EA vs. 2K - RayAllen20's Blog

RayAllen20's Blog

EA vs. 2K

Posted on August 21, 2009 at 02:22 PM.

(19)

Many gamers always seem to pick sides between these too even if one game is better than the other they still like to stick with the company. People say they arent biased but really they are. Im biased towards EA even though I loved CH 2K8 and NFL 2K5. Then today it kinda dawned on me why people are biased towards companies. Player control!

2k tries to make its game the most realistic by making canned animations. Giving you less control, but also not making the games go out of control. In College Hoops 2k8 if the CPU player was on a 2 on 1 fastbreak he'd do a spin move in the paint and if you were the last defender you'd be forced to fall for the spin move! Sometimes you were forced to fall for the pump fake! This makes the game look very good but gives the user less player control. NFL 2K5 had forced dropbacks, which made games much more realistic but less player control. Games are realistic for 2k but there is one major drawback. Great plays and repeating plays! 2k has so much canned animations that even if you have a great dunk in a game you will see it in 10 other games making it much less unique. No plays are unique and are often repeated.

Now EA gives the player the most control possible. In Live 09 you could choose jumpshot or layup/dunk (This has changed now though). In past Maddens there were no forced dropbacks and you could just run 20 yards back (This has also changed). Now EA has given the player less control but there is still much more control than 2k. Less canned animations, but it can make the game look much less realistic at times. When you jump to block a shot you may tell him to jump the wrong way. In 2k, theyd most likely force you to jump at a player. Now this does have its pros though. User controlled wow moments. I can make great moments myself without canned animations, and that play will most likely not be repeated again. This is now the (supposed) case in Live 10 where there are less canned animations and more user controlled moments. In one of the videos, the producer claimed he forced Lebron to dunk on the right side over KG and that there will be user controlled 'wow' moments. In Madden 10, there are also a lot of run plays that are just amazing because I single handedly juked out all those defenders for an 80 yard dash. May not look as realistic as 2k but more fulfilling and more fun.

I personally like the user controlled moments rather than the canned animations which is why I love Madden 10, and liked Live 09 better than 2k9 even though I know 2k9 was more realistic. I also dont believe the saying that EA just puts out the same game. For Madden 06-09 that may have been the case but with NHL 10, Madden 10, NBA Live 10, Fifa 10 and Fight Night Round 4 they are definetly working hard to improve those games (C'mon NCAA Football, and NCAA Basketball!

Which company do you like better and why?

Comments

# 1 RayAllen20 @ Aug 21

to a.statuto im not talkin about go to move which I didnt even know existed until a couple days ago. And im not talkin about Live 06-09. Those games werent even close to 2k but with '10 times have changed. We got the best gameplay designer around and according to him there are user controlled 'wow' moments and he says that 2k (where he used to work from 06-08) is full of disguised canned animations which will hurt them in the future. Im just saying Live looks like it is on the rise while 2k has been declining since Wang left. 2k8 was very good, but 2k9 was mediocre.

# 2 gluck24 @ Aug 21

First time on the internet in a couple weeks was hoping maybe some new 2k info would come out if i stopped goin on for a while.. i was sort of right..any way the way a gaming franchise is good or not doesn't depend on one guy... like evryone is say it is... mike wang was a great part of 2k's success but hes not like a videogame god or anything.. since he came to ea last year their games have gotten better but i dont c much change still its still the same old ea except there adding new stuff that 2k sports has had since 2k7... animations never hurt anyone, and if your good at the 2k games you would know how to control the pkayers its not that hard there are specific moves for specific directions and stuff... and as for the repetive dunks or watever you said... what video game doesnt do that i know for fact Live is very repetive...
last thing i want to say is that live 09 was good--ch2k8 was great-- but neither if those games were as good as 2k9 IMO

# 3 gluck24 @ Aug 21

I like 2k Better but Baseball i think 2k has it.. if they still made football 2k would have it as well

# 4 joesto54 @ Aug 21

I get what your saying Ray. The one thing I always wished I could do (and I'm talking last gen) was take Madden's smoothness and stick it in 2k's presentation. I think the reason I always chose Madden over 2k was becuase I played Madden while I played NCAA nad the transition from NCAA to NFL 2k wasn't easy if you'd been palying one for awhile.

