Review: Prince of Persia (PS3)

Time for another video game review! So I finished Fable 2 and in the midst of my disappointment, decided to pick up a game that I would almost certainly thoroughly enjoy: Prince of Persia. I loved the Sands of Time trilogy for the PS2 and the new style and direction of this new installment and the beginning of a new story interested me immediately. Boy was I let down. My first clue that it would be a stinker should have been the fact that it was produced by UbiSoft Montreal, the same studio that produced Assassin's Creed, which was OK, but not great. Here is my review of the latest installment of the flagship franchise that is now ruined in my eyes:

Story
Ok, story first. Prince of Persia games are always based mainly on the immersing storyline that develops throughout the game. This game was no different, however, I was quite disappointed with the overall story. The opening scene finds Prince in the desert with his donkey, Farah (funny reference to the useless female character from the Sands of Time trilogy), and a crapload of gold. He is heading home, apparently. From where, I don't know. I don't know if this is the same prince from the Sands of Time games or not, because the game never actually tells us. And I can't remember whether Prince rides off into the sunset with a donkey and bunch of gold at the end of the Sands of Time trilogy because it's been so long since I played The Two Thrones. However, he finds himself seemingly in the middle of a desert in a sandstorm when he falls through a hole and an attractive woman jumps down said hole to hide from some bad guys who are chasing her. She starts running again and he follow because he's an IDIOT. The bad guys catch up to her a little while down and think that Prince is trying to kidnap her and all of a sudden he is pulled into her rather fucked-up world.

That's it. That's how Prince get involved in the storyline. It's sad, really. The previous three PoP games all had a deep storyline that featured Prince as the main character, fighting against corruption and evil. In this one, he happens upon a pretty woman and seems kind of like a sidekick the entire game. To be honest, he could have not been in the game at all and you may not even notice. But more on that later. Finally, pretty woman's (Elika's) dad shows up and tells her that there is no going back or some such nonsense. Elika tells Prince to follow her to a temple, which is built into a tree. Prince thinks it's funny that her people worship a tree, but more on that later as well. So Prince follows her to the temple where they sneak in a find a small glowing tree. Apparently, there is an evil demon trapped under the temple and the tree is what is keeping him locked up. Elika's father and guards catch up and after fighting him, he breaks the tree with his sword and all hell breaks loose. The entire world is now filled with corruption. Here is where I would like to scold UbiSoft for inserting their world views into their video games.

There are some people who may not have seen through this, but I did. When Elika's dad breaks the tree, corruption is released into the world. It's literally called corruption. The corruption is this slimy black stuff that covers the walls of caves and other surfaces. The only way to get rid of the corruption is by defeating bosses and healing the fertile grounds within the broken-down city. To perform the healing, Elika must stand inside a glowing circle and she splooges seeds that grow grass and make the city alive again. Let's take a step back here: there is slimy black stuff called corruption covering everything. It looks a lot like oil to me though. When you heal the fertile grounds, grass and trees grow and the sky becomes bright and sunny again. Hmm. Elika's people worship a tree. A freakin' tree! Elika's people are tree huggers that are against the pollution of corruption, which is clearly an allusion to present-day. Oil companies are corrupt and are ruining our environment. Get rid of the oil, heal the environment. It's subtle at first, but once you see all the little things behind it as the story progresses, you get the point. Nice try Ubi, but I see through it. Or maybe I'm totally off base. But I don't think so.

Anyhow, looking past that, the story is actually decent. There are 4 bosses that sold their souls to the dark lord Ahriman for various reasons. The mythology in this game is based on Indo-Iranian religious beliefs, so there is a parallel to the real world, which the PoP games always seem to do well. There isn't as much character development as I would have hoped, but I'm sure they are saving that for the 2nd and possibly 3rd installments in this new series. The ending was extremely disappointing, but I won't give it away here.
Score: 6/10

Graphics
Prince of Persia games are known for their rich environments and stunning graphics. This game is no exception. The art team went in a different direction in this game, but it still works very well. The characters are cel-shaded, which is something I am never crazy about. However, the environments are done in a different style. It's not quite cel-shading, but it's not quite what you would have seen in the Sands of Time trilogy. It's pretty stunning nonetheless. The best part about the graphics is always climbing up onto a giant cliff somewhere and looking out over the world. And there's plenty of that in this game too. A trophy/achievement is awarded if you find the Assassin's Creed view in the one portion of the city (more blatant whoring out of their other PoP-like failed franchise) and another one if you find the highest point in the city.

