Gaming Blogs – Page 24

Madden 13 – Connected Careers and Franchise Mode Questions Answered

It has been just over a month sense E3 and there are still people waiting to hear more details about Franchise Mode/Connected Careers in Madden 13. There are a few things we can deduce from details that have either been given to the community straight up or through videos that leave you to draw some conclusions. Not to mention the fact that some of the good people that were invited to Community Day at EA Tiburon have given a lot of great feedback.

This is one of the biggest changes for Madden in years. The issue we are facing is that the details have become rather muddled.

Here is a list of answers and a few thoughts (after the facts) so you can have your questions answered.

Is Franchise Mode dead?

In name, yes. In practice, no. Franchise Mode still exists and it will be under the selection of being a ‘Coach’ – you will still have the same control over your team, etc. Also, you will have the ability to get fired as a coach. Everything you have been able to do in Franchise Mode in the past – you can still do in Madden 13.

What about Superstar Mode?

Superstar Mode is still around. You will ‘Be A Player’ and in the process you will only control yourself. You will get to choose plays as a QB, etc.

Legends, what’s the deal?

Legends (Coaches and Players like John Madden and Barry Sanders) are not coming into Connected Careers as 99 OVR versions of themselves. Their presence in Connected Careers is also up to you as the main user to turn them on or off (off is default as of E3).

How does XP work for Connected Careers?

XP is a two tier process –

1– You have to earn it through performance and milestones. However, you won’t be able to earn more XP if you cheat or run up the score on the CPU. (IE – If your goal is a 300 yard passing game in week three for 1000 XP and you pass for 900 yards, you still only get 1000 XP)

2– Leveling up costs increase as your ratings get higher. You will earn XP as you accomplish certain goals, but as you try to make your player either faster, stronger or simply better all-around you will see ratings cost more as you go. (IE – The cost to go from 85 to 86 SPD as a QB could cost you 6000 XP, but the cost to go from 86 to 87 SPD could cost you 7000 XP, etc.)

Do Coaches Matter?

Not really. Coaches simply get put into one of four levels. You can grow your created coach into a ‘Level 4’ but it really doesn’t mean anything. (Unfortunate)

Do player ratings change depending on a team’s scheme?

Yes, there are finally ratings that dynamically change to reflect the player’s overall value to your team or coach and what type of offense or defense you run. A 6’3″ 349 lb DE won’t be valued highly by a 4-3 Defensive Team, etc. This doesn’t mean his ability ratings ‘change’ but his displayed OVR and value to your team will be.

Can I make existing players retire if I control them?

No, you technically ‘stop’ using them. However, if you have a created player and retire they will be removed from the game.

Can I still control all 32 teams?

No, you can only control one team or player at a time.

Is Connected Careers Online or Offline?

It is both. If you hate playing against people online you don’t have to worry about it.

Can more than one person play a Connected Career on the same console?

No.

Can Commissioners kick people out of the league?

Yes

Is there online Auto-Pilot?

Yes.

Can Online Connected Careers have different roles?

Depending on your settings, you can make it so everyone has to be a QB, Coach RB, etc. It is totally up to the commissioner.

Can I play on the same team as a friend in Online CC?

No.

More to come! Stay tuned to NoobTubeTV as Madden gets closer.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A few quick thoughts…

Madden 13 is really depending on Connected Careers being a high quality experience. There are a few things that it seems EA still needs to figure out for coaches especially.

In NFL Head Coach you would be able to say one of a few different things to your players at key moments. This added immersion and actually made coaches important. As well, the idea of a player fitting into a team’s scheme… it should be a coach’s scheme, not a team’s scheme. The Browns have switched coaches so many times in the last decade that the players change as often because they don’t fit what the coach wants to do and how his staff prefers to approach the game.

Making people earn XP to increase abilities is a great attempt to make the game a bit more involved and honest. By removing the ‘Potential’ rating you are now pretty much in charge of proving that a player is as good as you think and they will have to earn every bit of that OVR Rating you think they deserve. The nice part is that it is all on you to do this.

The overall closed nature of Connected Careers is a good thing for this year, but next year it needs to be opened up. There is a danger in allowing people to mess with time paradoxes, true simulation and that little thing called the game’s actual coding. This is something that can be improved upon with a more open approach in the future. Let the ~~beta testers~~ gamers mess with all sorts of things so EA can figure out the issues and fix them rather than avoid them because they are scared of problems with freezing and system crashes, etc.

All things said, Connected Careers is starting to look like a great mode for Madden fans that want to have a nice experience in growing a team or a player as they see fit. Even with some limitations that make you scratch your head.

Open World RPGs – What Else Can Be Done?

