Views From The Press Box
Saturday, July 18, 2009
(All apologies to Tiger Woods – but your game used to launch in late August).
With this in mind, here are five big questions about the crop of summer and fall releases.
1 – Can NBA Live, NHL 2k and PES narrow the gap and challenge their rivals?
In each case above, the rival in question is the undisputed champion for their sport, and has held the title for the past several seasons. However year after year they move a little bit closer to challenging NBA 2k, NHL and FIFA respectively. Will this be the year each takes a giant step forward, leap frogging their competition?
Regardless, you can’t argue the benefit of having two titles for each sport competing head to head. Hopefully the NFL and MLB are watching.
2 – Will one of this season’s titles breakthrough and become a truly great game?
Right now there are only two sports video games with a 90 rating on Metacritic – The Show 09 and Forza 2. But a number of games are very close. One of FIFA’s goals this year is to crack a 90 on Metacritic after placing in the high 80s last season. NHL was also just a few points short of cracking 90. And Forza 3 is coming out in late October – hoping to improve upon the great Forza 2.
In each case the games are just a couple of improvements away from crossing over into the elite of all video games. But can each title continue to innovate and improve?
3 – Will gamers take advantage of new web applications, social tools and iPhone applications?
Both NCAA and Madden this year will feature new web applications that tie directly to their gaming. So far NCAA has had more than 100,000 custom teams created online. And Madden will allow you to take your online franchise to the web or an iPhone application.
But will gamers take advantage of these new features en masse? Will people follow their Madden online franchise like they would a Fantasy Football team?
4 – Will NCAA and Madden avoid the perils of a post-patch, game breaking bug?
Sadly over the past couple of years, patches for all sports games have become the norm. As a gamer you almost have to be resigned to the fact the game isn’t going to work right for a couple of weeks after you buy it.
Unfortunately, however, not all bugs are found before the patch hits the street. Both NCAA and Madden have felt the affects of these types of bugs over the past few seasons.
Last year NCAA’s online dynasties were victims of two big bugs that were never fixed: teams weren’t able to talk players out of leaving the program early, and the commissioner’s players didn’t progress correctly.
Two years ago Madden had catastrophic franchise issues that began appearing after the game was patched and past the point of no return.
Will this year be any different? Or will NCAA and Madden's new online features be sabotaged?
5 – Will FIFA drastically improve the most unrealistic “franchise mode” in the business?
FIFA’s success over the past couple of years has really been incredible when you consider how unrealistic the game’s Manager Mode is.
For starters it is completely devoid of the drama and excitement of the transfer market. Players are signed to play for clubs their real life counterparts would never dream of playing for. Stars are scouted way too easy. Exceptional players are available as free transfers and will sign for clubs that aren’t even in the top flight. And when all is said and done its far to easy to take a team from a second or even third division and have them playing in the Champions League within a couple of season.
Take FIFA 09, and completely overhaul the Manager Mode experience to be something akin to Football Manager Light, and you have a sports video game that can rival The Show for top dog.
What are your thoughts? What do you think the answers might prove to be? Chime in and let OS know!
Monday, June 29, 2009
In fact I should have a return column up sometime in the next couple of days taking a look at the 2010 crop of games and asking some questions.
Until there, some random thoughts to fill the remaining hour I have at work before going home and taking part in a little 1 vs. 100 action on Xbox Live ...
- As you might have guess, I'm a big fan of the online franchise announcement for Madden and I actually first got involved with the sports gaming community after the launch of Madden 01 on the PC because of its online franchise.
You just have to wonder where online gaming might be today if that original online franchise was embraced as cutting edge by EA Sports instead of thrown on Island of Misfit Toys. In fact, I was actually told by a former Madden producer online franchise were removed because "nobody played it" and they didn't think that would ever change.
- Speaking of online franchises, if you're looking for online leagues in either Madden or NCAA, head over to Tradition Football.
Last year The Tradition was the first online dynasty formed literally minutes after the feature was announced for NCAA 09. Right now there are more than 10 NCAA leagues of various styles awaiting the release of NCAA 10, a 32-team Madden league and a 32-team NCAA Release Day tournament in the works.
- Every year I wonder why people spend so much time picking apart demos. I can see doing so for a much anticipated, AAA title we've been waiting on for three years. Or even a game like Facebreaker - where you didn't know what to expect before it came out.
But for an annual sports title? If you repeatedly play a new version year after year you're going to be looking for nuiances - and those nuiances are likely to be different in the retail version of the game anyway.
- FIFA 10? Online Manager Mode? Purty Puh-leeze?
- The new Ghostbusters video game is awesome. I can't remember literally laughing out loud at a video game before.
- It isn't often the manager of your team is openly ridiculed on national television, like Manager Jerry Manuel was last night. It's never a good sign when your decisions put Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips in a position to be the voice of reason.
Manuel's lunacy, however, did result in a great moment when Jeter smirked at K-Rod, almost saying "WTF are you doing throwing that pitch? You know who's on deck right?"
- In the long run, USA's loss to Brazil might be beneficial. I think the US team went into the clubhouse, realized the gravity of what was going on and made the cardinal sin of playing not to lose. It also didn't help that one of the best teams in the world went into the clubhouse and likely worked themselves into a frenzy.
