Category: Uncategorized

2018 – The Year of the Sports Game Boycott

It seems that sports games have been lost to the same dark side that we have seen first person shooters and real-time strategy go to as well. 

Madden, MLB: The Show, and NBA 2K8 have all resorted to becoming nothing more than digital card pandering pieces of binary garbage.  They have polished the graphics and added content to their Ultimate Team/Diamond Dynasty/MyTeam card collections instead of real improvement to the core game itself.  For a few years I could understand the change I was seeing.  I could compartmentalize the fact that I simply wasn’t their target audience. 

Thanks largely to Twitch and YouTube streamers/content uploaders that open packs for the voyeur fandom to gawk over we have lost what was once the potential pursuit for true sports gaming simulation.  I must give some of these guys credit, as they do have a certain pizazz to the way they carry themselves online.  I even watch some of their videos – they do make it look like a fun experience.  That is all great and wonderful until I get inspired to try my hand at online PvP against some random guy with a name like XxHitThatLoud420-69xX.  You realize quickly that they play the game by using money plays and exploits.  Suddenly, this potentially fun experience has you wondering if you’ve stepped into some effed up version of The Matrix.  Just as you get ready to play a different game you realize that you don’t care if you lose this game because you don’t plan on playing it again.

Say what you want, but All Pro Football 2K8 proved one thing when they released a game with legendary NFL players.  The same can be said for current players depending on the year as well.  Some gamers love creating their own version of Dream Teams and I am one of them.  I remember doing this back in Triple Play 98 when I would put Griffey, Frank Thomas, ARod, and others all on the same team.  It became a habitual thing to do each year, but in the end I still wanted to play a challenging baseball game. 

I happen to come from the generation of sports gamers that can remember Dr. J vs. Larry Bird on Atari 7800.  I also remember Tecmo Bowl and Bases Loaded through Bases Loaded 4.  RBI Baseball 94 was the first game that introduced me to the concept of playing a full season – I never finished one, but damn, it was pretty cool to have that option and even see the potential grow into franchise modes in other games.  When they finally started to present us with multiple seasons and stats it was a dream come true. In all honesty, the graphical improvements were secondary for me after a while.  I loved what Madden had turned into by Madden 2005.  Hell, even MVP Baseball 2005 was one of the better games I had ever played in terms of – that was a year to remember when it came to EA doing some truly amazing work. Now it’s as if they have sold their souls and there is no looking back.

It seems that Franchise Mode has gone the way of the dodo in recent years.  It is still present in all of these games, but it is a shell of itself.  Much like Kobe and Jordan at the end of their career – you can see flashes of what they used to be, but in the end they just aren’t performing like they once could… and it’s sad.  Madden Ultimate Team and MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty have essentially powered their way into a position that is most likely permanent and will eventually completely destroy innovation when it comes to gameplay and franchise mode.

This isn’t something I say lightly and it isn’t something I want to be known as an acceptable issue. 

I do want those of you reading this to look at 2018 sports games with a critical eye and take this opportunity to speak with your wallet.  It is time to demand the product that we have been denied for years.  I urge you to avoid pre-ordering any sports game this year. If you are going to buy the game, look for it second-hand in hard copy form.  Do not pay the full retail price if you feel compelled to play them.  It’s time for these companies to feel the only kind of pain they understand – financial.


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Madden 18 Release Day Guide

My guidance for anyone that is going to be playing Madden 18 on either release day (GOAT Edition or Regular Retail) is as follows.

  • Wait until at least the first post-release patch to really jump into your CFM.  EA will be fixing zone defenses in a post-day one patch.  Not to mention CFM notoriously has problems at launch and it would be smart to wait out of common knowledge.

    • You should also wait for the first roster update to occur as there have already been retirements and injuries that you should wait on.

  • Play the single player challenges on MUT and Longshot early on in your gaming.  This will help you earn much needed good players as well as earning some trophies in a mode that most people will only play once before moving into the actual game (in the case of Longshot).

  • Start playing on All-Madden and let it kick your butt for a while.  Learn how the hardest difficulty plays and let it prep you for playing against human opponents in MUT.  This is because not only will opponents be tough in MUT, but they will also find ways to glitch and cheat you much like All Madden difficulty will from time to time.

