Category: Gaming Blogs

Is Black Ops 2 The End of COD As We Know It?

There always comes a point when you simply can’t make something better than you have before.  You can reinvent the wheel from stone to wood to rubber and maybe along the way you will make slight changes to the design.  However, when it comes to games…especially First Person Shooters… there are only so many iterations of a game you can make before it becomes either stale or simply a mockery of its former self.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
We have seen this game before… EIGHT TIMES.

Black Ops 2 seems destined to be the bitter end for Call of Duty games at this point.  With massive sales still coming for COD games, there seems to be something about Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2 that is missing.  That something is a feeling of freshness that can only be brought by a hiatus.  If you consider the fact that Modern Warfare 3 essentially finished a trilogy, you would think that means it is going to be time for a change.  Furthermore, if you consider the fact that Black Ops 2 is set in the future with drones and x-ray rifles, there isn’t much more ‘Modern’ Warfare can cover that hasn’t been covered or won’t be covered by BO2.

Does this still excite you?

We mentioned in the title that it might spell the end of COD as we know it.  That doesn’t mean that it will be discontinued (face it, that isn’t Activision’s M.O.) but it could mean something big is on the horizon for the series after BO2 is released.

If we cover what has been done in COD we can see that World War 2, Vietnam, Modern and now ‘near-Future’ will be covered by the end of 2012.  With all of those ‘interesting’ wars covered, it might  do them some good to get away from the same old ‘jump on a turret and shoot down waves of enemies’ formula that has been in every shoot’em up FPS game from Activision.

What needs to happen is development of a game series over multiple years.  The real problem facing Call of Duty games is the fact that Activision wants a new one every year to drive profits.  The problem is that this will end up leading to the same brutal end that Guitar Hero met only a couple years ago.

You can only reinvent the wheel so many times before people stop looking at it as ‘just a wheel’.  Call of Duty needs a break in the worst way, and after Black Ops 2 comes out in November it would be a perfect time for them to announce that the next Call of Duty game will be coming out on launch day with the next generation of consoles rather than yet another version of the same game in 12 months.

E3 is supposed to ‘Unveil Innovation’, but right now it looks like it is simply ‘unveiling’ the same stuff we have seen over the last few years.  First Person Shooters are becoming as common and overplayed as re-runs of Two and a Half Men and Call of Duty is turning into the Ashton Kutcher version.  If they are about #winning, Activision will push their next major FPS onto the next generation of consoles, where they can impress people with some actual innovation.

Madden 13 – Infinity Engine and Real Time Physics Should Mean Real Injuries

If Roger Goodell had it his way the NFL would be relegated to flag football or two-hand touch (but the latter might involve too much contact).  The issue at hand for Madden is the fact that they are marketing their newest and most important gameplay fix in years – real time physics.

What is real time physics?  It strictly means that as a player’s leg makes contact with another player in motion it will bounce off in realistic fashion rather than clipping through the other player or simply rubbing off in some strange way.

Now your players will flip, fall and bend as they should… but will they break like they should?

What might take away from this new way of players moving is when they smash their knees on someone’s helmet or fall on their head… or god forbid, get laid out by Patrick Willis and they somehow don’t get injured.  The NFL is making it more and more difficult for EA Tiburon to implement realism so long as they have the NFL’s license to make Madden with real players and NFL likeness’.

If EA wants to be a simulation, they need to include real-time injuries with this new physics engine… otherwise, they are just giving people a watered down version of football that is better left to Saturday morning kids shows.

Who knows if Joseph Addai got hurt on this play, but it could happen. In Madden it would currently play no part in his chances of injury.

 

Spec Ops: The Line – Some More Details of the Game From The Infinity Ward Founders

Spec Ops: The Line is a game that is coming in under the radar.  As far as being noob friendly, this could be one of the games that new gamers will want to jump into.  Any time a developer pushes a new series, noobs should look at it as an opportunity to become skillful and improve with everyone else that is learning the game with you.  While some people will have certain skills like reaction times and gaming reflexes, you will be able to learn the nuances and idiosyncrasies of Spec-Ops if you jump in off the bat.

