The Good and Bad Innovations of Next Gen - distauma's Blog

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The Good and Bad Innovations of Next Gen Stuck

Posted on November 20, 2008 at 03:34 PM.

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There�s a feeling with sports games sometimes that no matter how good it is, we as gamers are always striving for the next innovation to make the game better. In recent years many games have added new concepts -- some setting the bar and others falling well short. Here is a comprised list of the notable additions, good and bad.

The Best Innovations:

NBA 2K8 Lock Down Defense

Playing offense in a basketball game has always been a blast. Finding the open man, trying to work it down low, nailing a baseline jumper, and hitting a buzzer beater are all synonymous with the sport and extremely fun to accomplish. Playing on the opposite side of the court was never much fun however, aside from swiping at the ball and trying to steal it. The lock down defense has changed that. It has made defensive minded players serve a great purpose towards the goal of victory. There is much more strategy now for setting up the correct defensive match-ups and not letting the opposing team get high percentage shots. It also allows a team, such as the Celtics and Utah Jazz, actually play like their real world defensive selves in the game.

MLB 2K8 Base Throwing and Base Running

The game itself will not be remembered for much good, especially due to a feature that will receive the dunce cap in the next part of the article. However the base throwing mechanism and the base running should set a standard for all baseball games going forward. The thumb stick is what is used to throw the ball to a corresponding base by just flicking it in the direction you want to throw to. There�s never an issue with pressing the wrong button because you just throw it in the direction you want and it goes there. Now as far as base running goes, it is the Achilles� heel of all baseball games. However MLB surmised a way to make it easy by showing you the bases around the border of the screen and allowing you to easily take control of which guy you want with the flick of a thumb stick. It becomes second nature fairly quickly and leaves little room for mistakes.

NHL 07 Skill Stick

Before this feature came out there did not feel to be that much of a difference between a highly skilled hockey player and a roll player in the games. There was also a lack of full control over what they player could do, even though in real life the stick handling is everything. When EA introduced this feature it created a significant learning curve, but the reward for sticking with it is extremely worth it. As the Skill Stick has evolved it has become more fluid and fun to use and provides for some great highlight goals, just like you see on TV.

Online Enhancements

The online world was stuck in a rut for a while, with the only means of play being a head to head match-up. Now the options are becoming endless. NCAA 09 introduced the Dynasty mode that allows for players to take control of their favorite colleges in the same online realm and compete against each other for recruits and national title aspirations. EA created an ingenious and well overdue idea with Tiger Woods this year, with the ability to simultaneously play at the same time as your opponents online. When you are hitting the ball you can see a color stream where the challengers� shots go. The best feature though, hands down, has been the introduction of 6 versus 6 online play in NHL 09. This has introduced an entire new idea that creates a need for strong teamwork and allows for many people to be involved in a sports game together like never before imagined. Other games are working to replicate NHL 09�s model, such as NBA 2K9 and FIFA 09, and although there are still kinks in the system the future looks very bright.

MLB 08's Road to the Show

Taking control of a single player and bringing them up the ranks in attempt to reach �The Show� has never been so entertaining. The mode allows the players to take control only during plays when your character is involved, so the entertainment never ceases. You always are striving to get that clutch hit or make that big defensive stop or strike out the batter in a key situation. This time around there are even short-term and long-term goals to achieve always giving you a sense of progression. The only complaint may be that they need to introduce managing life outside the play of field such as MLB Power Pros 2008 has accomplished. Either way, Road to the Show is going to grow and continue to make XBOX 360 owners wish they had a PS3.

The Worst Innovations:

NCAA 09 Wide Open Gameplay

When this was first dreamt up it was definitely thought of as a perfect fit for an NCAA football game -- create a type of game that allows for big plays and high scores that seem to happen so often in the college game. That type of thing does happen a lot, but not to the extreme that NCAA 09 makes it appear. EA has forgotten about teams such as Ohio State and Alabama that play great defense and shut teams down. Too many times when playing NCAA 09, the last team with the ball is the team who wins the game because the defense is inept, and that is a poor implementation of a great concept.

MLB 2k8 Pitching Stick

Finally that feature I teased before about the reason MLB 2K8 will never be remembered for much good. Well this was the big innovation that was to be released and change the way baseball games were thought of forever, and all it did was have people wishing 2K spent time fixing many of the other glitches that were released with the game, such as the poor frame rate. This mode actually had its merits, and with more time to hammer them out, it probably would have been thought of in a different light; but as it stands it will god down in history with the QB Vision from Madden. The problem was that it was too inconsistent. You could repeat the same motion and finish at the same time and get different results, at least form what it seemed. The worst part was that playing online there was a slight delay from when you input your buttons and when they occurred on screen, so nailing a precision demanding control at the appropriate millisecond to get a perfect pitch was nearly impossible, and thus made for some frustrating moments.

Every EA Be A Pro mode

I�m sure there are some people that actually enjoy this mode, but no matter how many times I give it a chance I cannot continue past a few hours before boredom sets in. It tries to be like Road to the Show, but for some reason it does not feel the same. There is something missing, a lack of fun and progression. Maybe the fact of the matter is no sport is as suited for this type of gameplay as baseball. There is also not as much direction given as there should be. You just feel thrown into it and you never truly get a sense of where you character stands in the world of the sport he plays.

Innovations are what keep the gamers coming back to play what is essentially the same game beneath the surface as the previous year. Yet, we all strive for a more realistic and fun rendition of the sports we love to watch, and those additions are what make the games different from year to year. So here is to hoping that the good additions set new standards and improve all sports games across the board and that the bad additions are learned from for the future.