  • Get a feel for how the controls feel this year.  From year to year Madden feels differently and with Frostbite being implemented this year you should expect some different feel when it comes to controlling your players.

Madden 18 – So That’s Why They Didn’t Show Gameplay

The gameplay videos for Madden NFL 18 finally emerged from the ivory towers of the EA Game Changers as the footage embargo expired.  Some of the videos came out with what strangely sounded like criticism of the still broken zone coverages, and that was the last of any sort of negative feedback from Game Changers. According to a couple EA Developer Tweets, they are working on fixing the situation. Pardon my skepticism, but I’ve heard this kind of thing before with numerous issues in the game.  Usually, if it happens it ends up being in a patch that doesn’t come until October.


Based on the videos it is hard to see any sort of focus on improvements of actual gameplay issues.  The same magnetic pull exists on sideline catches.  The same broken man coverage and press situation seems alive and well.  Screens and slip screens are still overpowered as well.

One of the nice aspects I noticed was decent double-team blocking – something that All Pro Football 2K8 had ten years ago on Xbox 360.  It’s nice to see Madden catch up in that department.  It seems that some of the animations might have been cleaned up, but not enough to say the game actually plays differently as a whole.

Another aspect of CPU not changing from strange decisions and wonky animations is noticeable when the ball carrier is going towards the sideline and the movement looks like it is being performed on a D-Pad instead of analog sticks.  Somehow, these issues never seem to get fixed as the EA Game Changers go back to EA Tiburon year after year.  Obviously, the changes to these issues aren’t in the hands of Game Changers, as they aren’t developers.  One thing that can be stated is that these issues can be fixed because again – All Pro Football 2K8 managed to have these issues under control.  It’s difficult for me to believe that any real effort is being made to fix this kind of weak CPU gameplay.  Things like this become LEGACY problems because they are long term, unfixed and apparently – unimportant to whoever is in charge.

Madden 18 is focused on Madden Ultimate Team.  They can talk about the marketing for Longshot (which will probably be the source of a few trophies just to make you play the mode if you’re a trophy junkie) being the focus of this iteration of Madden, but they make their money from Ultimate Team and that is what they focus on every year. 

Connected Franchise Mode hasn’t been touched more than a few supposed fixes to draft logic and regression limitations, etc. Don’t look for a lot of changes to come from this aspect of the game anytime soon.  If I had to guess about any new improvements in Madden 19 CFM it would be that they will include a better draft experience and maybe a halftime show with updates from around the league (like NFL 2K5 had back in the day).  I find it funny that the commentator likes to make light of the fact that I skip every halftime show in Madden 17.  I wonder if the developers at EA have metrics to show how many people skip that waste of time like they do for how many people spend real money on MUT coins…?

Now that I have let you know about some of the issues I have noticed from the first day of gameplay footage and other news from the EA Propagandists Game Changers I can move into what will be featured from NoobTubeTV in the coming weeks.

Just as EA Sports knows their money comes from MUT I have to admit that most of the NTTV’s views come from my coverage and posts about Madden.  It seems that most of you enjoy the honesty that comes without the filter of being bought off by a developer.  For that I thank you as it means a lot to see the view count spike here every year around the start of football season.  I don’t have as much time to devote to gaming as real world responsibilities take precedent and frankly, I enjoy being away from my couch and console more and more as well.  That won’t stop me from helping you out on Madden 18 on August 22.  Here is a list of what you should expect from NoobTubeTV’s Madden 18 coverage once we get to release day.

August 22-

  • NTTV All Pro and All Madden Sliders (Version 1.0) uploaded on PS4 and posted here on the site.

  • House Rules for Offline CFM Scouting and Team Management

  • House Rules for playcalling (offline vs. CPU)

August 23-

  • Team Selection Guide

August 24-

  • Official Review of Madden 18

Madden 18 – Hiding Behind A Bad Movie

Everything is falling into place as we prepare to enter August.  The Dallas Cowboys have another problem with a star player just as the season is getting ready to start and they might have to place all of their hopes and dreams on the back of their one year wonder at quarterback.  NFL Camps will start very soon, and with that excitement blowing in the soon to come autumn wind – we have another year of Madden NFL only a few weeks away.