Keep in mind, this game is a THIRD-Person Shooter in the demo and looks like it is trying to draw more attention from Ghost Recon than COD or Battlefield.  If you consider the fact that this is also being published by 2K Games, it has a chance of gaining a foothold with some of the dedicated 2K Gamers.

The only trouble is, will the game be able to take the attention that Call of Duty will have in November and still be widely played online?

It will be an interesting situation as we take a quick look at what Spec-Ops has to offer –

  • Just re-Announced Co-Op Mode at E3
  • A very Gears of War feel for cover and handling
  • Your typical deathmatches, etc.

NCAA Football 13 – The Lame Duck Term

The first day for E3 was an amazing one for Madden fans (more on that to come).  However, the same cannot be said for NCAA Football fans.

You have heard of lame duck terms in politics… get ready to see one in sports gaming (again).

It was announced that NCAA Football 13 will not have Real Time Physics like it’s pro counter-part.  On top of that, you have bigger issues facing NCAA Football (the game and the actual real-life money hungry institution).  There will also be no way to import draft classes between the two games.  Granted, this ‘feature’ has been broken for years and with the new intensely improved rookie classes and draft for Madden… who really needs to import the same broken logic players?

If you consider the issues of an impending Playoff format and everything else with teams flip-flopping, this could be a lame duck year for NCAA Football 13.  This is going to render NCAA Football into a bit of a dead-zone for gamers that aren’t die hard fans of the series. How much fun or longevity will there be for your Dynasty Mode if you aren’t able to institute the coming Playoff Format?  What about the idea of 20-Team Super Conferences?  Right now you are limited to 16 teams per conference.

It isn’t really a game killer, but EA really needs to step it up next season on the college football front if they hope to have sales even close to what they were for NCAA 11 and 12.

NCAA Football and Madden will have the same control scheme this year (for the first time ever in this generation of gaming consoles) but that is where the similarities seem to die.  Much like NCAA 10, NCAA 13 is going to be a game that many people will skip because it won’t have the same advances that people were/are hoping for that will make the game more realistic in the actual guts of moving players around the field.  Now with the news that NCAA Football doesn’t have the same Real Time Physics Engine that Madden 13 has… it could be a rough year for college football gaming fans.

Are you passing on NCAA Football this season?  Post your comments below!

Madden 13 – Trade and Other Logic

EA Sports has released a webcast that will blow your mind if you are a Franchise Fanatic.

Madden 13’s Connected Careers (Franchise Mode) has made this game a must buy!
  • CPU Teams will trade with eachother and offer you trades
  • Free Agency is based on making an offer and then advancing the week (you better hope your offer is legit.
  • Players will change dynamically and progress if they do amazing things in the game or season.
  • The NFL Draft is a live experience with Trey Wingo giving facts and stories of important players in the draft
  • Coaches will get fired
  • Teams will start looking for coaches after their season ends
  • Salary caps are in for Online Franchise guys
  • Connected to Facebook and Twitter

http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/promo/madden-webcast

Medal of Honor – Warfighter Pre-Order Bonus… A Bad Sign Already?

We try not to be cynical.  Well, we try to be realistic anyway.

That is why when EA announced today that there were be a snazzy pre-order bonus

Will this game prove to disappoint or surprise us?… The first day of E3 isn’t promising.

for their coming FPS game Medal of Honor Warfighter we became somewhat skeptical about the game coming out in the next few months.  You get the typical small bonus weapons and little advances that temporarily give you a small advantage it is often our experience.  We aren’t saying that you should expect the moon (or anything at all) as a bonus for pre-ordering a game.  It is really just a guaranteed sale for whichever company you are purchasing the game from and they want to thank you in a small way.

