I don’t typically share deals and such but when the DLC for Skyrim and Fallout is discounted by 75% it should be put out there.
The Skyrim DLC – Dawnguard and Dragonborn are both marked down to $5.
Also, you can download missions for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas for $2.49 each, respectively.
This might be sacrilege for many pro football fans out there. However, after playing just one game of All Pro Football 2K8 last night I found that the answer to all of my football gaming frustration is based on changing one thing (primarily) – the NFL license.
Before a lot of people start coming at my neck for this, let me make one thing clear. I love using my favorite team (the Browns) and building my team through the draft & guiding them to the playoffs. However, when my quarterback or wide receiver gets lit up during the game, I want to see them struggle to get up off the field. I want to see players hobble with a pulled hamstring during a game. I want to see and feel real football again. The primary reason we don’t have that with Madden NFL is because the NFL has essentially castrated the game to being a representation of NFL football only in name.
This isn’t to say that EA Tiburon is off the hook when it comes to their pathetic annual roster update with minimal improvements and innovation to the actual game. Madden has been able to ride the exclusive NFL license all the way to the bank for close to a decade now. Not to mention the fact that in the process, they have also found it necessary to remove features from year to year and effectively do as little as possible to evolve their product over time. This isn’t new to gamers that have bought Madden over the last two decades. We have become almost jaded into expecting and accepting that ‘it is what it is’.
2K Sports hasn’t said anything about a new football title in the last few years. However, now that we are entering a new generation of consoles with even more possibilities for improvements to graphics and physics in sports gaming; it does beg the question of when we will (if ever) see another 2K Football game.
Would you buy a 2K Football game on next-gen hardware?
This is one of the more risky topics I have covered for the sake of this site and the popularity of all of my Madden NFL coverage in recent years. That being said – I am having a difficult time these days wanting to write or cover any sort of news from the Madden NFL front, let alone anything positive about the series. It has been a journey of ups and downs covering EA’s football games and it has finally come to a point where I am questioning whether this title is worth anything more than obligatory coverage for the sake of web traffic.
It Is The Same Game – Every. Single. Year.
Madden doesn’t change. There are roster updates and a few tweaks to gameplay, sure. I don’t expect Madden to become a baseball game or something either. While continuity and general similarities should be expected in a sports title I can’t help but wonder where the innovation has been over the last decade. The last Madden game that really changed anything was Madden 2005 and that was the hit-stick that does nothing but aesthetic value for hits that cause no real injuries to occur (most likely because the NFL demands that such ‘violence’ not be realistically put into the game).
People Still Talk About NFL 2K5
Nothing should make a developer more upset than people still preferring another title that hasn’t existed for ten years over their current game. While NFL 2K has a cult following among a relatively small group of sports gamers, it is still worth pointing out that not only do they exist, but they are quite devoted to never buying a Madden game. Even if we were to look at All Pro Football 2K8 from this perspective. It still holds up to the improved graphics and physics of Madden because it plays like a real football game.
EA Sports and the NFL Hold Madden Back
This might be the biggest issue that causes Madden to be such a dull experience. EA Sports has exclusive rights to create the NFL in video game format for consoles. This means that their goal has nothing to do with the game being innovative or realistic. It has everything to do with the bottom line and whether or not profit is being obtained annually. While this is clearly the goal of any ‘successful’ business, it remains to be seen where this will ever lead to any real innovation in the future.
The NFL has come under fire in recent years for concussions and injuries from the danger of playing football. Rather than coming out and saying that the game has risks and standing firm on the grounds of the game, they have bowed under the pressure of lawsuits that have started to slowly ruin the game. We have gotten to a point where in Madden, they can’t allow realistic injuries to occur because the NFL doesn’t want to market that aspect of the game for fear of being sued some more. It is a farce and the political correctness is hurting the game on consoles and on the field.
