Operation Sports
Feature Blogs
- Gaming on the iPad by MMChrisS (4)
- Friday Other Stuff (3-19-10) by Steve_OS (6)
- Thursday Other Stuff (3-18-10) by Steve_OS (5)
- Wednesday Other Stuff (3-17-10) by Steve_OS (5)
- The Show is a victim of its own success by MMChrisS (23)
- Tuesday Other Stuff (3-16-10) by Steve_OS (11)
- Monday Other Stuff (3-15-10) by Steve_OS (5)
- Friday Other Stuff (3-12-10) by Steve_OS (4)
- Thursday Other Stuff (3-11-10) by Steve_OS (6)
- Wednesday Other Stuff (3-10-10) by Steve_OS (5)
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
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Friday, March 19, 2010
But, this year I went with NBA Live 10. I've had my moments with that game but at the end of the day, I really like it. The only thing I don't like is that the Dynasty Mode is kind of lacking in features, so this is where I figured 2K would fill that void nicely.
So, 2 weeks ago I went to GameStop and picked up a used copy of 2K10. Didn't cost me any money as I had credit on my Edge card. Disc was spotless; probably had only been used a couple of times at best. Figured I was good to go. Put the disc in my 360 and from the jump, things were weird. My 360 (I just got a refurbished 2009 model from MS after my second E74 error) usually runs pretty quiet but with NBA 2K10, the thing sounded like it was going to explode. I played on, chose my teams in the NBA Today screen and pressed start. Seconds later, I get a message on my screen saying the drive can't read the disc because it is dirty.
I know things like that happen from time to time, so I didn't get upset, ejected the disc, checked it (again, looked fine) and put it back in. Same thing happens as right after I pick teams, the game gets booted from the 360. I try installing to the HDD and still wouldn't work.
So, I take the game back to GS and exchange it for another copy. This second copy isn't as clean as the first disc, yet it manages to actually let me play a game, although the 360 is still running really loud and hard. While playing the game on Broadcast and Nosebleeds, there was little problems aside from the fact that I felt too removed from the action on the court.
I switched to the 2K Cam (which I love) and boy, that was not pretty. After every change of possession, the framerate would drop dramatically and it would also happen when the camera would swivel on a turnover.
That was a real downer for me and I wound up just taking the game back and getting my store credit back on my Edge card. Basketball is my favorite sport and I'd love to have the contrast of the 2 NBA titles to carry me through 2010-11 (I buy games every other year) but it looks like I won't be able to play both as my 360 doesn't like 2K10.
Am I the only one that has experienced issues like this with 2K10? For those that have played the game on both PS3 and 360, would you say the PS3 runs smoother? I'm close to buying a PS3 and would pick up 2K for that system if there's no issues.
While initially, the platform won't be a gold rush, over time it will almost certainly become a highly profitable platform much like the iPhone has become. Let's face it: despite many obvious shortcomings on the hardware and OS side, the iPad is going to sell and sell well.
So what can we expect from sports games on the iPad? A lot of the same stuff we got from the iPhone would be my first answer with a addendum quickly following to include: better graphics, better controls, and perhaps a more immersive gaming experience. I think as an original games platform, the iPad holds serious potential. Text-sim creators should take serious note of existing attempts on the iPhone.
Where the picture is a bit more fuzzy, but where the iPad can really become a force, is with the extension of existing gaming experiences onto the device. I can see something like the Madden Online Franchise App becoming commonplace for many sports games, along with perhaps extending the on-field experience onto the device. I'm not sure if such a move would be feasible, but the possibilities are intriguing.
So yes, there are some serious drawbacks to the platform. And yes, there are some glaring oversights which Apple probably will have to correct within a hardware generation. But yes, the iPad will almost certainly become a commercial success given Apple's uncanny ability to make products that consumers figure out they really want. I'm interested to see how gaming, especially sports gaming, develops on the platform.
Are you planning on getting an iPad and if so, will you be gaming on it?
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PC sales slid over the years to the point they stopped supporting the PC back in 2008 so the graph would be slanted down more than it is and would have started the slide earlier if we had the PC numbers. If anyone can find the PC numbers for Madden, please send them to me and I'll update the chart / images.
Take a look at the chart and draw your own conclusions regarding the sales, but please keep in mind the PC numbers are missing while doing so.
