EA Sports College Football 27 by developer EA Tiburon and publisher Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
EA Sports College Football 27 - PS5 Review
Madden NFL 26 - PlayStation 5 Review
Madden NFL 26 is developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.
Madden NFL 25 - PS5 Review
EA Sports College Football 25 by developer and publisher Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Another year, another Madden. Is it more of the same or something new and exciting? It’s the yearly question, and your mileage may vary depending on the aspects of the game that matter most. For my money though, Madden NFL 25 brings enough new to the table this year to warrant a good, long look.
Not every new year of Madden is a win. Sometimes they introduce a new mechanic that sounded better on paper than execution (we’re looking at you old QB passing cone or fumble minigames), or even take steps backwards in the presentation (audio glitches or crazy physics bugs). It feels however, that Madden NFL 25 has settled quite comfortably into this generation console technology and ironed out many of the wrinkles.
The initial first impression for me is a good one. Menus are easier to navigate, visuals are crisp, modes load quickly. If there’s a grumble, it’s how the game seems to want to funnel me into the Madden Money Making Mode… erm, Madden Ultimate Team (MUT) mode. For those unfamiliar with that mode (which likely means you haven’t played any sports games in the last decade), it’s a mash-up of sports card collecting, fantasy football and a wide variety of challenges. This all leads into a very grindy gameplay loop of beat challenge, get a small amount of currency, someday get enough currency to purchase another item or pack of cards, incrementally improve your roster and then do it all over again. There’s a very slow lather, rinse and repeat vibe to MUT. I don’t really care for it myself, but it’s popular and it offers micro-transactions that allow the progression loop to be sped up artificially.
There are other modes including some quick play options, but the real meaty ones are Franchise and Career modes. The former is structured very similar to years past (and that’s reflected even in the game’s trophies / achievements, which haven’t seen a meaningful update in years now). The gist is that you are a coach or owner who tries to manage the weekly operations of the football team. At the owner level you’re setting prices and worrying about the quality of the stadium, while the coach is more focused on the X’s and O’s and game strategy. Both are basically slightly different skinned approaches to the same core engine where you try to improve your team and live out a fantasy football world.
Franchise is easily where I spend the majority of my time in Madden, both this year and the releases of the past. It’s just the most rewarding experience overall as I enjoy so many of the team management aspects. The offseason feels a bit better this year, especially the draft aspects. It’s not exactly a major reinvention of the wheel though, and I feel like there’s room to do something ‘more’ with a narrative or elements of league-wide chaos: players holding out mid-contract, or teammates not getting along, or players beefing with one another from different squads, etc. I don’t really know, but as fun as Franchise is, it could use a little more ‘texture’ for lack of a better way to phrase it.
It's impossible not to reference the recent EA Sports CollegeFootball 25 game. There’s a lot of elements that have made their way from that game from a couple of months ago into this new Madden NFL 25. The Dynasty mode of College is the parallel to Madden’s Franchise, but they are very different animals. I will say that I am disappointed that there’s no draft class export from the college game to the Madden one. I imagine it’s more of a licensing limitation than a technical one, as we had that option way back on the PlayStation 2, but I hope it’s a hurdle that can be overcome next year as this was something of a major disappointment for myself and some of my football loving friends.
Now, one area where the College game transitions well into the Madden series is the created player mode. Your can import your graduated college player into the pro game and it will give you a slightly accelerated start into the process, pulling in your physical choices, numbers preference, things like that. It’s a fun way to keep the journey going. I really enjoyed this year’s Career mode. There is a lack of story / narrative told here, as your player just sort of graduates from college into the NFL and gets to go through the combine which culminates into a clumsy hug with the NFL commissioner after a team selects your player.
I do think it would be cool if you could create a bit of a backstory for your player (or import one from College football, such as the blue chip vs underdog starting points), but there’s numerous objectives sprinkled into Career mode. These dangling carrots are generally enjoyable targets as you level up your player and sink points and earned skills into him. There’s a lot of opportunity to put your own personal spin on the player in interviews / conversations, though the impacts feel very short-lived. Again, I think those choices could be interesting if woven into some sort of story or ongoing narrative (not even a super firm story, but just more than a +5 boost to stiff arms next week).
It's also interesting to me how College football put training wheels on your created player in the form of limited play calling impact while Madden lets your player (in my case, the very same halfback) have total control of the playbook. It seems a weird approach that swings too wildly from one extreme to the other. There is also the online-ish (there’s offline challenges too) sub-mode called Showcase where you play a much faster, simpler, more arcade-like game of football. It’s interesting, but hard for me to invest as much time into than the core NFL career of my player.
All of these modes and menus are well and good, but Madden NFL 25 seems to be at its best when you’re playing the actual game of football. The visuals are better than ever, which is to be expected. I appreciate the better variety in the announcers in the game. The primary commentators are still Brandin Gaudin and Charles Davis, who are just fine – but they’ve been growing a bit stale over the last few years. EA has injected Greg Olsin and Mike Tirico as well as Kate Scott and Brock Huard. It’s a welcome bit of variety that’s been well overdue and the presentation benefits from it.
It's interesting to note that in many ways, Madden NFL 25 feels slower to me than the College game. I'd love to know if that’s a reality of the engine, or maybe just a matter of perception on my part. Maybe there’s more parity in the pro players and therefore you don’t feel breakaway speed the way I did playing the college game where players might have much larger physical gaps? Either way, even with that impression, Madden’s collisions are fantastic, and that’s no small matter.
In a sport where you have two teams of eleven banging into one another all of the time, the tech behind these collisions is kind of a big deal. This year introduces what the team at EA has dubbed Boom physics. There are still some goofy animations here and there that occur, but nothing like some of the wonkiness of years past where a small player could chuck aside a behemoth twice his size, or a football kicked through the stadium roof. Instead everything feels much more grounded in reality when players hit one another. Actually, there’s moments before and after the hit as well where you see a player’s body shift to brace for a big hit stick tackle across the middle, or when they put their hand on the ground to stand up slowly after getting shmucked by a linebacker.
It's not always perfect, but by and large the limbs and bodies flail and thud in convincing fashion and blockers engage and disengage in a realistic way, but the ball has physics too. The ball can sit on the ground as a player bumps into it and knocks it around, but not like vacuumed right into their chest. Ditto balls bounced around as they can deflect off of hands (or backs or legs) in ways that it didn’t used to back in the day when the PS3 Madden passes would just laser into a person’s hands.
Madden NFL 25 is an excellent sports title, and though many of the improvements are incremental, they are numerous enough to be noteworthy. It’s far more than a roster update, but there’s still room to add some flavor to the various modes, and I’d like to see a stronger connection between the two EA football titles in the future. That being said, there’s more than enough quality football to be had here to keep NFL fans entertained for quite some time.
Score: 7.5 / 10
Legend Bowl Review
Legend Bowl by developer Top Hat Studios Inc and publisher YoYoGames—Microsoft Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy provided by
the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Football season is coming up sooner than later, and as the
leaves change color and the cooler air surrounds us – I get excited. Legend
Bowl helps to embody that excitement as it combines nostalgia and a surprising amount
of depth in this non-licensed American football title.
Tecmo Bowl is the clear inspiration here, in the name and
the visuals. That tickled a little something in my psyche, as my more recent
years have seen me focus on football games like Madden – and for a short time –
the 2K NFL games. However, I cut my teeth on the NES Tecmo Bowl. I later played
the sequel games and ate them up.
That however, was the 80’s and 90’s, and it raises the question
whether or not this type of a game still has a place in more modern gaming. I
think the answer here is ‘yes’, but it is going to have some niche appeal, I
suspect. First the basics: This is not a Madden-killer by any means. If you are
looking for a AAA presentation with real NFL teams and players? You’re not
getting that here, at least not out of the box. Now, to Legend Bowl’s credit,
there is a lot of flexibility in player and team editing. On PC there’s already
plenty of NFL roster mods available that can be imported to create a more
realistic NFL facsimile.