The Community Is Dying A Slow Death
Madden 10 was the last time I was truly excited about a Madden title; and it was also the last time I pre-ordered the game. The interaction with Ian Cummings and Co. made me feel like I actually had a stake in the game before it was released. They took the opinions of sim sports gamers seriously and really tried to make the game realistic. To their credit, they did make a damn good game that year. There were a lot of signs that started to point in the direction of Madden becoming truly innovative and a game for ‘real football fans’. That died in Madden 11 and 12 as EA tried to once again dumb down the game for ‘casual gamers’. Again, it was and will always be about the bottom line rather than innovation.
The aspect that EA seems to have forgotten is that the sports gaming community is their primary ‘Day One’ sales target. In this regard, they have been losing more and more customers over the last four years because they have taken away those interactions and decided to make the same game every year. Madden 13 and Madden 25 are virtually the same game. The commentary is the same garbage and the terrible gameplay and AI is still there. The CPU still calls a timeout when they have the ball at the 1:01 mark and they still call the same pathetic plays at the end of close games.
Do you really think that this would be the case if there were some sort of competition? Better yet, do you think these issues would still be around if EA still took an active approach to seeking the input of the consumer?
Where do you stand? Are you sick of Madden yet? Are you still playing and older version or a 2K title?
Comment below.
In what seems to be the non-stop world of NFL media coverage, we have yet to hear so much as a peep from EA Sports when it comes to Madden 15. With the draft coming in nearly a month and numerous reports of big changes in free agency – there isn’t even a screen shot of the assumed upcoming title from EA Tiburon.
Does this mean that there is something bigger on the horizon and EA is just playing it ‘close to the chest’? It doesn’t seem like it could be anything else other than that assumption. Madden is the cash cow of EA Sports (perhaps behind FIFA) and it is in need of some serious work when it comes to improving the overall experience of the game in general.
What are you hoping to hear from the football gaming front in the coming months?
Here are a few of the things that Madden needs –
Better Team Management from AI – This seems to be a yearly issue with Madden. Yes, they mostly fixed the ability to steal draft picks from teams (via trades). However, there seems to be a drastic drop-off when it comes to teams making personnel decisions as the years pass in Franchise Mode.
Better Officiating and Foot Detection- I have a feeling I’m not the only one that has played Madden and seen a receiver clearly catch a ball out of bounds and have it ruled (after review) to be a catch. The same goes for catches made in the end-zone and inexplicably, the animations or officiating doesn’t allow the catch. This is an issue that occurs almost every 2-4 games I play.
Better Draft Class Balance – Now that NCAA Football and the importation of draft classes (and the constant problems that presented) is a moot point. We now have to look at the classes designed and wonder why there are WRs created that are 5’8″ with 77 SPD and 67 CTH ratings. For the love of all things unholy – just make the player somewhat less crappy.
Custom Draft Class Creation – As stated above, the current state of draft classes is terrible. The sports gaming community has shown in games like NBA 2K that there are people out there that can put out some amazing effort in this regard and openly share their creations with the community. This would be a huge success if EA simply allowed it.
Smarter Playcalling and Decision Making – This goes without needing explanation for the most part. However, Madden seems to be designed for the casual fans to pick up the game and throw the ball around. It would be nice to finally see the game become challenging in a way that made the gamer (and the AI) to consider all of the match-ups and the game situation before choosing plays or who to focus on for a given moment in a big situation.
Before we begin, yes – Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes can be played through in a matter of minutes (I completed my first play-through in 63 minutes).
That said, Ground Zeroes (GZ) is far more than just a ‘one mission preview’ of the coming Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain. It is a showcase of sorts for a franchise that has grown over the last few decades. Not only is it graphically superior (even on PS3) to its predecessors, but it has also taken major steps in gameplay and control.
Metal Gear Solid has been a rather clunky handling game since its inception on PS1. The side menus for sorting all of the items are gone. Replaced by a relatively simple D-Pad navigation system for equipped weapons and items. Other actions can be taken with the new ‘iDroid’ which is basically a quasi-3D PDA that Snake carries around for navigation, cassette and music functionality. It is a less ‘high tech’ and attached (don’t forget you are supposed to be in the year 1975) Mk2 from MGS 4.
