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Friday, November 6, 2009
Taking into account how both OSers and the OS Staff will vote, as well as a number of other factors, these games are the one's I could see winning game of the year next month:
MLB 10: The Show - A lot of people felt that The Show got snubbed last year, both on staff and on OS. With this year game being even more quality, I could easily see it winning the gold. Odds: 5-1
NHL 10 - The defending champ is both bigger and badder than it was last year, but I'm not sure it has the same level of aura last year's game had. It seems like, to me at least, people aren't going to vote NHL in. However, I was surprised NHL won last year too. Odds 7-1
FIFA 10 - There are a ton of people who absolutely love this game, and you are looking at one of them. EA Sports best selling franchise is going to have a serious push for Game of the Year this year, but the anti-soccer sentiment crowd might just be too much to overcome. Odds 7-1
NBA 2K10 - NBA 2K10 is a solid improvement over 2K9. Unfortunately for NBA 2K10, I just don't see it garnering enough support despite being a good game since NBA Live has attracted a large number of voters away from 2K10 this year. Odds: 10-1
Forza Motorsport 3 - Based on sheer quality alone, there is no equal this year. But Forza has a few things working against it 1)it's a 360 exclusive title and 2)many OSers won't vote for a racing game. As much as it might deserve it, Forza probably won't be taking home the gold. Odds: 15-1
Other Noteable Games
Fight Night Round 4: 18-1
Madden NFL 10: 25-1
UFC 2009 Undisputed: 30-1
NBA Live 10: 40-1
NHL 2K10: 50-1
NCAA Football 10: 60-1
Big League Sports: Summer: 123192381012-1
Who is your favorite going into voting season? (Which, I might add, begins the second week of December!)
Monday, November 2, 2009
There are at least three potential game of the year type of games in the racing genre alone: Forza Motorsport 3, Need for Speed Shift, and Dirt 2.
Not only that, but the sheer depth of the genre is staggering, folks who are addicted to Trials HD and Outrun Online Arcade will attest to the depth in even the download only offerings.
Race Pro is an overlooked gem this year, any other year it would have been a fine racing game, but not in 2009. Race Pro can't even muster up a coherent challenge to Forza, Need for Speed Shift or Dirt 2 this year.
So with that in mind, if you are shopping for Christmas gifts a bit early for junior, think about going with Forza Motorsport 3 as your first choice. I have been playing Forza a bit, and I believe it might be one of the finest games released on the XBox 360 console out of any genre. However, Need for Speed Shift is a suitable alternative (as is Dirt 2) if you are on the PS3.
Have you gotten bit by the racing bug this year? Why do you think we have three extremely good racing games this year? How do you rank this year's racing offerings? Sound off!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Is it any surprise? There are a ton of customers out there willing to shell out some good money for quality apps. With the iPhone hardware being capable of handling pseudo PSOne level graphics (at least from the naked eye), I've got some high hopes for the future.
One sign of things to come is that EA released their two most popular franchises on the iPhone this year: Madden and FIFA. Given a strong sales performance, I would be willing to bet we'll see more games pop up on the platform in the very near future. Another cool possibility is expanding games onto the platform like EA did with their Madden 10 Online Franchise app.
With how things have been developing, it was literally only a matter of time before companies tried to publish big-ticket games on the platform. One can only hope more companies jump on the bandwagon, perhaps we'll see some classics remade for the platform?
Now that the iPhone has arrived as a legitimate gaming platform, what would you like to see done on the platform? Are you a current iPhone or iPod Touch gamer? What are your favorite sports game apps?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Interacting with the consumer base is the new cool. A lot of people seem to not remember when getting a developer to come onto any site to discuss their game was a lot like getting a five star general to divulge secret battle plans. Nowadays, it's weird when a game isn't represented by someone throughout communities. That's so good, it's scary.
Online Franchises/Dynasties are now normal. It's now a bit abnormal for a game to not have an online career mode which you can take control of a team with friends and play against them. As time goes on, this will become even more standard. I'm very excited about this development.
Dynamic Player Ratings. Remember the days when we might've got an official update each week at best from developers? Sure this isn't an industry wide standard...yet. But it's coming, and I can't wait. Dynamic player ratings ensure the online game is as up to date as possible and the game plays more realistically.