I actually spent more time than I had expected to with some
of these editing features, because I generally like putting my own customized
spin on teams, and these features were fun to play with. Aside from those
editing features, there’s a few different modes to play with. Exhibition is the
kind of quick game you would expect, and Tournament Mode is basically the
playoffs to a championship (like the original Tecmo Bowl) and there is a
Training Camp Mode that tries to teach you the basics. I’ll admit – I didn’t
really expect to need much out of that mode given my extensive history of playing
video game football, but Legend Bowl is a different kind of game than I was
used to. While I thought the tutorials could have been better, they were
certainly necessary.
Last but hardly least is the Franchise Mode, which is where
most of my time was spent and where I suspect fans dedicated to this title will
also get the most bang for their buck. It’s a pretty traditional setup with choosing
a team, creating a custom coach (or using an existing prefabricated one) and
playing a full schedule with stats being kept, player progressions and more. It
culminates in a championship and then an offseason with free agency and
drafting. These RPG-lite elements have always been among my favorite aspects of
sports titles and Legend Bowl does a solid job on this front. There are just a ton of stats to look through, and it feels like a fully flesh, deeply featured mode that is really well done.
The presentation is going to be hit or miss, and is one of
the reasons I feel as though Legend Bowl is a rather niche title. The pixelated
graphics give off a retro feel that compliments the catch chiptune music
nicely. Because of these more limited character models, gameplay has some tweaks
as a result. Things like trying to break through the offensive line is
represented with a bar that you fill up by mashing a button to bust through. In
fact, a lot of the elements here feel like mini quicktime events. On the one
hand, almost all games are this, but it’s more pronounced here since it’s
visually represented on the screen. At the higher difficulty levels, you will
generally lose these, as the computer is simply going to be better at spamming
an input button than most people.
The gameplay is another reason why I could see Legend Bowl
failing to appeal to a broader audience. The passing mechanic is interesting,
as it has a press and release, again with a bar that fills up to try and guide
you. Though after a while I was oblivious to the bar as it only distracted me
from looking at the receivers down the field once I got the timing down for my
QB. Some of the defensive and ball carrier controls also didn’t feel as intuitive
to me as I had hoped – especially early on. It felt a bit like I was being
asked to unlearn everything I had learned from video game football over the
years. I eventually got the hang of the controls, but it was often times
frustrating, especially the passing mechanic which felt like it just leans to
one extreme or the other (bullet or lob pass) most of the time.
Legend Bowl does lean into a more arcade feeling, yet doesn’t
quite feel like the old school Tecmo Bowl games it visually reminded me of.
There’s a lot of menus here as well, and I suspect they work a bit better on
the PC with a mouse and keyboard than they do on console with a controller, but
it’s hardly a deal-killer, just an inconvenience.
On the whole, Legend Bowl does a lot of things right, but
isn’t going to dethrone Madden either and that’s okay. If you are a diehard NFL
fan who wants to play a more realistic simulation, there’s a good chance that
Legend Bowl is not going to scratch that itch. However, if you can adjust to
the more arcade-like controls and don’t mind the numerous menus, there’s plenty
of fun to be had here. I just had to make sure to give myself time to learn to play
the game, which is a different type of game than most other football titles.
The numerous statistics make the Franchise Mode the most rewarding feature of Legend
Bowl, and those willing to push through the learning curve will find plenty of
reason to come back to it.
Score: 7 / 10
Madden NFL 24 Review
Madden NFL 24 by developer EA Tiburon and publisher ElectronicArts—Microsoft Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy provided by the
publisher.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Fall is around the corner, which means the NFL is nearly
here – and that means Madden NFL 24 has arrived. Those now are inclined to hate
the series due to its yearly release cycle are going to probably continue to do
so. However, for those such as myself who enjoy this time of the year and the
formula that Madden provides, it’s an entertaining game that is also probably
the most complete iteration in the series since the Xbox Series X released.
I’ve probably played more Madden titles than any other
series of video games released during my lifetime. Of course, it comes out
every year and I’ve been playing since its release on the Sega Genesis decades
ago. This annual cycle makes sense as EA wants to tie it into the excitement of
each new season. It’s the nature of sports in general. It’s all very cyclical (some
would say cynical, declaring the cadence a money grab), but I don’t see this release
pattern going away. Enthusiasm for a sport is at its highest near the start of
a season. It’s a world of possibility for fans who follow their favorite teams
and hope that ‘this is their year’.
The obvious downside of this cycle is that the Madden
franchise doesn’t get a great deal of time to innovate. It’s about tweaks and
polish, picking a few headline options to add because of the very strict
release schedule. The good news is, Madden NFL 24 is a very solid release.
There’s a bunch of newly named features such as Sapien AI and FieldSENSE that
are really just fancy ways of saying that the team has put a focus on trying to
make the gameplay as authentic as possible. It’s a tough task, given that there’s
two teams of 11 on the field shoving, sprinting, jumping and tackling one
another on every play.
The end result is a positive one. There’s probably always going
to be some small bouts of weirdness that happens, but after playing very
heavily (a couple of dozen hours and counting), I haven’t seen any of the
really odd issues that have crept up in the past. There have been years where
the ball or player physics were not overly realistic and there have been rare
but exceptional moments where they’ve been straight up anime-levels of unrealistic
and clearly broken. I never had any of
that here. On any given play you have linemen engaged in blocking, quarterbacks
and running backs with the ball in their hands as they try to make would-be
tacklers miss, wide receivers trying to create separation from the secondary to
make sometimes spectacular catches, and the presentation does a good job of
nailing these aspects of the game.
Speaking of the presentation, I was pleasantly surprised by
the audio. The on-field sounds have been quite solid for some time, lending to
the authenticity of the game’s action. However, as recently as a year or two
ago, I grumbled about the color commentary becoming a bit long in the tooth. I
still think that we’ve heard the same voices for long enough that it’s worth
considering a change there, but in recent years there were a handful of strange
issues where the commentary did not align well with the action. I didn’t hear
nearly as much of that in this year’s release. It’s a subtle thing, but hearing
them correctly state whether a ruling on the field was overturned, or having
them talk about a player’s number of rushing touchdowns (when it was in fact a
receiving touchdown) and more just doesn’t seem to be happening at this point.
Simply put: the on-field action is fun and it’s dressed up
in a pretty presentation. Since that is where I spend most of my time with this
game, it’s a good foundation to build off of.
It probably helps that my favorite modes have gotten some new
features added. Okay, there’s an argument to be made that some of them are just
old features that had been pruned off of the series in years past and are
getting reintroduced, but they’re still welcome additions. By far I spend most
of my time in the Franchise mode. This has numerous RPG-like elements and the
player and franchise progressions have been the dangling carrot on the stick
for me that I can’t help but chase. Training camp mini-games, deeper player
scouting and improved commissioner controls are the highlights here, but it’s a
deep mode that I readily sunk a lot of hours into.
The Superstar mode is back, and it continues to create a
sort of structured story for your created player (who can be any one of several
positions like quarterback, wide receiver and linebacker for example), but it’s
not as narratively heavy as Face of the Franchise has been in the past. It’s
basically Madden’s attempt to answer what we see in NBA 2K’s career mode, and
it does a pretty good job. I would make a character, see him through the
combine, get drafted and proceed to play games and go through drills to improve
my player. It’s like a more centralized version of the franchise mode, focused on
the player and not the team. You can jump online and play some more arcade-like
backyard style games (called Showdown now). Again this feels like good growth
to try and emulate what we’ve seen in other sports games over the years, and it’s
a lot of fun.
I will touch on the Madden Ultimate Team (MUT) briefly, as
it’s a mode EA highlights a lot (which makes sense, since it’s microtransaction-heavy
and generates additional income for them). It’s an interesting hybrid of
fantasy football and card collecting (two hobbies of mine) that has you opening
packs to better your team and complete various challenges to earn currency and
players to help better your team. It’s a very clear progression loop that some
people absolutely adore. I think it’s made some nice strides over the last few
years, with a bit more variance in the activities and the way you can develop
your roster, but this is just the least interesting of the modes for me
personally. I still spent some time in it, but the random nature of the packs
and cards you pull make progress feel less about my skill as a player or team
builder.