Click the image below to see a larger picture.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
| MLB Scoreboard | April 5, 2010 | St. Louis @ Cincinnati | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Extras | R | H | E |
| St. Louis (1-0) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 1 | |
| Cincinnati (0-1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |
| WIN: C. Carpenter (1-0) LOSS: A. Harang (0-1) SAVE: R. Franklin (1) | |||||||||||||
| St. Louis - Hitting Statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitter | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Schumaker, 2B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Lopez, 3B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Pujols, 1B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Holliday, LF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Rasmus, CF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Ludwick, RF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Molina, C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Ryan, SS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Carpenter, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| BATTING 2B: Pujols (1) HR: Holliday (1), Rasmus (1) RBI: Pujols (1), Holliday 3 (3), Rasmus (1) | |||||||
| FIELDING E: Lopez (1, Throw) | |||||||
| BASERUNNING SB: Ryan (1) Picked Off: Lopez (2nd Base by Harang) | |||||||
| St. Louis - Pitching Statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Carpenter (W, 1-0) | 7.2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 0.00 |
| Hawksworth (H, 1) | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.00 |
| Franklin (S, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Cincinnati - Hitting Statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitter | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Stubbs, CF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Cabrera, SS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Phillips, 2B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Votto, 1B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Bruce, RF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Rolen, 3B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Nix, LF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Hanigan, C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Harang, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| BATTING 3B: Stubbs (1) HR: Rolen (1) RBI: Rolen (1) | |||||||
| FIELDING E: Bruce (1, Fielding) | |||||||
| BASERUNNING Picked Off: Stubbs (1st Base by Molina) | |||||||
| Cincinnati - Pitching Statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Harang (L, 0-1) | 5.1 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0.00 |
| Lincoln | 1.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Rhodes | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Masset | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
It has become a trend for Nintendo to stick with what works and I'm getting pretty annoyed with their risk-free approach. The Pokemon franchise is just the easiest example as the game really hasn't changed much at all from the original titles released on the Gameboy all those years ago. The DS games still use still images for the battle menus with minimal animation! What was necessary for Gameboy is not necessary for a DS game (or a Gameboy Advance game, for that matter). Nintendo just dresses up the game with a few new gimmicks every couple of years and profits. And while its easy to blame the consumer, most of the big review sites gush over Nintendo's tired act.
I enjoyed New Super Mario Bros as much as the next guy, but I know its essentially a remake of a 3 year old DS game. Metroid Prime 3 was just the same as the previous two, just with a new control scheme. The new Metroid coming out this summer is basically a new Super Metroid, right down to the Wii-mote only control scheme (same as NSMB).
I was pretty excited when the Wii first came along. The interface, while perhaps not quite as revolutionary as some expected, was quite a leap forward. However, what has Nintendo done to move us past Wii Sports? Not much. Wii-motion Plus is kind of cool, but it still isn't quite the 1:1 control Nintendo promised and they've done almost nothing to support it (thankfully, EA and Ubisoft are taking a shot). Now we get to see if Sony and Microsoft can beat them at their own game this summer.
Even before the Wii though, this was a major issue. Look at the Gamecube, outside of Retro studios take on Metroid, what did Nintendo bring to the table? They stuck a backpack on Mario 64 and called it Mario Sunshine. The Twilight Princess was a shiny new Ocarina of Time with a bad gimmick (and again, few review sites called out Nintendo on the poorly designed Wolf areas of that game) and the system was flooded with shovel ware like Mario Party. The Gameboy Advance went through its life cycle without an original Mario title, just re-releases of NES and SNES games. The DS had to settle for a Mario 64 port initially before NSMB came along, which while new, didn't exactly re-invent the wheel.
I'm not arguing that Nintendo should abandon giving us some tried and true gameplay. Nostalgia is great and I love the Virtual Console, but we need something fresh to balance things out. Super Mario Galaxy is the only significant first-party release on the Wii, the best-selling console in the marketplace. That's all you can manage Nintendo? Going back to the NES, Nintendo systems could be counted on for the best first-party software. The quality third-party stuff may be rare, but you always could rely on Nintendo. Now its no contest, Sony's machine has the best first-party support and I'm not sure who to rank second but it doesn't matter.
Other than the previously mentioned Metroid title, the only other big Nintendo game we have to look forward to this year is Super Mario Galaxy 2. The first Galaxy was excellent so I'll likely end up a sucker and get the new one, but I'm not excited by it. It would be nice if the mainstream publications could start to rip into Nintendo but I just don't know if its going to happen. Nintendo could not have had a worse E3 than the one they had in '08, and '09 wasn't much better, but you wouldn't know it by reading IGN and Gamestop.