The crazy part about this is that up until this point there hasn’t been any gameplay footage released by EA.  With the fans clamoring for some proof of life in that regard it is hard to have a lot of pity for them.  They should know what the game looks like by now.  EA is trying their best to market their version of NBA 2K’s My Player Mode with The Longshot.  I wish I could say that this was going to be some sort of huge jump in sports gaming – but it quite simply won’t be anything close to that. According to some of the tweets and interviews, this mode has been in development for around three years. To think they have been working on this for three years and we still don’t have functional Challenges, sideline detection, real-time injuries, and many other simple football gameplay needs… Longshot had better be a masterpiece with zero bugs.

The problems that Madden NFL has faced for over a decade involves more than not measuring up to 2K’s basketball story mode experience.  It is everything that 2K would have done if EA didn’t have the monopoly on NFL Football.  It’s hard for me to think about how great an NFL 2K18 would be and by how much it would most likely outsell Madden 18. Madden has made some strides in recent years, no doubt… but, compared to where either game could be had there been competition?  We would have seen gameplay footage by E3, if not sooner.

Madden continues to push the line that they are leading with their new Longshot Mode for marketing.  I find it interesting that this is their strategy.  This is mostly because I can see through their thin veil of BS.  They aren’t showing gameplay footage because, frankly… they don’t have to show anything and the game will still sell.  Madden hasn’t changed in any major way since Madden 10.  Now that we have come to the point where they don’t even have to market the game itself with any actual gameplay footage it does beg one to ask yourself as part of the Madden horde… why are any of you pre-ordering this game?

Why Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 Are The Best Games of This Generation

The best part about having the base 500 GB Hard Drive on my PS4 is that it serves as a nice tool to let you know which games you actually play the most.

For myself, this is often a mix between a sports game I might be binge-playing (MLB 17 The Show), an adventure game (The Witcher 3), a shooter (Battlefield 1), a game to jack around in (Grand Theft Auto 5), and maybe a party game for when we have friends over (Tetris).
The one game you don’t see is Bloodborne.  It isn’t because I got rid of it or sold it.  It isn’t because I don’t like the game.  It’s simply because I beat the main story (finally) months ago and it took a lot out of me.  I had embraced dying – finally.  The worst part about it was that I couldn’t fully change my play style for a long time.  I grew up in the world of Atari, NES, Sega and other console/PC iterations of games that didn’t care if a game was fair or too difficult.  Once PlayStation and other consoles came out and eventually they tried to make games more ‘accessible’ (easy) and ‘less frustrating’ (stupidly easy).  Bloodborne was a violent shift from both of those things for me.  I had played more shooter and sports games than anything since 2005.  To say that I had been conditioned to play impatiently is an understatement.

This is one reason why Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 are among the better games out there.  It is simply because they force you to dive into the game you are playing and embrace what it is.  Bloodborne might have some of the deepest lore in any game I have ever played that doesn’t actually tell you openly about the lore.  You can go through and kill a bunch of nightmarish monsters and infected people if you want to look at it that way.  It doesn’t change the fact that their is something far darker and more terrifyingly deep in story than the world you wake up into in Yharnam.

The Witcher 3 is an interesting twist because it is the third game of a trilogy that many people have probably never played up until this point.  Not to mention, there are books and graphic novels, etc. that have been around for some time as well.  The story of Geralt and Ciri is a great one to play through, but this game is so much bigger than that story – quite literally.  If you really wanted to pour hundreds of hours into a game to read up on lore, make potions, battle monsters, and complete numerous side-quests – this is the game for you.  Did I mention that both DLC Story Add-Ons (Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine) are among the best DLCs ever created for any game?  Did I further mention that they add at least another 20-30 hours to the game on top of it?

Both of these games are distinctly beautiful in drastically different ways.  The Witcher 3 looks like a constantly updating, living world where even bad weather can make you feel like you’re at a national park.  I challenge anyone to find a more beautiful sunset in a video game than those in The Witcher 3.