But the US team now knows two things. First, they can hang with the world's elite soccer national soccer teams. It doesn't get much better than Spain and Brazil. Second, they don't ever want to feel like they did at the end of the match on Sunday, knowing they played good enough to win but let it slip through their fingers.
Monday, May 4, 2009
1 - Matthew Stafford
2 - Jason Smith
3 - Tyson Jackson
4 - Aaron Curry
5 - Mark Sanchez
6 - Andre Smith
7 - Darrius Heyward-Bey
8 - Eugene Monroe
9 - B.J. Raji
10 - Michael Crabtree
11 - Aaron Maybin
12 - Knowshon Moreno
13 - Brian Orakpo
14 - Malcolm Jenkins
15 - Brian Cushing
16 - Larry English
19 - Jeremy Maclin
20 - Brandon Pettigrew
25 - Vontae Davis
29 - Hakeem Nicks
30 - Kenny Britt
34 - Patrick Chung
43 - Everette Brown
44 - Pat White
I also have done three Madden 09 cards ...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Last week, I sat down with Phil Frazier, a long-time producer at EA Sports, and checked out the latest Madden 10 build. While I did not get a chance to grab the controller and start dissecting the game myself, Phil Frazier did demo many of the new on-the-field Madden 10 features for me.
However, before getting to those features, I must mention that on Monday I wrote that the unofficial theme for NCAA Football 10 will be customization. Well, when it comes to Madden 10 I believe the theme will be "immersion." From the first moment you put the game in your console to the moment you take the field, immersion will be the goal.
When the game is loading, you are immediately brought into a football state of mind as you watch a down marker count from one to four. The opening screen features Larry Fitzgerald diving and reaching for the pylon while sub-menus bounce around the stadium.
And, perhaps taking a hint from our article last season about how loading screens no longer contain useful information, this year’s Madden highlights players and their ratings as you wait to take the field.
Pro-Tak
On the field, most of Madden’s improvements center around a new animation technology called Pro-Tak.
Marketing jargon? Sure. But when Pro-Tak is flexing its muscles, you can see the difference it is making. At the heart of Pro-Tak is the ability to control players on the field through contact with other players, while also having the ability to shape how the player you are controlling will respond to that contact.
For instance, Pro-Tak is what makes the new gang tackling feature in Madden work. This year you are able to have up to nine players on the field involved in the tackle –- both offensive and defensive players.
Four Bills versus one Jet. Wonder who's going to win ...
For the first time, you will see running backs like Brandon Jacobs move a pile of defenders forward, tight ends run up to the back of a pile and throw their shoulder into it to push it up field, and an entire flock of linebackers converging on the ball carrier at the same time.
You will now also have the ability to initiate a tackle with one defender before switching to another defender to finish the job.
Pro-Tak is also working hard in every passing situation because it is the cornerstone of pass rushing defenders, blocking lineman and the quarterback. For example, Pro-Tak appears to have finally slain suction blocking and the dreaded 15-yard drop back. Animations between offensive and defensive linemen are much more fluid and lifelike –- with the war not being won simply by offensive linemen making contact.
... Not the Jet.
For pass rushers, this means no more button and trigger mashing to use one of a couple moves in your bag of tricks. Instead you will be able to use the right stick to steer your player through contact with the offensive line.
This steering is what kills the 15-yard drop back. If you drop back more than a couple of yards, you are giving the defenders an ideal angle to push through the offensive linemen, get on their outside shoulder and bull rush right to the point of attack.
For quarterbacks, Pro-Tak allows you to better feel the pressure coming at you and also trigger animations that try to avoid the rush. In the past, I think we all witnessed situations where the QB dodged a sack via some kind of miracle animation that we would be lucky to ever see again.
This year, those random animations are gone, and instead you control your QB's ability to shuffle left, right and up in the pocket with the right stick. The QB is able to truly slide around the pocket like Tom Brady (pre-knee injury) before throwing downfield.
Madden is also utilizing a vibrating controller so you can sense where the pressure is coming from. If you are getting heavy pressure from the right, you will feel it. If you have time but are getting a bit of pressure from the left, the joystick will vibrate a touch.
The Little Things
Perhaps taking a page from MLB: The Show, Madden 10 is also looking to focus more on the little details that have sometimes been overlooked in the past -– basically keeping the "if it's in the game" mantra in mind at all times.
When the ball is fumbled in certain situations, a number of players will dive on the loose ball and it will change hands in the pile numerous times. While it was not ready during my demo, in the final version of the game there will be a button mashing mini-game to decide who gets the ball - with the button needing to be hit changing throughout the sequence.
According to Frazier, these piles are going to be special, rare situations with most fumbles playing out similar to years past. But in certain circumstances you're going to see all hell break loose fighting for the football.
The emotion of the moment is captured as well, with referees pulling guys off the pile before emphatically pointing in one direction or the other.
A detail like Ben Roethlisberger's "7" appearing right on the yellow line of his helmet instead of on the side of it is important to the Madden developers. As Phil said to me, Big Ben is somebody’s favorite player, and the developers really want to make sure Madden lives up to the expectations of that fan –- getting every nuance correct if they can.