Madden NFL 24 is never going to fully shake the online
discourse about it being a money grab due to the MUT and yearly release cycle,
but as a diehard NFL fan? I had more fun with this year’s iteration than I have
in years. The modes I enjoy most have continued to gain depth and polish, and
the overall package is incredibly well done. We’ll likely never see a Madden
game make improvements by leaps and bounds over the prior year, but incremental
improvements to an already strong foundation are enough for me to enjoy the
start of the NFL with this title.
Score: 8 / 10
Madden Moments - Gaming Thoughts
With Madden 25 releasing... well, basically right now, I thought it
would be a good opportunity to look back at the series and highlight
some of my favorite 'Madden Moments' from over the years. I have not
played every single release, but I have played most of them spanning from
my Sega Genesis to the PlayStation 3, and plenty of systems in between.
Madden 25 - E3 trailer and footage
It is pretty well established that I like the NFL and also the Madden games. I know every year there are a handful of tweaks, updated rosters and a larger percentage of people feel like EA is ripping them off. However, I am the target market for NFL football games, and I do get excited about the various details that come out each year.
So much to give thanks for...
The subject line really says it all for me. I have been incredibly fortunate over the last year (and really, several years now). For me personally, it has been a pretty crazy but entertaining year. I joked last year when I turned 36 that my birthday did not make me feel old - but my kids' did. The oldest turned 16 and took driver's education. My son hit teenage years at 13, and my youngest hit double digits at 10. Heck, this upcoming year? 15 years married to my wife.
T.G.I....F! Contest, Madden, Dragon's Dogma and more!
Good grief, am I glad the weekend's nearly here. I am going to be pretty busy tomorrow as I head out of town with my wife and youngest for a small trip related to her Girl Scouts troop. I have a larger-than-normal night of Magic: The Gathering coming up on Monday as well that I need to make sure my top decks are in shape for (I have a very cool new exalted deck I will likely post about here after Monday when I see how it plays). Still, I have a lot more than that going on. I want to remind you that I have a contest still you can enter until tomorrow night for a free iPad game.
So, to kick things off... I got to play the Madden 13 demo last night.
So, to kick things off... I got to play the Madden 13 demo last night.
Some new Madden 13 Screenshots
I'm a huge NFL fan and almost always look forward to the release of the next Madden game. Say what you will about the series never updating or doing anything new, but I have wound up getting it almost every year and I am planning to continue that trend again this year.
Gaming thoughts 2/9/12 - Pistons and lots of gaming
So last Friday, my wife took me out to a basketball game - Pistons vs. Bucks. Her perspective of it was more from the 90's night music and Vanilla Ice halftime show. I wish I was making that up, but she has the (Internet archive link) proof here on her blog (and while this post is tame, some of her others? Not so much - you've been warned).
For me? There was a basketball game, and lots of throwback to the 90's Pistons, which was awesome. Oh, and we wont the game too:
So that was fun. This week? Yeah - I get to go again. My wife's gotten me even better seats to the Nets game (whom we beat last night away)
This has of course led me to playing countless hours of:
Yeah. A lot of hours. Just finished my first season with my created player. This is without a doubt my favorite mode. Franchise/association is cool too. Online would be better if I knew more people who played it because I would rather just have a few friends w/ teams and not a full roster of people I don't know which makes getting games played a pain in the arse.
I've been pretty busy as well - I got that promotion, and have decided to hold off on the tv for now, but wound up getting a slew of new games. The one I've been playing the most so far is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I know there's been some mixed reviews on this game, but so far I'm really enjoying it. This + Skyrim does mean I'm not playing much else. Oh, and NBA 2K12. And some NBA Jam and Mario Kart... okay, so I'm playing a few games, and that's a quick list of the ones that come to mind, but I'm sure there's more.
The career mode in NBA 2K12 made me think though - what are the gaming 'activities' that chew up the largest amount of time? Is it the online component to a FPS like Call of Duty or Battlefield? Getting through seasons in a sports title (NFL? Not as bad. 16 game regular season. NBA? 82 games. And that's not as bad as MLB...). Grinding for experience in an RPG title?
Being that I play a lot of different game genres, these were the 3 biggest 'time sinks' that jumped out at me, but of them I have to give the nod to a sports game's seasonal grind. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but the trophies/acheivements are usually spread out in such a way that you spend forever getting them (make 5 All-Star games! That means you're going to play over 350 games! Get your created player to an 80 overall. That could take 2 - 3 seasons. And then there's the different modes like franchise, online, career...) I think perhaps the trophies take much longer to get in most of these titles than in others.
A case could be made for FPS games, but the sense of progression I think breaks things up more, and you have different modes, maps - there's just a bit more variety. In RPG's the grinding never really bugs me either, but it feels more incremental. You get to a point in the game where you might grind a bit for a few hours. I have no idea how many hours I spent getting through a season of NBA 2K12, but I'd guess at least 10.
I'll have to detail some of my new titles when they actually arrive and get to play them. I will no doubt be plugging away heavily at Skyrim and Amular for the next week or two to try and wrap those up and review them soon.
What are you playing? Any game types you feel have a really long, grind-like time-sink to them? Anyone out there as a big of an NBA or NFL fan as me? Let me know in the comments!
For me? There was a basketball game, and lots of throwback to the 90's Pistons, which was awesome. Oh, and we wont the game too:
Yeah. A lot of hours. Just finished my first season with my created player. This is without a doubt my favorite mode. Franchise/association is cool too. Online would be better if I knew more people who played it because I would rather just have a few friends w/ teams and not a full roster of people I don't know which makes getting games played a pain in the arse.
I've been pretty busy as well - I got that promotion, and have decided to hold off on the tv for now, but wound up getting a slew of new games. The one I've been playing the most so far is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I know there's been some mixed reviews on this game, but so far I'm really enjoying it. This + Skyrim does mean I'm not playing much else. Oh, and NBA 2K12. And some NBA Jam and Mario Kart... okay, so I'm playing a few games, and that's a quick list of the ones that come to mind, but I'm sure there's more.
The career mode in NBA 2K12 made me think though - what are the gaming 'activities' that chew up the largest amount of time? Is it the online component to a FPS like Call of Duty or Battlefield? Getting through seasons in a sports title (NFL? Not as bad. 16 game regular season. NBA? 82 games. And that's not as bad as MLB...). Grinding for experience in an RPG title?
Being that I play a lot of different game genres, these were the 3 biggest 'time sinks' that jumped out at me, but of them I have to give the nod to a sports game's seasonal grind. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but the trophies/acheivements are usually spread out in such a way that you spend forever getting them (make 5 All-Star games! That means you're going to play over 350 games! Get your created player to an 80 overall. That could take 2 - 3 seasons. And then there's the different modes like franchise, online, career...) I think perhaps the trophies take much longer to get in most of these titles than in others.
A case could be made for FPS games, but the sense of progression I think breaks things up more, and you have different modes, maps - there's just a bit more variety. In RPG's the grinding never really bugs me either, but it feels more incremental. You get to a point in the game where you might grind a bit for a few hours. I have no idea how many hours I spent getting through a season of NBA 2K12, but I'd guess at least 10.
I'll have to detail some of my new titles when they actually arrive and get to play them. I will no doubt be plugging away heavily at Skyrim and Amular for the next week or two to try and wrap those up and review them soon.
What are you playing? Any game types you feel have a really long, grind-like time-sink to them? Anyone out there as a big of an NBA or NFL fan as me? Let me know in the comments!
Madden NFL Arcade - PlayStation Network Review
With the Super Bowl upon us, this seems like the perfect time to talk football. I already reviewed Madden this year, and if you want to review it, you'll see that I enjoyed it despite its several glaring flaws. So I decided to review Madden NFL Arcade, which I picked up some time ago when it was on sale for $5 on the PlayStation Network. It's unlikely this game is on anyone's radar right now, but because the NFL is going to be a theme today, I decided I should do my civic duty here and warn you away from this title.
