Physics, the answer to the sports game puzzle - K0ZZ's Blog

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Physics, the answer to the sports game puzzle

Posted on September 27, 2011 at 07:59 AM.

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It is amazing to see the evolution of gaming we have now compared to what we had even just ten years ago. There is a plethora of gaming to service the multitude of interests and degree of �hardcore� a gamer may be. However as the generations go on, why is Sports Gaming and it�s development unchanged in some cases. Many speculate and believe that our current generation (360 and PS3) games may be based on coding from last generation, coding that featured much weaker �firepower� and capabilities. After all were in a generation that gaming has become fully mainstream.

All sports play to the world of physics, from a Superman Punch in an MMA fight, Ray Lewis laying a monstrous hit on an offensive player, Ray Allen pulling up for a three point shot or Albert Pujols crushing a ball out of the park. In every case, physics are involved and to some basic degrees they are implemented. For the most part it is only basic, and features only when the ball leaves the players hand, and not the players themselves. Without physics, players really don�t play with weight. Games like Red Dead Redemption feature a famous Physics engine named �Euphoria� and it is absolutely beautiful he advances through the West. Why don�t we get that feeling in sports games? Largely because of a somewhat �primitive� system that modern sports games use now, namely Madden and NCAA Football, called �Mo-Cap� or Motion Capture. Where they record several animations and attach the player models to these recorded models. Meaning the hundreds and thousands of these players are represented by the few actors preforming for the �Mo-Cap�. Which is why physics would go a long way.

Stronger players would punish the weaker players. Agile players would make their cuts, faster players would be able to outrun the slower ones. Players would finally have an identity, something no amount of player �roles� (ala Madden 2012) would be able to implement. Roles go only so far. Physics would unlock the potential for players to play fully to their physical attributes. This should open a lot more opportunities for proper gameplay for the consumers.

A big issue with this comes with our yearly sports offerings from Tiburon studios with their football games, NCAA football and Madden. The games are fun to play, but they lack the feel of true gameplay. No amount of custom conferences, coaching changes, interface overhauls or alterations to road to glory is going to fix that. The engine needs updating, it's not even capable of keeping up with itself at the time being. With the engine getting updated it needs to be fully physics based, this would alleviate several issues, with a proper physics engine we can see players differentiate themselves from eachother. We would have players heights, weight and ratings all come into play.

Year after year, we are forced to alter attributes (strength and jumping) to get gameplay that seems �correct�. A physics engine would alleviate that. Not every leap would be perfect, that linebacker might not be able to get in the way of the pass, warping would be removed since canned animations would not fire since it would all be physics based. A solution to a lot of common problems is right here, with physics. When it comes to a forward battling for position in the paint, a winger fighting for position in front of the goalie, or a leaping catch in the corner of the end zone, physics always plays a key part, without it, were playing with fancy robots. Time to leap to the next generation; let�s get physics into our sports games.