Madden 10 has a new, more streamlined playcalling screen.
The entire referee crew will now also be on the field. Now, while they do not have collision detection, you will still see them getting run over.
Defensive assignments are also back in the game. Once again, you will be able to take a defensive back or other defender and have him follow another player on the field -- no matter where he lines up.
Other Tidbits and Thoughts
- The graphics and lighting in Madden 10 are top notch. I thought NCAA and Madden 09 looked pretty good, and what I saw of NCAA 10 was on par with its 09 siblings. Still, Madden 10 is noticeable upgrade when compared to last year’s titles and even NCAA Football 10.
- The development team certainly seems to get what gamers are looking for and, perhaps more importantly, have the backing to go out and make a football game for true football fans. The true test will come when you get your hands on the controller and take the game for a whir. Nevertheless, from the limited on-the-field action I saw, the game appeared to be hitting on all cylinders.
- QBs have had their accuracy ratings changed. Instead of having one accuracy rating, they now have three ratings for long, medium and short passes. So, the Chad Penningtons of the world will no longer throw a good deep ball simply because they have a high accuracy rating. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the noodle-armed slingers like Pennington.
- There are no more weapons.
- Player ratings have been rebalanced. The aim is for the elite players in the league to truly feel superior to the rest of the players out there.
- During replays, when moving the camera around, you will now have a much better sense of depth since the game will focus on your target and blur out what is behind it -- similar to focusing on an item with a camera. This is something MLB: The Show did really well, and Madden’s system is just as impressive.
- Team-specific sidelines have been added. Everything on the sideline looks a lot more realistic than it has in the past.
- Super Bowl patches appear on a team's uniforms.
- Phil Frazier and other members of the Madden team hinted that they have a few more announcements in store for E3.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
So far I have a few cards done, and will be looking to add more this week.
To add the card, first right click and "Save Image As ..." and save it to your computer. Then go to your Operation Sports arena, click "Edit Your Card," and us the upload option. The card is sized perfectly to fit on the OS Arena page.
If you have a request please let me know here and I'll do my best to take care of it.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Last week, I had a chance to sit down with EA Sports and view the current build of NCAA Football 10. I also got a walkthrough of some of the new aspects of the game.
Based upon the walkthrough, it seems like customization is the name of the game with NCAA Football 10. Sure, the developers also want to fix some of the issues NCAA 09 had and improve the game on the field, but the theme of customization still stuck out most to me.
Create A School
The big news is the ability to create your own custom school via a pretty nifty online application. The options available are just as powerful as anything we have seen yet for a console title, if not more so.
It appears that every aspect of your team can be altered. Of course, the standard options are available: team name, nickname, location, team colors, uniform style, helmet design etc.
But you are also able to upload a custom logo for your school, select an existing or generic stadium to be the home for your team, while also customizing the look and feel of the stadium –- choosing where logos are placed and what it says in each of the end zones.
Once you are done with aesthetics, it is time to really build your school. This means customizing a school prestige rating and detailing where your school falls in areas like "fan base" or "academics." After that, you then create your team's roster from scratch or import a team’s existing roster.
When you are done, your team can be used in online pickup games or online/offline dynasties. Created teams can also be searched and downloaded by people across the world via the 360 and PS3.
Every aspect of your team, including its players, can be edited online.
The web application is actually going to be released a month before the game ships –- allowing the community to create a portfolio of created schools that can be used as soon as the game drops.
For online dynasty aficionados, all of this means you will be able to carry over your NCAA 09 dynasties –- creating carbon copies of your existing schools right down to their prestige and rosters.
Going hand-in-hand with create a school is the continued ability to swap teams in and out of conferences.
On the Field
EA Sports have also worked hard to iron out some of the gameplay issues from last year, while also adding some new wrinkles in the process.
At first glance, the gameplay seems to be pretty similar to last year, but the new wrinkles being added give you greater control over your team on the field, providing an added level of strategy that was not there last season.
Coupled with some A.I. changes, the new features should take NCAA 10 to another level.
On the offensive side of the ball, the biggest new addition is a system that links two plays together –- with one play setting up the other. For example, if you are running a "dive" play out of the I-formation, it will link to a play action pass in the same formation. The more you run the dive, the better chance you have of fooling the defense when you finally go with the play action pass.
With that being said, EA stressed that you still need to execute the play, and building up the play as much as possible does not guarantee success or a big play.
On the defensive side of the ball, you now have the ability to key in on certain types of plays before the snap. You have four options –- pass, run left, run right or run middle.
According to EA, it is all about risk and reward. Effectively read your opponent's play and you have a chance to blow it up or stop it cold. But if you guess wrong, you are exposing yourself to trouble.
The defense this year can also "spotlight" certain players before the snap. This allows you to pay extra attention to the spotlighted player, which should give you a better chance of shutting him down. However, you also risk leaving other players unattended.
The A.I. has also been enhanced to adapt to what players are doing on the field. So if you continue to run certain plays in certain situations, the A.I. will adapt and respond.