The characters are cel-shaded but they move very realistically. Every movement looks human and not robotic. Clothes and hair blow in the breeze and the lip sync is also done quite well. The animation of the bosses is also impressive for being cel-shaded. It changes my opinion about games with cel-shaded graphics.
Score: 9/10

Gameplay
Here is where the game fell off a cliff for me. Prince of Persia games are usually complex and challenging, but they are fun at the same time. You enter a room with a bunch of poles and cliffs and hanging shit and you have to figure out a way to get to the top or across the room. Well, this one is done primarily outdoors, but that portion of the gameplay is still there. However, the developers decided that previous PoP games were too damn hard, so they added an idiot button to this one. If you press the triangle button, Elika will point the way for Prince, so figuring out puzzles really isn't necessary. I tried to use the button as little as possible, but it's hard not to use it because the game is based on completing certain areas as they become unlocked and every region connects to each other. So you could be in one portion of the city and all of a sudden find yourself all the way on the other side, in a portion that is locked and cannot be beaten. Then you have to trek all the way back to the other side of the city to complete your task. I understand that they wanted to make the game less linear, but it doesn't exactly work all that well.

The most annoying part of the gameplay (other than the combat system, but more on that later), are the Ormazd (the polar opposite of Ahriman) "powers" that Elika unlocks when she gathers light seeds after healing a fertile ground (the light seeds help her heal after healing a fertile ground). Basically, there are four colors plates that you unlock through the game, once you have enough light seeds to do so. These plates appear throughout the city and when you activate them, they either spring you to another area or plate or let you perform some special action. Two types of plates spring or direct Prince and Elika to other plates or platforms, one makes you fly (yes, fly), and the fourth gives you the ability to extend your wall runs. The first two are fine with me. It's the flying one and the wall running one that piss me off. The flying one takes you on a set course (think magic carpet ride minus the carpet), but puts annoying obstacles in your way that you have to dodge as you are flying. It's often tough to tell which way to go to get around obstacles and if you hit something, you have to start at the beginning. The annoying part is that some of these things last 30 seconds or longer and you almost always have to do them more than once. It's just a useless waste of time. The wall running one isn't quite as bad, but it's still very touchy. You can control Prince, to a point. You still end up running into stuff and almost always have to them more than once, though. The game could have done without these.

That aside, the running and jumping and swinging works pretty well. On numerous occassions the Prince does something incredibly stupid, but that's kind of part of the frustration with PoP. I will say that this game makes the gamer press fewer buttons. There is more that is done for you. For example, if you want to run on a wall, all you have to do is press the jump button near a wall, whereas in previous game you actually had to direct Prince with the analog stick to run along the wall. Those things, however, are excusable. What's not excusable is the combat system.

The combat system is completely broken in this game. First off, there aren't really any regular enemies. You hardly do any fighting at all actually. Every now and then there will be a monster that pops up from the corruption, but they are always in contained areas and if you get to the platform fast enough, you can kill it before it even spawns. If it does spawn, that's when the fun begins. Combat consists mainly of blocking and then quick trying a combo before the enemy attacks again. And the enemy attacks are epic. Every enemy attack is a combo of at least 4 or 5 hits and sometimes can be up to 10 hits or more. The problem, of course, is that you are fighting all of these creatures on platforms and platforms have edges. So when you get close to the edge, the enemy performs some kind of special attack that either results in Prince getting through halfway across the platform or a quick-time event that requires the gamer to mash buttons until they stop. Prince can block attacks, but that usually just results in a counter attack that is also blocked by the enemy and then another quick button event to try and block the enemy's counter-counter-attack.

