My E3 Sports Game Thoughts

[Mota]

Well, I'm back from E3. The redeye flight back home is absolutely brutal. This is the 3rd year in a row I do this... am I insane?

Here's some random thoughts from the show...

NHL Eastside Hockey Manager
That's right, Sega actually had this game on display and Riz was there to promote it himself! I just stopped by the Sega booth on a fluke during my last day and was happily surprised to see this game. I ended up spending 30 minutes talking to Riz and had a great time. They were using a season as their demo game, and were playing the Atlanta Thrashers, only 1 point out of a playoff spot with 2 games left in the season. The season ended with the two teams that contended for the playoff spot facing each other (what a fluke), and Atlanta won, barely squeeking into the playoffs! During all this I got to see player screens, game action, news screens, and multiple leagues. The game keeps track of all draft results, and as with CM it is all linked so you can access screen upon screen of info by clicking on whatever interests you. As for the leagues, all the major junior leagues appear to be there, and they SHOULD be playable (still working on licensing). So it should be possible to start out coaching a junior team, and work your way up into the NHL. Team strategy screens were very deep, you can choose strategies by line or overall. It's really easy to change your lineups. Style of play can be really varied as well. I'm looking forward to this game A LOT.

ESPN Basketball 2005
Horrible. I just hope that this version is nowhere near the final. The reaction time of the controls is so far behind, tons of animations have been added but they take ages to get through so once your guy starts that crossover dribble you have to wait that full second before you can do ANYTHING. PG's dribble the ball in either hand depending on which side of the court you're moving towards. It looks cool but in execution it's brutal, it's almost impossible to get up the floor quickly because of this. The fast breaks have been completely eliminated because players enter an animation to catch the ball and everybody catches up by the time it happens. I'm a fan of ESPN Basketball 2004 but if these are the changes coming I will not be picking it up.

ESPN NHL 2005
I got to play this game for a few minutes and scored two goals against the computer. Key thing to note is that the two goals were completely different, one of them was an EA style one timer that never seemed to go in on the last version, and the other one was a clear slapshot that dribbled over the goalie's pads and into the net. Very nice. I was very frustrated with last year's version and how the variety of goals was too low, and you could NEVER score with a clear shot, only if the goalie's view was obstructed. It's a good start. Supposedly the fighting is totally redone. I hate fighting in hockey so I don't really care. But one of the Kush animators told me that it should be a lot better this year as they have 12 months to work on this version as opposed to the 7 months they had on the last one (I guess Kush taking over the NHL game didn't happen until later in the cycle last year).

EA Sports NHL 2005
Graphics look a little more cartoony somehow. Gameplay appears to be very much alike the past version, but the hitting is definitely toned down.

NCAA Football 2005
My favorite sports game. I love this series. This year's version sports better graphics (more along the lines of Madden last year), and there's a lot more crowd cut scenes between plays. I especially liked the dynasty mode additions, but some of the other stuff looks gimmicky to me (crowd noise). This is a guaranteed pickup, hopefully the execution of the new features will make it worth it.

ESPN Football 2005
Outstanding. At least from what I can see. Is it statistically accurate? Who knows, that kinda stuff you can't tell from playing it for 5 minutes at the show with all these people breathing down your neck to grab the controller from you. If there's one game that appeared to be the most improved from one season to the next, it's this one. Graphics were a LOT better. The players look like athletes. Maybe the OL guys aren't big enough though. But the action was hot, I especially liked how the playcalling screen lists the primary player's name on the play, so you know exactly who will be getting the carry or who is the primary receiver while you scroll through quickly. ESPN overlays are great, transitions from one play to the next are really good. Good stats screens, you'll occasionally get a focus on a player between plays and it will breakdown his achievements that game. Really well done. Rushing looked to be pretty good and passing looked tough but do-able. Supposedly you need really good strategy to do well in this game. Imagine Xbox Live leagues where you pick one team and stick with it, you have to deal with injuries, can do transactions, etc. Now that is finally a league that would be worth playing. Hopefully they can integrate this successfully.