NCAA also includes a new "game plan" feature. Essentially, you are able to tweak certain settings, and each setting has a positive and negative associated with it.
For instance, you might choose to have your defense focus on intercepting passes instead of covering the receiver. This means you might intercept more passes, but there is also a better chance that your defense will get burned down the field on a double move or miss an interception and give up a big play.
Season Showdown
Taking a page from FIFA 08 and expanding it, NCAA 10 will include a new Season Showdown feature.
Upon firing up NCAA for the first time, gamers will pick their favorite school. From that point forward their actions on the field and off it will be used in match-ups each week based on the real NCAA schedule.
So if Florida is playing Florida State on Saturday, fans of both schools will be taking the field in NCAA 10, earning credits and trying to make sure their team earns bragging rights when it is all said and done. The team that does the best gets a win, the other a loss.
After each game you'll get credits that help your favorite school march to victory.
After each contest you'll be awarded points based on your skill, strategy, sportsmanship and a number of other categories. Winners aren't determined just on the field - a web trivia game is also available to help decide the outcome.
The credits earned are also used to rank online players, with information available both overall and by school.
Other Tidbits
- Online dynasty will return with the same look and feel from last season. EA have also made sure to fix things that did not work last year. For instance, now you will be able to talk players into returning to your school for another season.
- Both the offensive and defensive line has been worked on this year. The result is a true-to-life pocket. While we have heard this in the past, it looked pretty impressive this year. We might finally have a game that penalizes the 15-yard drop back.
- The game will feature something akin to the old accelerated clock.
- Pursuit angles on defense have been greatly improved –- fixing a big A.I. issue last season.
- Playbooks have been completely revamped again.
- Built into the Season Showdown is an interesting take on combating cheddar in online play. A player's sportsmanship score is based on how realistically they play the game. So if you aren't punting from the first quarter on, your sportsmanship score will take a hit. If you're running up the score, likewise your sportsmanship score will suffer.
- Before an online game you'll be able to see your opponents scores, including how sportsmanlike they are - letting you identify and avoid certain players before you take the field.
- Players who quit out of a game are also penalized by not earning points in their next contest.
- Tons of new animations have been added. You will see wide receivers slip on the wet turf, defenders try and force a fumble and players fight for the ball.
- When rushing the passer, you will now use the right stick to try and get around your blocker rather than the triggers or right/left buttons.
- QB accuracy has been adjusted to make it a bit harder to complete passes.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Posted on April 25, 2009 at 09:13 PM.
Operation Sports recently got a chance to sit down and talk with some of the newly announced NCAA cover athletes about the NFL Draft, video games and what it is like to see their likenesses on the cover of a video game.Operation Sports: What is like - not only having seen yourself in a video game - but also to now be one of a handful of athletes to grace the cover of a video game?
Michael Crabtree, WR, Texas Tech: It’s amazing. I’m just having so much fun here in New York. It so amazing to see something you’ve dreamed of since you were little.
Brian Johnson, QB, Utah: It's an absolute unbelievable experience. It's something you always dream about as kid. It's just a blessing and I’m really excited.
Brian Orakpo, DE, Texas: This is just a dream come true. I’ve been playing the game for so many years, and I’m just happy to be in the game and now I’m actually on the cover representing the game. It’s a huge accomplishment for myself and all those defensive guys –- defensive guys don’t get a lot of publicity as far as being cover guys.
Crabtree will soon be making Madden defenses miserable.
OS: What’s your favorite sports video game?
Crabtree: I like NCAA. I really don’t play too much, but when I do, I’m an NCAA guy. NCAA Basketball. That’s one of my favorites. That’s the game right there.
Johnson: I’ve been a big Madden fan since the Sega Genesis -– I used to play on my uncle's Sega Genesis. So I’ve played Madden each and every year. I’m probably the best at that, but I’m not top shabby at NCAA either.
Orakpo: I play NCAA all the time, so it has to be that. NCAA, Madden and I like any NBA game -– 2K, Live, doesn’t matter.
Johnson plays a plethora of sports video games. He would fit right in with the OS crowd.
OS: What about non-sports games?
Crabtree: Nah. I play some boxing games. Knockout Kings back in the day.
Johnson: For non-sports games I’ve dabbled in some Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and a couple of shooting games, but for the most part I really only play the sports games.
Orakpo: Oh yeah. Halo. I’m a huge Halo guy. I love Halo Wars. That’s my big game right now.
The question is, does Orakpo use the UNSC or the Covenant in Halo Wars?
OS: If you had the ear of the Madden 10 developers right now, what is the one thing you would make sure they got right about you as a player?
Crabtree: I can’t call it. That’s their job. If something goes wrong then they did a bad job.
Johnson: Awareness. That’s the key for QBs in Madden. I think with your accuracy and throwing power you’re fine, but awareness –- I think it makes your overall rating so much better.
Orakpo: My speed. Just because I play defensive end it doesn’t mean I’m a slow guy. I see that all the time –- guys who are fast in real life but they still get a slow speed. I want my speed to be the same as a linebacker.
OS: Come Monday when you’re on the other side of the Draft’s craziness, what is the one thing you’re looking forward to?
