Falcons Draft Grade

I think the Falcons had a solid draft but it could have been better.

The positions I think they need the most are in this order:
1 DE/DT-pass rush is weak.
2 CB-They just lost a bunch of CBs.
3 OL- They OL is OK but they lost a couple of players and it's just not that great.
4 DBs- Need more depth at this position.
5 TE- Most people think they really need a TE, but they can get one late this draft and one early next year.

The Falcons traded up in the first round to select Washington CB Desmond Trufant. This was a good pick because they just released several CBs and this has been a week position for Atlanta. Trufant, opposite of Asante Samuel, will be a deadly combination for opposing offences. Great pick overall.

In the second round they made a pick I didn't like too much. CB Robert Alford, from a lower division school, Southeastern Louisiana. Although he looks like he might be a starter one day, he's going to be the backup for a couple of years. The pass rush is probably the weakest position for the Falcons. I think they should have selected Georgia DT John Jenkins or another DE or DT.

The Falcons had two fourth round picks. With the first one they selected Clemson DE Malliciah Goodman. For the fourth round this was a good pick. It looks like he may start or at least be in the rotation. If they wanted a starting DE and a backup CB they should have gotten the DE in the second round and the backup CB later, but whatever.

With their next fourth round pick they selected Stanford TE Levine Toilolo. He looks pretty good and even beat out Coby Fleener for the starter in 2010 before he got hurt. Although he looks pretty good they have Tony Gonzolez and they don't use multiple TEs they way teams like New England does. I think they should have selected an OL because they released Tyson Clabo and Todd McClure retired. He's huge at 6'8 260 pounds. Toilolo could be a redzone threat this year and could be a starter next year. Pretty good pick.

In the fifth round the Falcons selected TCU DE Stansly Maponga. He's been very inconsistent. However if he can become more consistent and healthy he may start at some point. I like this pick. Good pick for this late in the draft. I still think they should have gotten the pass rush addressed earlier in the draft.

Atlanta had 3 seventh round picks. They used them for depth purposes. With the first one they selected DB Kemal Ishmael, from Central Florida. Next they got SS Zeke Motta, from Notre Dame. Finally they got QB from duke, Sean Renfree.

Overall there draft was decent. They got a great CB with Trufant. They addressed the rest of the secondary and got some more depth at the pass rush. However, I think they should have gotten better DEs earlier in the draft and addressed the secondary later in the draft. They also should have gotten at least one OL.

I give them a C+

Tiger Woods: PGA Tour 14 Reveiw

Tiger Woods: PGA Tour 14 is the latest golf simulation game from EA.

Graphically the game really doesn't look that much better than the past games. The last Tiger Woods game I got was Tiger Woods 10 and it doesn't look that much better than it. The Animations are decent. Courses look a bit grainy but not bad. The graphics are fair to decent overall.

The usual game modes are here, like practice round which is just a practice round of golf. You can pick any course and and holes you want in this mode. There is a career mode and you make your own golfer and have him/her compete in small tournaments eventually working your way up to the PGA tour or LPGA tour. You can also play in all four majors in career mode or you can play them outside career mode. The newest mode is legends of the majors. These are different challenges against golfers from the past. The newest addition to the online is country clubs. Make or join a country club and compete in tournaments against other people in the club. Its a pretty cool mode.

The actual golfing in the game is realistic. Just not whole lot different from the last games. The newest thing they added is shot shaping. Now you can aim your shots to hit precise draw and fade shots. However wind is not very realistic. 5 MPH wind carries your ball way to far. You don't want to see it when its 20 MPH! I know this isn't realistic because I play real golf. I have played in strong winds before and it doesn't carry the ball nearly as far off as in this game.

The wind issue hurts career mode. When you get into big events the wind speed is set really high no matter what you have it set to. This makes it extremely hard to win. If you don't win you can't retry events. The leveling system is kind of broken. Your limited to how much skill points you can use for each skill until you level up a bunch more. So you forced to use skill points for all the different skills, preventing you from making your golfer how you want him/her to be.

The new online modes are decent like the country club mode and online tournaments. You can also play against the real PGA tour scores when there is a live tournament going on. This is really cool. Online is probably the best part of the game but that's not saying much. The wind seems more accurate here than in single player for some reason. However there seems to be a lot cheaters online so you probably won't win. I checked the leader boards for one of the country club tournaments and someone had 0 putts. They got all hole in ones and chip ins. This kind off stuff happens all the time. This is true for many online games though. 

Legends of the majors is a challenge mode where you relive famous moments of golf. There are a ton of challenges. This mode is a good addition to the Tiger Woods franchise.   

Technical issues plague the game. Excessively long loading times and some freezing issues among other weird bugs.

Also many golfers and courses are missing and being resold as dlc [the courses anyway].

There atmosphere of golf is missing. There's no excitement when you sink that 40 foot putt in for the win etc. Its not the same as on T.V or real life. The commentators are terrible. This is a problem for all sports games though.

Tiger Woods 14 is a good golf sim but it suffers from glitches and it isn't a whole lot different from past games.
5/10

Fire Emblem: Awakening 3DS review

The Fire Emblem series is known for its tactical turned based battles and permanent character deaths. Awakening attempts to keep those elements while also trying to make it more accessible for newcomers. Does it?

I have never enjoined SRPGs or JRPGs [this is a combination of the two] but I heard this was really good [92 on metacritic] and decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did.

The story is OK but a bit cliche. I can't really say much about it without spoiling it as there are some major plot twits early on. The characters are really good and likable. The cutscenes are very well done but there are very few of them. Voice acting is good but most of the dialogue is not voiced. Overall the story is better than most of Nintendo's games but its not that original or memorable. The characters are however.

The gameplay has you moving usually a little over 10 characters across various battlefields in tactical turned based battles. First its your turn and then its the enemy's turn. The game can feel intense as the enemy usually outnumbers you 3 to 1, sometimes more. Your characters get exp when they attack the enemy and eventually level up. When they get to level 10 you can make upgrade them to an advanced class [it's best to wait until 20 so they can be stronger though]. There are tons of different classes and each one has disadvantages and advantages. Characters either use weapons or spells. There is a weapon triangle: swords beat axes, axes beat lances and lances beat swords. The battles are really fun. The AI, classes and everything  is near perfection. In past Fire Emblem games when your characters die they would stay dead permanently. Awakening makes it more accessible to newcomers with the addition of casual mode, which turns off character deaths.

The main story is about 20+ hours long and there are tons of bonus chapters, multiple endings and lots of characters to unlock. 

The support system is one of the best parts of the game. When characters fight beside each other after a while they can have a "support conversation". I wasn't expecting much but the dialogue is really good and usually doesn't get too stupid like some JRPGS. You become attached to the 30+ characters and feel like you really get to know them. After having a support conversation they can deal extra damage, dodge attacks better etc, when they fight alongside each other next time. Pairing up the right characters is key to success. Eventually they can become close friends and some characters can even get married.

For the 3DS the graphics are really good especially the anime scenes. Awakening has 3 distinct art styles. There is the anime. There is the battles with battlefields that have a simple with top down view and the characters are sprites. When they attack the enemy it switches a 3rd person view which is realistic looking [for the 3DS]. 

The soundtrack is also great.

Fire Emblem: Awakening has memorable characters, excellent gameplay, fantastic graphics and a really good soundtrack. Once you play it you won't want to stop and you won't have to as there is tons of content. Its also very accessible for new players.

9.0/10

                             

    

Hi there. I'm Joshua Calvert a big fan of sports and video games. I will be writing articles about sports [mostly NFL] and video games. I will also do some video game reviews.