Basically, this was a way for EA to try and capture over-the-top fast and furious football action without any of the slowdown found in the actual Madden sim. The experience is a game that seems confused right from the get-go as you play with smaller teams and with altered rules that just are not as much fun as they should be. Do not confuse this game with the recent Blitz release, though their style has a few things in common
Basically, this was a way for EA to try and capture over-the-top fast and furious football action without any of the slowdown found in the actual Madden sim. The experience is a game that seems confused right from the get-go as you play with smaller teams and with altered rules that just are not as much fun as they should be. Do not confuse this game with the recent Blitz release, though their style has a few things in common
Madden 2012 - Playstation 3 Review
It's that time of the year again - Fall! Seriously, this is without a doubt my favorite season of the year. Up here in Michigan, the leaves turn colors, the humidity goes away, the temperature lowers, it gets dark just a bit sooner, I start to use the slow cooker more and the NFL season begins. That last point I cannot stress enough. I'm a huge NFL fan, the lockout this summer worried me to no end, but luckily they pulled it out and I have been able to enjoy my NFL Sundays - pretty much the only TV I watch with any degree of regularity throughout the year.
With NFL Sundays comes another iteration of EA's well-known Madden series. I'm one of those people who buys it just about every year. Yes, I realize that many people consider it nothing more than a glorified roster update, and sure I'd almost always like to see more change from one year to the next than I do, but Madden and NBA 2k are the two sports series I pick up most years where as Hockey, Golf or Baseball I can get by on doing every few years, usually picking up a release that's a year or two old.
So, what does Madden 2012 bring to the table this year that's different from last year? Here's a handful of items right off of the bat that come to mind:
- Dynamic player performances: A player performing very well, or very poorly in a game, may have a hot/cold streak the following week that can impact their overall stats in either a positive or negative fashion. These streaks can only last a handful of weeks and then reset.
- Player Roles: injury prone, playoff performer, underachiever and more - basically these roles can have an impact on the player, and on their teammates depending on the role.
- Trading Ultimate Team Cards can be traded now
- The progression system has been revamped
- Expanded rosters, cut days, altered free agency and scouting for the Franchise Modes
These and a bit more are among the considerations I make while writing my review
This is the best-looking football game out there in my opinion. Some of the attention to detail such as jerseys sporting grass stains, the appearance of the grass, player animations and more look great. That is not to say that the presentation is flawless. Sometimes arms move through bodies (I got a laugh out of a referee waving off a catch as his arms went through Calvin Johnson's helmet) and sometimes stuttering performance mar the presentation. The crowd, while a small thing, also feels very dated. The small details, like lights reflecting off of helmets and visors and the effects of a rainy game do a nice job of immersing you into game day though, and generally compensate for some of the lesser technical failings.
Sound & Music - 5:
Seriously, I need to kill the game on this one. The music select is, as it generally is, okay. The sounds sound good, there's a fair mix, some fit what's going on better than others. The on-field sounds are quite good for the most part, if not terribly varied. But, there are three parts of the audio presentation Madden brings to the forefront, and both are absolutely horrible.
- I had to include "for the most part" above though. Every now and then, the audio starts to 'pop'. At first, I thought 'maybe my disc', but I've noticed it at my friends' house, and it's not just my PS3 copy - he has the 360. He seems to think it's attached to the audio commentary, because he has not noticed it since turning that off.
- The coach speak on things like Superstar mode: The guy's voice bugs me a bit - I realize it's supposed to sound like it's coming through on a headset but the tinny quality of it just sounds odd. Aside from that, he is often very, very inaccurate. On one play he'll be telling my halfback to sit back in the pocket to protect the quarterback, and my play art clearly shows I'm supposed to be part of the playaction and then roll out to the flat. On another, he'll be talking about how the wheel route is designed for me to get open past the line, and the play art calls for me to hang back and block - I'm not even a receiving option.
- The in-game announcers are bad. Actually, bad may be giving them too much credit, which is unfortunate because I really do like Chris Collinsworth in real life and actually don't mind Gus Johnson most of the time. But, there are several issues with the commentary. For one, it is badly timed. Johnson will be talking about the best player on the other team's offense when they've already kicked the ball to me. Collinsworth, with his detailed, lengthy deliveries can be on a topic two plays later still. Often the information is patched in wrong. I completed a long pass from Stafford to Calvin Johnson in my Lions franchise and they proceeded to say:
"Calvin Johnson was born to play this position." - and I thought, okay, that's reasonable. Then they went on talking about his throwing power and rare vision for the quarterback position and it just completely took me out of the moment. Names just seem to be goofed up far more often than they should be. Plus, the lengthy detailed delivery for specific players seems odd. I don't need to hear how Suh is the focal point of the Lions defense every-single-game and in the exact same way. In truth, I think the entire commentary system needs reworking. Instead of talking about how Calvin Johnson is called Megatron every-single-game, maybe wait until he does something good and have a comment that includes his name, and something based on a player attribute or statistic - something that branches out. Why not have four or five different things that can be said about a guy with a 90+ speed, and 5 different things for a WR with an 80-90 speed. It would vary things up and feel more relevant. Will they still be discussing how Calvin Johnson is leading the new wave of wide receivers when I'm in year 10 of my franchise? I don't know for certain, but my guess is, yes.
- Lastly, the commentary audio is very inconsistent. You can tell sessions were recorded at different times, and with different levels of volume/quality. One statement sounds quiet, almost tinny, and then the same announcer's statement immediately afterward will sound full and with booth-like quality.
Gameplay - 8:
If you have played prior years of Madden, you basically know what to expect. It's football with all of the bells and whistles. That is not to say there have are no changes this year - blocking feels quite a bit different. Instead of defense players being sucked right into a blocker, it feels like you can shed blocks a bit more easily - which is probably why my Lions have so many defensive line sacks (that and Suh). It seems as though one of my biggest pet peeves of this generation of football games has been that pancakes earned in game were not consistent with those earned when simulating - that appears to be evened out now, which may seem silly, but is a big deal to me.
A lot of people post that the game speed is a bit much, and that they slow it down - I'm fine with it 'as is'. I kept the default settings for my first year and I unlocked most of the trophies available in that time and won the majority of my games onto my way to the Superbowl with the Detroit Lions. That said, tackling looks and feels better than ever, catches don't seem to suction to hands quite as often (though it still happens) and the run game feels great to me (I run far better than I pass).
Menus could be a bit quicker and more easily navigated, but they aren't a complete disaster. The load times seem a bit much at times too, but at least the loading screens give you something to read, though a bit more variety in the screens would be nice.
Intangibles - 9:
There are quite a few different modes here, and with Franchise finally getting some updates (and that is where I spend the bulk of my time), it is a bit easier to sink plenty of time into the mode. There are some other modes available as well such as online franchises, team playing, communities, roster updates and Ultimate Team add some value to the online offerings. Ultimate Team mode is sort of a collectible card game meets Madden, though it's slanted toward people who buy legendary packs and have chances at better cards. You can also earn coins to buy other packs or participate in the new trading feature - but the starting team is rightfully very sad in terms of starting players, and using them to build up is a bit less fun than it sounded on paper.
The Superstar modes are slightly altered, with less of the media/intelligence test stuff that affects your player's draft position, but instead eschews the old methods of raising stats for a more point-oriented one that better resembles games like NBA 2K where your performance and practice time earns you points you can distribute as you see fit. The process is a bit too forgiving I think, compared to the NBA 2K series. My running back got drafted by the Steelers and I got made first string despite them having a good, young back. Before the end of the first season, my guy who started at a 60-something overall was well over 80 and an MVP candidate. I like the format, but it feels just a bit too forgiving at this point.
Largely, the changes you will see affect Franchise mode. If you are a fan of franchise mode, you get a lot more mileage out of the changes than others. I happen to fall into this particular bucket. They even managed to fix, or at least mostly fix, the blocking. For those who don't recall my rant last year, the EA football games used to have a glaring issue with blocking, because your improvement was measured by pancakes performed and sacks given up, and nothing else. The simulated teams would get players with 200+ pancakes. Player teams? your best player would be lucky to come out with around 10 or so. You could have a perfect linemen who was just not performing because of the skewed stats garnered from substituted games by comparison. That's fixed and everyone's totals are a bit more manageable now. It's a small detail, but it's the kind of detail that's gone untouched for years, so seeing it finally get addressed actually goes over quite well with me.