Bloodborne’s dark and picturesque gothic/victorian/Lovecraftian world is a thing of its own creation.  It is awe inspiring and terrifyingly engrossing.  I can’t help myself from wanting to see what is coming next – even if there is a creature waiting to bite my head off.  That says a lot about what this game really brings to the table in so many ways.  If you start to realize that you will get killed at any inopportune moment you will finally be able to play this game patiently and enjoy the view as much as the challenge.

Also, Bloodborne doesn’t give you a waypoint to follow.  The Witcher 3 can actually be customized to take away a lot of the hints and helper for getting around in the world as well.  I tend to leave these things on in The Witcher as the world is so huge it would be virtually impossible to navigate otherwise. This is still a decent change from a lot of games that send you on a linear path of ‘Go Here, Press X, Buy This Camo Pack for $0.99 to see next cinematic.)

Whether it’s simply because these games are breaths of fresh air or just great meshes of art and music coupled with the bonus that you get to participate in the respective worlds – it doesn’t really matter. These are two of the best games out right now and you can get both games with all DLC for relatively low prices.

MLB 17 The Show – Running Your Franchise

As we near the All Star Break it is starting to become a bit easier to tell which teams are going to make a run for the World Series. Unfortunately, my Indians are sitting close to .500 and are seemingly okay with sharing the AL Central with the Twins.  The real question most of you might be asking if you are playing MLB 17 The Show Franchise Mode is how your team is going to do down the stretch. Unless you already know how things are going (for better or worse).  In that case, as you come into July and enter the second half of the season you will have some big decisions to make.

By the time I made it to the middle of the 2017 season with the Cincinnati Reds I had made a few roster moves and my team was sitting just five games behind the Cubs.  It was in the spirit of making a push to hit my contract goal (make the post-season) that I decided to take a few risks and make a couple moves.

If you are in the opposite boat and have a team that is under-performing at All Star Break you might also want to make some moves and focus on the coming year(s).  If you have a veteran that is under 29 and has a rating of 85+ and A or B potential – it might be time to see how many prospects you can get for him from a team making a run for the playoffs.

In my case, I had come into the 2017 season with a lineup that didn’t intimidate many pitchers. 

Billy Hamilton, CF

Eugenio Suarez, 3B

Joey Votto, 1B

Adam Duvall, LF

Scooter Gennett, 2B

Zach Cosart, SS

Scott Schebler, RF

Tucker Barnhart, C

My Pitchers were generally at the same level of ineptitude… although, I had a few prospects.

By the time I made it through Spring Training I decided that my pitching staff needed drastic help and so I signed the two Japanese pitchers (Otani and Fujinami) with the house rule that I would trade each player to a big market team by the end of my third year with the Reds.  This is primarily to allow them to make the kind of big money that both players will get in real life while allowing my team to benefit in the short term with better pitching on the cheap.

I also made deals that brought Evan Gattis in to rotate as catcher and 1B, sent Cozart and a Arroyo (old SP) away for some prospects and tried to find a replacement for Schebler – he would eventually win his job back and give me a prime reason for signing him to another contract (with a 507 FT home run that went under the right field score board and into the Ohio River during a game with the Pirates).  I also managed to pick up Adeiny Hechavarria to come in and play 2B and traded for 3B, Rio Ruiz to play AAA ball and hopefully improve his game enough to get called up.

By the time I realized we were making a push and over-achieving to a point that I could no longer ignore the needs of my team to succeed – I made a few big moves in my Franchise that might differ from your own.  I was buying at the All Star Break and there were a few teams selling (the Rockies were 25 games back in the NL West and were selling, but at a steep price).

I ended up trading Billy Hamilton, Gattis, and a Top 50 Prospect for Nolan Arenado. 

I wish I could tell you that he made all the difference in the second half of my season. He really didn’t help us much, and there were more times I could have used Hamilton’s speed over Arenado’s disappointing performance after the trade.

