Demos arenât just to try before you buy. Sometimes they can turn in a nailbiting thriller, as one value-seeking Kotaku reader found with FIFA 11âs demo.
Wocalax couldnât pick up the FIFA 11 full copy just yet, and has instead played the gameâs demo to fill in the time. The game features only three-minute halves and six teams, but it does have a selectable difficulty level. Wocalax has rarely played on Legendary difficulty, and decided to try his luck with it in El Clasico, taking Real Madrid against Barcelona.
âIf Iâm gonna win on Legendary and play a short 6 minute game might as well play a good team so I have some dignity,â he writes. But first he practiced with the gameâs new penalty kick system. That would prove serendipitous.
âI dominated the first half with a few shots, all on target,â Wocalax says. âThe second half was not so hot. Iniesta and Messi were running around everyone. If their shots didnât suck so bad they probably would have won.â Regulation time wrapped with five shots for Real Madrid, two for Barca.
âOn to penalties. I love the new system compared to last year but Iâm not too amazing at it. I did a little metagaming and practiced penalties before the match knowing it was a 6 minute match and I can hold up the defense pretty well at first,â Wocalax said. âPractice didnât pay off when I went up and missed over the crossbar on my first shot with Higuain.â Barcelona buried its first kick and the shootout had AI pwnage written all over it. âIs legendary AI in penalties similar to legendary AI Halo 2 snipers?â Wocalax wondered.
âNope. They stunk. Or maybe the demo was being nice,â he says. Madrid pounded in its next four shots while Barcelona missed two, giving Real Madrid the 0-0 (4-2) victory.
Hereâs the Box Score!
Remember, all you have to do to get yourself featured in Box Scoresâ Game of the Week is take a picture of whatever youâve been playing â crappy cell picture will do â write up a couple sentences about why it was so compelling, and email it to me, owenATkotakuDOTcom, with âBox Scoresâ in the subject header. I will star all submitters, regardless of whether they are published. So be sure to include include your commenter handle, or your commenter page URL if it is different from your handle.
Now the Kotaku Sports open thread commences with the sports TV highlights for today and tomorrow. All times are U.S. Eastern.
Boxing
Manny Pacquiao pursues his eighth title belt in tonightâs heavily anticipated super welterweight bout against Antonio Margarito, from Arlington, Texas. Itâs on HBO pay-per-view at 9.
College Football
By far the biggest conversation-starter of the day is at 3:30, when No. 2 Auburn greets Georgia and begins its quest for revenge upon the corrupt SEC program that ratted it out in the Cam Newton scandal. (The answer is: âAll of them except Vanderbilt and Kentucky.â) CBS has it live from The Plains. The SEC also features the only other pairings of ranked teams â No. 22 South Carolina at No. 24 Florida on ESPN, and No. 17 Mississippi State at No. 11 Alabama, ESPN2, both 7:15 p.m. Everyoneâs saying No. 1 Oregon at unranked California is a trap game for the Ducks, but Iâm not buying it. Thatâs 7:30 on Versus.
NFL
Best bets: Randy Moss makes his Titans debut in Tennessee at Miami, 1 p.m. CBS; Minnesota at Chicago is the NFCâs only mildly interesting pairing, tomorrow, thatâs on Fox at 1. For the nightcap, NBC plays its flex card and grabs New England at Pittsburgh, both 6-2, at 8:20 p.m. That sticks ESPN with McNabb Bowl II, Philadelphia at Washington, on Monday Night.
NHL
CBCâs national games tonight: Carolina at Montreal, Vancouver at Toronto or Ottawa at Boston, all 7 p.m., with Calgary at San Jose at 10. Regional coverage for the rest of the schedule, and only four games tomorrow.
NBA
The Bulls host the Bullets â theyâll always be the Bullets, as long as theyâre still losing like the Bullets â at 8 p.m. today, WGN. NBA TV has Golden State at Milwaukee at 8:30 p.m. Tomorrow, Houstonâs at New York at 7:30 p.m., NBA TV.
Mixed Martial Arts
UFC 122 from Oberhausen, Germany is tonight on Spike at 9 p.m. same-day tape delay.
Motorsports
There are three races left in the Chase for the Cup. No driver has come from behind in the final two to win. Quadruple-defending champion Jimmie Johnson is 33 points behind Denny Hamlin going into tomorrowâs Kobalt Tools 500 from Phoenix International Raceway, on ESPN at 3 p.m. Sounds like a must-win to me.
Remember, you may send Game of the Week nominations to owenATkotakuDOTcom, and flag it âBox Scoresâ in the subject header. Please include your commenter handle for proper credit.