Between these modes and the online content, there is a lot of football to be had here for those who want it.
Score: Overall - 7.5:
I really enjoy Madden and overall I think this version of the game is still the best NFL experience out there. For people who bought last year's though? There might not be enough reason to pick up this year's iteration - that depends on how much you play, and what your opinion of the smaller features is. For me? It's enough - I enjoy and can appreciate the smaller nuances added to the game, but I am a huge NFL fan and have long played the Madden series.
I like the videos you can upload (obviously - as you can see I linked in several here), though I wish you could take and upload stills too. NCAA allowed you to take screenshots, and I can't recall if I could upload them or not (I didn't play this year's version, so I'm basing this on last year's which I haven't touched in awhile), but I had a lot of fun framing out some cool images to show off last year, and it seems odd that Madden doesn't have that option. You also can't create videos from superstar mode, which is a small bummer, but not a big deal.
Of other friends, the opinions have been fairly split. One played quite a bit the first few days - franchise, online franchise with me and Superstar mode but quickly got frustrated with the game and traded it in. Another friend from work has been playing it pretty much non-stop since it came out, mostly in franchise mode, and loves it. I can't help but think that Madden would benefit from some actual competition in the NFL game, but there is no changing the fact that they have exclusivity locked up for quite some time to come. Still, improvements continue to be made to a successful formula and that is enough for me, but it might not be for everyone.
And instead of showing my usual IGN trailer videos and pics, my short video clips uploaded from the easports.com servers:
From Youtube: Hail Mary in the rain w/ 5 seconds to go - FTW
Tecmo Super Bowl - Retro Reflections
We'll consider this the Super Bowl special edition. I was trying to think of what game or games would be most relevant this weekend. What did I come up with? Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES. Before there was Madden, there was Tecmo Bowl, which I played a fair amount of when it came out. But it wasn't until I could play out an entire season, complete with rosters, stat accumulation and the Pro Bowl teams that I first fell in love with the NFL. I was discovering Barry Sanders on my Detroit Lions around the time this game came out, and they really were what developed my interest in sports games.
So how did the game hold up when I put it back under the microscope this weekend? Surprisingly well! There's only 8 plays on offense and defense. It's a guessing game, you call defensive plays and if you guess the same one the offense guesses, you decimate them. Call something similar to what they call, and you have better odds of defending it. Offense is 4 running and 4 passing plays. They vary up a bit by team. I usually used the Lions, the Bills or the 49ers back then.
Calling a run play with Barry Sanders had me grinning ear to ear the first time I 'juked' (that's putting it nicely. I ran at diagonal angles is all) a defender, and when I got a sack with Ball after he tossed the blocker aside like a rag doll, I laughed aloud. It's really a gimmicky offense most of the times: drop back basically forever. Toss the ball really deep. 100 yard passes are not as impossible as they should be. It was still a blast taking control of Chris Spielman at linebacker and drilling the running back with a dive tackle.
In the video I made, I played the Pro Bowl rosters and had one play that epitomized the game for me years ago as I dropped back, immediately identified the bottom wide receiver with no one covering him, threw the ball very badly, but he leapt up, grabbed it, sprinted to the goal line and shed the defender for a touchdown. The cut scenes were fun to see as well - and I got that last sequence in the video I provided.
I don't know if this was the first game to use all NFL teams, have full NFL rosters, or to have full season stat tracking - but it was the first one I ever played and it set me down a path of more than 20 years (and counting) of NFL licensed football games and a lot of good memories playing them. Appropriate for Super Bowl Sunday, wouldn't you say?
Now for the videos... I've got Youtube first, Screencast 2nd
The Screencast one looks better, but it auto-sizes better, doesn't re-encode either. Youtube however doesn't attack my bandwidth the same way an offers the option of other people finding it. I'll probably do some tweaking and do one more comparison next week, but I am leaning toward Youtube at the moment - I just need to get better with the dimensions.
So how did the game hold up when I put it back under the microscope this weekend? Surprisingly well! There's only 8 plays on offense and defense. It's a guessing game, you call defensive plays and if you guess the same one the offense guesses, you decimate them. Call something similar to what they call, and you have better odds of defending it. Offense is 4 running and 4 passing plays. They vary up a bit by team. I usually used the Lions, the Bills or the 49ers back then.
Calling a run play with Barry Sanders had me grinning ear to ear the first time I 'juked' (that's putting it nicely. I ran at diagonal angles is all) a defender, and when I got a sack with Ball after he tossed the blocker aside like a rag doll, I laughed aloud. It's really a gimmicky offense most of the times: drop back basically forever. Toss the ball really deep. 100 yard passes are not as impossible as they should be. It was still a blast taking control of Chris Spielman at linebacker and drilling the running back with a dive tackle.
In the video I made, I played the Pro Bowl rosters and had one play that epitomized the game for me years ago as I dropped back, immediately identified the bottom wide receiver with no one covering him, threw the ball very badly, but he leapt up, grabbed it, sprinted to the goal line and shed the defender for a touchdown. The cut scenes were fun to see as well - and I got that last sequence in the video I provided.
I don't know if this was the first game to use all NFL teams, have full NFL rosters, or to have full season stat tracking - but it was the first one I ever played and it set me down a path of more than 20 years (and counting) of NFL licensed football games and a lot of good memories playing them. Appropriate for Super Bowl Sunday, wouldn't you say?
Now for the videos... I've got Youtube first, Screencast 2nd
The Screencast one looks better, but it auto-sizes better, doesn't re-encode either. Youtube however doesn't attack my bandwidth the same way an offers the option of other people finding it. I'll probably do some tweaking and do one more comparison next week, but I am leaning toward Youtube at the moment - I just need to get better with the dimensions.
All-Pro Football 2K8 - Playstation 3 review
This is a big weekend in football, wouldn't you say? I already had my Madden review a few months back though, so I had to dig around for something else. I'm stretching here, but what the heck: All-Pro Football 2K8 was staring me down this week. I have played it before - even commented on it about nine months ago as part of my cheap sports game article. I touched on each game briefly, talked about their scores and moved on to the next. Now? I'm going to talk about this one real quick.
What is it? It's 2K Sports' answer to the Madden NFL license. No longer able to use the players actively participating in the NFL, 2K Sports set out to do something a bit different - the ultimate pickup game if you will. It was an inspired idea really: get some of the greats players of all time - like their cover stars: Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and John Elway. Three of my all-time favorite players - including my absolute favorite in Barry Sanders. The game's emphasis is on offense, at least that's how I felt in playing it - so it's interesting that none of the three cover athletes were defenders. I was hanging up some pretty substantial point totals while playing. Some of the names are kind of odd - The Boz and Andre Ware? Really? Guess they had to designate someone for the bronze roles.
So, next up - what are the teams? Well, they don't have an NFL license so these are fictional teams and you 'draft' players. Barry was my first pick - shocking no? They group the players by Gold, Silver and Bronze ranking. I had a handful of Lions on my team - like Herman Moore (another old but favorite player of mine as I glance up at the autographed football card of his I have on my sports memorabilia shelf). So you get to fill so many positions with gold, silver and bronze players and it autofills the rest of your team for you.
The customization options are decent - you can pick cities, design uniforms, name your team, and so on. I think setting up a team is probably my favorite part of the game. It's a lot of fun putting together a team of legends. I loaded up on the defensive side of the ball one time, created a team of mostly Detroit Lions another and even set up a third team just to help me establish Barry Sanders as the greatest of all time, spending my top picks on linemen, a quality tight end and fullback. My offense was a tad bit predictable. Still, the actual play modes feel a bit lacking. Part of it is probably due to the fact that the game feels a great deal like it's spiritual predecessor - NFL 2K5. The season modes are okay, but lack the punch of Madden's more established franchise modes. That said, I think this game aged better than the older Madden entries - perhaps because it has not seen the updated versions that help improve upon the formula each year?