Games like Skyrim and Fallout have done a fantastic job of bringing otherwise disinterested people to the RPG scene. Yet, it feels like once you finish the main quests the games can lose their luster titles that are more action-packed. Some games like Borderlands do a really nice job of taking the boring exploration for explorations sake out of the mix and inserting crazy bad guys and mutant creatures for you to shoot and explode at your leisure. Even after a couple hours of that type of gaming you will find yourself bored of treasure hunting and shooting random baddies.

slaythedragonlol — Is this what your character is saying?

What else is there to do at this point?

You can kill things, you can amass wealth and you can even find relationships with other digital ‘people’. Granted, when all is said and done – you are still roaming a world that doesn’t seem to have a reason to be booted up. Sure, there are side-quests and random things you can do for people… like kill a guy for the Night Mother or maybe collect a trinket for some lazy scared guy. Regardless, it is an important question that might not really have an answer.

Outside of turning open world RPGs into another version of Second Life – what can really be done at this point? Leveling up doesn’t matter after awhile. Not to mention to never-ending stream of DLC that seems to seduce people regularly into forking over another $10-20. Some DLC is well worth the payment but at what point are we going to expect something more and realize that there really isn’t more to be had?

Is it a sign that perhaps it wouldn’t hurt if games started having some sort of finality that pushed to you play through the story again and again in different ways? Mass Effect did this and it was nice that they actually tied Achievement Points to playing through the game multiple times. Even games like Diablo 3 and Borderlands give you multiple character types to build up and roam around with.

What is your take? Is there anything more that can be done for open world RPGs? If you say yes, what are your suggestions? Post in the comments below!

The Dark Knight Rises – Could It Change How People Want Games To End?

If you consider how the upcoming movie The Dark Knight Rises it is a distinct possibility that Batman could die. This isn’t really much of a spoiler. You can look up any of the Batman vs. Bane battles and see that Bane actually breaks Batman’s back. This isn’t really meant to be a rundown of Batman’s comic history however.

bane — Could this movie change the entire landscape of entertainment if Batman either dies or ends up eating through a straw?

It should be known that the target audience for the new Batman movie is also the same target audience that many gaming companies push their products to as well. As much as fans of the Dark Knight series seem to worship the story and characters involved with Christopher Nolan’s epic trilogy they don’t really question the story – they enjoy the movie for what it is and go on to buy it on blu ray and tell everyone how great it is/was.

This drives us to wonder what will happen if Batman either dies or ends up like Christopher Reeve… Will fans keep their unwavering support? That question then branches into a new direction. If people love the ending of The Dark Knight Trilogy with Batman either dead or a vegetable – how can they keep getting annoyed with games like Mass Effect 3 when they pretty much end in tragedy as well?

The point is that we have turned into a society (especially in gaming and film) that demands for the hero to save the day, kill the bad guy or simply wait for the credits to end for some hope that we will get to follow the trailers to yet another sequel.

Is it a cop out for people to write a story that ends with a brief glimmer of hope after the credits? Is it considered a failed story about a heroic journey if the hero dies in the process of saving everyone? That strategy seems to work well for The Bible (the best selling book of all time) and even The Matrix (check out a nice rundown of that series over at The Cool Ship) or does it simply not translate to games?

Without spoiling anything (too much) we will leave this as an open discussion but also provide you with some games that have some of the best endings.

Red Dead Redemption Game of the Year
– One of the best games available on this generation of consoles. The story is well written, the voice acting is top notch and the side-quests are numerous enough to keep you playing forever. Without spoiling the ending we can tell you that it is pretty much perfectly scripted in every way a western can be.

Batman: Arkham City (Game of the Year Edition)

– It is hard to tell you that any game is the best you will ever play, but in the spirit of Batman… this is hard to pass up. The game plays smoothly and the story and voice acting is amazing. With the likes of The Joker, Harley-Quinn, Two Face and others it is a game that demands your time.

Battlefield 4 Beta – Does It Cheapen Medal of Honor?

Now that it has been confirmed, why does it seem like bittersweet news?

Battlefield 4 is coming out at some point and the Beta will be open to people that Pre-Order Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

All of this seems rather questionable considering there are plenty of people subscribed to Battlefield 3’s Premium service. It almost puts people into a position where they have to plan on buying a new game while they are in the middle of enjoying one they are already preemptively paying extra for through DLC.

Medal of Honor Warfighter is the unfortunate ‘vessel’ that will be looked at by many people as a $40 game with a Beta they would pay $20 for rather than the $60 they will actually pay for it.

Many Battlefield fans are still wondering where the Bad Company sequel is. That happens to be a good question if you consider the fact that Battlefield 3 is pretty much designed to be a multiplayer game rather than some sort of story mode that you anxiously await to see what happens in the next chapter.