So what are your favorite trends in sports gaming? I've got a few more I didn't name here such as gradually deeper career modes, better superstar modes, and more customization. So let's hear your favorite trends!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gaming companies have a nasty tendency to force feed users with features. I say that is a practice which has to really stop. While the features I have described would add absolutely tons of depth, there are a lot of folks who would do better for themselves just playing games and doing basic franchise stuff.
But what about us truly incredibly detail oriented people? Why should gaming companies sacrifice depth when they can simply add it and make it entirely optional for people who really want it.
Some people simply don't want to have to create a character with attributes for handling the media, players, and aspects of your team. And whether us truly detail oriented people like it or not, some people simply don't see the need to run a virtual press conference to temper fan expectations but not to destroy your team's faith in you. Some people don't want to rally fan support in the offseason after a disappointing season.
And it's ok.
But at least give us incredibly crazed people who want to micromanage our virtual coaching careers the option to do so. It's all I ask.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sure, gameplanning and trying to outduel opponents on the field is tough, but even tougher is answering to the media and your fans when you do lose. On that token, why don't you have to deal with what could be the toughest part of your job in games?
Like any of the other options I have raised in the past few days, this could and should be an optional component of any dynasty or franchise mode. But for those who want the most realistic experience, you should be at the mercy of expectation. A simple checklist telling you what is expected simply isn't enough.
Perhaps there should be a job approval meter from different groups of people which all affect each other. In reality, you have to manage your boss, your players, your fans and the media. If your players don't believe in you, it's going to be hard to get them to perform. If your boss approves of you, your job is safe. If your fans are unhappy, your boss will get unhappy because you aren't making him money.
I would think that you would have different options throughout the year in order to raise or lower your approval amongst the different groups. Say you have to conduct a post-game press conference which you have to choose what to say, not unlike pitches with NCAA in recruiting. Of course, your ability to rally people around you could be part of your RPG-esque coaching character.
Games are simply missing the power of expectation in today's environment. There are a whole slew of possibilities and a whole range of dynamic gameplay which could evolve from simply making expectations a more integral part of the game. To me, the challenge should be just as much as keeping your job as it should be winning -- because both go hand in hand.
What do you think? Are you like me and does the challenge of trying to answer to your fans and the media after a loss sound like an interesting aspect of a sports game? Sound off!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Today I want to talk about something done in several different ways, but never to the point it should be: player personalities.
There are games which are more guilty than others of not modeling player personalities into their game. Some games claim to have personalities, but there is no way to directly see what they are. Given the limitations of video games, the only real way to judge player personality would be through some form of statistical measurement.
Several text-sims such as Out of the Park Baseball and Football manager do this and it determines the type of contracts you get, among other things. But not all games are even close to the same stratosphere. So today, I would like to recommend that each player has some sort of a personality in our sports games which would affect contract status, perhaps random events and more.
What do you think? Where could developers make player personalities stand out more when it comes to dynasty/franchise modes? Should the ratings affect on field performance as well as off the field? Chime in!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sports game dynasty modes simply go from the season to the offseason, which consists of a linear set of events which seem just as static as they are often boring. In pro sports, you draft. In college, you recruit. You can go for free agency, or if you are unlucky enough to be playing a college game, you can set your depth chart and hope for the best.
The offseasons aren't necessarily bad in sports game modes right now, they're just all very similar. No one has been willing to take a risk and do things in a wholly different fashion which is both new and exciting.
Why does there have to be a set and orderly plan? Why can't there be a point to the offseason other than roster building? As a coach/GM, shouldn't you be just as focused as building up your image with the people who are your digital fans as much as the team you are controlling?
This suggestion goes hand in hand with my point yesterday: make the offseason more personal, with more goals to achieve than just roster building. For drafts, there should be expectations of you, ditto for recruiting or free agency. Baltimore fans weren't happy they couldn't grab Texiera this offseason, why shouldn't you face the same pressures?
What do you think about offseasons in dynasty and franchise modes? What do you think could be done differently?
Monday, October 19, 2009
While some games are doing these things, others aren't. Today's discussion is centered around one key thought: make these modes more personal.
Almost every mode is absolutely terrible at making you feel like you are a coach or GM in their respective leagues. College Hoops 2K8 might be the only game (still) that realistically handled what it would be like to be a coach in a sport.
