Friday, September 07, 2012

Revamped NFL Logos

I saw a site that redesigned NFL logos. And then I saw another one. And then some designers that did some for some teams. So I saved them and am here to go team-by-team, rank my favorites and give some commentary. I've listed my favorites at the top, per team.


New England Patriots


Not a strong start. Don't love any of these three. The second one is better designed, but just doesn't work for a football logo.

New York Jets


Now we're talking. This first one is snazzy. And then you see that it has a N Y in the logo. The second one is sharp, perhaps a little too futuristic.


Buffalo Bills




I feel like the retro look fits Buffalo. The second one is cartoony and the third one is a god-awful rendition of the shitty Sabres logo that everyone hated.


Miami Dolphins




The Dolphins was a popular choice. All of these are pretty good, but I like how the first one has a great looking dolphin and it works as a D in the script.


Pittsburgh Steelers



This is probably the best set of three in the post. It's hard to even pick a favorite.

Baltimore Ravens


The bottom one isn't bad, but the top one takes a cool element they already have and improves upon it. Not easy.

Cincinnati Bengals


These are both super shitty. But the bottom one isn't even a logo.

Cleveland Browns




I actually like all three logos for the Browns. My favorite would be to take the top logo and lose the words.

Indianapolis Colts



Again I would keep the horseshoe and lose the words.

Jacksonville Jaguars



Some teams are just hard to design I guess. I hate all of these. The last one is nothing. The second one looks like a snake. The top one wins by default.

Tennessee Titans



These are all sort of interesting and I want to like #2 with the face, but it's not quite right.

Houston Texans



All of these are okay, but the first one is boss.

Denver Broncos


Don't like either of these. I prefer the throwback D logo.

Oakland Raiders



The bottom one is a cartoon joke. The top one is badass.

San Diego Chargers




So I sort of like all three...except none of them are quite right. For San Diego, I like powder blue and lightning. No other team has lightning, so I think it's a mistake to lose that and insert a horse. The middle one has powder blue and lightning, but has a jumble of letters. And I like that the last one tried to use lightning and combine it with a Chargers' C...except that it looks like a 5 and there's no powder blue.


Kansas City Chiefs



None of these are very good, I might like the first one if the arrowhead pointed to the right.

Dallas Cowboys


Fucking terrible. They should have done what they did for the Bears and Saints below. When you have  a perfect, classic logo, all you can try to do is keep and add some flavor. Not ruin it with a bandito.

New York Giants


I'm a sucker for skylines. 

Washington 





This might be the biggest disparity. The top one is elegant. The bottom one is ghastly.

Philadelphia Eagles



Again, I think the retro look works. The bottom eagle is cheesy.

Chicago Bears



I'm impressed. The top one took a virtually perfect logo and gave it a nice revamp.


Green Bay Packers


Ugh. Fucking awful again. The bottom one might be the worst on this page.


Detroit Lions


So bad. Why are they doing this to me?

Minnesota Vikings



I like the top one. The bottom one isn't the worst.

Atlanta Falcons

These are both pretty bad.

New Orleans Saints


The bottom one is a joke, right? I could do with a little less grunge on the top one, but at least it retained the important parts.


Carolina Panthers


CP are not letters to build a logo around.

Tampa Bay Bucs




Three logos this time and I like them. Love how the sword is in the 2nd one, but the first one just has a nice feel.

St. Louis Rams


More shit. The second one isn't even a logo.

Seattle Seahawks


Credit for making the top one clearly a sea hawk.

Arizona Cardinals


The top one is pretty good. Combines a desert scape with the bird and the key letter. The bottom one is SHITE.


San Francisco 49ers




We finish strong with four choices. The top one is pretty killer. 

The Math of a Victory

Come Novmber 6th, Mr. Romney or Mr. Obama will need 270 electoral votes to become President.

The New York Times currently has the number of projected solid/leaning to Obama at 237.
Solid/leaning Romney is 206.

To double check how "solid" the leaning numbers are, here are the 5 leaning Obama states and their current chances of winning, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Maine 99%
New Mexico 97%
Minnesota 96%
Michigan 95%
Pennsylvania 92%

So there you go...those are the "leaning" states. So starting with numbers of 237 and 206 seems pretty safe.