Regardless, the 2017 season finished with the Reds making the playoffs as a wild card team carrying a 92-70 record.  We lost to the Giants and suddenly the season was over.  The Dodgers beat the Astros in seven games to win the World Series and the off season started with a few interesting occurrences from CPU teams – primarily, the Yankees when they signed RF, Andrew McCutcheon and moved Aaron Judge to AAA.

They had agreed to a trade the year before that allowed me to bring in Clint Frazier who disappointed more than Arenado, but still having his A Potential and young age I was able to package him up with Homer Bailey and another player for Aaron Judge to come in and play RF.

The Dodgers offered a trade I couldn’t refuse during Winter Meetings.  Looking to remain a World Series favorite in 2018 and with far more money to invest in expensive players they offered OF, Joc Peterson, OF, Yasiel Puig and a Relief Pitcher for Arenado.  I jumped at this opportunity and then signed C.C. Sabbathia to a one year deal as well as Bud Norris.  Suddenly, the Reds were looking fantastic on paper and I was looking forward to 2018 more than 2017 at the All Star Break.

The lessons to take away from this brief story about the first year of my Franchise Mode are valuable for anyone looking for help to build a lower tier team as well as how to enjoy your Franchise Mode enough to keep going for years.

  1. ALWAYS play your franchise the way YOU want to play it.  If you want to make a lot of trades and find a way to field a team with players you want – do it.  Don’t go onto sports gaming forums and ask for Trade Advice from Sports Gaming Nazis that seem to think they know everything about ‘fair trades’.  Run your team the way you want to and make it your own story.

  2. Don’t worry about trading away aging veterans in order to invest in a player you believe in as a prospect.  Make the move and see what happens.  If you have to cut bait with a Prospect that has A or B potential you can usually get a nice amount in return with a trade as long as the prospect is 24 or younger.

  3. If you can’t afford to keep a star player when you know a huge contract demand is going to be huge you should wait as long as you can and trade him during the last year of his contract for a couple cheaper players that have attributes you need in the long term. (See the Arenado Trade for Pederson and Puig, above.)

  4. Read #1 Again. You decide what you want your Franchise to be. I will be tweaking mine quite a bit in hopes of making it through multiple seasons.

Madden 18 CFM -The Annual Dumpster Fire Keeps Burning

With almost two months to go before Madden 18 graces us with another year of incremental updates we are starting to get a similar message about Franchise Mode (CFM).  Sports games have moved more and more towards the micro-transaction over the last few years.  It makes sense from a business perspective, but in terms of actual improvement and innovation of the game itself – no so much.


It turns out that Franchise Mode is once again more or less on the back burner.  At this point, it is safe to say that it’s actually in the microwave and waiting to be heated up again as a left-over from a few days ago. 

Sports games have all decided that they want to move in a direction of Story Mode rather than any sort of immersive Franchise Mode experience.  This is great for the YouTubers out there that seem to make their money from their over-the-top internet ‘personalities’ and gameplay videos.  I guess it is a matter of taste, but they don’t do much for me when I am trying to play my own game.  Maybe we live in a more vicarious gaming world than I thought.

No matter how you slice it, Madden has moved towards completely focusing on two modes in particular this year.  They are banking on the Longshot Mode to be their saving grace in offline experience.  As usual, they are going to bring all of their post-release cash grabbing from Ultimate Team.  I see this as the continuation of sports gaming’s innovation decline more than anything else.  I don’t post much about MUT or any online sports gaming experience because it’s tiresome and really takes away any sort of gaming immersion. 

Franchise Mode announcements have come and gone.  The primary aspects of change that have been announced are that they have introduced MVP chatter into the commentary as well as new quick entrances and fireworks in the stadiums that we will continue to hold the X or A button to skip through.  The developers in charge of this mode seem to believe that CFM needs more visual bells and whistles than actual immersion in the guts of running a team on the management level.