While you should have the option to not use this, why shouldn't games handle the coaching markets in their sports more realistically? You are considered one of the all time greats if you can spend more than 10 years at any given NFL franchise, but you could spend over 10 years with a team in Madden with relative ease. You should feel a real hot seat.
Another easy to implement idea would be to be able to create your coach/GM and assign ratings to him and let him grow over time, like an RPG. This would effect your teams effectiveness on the field in a slight manner as well. I'm no fan of RPGs, but I think something like that would go a long way towards making dynasty/franchise modes much more personal.
So what do you think? What ideas for making dynasty/franchise modes more personal would you like to see implemented? Is there anything a game does you'd like to see done in all the rest?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
- Either MLB '09: The Show, NBA 2K10 or NHL 10 will be huge disappointments this next year. The solid trio we could count on will be no more after this year. It depends what you mean by disappointment, but in all reality all three games were very solid once again. I'm batting .000 right now after one!
- Both fighting games (UFC and Fight Night) will be contenders for game of the year. When I wrote about this, there was a lot of uncertainty about both games, but so far the fan reaction has been pretty good for both. I'll chalk this up as a pseudo win for my ego, although there are far better games than both on the market.
- EA and Take Two will BOTH have bids to buy them out this year, one of them will actually do it. When I wrote this, there was a rumor going around that Disney might be interested in EA. With Disney buying Marvel, I have serious doubts they're going to go after EA as well. There was the defunct Microsoft rumor as well. This is looking less likely, rumors have been popping up off and on about Take Two being bought, but nothing is concrete.
- Madden will finally get online franchise and NCAA will get a new feature we've all been clamoring for. In fact, one of these two games will actually be received favorably by the OS crowd this year, even the group that has sworn off EA Football. When I wrote this Online Franchise wasn't announced, so I get a W for that. But my prediction about NCAA was only half right. I was talking about Create-a-Team and Create-a-conference when I wrote this, but we got pretty terrible versions of both. And the anti-EA football crowd is still 95% anti EA football.
- The Wii will get several really good sports games this year. So far so good. The Bigs 2, Tiger 10, Madden, Wii Sports Resort and Shaun White Snowboarding? This is a big W.
- PC Sports Gaming will officially be called a dead platform, despite all of the modding communities keeping titles such as Madden alive (not to mention the text-simmers). All I'm hearing are crickets about PC Sports Gaming. I'd say it's hard to define when it's officially dead...but we're closer than we were in January.
- Sports gamers will be very excited by at least one surprise game announcement for this year. EA Sports MMA is exciting to me at least, although I'm sure others don't share my enthusiasm. So far, I'd say this is probably a meh or a big L on my record, unless you are excited by an MMA game by EA.
So what about you? How do you feel the year has turned out so far for sports gaming against your expectations?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
In that review, I basically said the game was fun to an extent, but there was little reason to come back to play the game. For $10, NHL 3 on 3 Arcade was simply not a good deal considering you can buy some classic games from the XBox or the PS2/PSOne. Let's not even mention the $20 bargain bin pricetag of great games such as The Orange Box and Bioshock.
Enter the $15 pricetag for Madden Arcade. Other than being able to play with any team, and probable exhibition and online game modes, I'm not really sure there is anything there. It's almost as if EA has decided to replicate the formula of 3 on 3 NHL Arcade while throwing in licensed teams and then calling it a good idea.
It's not.
Development resources were almost certainly not taken away from Madden, but you still can't help but feel this is a giant waste of time. There is simply no reason to buy a $15 arcade game: even if the gameplay was surprisingly good.
Football fans wanting a fresh take on the sport would be better served picking up a copy of NFL 2K5 on used game store shelves or even an older copy of Madden somewhere. There are even great options on the IPhone and other mobile platforms that will almost certainly be a better buy.
Simply put: at $15, Madden Arcade is going to be a gigantic disappointment for anyone who buys it if you are looking for maximum bang for your buck.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Don't get me wrong, I love writing about sports video games here at OS, if there are better readers for a site our size, I'd be very surprised. With that said, there are some things which just wear on you after awhile. The first thing for me are game reviews.
