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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
As I noted yesterday, I'm taking a look at what effects we could see in our industry with video game sales plummeting nearly 30% year over year last month. Right now with consumer spending changing, possibly long-term, this drop in sales could become the new norm for people working in the industry for a couple of years.

The one thing you will almost certainly see are the less profitable gaming projects being sidelined, possibly forever. What type of titles are less profitable are pretty ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Even Video Games can't dodge the Great Recession
Posted on July 28, 2009 at 12:43 AM.
As I posted in my blog earlier today (or yesterday) video game sales have slumped 29% year over year according to the figures released by the NPD group. That means video game sales have joined numerous other sections of the economy seeing over 20% drops in their revenues as American consumers continue to change their spending habits.

Whether this is a long term trend or not remains to be seen. However, it certainly could be bad news for video game developers and publishers. Through ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Monday, July 27, 2009
Revisiting the attempted buyout of Take Two by EA
Posted on July 27, 2009 at 02:34 PM.
Over the last year, I have joined in with many Americans in getting a crash course in an education on how the stock market works as well as how our economy fundamentally works. This morning, I decided to take a look at the failed EA buyout attempt of Take Two from last year and it's resonating effects on both companies stocks and overall business.

Here are links to both EA's chart and Take Two's chart from the last two years: EA & Take Two.

Looking at both charts I think ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Thursday, July 16, 2009
New Key Strategies for NCAA Football 10
Posted on July 16, 2009 at 05:42 PM.
Each new version of NCAA brings the eventual adjustments to how you play NCAA in order to keep up with the competition. Here are a few things I have had to do to keep things moving solid:

  • You have to decide earlier when to pitch on option plays. Last year (and every NCAA before it) I would simply pitch the ball at the last second. You can't draw defenders in anymore and then pitch.
  • Even more so than last year, you can't use speed burst all that often if you want to have a successful
... Read More
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Most anticipated games for the rest of 2009.
Posted on July 15, 2009 at 12:46 PM.
It seems like we have had an extremely busy year already in sports gaming with more big gaming titles hitting store shelves than usual for us here at OS.

However, the NCAA release is traditionally the start of the biggest release season for sports video games with Madden, the NBA games, NHL games, and FIFA all still to go. I'm personally excited to play a lot of titles, here are my top three most anticipated titles for the rest of the year -- feel free to add your own in the comments ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Monday, July 13, 2009
NCAA Football 10 (Blog #5): Preview of the Review
Posted on July 13, 2009 at 02:29 PM.
OS's review is coming up at midnight tonight, so if you are on the fence and are waiting for some reviews to come out, stay tuned!

However, I want to provide a little bit of a preview of what's coming. As you may know, we publish three positives and three negatives in our reviews. I have stated these in some form in my impressions already, so this won't be new, but something else to get you through your work day:

+Gameplay is the best yet.
+Online Dynasty is still ... Read More
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I have to share this story of my game against Ohio State, as I think it demonstrates how an A team will play against a D+ team.

It almost seemed like tOSU was completely unmotivated to play us in the middle of their Big 10 schedule. We jumped out on them with our offense and surprisingly took at 13-6 lead into the half thanks to several tOSU miscues. I'm not sure if there is a motivation attribute or something, but it definitely felt like they did not want to play us at all. I knew ... Read More
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
NCAA Football 10 (Blog #3): Playcalling Ratios
Posted on July 8, 2009 at 08:15 PM.
Many are wondering how many passes, etc. the computer calls. So here are some hard numbers to chew on for my games so far in dynasty and one play now. The first number is the number of times the computer called a running play and the second number is the number of times the computer called a passing play:

14/16
9/31
32/35
18/25
17/30
12/31
19/26

I will say the computer isn't stupid. In a situation where it should have ran (late close ... Read More
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
NCAA Football 10 (Blog #2): Flexbone Impressions
Posted on July 7, 2009 at 10:48 PM.
What in the world? I picked the wrong year (last year) to play as Georgia Tech!

Many have asked about the Flexbone and I figured it was worth a blog all it's own. The Flexbone this year has undergone many changes, including eight new formations and much more accurate plays within.

I'm personally a huge fan of the changes, as the game now accurately represents the Flexbone offense. Plays such as the QB Iso, Wing Reverses, FB Dives, Options, and play action passes are handled ... Read More
NCAA Football 10 Retail Impressions (Blog #1)
Posted on July 7, 2009 at 06:00 PM.
I have the game in hand, here are a few impressions from my first five games:

  • Pass Rush is definitely an issue. If your DL isn't any good, you will get zero pass rush which IMO, is way unrealistic since everyone gets a pass rush...just sometimes not that effective. If your DL is good though, you will get a pass rush.
  • Sliders definitely have little effect on the game. I know there's a patch coming, but it's definitely hurting the experience right now.
  • Quarterbacks are way too
... Read More
College Football Season: Closing In
Posted on July 7, 2009 at 11:41 AM.
NCAA Football 10 arrives at my house today and I will begin the long laborious work of reviewing the game (which, BTW should be up by midnight on release day).

However, I am positively stoked about what this arrival really means: college football is just around the corner. As a Sooner fan, I definitely cannot wait for this season. Here are a couple of predictions:

-One of the almost consensus Top 3 (UF, UT, OU) will be a 2+ loss team in the regular season.
-Either ... Read More
Thursday, July 2, 2009
My 'Midseason' Awards
Posted on July 2, 2009 at 01:56 PM.
Usually, this week is one of the slower weeks in sports gaming with it being the week of July 4th. Of course, this week also marks the first week of the second half of 2009. With that, I have compiled a list of the best games of the first half of the year, see if you agree or disagree:

Surprise of 2009: UFC 2009 Undisputed - I honestly expected the game to be pretty good. Instead, it turned out to be a sleeper game of the year type of game.

Text-Sim of the Year: World ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
How Much Do the Games Really Matter?
Posted on July 1, 2009 at 11:44 AM.
Time for some happy blogs! As promised, I'm changing the tone of my blog for a few posts in order to make things much more positive overall.

If you have me on your XBox Live friends list, you probably saw me playing FIFA 07 at different points of the day yesterday. I got a few messages from people wondering just why I was playing an older game. My answer: because I don't own a newer game of soccer, despite having played every edition of FIFA and PES since FIFA 07.

However, ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
My Sports Gaming Pet Peeve
Posted on June 30, 2009 at 12:29 PM.
I have spent almost a week and a half writing cranky blogs about sports gaming and I think it's starting to wear at my psyche. After today, I think I'm going to write a lot of blogs with happy overtones in order to balance out my life.

But just for today, I want to share what I feel is the most annoying thing about sports video games, especially in this generation. It's half-hearted implementation of something that just ends up looking stupid, or it doesn't work, or it's just insignificant ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary
Friday, June 26, 2009
My final category ties pretty much everything else I have said this week into one nice and neat package. Why can't developers get a good and proper broadcast presentation in their games?

Some games are better at this than others. Some, like most EA Sports games, are just downright atrocious in their in-game presentation. However, I challenge anyone to watch one full game of any sports video game from any company and one full game of the same sport on real TV and explain why the video ... Read More
Category: Industry Commentary

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