Which means, these are the only states that matter for the 2012 election, listed with electoral votes:

Florida (29)
Ohio (18)
Virginia (13)
Wisconsin (10)
Colorado (9)
Iowa (6)
Nevada (6)
New Hampshire (4)

That's it. Eight states. 95 tossup electoral votes. And Romney needs 64.

In other words, he can only lose 31 of these votes.
So if he loses Florida, he needs to sweep the rest.
If he loses Ohio and Virginia, he can still win with the other 6.
If he gets the 4 biggest states that's enough.

So let's take a look at these 8 states right now.

Florida
Currently 538 has projected Obama has a 63% chance of winning Florida. But that's just 1.8 points of polling. So it's close. But I'm sure Romney wishes he was up 1.8 instead of down 1.8.

Ohio
Obama up 3.1 points for a 72% chance of winning.

Virginia
Obama up 3 points for a 73% chance of winning.

Wisconsin
Obama up 4.9, 81%.

Colorado
Obama up 3.4, 72%.

Iowa
Obama up 3.6, 72%.

Nevada
Obama up 5.2, 82%.

New Hampshire
Obama up 6.4, 83%.

To sum up: in the 8 battleground states, Obama is up (reasonably) comfortably in all of them.

Assumption #1: Romney will not be able to win all 7 states except for Florida, which means he needs to win Florida. So on election night, if a network calls Florida for Obama, the election is over.

Assumption #2: Wisconsin, Nevada and New Hampshire are large leads, and could almost be already in Obama's category. That puts Obama at 257, needing just one of Florida-Ohio-Virginia or the Colorado-Iowa combo.

Assumption #3: For Romney to flip about 5-6 points across all battleground states, he's going to need a semi-miracle. Either a trouncing in all the debates that exposes a severe Obama weakness or some sort of tragic economic news that shoots a hole in Obama's recovery rhetoric. Or just start handing out cash in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado. Cause Romney needs them all.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Ranking Levels from THPS 1 and 2

First a quick runthrough:

THPS1
Warehouse
School
Mall
Chicago (competition level)
Minneapolis
Phoenix
Portland (competition level)
San Francisco
Roswell (competition level)


THPS2
Hangar
School II
Marseille (competition level)
New York City
Venice Beach
Skatestreet (competition level)
Philly
Bullring (competition level)
Skate Heaven (bonus level)
Chopper Drop (bonus level)


19. Chopper Drop
Too small to really even be a level.

18. Skatestreet
The competition levels are boring. I like the wires and secret area, but still it's all plywood.

17. Portland
Another competition level. Not much to look at.


16. Marseille
See above. Just a bunch of bowls. Secret area helps.


15. School
Not a bad level, but School II hurts this ranking.

14. Roswell
Because it was the last level of the first game, I don't think I played it enough for it to really make it's mark on me.

13. Chicago
A competition level but I appreciated the railings in the ceiling as a way to continue a grab trick in the pre-manual era.

12. Minneapolis
Cool secret tape area.

11. Skate Heaven
A wacky level that was fun to play, but hard to take serious.

10. Phoenix
A really interesting level that adds great variety.

9. Philly
I like the city levels, but this one doesn't have a ton going for it.

8. Bullring
Cool concept, good pipes.

7. Warehouse
The first level ever. This is classic. Still a good place to hang out.

6. Hangar
Takes the warehouse to the next level with two secret areas and a helicopter that lifts off.

5. Mall
Even though I think the sandbox levels have more replayability, this one is undeniably fun.

4. New York City
My favorite spot in the entire game is a just jumping across a simple staircase on an angle in the back part of the city. The subway cars and taxis give this one a cool factor.

3. San Francisco

Super awesome secret tape area. Wide open city.

2. Venice Beach

A ton to like here. All the different ramps and gaps with plenty of areas to be street or vert and a cool secret tape off the roof.

1. School II
What do you want in a level? How about starting with a huge leap of faith, a ramp that leads to a high-wire, or a grind that takes you to a true secret area? Table to table transfers. Great lines. And a second secret area--a swimming pool.