One of the things that really killed my experience in Madden 17 CFM was a combination of the XP System and terrible Defensive AI (especially with DBs and WRs).  One of the easiest things to do after leveling up during the first season or two is increasing your WR’s Separation ability along with a few other mechanics.  I did this with Corey Coleman and managed to not only turn him into an unstoppable force, but also made RG3 into one of the best QB’s of all time.  All that needed to happen was for the CB on Coleman to play him in a Man To Man Press (up close to the line of scrimmage).  Coleman has great speed and acceleration already.  By the time I finished building his separation and strength attributes in 2016 all I had to do was call a hot route in 2017 if he was being pressed.  Even with safety help, he would burn the opposing team for a huge TD on a fly route over 60% of the time. 

The results?

I built my team into an absolute juggernaut on both sides of the ball.  The fact that I could score 70 points a game on All Madden without blinking made the entire experience feel as disposable as the developers seem to believe it is. 

That said…

One of the aspects about Madden 17 that I really enjoyed was feeling like I could play defense most of the time.  This took a lot of slider adjustments and house rules (including a ‘no switch’ rule).  The no switch rule will actually improve how your defense plays through the game.  Why?  Because your AI players will stick to their assignments for the most part if you stay with one player during each play.  The AI will start to break down as soon as you switch players at the wrong moment.  This includes run plays especially as your entire defensive squad will essentially be rendered useless and the CPU will break off a big run most of the time if you have to switch to the other side of the field to defend against a run.  (You are actually better off trying to run with the original player than to switch to the closest defender on CPU run plays to the opposite side.  It doesn’t make sense, but then again… neither does Madden.)

Madden 18 won’t have editing for Draft Classes.  It will have the same relocation mode, but no expansion options.  CFM also won’t have any real changes to the injury system other than supposedly including off-ball injuries.  It seems like Franchise Mode effectively died after Madden 2005.  With the PS3/360 consoles bringing high speed online gaming to the forefront of almost every gaming experience it’s really no wonder that this mode has lost so much momentum if not gone backwards a few steps over the last decade-plus.

This genuinely feels like a Madden CFM experience that most would be better to wait on for a purchase rather than buying on release day. 

E3 Is Dead – Long Live Corporate Prosaicism

As we move past E3 2017 and into the second half of the year it is starting to feel more and more like gamers are reaching a similar jaded point to movie-goers.  Then again, maybe it’s the other way around – take a look at the box office numbers for a majority of movies anymore and you will see a similar downward spiral.

No matter how you look at it, the state of video games is still strong.  I feel like the trend of indie games has finally hit a downslope as there isn’t much out there that I am hearing about to make me think of some of the big hits we experienced a few years ago.

E3 came and went without giving me much pause this year.  The Xbox One X doesn’t impress me any more than the Nintendo Switch does with portable controllers.  It’s just a lot of ‘meh’ when it comes to my needs and general taste as a gamer.  Maybe it’s because I am a bit more difficult to impress as I get older.

The few games I am looking forward to that were either covered at E3 or are simply coming out soon are:

Shadow of the Colossus –

This was one of my favorite titles on PS2.  I fought the urge to buy it on PS3 simply because I didn’t have a lot invested in the system or my game library.  SotC was one of the most beautiful games I had played simply because it felt like I was walking through a misty dreamscape the entire time.  The idea that a world was there with giant bosses to hunt down and figure out on the fly made it all the more intriguing.

Wolfenstein 2 – The New Colossus (yes, another use of the word ‘colossus’) –

The New Order truly surprised me from a story perspective.  It included a lot of humor and some unsettling circumstances that made it fun to kill Nazi’s again (it doesn’t actually get old).  Wolfenstein was announced by Bethesda while they didn’t announce anything for a new Elder Scrolls game that wasn’t MMO related or money grab related with their newname for a paid mod system.  Wolfenstein looks like another game that will be fun as hell to play through.  My only wish is that it had some sort of multiplayer along the lines of the old PC game ‘Return To Castle Wolfenstein’.

Call of Duty – WWII –

I can’t help but find myself excited to play through this campaign.  Why?  Because there aren’t going to be stupid booster jumps and wall running.  There won’t be any sort of futuristic guns that can somehow shoot plasma charges or whatever the hell they have been doing since Advanced Warfare.  The multiplayer in COD has taken a back seat for me over the last few years.  Now that I have more important things to take care of or spend time doing, I really don’t care about my place on leaderboards.  I probably won’t buy this on day one, but I will certainly give it a try.