The real improvements to this game are noticed in the actual gameplay. While MGS3: Subsistence and MGS4 both used the rotatable camera, they still had the clunky gunplay that most MGS fans (and haters) might recall. For those that don’t know this reference – you basically had to play Twister with your fingers on the controller if you wanted to take out enemies quickly and precisely. While it became more fluid as you played the game it usually fell short of expectations that games like Splinter Cell pushed for in handling (especially aiming and shooting firearms).
Ground Zeroes doesn’t have that problem anymore. You now have the ability to handle weapons in a way that is closer to Splinter Cell than ever before. For some of the MGS ‘purists’ I am sure they will try to raise hell over this new move, but really it is an improvement to the gameplay. While it may seem to some to be a ‘dumbing down’ of the controls, it is far from that as the challenge is still there – just in a more organic fashion.
The aspect of the game I was most worried about going into this new MGS title was the new voice of Snake. With the news that David Hayter was no longer the voice of our reluctant hero I became skeptical that anyone could take over the role with the same quality. Then it was announced that Kiefer Sutherland would be the voice of Snake (aka – Big Boss). Simply said – he does not disappoint. At first when Snake says his typical “Kept you waiting, huh?” your reaction will probably feel like when you accidentally called the wrong number and a voice you don’t know says ‘Hello’. Fear not. By the time you get to the final part of the game you will see and hear why Sutherland is a welcome addition and change in Snake.
Not only does this game make improvements, but it is also full of other side-missions and other minutia that will keep you busy until The Phantom Pain comes out. Also, the availability of this title on PS3/360 makes it a joy for those of us that have yet to buy into the next-Gen consoles as we bide our time for the better developed games and the inevitable hardware malfunctions/bugs to seep out and get fixed like last gen consoles (RROD/YLOD).
If you are a fan of the MGS franchise or trying to decide whether to jump into the series – this is worth a purchase. Not only will you enjoy the additions, but chances are that it won’t leave your system until The Phantom Pain comes out.
Now that we are only hours from the release of 360/XB1/PC exclusive Titanfall there are many in the gaming community that may be seeing this as the first launch of a next-Gen console missile strike of sorts. Titanfall is developed by the former founders of Call of Duty’s Infinity Ward. While this might already drive many to consider this game as some sort of ‘sci-fi/mech COD’ doesn’t seem to veer from that as it is only for online multi-player action.
Titanfall is also coming out on XBox 360 as well as the newer XBox One. This might be one of the more frustrating aspects for gamers that noticed a drastic drop in quality of development of games like Battlefield 4 when comparing console performance. Titanfall has amazed many eager gamers with videos and other announcements that make this game something new in the shooter market. It isn’t as if there has been a shortage of shooter games over the last eight years of 360/PS3. Some have been stellar (COD, Halo, Battlefield and Gears of War). Others have fallen flat (MAG, Frontlines, Unreal Tournament and the list goes on).
Now, on the eve of the first real battle of the next-gen console war we are getting ready to see if Titanfall will be a dramatic success or a colossal failure.
During the time between Madden 09 and Madden 10 there was a large upheaval in the Madden development team. Ian Cummings had stepped in as the Creative Director and was really taking a leap to get into the world of the gamers. This meant that he was very active in community forums and took a lot of feedback from the ‘sim’ gaming community. Madden 10’s first glimpse came from a photo released during the Super Bowl XLIII. It was something that really caught the Madden community by surprise. To think that the developer was going to start the ‘hype machine’ wasn’t a shocker… but to see that they had obviously taken the feedback of the community seriously was something new.