No matter how hard you try, your reviews will never please everybody. There is simply no magical formula for how to review a game. No matter how you approach it, someone always has a more important opinion: their own.
There isn't a perfect way to score games. I can't help but feel no matter what a game is rated by one of our writers, there will always be 30% of our readers which vehemently disagree with a rating. It's not a bad thing, but we are always trying to figure out how to score a game best. You have to take into account previous offerings, innovation, how good this game is compared to the competition, etc. In the end, a reviewers opinion is just that -- but it's always treated as so much more.
How long is too long? We have done studies at Operation Sports that show the average review is read somewhere around 4 minutes, which means about 30% of our reviews are being read, at best. This is a typical ratio on the internet, since readers typically have a shorter attention span and are only after key bits of info, especially with video game reviews. So it's always an exercise in frustration writing/editing 3,000 word reviews knowing a vast majority of people won't read most of the article.
What frustrates you about how gaming sites review games? I know you have to have some good stories about how a game was rated way off-base or how a review missed something big, because I have several right off hand. Sound off!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Those expectations quickly soured.
Looking back, it is little surprise why there has been such a blowback towards Madden the past several seasons. First EA set expectations at an all-time high and then they forcefully annexed the competition all before the debut of the next-gen Madden. Not only was the competition gone, but fans were expecting great things out of the folks down in Orlando.
And then Madden 06 hit store shelves.
It was just like a fiery car crash, the carnage was everywhere. After EA showed tech which was a generation or more ahead of schedule, it delivered a game which didn't even match up with the games of the previous generation. Not surprisingly, NFL video game fans largely staged a revolt.
High expectations turned into high anger.
The big mistake EA made was that it raised expectations to an unrealistic level. Since that day EA released the Magic Madden Movie, they have been fighting an uphill battle of giant expectations. Since Madden 06, EA has been trying to balance the realistic goal of making modest year over year improvements with a fanbase which demands more than that.
And it all can be traced back to a simple mistake: the Magic Madden Movie.
Friday, September 25, 2009
So why does it all matter? Remember, the purpose of this week long survey is to ask the question, "Why aren't sports games meeting our expectations in this generation?"
First off, we have to consider hardware limitations. As I depicted on yesterday's graph, I believe games can only achieve 85-90% of total possible realism using today's hardware under ideal conditions (unlimited resources and time). And since I also theorized getting further up the ladder once you reach a certain point is much more costly, I believe we're not going to be in store for any huge leaps with games the rest of this generation.
Games such as Madden, NBA 2K and even MLB: The Show have so many nuances they still don't do right, and one has to wonder if they will ever be able to be properly modeled in a game anytime soon given the increasing complexity of what must be done. Developers also have realized, whether they admit it outright publicly or not, that you can't get too realistic with gameplay or you will risk having the casual fans turn on you for the game being too hard.
It is that combination of components coming together which we have gotten a generation of sports games which just haven't quite cut the mustard for many folks. There is a certain component of expectation which just can't quite be delivered due to the constraints developers are running into in regards to the inherent difficulty of developing complex games in a limited time span.
As you go up the scale on realism, developmental resources are more strained to produce even more complex solutions. And then there is the problem of running straight off the edge of the cliff in regards to fun factor and making a game too complex for it's own good. This results in a delicate balancing act which some development teams (NHL, NBA 2K, The Show) have been figuring out for a few years and others (Madden, FIFA, NBA Live) are beginning to catch on to.
The end result is that if you are expecting major year over year gameplay advancements from now until the end of this console cycle in 2013-2014, you will be sorely disappointed. Sports games will only marginally advance forward, and while significant progress will be made from the start of this cycle to the end, year to year advancements will seem minor and possibly insignificant for some.
Total Possible Realism (TPR) - 100% of Total Possible Realism is a perfect representation of a sports TV broadcast. I say that because you cannot get 100% of total realism from experiencing anything from any type of a medium whatsoever. So we are going with the TPR in our studies.
Development Resources and Development Costs - The resources a company throws a game be it manpower or money for technology.
Fun Factor - Fun Factor is a totally subjective rating, but I'm trying to consider what it means from the gaming audience as a whole. There is no concrete way to measure this, so I'm running with what I got.
So there are the three terms, define in a more concrete fashion. Hope you enjoyed this week's blog series!
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