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Written by Craig Gonzalez
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Friday, 18 July 2008 |
 I planned on coming out to E3 and doing a bit of somewhat live blogging about what I've seen. However, being a sports gaming site, there really wasn't a ton of things to blog live about. There were some good things to see in the sports gaming world, but instead of just doing quick hitters on the fly about what I saw, I wanted to take the time and kind of think about what I put my hands on and provide a little more analysis about the games shown at E3. So here's kind of a game-by-game preview about what I was able to play while I was there....
Madden 09
First things first. I'm a football gamer at heart, so naturally wanted to see what Madden had in store for us this year. QC already went to the Community Event a few weeks ago and got extended time with, but I didn't go to that event so this was the first time I got my hands on it. And let me say that I came away impressed with Madden 09. The defense is stout, the controls are tight, the presentation is good, and I think we finally got back to the X's and O's of football again. I also really enjoyed the "Backtrack" feature where Chris Collinsworth breaks down plays as you happen to take a sack or do something like thrown a pick. It's actually very intuitive when you up the difficulty to All-Pro or above.
Why?
Because when you play on the higher difficulties, Collinsworth not only tells you what you did wrong and shows you what you should've done, but the game also breaks down the real life success rating of the play you called versus the play in which your oppenent called! That's right, EA has true to life statistics taken from the NFL that shows you that success rate. I think the "hardcore" gamers are really going to enjoy seeing those breakdowns.
I also think the animations are tight and the controls are very responsive. It almost feels like a hybrid of the Madden gameplay that we're used to with some 2K football elements as well. I feel you really have to work in order to score your points and on the higher difficulties football knowledge will reign supreme. I know EA has taken some heat for their football games in the last couple years, and deservedly so, but I think this might be the year where they turn it all around again. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the sticks with Madden at E3. And for the record, it was the PS3 version there and it's right up there with the 360 version. I don't think the PS3 owners out there will feel slighted at all.
NBA Live 09
Let me start this out by saying that I have been a 2K basketball fan for the last few years. I think it's been common knowledge that 2K straight up owned the basketball gaming market for the last few years and EA's offerings have been nothing but an afterthought. I think EA made some strides last year with NBA Live 08, but it wasn't quite there yet. I think NBA Live 09 will surprise a lot of people this year, however. They really upped the animations in the game and the ball physics are drastically improved. You no longer have to pick up rebounds off the ground and they really added a lot of the real life players shots in the game. And let me tell you that the new "DNA" feature is fantastic! After you take each shot, it shows you in the upper right hand corner the real life players shot percentage from that particular spot on the floor and with the Live 365 feature for the game, that will constantly change as well. I basically used the Pistons most of the time since that's the team I know the best, and it's quite amazing how accurate they made the tendencies of the players.
The Live 365 feature is something that I think people are really going to love. Their internet connection was spotty at the convention center, but it was still exciting walking in there on Wednesday wondering if Marcus Camby was going to be on the Clippers after the trade on Tureday night. Apparently, if the internet connection was working properly, he would've been on the Clips. We've never seen those kind of darn near instant roster updates before and that's just one of the features that is going to take the game to the next level. The NBA Live staff has been hard at work on the game and it clearly shows. I honestly think it was one of the better sports games that I've played at E3. I really hope people give it a chance this year.
NBA 09
Let me start off by saying that I've never played a Sony NBA game before in my life. They didn't have the game out on Tuesday, but they did on Wednesday and Thursday and I had a chance to get a little bit of time with it. While the only playable teams were the Celtics and Lakers, it was still a fun game to play. The animations are pretty smooth and it did play a decent game of basketball, but I don't think it's on that next level yet. I think the game provides a good base for the Sony team to work on, but some things like the steal animations and the fact that you get locked into some weird animations kind of bring the game down a bit. To be fair, it was an early build and there were some kinks to be ironed out. It does seem like it's on the right track, though, even though it might take another season to get there. I will say that if feels very similar to the NBA Live in a lot of respects, but I think that's because the lead producer on that game used to work on the Live series at one time.
Tiger Woods 09
I admit that I don't buy Tiger every year. I think the core game has been virtually the same year-to-year and I personally don't buy each version of the game for the new courses year in and year out. Since it's been a couple years since I lost bought a Tiger game, this is the year that I will get the new one. The game looks absolutely beautiful, the courses look fantastic as do the golfers themselves. The gameplay is very familiar to older renditions so if you've had previous versions of the game, you can pick up right where you left off. The big thing that stuck out in my mind, however, was the ability to edit your clubs.
What I mean by that is let's say that you have a tendencey to not pull back and swing forward with the swing stick in a completely straight motion and you kind of veer off to the side, thus resulting in hooks or fades. Well, you can go to the range and edit your clubs to compensate for you swing stick tendencies. You can do that with each club in your bag as well. Another cool thing about that feature is that you can do that before each round of golf that you play. so if you're playing a round where the wind is really picking up, you can adjust the loft of your clubs before the round to cut through that wind and stuff of the like. While it's a feature that's geared more towards some of the golf "elite" it's actually very intuitive for the novice golfers out there as the interface is very easy to figure out and know what you're affecting when you make adjustments. But considering the fact that I've been golfing for about 20+ years or so, I find that feature to really be up my alley.
MLB Power Pros 2008 (Wii)
Scott (QC) was sent the game last year and upon receiving it, there wasn't much to be expected. Then I got a call from him stating that the game actually played a very solid game of baseball despite is cartoon-type graphics and interface. So when I saw the new one out at E3, I wanted to get my hands on it and give it shot to see what he was talking about. Needless to say, I cam away impressed by what I played. The batting system is sweet and I feel that the hit variety is better than the MLB 2K series as a whole I saw so many variety of hits and the way the ball flies off the bat feels extremely realistic and fun. Sure the guys have big heads and look liek cartoons, but once you get under the hood, you get some pretty good baseball. I wish it was coming out on the 360 or PS3, but that doesn't look likes its going to happen in the near future, though.
Tecmo Bowl (DS)
Yes, this is CONSOLEsports.net, not HandheldSports.net, but this is Tecmo Bowl we're talking about here. Every sports gamer has a special spot in their hearts for the Tecmo Bowl series now matter what platform it comes out on. Anyway, I played a couple games of Tecmo Bowl and they did a good job of basically leaving it alone and bringing us the game that we remembered. The graphics were pretty much what we know and the cutscenes are all there. I couldn't really hear the game all that well, but I will say that 8-bit kind of sound track that we are used to hearing was also in the game. Given the fact that the game is editable, it will be interesting to see how deep it can get. The Wii version wasn't shown at the game, but I will try and get more info on it as it becomes available.
NBA 2K9 and NHL 2K9
I have to admit, all I really saw were "sizzle" videos of both games. Although, I was in a room where a couple guys were playing NBA 2K9 for about 5 minutes, but I didn't get any feature sets or any kind of info on the games at all. The videos looked cool and all, but they didn't have playable versions of either game which was disappointing to me.
That was pretty much it for the sports gaming in a nutshell at E3. Keep checking back to ConsoleSports.net in the next couple days for more pics and videos.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 18 July 2008 )
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