For a game like Medal of Honor to come out with this type of non-news during E3 it is driving us to think that they might not have much up their sleeve.  They might not even have sleeves at all.  Wait and see as we hope for the best but expect the worst from EA on the front of their military FPS games, especially Medal of Honor.

Madden 13 E3 Information – Connected Careers Impresses… Initially

Connected Careers… finally something to talk about with career modes… you know, instead of screaming in all caps and bold.

The Madden team has recently had it’s feet put to the fire here at NoobTubeTV for some of the improvements that should be made either this year or five years ago.  Today the EA Tiburon dropped some of the best news they could have and it is connected to all career modes, literally.

Connected Careers (in short) is going to allow you to do everything you could do between Franchise Mode, Superstar and Online Franchise all in one swoop.

However, the only information missing is the actual logic in trades and how that valuation may or may not have been tweaked since last year.

Either way it goes, Madden 13 seems to have finally jumped ahead of NCAA Football for now… and it only took six years.

E3 Updates – Is It Going To Be A Noob Friendly Year In Gaming?

Throughout the next few days we will be bringing you the latest information from E3.  There are many details expected by the gaming community and some rumors that might be validated or debunked.

Some of the rumors we hope to validate are –

Will they announce another name change?… This is turning into a gaming version of the Artist Formerly Known as Prince

Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance/Rising – A game that had many people talking about the joy of running around with a cyborg version of Raiden has the opportunity to get people excited again… until they finally cancel the project and make the gaming world cry.  Metal Gear games are notorious for being tough to learn but usually worth the time it takes to master them.  The problem is that it is now veering away from the storyline of Solid Snake and towards the character ‘Raiden’… he is highly preferred in Japan, but most American fans hated him in MGS2: Sons of Liberty.

When Medal of Honor came out a few years ago it was met with excitement and then disappointment after people found it was a half-cocked game with little value outside of camping small maps. Warfighter hopes to surprise a skeptical public.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter – Is most likely going to focus on the multiplayer aspect but they are doing this with the last development crew they used (Danger Close) rather than Battlefield’s DICE team.  Chances are good that this game will either gain a little bit of fanfare or completely flop at E3.  Don’t expect this game to be the big news, but the outcome of EA having another failed attempt at taking down Call of Duty might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for EA having anything worth bragging about for this generation of consoles.  Sales talk in the gaming industry and EA hasn’t been able to talk for a long time.

Half-Life 3 is one of the games that might just sneak up and become the most talked about game of E3. Stay tuned.

Half-Life 3 – In terms of games that have had an amazing quality and storyline, Half-Life is a series that continues to amaze everyone that jumps into the foray.  Chances are good that this will once again be the best FPS out there but it will probably lose out in some circles because of the Call of Duty crowd.

Which games are you looking forward to seeing come out of E3?  Chances are good that some games (Warfighter) will flop hard while some other games (Half-Life 3) will make people want to go out and pre-order immediately.  Then you will have the previews for games like Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance that will make you want to hide in a cardboard box and wait for a game that will never be released while having people walk past you thinking “?”.

 

Camping Is Killing MW3

Modern Warfare 3 is suffering right now.  It is suffering under the weight of cowards and ‘try-hards’ that have one mission… Ruin FPS Multiplayer games for everyone.

The Downfall of FPS Gaming = Camping

You might know this practice better as Camping or Spawn Camping.  The problem that is starting to truly reach epic proportions can be noticed on almost any match of MW3 in Team Deathmatch or/especially Domination.

When a casual gamer or even a dedicated gamer wants to blow off some steam and shoot away for a few minutes that sense of relaxation can turn into a pulse pounding version of digital road rage.  It would be one thing if people were getting beat because of a great strategy, but the fact that MW3 and many other FPS titles have broken spawning and broken, socially maladjusted, pathetic neophytes at the controls it can make someone ask why they are playing the game in the first place.

