Madden and Me

With the NFL heading to to season kickoff, gamers are booting up the latest football video game, EA Sports Madden NFL 11. With updated rosters, a new play-call system and an extensive multiplayer mode, Madden promises to be the best one yet, however, the game is inherently broken and unplayable. How?

There is no save function for half played matches. With consumers age expanding, having a shorter and shorter play sessions, the ability not to save a match in progress is video-game blasphemy.

I have played Madden since the Sega Genesis, where my older cousins played each match for quarters. I am not the greatest one on one players, but I enjoy the franchise mode of comp stomp with my fantasy draft of stars.

The problem, as I grow older in age, I have less time to play and progress. In the past week, I had to quit three games in Franchise mode, Raiders v Seahawks, because either; my two dogs daily walk, time with my significant other and gym. In general, life would interrupt all of my Raider games (yes I roll Silver and Black.)

The only solutions was to either leave my PS3 on or have the ability to save a match mid-way. Leaving the PS3 on, as it hums like a gatling gun, provided to be useless, as the playstation is dedicated to be the entertainment provider of the household. Movies became unplayable, background downloading in limbo, as my PS3 became dedicated to saving a half finished game.

The functionality of saving a match is really a common cornerstone video-games. PC gaming has had the feature for years, from first person shooters, RPGs and Real Time Strategy games. Why does Sports games have to be behind the curve? Espcially in sport games like Football and Baseball, where the clock stops on certain plays or the game ends until there is a winner. My Madden games were lasting 40 minutes or longer, whereas FIFA matches last eight to ten minutes! The discrpency betweem games are huge.

So life continues to get in the way of my Madden matches, as Raiders v Seahawks has became a never ending nightmare of replays, and try again. For EA Sports, it is a feature worth implementing, as your audiences continues to grow. That, or suffer sleeping on the couch with on eye open on the lookout of a disgruntled wife for the rest of my adult life. How do you think I managed to get to week four in pre-season?

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Tiger Woods and EA Sports dire relationship

In a study released today by two UC Davis Economic Professors, Christopher R. Knittel and Victor Stango, detail the 5 to 15 billion loss Tiger Wood's sponsors suffered ten days after the now infamous November 27th incident. The report can be found here in PDF form. I have included a graph from the linked report below.

The 10 day cumulative decline by the sport related sponsors of EA, Gatorade and Nike saw a 4.3% decline or a 5.71 billion loss. Much money loss for all those "transgressions" and will shareholders continue to support any future endorsements that involve Tiger Woods? Evidently, there is a downside to a sponsors' celebrity spoke person in the video game industry. Will EA Sports continue to have Tiger Woods as a spoke person, or drop the golfer, and use a rotating cast of PGA members, as they do with their FIFA, Madden and their other sports series?

FIFA 10 UK Cover Athletes

Our British cousins, across the pond, website GamingShogun, has the scoop on the cover athletes, football stars that are to grace FIFA 10. Man U's Rooney, Chelsea's Lampard and Arsenal's Walcott are the coverboys.

Fight Night Round 4 Review

I believe words must be conquered, lived, and that the apparent publicity they recieve from the dictionary is a falsehood. Nobody should dare to write "outskirts" without having spent hours pacing their high sidewalks; without having desired and suffered as if they were a lover; without having felt their walls, their lots, their moons just around the corner from the general store, like a cornucopia...

-JL Borges 1926

There is only one sport near and dear to my heart I love, none other "the beautiful game." No on can agree on who coined soccer (other parts of the world, football) as "the beautiful game" however, everyone agrees soccer is special to the world. Playing roughly all of my adolescence on those green fields chasing a peppered ball to only place it in white net, and in college cheering wildly for our favorite national or club team with teammates. The beautiful game did not start with the "stars", but with the youth playing on grassy, dirt, and asphalt fields chasing a ball made of hope and dreams. A game is not won on statistics alone, but by securing goals. The English play with tactics, Germans with efficiency, Brazilians with flair and Americans with grit. Soccer by definition is a world sport.

Boxing is rarely about beauty, it pits two beasts, pummeling each other with jabs, uppercuts, and haymakers in 12 rounds that last 3 minutes long. Death is not a rare occurrence in the ring. The crowd present and at home want the drama of a knockout. We root for the challenger, and despise the champion. We hate the prettyboy, and marvel at the history of cuts and bruises of the old timer. Fighters win and primadonnas hit the canvas. A fight is won by knockout or by outpucnhing your oppenent, statistics matter. Boxing by definition is a mans' sport.





