LIVESTREAM UPDATE:  Woah, this is the first livestream update in… a while!  Cool!  The next livestream will be this Wednesday (August 29th, 2012) at 10pm est!  Watch me doodle, ask me questions, and listen to me ramble about nonsense!  The stream can be viewed here or here!

So now that I’m back from camp, I’m trying to finish the god-awful twelfth (officially numbered) installation of the Final Fantasy franchise.  After two days of playing, I feel as though I spent the majority of that time grinding, which consisted of me running in circles while simultaneously watching South Park on Netflix.

This was significantly more fun compared to the times I was devoting 100% of my attention to the game.

That’s a problem.

Anyways, I’ll hopefully finish it within the week, but no promises; I have to decide whether or not to devote some time to shoving splinters under my toenails, which is more appealing than FF12.

So I was really excited on Sunday to see the Jets for the first time in 2012 and around 7:30 I powered up the TV to catch some thrilling pre-game commentary.  What I was treated to instead was a tragedy that equaled the horror of the Hindenburg, Titanic, and every season of American Idol past season 4 combined: A show dedicated the release of this year’s Madden.

Now, as some of you guys know, I love Madden.  I really do.  That said, no video game should have a near-primetime television show dedicated to it’s release.  The program consisted of two flag football teams comprised of retired NFL players and celebrities going head to head while a crowd of bums and tourists picked up off the street cheered them on.

Watching middle aged ladies try to catch passes from Brett Favre and Donovan McNabb, while hilarious, gets old incredibly fast.  There was also some idiot named Ne-Yo running around who kept screaming “GIVE ME THE BALL!” every time he did something remotely positive.

Even worse was the officiating.  A coach… or someone… challenged a play, and, rather than having an official analysis, some young announcer in the crowd did a quick poll of the audience in order to make a decision.

This might actually be how Madden runs challenges, considering how random the video game’s officiating is.

The final straw came near the end, where the crowd (likely bribed with a warm meal) began chanting, “WE WANT MADDEN!  WE WANT MADDEN!”

I had to put the TV on mute after that.

Although I’ll never forgive Nick Jonas for completely weak-lunging “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” (and not knowing what to do with his hands, making the whole performance super awkward) during the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary concert (check out Michael Ball for the real version), I will give credit to the guy for this pretty sweet touchdown catch.  It’s hard to tell by the video, but that pass had some real velocity.