Graphics - 6:
I feel like I'm being a bit hard here. For when it was released, it was pretty solid. Compared to the pretty visuals of Madden last year or this year? It suffers. The engine is very similar to what NFL 2K5 ran, which is both good and bad. NFL 2K5 was a great game, but by now it's an old game too. Animations aren't too bad though - juking and tackling is fun. The crowd is nothing special, though - and the stadiums just felt sort of lifeless to me compared to their real counterparts found in Madden games. It's tough not to compare the two, even if they're not trying to be the same thing.
Sound and Music - 6:
The music was nothing special, but the sound wasn't too bad at all. One of the areas I sort of nitpick at sporting games is the commentary. Here's the thing, the commentary found in this game isn't that much worse than what you would find in this year's Madden. With all of the advancements made with video games in general and sports games in particular, this seems like perhaps one of the most outdated aspects in sports games. The sound effects from the game itself are pretty solid as well. Some of the hits look and sound appropriately violent.
Gameplay - 7:
This is a pretty solid element of the game Running is good - though I like it better in this year's Madden. Offense is easier than defense in my opinion. Gang tackling was a bit ahead of its time back three years ago. The menus are easy enough to navigate and the game of football itself is solid. Unfortunately the modes are a bit lackluster. It was more fun to play a game against another person than the computer. Something deeper and more involving than the season mode would have been nice as well.
Intangibles - 5:
There's not a lot of depth here. Even 2K5 had a franchise mode with progression. There's just not a lot to invest in here. The season mode feels a bit throwaway after going through it once. It seems unlikely you can even find someone to play this game with either. There are a lot of different players - 200+ I believe. That helps because setting up teams is fun, like I mentioned earlier. But the game feels more like a glorified version of fantasy football than the real deal, and that hurts the package quite a bit. The idea of a dream team is great - who doesn't want to see Elway throw to Rice? But once you've played for a bit, there's not much reason to pick it up again. Now, for the primary reason to pick it up in the first place - this game was $4 used at my Gamestop.
Overall - 6:
Obviously this game does not compare to people who want a Madden game with fully fleshed out franchise modes, with real rosters and NFL teams, but you can spend more on five candy bars, which actually makes it worthwhile to take a flyer on this game if you have any interest in it at all. I got it last summer, played it pretty heavily for a weekend and did not pick it up again until this week. I gave it a few more days, and doubt I will pick it up again for awhile. It's a decidedly average, dated game - but at $4 I got a couple of weekends' worth of play out of it, and really that's not such a bad deal I suppose.
What is it? It's 2K Sports' answer to the Madden NFL license. No longer able to use the players actively participating in the NFL, 2K Sports set out to do something a bit different - the ultimate pickup game if you will. It was an inspired idea really: get some of the greats players of all time - like their cover stars: Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and John Elway. Three of my all-time favorite players - including my absolute favorite in Barry Sanders. The game's emphasis is on offense, at least that's how I felt in playing it - so it's interesting that none of the three cover athletes were defenders. I was hanging up some pretty substantial point totals while playing. Some of the names are kind of odd - The Boz and Andre Ware? Really? Guess they had to designate someone for the bronze roles.
So, next up - what are the teams? Well, they don't have an NFL license so these are fictional teams and you 'draft' players. Barry was my first pick - shocking no? They group the players by Gold, Silver and Bronze ranking. I had a handful of Lions on my team - like Herman Moore (another old but favorite player of mine as I glance up at the autographed football card of his I have on my sports memorabilia shelf). So you get to fill so many positions with gold, silver and bronze players and it autofills the rest of your team for you.
The customization options are decent - you can pick cities, design uniforms, name your team, and so on. I think setting up a team is probably my favorite part of the game. It's a lot of fun putting together a team of legends. I loaded up on the defensive side of the ball one time, created a team of mostly Detroit Lions another and even set up a third team just to help me establish Barry Sanders as the greatest of all time, spending my top picks on linemen, a quality tight end and fullback. My offense was a tad bit predictable. Still, the actual play modes feel a bit lacking. Part of it is probably due to the fact that the game feels a great deal like it's spiritual predecessor - NFL 2K5. The season modes are okay, but lack the punch of Madden's more established franchise modes. That said, I think this game aged better than the older Madden entries - perhaps because it has not seen the updated versions that help improve upon the formula each year?
Graphics - 6:
I feel like I'm being a bit hard here. For when it was released, it was pretty solid. Compared to the pretty visuals of Madden last year or this year? It suffers. The engine is very similar to what NFL 2K5 ran, which is both good and bad. NFL 2K5 was a great game, but by now it's an old game too. Animations aren't too bad though - juking and tackling is fun. The crowd is nothing special, though - and the stadiums just felt sort of lifeless to me compared to their real counterparts found in Madden games. It's tough not to compare the two, even if they're not trying to be the same thing.
Sound and Music - 6:
The music was nothing special, but the sound wasn't too bad at all. One of the areas I sort of nitpick at sporting games is the commentary. Here's the thing, the commentary found in this game isn't that much worse than what you would find in this year's Madden. With all of the advancements made with video games in general and sports games in particular, this seems like perhaps one of the most outdated aspects in sports games. The sound effects from the game itself are pretty solid as well. Some of the hits look and sound appropriately violent.
Gameplay - 7:
This is a pretty solid element of the game Running is good - though I like it better in this year's Madden. Offense is easier than defense in my opinion. Gang tackling was a bit ahead of its time back three years ago. The menus are easy enough to navigate and the game of football itself is solid. Unfortunately the modes are a bit lackluster. It was more fun to play a game against another person than the computer. Something deeper and more involving than the season mode would have been nice as well.
Intangibles - 5:
There's not a lot of depth here. Even 2K5 had a franchise mode with progression. There's just not a lot to invest in here. The season mode feels a bit throwaway after going through it once. It seems unlikely you can even find someone to play this game with either. There are a lot of different players - 200+ I believe. That helps because setting up teams is fun, like I mentioned earlier. But the game feels more like a glorified version of fantasy football than the real deal, and that hurts the package quite a bit. The idea of a dream team is great - who doesn't want to see Elway throw to Rice? But once you've played for a bit, there's not much reason to pick it up again. Now, for the primary reason to pick it up in the first place - this game was $4 used at my Gamestop.
Overall - 6:
Obviously this game does not compare to people who want a Madden game with fully fleshed out franchise modes, with real rosters and NFL teams, but you can spend more on five candy bars, which actually makes it worthwhile to take a flyer on this game if you have any interest in it at all. I got it last summer, played it pretty heavily for a weekend and did not pick it up again until this week. I gave it a few more days, and doubt I will pick it up again for awhile. It's a decidedly average, dated game - but at $4 I got a couple of weekends' worth of play out of it, and really that's not such a bad deal I suppose.
NCAA Footbal 2011 - Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 review
This is going to be my longest, most detailed review to date. I’ve only played the Xbox 360 version, but I’ve been told by friends with the PS3 version who have played the Xbox one that they are for all intents and purposes the same – so I’ll consider this a review for both systems.
There’s a major preface I need to start with – I love football. I watch more NFL than college, but all in all I’ve been watching both for years. I’ve been playing them for years as well – over several generations of video game console. It seems like each time we move up to a new generation of console, the sports games suffer the most from failed expectations and it takes them a couple of years to find their proper legs.