I never understood boxing before 1992, that is, until I saw my first Pay Per View championship fight. Julio Cesar Chavez, the Lion of Culiacan, defending his WBC Lightweight belt against the speedy challenger Hector "Macho" Camacho in September 1992. For me, Camacho had a few things going against him, he had too much flair, very pompous, and not Mexican, were the easiest of features only a 12 year old boy could dislike on a boxer. In my eyes, Chavez was the darling, the Champion, 81-0 record, a Mexican folk hero and a legend in the making. With Mariachi music as he entered the ring, all of us were in awe.

Being part of a youth traveling soccer team, weekends were spent in hotel rooms, prepping for a tournament of games in Sacramento, Fresno, Davis, Los Angeles and San Diego was never out of the ordinary. One particular weekend, the fathers could not imagine of missing a highly anticipated fight. After our second game of the day was over, we rushed to the hotel to shower, sped to a nearby eatery, and hauled ourselves back to the room to watch the Chavez v Camacho fight.

The fight is considered legendary, cat vs mouse, the stronger Chavez punishing the fleeing Camacho, as a cat toying with its prey. By the seventh round, Chavez was in total control of the fight, Camacho failed to throw in the towel as his ringside suggested, the challenger would last five more rounds surviving a bloody pulp assault to his face and figure.

It was probably the best fight a 12 year old boy could of witness as his first. There are a few first memories men will cherish, their first fist fight in the school yard (a bully named Ryan), first crush on a pinup (Cindy Crawford), their first soccer goal (five years old in AYSO game) and their first PPV Title Match.

I will always remember JC Chavez the way I did in 1992. A Champion, Pound for Pound best fighter in the world, and a folk hero Mexican. The scandals, the losses, the women, the ad campaigns over time would dent JC Chavez credibility in my eyes and countless of others, I hear he even has a junior who wants to fight PACMAN Pacquiao.



A couple of nights ago, memories began to fill my eyes with tears of remembered youth, as I knocked out Sugar Shane Mosley in the seventh round of a Welterweight title match in EA's Fight Night Round 4. Mosley leaned into a haymaker uppercut, Mosley falls, referee counts to ten, fight over.

Dante's Inferno Critique too harsh...

Sexy Videogame Land blogger, writer, journalist, and drunken podcaster, Leigh Alexander, opened the gates of hell, actually, she critiques EA Visceral Game's Dante's Inferno for being, wait, she actually does not critique it all. Leigh only points to other sites, like Kotaku's Brian Crecente, First Wall Rebate and Chris Remo's posts successfully pulling apart the foundation of what the IP is based on. Very gory, yet insightful posts. (Visceral Game's are known for Dead Space, The Simpson's Game, James Bond, Lord of The Rings, Road Rash, and the 16 bit Strike Series.)

But are we not putting the cart in front of the horse a little bit?

The Dante's Inferno, the game not the poem, is not even out yet, as it may be possible, the story can change during any moment in a game's development cycle, especially if it is a cut scene heavy type of game (God of War, Devil May Cry series were) they may be pulling the wool over our eyes this entire time. It is too early to pass judgment. Or is it?

I will, of course, criticism aside, jump in the pool since it is all warm and filled with chlorine.

One of the core arguments is the usage of the literally work being done so freely, as without any historical and literal context, as being wrong, "anti-intellectual" and uninspiring. I do agree, using the term adaptation is fool hearty, a better term would of been interpretation, as this is Visceral Game's interpretation of Dante's Inferno. Boobies and all. It is possible, since the greek god shtick is taken, what other religions did the team at EA could of use for their God of War clone? Egyptian? Uto-Aztec? Maya? Inca? Catholicism! A Call of Onuris game sounds compelling, fighting a ton of demon like creatures with the pyramids as Giza as backdrop, it does not have to be historically accurate, does it? Since Ubisoft has that 3rd Crusade thing going on for them, doh!, they also took the Renaissance, a warrior poet fighting the legions of hell sounds cool and all.

***

My wishes for the game are a bit different than the rest of us criticizing it, I would of like to have seen, the sins (demons, lust minions, babies) cast into hell were of videogame cliches, for example, when in the sixth circle of hell, a group of enemies will spawn behind the avatar and the camera or in the seventh circle we are shot by fireballs from an unseen enemy or in the eighth circle, death closets and shot kills! Do not forget grenade spamming, oh I hate that! That is how I imagine videogame Hell to be like, and to spoil the ending, instead of Lucifer chewing on the heads of the traitorous Brutus, Cassius and Judas it will instead be, Master Chief's, Mario's and Solid Snake's heads. Interpret that as any way you may!

