ConsoleSports
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Written by Craig Gonzalez
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Friday, 28 December 2007 |
I'm not going to lie, up until about a week or two ago, I hadn't touched Madden 08 in a couple months. The reason why was because we actually got a season going in All-Pro Football 2K8 on this site and it was the first online season that has actually gone off on this site. So, it was fun to be able to get games in all the time, even though I finished the season 4-12, but I digress.
After playing a bunch of APF, I wanted a bit of a different flavor along with NFL players and then the word dropped that ESPN NFL 2K5 was now backwards compatible on the XBOX 360. That gave me new motivation to download some new rosters for the regular XBOX version of NFL 2K5 and start a new season with current rosters. One of the first things I noticed was how much faster it plays than APF 2K8, I didn't even realize the speed difference before. Another thing that was getting to me was the pass defense in the game was rather suspect and I noticed that the WR's actually caught a ton of passes that they actually had no business catching or holding onto. Like, catches in traffic where they would take huge shots just after catching the ball and hang onto it with the greatest of ease. The ESPN presentation was great, of course, but I have to say that even though NFL 2K5 is still a solid game, it actually felt.....dated.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 December 2007 )
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Tuesday, 18 December 2007 |
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So far in the "Naughty & Nice 2007" segment, we've covered two "Nice" features. The first being 2K Share, the second being Madden 08 360's branching animations. And now comes our first downer...
NAUGHTY!
Madden NFL 08 Next Gen and NCAA08 Next Gen's Online Performance In short, it shouldn't be as bad as it is. EA has had 2 and a half years with XBOX Live 360, and yet each of their football games, be they college or pro, are a laggy slide-show for many gamers. I'd go so far as to say that of the 20 to 30 360 games I've ever owned, none of them has lag to the point of Madden and NCAA 08 360.
Not to beat a dead horse, but EA needs to fix this in 2009. It's terrible (particulary on NCAA 08, and not much better in Madden 08) and there's no excuse for a publisher like EA Tiburon to consistently have poorly performing online football offerings. I don't know if it's network code or the servers themselves, but this needs fixed immediately if not sooner. Football gamers are growing increasingly cynical about what they are being offered, and the latency in the EA football games are tops on the list, and for good reason.
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Saturday, 15 December 2007 |
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..and, continuing our "Naughty & Nice" 2008 list, we come to...another "NICE" NICE!
Madden NFL 08 & NCAA 08's Branching Animations and Frame Rate (360)
I remember when Ian Cummings first announced the branching animation system and 60 fps frame-rate goals for the two EA football games for 360, I know expectations were high. Despite my overall feeling that both games were undercooked and a bit too buggy in places, I definitely appreciate the branching animations and frame rate. With the new branching animation system, the old days of getting caught in long animation cycles and losing control of your player to a pre-determined animation routine is mainly a thing of the past. You can "break" those animations with stick control and transition to other moves. Its so good that - like with the 2K Share Concept- its something that I feel should be the standard in sports games. I notice that 2K's basketball games would GREATLY benefity by a deep branching animation system in particular, so here's hoping that everyone sees Madden 08 and NCAA 08 360 and realizes how important branching animations are in giving control to the player.
And, regarding the 60 fps... who doesn't like that?
Here's a video showing some of those great branching animations by our friend Mezy456
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 15 December 2007 )
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 |
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In the days leading up to New Year's Eve, I'm going to be running a special segment of the Consolesports.net front page. I'll be compiling Consolesports.net Sports Gaming's Naughty & Nice List- 2007 What is it? Well, its a compilation of both the lows (the naughty) and the highs (the nice) of the 2007 sports video game features, innovations...and mis-steps. The "Nice" are the innovative things that the sports game designers should be seriously commended for that really move the games forward, while the "Naughty" are features that need some serious work for future versions of the respective game. Today, I'm going to start off with a "Nice".. and considering the feature and what it does, I'd say that's a bit of an understatement...