Madden 2005
Hit stick? Boring. Maybe it'll make playing defense more fun? Hopefully.
I thought that the graphics were somewhat improved, but that Madden this year looked very complacent. Changes are minor. Xbox Live is added and that is a selling point, but ESPN has had it for 2 years now so to me this is more of a catch-up thing rather than an advantage to me. I'm giving the NFL football game of the show to ESPN Football, and that's saying a lot because I've never picked up ESPN Football before, I'm a loyal Madden player.

Tiger Woods Golf 2005
Create a golfer is expanded over last year, and there's a golf course editor so you can change bunkers, fairways, greens, etc. Also has old time golfers added into the game. Doesn't appear to be a must-buy this year.

NBA Live 2005
I've never bought an NBA Live game, but the graphics looked a lot better this year, and the flow of the game looked improved considerably. I didn't get to play this one but I watched people play for a few minutes and this may very well be the Pro Basketball game to get this year.

ESPN College Hoops 2005
I didn't get to play it, lineups were too big when I was there, but it looked good as usual, and the animation problems of the pro game didn't seem to carry over into the college game. This game is so far out that the version at the show will be nowhere near the final version, I'm sure it's still just a souped up version of last year's game (which only came out 5 months ago).

Nascar Thunder 2005
It's Nascar meets Tony Hawk Underground. There's a career mode with single player story added in, and I think it's a pretty good idea. You can play different series (trucks, and another car series) before getting promoted to the Nascar circuit (sorry about my major lack of Nascar knowledge here, I don't remember any of the names). I may end up picking this one up just because they're trying to do something different with the series.

[Tekneek]

Great word on EHM. I hope they get all the licensing into place. It would be absolutely incredible to do that.

Interesting news on the NASCAR title. That career mode makes me want to check out the title. I wonder if you can get dropped by your NASCAR team and have to earn your way back into the top flight if you do poorly (so poorly that nobody offers you a contract).

[Eaglesfan27]

Very nice feedback. Of course, I'm hoping you are wrong on Madden as I just preordered it for the X-Box. I'm really glad to hear EHM was there

[ISiddiqui]

Did you see anything other than sports games?

[MizzouRah]

Excellent news! Thanks for the update!!

ESPN Football is really sounding good...


Todd

[finkenst]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Did you see anything other than sports games?

is there such a thing?

[Mota]

LOL, yeah I got into a 4 vs. 4 CTF match of Halo 2. Absolutely amazing.
I was also really impressed by Full Spectrum Warrior, and a first work-in-progress of Splinter Cell 3. The graphics in SC3 are wonderful, the details are amazing. That was behind closed doors as well, unfortunately.

Tons of MMORPG's were shown as well, I really liked the EQ2 demo, and the space expansion for Star Wars Galaxies looks an awful lot like the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games of old (but with today's graphics). They had some PvP combat in City of Villains which I thought looked incredibly boring (I'm enjoying City of Heroes right now). World of Warcraft looked pretty good although I didn't see enough of it to understand how it is different than the 8,000,000 other fantasy MMORPG's that are either out or will be out shortly.

Final Fantasy 12 is a big departure for the series as well, the battles are no longer random, you can see the enemies coming up to you on the screen. Combat is all in real time and appears to be more quick paced. Almost action oriented, all though it still plays like an RPG. Kinda strange. Doom 3 for Xbox is playable on the Xbox floor, and I thought it was okay. Over the years it appears as though the competition is catching up. The graphics still look great but Far Cry and Half-Life 2 are just as good if not better.

Supposedly the Nintendo DS looks great, it is backwards compatible with all other GBA games. The Sony PSP is quite the mammoth, but it's all screen which certainly is a good thing. I didn't get very close to it because of the lineup, but from what I did see, it's pretty slick. But how expensive will it be?