With Madden recently passing an important anniversary, and with next-gen consoles on the way, the future of sports games has to call a couple audibles to keep from hitting that ceiling. Part two of an in-depth analysis of what the genre has done and has to do.
From HalfBeard's HUD.
EA Sports subtly announced the Madden 25 release date in their EA Sports College Football 25 announcement. The standard edition of Madden 25 will release on Friday, August 16th 2024. You can get early access starting on Tuesday, August 13th 2024 if you purchase the Deluxe or MVP editions of the game or if you […]
Is Madden still a big deal? I remember how huge it was to have a console launch with a Madden title. Now it seems like no one cares
Craig writes: "Since the release of the first NBA 2K game, EA have arguably been left behind in 2Ks dust in the basketball video game category."
No, don't stop. We need competition beetween sports franchises in gaming. Push on and don't stop or the 'winner' will become lazy
EA and competition in sports games don't belong in the same sentence. They've had healthy competition in many different sports genres and the ones they could, they monopolised the licenses to effectively kill the competition. Poor Konami in PES were feeding off of scraps with their CL license.. EA went and bought that too. With them, there is no such thing as healthy competition.
"Since the release of the first NBA 2K game, EA have arguably been left behind in 2Ks dust in the basketball video game category."
I don't know about that, Nba live was the basketball game to get until Nba live 07 came out.
If you look at Metacritic NBA2K games have constantly outdone NBA Live. And a lot forget how much of a jump the original NBA2K was as it was only on the Sega Dreamcast which many gamers ignored due to pure ignorance and lack of knowledge on just how great that console was.
The last good ones were Live 04 n 05 for ps2 era n Live 06 last gen
Gameinformer:
"We broke down eight games that use licensed songs so well it’s hard to imagine them without."
The man who sold the world from MGS V? If any song is to be remembered from that game it's Here's to you by Joan Baez/Ennio Morricone. That scene gave me goosebumps.
Stupid article. Music in games should be recognized for their impact like the crossing into Mexico in RDR. Not just tunes on the disc
It still has to be AI... right now in Madden I find the QB AI particularly lacking.
I'm gonna single out one particular example and that is on an all 'go' play against a Cover 2 (not even the Tampa 2) or Cover 2 Man. One receiver is wide open streaking down the seam and more often than not the QB AI decides to throw it down either sideline into double coverage instead of the wide open receiver in single or no coverage.
Simply put the QB AI in Madden is insanely stupid and makes having a impossibly dominant defense way too easy. I average 8 takeaways per game and 185yds allowed per game. Also with all the turnovers and 3 and outs my offense, which is performing at a respectable efficiency comparable to the Saints, ends up scoring 70+ PPG. The raising the difficulty seems to make playing offense rather realistic as I have to be very alert and read the defenses carefully, but the opposing QB AI doesn't get any better.
Another interesting quirk I noticed is the QB holding onto the ball on screen passes and taking a sack instead of throwing to the intended player (when open) or throwing it away.
I find in presentation I feel like so much more can be added... I agree with working on making AI smarter, I feel on all-madden its either I dominate or the computer just cheats and I get wiped the floor with.
Its difficult in these types of games to get that balance. but my main gripe is PRESENTATION, there are so many commentary/sideline/ stadium and gameplay animations or features I wish were there! I thought they would get it done but I still feel NFL 2K5 gave me a much better presentation than madden has its entire xbox 360 lifetime! Where is a PROPER pregame/halftime/post game show?! where are my weekly highlights!
They are promising these features will improve in the next gen games but im not buying one till I see it!
Sports games have so much more depth you can get out of them that devs have not explored or barely touch such as contract negotiations. free agency. just now we got a very decent draft system with commentary (im talking mostly madden here).
either way theres my rant :|
EXACTLY.
there so much missing from commentary! and also once you play more than a few seasons in ur franchise the commentary on your players is not even right based on what is going on in his career or even how he is doing right at the moment! everything is way too pre canned this franchise makes SO much money and they wont invest to make it what it can truly be! we need 2K back! I agree also on the injuries idea. we should be able to set people on IR or IR designated to return, or if you try to make the player play too soon after an injury they become more injury prone ALA RG3 in last years playoffs.
football is my favorite sport it just makes me mad how badly represented it is in videogame form
EDIT: I meant this as a reply to TOM, I didn't mean to make a whole new comment :P