If you’re not a fan of football games – you probably aren’t going to like this one. If you bought last year’s game, you’ll have to decide if the $60 price tag is worth the updates. NCAA Football 2011 is my favorite so far from the series, but in the areas I care about most, I don’t feel like it’s made enough strides. The be a legend mode feels almost unchanged. In fact, I’m fairly certain that the Erin Andrews videos are reused from last year’s game. The online stuff is a lot better, but I tend not to use it as much. For whateve reason, most of my friends play Madden every year, but don’t get the NCAA games so it’s more fun for me to league up with buddies on Madden than NCAA, but there are some nice improvements on this front as well. I also felt like the Dynasty mode has finally made some nice strides – and since this is where I spend the vast majority of my time, this does tilt the review in this year’s iteration favorably. I’ve already played through 3 seasons with another about half done, and put a player about halfway through the created player mode – so I’ve definitely seen most of the good and bad that the game has to offer. Here goes:
Graphics - 8.5:
Overall, the graphics are good. Player movements are fluid, the game moves along at a crisp pace, the stadium design looks solid and I never had any trouble telling what was going on during gameplay. The crowd has some cool animations now, but they feel fairly generic – then again, I would imagine that more detail and movement would cause the framerate to stuffer more than it already does during some action heavy sequences. The replays from on-field look better than most of the other angles in my opinion. There is one graphical glitch I have gotten to occur about every 6 or 7 games. I tend to do a lot of no huddle/hurry up stuff and so I’m often pressing buttons and getting out of replays – it’s just how I play. Well, several times now I’ve gotten the game’s graphics into a goofy state where the live gameplay still looks good, but all of the replays and scenes behind the playbook menus wind up in this out of focus blur filter that seems to accidentally get applied for the rest of the game. Get out of that particular match up though, and the next one is back to normal again. It kind of reminds me of the most recent Angry Video Game Nerd video about Graphics Glitches (not appropriate for kids).
Music & Sounds – 7:
The commentary is effective enough, and I like the announcers but they are starting to get a bit stale this year. School theme songs boom nicely, fans react more loudly in appropriate situations and really help the home field advantage feeling. The hits on the field and the quarterback cadences all sound like you would expect them to. It’s not a game like Modern Warfare where stereo effects really play into the game and surround sound gives you an actual advantage. One oddity that has occurred twice to me – my sound cut out mid-game. Just… completely gone. Unlike the blur filter issue, it did not clear up the next game. I had to back out to my main Xbox dashboard and then it came back. I’ve never had that problem with any other game, and it’s only been twice, so nowhere near as problematic as the blur filter, but more annoying.
Gameplay – 7:
This is going to be a long section, but in sports games I can live with so-so graphics and sound – good gameplay is a must. I really wanted to give it a 9, but there were a few things holding this score back. I’ve had a few glitches during the gameplay. Probably the most annoying bug I’ve had yet happened only once, on a PAT. The opposing team had just scored on me, and the ball hit the upright and the PAT was no good. Odd thing happened then, the ball fell to the endzone and one of my defensive players plucked it out of the air. And then we lined up to kick and… I was lining up to kick. Somehow the game had read that since I had possession, I was to kick off? Just a weird, weird glitch in what was a very close game at the time. I’ve tried repeatedly to replicate it, but I’ve yet to have another PAT miss fall into the endzone like that.
Next up? The blocking is a lot better overall, especially the run blocking – in most instances. The Maryland formation is basically broken then. If I run a counter or power, it’s a complete crapshoot. The formation calls for three backs in the backfield, with two serving as blockers for the halfback. They just seem to bust out and up just a bit regardless of who is coming. Once in awhile they’ll latch onto the defender and block, but at least two out of three times, my blockers just barrel ahead and don’t move toward the logical blockers. At least once every 3 or 4 plays, I will do a counter out of the formation and you’ll see a linebacker run right through all three potential blockers and hit me untouched. This isn’t the linebacker racing through the middle of the offensive line after jumping the snap count, but a guy who moved laterally and then made a beeline right for my halfback without any of his blockers reacting to pick that linebacker up.
This leads me to one of my biggest football video game pet peeves ever. Offensive line pancakes just need to happen more. This was a problem for years on the Playstation 2 versions of both NCAA football and Madden football – your linemen simply would not get pancakes. At least, not at the rate of other simulated teams. I once had a center who dropped 13 points overall in Madden due to this programming oversight because he had no pancakes and gave up no sacks over a full season of starting. So the game viewed him as not having played at all. When a league leader has 125 pancakes and makes an All-American team, it’s frustrating when your 97 overall guard has 11 pancakes at season’s end. And it’s not like I don’t run the ball. My RB won the Hiesman all but one year – I run the ball a ton. Well, they fixed this during the last couple of years of the Playstation 2 generation… only to reintroduce this problem in the current generation of systems. I’ve seen people complaining about it on forums, I’ve submitted it as a bug/feature request/problem at least a dozen times over the last three years. The only way to get more is to jack up the line play for your team in the sliders menu, or lengthen the game, but all of the rest of the stats would be hugely out of alignment then. Anyway – this is still broken, much to my annoyance.
Next up – punt returns. Most punt return formations you get about 3-5 yards per return. On the hardest level of difficulty, you basically fair catch or fumble because they barrel into you so fast every time – it doesn’t matter which return formation you use – except one. I’ve had pretty good luck with punt block return – a formation that fakes like you are going to rush and try to block the ball, but you actually bring two guys back as blockers. Mostly it just makes the computer pack their punt gunners back behind the line for protection. It’s cheap – and it gets me about 12 yards each time. There’s absolutely no hope of ever taking back a punt return for a touchdown though with the blocking mechanic so badly broken at the higher difficulties.
Boy, I must really hate this game, right? Quite the contrary, these things are more exception than rule, and the things that the game does regularly, it does very, very well. Playcalling is easy. The pass blocking is pretty good most of the time. I don’t see the abundance of interceptions I used to see in older games – the db’s do more knockdowns than pickoffs. I once had a season of NCAA where my cornerback had over 75 interceptions. Now? My top one had seven and I loved it. Big hits happen, but whiffing on them can cause all sorts of problems. I used to try and level big hits with impunity – but now I have to pick and choose my spots. More than any other football game I can think of, this year’s version of NCAA feels the most authentic to date.
A couple of the big things I really like now, after all that whining before:
The blocking is improved.
Route running and endzone/sideline catches by receivers are much better. If a WR catches an out route, they stay inbounds now instead of just darting out of bounds. This new sideline awareness is amazing.
Menu navigation is solid.
The new running controls utilizing the right stick for moves and balance is cool.
Defensive moves along the line feel better to me than they did the past.
Intangibles – 9:
There’s a lot that goes on in these games. The different modes are cool, though I still get the majority of my mileage out of Dynasty mode. I like saving out the draft classes, because I know I will be importing them into Madden in a few weeks when it comes out. The Dynasty mode is deep and the recruitment process feels great. It takes up a bit of time, but not too much time. The online modes are pretty cool and the way you can access them from online away from the console is a really nice innovation that should help keep the seasons moving. My experience in the past with these is that sometimes online dynasty/franchise modes would buckle because of inactive players. The system for creating highlight videos and images works very well and the variety of angles that the videos can be created from is very cool. With so many modes, the game gets some serious replay value.
Overall – 8:
Your mileage may vary of course. You have to like football. It helps to like college football. It helps if you don’t own last year’s version, because while there are obvious improvements over last year’s model of the game, there are some areas where the strides taken were not so great. However, this game usually drops in price in a few months once it’s been out for a bit and Madden has steamrolled onto the store shelves, so it can be had at a lower price if that is a point of contention for you. All games have bugs – the fuzzy filter and audio cutting out can be forgiven. For me, the blocking/return game stuff is a bit tougher to swallow, but I’ve had a chance to acclimate to it over the years and I’ve learned it’s part of the package and to deal with it. It’s just disappointing that such obvious problems still have not been fixed after all this time. My goal is to have at least 7 or 8 seasons under my belt before I pick up Madden. Inevitably I wind up playing Madden in favor of NCAA and I like having those classes to import. The game is a lot of fun if you can live with its shortcomings, which I certainly have and can.
There’s a major preface I need to start with – I love football. I watch more NFL than college, but all in all I’ve been watching both for years. I’ve been playing them for years as well – over several generations of video game console. It seems like each time we move up to a new generation of console, the sports games suffer the most from failed expectations and it takes them a couple of years to find their proper legs.