The combos are cool, if you actually get to use them, but I didn't use probably 50% of them. There is one combo that you learn early in the game that can be used over and over to defeat every single enemy if you get within range (I fought the one boss 4 times without taking a single hit by only using this combo). The cool thing about the combos is that you have Prince, who uses physical attacks, and Elika, who uses magic, at your disposal. Your best bet is to use combos that involve both of them, since these are the ones that really do the most damage. One problem with them is that Elika is very picky as to how close you are to the enemy before she will attack. Prince basically has to throw her at the enemy for her to perform magic and even if it looks like you are clearly within range, sometimes she gets bitchy and says "Not close enough!" or "Not ready yet!". Another problem with using combos is that the enemies are so damn fast that even if you start an attack before them, they can still block it or just override your attack and knock you to the deck, which usually leads to another quick-time event where you have to press a button to not die. But wait! It's ok because you cannot die. If you miss a quick button event or fall of a cliff or whatever, Elika will save you with her magical powers. So why, then, is the Prince actually needed in this game? Elika can perform all the same maneuvers that Prince can, saves him whenever he is about to die, and has magic so she can defend herself. It seems kind of like Prince is a burden, no? He is really just along for the ride and the game could go on just fine without him. Not only that, but if he wasn't in the game, the story could end at the end of the game. But Prince is the one who fucks things up again and sends the world into corruption once more. Oh, now I get it. We need Prince in this game so we can have a sequel and so Ubi can make more money. It's all starting to make sense to me now.

To sum up the combat system, it's horrible. It's insanely frustrating. I went 5-10 minutes in some boss battles without attacking, only performing quick button sequences that were disjointed and I always seemed to screw them up somehow. Prince takes damage in battle, but I'm not sure why, because Elika can just save him. The only punishment for (almost) dying is the enemy regains some health, which is really just an annoyance. Where is the challenge in games where your character can't die? Another problem I have with the gameplay is the fact they the whole light seed thing is basically abandoned midway through the game. Each area contains 45 light seeds that the user must collect to unlock another Ormazd power and another portion of the city. Once you hit 540 light seeds (almost exactly the midway point of the game), you don't need to collect any more. There are (I think) 1,000 possible light seeds to collect. However, once you hit 540, everything is unlocked. One advantage to this is that the game went much faster after I hit 540 light seeds because I didn't have to backtrack through entire areas to collect the damn things the second half of the game.
Score: 5/10

Sound
Now that that's out of my system, let's talk about sound. Prince of Persia games are all about the look and the sound, and this game has incredible sound, just like its predecessors. The music was beautiful and really set the mood of the game. The way the music changed from happy to melancholy as you moved from a healed land to a corrupted one is awesome. The voice acting is also good, as always, with only a few exceptions. Prince is snarky and witty as always, but Elika gives it right back to him in this one. The interaction between the two is great and the best part is that you can partially control how much of the interaction you want. You can press the L2 button to speak with Elika about the city and its history, their predicament, or whatever else. Or you can just play and only witness the interactions at the predetermined cut scenes. I personally struck a balance between the two, because it was amusing, but at the same time would have gotten on my nerves if I had spoken with her too much.
Score: 9/10

In conclusion, this definitely wasn't the best installment of the Prince of Persia series. Actually, tt was the worst one that I have played to date, but I didn't play the atrocities that came out before the Sands of Time trilogy. However, I must say that with the broken combat system and somewhat weak involvement of the Prince in the storyline, the next installment won't be a definite buy for me like I hoped it would be. I'll have to see vast improvements to various parts of the game for me to care about the next installment in this series. I think that Ubi should start by assigning this to a different Ubi team and taking it out of the hands of UbiSoft Montreal.

Overall Score (not an average): 6/10 (and that's generous)

Review: Fable 2 (360)

I figured with my love of video games, I should start to write some reviews up here. So here goes, my first video game review, and the lucky culprit that gets to be my first is Fable 2, the new RPG for the Xbox 360.

