Author Bio
Chase BecotteHome Town: Nomads don't have home towns
Sports: A bunch
Games: Too many to list
Teams: Sixers, Flyers, Pirates
OS Username: ChaseB
Tags: PS3: Slizeezyc / 360: Slizeezyc
Thursday, April 28, 2011
12:17 PM - April 28, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
Ed. Note -- This preview will solely focus on presentation. That does not mean I did not play the game already, but because my initial hands-on time was so brief I feel it would not be worthy of speaking about here -- I would more or less be listing off bullet points straight from EA rather than giving you guys actual gameplay impressions. I believe I will be playing the game in a deeper fashion in the very near future, so expect gameplay impressions from OS by next week.
Madden NFL Football has struggled mightily over the years to find a solid presentation foundation. Over the years the presentation elements have been lacking, aimless or just plain bad. And, to some extent, that’s not surprising. EA had the impossible task of trying to live up to ESPN NFL 2K5 in the presentation department -- a game that was at one time the gold standard for the entire sports gaming industry. On top of that, the Madden developers refused to just go the route of mimicking an ESPN-style broadcast after they acquired the ESPN license, which would have been a commendable creative decision had they actually created presentation elements that were lauded.
Nevertheless, here we are now, and all we have seen during this console generation is bland, repetitive, aimless or just plain bad presentation in our NFL football game. However, it seems like EA is finally putting in the time and effort -- and money -- to create an experience that you will want to be a part of, not just because you want to control your favorite team or player, but because you want to be a part of a football experience.
Read More - Madden NFL 12 First-Look Preview
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
04:07 PM - April 26, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
Cam Weber is a popular guy these days. With the first hands-on impressions of Madden 12 hitting this Thursday -- and NCAA Football last week -- , as well as the news and rumors swirling around Madden, people want to know about the "new" guy heading up the digital version of the most popular sport in America. So we caught up with Cam and asked him some questions about the present and future of EA Sports football.
Read More - OS Interviews EA Football GM Cam Weber
Monday, April 25, 2011
12:41 PM - April 25, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Chase Becotte
Hey everyone,
Once again, we extremely appreciate the patience from our Xbox 360 community related to the delay of the pre-order Million Dollar Pack, Honky Tonk Man and American Dream DLC Pack containing Dusty and Cody Rhodes. Our development team has been working around the clock with Microsoft and the current submission process to release the DLC content as soon as possible.
While we can't yet pinpoint the exact release and time frame for the 360 DLC release, we are deep in the submission process and hoping for no variables that could derail us again. We will update all of you again this week as we receive the latest news on the packs.
We also wanted to stress that we are looking into a few different ideas to "give back" as a reprieve and appreciation for your patience on this delay. We understand this has been an unfortunate situation for XBOX 360 users, and will be doing everything possible to patch that. Rest assured, we want to put our community first, and will ensure any idea we employ gives back to Xbox 360 and PS3 users. More on that soon.
Thanks again and sincere apologies we are still a bit in limbo on informing you of the exact 360 DLC release.
-WWE Games Development Team
Thursday, April 21, 2011
09:17 AM - April 21, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Chase Becotte
At this point in a console generation, it feels like sports games are at an advantage and disadvantage. On the one hand, developers should have an immense amount of understanding of the consoles they are working on now. This means adding those extra little elements of joy and polish can be more easily worked into the development of a game. However, it seems like it would be almost crazy to talk about installing an all-new physics engine or something else along those lines at this point in a console's life cycle. Changes like that just seem to happen more often than not at the start of a new console generation.
And NCAA Football 12 might epitomize that double-edged sword. Some of the tweaks that I was shown and was able to mess around with are immediately noticeable and mostly positive, but for folks wanting widespread change, a new engine or some masterful stroke of development genius that will create this all-new football game should probably reel in their expectations a bit.
Read More - NCAA Football 12 Preview
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
06:02 PM - April 19, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
When SSX creative director Todd Batty took center stage and compared the SSX revival to J.J. Abrams' revival of Star Trek, it certainly left an impression of sorts. While the comparison was made as a way to explain that he wants both new and old fans alike to find things they enjoy about this reinvention of SSX, it shows a certain level of confidence to point to one of the better reboots in quite some time as a way to explain where you think you can take this formerly dormant snowboarding franchise.
Whatever the intent of the comparison may or may not have been, it's hard to tell if this SSX reboot will be more Star Trek or Clash of the Titans at this point. Since the release date is set for January 2012, the version of the game on display at this event was a very early build. Beyond seeing a snowboarder, some snow and a couple early gameplay ideas, it was all about listening to a developer's vision and trying to imagine what a final product will look like down the line.