***

The God of War comparison is not fair, because no one held any type of criticism to its revenge story, but there may have been thought provoking commentary if it was named the as the classical, Virgil's Aeneid. It was not. Dante's Inferno may get skewered and grilled, not for creating a work on a classical poem, and missing the ironies that made the said poem so celebrated, but only because God of War 3, and Bayonetta seem so compelling.

***

Left 4 Dead 2, Valve and the Tale of Two IPs

Earlier today at Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, Valve announced the sequel to their co-op zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead 2. PC Gamer has the exclusive print story and more details are bound to be announced at the EA Conference.

Valve has changed the way the way they support their IP's with the announcement of the sequel to Left 4 Dead.

I would say so, especially after the latest release of content to the popular online shooter, Team Fortress 2. Valve has released weapon add ons to almost every class, maps and even three new modes. With Left 4 Dead also received free content, the Survivor pack added two full campaigns of "Death Toll" and "Dead Air" for versus mode, as well as the survival game mode, where the survivors try to fight through endless waves of zombies. Why does the Left Four Dead 2 content, a year later of its' release,not added to the existing L4D?

The tale for Team Fortress 2, released in Nov 07, was a bit different, originally included in the Orange Box (Steam and retail) and later packaged as a solo sku, the free content received has trickled out of Valve for two years. If you add up all the content, Team Fortress 3 with updated visuals, could of been printed and released. Why do Left 4 Dead owners get the shaft, and also PC players who are accustomed to the free content of Valve, now have to pony up and pay for content that would been free? Considering one of the glaring issues reviewers and critics had for L4D as being too short.

How great will the backlash be?

Meet The Chicanator! From EA Burnout Paradise

Criterion has finally announced the remaining cars from the Burnout Paradise Legendary Cars pack. Rounding out the list, is the cleverly named, Calvary Bootlegger an homage to The Chicanator. But what the hell is a Chicanator, one might ask, since Spanish is not known to all.

A Mexican White Bullanator would have a better ring!

At first, I thought it was Chicana - tor, a Chicano(a) is someone of Mexican descent but born and raised in the United States, especially from the West and Southwest regions of the country. But why would Criterion name a car that is a knock off the famous Dukes of Hazard 69-70 Dodge Charger, General Lee, The Chicanator (The Confederate flag is replaced with the Mexican one). I know, the car is named the Calvary Bootlegger but what the hell is The Chicanator, a fictional tv character in who drinks and drives, slaps chicas asses, and saves Paradise City from a white haired industrialist?

Maybe it is not Chicana, but Chica. What does Chica mean, it can have different definitions, chica can be reffered as; girl, young women, or plural, darling, maid or to describe something as small or tiny. The most probable definition of The Chicanator is The PussyWagon or The Babenator (Babenator does not work, needs more syllables). So are all Mexicans, who generally buy American automobiles, a stereotypical chauvinistic macho women hungry man who also bootlegs liquor? The only bootleggers that exist currently in Mexico are the ones who create the illegal pulque, similiar to moonshine, makers are so poor, they have a burro rather than a Dodge...

I have a few better ideas for The Chicanator. How about a different homage, maybe a factual person like The Shermanator, named after the other famous General of the Civil War General Tecumseh Sherman, painted navy Federal blue and grey with Old Glory on her roof because if the car was named General Grant it would be an uproar. Or not. Too insensitive to our Southern compartriots.

The Chicanator will just fly over the heads of everyone else, Mexicans and Women gamers will not even know, heck, do latinos or women even buy HD games, or do they just play the Wii? What about a famous Mexican general, El Zapata, El Pancho Villa or even better, General Santa Anna, with some awesome hydrolics and a horn that plays a the famous mariachi song, Las Mananitas or El Rey, and painted green or red?

My favorite name, I came up before I typed this raving blog post, El Chonchanator or El Luchadore. I just can not decide!

Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box PC February 09 Release

"Just when I thought I was out, THEY PULL ME BACK IN!"

EA and Criterion have announced the release date of Burnout Paradise for the PC arriving in February 09.  EA has a checkered past with DRM issues, Crysis Warhead, Dead Space, Red Alert 3 and Spore.  Criterion's Alex Ward once claimed they will never do PC games and its overclockign shenanigans.  With Burnout PC, they seem to be moving away from DRM.

With Burnout Paradise, EA and Criterion will be distributing the a trial version for free, with a limited time demo all of Paradise City has to offer (download and dvd disc).  To purchase the full content, EA and Criterion have attached an ingame store, with a few clicks the trial version unlocks to the full retail game.  Details are limited, as the ingame store will be fully revealed in an upcoming CrashTV Episode. 

Are PC gamers going to be pulled into Burnout Paradise, a year after its console release?  Has EA learn its on how to properly handle consumers and DRM? 