Bad Company has a cast of characters that you actually develop an interest in, but Battlefield 3 is a game that lacks any sort of draw in the story mode. The terrorists are bad and they want to destroy everything… yeah… got it. What happens in Battlefield 4? Do the terrorists come back as zombies?…

Sorry, that is more of a Call of Duty thing.

Limitations On NCAA and Madden 13 Push Both Games to Stand On Their Own

There was a lot of flack after the announcement that Madden and NCAA Football would pretty much have nothing that brought them together.

“Hello Friends!” Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are just part of a new direction for Madden this year.

For five years they both gave you the ability to pretty much continue the careers of players that you had used, faced or competed alongside during your seasons of NCAA Football. Not to mention the fact that if you downloaded fully-named rosters for NCAA you would also be getting to draft some of your favorite “real” college players in the future!

However, there was a big downfall to that ‘perk’.

When you wouldimport your draft class from NCAA to Madden you would notice that the best players in NCAA that were coming out in the draft would be scattered. Not to say that this doesn’t happen in real life, but the ratings simply didn’t translate well enough to be imported into Madden without scratching your head in wonderment.

This year it is different and it is a good thing.

After many articles and thoughts on the subject of Madden and NCAA 13 it has finally clicked that these games finally get to be games unto themselves. NCAA Football has a hardcore audience that either prefer college football to pro football; or they just can’t stand Madden football and choose to roll with NCAA every year. Regardless of the reasons for one over the other (or even buying both) you are now playing two different games this year and it is a good thing.

GymratNCAA — NCAA Football has a hardcore audience and the ability to take screen-shots during Instant Replay… This picture was taken and posted on Operation Sports by Gymrat8168

Madden’s Connected Careers is a good direction for at least a little bit of change in the formula for Franchise Mode, etc. NCAA has Road to Glory and Dynasty still going strong, but the fact is that you won’t be playing one of these games and wondering if it would be better if you had both of them instead.

Playing a game of video game football can take you anywhere from 40 minutes to over and hour (depending on your settings, play-style and bathroom breaks). It is difficult to play a Dynasty and a Franchise Mode at the same time. If you consider the fact that just in regular seasons alone there are at least 28 games that need to be played; then take into account all of the off-the-field duties you have to do in order to have any depth to your experience… it is one heck of a task to run careers on two different titles.

Madden finally gets a chance to step up and be the big brother the NCAA hasn’t had on this generation of consoles. NCAA finally gets a chance to be more than just a place to get draft classes from for Madden’s Franchise mode.

Either way it goes, this year is different for football gaming and both titles are better off for it.

Medal of Honor Warfighter – Is It Going To Be Another Feeble Attempt?

*NOTE – It has been mentioned elsewhere that Medal of Honor Warfighter is going to give players an opportunity to have access to the Beta for Battlefield 4!

The Medal of Honor series has been one that shows tremendous promise in the past (during its World War 2 renditions especially). However, in recent years it has either disappeared or come out and tried to be a direct competitor to Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare Series. The last time Medal of Honor came out it seemed that there was between one and two months where it peaked a few people’s interest and then it was lost in the rubble of Bad Company 2 and the Call of Duty series.

Now it seems that EA is trying to continue pushing Medal of Honor in the modern setting. This is with the knowledge that they have a great consumer-base in Battlefield 3. Not only that, but they are still developing an enormous amount of content for that game.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter wants to compete directly with Black Ops 2. This means, it will feature smaller maps and more fast-paced action than Battlefield does with its enormous maps and battles that rage on for 40+ minutes at a time. (Granted, BF3 also has Team Deathmatch modes that are similar, but it isn’t a truly good use of their gameplay or controller mechanics to play it in such a loose way.) It should be hoped that Medal of Honor has a different feel than Battlefield as far gunplay and other direct movement goes.

The benefit that Medal of Honor has over Black Ops is that you can choose to one of multiple nations and see who is ‘the best’. Granted, when it all comes down to it, will anyone care about that as the drawing feature when all they want to do is shoot digital weapons? Who knows. All that can really be stated is that the bullets will start flying (again) in October and here at NoobTubeTV we are as excited as ever.

Madden 13 ‘Legends’ – I Think I Played This Game Before

Madden 13 is coming to your console with Legendary Players. If you are excited about this – more power to you.

On the other hand, you could pop in a game that is five years old tomorrow and use quite a few of the same players such as the great Reggie White.

It isn’t really a question of whether or not Madden or 2K Football is better. It really is apples and oranges when you start comparing how the games play and other nuances that are too numerous to discuss in this article.