Times have since changed. Ian Cummings is no longer at EA and Josh Looman is largely the go-to guy for all things Madden these days. Looman had been the guy most of the Franchise Mode fans wanted to talk to about the details within that portion of the game. Things really seem to have changed in recent years outside of that. The community isn’t anywhere near as active as it was when Cummings was at EA. Sure, there are still a lot of people that patrol the forums at numerous sites. Some of those sites tend to take a rather ‘Gestapo’ approach to people that are outraged by Madden and EA in general. It is apparently bad for business to let people vent their frustrations openly when the developers are so sensitive to the negative feedback. Yes, it isn’t necessary to have twenty threads of ‘EA Sucks’ and ‘I Hate Madden’ – but it needs to be said that Madden has really taken a few steps back since that time. So, that leaves a question for this weekend – What Should We Expect To Hear About Madden 15? One of the first things we will likely see is a larger focus on Next-Gen version of the game instead of that for XBox 360 and PS3. That said, we should probably expect a picture or video of more close-up ‘eye candy’ like player faces (ala – Donovan McNabb in Madden 11).
The downside of graphics being plastered everywhere is that it means nothing for actual gameplay. Graphics are much like candy wrappers in that sense. They catch the eye – but in the end it is all about the contents of what you are consuming. In this case, Madden is often like black licorice inside a Snickers wrapper (to me anyway).
I expect to hear something about smoother physics from the ‘Ignite’ engine. More focus probably being put into foot-planting, and some sort of improvement to tackle animations. Largely, the expectations for the Super Bowl Madden information should be muted simply because they are meant to be more of a hype machine than anything. I don’t remember the last time I played a sports title… or any game and looked at the player’s face or the towel hanging from his pants. Some people live for those details – but in all honesty – most gamers just want it to play like football rather than to look like football.
Look for eye-candy from Madden over the next few weeks and months. Hopefully there will be improvements made for current-gen titles. Such as better rulings for catches on the sidelines, smarter CPU playcalling, better draft, trade and free agency logic. Let’s not forget the strange ability for old players to come back and play without having aged a day. Ray Lewis, Kurt Warner and a few others are examples of this game going further into ‘arcade’ mode.
Then again – that is probably why sales for Madden continue to decline.
Enjoy the Super Bowl!
On the XBox 360 and PS3 there was the constant bombardment of exclusive titles like Gears of War, Halo and Forza versus Killzone, Resistance, Gran Turismo and for some sports gamers – MLB: The Show. Now that the next generation of consoles have finally started to become more common in households around the world it is interesting to see that the focus has shifted away from the exclusive titles and more towards the features of the systems themselves.
Sure, there are games that XBox One and PS4 have exclusive agreements and rights for, but they aren’t exactly the same type of focus that we saw last generation. While there are some gamers out there that will have certain games that they simply must have like the Halo or Killzone titles for each respective console… that time is changing.
One of the most obvious changes can be seen in the Metal Gear franchise. Metal Gear has always been a Hideo Kojima/Konami production. In saying that – it has also almost always been seen as a Sony Playstation title as well. Now that they have announced Metal Gear Solid 5 is going to be multi-platform it seems that they are starting to realize that more console availability also means more sales overall. This isn’t always a blessing as other content within the game will be exclusive to each console. This is more annoying than anything as it drives many gamers to wonder why they bother spending more and more money on microtransactions.
With multi-platform releases like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Madden NFL and other titles that prefer mass marketing based on volume of sales rather than simply having an agreement with a certain company to release on a specific console. The one caveat to this is when companies like EA and Activision make agreements (like they did with Microsoft) to release certain downloadable content (DLC) on one console before other another. This is a practice that is rather insulting to users that buy a game like Battlefield 4 on PS3/4, XBox 360 and especially PC as well as purchasing the $50 ‘Premium’ service. Primarily because they are being cheated out of content that is obviously available for XBox One users far earlier than anyone else that have purchased the same service for a different platform.
As we enter into a new era of gaming and an eventual move into a focus on digital content, it will be interesting to see how long exclusivity really plays a role in corporate gaming decision making. As it stands, there are a lot of gamers that are sick of feeling cheated out of their money when it comes to ‘exclusive’ titles and other DLC not being available for whatever reason.
