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That's right, when I have crazy thoughts to share, expect them to be posted in here!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Posted on August 24, 2010 at 04:25 PM.
You may have heard the old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Well, after spending about a decade within the sports gaming community, I can safely say that so is realism in sports video games.

So I submit this idea to sports gaming developers to give their games the leg up on their competition: make them customizable. Give your customers the power to define their experience as they see fit.

Think about the concept of sliders, then apply ... Read More
Monday, August 23, 2010
Posted on August 23, 2010 at 02:57 PM.
You may recall the news story last week from CNBC which declaratively stated that Madden sales were weak this year. The evidence used was early price drops from retailers and weak pre-orders for the title. Not the most concrete evidence for sure, but far from the worst you could use.

I initially wrote a blog post last week on Madden and NCAA sales but pulled it since I thought I might be breaking some copyright laws -- so I had to double check. I found myself to be in the clear, but ... Read More
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Posted on August 17, 2010 at 01:43 PM.
In case you missed it, Recovery Summer has turned into Realization Summer with stimulus waning and economic indicators all pointing rather solidly downwards. People in every corner of the economy are shuddering at the thought of another downtick (or was that a continuation of the current one?)| but that might just be the new normal for awhile.

Video game publishers, developers, journalists, players, and semi-interested patrons should shudder at that.

Video game sales ... Read More
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Posted on August 11, 2010 at 12:53 PM.
You may remember my review of Backbreaker, which was pretty harsh. I'm not going to retract that review, because the original Backbreaker was a steaming pile of horse manure when it came to the Xs and Os of football.

Now after spending some time with the 'Greathouse' patch, I can say Backbreaker has moved into the real of playable football title. However, it's still nowhere near a Madden/NCAA killer.

A majority of the issues were fixed or tweaked, although I would say ... Read More
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Posted on August 10, 2010 at 03:02 PM.
The question I keep asking myself is whether Gameflow and the Game Planning features are a revolution in Madden NFL 11 or just another gimmick which is sure to go by the wayside in future years not unlike Weapons, the Vision Cone, and any number of other features.

It's not like we haven't been given a bevy of reasons to believe Gameflow isn't indeed another gimmick.

But yet, I can't help but also feel that maybe this feature is different. Because, in case you didn't know, ... Read More
Monday, August 9, 2010
Posted on August 9, 2010 at 02:56 PM.
One note before I get started here, this is from a 'borrowed' retail version of the game, so my time has been kind of limited with the full game. However, I have played enough to feel good enough about putting a review out. I'll possibly add to this review in a couple more days with some more thoughts. So if, by some strange chance, you haven't made up your mind by then, hopefully those extended thoughts will help you one way or the other.

Pros

Running Game - EA once ... Read More
Category: Game Review
Monday, August 2, 2010
Posted on August 2, 2010 at 12:57 PM.


To anyone who read my Backbreaker Review, you know I've royally trashed the game's quality in the past. But I've also tried to remain consistent with the game being a lasting lesson to sports game developers that there is a different approach than the 'God-angle' many of the games have gone with in the past few years.

To truly simulate a sport, the best way to do so is to get you closer to the action, Backbreaker ... Read More
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
As many of you may know already -- and if you don't it's ok I'm about to enlighten you -- NCAA's dynasty mode is horribly broken this year.

Since EA Tiburon made the decision to rate recruits lower coming into school (but yet I guess forget to work on the progression of the game), most teams end up with middle of the road talent after years 4 or 5. It's like all of the football talent in America dries up after this year and all you are left with are a bunch of players rated in the 70s. ... Read More
I sometimes feel like a round-earth proponent in a room full of flat-earth ascribers -- or was it a Climatologist trying to explain Global Warming to a room full of Republicans?

One thing that's always brought up is that my argument doesn't ascribe to basic capitalistic principles, I ask why don't they? Someone who says it doesn't certainly doesn't understand economics if games on a store shelf aren't competing against one another for the consumers dollar. Let's take a game which gets ... Read More
Monday, July 26, 2010
About 16 months ago or so, I wrote a column that was so inflammatory I actually had people threatening to come find me and beat my rear end. As a writer, I couldn't help but chuckle that I had most likely stirred a hornets nest of giganto proportions. I felt that I had done such a thorough job of enraging the mob, I haven't revisited the issue until today.

And I still firmly believe that in terms of what creates better sports games, same-sport competition still isn't close to the reason ... Read More
Friday, July 23, 2010
Posted on July 23, 2010 at 02:38 PM.


In case you missed it, and I blame you totally for missing it, myself and Christian conducted a Madden Demo Review Roundtable this morning.

A lot of people got the feeling I was being down on the game, which I guess is understandable since my thoughts followed Christians who was rather down on Madden. For me though, I really think Madden is shaping up to be nearly on par with NCAA in terms of gameplay. Considering ... Read More
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Posted on July 22, 2010 at 04:01 PM.


Hockey fanatics are pretty darned excited about NHL 11.

Our resident hockey gurus on staff are already planning a cage match to the death for rights to review NHL 11, and I don't blame them. Besides: it's hard to see NHL 11 not being an extremely good sports game.

The real time physics mean the game will essentially be what Backbreaker attempted but yet still wasn't even close to being: a realistic ... Read More
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Posted on July 15, 2010 at 11:35 AM.


The NCAA team fired the first shot out of the gun this week with the best playing football game -- but still slightly flawed -- in history. Now the attention is beginning to slowly shift to the 10000 lb elephant in the room: Madden NFL 11.

What can Madden do to match and even NCAA's success critically? Well here are a few things:

Don't mess up the basics NCAA nailed- Most likely, Madden has this in the bag ... Read More
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Think back just a short decade ago.

Sports games were everywhere. Pro football had 4-6 titles each year, NBA fans had multiple titles to choose from and one year there were no less than five MLB games which garnered good to great reviews across the spectrum.

What happened?

Today there is one NFL game, on NCAA game, two MLB games, two NBA games and one and a half hockey games. It's almost like someone came in and turned the power off to the party while everyone ... Read More
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Posted on July 13, 2010 at 12:43 PM.


I'm not sure what else can be said about NCAA Football 11 but I'm going to try.

First off, Christian wrote an anthology on why the game is much improved in the official OS review. So if you want meatier details, hit that review up.

Pros

Gameplay - The gameplay is the best ever for a football game, and I have little reservations about that. There are some issues that need to be sorted ... Read More
Category: Game Review

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