If you’re not a fan of football games – you probably aren’t going to like this one. If you bought last year’s game, you’ll have to decide if the $60 price tag is worth the updates. NCAA Football 2011 is my favorite so far from the series, but in the areas I care about most, I don’t feel like it’s made enough strides. The be a legend mode feels almost unchanged. In fact, I’m fairly certain that the Erin Andrews videos are reused from last year’s game. The online stuff is a lot better, but I tend not to use it as much. For whateve reason, most of my friends play Madden every year, but don’t get the NCAA games so it’s more fun for me to league up with buddies on Madden than NCAA, but there are some nice improvements on this front as well. I also felt like the Dynasty mode has finally made some nice strides – and since this is where I spend the vast majority of my time, this does tilt the review in this year’s iteration favorably. I’ve already played through 3 seasons with another about half done, and put a player about halfway through the created player mode – so I’ve definitely seen most of the good and bad that the game has to offer. Here goes:
Graphics - 8.5:
Overall, the graphics are good. Player movements are fluid, the game moves along at a crisp pace, the stadium design looks solid and I never had any trouble telling what was going on during gameplay. The crowd has some cool animations now, but they feel fairly generic – then again, I would imagine that more detail and movement would cause the framerate to stuffer more than it already does during some action heavy sequences. The replays from on-field look better than most of the other angles in my opinion. There is one graphical glitch I have gotten to occur about every 6 or 7 games. I tend to do a lot of no huddle/hurry up stuff and so I’m often pressing buttons and getting out of replays – it’s just how I play. Well, several times now I’ve gotten the game’s graphics into a goofy state where the live gameplay still looks good, but all of the replays and scenes behind the playbook menus wind up in this out of focus blur filter that seems to accidentally get applied for the rest of the game. Get out of that particular match up though, and the next one is back to normal again. It kind of reminds me of the most recent Angry Video Game Nerd video about Graphics Glitches (not appropriate for kids).
Music & Sounds – 7:
The commentary is effective enough, and I like the announcers but they are starting to get a bit stale this year. School theme songs boom nicely, fans react more loudly in appropriate situations and really help the home field advantage feeling. The hits on the field and the quarterback cadences all sound like you would expect them to. It’s not a game like Modern Warfare where stereo effects really play into the game and surround sound gives you an actual advantage. One oddity that has occurred twice to me – my sound cut out mid-game. Just… completely gone. Unlike the blur filter issue, it did not clear up the next game. I had to back out to my main Xbox dashboard and then it came back. I’ve never had that problem with any other game, and it’s only been twice, so nowhere near as problematic as the blur filter, but more annoying.
Gameplay – 7:
This is going to be a long section, but in sports games I can live with so-so graphics and sound – good gameplay is a must. I really wanted to give it a 9, but there were a few things holding this score back. I’ve had a few glitches during the gameplay. Probably the most annoying bug I’ve had yet happened only once, on a PAT. The opposing team had just scored on me, and the ball hit the upright and the PAT was no good. Odd thing happened then, the ball fell to the endzone and one of my defensive players plucked it out of the air. And then we lined up to kick and… I was lining up to kick. Somehow the game had read that since I had possession, I was to kick off? Just a weird, weird glitch in what was a very close game at the time. I’ve tried repeatedly to replicate it, but I’ve yet to have another PAT miss fall into the endzone like that.
Next up? The blocking is a lot better overall, especially the run blocking – in most instances. The Maryland formation is basically broken then. If I run a counter or power, it’s a complete crapshoot. The formation calls for three backs in the backfield, with two serving as blockers for the halfback. They just seem to bust out and up just a bit regardless of who is coming. Once in awhile they’ll latch onto the defender and block, but at least two out of three times, my blockers just barrel ahead and don’t move toward the logical blockers. At least once every 3 or 4 plays, I will do a counter out of the formation and you’ll see a linebacker run right through all three potential blockers and hit me untouched. This isn’t the linebacker racing through the middle of the offensive line after jumping the snap count, but a guy who moved laterally and then made a beeline right for my halfback without any of his blockers reacting to pick that linebacker up.
This leads me to one of my biggest football video game pet peeves ever. Offensive line pancakes just need to happen more. This was a problem for years on the Playstation 2 versions of both NCAA football and Madden football – your linemen simply would not get pancakes. At least, not at the rate of other simulated teams. I once had a center who dropped 13 points overall in Madden due to this programming oversight because he had no pancakes and gave up no sacks over a full season of starting. So the game viewed him as not having played at all. When a league leader has 125 pancakes and makes an All-American team, it’s frustrating when your 97 overall guard has 11 pancakes at season’s end. And it’s not like I don’t run the ball. My RB won the Hiesman all but one year – I run the ball a ton. Well, they fixed this during the last couple of years of the Playstation 2 generation… only to reintroduce this problem in the current generation of systems. I’ve seen people complaining about it on forums, I’ve submitted it as a bug/feature request/problem at least a dozen times over the last three years. The only way to get more is to jack up the line play for your team in the sliders menu, or lengthen the game, but all of the rest of the stats would be hugely out of alignment then. Anyway – this is still broken, much to my annoyance.
Next up – punt returns. Most punt return formations you get about 3-5 yards per return. On the hardest level of difficulty, you basically fair catch or fumble because they barrel into you so fast every time – it doesn’t matter which return formation you use – except one. I’ve had pretty good luck with punt block return – a formation that fakes like you are going to rush and try to block the ball, but you actually bring two guys back as blockers. Mostly it just makes the computer pack their punt gunners back behind the line for protection. It’s cheap – and it gets me about 12 yards each time. There’s absolutely no hope of ever taking back a punt return for a touchdown though with the blocking mechanic so badly broken at the higher difficulties.
Boy, I must really hate this game, right? Quite the contrary, these things are more exception than rule, and the things that the game does regularly, it does very, very well. Playcalling is easy. The pass blocking is pretty good most of the time. I don’t see the abundance of interceptions I used to see in older games – the db’s do more knockdowns than pickoffs. I once had a season of NCAA where my cornerback had over 75 interceptions. Now? My top one had seven and I loved it. Big hits happen, but whiffing on them can cause all sorts of problems. I used to try and level big hits with impunity – but now I have to pick and choose my spots. More than any other football game I can think of, this year’s version of NCAA feels the most authentic to date.
A couple of the big things I really like now, after all that whining before:
The blocking is improved.
Route running and endzone/sideline catches by receivers are much better. If a WR catches an out route, they stay inbounds now instead of just darting out of bounds. This new sideline awareness is amazing.
Menu navigation is solid.
The new running controls utilizing the right stick for moves and balance is cool.
Defensive moves along the line feel better to me than they did the past.
Intangibles – 9:
There’s a lot that goes on in these games. The different modes are cool, though I still get the majority of my mileage out of Dynasty mode. I like saving out the draft classes, because I know I will be importing them into Madden in a few weeks when it comes out. The Dynasty mode is deep and the recruitment process feels great. It takes up a bit of time, but not too much time. The online modes are pretty cool and the way you can access them from online away from the console is a really nice innovation that should help keep the seasons moving. My experience in the past with these is that sometimes online dynasty/franchise modes would buckle because of inactive players. The system for creating highlight videos and images works very well and the variety of angles that the videos can be created from is very cool. With so many modes, the game gets some serious replay value.
Overall – 8:
Your mileage may vary of course. You have to like football. It helps to like college football. It helps if you don’t own last year’s version, because while there are obvious improvements over last year’s model of the game, there are some areas where the strides taken were not so great. However, this game usually drops in price in a few months once it’s been out for a bit and Madden has steamrolled onto the store shelves, so it can be had at a lower price if that is a point of contention for you. All games have bugs – the fuzzy filter and audio cutting out can be forgiven. For me, the blocking/return game stuff is a bit tougher to swallow, but I’ve had a chance to acclimate to it over the years and I’ve learned it’s part of the package and to deal with it. It’s just disappointing that such obvious problems still have not been fixed after all this time. My goal is to have at least 7 or 8 seasons under my belt before I pick up Madden. Inevitably I wind up playing Madden in favor of NCAA and I like having those classes to import. The game is a lot of fun if you can live with its shortcomings, which I certainly have and can.