Crabtree: I’m looking forward to being comfortable where I’m at –- being picked by somebody who wants me, somebody who needs me. And I’m looking forward to making them a winning program –- being the best I can be.
Johnson: A little bit of certainty. Knowing where I’m going to be and that this is my opportunity. So much has been up in the air and it’s become kind of hectic. So getting into a stable situation where I know what’s going on.
Orakpo: Just getting down to the city, knowing where I’m at and getting everything settled. Knowing where I’m going to live. Little stuff like that. I’ll be working on that immediately.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Posted on April 10, 2009 at 12:23 PM.
It certainly is refreshing to see EA Sports embracing the online franchise and dynasty, especially considering this is a company that removed online franchises from Madden on the PC a few years back because “nobody played it.”So in the interest of helping EA deliver online franchises people will love, here are some tips from the point of view of a long time Madden commissioner and NCAA Online Dynasty aficionado.
1 – Make sure everything works.
It goes without saying, but a lot of online dynasties in NCAA died last year because of a bug in the off-season – making it impossible to keep your best players from leaving early or transferring without some serious elbow grease by the league commissioner.
This particular bug really made you wonder if anybody at EA even tried to simulate an online franchise before shipping the game.
And you can’t have a long lasting dynasty when nobody wants to be the commissioner because their players won’t progress.
2 – Allow smaller, flexible leagues, with the rest of the teams computer controlled.
This speaks more to Madden than NCAA (since its NCAA's lead Madden should be following). It is just damn near impossible to find 32 guys who can get along for anything more than a few weeks.
Sooner or later you are going to have personalities clash and arguments erupt over what is considered fair and what is considered cheating.
The NCAA Online Dynasty model is much better – a flexible number of players up to 12, arranged in whatever way they see fit. And other teams computer controlled.
3 – Online fantasy draft please.
Allowing a league in Madden the option of having an online fantasy draft will help distribute talent across the league and limit the advantage some teams have coming out of the gate.
Otherwise, you’ll have fistfights over teams like the Patriots.
4 – Exported rosters for online pickup games.
This is a feature that is always overlooked and one that people would love – having the option to export their team from an online franchise/dynasty and then use it for pickup games online or offline.
The ability to practice in the franchise is nice, but folks like to play with their teams against others and get a feel for their players – especially after the off-season when they have new players and draftees to try out.
5 – Import rosters in Madden or NCAA 11.
At some point this became part of the Ten Commandments of Sports Gaming: once a new version of the game comes out, you needed to scrap your old team and start over.
In online franchises and dynasties this is particularly disheartening, since players are dealing with draft picks and recruits they would love to see graduate or retire some day.
So give us the option to import the rosters from one edition of Madden or NCAA to the next edition.
What do you think? What are some items on your online dynasty/franchise wishlist?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Below are a few tips I thought I would share - often learned by screwing the pouch on something and figuring them out the hard way.
- Early on in your adventure, do some thinking about what your ideal team might look like, especially which star players you would like to have.
Then go out and find those players on the trade floor and make note of their vital information - prefered position, ideal formation and nationality.
Moving forward, keep that information in mind and begin building your team around those players. When you get your final piece of the puzzle, doing it this way will ensure you can just plug them in and be ready to go. Instead of wasting money building a completely different team, getting your favorite player and then needing to scrap everything to build around them.
So if you know you want Fernando Torres as your striker, once you start getting gold players, begin building your team with Spanish forwards.
- Do the same with Managers. The big thing here is to find out what formation they prefer and either start building a team for that formation, or make sure to get and save a manager trading card for the formation you want to play. Also make note of the Manager's nationality and try to get players from the same country whenever possible.
In the meantime, you also want to find interim Managers that fit the same mold, or nearly the same mold.
- Silver packs are largely a waste of coins. You are much better off buying Bronze packs until you have a full team and a bunch of contract cards and then saving up for the gold packs.
Within a week or so all of your silver players are going to be gone regardless, and honestly the silver contract cards aren't that much more valuable for gold players. You are better off buying five bronze packs for the one silver pack.
- So in regard to packs, the prevailing theory is to save for gold packs but also spend money on bronze packs when you are getting low on contract cards.
- If you are going to be playing a formation like the 4-4-2 with two strikers, resist the urge to make your created player a striker.
The biggest strength of your created player is his editability. At any time you can change both his position and his nationality, letting you move him around and edit him to get a chemistry boost.
Again, planning here about your final picture helps a lot. If you know who you want for different positions, you can put your created player in a spot where he won't be threatened by your larger plans.
- On your coaching staff, all you really need is a manager, head coach and goalie coach. Contract cards are just too valuable to also be holding fitness or injury cards at the same time.
- You can manage your teams fitness instead by playing your reserves 1 out of every 4 games. Doing so should ensure your starters never fall below 85 fitness and remain relatively healthy. Injuries you'll just have to deal with by building a team that can change pieces and still be effective.
- Because your reserves will be playing a number of games, you really need to be building two teams at the same time. Almost a varsity team and a junior varsity, so you can swap players out position for position.