Having never played the first Fable, there's not much for me to compare this game to. I didn't have an Xbox so I never bought or played Fable (1) so I was starting from scratch with, basically, a "new" RPG. However, I'm a huge RPG fan and I'm always willing to try out something new and different.

Story
Let's start here. The story was interesting and different from most things that I have played in the past. However, for as much as the "every decision has a consequence" thing is played up, it didn't do a whole lot for me in the end. For one thing, the ending is the same no matter what path you take. I took the evil path for something different and while it was very fun, the ultimate outcome of the game was the same. I beat the bad guy, world is a better place, game over. The main thing that is affected by your in-game choices is how people react to you throughout the game and your character's appearance. For instance, if you decide to be evil and monstrous and whatnot, people in towns will cower in fear when you come near them. Merchants will be afraid of you and will discount items so that you don't try and kill them (which was cool because I got discounted items everywhere I went throughout the entire game). As my character got more and more evil, his skin darkened, his eyes grew evil, and he actually grew horns.

Looking past the consequences thing, though, the story was solid. SPOILER ALERT: Your sister gets killed by a crazy ruler when you are kids and you grow up and vow revenge. But it's not just vowing revenge; there is a creepy old lady with no retinas or irises that tells you that you must defeat said crazy ruler, who has now taken over a giant stick protruding from the ocean called the Tattered Spire. But you can't do it alone. You must recruit three other heroes and here is where the fluff comes in. You must seek out these heroes and these quests make up the entire main story. Once you find the three heroes, the game is basically over. The worst part about the main quest is that you can probably beat it in about 12-15 hours. I spent well more time on the game this because I did most of the side quests.

The game is never really over, though, because there are so many side quests to be done. I have completed all but about 4 side quests, only because those are the ones that require you to have a family and I just didn't want to deal with allllll that. The side quests, interestingly enough, were fun to do. Most games make you do side quests as a diversion to the main story and to make you level up before you reach a harder point in the game. These ones are actually enjoyable to complete and you are always leveling up, so you don't really have to do them all. Oh, and here's another (GIANT) SPOILER: there is no final boss battle, so leveling all the way to defeat a horrible giant boss at the end simple does not exist.
Score: 7/10

Graphics
The graphics in this game were done very well, as long as you don't expect Final Fantasy-style CG movies and cut scenes every 15-20 minutes. The style of the graphics was interesting. They were sharp, but at the same time cartoony, in a way. However, the graphics flowed smoothly for the most part and were pleasing to the eye, despite the lack of cut scenes. The environments were large and very detailed and looked great as well. My only issue here was with the amount of glitches. There were a ton. Enemies getting stuck in the side of a mountain, but still alive and able to attack you, while you struggled to find a spot where your attacks would still land rather than just hitting stone. Characters going through each other, blinking spots in the screen, etc. It was nothing that actually made me restart the console, but still very annoying nonetheless, considering how long the developer spent making this game.
Score: 8/10

Gameplay
The gameplay was just good in this game. The fighting is altogether fun, if not frustrating at times. It's an action-based RPG, so all the action is done in real-time, with no turn-based strategy. Which is ok. The only problem with this is that, at times, you are simply overwhelmed with enemies and some strategy is required to dispatch of said enemies before getting killed. You really can't be killed, though, per se. What happens is, you get "knocked out" and when you are revived (which happens immediately) you come back with some of your experience taken away. Your experience is built by gathering four differently colored orbs that enemies drop when you defeat them. When you have enough orbs, you can "buy" new abilities. So, most of the time, you have a surplus of orbs and when you get knocked out, you lose some orbs. Also, the orbs that the enemies drop depends on how you beat them. For example, if you kill them with your melee weapons, you get strength orbs. If you kill them with magic, you get will orbs, and if you kill them with your ranged weapon, you get skill orbs. (There are also generic orbs, if you will, that can be used in conjunction with strength, skill, or will orbs to level up.) And I like this, because it makes you use all available resources, which is something you really need to do in this game. It is hard to get through the whole thing without using, for instance, ranged weapons. This was a glaring flaw with Oblivion, which basically just made you use whatever your class called for.