Read More - SSX First-Look Impressions
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
07:28 PM - April 13, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Chase Becotte
Last night Peter Moore announced at the EA Sports Season Opener event that Madden NFL 12 would be releasing on August 30 rather than August 13. This announcement seemed peculiar given the fact that the game has always released on August 13. It also only fueled speculation because there are the potential issues with an extended NFL lockout and key Tiburon developers leaving the Madden team in the middle of the development of this year's game.
However, after speaking with EA Sports PR representative Rob Semsey, it seems like more a case of bad timing than anything else. The release date will actually continue to be August 30 beyond just this year. The thought process behind the move seems to be to sync Madden up with the start of the real NFL regular season.
Obviously, other potential factors like giving NCAA Football a bit more space to collect sales before Madden releases should be taken into consideration, but the overall sense was this was not a decision that was made overnight, but rather one that the team had wanted to make for quite some time.
From my perspective, this makes a lot of sense considering Peter Moore went out of his way last night to point out that he thought the improved sales of Tiger 12 could at least be partially attributed to how close the real Masters was to when Tiger 12 released. Tapping into the excitement of the upcoming real sports season seems to be something EA really wants to focus on across all its sports brands moving forward, so it would not shock me to see other release dates slightly tweaked in the future.
12:36 AM - April 13, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Chase Becotte
At tonight's EA Sports Season Opener event, Peter Moore began the presentation by stating that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters had the best first-week sell-through sales in the franchise's history.
He attributed these strong sales to the excitement that surrounds the Masters as well as the overall quality of Tiger 12 this year. The point about the quality of this year's title is somewhat debatable in context because Peter Moore and EA like to point to Metacritic and a score of 90 as a gold standard. So if you look at the Metacritic ratings this year, the Tiger 12 Metacritic rating is about 80 when averaging together the Wii/360/PS3 versions of the game, which is about the same as the Tiger 11 rating. In fact, Tiger 12 is actually percentage points lower than Tiger 11 if the Wii/360/PS3 scores are combined.
Regardless, Tiger 12's 80 Metacritic score is still strong in the grand scheme of things, and it appears that the aura of the Masters was able to surpass the hits to the Tiger brand name over the last year -- at least when it comes to initial sales.
UPDATE: Destructoid's Samit Sarkar has condensed EA's press release detailing the first-week sales for Tiger. EA states Tiger sold 225,000 units during its best-ever first week. However, the more impressive sales figures may be the uptick in year-over-year DLC revenues and the chart-topping iPhone version of Tiger 12.
Monday, April 4, 2011
01:42 PM - April 4, 2011. Posted by 42. Written by Chase Becotte
It has been rather enjoyable checking out what the new challenge is each Monday. So how about we really start keeping track of how folks at OS are doing in these challenges each week?
Post your high score here for this week's challenge. At the start of each week, there will be a post detailing who had the highest score amongst OS folks, and then we'll start the cycle all over.
There's not really a prize on the line here or anything, it's just a little extra something to keep folks involved throughout a long (but sure to be amazing) baseball season.
Friday, March 11, 2011
12:06 PM - March 11, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
Back in the early part of the '90s, going from Wolfenstein 3D or Doom to Marathon forced you to change the way you played a first-person shooter. While Doom only allowed you to look left and right, Marathon allowed you to look up and down as well. The ability to look up and down forced you to play Marathon in a different way, and its aiming scheme ultimately became the new standard in first-person shooters.
The folks behind Shift 2: Unleashed seem to want to push the racing genre forward in a similar fashion. With the “helmet cam” being introduced in Shift 2, the developers want the focus to be on the racing experience; the developers want the focus to be on the driver, not the car.
Read More - Shift 2: Unleashed Hands-Off Preview
Friday, March 4, 2011
12:34 PM - March 4, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
Chase Becotte: I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm until I see what happens with the effectiveness of just juicing your created player with power, but it's hard not to be really excited after playing this demo. Everything from a more lively crowd at the U.S. Open -- when I played the game at a preview event, the crowd seemed even more lively than the one found in the demo -- to the player grunts to the tweaked controls are all really working here.
Jayson Young: The crowds definitely sound great with the way they build up during rallies and yell between points, but outside of that, I don't see a whole lot of improvements over Top Spin 3.