Crash Bandicoot – N Sane Trilogy –

My brother and I used to play the Crash Bandicoot all the time as kids on our PS1.  This game really has my nostalgia more than anything.  I think it might be something I wait to buy for some time simply because there isn’t anything ‘time sensitive’ about this game in my opinion.

 

I am on the fence with one of my annual purchases…

Madden 18 – Of the many things I am hoping for, it is the continued improvement of Connected Franchise Mode.  There are so many parts of the Madden experience that can be improved for fans of franchise mode that I find myself on the fence when it comes to disappointment or content with the progress.  The new cinematic mode ‘Longshot’ seems to be playing at the desires of Youtubers and their ilk.  I must say, it looked somewhat interesting, but if I want to play a story game I am going to stick with legit RPG’s and such.  Madden needs to stick to what it is trying to do the best – and that is making a strong simulation football game.  If you want to be honest about sports games at this point you will see that they are turning into microtransaction machines for their Ultimate Team modes far more than improving the actual game.  I can’t really blame them for bending to the whims of their corporate masters.  I can speak with my wallet and to that end, I have been siding with the growing numbers of people that wait to play these games until they come down in price or get them on eBay just to keep the money out of the publishers hand a bit more.

The other aspect of Madden that has all but turned me off completely is the community that EA Tiburon has generally focused on over the last few years.  I refuse to give these guys any sort of shout out or publicity – suffice to say that they all generally gather in a specific online sports gaming forum, run YouTube Channels, are a part of the ‘Game Changers’, live on Twitter, or a mix of all of those things. They seem to think they are experts when it comes to the game of football.  They also seem to grovel at the feet of EA Sports.  They will occasionally say something to make a point of false contention, but in the end – they are in this for their own motivations and have no reason to bite the hand that feeds them (monetarily, with free games, extra access, etc.).

Obviously this criticism comes off as me either being a hater or some sort of jealousy.  I am actually proof reading what I type down and try to remain honest and critical when it comes to my work as well.  My real beef with the Madden community is that it isn’t a functional community anymore.  The YouTube crowd and Madden Tournament crowd has destroyed this community.  The idea that there is almost literally no other football game for anyone to play goes further in destroying the community in terms of feedback, conversation, and synergy.  The ongoing monopoly is hampering creativity with Madden as well as MLB The Show.  When these games both have to copy the style of NBA 2K in order to bring something new to their games it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.

The Intervention – When You Abandon Your Games

Every time a new game comes out I am faced with a weird sort of confrontation when I go to put the new case next to the other games/cases in my library.

It turns into some kind of intervention experience where games I have not yet completed get a chance to have a brief face to face (or case to face?) meeting with me.  With Mass Effect Andromeda coming out in the next few days I decided to make space on my PS4 hard drive and rearrange my games with the slight OCD that I typically have for my media.  It was at this moment I realized that I will have about eight months to play through some of the titles I own before Red Dead Redemption 2 comes out and makes me feel the same way I do right now.

Today I am going to do something I think a lot of gamers should do once they have a large library and consequently a decent amount of games they own that they have yet to complete (at least in regards to the single player experience).

I think the first thing that most should do is decide which games you have the most interest in actually playing through.  While this seems easy to do you shouldn’t forget that there is probably a reason you haven’t beaten these games yet.  For myself the first aspect is determining why I bothered buying a title to begin with. Did I buy the game for multiplayer or did I buy it for the story (and other quests, etc.) and which cost me the most money – yes, the financial aspect actually matters to me.  The other aspect is why I stopped playing through the game to begin with.  That actually comes into play in a bigger way that will be covered later.

My list of PS4 games I have yet to beat includes –

Dark Souls 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Murdered – Soul Suspect, Dark Souls 2, Shadow of Mordor, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare.