Anyway, back to the combat. As I said, it's an open field that sometimes features massive amounts of enemies, sometimes 10 or more at a time. Sometimes you have help from your other heroes, sometimes not. Either way, the combat isn't all that difficult. I only got knocked out two or three times throughout the couse of the game. One cool feature that the game has is a little icon in the bottom left of the screen that has the buttons of the D-pad and an icon next to each button on the D-pad. When you hit one of the direction buttons, your character automatically does that action or uses that item. This comes in very handy in battle, because the game is smart enough to put your potions in this little icon and you can easily heal yourself seamlessly in battle without having to press pause and use an item.

Other than battle, the game consists of running around in large environments and dungeons and exploring large towns. I have to admit that I got lost more than once in numerous different towns. There is a level of customization that can be done, but I was surprised by how limited it was. You can buy new clothes for your hero, but it's basically a pointless exercise. The clothes that you buy only increase or decrease your attractiveness or aggressiveness and have no effect in battle. You can buy or find dyes to change the color of your hair or your clothes, but it is again only for looks. You can also buy furniture for the houses you buy, much like you can in Oblivion.

There are no stats to worry about, such as strength and defense or magic defense. This might be great for some people, but I was disappointed. It was like Oblivion for Dummies. Also absent is any kind of limit to the number of items you can carry. Yep, you can carry as many items as you choose. By the end of the game, I had about 75 books in my inventory. You try carrying that many books in your knapsack without keeling over and passing out. I know they were trying to simplify things, but I loved and hated Oblivion for these reasons. You go out on an important quest and you have to decide what items to take. It involves a level of strategy far above what is required in Fable 2.

Then there is the whole meeting people and starting a family thing. I said earlier that I bypassed the whole family thing, mostly because I think it's pointless. So what? You meet a woman, marry her, move into a house, and have kids. What's the big deal? I did seduce a couple of women, just to see how hard it is (it's not). Even though my character was evil and had horns and an evil dog, all you have to do is dance around for a little or play your lute and they are in love with you, so much so that most people will actually want to give you a gift. Here's where the consequence thing fails. You would think that most people, if they met someone with fucking devil horns, would turn tail as fast as they could upon meeting said devil. But not the lovely, stupid people of Albion. They still love you if you can play music and dance.

Another aspect to the gameplay was treasure hunting, but it wasn't a side quest. It was done right within the main gameplay, so it worked extremely well. When you start out as a young adult, you have a faithful companion in the form of a dog. He helps you fight, sometimes, when an enemy is already lying on the ground. He gets hurt a lot and makes you heal him with your neverending supply of dog potion. But most importanly, he finds treasure for you. And this is helpful because sometimes the treasure is really, really good. You can level the dog up, per se, by finding books about tresure hunting and reading them to him (not sure how he understands them, but whatever, we're not going for realism in this game, after all). You can also teach him tricks and impress the townsfolk with them. The best part about the dog is that as your level of evil (or good, I would assume) increases, your dog changes with you. By the end of the game, I was pretty damn evil and my dog was jet black with red eyes.

All in all, I have to give the gameplay good marks. There is virtually no level of realism, especially not to the level that Oblivion went, but you don't really care when you're playing the game because it's fairly light-hearted. It's almost alarming to go into a dungeon and see dead bodies and skeletons. It almost makes you forget that the game is rated 'M' for Mature.
Score: 8/10

Sound
Sound is very important to me in a video game and Fable 2 did the sound portion very well. The music was a little redundant, but it was pleasant so I didn't really mind it. Some of the music is actually very good. But the thing that really steals the show is the voice acting. While sometimes redundant, it is ultimately very funny. I look at Fable 2 as a much less serious version of Oblivion. The game is so un-serious that it can't even take itself seriously, as evidenced by the often funny quips that appear on the loading screens. The voice acting by the characters is done quite well, but once, just once, I would love to have the hero in a game have a voice. The hero says nothing the entire game. However, everyone else has a lot to say. The best voice acting in the game has to go to the gargoyles, though. The gargoyles are part of a side quest but it's impossible to go through the entire game without seeing (or hearing) any. The gargoyles hang from various places throughout the world (there are 50 total) and basically just hurl insults at you whenever you are near them. It's absolutely hilarious. And the best part is, you can to shoot them in the face when you see them and it goes toward the side quest.
Score: 9/10

Overall, this is a solid RPG in a sea of mediocre. It's the best action RPG I have played for the 360, and I say that only because I played Oblivion for the PS3. If the reason you liked Oblivion was because of how seriously it took itself, get Fallout 3. This game is more of a less-serious version of Oblivion and lacks the character stats and customization that Oblivion proudly featured.