Until something changes with the exclusive NFL License, we will have to assume that Madden is the only option for gamers that want and NFL game. That said, the crazy post-game interview of Richard Sherman begs the question that is on the minds of many sports gamers.
Where is the emotion?
When players in Madden throw big touchdowns there is typically the same canned response and/or animation. There are some of the typical ‘player specific’ celebrations as well (Dez Bryant, Aaron Rodgers, etc.)
While the NFL is taking out many of the ‘big hits’ and other parts of football that people and players expect – why do we not see more emotion from players on the field? That goes for frustration as much as anything else. The quarterback that has thrown four or five interceptions should be noticeably upset. That goes for receivers dropping balls and running-backs losing fumbles.
While I’m not suggesting that the post-game interviews be presented in some sort of WWE fashion – I am suggesting that Madden adds some depth to their game in this regard. Players often perform based on the emotion of the moment and that is something that the graphically dead faces of Madden players certainly don’t show. For that matter – the players typically perform based strictly on ratings so much to a point that the game feels pre-determined.
As we prepare to enter the doldrums of gaming in the first quarter of 2014, we should start looking to the future of gaming (especially sports gaming) and wonder when we will start to see more emotion.
Over the last generation of console gaming we have seen a dramatic increase in online gaming. The primary gain in this user-base has been in first person shooter (FPS) games like Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield. Call of Duty 4 seemed to fill a void for gamers that weren’t fans of Halo. They wanted a shooter that was military based with more customization and depth in the online arena. What COD4 brought to the table was a game that still ranks among my personal favorites in the series, surpassed only by Modern Warfare 2.
The biggest issue that started the downfall of Call of Duty was the annual release to the lemmings that can’t seem to get rid of their money fast enough. Call of Duty has become the Madden of shooter games. The one thing you are guaranteed with the annual online experience is the large population of gamers screaming obscenities in your ears. While that isn’t the primary downside, it is one of the more common complaints when it comes to online gaming. (This is even with the ability to mute players… it shouldn’t have to be an issue but it is often on the edge of infuriating to have to deal with such nonsense.)
After the relative annoying of gamers you are going to start seeing where Call of Duty is really starting to fall off. It is actually in the repetitive nature of the game and how predictable every round will unfold. Team Deathmatch is what it has always been – a hunt for the perfect camping spot or some sort of search for a bottleneck. Domination is still the wonderful spawn-camping disaster it has always been. Now there are numerous clans that seem to stalk the public lobbies and destroy players that are trying to enjoy some casual gaming. It has become a self-destructive game in how it is constantly building itself to be dominated by people that dedicate obscene amounts of time to leveling up and figuring out every nuance to making the casual gamers rage quit and sell their games on eBay or even trade it for pennies at GameStop.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t talented gamers out there in every genre. However, it seems that FPS games are starting to try and copy many aspects of Call of Duty because of the monetary success the game has seen every year since COD4 was released. This isn’t a good thing for gamers that would like to have something that feels and plays different from COD titles. Battlefield was once that bastion of hope that FPS fans could look to when thinking about the shortcomings of Call of Duty. The problem is that with maps like Operation Metro (BF3) and Operation Locker (BF4) it seems as if EA/DICE is trying to emulate Call of Duty in death-fests that are less tactical and more deathmatch-like. While these are relatively small segments of the map population it is discouraging to feel like you can’t escape this apparent necessity of slaughterhouse maps in a game that many purchase as an escape from that.
We have been fortunate to see many gains made in graphics and even physics (at times). However, the common devolution of
almost every game ends up turning the shooter game into some sort of Call of Duty-esque bloodbath of reflex/twitch-based shooting. It starting to become wash, rinse, repeat with shooter games – especially online shooter games.
Where do you stand? Are you ready to move on from FPS online gaming… or maybe from FPS gaming altogether?
NoobTubeTV 