We have spent a lot of time talking about gaming being a hobby and past-time that should be focused on relaxation and recreation.  Unfortunately, this is being taken away almost daily as gamers decide to consciously ruin the games they claim to enjoy for nothing more than selfish (useless) reasons.

If you think camping will help you ‘go pro’ because you will have a high kdr I am not sorry to say that you will be sorely mistaken when you go to play the people that have true skill and reflexes.

Dear Campers,

Please stop ruining the games you claim to love.

Love,

The People Moving On To RPGs

Madden 13 Franchise Mode Details Coming Soon

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT UPDATES ON CONNECTED CAREERS!!!

 

As of next week (June 4) there is going to be a new blog released from EA Tiburon that is going to focus on ‘Connected Careers’.  The most important part of this for Madden fans is the hope for details about Madden’s Franchise Mode and what improvements or additions have been made.

It would be simple (in theory) to just add player morale to the player traits section. It shouldn’t be an editable value, but making it a dynamic value that fluctuates is a must for Franchise Mode immersion and longevity.

Madden 12 saw a jump in quality for Franchise Mode, but there were still many bugs and glitchy occurrences that cast an ugly shadow on some of the details that really can’t be overlooked.  Some examples include –

  • Making it to the Super Bowl with a team like the Browns more than once but having the same banner showing that it is their first trip.
  • Being able to sign Free Agents for much cheaper by going to the “Free Agent” section rather than “Player Management” (where you have to pay players a more realistic salary instead of cheating them with a 1-year $620 deal for a guy that would/should demand more.
  • Schedules generated year-to-year are random and can end up giving you 6 straight home games and all your division games in the first ten weeks. (The NFL is making a constant effort to schedule division opponents at the end of every season to make late season games matter, this should be done in Madden as well)
  • Draft logic and trade logic is still busted as we covered before.
  • The lack of a decent system of Player Value that should mean you have to pay a player based on his performance rather than just his OVR.  If you have a QB that breaks every record (regardless of your sliders, his OVR or anything else) he should have a high value that essentially equates to you having to pay more to keep him around.  The current system of OVR plays too much of a role and takes much of the focus away from the Skill Ratings which should be the first thing you look for.
  • Another missing component that has been in NBA 2k and even PS2 Madden titles is morale and attitude for players.  This is something that MUST be in Madden in order for Franchise Mode to really hold any water past what it can hold currently.  Franchise Mode needs more personality and that should start and end with the personality of every owner, GM, Coach and Player in the game.
  • If you draft a QB in the first round like the Browns did with Old Man Weeden and you have Colt McCoy being relegated to back-up his morale should take a major hit.
  • Trade Demands and Holdouts – Take a look at the current situation with Drew Brees and tell us that this shouldn’t be in the game.

These are just some of the changes that must occur in Madden 13 for Franchise Mode.

A Brief Segway/Comment on The Drew Brees Situation

This holdout (which involves Brees and the Saints disagreeing on a contract extension because of a few million bucks) must end soon if the Saints hope to save any face in the months following Bountygate.  Brees led this team to their only Super Bowl Championship and now is being jerked around like he was simply a role-player.  Without Brees the Saints would be like the 2011 Colts without Peyton Manning (or worse).  Already, they are without their Head Coach and other major personnel.  The worst part really involves the current interaction between interim-Head Coach, Joe Vitt and Brees.

This isn’t Vitt’s team.  This is something that must be made abundantly clear between the players (especially Brees) and the ownership.  Payton is serving a one-year suspension which really makes Vitt look like the guy that comes into a broken home and tries to lay down the law.  The response from the players (his children) will most likely result in some sort of “Your Not My (Real) Dad!!!” interaction.

To make it short, the situation with the Saints this year could result in a Top-10 Draft Pick next year that will take over for a spiteful (rightfully so) Drew Brees.

This once again begs the question – Where is the personality in Madden’s Franchise Mode?  Hopefully we find out on Tuesday.