Overall score (not an average): 7.5/10

My Rose Bowl commentary

Another year, another USC Rose Bowl win. It hurt more this year for me since it happened at the expense of my beloved Nittany Lions. USC didn't just beat Penn State, they pounded them during the entire first half, then put it on cruise control midway into the 3rd quarter. I'm hearing it already. Penn State's offense was overrated; Big Ten doesn't deserve to be a BCS conference; USC should be in the national championship game; etc., etc.

Let me first critique how Penn State played in the game. It can be summed up in one word: atrocious. I haven't seen Penn State play as bad as they did on New Year's Day in a long time. And here's why: defensive coordinator Tom Bradley should be ashamed of himself with his stupid playcalling on defense. In the first quarter, Penn State had USC right where they wanted them. They were shutting down QB Mark Sanchez, and while the USC run game had some nice gains, they were forcing them to punt. For some reason, that changed from the second quarter on. For the rest of the game, the Penn State secondary sat back in a soft Cover 3 zone and let USC's talented bunch of wide receivers have their way with them. We aren't talking Big Ten receivers here. We are talking 6'5" 230-pound, 4.4-40 receivers. The corners were giving the receivers at least a 5-yard cushion on every play. I probably could have thrown for 300 yards against them. Lydell Sargeant and A.J. Wallace, along with most of the rest of the secondary, with the exception of Drew Astorino, looked useless out there. But I can't heap too much blame on them because of the horrid playcalling by Bradley. If he's next in line for the head coaching job, I don't want to see how the program turns out after JoePa.

On to the offense. The offense played... well... ok, really. They moved the ball early and really only started to struggle once USC started getting their offense moving and thus gained the momentum in the game (keep in mind, it's basically a home game for USC). Still, Daryll Clark looked ok, and the offense still moved the ball some without starting running back Evan Royster, who went out early with a knee injury. Two plays that really sent the momentum in USC's favor: 1) Aaron Maybin jumping offsides on a 3rd and short in which Penn State stopped the USC offense. The penalty resulted in a first down and USC scored on the drive; 2) on Penn State's final possession of the first half, Stephfon Green fumbled the ball after a great catch and run on a screen pass. Penn State would have had the ball in USC territory with the clock ticking down in the first half. The ensuing USC possession led to a touchdown and put them up 31-7 going into the half. Take away those two mistakes and the game could have been 17-14 or even 21-17 Penn State going into the half.

Instead, the sloppy play left the commentators calling the game at the half, announcing USC had already won the game. Which is something else I want to talk about. Aren't commentators supposed to be non-biased? Now, I usually have nothing against Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit, but they were all over Penn State before the first half clock even ran out. Musberger, with 2:23 left in the 2nd quarter, said "we are about to see the Pac-10 win the bowl season among conference." Sure, Penn State was down by a few scores, but Brent: stranger things have happened. Kirk was saying, with under 2 minutes to go in the half, that Penn State just needed to play for pride in the 2nd half, dismissing any chance of them coming back. Then Musberger went on to call USC, under coach Pete Carroll, a "dynasty." I thought I dynasty was about winning championships. Since Pete Carroll took the head coach job at USC nine years ago, he has won two national championships. Not to take anything away from Carroll because I think he's a great coach, but I would think that 2/9 (22%) wouldn't be defined as a dynasty by most people. Now, if you define a dynasty by most Rose Bowl wins, then USC has and always will be a dynasty. They have the most Rose Bowl wins in their history than any school in college football, but really, how impressive is that anyway? They play in the Pac-10, which is usually a pretty weak conference. And don't argue with me; the Pac-10 features powerhouses such as: Washington (0-12 in 2008), Washington State (2-11, one win came against Washington), UCLA (4-8), Stanford (5-7), and Arizona State (5-7). The winner of the Pac-10 conference always goes to the Rose Bowl, so their chances of at least getting there are pretty high. The fact that they only have to travel 11 miles to play in the game makes it, pretty much, a home game for them. Their record is 24-9 all-time in the Rose Bowl, which seems pretty good to the outside observer, but I'm not impressed. They have lost 9 times in the Rose Bowl (27%) and they only have to travel 11 miles to play in the game. Every Big Ten team has a 1000+ mile trip and yet they still have beaten them. It's almost embarassing for USC to ever lose this game. What I would love to see the most is for the Rose Bowl to switch off between a Southern Cal location and the competing Big Ten school's home field. Then we would see who really was better. Imagine making USC play in 19-degree weather in Happy Valley. I think the tables would be slightly turned in that situation.

