Diamond Descent #4: Survive “Dreadnought” on Mount Slaughter

This past weekend brought the start of April and–along with it–April Fool’s Day, but fans of SSX were rewarded with a treat as the first software title update was released for the game.  Along with a number of fixes regarding overall game stability and addressing gameplay, players are now able to level up each character in the game to Level 11 and buy even better gear for use on the various runs across the virtual globe!  For a full list of the updates, be sure to check out the release blog here: http://www.ea.com/ssx/blog/ssx-march-updates

Even better, today brought news that content previously exclusive to pre-order customers–including Eddie Wachowski and some “Ultimate” level snowboards for on-disc characters–would be made available on both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for the refreshing price of FREE!  More information on that here: http://www.ea.com/ssx/blog/travis-eddie-now-free-to-all-ssx-players

With that exciting news in mind, it’s time for another Diamond Descent here at STAT BOX STORIES.  This week, we’ll be hitting “Dreadnought” on Mount Slaughter in Antartica for a “Survive It!” run.

 

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Games versus Reality Final Standings

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  Today marks the close of our time with the inaugural BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL, as we look at how the games played in NCAA Football 12 compared to the results of the real-life Bowl Games.

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Overall Team Statistics Breakdown

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  In today’s final statistical installment, we look at overall team statistics and try to follow trends from the games that were played.

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Passing Statistics Breakdown

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  In today’s installment, we look at individual player Passing statistics.

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Rushing Statistics Breakdown

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  In today’s installment, we look at individual player Rushing statistics.

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Receiving Statistics Breakdown

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  In today’s installment, we look at individual player statistics for Receivers.

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Defensive Statistics Breakdown

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  In today’s installment, we look at individual player statistics for Defensive players.

Bowl Blitz Invitational — Special Teams Statistics Breakdown

In December of 2011 and January of 2012, fans of college football and EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 helped cover all 35 Bowl Games here at STAT BOX STORIES for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL.  This week, we’re taking a look at some of the statistics that came out of those 35 games.  In today’s installment, we look at individual player statistics for Special Teams players.

#43: 2012 BCS National Championship Game — Alabama @ LSU in NCAA Football 12

Thirty-four Bowl Games have now been chronicled for the BOWL BLITZ INVITATIONAL here at STAT BOX STORIES; the seasons of both the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers have been re-enacted in EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12, and their showdown in the 2012 Allstate BCS National Championship Game is the only game left to be played.  To all of those people who contributed work to this project–Eric Veneziano, Jeremy Etters, Quantrell Toval, Owen Good, Jeremy Bennett, David Searles, Jason Burt, Chris Jacobs, Tommy Gscwhend, and Matthew Lee–I am indebted to you all for the time and effort you have given towards the success of this project.

It makes sense, in a way, that it should come down to a rematch between the Crimson Tide and the Tigers; the very first entry here at STAT BOX STORIES previewed their regular season match-up.  In that game, I played as LSU and took home a victory, 28-10.  For this season-ending game, I have decided to take control of Alabama at the end of the season described in Eric Veneziano’s season write-ups from yesterday (Alabama here, LSU here) to decide which of these SEC powerhouses will taste victory in the Superdome tonight.

Since that season allowed for injuries, rosters will not exactly match the players who will be playing on the field tonight.  This will also be my first time playing the game using Matthew Lee’s–steelerfan–slider set, as those were the sliders set up for the season.  Finally, the quarter lengths were set to 6 minutes–instead of the customary 7 minute quarters I’ve been using–but it didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the action overall.

Roll Tide! Geaux Tigers!  It all comes down to one game…

#42: 2012 Orange Bowl — West Virginia @ Clemson in NCAA Football 12

The final BCS Bowl—before the 2012 Allstate BCS National Championship Game, of course—will be tonight’s 2012 Discover Orange Bowl, set to be contested between the Big East Conference Co-Champion West Virginia Mountaineers and the ACC Champion Clemson Tigers.  Set to be played in prime time from Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida, I was very excited to put these two teams on the field against one another for STAT BOX STORIES.

Clemson holds a slight ratings advantage in NCAA Football 12, so I decided to suit up as West Virginia in their 2010 Nike Pro Combat uniforms as kickoff drew near.  Would this game live up to the offensive résumés of the two schools involved?  Read on to find out!