However, the real issue at hand is that EA Tiburon is putting this ‘feature’ in a game and almost acting like it is an original idea. 2K Sports (out of desperation) to please their hardcore football fans and with a feeble attempt to jump into the football gaming foray early on in this generation of consoles tried to grab a foothold with the inclusion of legends such as the aforementioned – Reggie White. As well, they had players you can see here on 2K’s website.

APF_COVERPS3CASE_507 — The Original ‘Legends Game’ can be had for cheap. You will be amazed with the gameplay and animations that might not even be in Madden this year… or ever.

The issue at hand also makes the controversial Connected Careers Mode a little more strange in that it allows these legendary players (Barry Sanders, Ronnie Lott, Troy Aikman, etc.) as well as Legendary Coaches! It is puzzling that they can’t allow people to do something like edit rosters, but they can allow legendary players onto their teams.

To compound the confusion there is also another vital question that needs to be asked –

Since when does the coach matter in Madden football?

Legendary Coaches is also a nice enough feature (and one that isn’t in APF2K8) but coaches have never mattered in Madden NFL. You could have gone to the Super Bowl with Romeo Crennel’s ‘I’m Thinkin’ Arbys Cleveland Browns All Stars’ and it wouldn’t matter a bit. Your coach means nothing in Madden and that has always been the case.

Madden 13 is on par to impress with their usual growth this year, but the inclusion of legends and marketing of their presence in Connected Careers (as well as Ultimate Team) is something that makes a lot of people look at EA with confusion and wonder if they will ever understand that gimmicks (especially those that have been done by another company) don’t sell games or make their game more enticing. They are cheapening the ‘experience’ and making it feel more and more like it should be Downloadable Content to mess around with like a toy from a Happy Meal and then forgotten forever in the annals of Epic Sports Gaming Fails.

If you want a great game with classic players that requires a more simulation approach than Madden, please follow our link to a bargain of a fantastic football game!

All Pro Football 2K8

Borderlands 2 – Might Be A Must Buy

Pre-Order Borderlands 2 At Amazon and Get $10 Towards A Future Amazon Purchase

For a game that had a niche market on its initial release, it seems like Borderlands 2 might be angling for a bigger hold on the FPS/ACTION/Quasi-RPG market.

It uses cell-shading presentation that makes the game look rather cartoonish, but in the end it is still a fantastic game for you to look into for teaming up with a couple friends either on the same screen or online. This game focuses on dominating the world around you with weapons that are as numerous as they are deadly. You can have a sniper rifle that fires electric charged rounds of toxic acid or a bazooka that fires rockets with other crazy abilities.

The bottom line is that you will be able to jump into the Planet of Pandora (again) and rain down hellfire with a smile on your face because you know that you have hours upon hours of amazing gunplay at your fingertips… and a month before Medal of Honor: Warfighter – Limited Edition comes out!

Madden 13 – Pre-Order and Get $15 In Amazon Credit!

We are entering the time of year when a lot of the most anticipated titles are coming out. One thing that tends to make it tough on gamers is making the choice of which game you have to skip out on.

Amazon does a nice job of enticing people by offering this sweet deal that basically means if you pre-order four games, you get the 5th game for free! Take it upon yourself to jump on this when you can!

Keep in mind, if the price changes (gets cheaper) before release like NCAA 13 did, you will get that price and the $15 credit to your Amazon Account!

Madden NFL 13

Grand Theft Auto V – Los Santos (Los Angeles) – NOT Miami (Vice City)

*NOTE – Our initial post was that GTAV was going to be in Vice City. However, it was brought to our attention that it is indeed in Los Santos. It was an unfortunate error on our part and we do apologize for anyone that got too excited about a new Vice City game.

Grand Theft Auto V (5) is rumored to be coming out either late this year (2012) or early next year (2013). With the trickle of screen-shots coming out of Rockstar’s studios it does drive fans of the series to wonder about what they should expect from the next iteration of one of the most controversial games ever developed.

The biggest question for a GTA game is where it will be taking place.

That was answered awhile ago and it is their old version of cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles and even San Francisco (called San Andreas). There are some people that all but worshipped Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (a close friend of mine will probably buy a console just to play this game if it is even similar in its beach settings, etc.).

: If you look closely you can see that LeBron James is in the background wearing a Yankees hat and cheering for anyone that doesn’t call him a villain. We are holding out hope that he is the actual villain you have to face in GTA V.

The most intriguing part about games from Rockstar is that they almost never disappoint when it comes to story, voice acting and the ability to explore and wreak havoc all over their world.

There are a lot of people that can’t wait to take their talents to Los Angeles (again), but even more seem to want Vice City. Chances are good you will have to wait another 4-5+ years for that.

What is your favorite Grand Theft Auto City? Liberty City, San Andreas, Vice City or somewhere else?