And don't talk about 2k's college football. please. NCAA 2004 or 5 are still my favorite games of all time.

# 5 stretch45 @ Aug 21

2k baseball got the guy that did mvp and it suck

now live gets 2k guy and its great until 10-6-2009

# 6 luv_mist @ Aug 21

LOL @ Strech45. Canned animations ironically were the same things that Live put out for the XBOX & PS2 but of course everyone has a short memory.......

# 7 Gusto1 @ Aug 21

The animations are canned in madden and 2k5 thats where the hype came in with backbreaker football no canned animation completely reactionary AI.

# 8 RayAllen20 @ Aug 21

To Logic Doctor I accept anyones friend request..just tryin to be an all around nice person. Im not the usual to listen to the hype, never listened to Madden's hype (although this years game is very good). Im just sayin Live 10 looks good so far.

And Im not sayin Live or Madden is better than 2k. I was just sayin how the companies are different. If you like realistic and less user control youd go with 2k, but if you like more user control and maybe a little less realism you go with EA. Im not tryin to debate whos better I was just askin people why they like 2k better than EA or EA better than 2k. Because there are a lot of biased fans of each company.

# 9 bigsmallwood @ Aug 21

2K does not have nearly as many canned animations as you would lead one to believe here in your blog. EA has plenty of animations that repeat over the lifecycle of 4years worth of games, 2Ks animations are varied and different pretty much every game. 2K does have its flaws, but not due to canned animations. And EA does a good job with giving decent amount of player control, it is not nearly as in depth as you seem to think. You are drinking a little too much Kool-Aid per EA.

I loved EA Sports brand until I started playing 2K and seeing what a difference an honest effort makes. You may be an EA fanatic, but you must give props where it is due. People play 2K for realism....not the ability to run 25yds backwards with your QB and launch an 80 pass accurately off the back foot of a mediocre QB....only to have it caught for a TD. See what would happen if a QB did that in the NFL.....

# 10 statum71 @ Aug 24

You guys that are saying EA or 2K for baseball must be 360 gamers.

Baseball is CLEARLY Sony right now. Its not even close. The rest I can agree.

# 11 pepp32 @ Aug 25

Right, cause that 2k Q&A was somewhat impressive. I will probably, when it comes down to it, buy both games. But, I would really like for Live to be successfull. The thing is I love the freestyle control. Always have. I think their going in the right direction with their presentation, but their graphics reign supreem.

I really am forced to play 2k cause all my friends have given up on Live even though I try to sway them to come back to Live every year it seems like. Their like yeah, yeah...heard it before. Gameplay this gameplay that. So maybe this year they'll come arround. I'll own both if they don't. (I also own a PS3 and a 360). So I'll grab 2K on one system and Live on the other so I don't get confused when I switch out. The different feel of the controllers should help with that.

Ya see, my crib is a video gamers heaven. I have a 52' Sony XBR4 that I play on and incredible surround sound by Bose. So I'm entertaining a lot. So we'll have to wait and see how things play out.
The videos that have been put out have helped. They like what the have seen and so do I.

The way it plays is another story. September 10 is about 3 weeks away. So keep them vids coming cause it's impressing the masses over here in the city that Jordan built!

# 12 Valdarez @ Feb 13

From a company perspective, I dislike EA because of their strong arm tactics that constantly place the company's survival over the their customer's needs for better games. This can be seen in the NFL Exclusive License deal, their Exclusive NCAA license deal, exclusive NASCAR License deal (actually KILLING another company who put out yet another BETTER product), use of blatant overlay Ads in Madden 10 (using Ads in a game someone paid $$$ for??? Ridiculous), by charging gamers for QA Test Codes that used to be given away for free (cost them NOTHING to give these away, they are already in the game), or by charging $10 to be able to play online in Madden 10 again (attempting to get paid TWICE for one game).

There's no way I can respect a company (EA Sports) that takes away a gamers choice of games (NFL ESPN 2K Football, NASCAR racing), takes advantage of a gamers purchase by bombarding them with Ads they should never be forced to see (but what choice to they have), or attempts to rape it's customer base nickel and diming them to death instead of increasing sales by putting out quality games.

There is no doubt, EA Sports is an EVIL company.