behavior. The beefy elcor preface each sentence to non-Elcor with the emotion that is meant to be conveyed because truly understanding their native language requires the listener to be in tune with subtle scent and body posture variations. Are these sorts of details really needed? Of course not, but it certainly helps the immersive feel of the game.


There's lots of action, lots of sleuthing and lots of fun to be had. My verdict: this is a game well worth buying instead of renting, especially if you enjoy a good RPG... or alien ladies in tight-fitting body armor.

Stupid Sports Injuries

For those of you who might have missed it, Real Salt Lake's Fabian Espindola managed to injure himself so badly last week that he had to be subbed out of the game and will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a severely sprained ankle. What happened? He did a backflip to celebrate a goal... that was disallowed for offsides.

This made me think of other odd sports injuries. Football fans may remember Redskins quarterback Gus Frerotte knocking himself out of a game when he head-butted a wall celebrating a touchdown, or kicker Bill Gramatica who tore up his knee celebrating a more-or-less meaningless field goal.

Baseball is replete with weird injuries - but most of those seem to happen off the field. The Brewers' Matt Wise sliced his hand open on a pair of salad tongs a year or two ago. One of my favorites was that of Royals outfielder Mark Quinn, a former member of my fantasy baseball team who injured himself because he tripped over a table while "playing kung fu" with his brother.

Hurricane Ike

Is it bad that whenever they mention Hurricane Ike on the news I get this image in my mind?

If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to mention my favorite news headline of all time Ike 'Beats' Tina to Death.

Leading MLS in Assists and Goals

If you look closely at the last two posts, you might notice one name that's shared across the lists -- Jaime Moreno. So far he's the only person to lead the league in both assists and goals (albeit not in the same season.)

No player has ever led the league in both categories in the same year, but two players have come close. In 2006 Real Salt Lake's Jeff Cunningham led the league in scoring with 16 goals, and ended tied for second in assists with four other players. One of the players he was tied with was Christian Gomez, who tied Ante Razov for the second most goals at 14.

MLS Scoring Title Margins

In keeping with yesterday's theme, here's a look at the biggest gaps between the MLS Golden Boot winner and the second place goal scorer.

The race for top scorer has been very close most years, with only four seasons where the top scorer beat the man in second by more than two goals. In three seasons (1999, 2003 and 2004) two or more players tied for the lead.

If the season ended today, Landon Donovan would be fifth on the list, as he leads teammate Edson Buddle and Dallas' Kenny Cooper by three goals.

Mamadou Diallo      8  2000
Stern John          7  1998
Roy Lassiter        4  1996
Alex Pineda Chacon  4  2001
Jeff Cunningham     2  2006
Jaime Moreno        1  1997
Carlos Ruiz         1  2002
Taylor Twellman     1  2005
Luciano Emilio      1  2007

MLS Assist Title Margins

With Guillermo Barros Schelotto attempting to become just the second MLS player to reach twenty assists this year, I thought it would be interesting to see just how dominant Valderrama's record-setting 2000 season was.

As it turns out, not only did Valderrama set the mark for most assists, but he also set the record for the largest gap between the top assist man and second place, outdistancing Steve Ralston by nine helpers. The only tie occurred in 2001 when Diego Serna and John Wilmar Perez shared the crown.

Carlos Valderrama 9 2000
Preki             6 2003
Jaime Moreno      4 2004
Marco Etcheverry  3 1998
Steve Ralston     3 2002
Marco Etcheverry  2 1996
Carlos Valderrama 2 1997
Steve Ralston     1 1999
Dwayne De Rosario 1 2005
Terry Cooke       1 2006
Steve Ralston     1 2007

If the season ended today, Guillermo Barros Schelotto would place second on this list, as he is currently eight assists ahead of Salt Lake's Javier Morales.

How much more black could it be...?

After watching the last two US world cup qualifiers, it seemed time to update the list of the worst-lit stadiums.

1. Estadio Esteban Hawking, black hole in Sagittarius A*, central Milky Way
2. Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala
3. Estadio Pedro Marrero, Havana, Cuba
4. Ernest Shackleton Stadium, Lake Vostok, Antarctica