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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Posted on June 25, 2009 at 12:34 PM.
Just two more features to go, and today I want to focus on an aspect of sports games which is so simple, yet so neglected: the bench areas.

First off, I'm defining the bench areas as everywhere on the field surface between the crowd and the playing field. So this includes photographers, media folks, famous people, backup players, coaches, etc.

I'm sick of terrible looking, sparse player models around the bench areas with no chain gangs, media personnel, in sight for football ... Read More
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Apparently, Derek Jeter is a ghost.

For the longest time, he has ran through his fellow digital replications on the baseball diamond whenever the camera gets close to him. I once saw him run straight through the wall chasing a foul ball!

It seems that developers, even in 2009, can't get player interactions right.

No matter the sport, no matter the game, no matter the company. Players go straight through each other or objects in their environment, sometimes ... Read More
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
It's inexcusable at best, and just flat out poor game development at worst. But sports games aren't getting crowds right.

There are two aspects of the crowd which I have to rant about: graphically and audibly.

First off, dynamic attendance in this day and age should be standard. Secondly, there should never be more than one single fan model in close-ups at any one time. This is 2009, where are the advancements graphically? We're getting better, but we are far ... Read More
Monday, June 22, 2009
I'm starting a new series of blogs this week looking at things that I still can't believe sports gaming developers are not doing correct. Part one of this five part series looks at the simplest aspect of sports games, at least I would think so: running animations.

It is now June 22, 2009. I have yet to see a sports game look completely realistic in regards to player movements. Players still don't run or walk realistically in any sports game. Some are better than others, but ... Read More
Friday, June 19, 2009
Posted on June 19, 2009 at 11:28 AM.
After playing both the Fight Night Round 4 and NCAA Football 9.5, ahem..10, demos last night and this morning, I am a man who cannot decide which emotion is stronger, my incredible love for one or my pure and utter disdain for the other.

NCAA Football 10's demo reminds me a lot of NCAA Football 09, just with a bit more defense, a lot more turnovers, and pretty much the exact same package otherwise. Maybe it's the fact I have been playing this series for 10 years, but it's downright ... Read More
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Posted on June 18, 2009 at 08:46 PM.
According to our recent poll on the frontpage, it seems as if the largest amount of voters in the poll have decided to not buy NCAA Football 10 (at least thus far) due to the recent well documented roster issues.

One would say you have to adjust for the usual people who will vote in these polls to be as anti-EA as possible, and thus probably weren't going to buy the game anyways. I would say that's a legit claim, but that would hardly begin to describe the reasons so few consumers ... Read More
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Posted on June 10, 2009 at 11:33 AM.
I know sales figures are probably completely contradictory to what I'm about to propose here, but the gameplay in Tiger Woods is beginning to feel a little stale to me. Don't get me wrong, it is still good, but it's not perfect by any means and I don't know if we're going to see any big leaps in it without that extra development time to get the finer points of golf pinned down.

Gameplay wise, such small things as ball physics, different swing types, even better putting mechanics, innovation ... Read More
Friday, June 5, 2009
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 01:28 AM.
As many of you guys know, I sometimes make predictions on my blog when I feel strongly about something. Here is one prediction I feel will come to pass: Madden NFL 10 will be the best football video game on this side of the turn of the millennium.

I know many hardcore 2K5ers out there will still proclaim blasphemy or worse, proclaim how pathetic it is for Madden NFL to finally be a game worth playing. While I do somewhat agree with that sentiment, it should also be noted that All ... Read More
Monday, June 1, 2009
Posted on June 1, 2009 at 05:52 PM.
Here are some random thoughts from EA Sports portion of the EA press conference:

Need for Speed Shift looks like it could be pretty freaking good. We'll see, but I liked a lot of what I saw in the brief moment we got to see the game in action.

Fight Night Round 4 is going to be quicker than Fight Night Round 3...obviously. Video, just as with every other one, was really freaking good. Strategy these guys are talking about could be huge, in short: it has the potential ... Read More
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Posted on May 21, 2009 at 12:10 PM.
It's now May 21, and I'm still playing MLB 09: The Show strong. My pace is still about 1-2 games per day and it looks like I'm 100% for sure going to finish my first ever full season of a baseball game by playing every game in quite awhile.

I don't think I'm stopping anytime soon either. I may be playing The Show well into October. For a guy like myself, who reviews sports games, it's awful hard to stick to a game that long without getting fully distracted by other titles. So playing ... Read More
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 11:31 AM.
It's back to regular blogging, this time I'm serious!

With that said, I know we haven't gotten the PunchOut review in at OS yet, but PunchOut comes highly recommended from myself if you enjoyed the original games. Sure, it doesn't simulate boxing in any way. But it's the type of nostalgic throwback that most developers could take notes from.

In my humble opinion, developers should look at how PunchOut was done and do that for any remakes of classic sports games they ... Read More
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Posted on May 7, 2009 at 09:25 PM.
The downtick of the semester plus chasing tornadoes has left me with quite a shortage of time to really dig into a lot of demos out. However, I finally got a chance to play the UFC 2009 Undisputed Demo tonight and wow! This game is going to have the potential to be pretty darned good.

I'm not sure where it's going to fall on the scale, because I have a feeling the commentary is going to end up super repetitive as are many of the canned animations, but the multiplayer gameplay has the ... Read More
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
By most all accounts, we are still 3-4 years away from the next generation of consoles which will arrive in 2012 or 2013. That means that the current generation of consoles will have been in operation seven years, which is a time frame that isn't too abnormal in the history of consoles.

However, that means that there will be no huge leaps in available hardware technology for console sports games to take advantage of in the next 3-4 years. So what are developers going to do in the ... Read More
Monday, May 4, 2009
Posted on May 4, 2009 at 03:24 PM.
I have gone on record saying Madden looks like it is going to have a banner year this year. However, I am pretty worried about one feature, the fumble pile.

So take this short blog post as a plea to the Madden guys at EA, and take it as being written from a concerned fan of NFL football video games. Please do not over-do the fumble pile. I'm worried that every single fumble will become a button mashing festival. Worse, I'm worried that some fumbles which could realistically be picked ... Read More
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Posted on April 28, 2009 at 10:27 AM.
Here's a question that I think is always interesting to ask about sports games, and it's one that I think I know the answer to for most people.

Let's assume two things before I do this thought experiment. First, the two games are both the best of their genre and sport ever. We're going to assume basketball here to help us out. Both games are incredible games and OS gave them both a 10. They're virtually tied in all aspects except one: one is a simulation like NBA 2K and one is ... Read More

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