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I'll contrast with Madden, instead of MLB 2K because it's a more fair comparison. You'll see why in a minute. When the jump from ps2/Xbox was made to ps3/360, Madden rebuilt itself. Many people were lamenting the change , saying that if the game played like Madden on PS2 , and looked like 360 it'd be so much better than it is now. For some reason or other, the Madden team decided to "start fresh" on next gen, which led to the "The Great OS Engine Debates." (Transcripts available for $350 money order only made payable to me.) The verdict on that is that there is no single engine for a game and lots of different engines go into a final product (according to Ian Cummings). This is no different than how your car or pc works , as well.
The Show took a different route. They seemed to (according to an average gamer like me) stick with their "legacy gen gameplay," and have tweaked it, and added features, and more realistic outcomes every year. The criticism is now that the game is stale, and you can get a remarkably similar gameplay experience. Having bought a ps3 only 1.5 months ago, I will say this, and I'm not afraid to admit it...GRAPHICS MATTER. All of us who want sim style here on OS (I include myself), I think minimize what sheer beauty adds to a game. You will never hear me say the game plays the same on ps2 as ps3. It's immensely more fun and less boring on ps3. That's why this is a system seller.
There're many threads about stealing 2k's pitching mechanic because it's so darn fun. But, I ask, can they? Not that they aren't smart, the best at interacting with community and they make a SGOTY worthy game every year, it seems. It's not an insult. But I feel the game has such a delicate balance that even changing any part of the user interface may screw things up all wonky-like (technical term).
I'd like to start with the throwing meter; while improved, there is still a criticism that arms are not differentiated enough. For whatever reason, SCEA chose not to totally revamp throw speeds. Maybe it threw off sim stats, or led to too many infield hits, or they would have to slow the baserunners footspeed, thus the fielders, thus ball speed to the plate to get all the ratios right, and then it's an entirely different less sim game. I don't know. But since we've been clamoring for a throw meter, and last year's was plain broken, and this year's still doesn't answer a lot of those complaints (it seems), I'm going with a theory that SCEA has decided that a drastic change to the throw speed would mess up their game; I say this because I'm sure they know how to lower velocity on a throw, and have a user-button that does it.
Now, when we talk about a pitching mechanic using r-stick, what happens? Well you could tie it to the current meter, a la MVP NCAA. To me that wasn't that fun, BUT it would be a little different, and (it seems to me) you could leave the current meter pitching system basically intact. It would just be a matter of mapping a control differently. But if you were to take the 2k style pitching meter, that would make pitching competely different. SCEA says the pitching meter covers both velocity, intended location, and release point, giving realistic variation. If they were to switch to a "down and around" mechanic, what happens if I screw up a gesture going from 6 o'clock to 3 o'clock on my stick? Where does that mean I release the ball? Especially if the motion's release point isn't until 12 o'clock?
I think that what we are seeing is just a different philosophy in game development. SCEA has such a complex tapestry of a game that they're either only willing or ABLE to tweak it without it completely going haywire. We've seen this in throwing, fielding (just tweaking the OF to take a route around the ball instead of slowing them down completely), the throw meter (broken, and now to some not noticeable),and things like the pickoff mechanic where ratings "take over" and user control is eliminated. If the seemingly "small fixes" (and I have no belief that anything in programming is actually small), aren't implemented the way a lot of gamers would like (more user control), then I'm skeptical of them adding a big one. Madden is adding features every year, and trying to make SIGNFICANT changes to gameplay. NFL 2k5 was interception happy, but still felt like half a game in offline franchise. MLB 2k has been scrapped, rebuilt , scrapped, rebuilt, scrapped.
But I think in the end SCEA has found a successful formula , and would be wise not to deviate from it , as the developers who have, have been significantly punished.
Currently scheduled to release this summer, Natural Motion and their Euphoria engine will be releasing a whole whole new level of football game, Backbreaker. The Euphoria engine is said to be able to dynamically calculate physical interactions rather then play canned animations for every play on the field. This type of uncertainly is sure to give us the most realistic looking football action we have seen yet.
I'm excited about the release of Backbreaker, and I will probably purchase the game when it comes out, but my expectations for this specific title are surprisingly low. I don't expect this single title to upset the balance of power that currently exists in Sport's gaming, but I do expect to experience where football games will be going in the next few years.
Most everybody knows that John Madden football holds the exclusive rights to produce a National Football League (NFL) game until 2012. Everybody is hoping that license is not extended any further then that, and if things play out that way it is almost a guarantee that we would have a well made, full featured, polished NFL title running on this engine.
I'm not one who has become disenfranchised with Madden Football, I still love the game and purchase it year after year, I am simply excited for the direction all of my sports games are going with this technology.
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