Unfortunately, that won't ever happen, not with the tradition of the Rose Bowl parade and playing bowl games in warm locales. Hey, if teams like Penn State have to suffer through sub-freezing temperatures and nasty weather conditions through over half of their season, why shouldn't their bowl opponent? It would just be an interesting twist, is all.

The last thing I want to talk about is the embarassment USC made out of this game. Their actions on the field are inexcusable, in my opinion. I don't know how other people feel about this, but everyone that was at my house watching the game was disgusted with their behavior. After every touchdown, they not only performed multiple-player celebrations in the end zone, but then proceeded to huddle around near their sideline (but still on the field of play) and do a little dance. Now, I'm not a professional on the rules here, but I'm pretty certain that it's not legal, in college football or even the pros, to perform a team celebration on the field, which is exactly what they were doing. I heard from a friend who went to the game that the USC players on the sidelines were actually imitating the onsides kick performed by Joe Paterno in a practice a while back that injured his hip and required him to have hip surgery. I wonder if they realize they are mocking the best coach in Division 1 college football history. I would love to see Pete Carroll try to coach until he's 82 years old. (Actually, I don't; there's no way I could stand to watch him in the Rose Bowl every year for that long).

Another thing that pissed me off was Carroll's attitude on the sidelines. Not only would he run onto the field to argue almost every call that was made, but after Green's fumble late in the first half, he actualy ran onto the field and grabbed the game ball and took it back to the sidelines with him. Again, I'm not pro, but I think that would warrant a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. USC wasn't flagged in any of these situations. To compound the matter, for every Penn State penalty that was called, the referee threw the flag well after the penalty occurred, almost as if they were waiting to see the outcome of the play. Twice, on the Maybin offsides and on a 45-yard reception, the flag came out well after the play. And while I'm at it, how about calling a goddamn roughing the passer penalty on USC? A big part of the referee's job is to protect the quarterback and Clark was getting hit late on almost every play, but no flag was ever thrown.

The referees' actions came to a head in the second half after a scary play involving USC safety Taylor Mays and Penn State WR Jordan Norwood. Norwood was going over the middle to catch a pass when Mays launched himself headfirst into Norwood, creating a helmet-to-helmet hit that looked scarier than it turned out. A hit like that in the pros would have drawn a 15-yard penalty, a $10,000 fine from the league, and a possible ejection from the game. The hit was made without Mays looking for the ball and with intent to injure. The fact that he only drew the 15-yard roughing penalty amazes me. This guy is projected to go top-10 on most draft boards and he goes and makes a play like that. NFL scouts, take note. This guy is a headhunter and will draw fines every week.

In summary, yes I am a bitter Penn State fan that watched the game with disappointment and hatred for USC. However, the actions of the USC players and coaches, and the referees were inexcusable. I thought Notre Dame was at the top of the list when it came to classless programs, but I think we may have a new #1. I can tell you one thing: if Penn State was up 31-7 at halftime, they wouldn't have been dancing on the field and mocking the other team. Penn State is a program that wins, and loses, with class.