- I have actually had pretty good success playing my B team in the opening around of a tournament. If you lose, you can just start the tourney up again and still get coins as if you had just done a pickup game. If you win you have saved your starters one games worth of contracts.
- You will quickly find one of the most valuable things in this game is contracts. By playing your reserves regularly you'll use their vital contract time and save yourself contract cards you can use on your starters.
- Along the same lines, try to time the purchase of gold packs, or players on the trade floor, with when you have reserves coming up for contract renewal. If you can swap a reserve on your roster for a better player before using a contract card, its a double win.
- Try to resist using substitutes, and build your team so at most you are using one (either a key defensive or key offensive swap depending on the situation).
Every time you sub you are using two games worth of contracts for one actual game. If you use all of your subs, you are using six games worth of subs when you could have used only three. Over time, that is huge.
- Value player alert! I snagged Mascherano yesterday, the Argentian, CDM who plays for Liverpool, for 150 coins.
At first glance he isn't all that impressive. At 78 overall, he's a marginal gold players (gold starts at 76 overall) who didn't fit my scheme. But I wanted a Liverpool player on the squad.
His value, however, is in his defensive rating. I have a few stand out defenders on my squad (my back line is Capdevilla, Bourbon, Juan and Ramos with Bellati in reserve) and Mascherno had the third highest defensive rating on the team (around an 85).
This makes him a great late substitution at midfield when you are defending a lead.
- Time for some trading tips. First, always put a buyout. If you need to, do some research and find out what a card is likely to go for and place that as the buy out.
People are impulse buyers and few have the discipline to wait a day to potentially get a card for 500 - especially if they can just pay 1,500 now. Especially for contracts and injury cards - you might have somebody on the hook who needs to renew their big gun, or heal him up, and they're willing to pay to make it happen.
- Use the 5 day option. Right now it isn't clear how the cards are sorted, but they certainly aren't sorted based on when the trade expires. So the longer your card is out there, the better chance somebody will see it and buy it. If they change the sorting option, then it will be better to use either the two hour or 1 day option - since your card will more frequently be up front and not buried.
- Here's a big one. And when you speak of me, speak well.
There are a ton of gold players, badges and team jerseys you will be able to buy for 150 to 250. If you haven't already added these to your collection, you can do so and receive between 450 and 490 coins. No that isn't a typo. You can spend 150, win the auction and make 300 coins. Do that 17 times and its a free gold pack.
- Along the same lines, be on the lookout for potentially underpriced items. Badges and kits are big ones here. If you can find the badge and kit of a big team for cheap, you can often sell it for more.
Yesterday I bought a Barcalona badge for 250 (it was an expiring trade with no buyout) and sold it within a couple of hours for 2,000 (5 day auction - only Barca badge on at the time with a buyout).
Saturday, April 4, 2009
It took a month, but I finally put down the PS3 controller and gave The Show a break to try out the new Ultimate Team downloadable expansion for FIFA 09.
The expansion does a great job of breathing some life into a game that’s almost six months old at this point – creating a completely different way to enjoy the same on the pitch action, while adding some new wrinkles and challenges to team building.
But with that said, if you aren’t a FIFA fanatic who was likely to play FIFA for another few months anyway, the expansion might not be for you.
The biggest strength of the expansion is adding a more complicated and strategic team building system than the existing Manager Mode.
Let’s be honest – whether you’re playing with Manchester United or Southend United, having a powerhouse at the end of the road isn’t hard to obtain. Just jack your scouting to 10, increase all your position coaches and spend any left over cash on the best overall player you can.
Players are also largely cogs that can be replaced by a better cog with little or no repercussions or thought. If you have an 80 overall CAM and buy an 82 overall CM, there’s no thought who will be the starter.
Not with Ultimate Team.
For starters, building your starting lineup is much deeper than comparing two players who kind of play the same position and their ratings. With Ultimate Team that question changes from not “who’s the better player?” but “which player makes my team better?”
Subtle but important difference.
With Ultimate Team you are juggling a number of factors and making strategic decisions about your team almost from the moment you jump in.
Instead of just overall rating and perhaps a few other key ratings (speed, passing, marking, crossing for example) you are taking into consideration a player's natural position, the formation you play versus the formation he is most comfortable with, his nationality and the nationality of players around him.
To use a real life example, yesterday I decided to start a 76 overall center midfielder over a faster, 78 overall center midfielder. If I were simply picking the best player to stand on an island with no other factors, the 78 would win in a heart beat.
However, the 76 overall player was an Italian who would be playing along side other Italians, in the formation he preferred. Just that one decision gave the team a four point chemistry boost.
When taking the same decision making process to your entire team’s composition, you can have a team of players that plays much better than the sum of their parts.
Ultimate Team then takes this one step further, adding Managers to the equation – each with their own preferred formation and giving chemistry boosts to players of the same nationality.
This system then trickles down into every aspect of building your team. Do you hit the trade market looking only for players that match certain criteria? Looking for pieces that fit the overall puzzle?
And what happens if, in your next pack of cards, you snag a superstar who doesn’t fit your current makeup? Do you try and build the rest of the team around him? Try and squeeze him into your existing makeup and potentially end up with a worse team? Or do you sell him and reap the rewards (some players, like Fernando Torres, are selling for tens of thousands of coins)?