Dark Souls 3 is a game that I decided to jump into because I had finally beaten Bloodborne.  The problem with this is the fact that I never played more than 20 minutes into another Souls game.  I somehow managed to beat a few bosses on Dark Souls 3 before getting stuck in some church area on the edge of a bog and a castle/fort.  The fact that I am inexperienced in the lore of this game is also something that eats at me.  I see so many references on the Dark Souls reddit page that I just don’t understand.  So many aspects of leveling weapons, wearing certain rings, doing all sorts of things that are a complete mystery to me and then make me feel like quitting before I start it back up.  I wish I could say I’d beat this game someday with any sort of confidence, but I really don’t know that I will have the patience needed to deal with beating the third game in a trilogy that I never experience the beginning or middle of in almost any real way.

Dragon Age is a game I that I never got into for whatever reason.  I think it’s primarily because every time I find the desire to play it there is a new game available in the same type of fantasy realm that is a bit less cumbersome.  I own Dragon Age Origins on my 360 and Inquisition on my PS4.  Both games were purchased pre-owned and for a rather cheap price (both were under $10 if memory serves correctly, maybe even closer to $5).  They were also both purchased around the time I was starting or finishing Skyrim, The Witcher 3, and Bloodborne.  Once I tried to play Dragon Age it felt like I was being punished or relegated to some sort of half-cocked in-between of The Witcher 3 and Skyrim. That doesn’t change the fact that I feel like I am missing out on a huge world and a hopefully big story from BioWare. 

Murdered – Soul Suspect was a game I bought for the hell of it.  I placed a $1.50 bid on eBay and won the game (with free shipping as well).  It was clearly an early PS4 release as the graphical presentation wasn’t much to brag about.  I did enjoy the concept of an original story and a game that tore at the edges of a new experience in storytelling.  The only problem was that I got stuck in a part of the game that became more annoying than it should have been.  Between possessing a cat and trying to avoid some sort of SquareSoft version of Harry Potter dementors I lost interest and the general desire to finish the game.

Dark Souls 2 was purchased mostly because I want to play through the games and join whatever club exists that allows us to reference the ‘sun bro’ with a wink and a nod (no, I don’t know what the Sun Bro stuff means… but I want to).  The biggest problem I have with Dark Souls 2 is that it feels so clunky and slow compared to Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.  It really is as simple as that.  I find it hard to play through a game that is almost prohibitively difficult and when it isn’t enjoyable, it makes it all the less desireable.

Shadow of Mordor was a game that I had wanted for a long time.  My friend actually bought it for me on my 33rd birthday last year.  I played about 5-6 hours of the game before I realized that it was a Lord of the Rings version of Assassin’s Creed.  Actually, I realized that aspect early on in the game.  What took me a bit longer to decide was whether or not I cared to finish the story once I had started playing through.  The answer was a big fat ‘no’.  I will beat this game at some point, hopefully… I tend to feel that way about games and books bought for me by friends and family.  It is almost as if you owe them more than yourself.  But Shadow of Mordor is a game that will have to wait until after Dark Souls 2 and 3.  So, it might be awhile.

Battlefield 1 is a game I bought for the multiplayer.  Face it, EA DICE isn’t really known for putting together any sort of compelling story for their Battlefield series.  Bad Company was decent enough in some ways, but I can’t think of any reason other than trophies to play through the campaign of Battlefield.  Every time I start to play though any of the single player aspects of this game I feel like I am missing better opportunities to experience ‘Only In Battlefield’ moments… which is why I still own Battlefield 4 as well.

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare.  Seriously, if you played through Black Ops 3 and finished it without rolling your eyes off the top of your head… I would say you deserve a congratulatory pat on the back, but I really think you might need a hug.  I got Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition for two reasons… It was on sale for $40 (which $35 was covered by selling my Final Fantasy XV) and because I all but worshiped the Modern Warfare series.  The only reason Infinite Warfare is installed on my PS4 is because it is required to play Modern Warfare Remastered (talk about a desperate attempt at getting someone to play through another garbage single player experience in COD).  I would rather play through Modern Warfare Remastered’s single player campaign instead of Infinite Warfare – that should tell you how interested I am in their stupid attempt to be more like Halo that they ever should have.

Now that that is settled, I am somehow less interested in beating any of these games and more excited about Mass Effect – Andromeda. 

Which games in your library are on your list of ‘To Beat’?