Christian McLeod: At the recommendation of my OS staff brethren, I reluctantly downloaded the Top Spin 4 demo. To my surprise, I had a great time with the demo -- so much so that the game may enter my closely guarded sports gaming rotation in a few weeks. Graphically, the game is beautiful, and just as Chase mentioned, my jaw dropped during the first match I played on clay. At times I felt like I was actually controlling a televised tennis match, and the buttery smooth control scheme was pretty easy to pick up and start having success with in a matter of minutes.
Chris Sanner: A few weeks ago someone asked me on Twitter what I thought of the prospects for Top Spin 4. I said I think the game can't possibly be bad, but I'm not sure if it's going to be a can't miss all world title.
I think I was definitely right on that.
Read More - Top Spin 4 Demo Impressions Roundtable
Monday, February 28, 2011
12:44 PM - February 28, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
MLB 2K’s journey during this console generation has been a tumultuous one. Nonetheless, the folks working on MLB 2K did not try to start over and escape from a past defined by missteps and barrel rolls (NSFW). Instead, they have buckled down and tried to fix what was undone during the early part of the generation.
It has not been an easy fix, but the developers working on MLB 2K11 clearly feel like this is the year where they can finally start improving and adding to the game rather than just fixing it.
Read More - Major League Baseball 2K11 Hands-On Preview
Thursday, February 24, 2011
10:32 PM - February 24, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Chase Becotte
Lots of words have already been spent detailing a lot of the cool things going on with My Player mode in Top Spin 4. However, one thing that had not been mentioned was whether or not full-on tennis matches (see: five sets, six games per set) had been included this time around.
Nevertheless, I can happily say that you will finally be able to play real tennis during My Player mode in Top Spin 4. Five sets, six games per set, let the best man win.
However, be aware that you have to select this option at the beginning of the career mode, and you can never change it after the career mode has begun. 2K decided to do it this way because of "balancing" concerns related to switching between full sets and abbreviated ones from match to match.
Many folks will not care about this option because only so many people have time to play one to two hour matches, but for those that want to be truly hardcore (I will be in that group), you can finally go for it.
Power to the player.
10:01 PM - February 24, 2011. Posted by ChaseB. Written by Chase Becotte
In a recent MLB 2K11 developer blog, Sean Bailey, a designer working on the game, mentioned that the "'Pitcher Control' slider is one of several new difficulty sliders that we added to the game this year." Well, even more of these "new" sliders were revealed today in a new MLB 2K11 developer blog.
Jonathan Rivera, another designer working on MLB 2K11, detailed the new fielding sliders that will be in the game this year. Explanations for those fielding sliders are as follows:
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While at a preview event, I found out the last of the new gameplay sliders that will be in MLB 2K11. These sliders include Batter's Eye Frequency and Pitcher Composure Influence -- this one was actually revealed in the screenshot above, but I got an explanation for the slider today. The Batter's Eye Frequency slider will tweak how often you can see the location and type of pitch being thrown, and it will obviously highlight the "eye" rating for each player. The Pitcher Composure slider will increase or decrease how quickly a pitcher can get rattled, and it obviously hones in on the player's composure rating.
In short, here is the entire list of new sliders:
- Batter's Eye Frequency
- Pitcher Control
- Pitcher Composure Influence
- Gather Error Frequency
- Throw Error Frequency
- Throw Speed (Separated for IF and OF)
- Run Speed (Separated for IF and OF)
- Catcher Arm Strength
- Catcher Arm Accuracy
- Baserunner Speed
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
03:20 PM - February 22, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
New hardware is always exciting, and the Nintendo 3DS is actually quite a beast when compared to the Nintendo DS. Updated graphics, a 3-D display and an analog stick rather than a directional pad should all be pluses for sports gamers. However, I can only enjoy two of those upgrades because I have had zero luck seeing 3-D on the 3DS at any demo events to this point.
Nevertheless, let’s talk a bit about Madden NFL Football, a launch title that will be on store shelves when the Nintendo 3DS comes out on March 27.
Read More - Madden NFL Football (3DS) Preview
Monday, February 21, 2011
04:20 PM - February 21, 2011. Posted by RaychelSnr. Written by Chase Becotte
“No Spoilers!” That’s not something you usually have to scream at your friend when he talks about a sports game, but Fight Night Champion is different. EA’s gambit this time around is the all-new Champion mode.
And since all of you can now play the Fight Night Champion demo -- essentially the same build of the game was at the press event I attended -- this preview will be all about the story mode that revolves around Andre Bishop, the protagonist in Champion mode.
But be forewarned, I will be talking in-depth about the first two scenes in Champion mode, so if you don’t want to have anything spoiled, look away now!
Read More - A Look at Champion Mode in Fight Night Champion
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