You’ll find similar questions and decisions need to be made at every turn, as you juggle player and staff contracts, deciding what player to use a skill increasing card on, and what coaches to use.Even something as simple as buying a pack of cards needs to be thought about. Buying a pack at the wrong time could result in you needing to trade or discard valuable contract or player skill cards (as you can only hold so many of each type at any one time – and are limited to 30 cards on your trade pile).
Online Play Central to Ultimate Team
Keep in mind you are doing all of this not just to beat on hapless computer controlled players, but to also give yourself the best team possible when playing others in online pickup games and tournaments.
No longer is having an advantage over your opponent as simple as picking Barcelona to his Celtic. Now any advantages in your team are based on your ability to build a team and manage your coins (with a little luck thrown in).
For the first time, somebody playing online can have an advantage over other players not just based on his skill with the joystick, but also his smarts.
Your ability to scour the trade market, find good deals and get the best value for cards you're getting rid of also play a role. Getting the perfect wing player for your team at a fraction of the cost can be a huge advantage and help you in other areas.
On The Flip Side
With that said, there are some disappointing aspects of Ultimate Team.
The biggest problem (at least for 360 gamers) is EA Sports’ decision to run everything off their game servers. The result was constant disconnects and lag while doing something as simple as looking at your teams roster (with that said, it was much smoother last night than earlier in the week).
You also only have two types of game modes to choose from (each with an online option as well). You can either player a single game against any opponent, or you can enter a knockout, bracket-style tournament.
Both are certainly fun and good options to have, but it would have been nice to have something a little deeper.
Perhaps a “league” mode where you could pick another 9 teams to play an 18 game schedule with a points leader at the end? Or the ability to create your own tournaments with varying styles of play. For instance, being able to select some European powerhouses and have a Champions League style tournament?
The ability to search cards available for trade would also be improved. Currently it is very cumbersome to scroll through all of the cards available after setting your search criteria, and some more ways to narrow your search would also be great (for instance being able to only view auctions with a "buy now" option, or sort your search various ways).
And why the trading of cards isn't also available on a web site some place is beyond me.
Conclusion
There are other aspects of Ultimate Team that are nice, but not really huge features with a lot of meat on them. Sure, having your guy slide across the grass on his bum is nice and all, but not a selling point. Same for having more created player customization options. Those are just things added to help coax you out of your $10.
Really your enjoyment of Ultimate Team will come down to two big factors.
First, do you still like playing FIFA all these months later? If the idea of playing a couple of hundred more games both online and off makes you sick to your stomach, go back to The Show.
Second, does the idea of juggling a number of cards and trying to make decisions about which cards you use at a certain time in the hopes of giving you and advantage over other players sound appealing?
If it does, I think you'll lose yourself in the strategy aspect of collecting digital trading cards. If it doesn't, you'll probably find yourself losing interest pretty quickly.
Monday, March 23, 2009
This is perhaps one of the funniest things I have ever seen in a sports video game. Before stepping into the batters box in an early game in my RTTS, my shortstop blows a couple of visible snot rockets.
The idea is to create one place where gamers can track and share their RTTS experiences, and maybe brag a bit about their on the field performance.
If you have questions or ideas, hit the thread nymcon created in the forums.
First credit should be given where it is due. Road To The Show as it stands is incredibly fun. In my first go-around with The Show (I bought a PS3 this year just for The Show), I have been having such a blast with my RTTS campaign I haven’t even started my Mets franchise.
With that said, there are a few ways SCEA could tweak this great feature and make it as close to perfect as anything can be.
Better GM Intelligence
So here’s the setting. In my primary RTTS I am a shortstop in the Orioles organization. I have a decent spring but am ready to head to Triple A to get some more seasoning and bring my ratings up to a point I can better compete in the Majors.
I’m a couple of years into the RTTS and still only 20 years old.
To my surprise I make the Major League roster on opening day, a year ahead of schedule. Awesome, I think as I wait for my next appearance.
Well turns out I’m on the big league roster, but as a utility infielder and pinch runner.
All told I basically eat the first two months of the season – instead of being in Triple A, starting every game and building up valuable training points, I’m in the Majors getting one start every couple of weeks. By June 1 I had 18 at-bats.
That would never happen in the real life.
No team is going to bring up a highly touted, 20 year old, blue chip shortstop prospect so he can sit on the bench and learn valuable sunflower speed spitting technique from veterans.
There should also be more emphasis in on-the-field success over the achievement goals. I agree the goals should still be part of the whole system, but a player just named to a minor league All-Star team is never going to be benched because he had a .983 fielding percentage over 3 weeks instead of a .997 fielding percentage.
And a rookie shortstop hitting over .350 is never going to be told “you didn’t do a good enough job – back to Triple AAA.”
Acquiring Training Points
This part of the game can be infuriating and doesn’t do enough to accurately reward or punish a player based on his actual in-game performance.
I have had several games that were stellar by almost any account. But a little bit of bad luck sprinkled in with one miscue and I had almost nothing to show for a game that anybody would see in the box score and say “Wow he was lights out!”