The 2K Share Feature In 2K Sports College Hoops 2K8
***NICE!*** I'm starting off with a big one here. The new "2K Share" feature allows files (such as rosters) to be shared between owners of the College Hoops 2K8 game over XBOX Live. Why is this big? Well, it eliminates the need for costly and often quirky third party file transfer devices... devices that often require you to also buy a memory card along with the gadget. Quite often, those "gadgets" created their own file type that could only be read by users who also owned that same 3rd party device. Needless to say, it was often a mess, and often drove users nuts. Those days might be gone..at least as it pertains to 2K Sports' games. All you have to do is upload your file, or download the public file that others uploaded. It took me less than 2 minutes to get the latest version of the Operation Sports community CH 2K8 rosters upon firing up the game. In seconds I was playing with named players and coaches. In the past, I'd be having to load PC software, look for the file who's extension corresponds to my particular wonky transfer device, do file transfers, and hope for the best. Well, it looks like those days are over- at least as it pertains to CH 2K8 and future 2K Sports video games. This wasn't just innovative, this was a very gamer-aware feature that may have caused a big, positive ripple in the sports video gaming industry- and should be the norm going forward.
Thank you 2K Sports.
Stay tuned in the coming days for more from our 2007 "Naughty & Nice" list.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 December 2007 )
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007 |
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Its beginning to look a lot like winter here in Pittsburgh, and I gotta tell you – I love it. I’m a cold-weather guy, and my idea of hell is heat, humidity, and Florida. This is football weather here in the northeast. This is my favorite time of year. My wife also gets "snow paranoid", and we stay in alot..which means...she watches mind-numbing girl movies on the Lifetime channel, and I play more video games.
Anyway, just wanted to post and get some quick-hitter topics out there for discussion that have been on my mind lately. ***I can’t express how much fun I’ve been having in our Consolesports.net APF 2K8 draft league… and not just because I’m currently 7-2 and beat the tar out of the ever-mouthy CrimsonVoodoo. What a great playing online game. Someone please tell the other sports game developer out there that online seasons with stat tracking, playoffs, web interface, and flex schedules….are very nice and people want them in sports games. And you can take that to the bank. There’s no bigger “No-Brainer” in the sports game industry right now. However, I would really hope that if 2K makes a follow up to All Pro Football, that they also work to seriously flesh-out offline modes of play and features. ***EA is to be commended for their huge improvements to their NBA Live franchise. Its now fun to play. I’m also looking forward to March Madness 08 coming out next week. Craig and I have been told by an inside source that there’s even more to like that got put into March Madness simply because they had several months longer to make it. Great…so now I’ll have two games where I start my virtual Bobby Knight career. ***Speaking of college hoops, I do enjoy 2K Sports’ College Hoops 2K8, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit…
…just how much I stink at the game. My shooting percentage is abysmal!
*** I am really glad to see what all was fixed by the Madden 08 360 patch. Franchise folks finally can dive-in without the year two “crash”. However, the three and a half months it took to correct such a serious issue did little to help EA’s “release something and worry about fixing it next year” perception that many have. Last year it took a month and a half to correct the “no-fatigue” issue with a patch. This year it took almost 4 months to fix a broken franchise mode. I think EA would be wise to invest in a “residual crew” of technicians/devs to work on each title after release so it at least works as advertised. And that includes the Wii version too, which has some disgraceful problems that should have never gotten past playtesting either.
*** Regarding the big Activision + Vivendi = Blizzard Activision merger… might we have a “white knight” who would like to compete against EA in the sports game market? Rumor has it that there’s a well-known sports developer out there who’s current publisher does little to market its games and is in financial trouble due to some in-game content scandals that caused some seriously angry stockholders. Perhaps that sports game developer and Blizzard Activision might like to talk to have lunch together and shoot the breeze sometime soon? *** Remember the past two Christmases...with the "slow to get AAA titles" dynamic for the XBOX 360? It looks like those days are dead and gone... thankfully.
*** Lastly, the Jeff Gerstmann firing at Gamespot- allegedly for angering publisher Eidos for a bad “6” review score of Kane & Lynch… it seems to be getting more press than Gamespot would like. Check out this from news source TheStreet.com Until next time…
Scott Hemphill
“Quietcool72”
Co-Founder
Consolesports.net
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 05 December 2007 )
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