I think the goal system shouldn’t have negatives as well. If you think about it, negatives are already built into the system – you have a limited number of plate appearances in a game and are trying to get points every time you’re up.
You shouldn’t then be further punished because you weren’t able to reach base in the 9th inning against Mariano Rivera. Even the best players have tops a 30 percent chance of succeeding – let alone some snot-nosed 20 year old just called up from Norfolk.
A better system would be something akin to FIFA. At the end of the game your performance is graded in several areas and you are awarded a certain number of points as a result.
More Practice Options
It would be great to have more practices options and give the player more control over how much time he spends working on his game.
This would be especially handy if you find yourself in a bench role – allowing you to sharpen your skills through hard work and hopefully grab a better spot on the roster.
Ideally, before every game a player could have the option of practicing. He could then pick what drills he would like to do, at the cost of a bit of energy. Players would also have a maximum amount of training sessions available each week.
This would also allow for a few more practice options. For instance, adding various fielding drills.
Other Ideas
- The baserunning system needs to change. I’m on board with forward on the stick to advance, back to retreat. But keep it like that. It shouldn’t depend on which way a very dynamic camera is pointing at any given second. At the very least give us the option to us a “classic” style like we have for fielding.
- The baserunning system needs to change. I’m on board with forward on the stick to advance, back to retreat. But keep it like that. It shouldn’t depend on which way a very dynamic camera is pointing at any given second.
At the very least give us the option to us a “classic” style like we have for fielding.
- I’d be great to have more concrete information when it comes to the achievement goals when it comes to boosting your ratings.
Right now all you see is a very ambigous bar – can you just tell us “raise your arm strength to 55.3”? Knowing how many training points you need to spend would also be a great addition.
- All of the other players have various morale ratings. Why can’t we have them as well and be able to adjust every week as we see fit?
- Instead of just “Sim to Next Appearance” how about a “Sim to Next Start” option? If you are a position player in a bench role, you spend almost as much time on a loading screen as you do in game. I had one stretch where I went 2 weeks almost exclusively pinch running – it was torture (see my story above).
- Add some Agent to General Manager interactions. This could allow players to have more of a dialogue with the team, and suggest things like “how about sending me to Triple A so I can actually play” or talk about future player achievement goals.
- While in games it would be nice to have some sort of “sim to your next opportunity” feature where you could quickly follow what was going on in the game. Almost treat the breaks between your next opportunity like an ESPN Gamecast.
Right now you really feel disconnected from the action on the field that doesn’t involve you. For instance a few times I’ve bunted over a player or slapped a ball to the right side to advance him. I’d be nice to see if that player eventually scored.
What about you? What things would you like to see added or tweaked in The Show’s RTTS?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Now I do agree that a lot of folks out there care way to much about ultimately unimportant aspects of games. Yeah, so Team X's uniforms aren't right, and I know EA can never seem to figure out that Player A wears high-tops and not medium cut cleats.
Ultimately, though, I think this is a relatively small portion of the sports gaming population.
The rest of us? I think we're simply frustrated and a bit cynical about what we hear from the marketing gurus.
Over the past few years we have seen way too many bad games infect the genre. Almost across the board the first round of sports games were horrible - watered down versions of previous titles that were missing 75 percent of the features we had grown accustomed to. Since then we've had bad game after bad game get released.
And you can tell we aren't just a bunch of sports gaming Scrooge's who get their kicks bashing games by our reactions and posts BEFORE games are released.
We want to have a game consume us and make us feel like a kid again as we play it into the wee hours of the morning. We want to play a game that is a true diversion from all the other nonsense going on in the world. We want lose ourselves in that bomb we just hit against Sabathia or that incredible touchdown run we just had.
But all too often we stumble down the stairs on Christmas day to find Santa passed out drunk, having eaten all our cookies and deficated on our new shiny red fire engine.
And trust me - that smell doesn't come out.
For some of these franchises this year was the second or third time in a row finding the smelly fire engine. Honestly, hostile reactions are in line.
If you think about it, it has also been a while since we've had a sports video game that knocked our collective socks off. There have been no Bioshock, Little Big Planet, Gears of War or Call of Duty in the sports genre.
Check out Metacritic.com some day and you'll notice there are very few sports games in the top 20 for both the 360 and PS3. Despite sports gaming accounting for a huge portion of overall video game sales, only three titles (Forza 2, NHL 09 and The Show 08) are in the top 20 of this generation - and they're at the bottom of the list.
Hopefully, however, we are on the verge of another golden age in sports gaming. We have four franchises with very solid footing that should only move forward - NHL, NBA 2k, FIFA and The Show. Plus we have Forza 3 on the horizon.
Other games have gotten their feet firm underneath them and could join the successful titles with some good decisions.
But until that happens, don't mind us if we act out after being disappointed ... again.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Posted on March 1, 2009 at 12:20 AM.
At the request of some folks in the forums here's another game play video. It shows the last half of the 9th before the Twins beat the Giants in Game 4 of the World Series, the celebration (or lack there of) afterwards, followed by some more post-game clips.
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