Team Fortress 2; Heavy Weapons Pack

At the Team Fortress 2 blog, Valve has opened their pandoras box when it comes to creating the new weapon class packs. The Medic and Pyro both received boosts, which makes them more viable in offesnsive and defensive situations. Next up, is the Heavy Class, which is a considered a defensive class, with Valve asking what one can add to the class without unbalancing the game. What can the heavy use, without entroaching on other class abilities?

I came up with three weapons.
1. Brass knuckles, critical hits when hit from behind or side.
2. Saw Off Shotgun, bullets have a spray shot effect.
3. Minigun with nuclear bullets, have an effect of bouncing incoming enemies back, no crits.



An added weapon to included the already upgraded ones, would be a riot shield. This will enable the heavy to push forward and give cover to teammates. The riot shield witll asorb damage buil can detoriate over time. So a charge field can be implemented or can only be used once during a life.

UEFA UERO 2008 Game Video

How awesome is this Henry gol? So awesome

EA SPORTS™ Football World: FRANCE - GERMANY 2 - 0

FIFA 08 Review

FIFA has arrived, I have to give apologies to a series that I have ignore for its weak gameplay, and shameless licensing tactics. Having played FIFA 08 for two weeks now, my attitude has change for the better. The series that brought soccer to sportgamers, EA's football King has returned. Over thirteen years of multiplatform releases, FIFA 08 scores first and has the features to win the cup this year. The FIFA franchise has always been a cash cow for EA, what other videogame sport can handle three versions in a year every four years? EA dominated the soccer field in the 2d era, but always seem to behind a Beckham curve with Konami's Pro Evo/W11 3d dominance. FIFA's changes from previous installments create a simulated type of experience that makes FIFA 08 a go to player.

The most notable difference is the use of tactics, ie wall passing, through balls, and timed crosses helps FIFA 08 become more of a simulation sports game ala Fight Night than Konami's PES/W11 series. By slowing down the gameplay, FIFA 08 feels more authentic, plays like a real soccer game, takes tactics, smart passes, patience, all qualities found when playing soccer in real life, to succeed. One can learn how to play soccer by playing FIFA 08 on a game console.


Scoring has become harder, takes time, your passes accurate and well timed. Playing as countering team, one touch passes accurate through balls and crosses help your scoring chances as in real soccer. FIFA has removed the Maradona like gameplay of taking more than 6 players at once.

The be a pro feature is playable unlike other sports games. An immersive gameplay mechanic, be a pro, has bright spots but will need better AI. Favorite online feature, is the ability to save replays. Check out this awesome Eto GOOOAL.

FIFA 08 does need improvements in various areas. South american teams and tourneys need to be added, as well as, authentic chants, ref, and fans. The FIFA series can now start to delve into deeper tactics, by adding different through runs, such as; j runs, cut runs, and check in runs. With the slower gameplay, Pro Evo veterans will have a longer learning curve, but it is worth every second.

The beautiful game has arrived to your home game consoles, a must buy for any footie fan.

9.5/10

Madden 08 en Español

I just had to vent my frustration of EA and the NFL making a big deal about Madden 08 in spanish. I do agree it is a sign of the growing spanish speaking market in the two american continents, especially in North America. Still, I had to get a few things of my hairy latin chest.

Why does fifa, since the 2002 version, get both, english and spanish but madden in spanish has to be sold seperately and have its own "version"? Couldnt they just release both the english and spanish sets on one disc as they do currently with Fifa...

Also how is the game, "a high end educational tool for Spanish Speaking fans?" Is it released for North American spanish speakers or does include all the international spanish speaking countries, Argentina, Spain, or the Phillipines? Ingles con tu futbol americano?(It is confirmed to be only for the Americas)

Its kinda a slap in the face to native spanish speakers, saying that their english is so bad, that they need a videogame to perfect it. Especially when Spanish speaking countries are proud of their language. Do other developers release a game in French or German having the same spin?

Basically it is a no brainer that NFL have been edging bit by bit to win over Spanish speakers by bringing American Football for spanish speakers into videogames. Currently ESPN Deportes does show the monday night football game entirely in Spanish, which only lacks HD, since ESPN and ESPN2 are available to watch in 720P. Hopefully ABC/ESPN will implement HD Channel for their ESPN Deportes subcribers.

I believe the announcer, Álvaro Martín, His Blog on ESPN Deportes, does Monday Night Football and many other things on ESPN Deportes. ESPN Deportes is the Spanish-language service in the USA and other countries. He also does the Mexican Collegiate American Football(it is a tongue twister in spanish as well) announcing.

EA and Konami Red Carded

EA and Konami match suspension, why do these developers drop the ball and how can they get a 10 on their jerseys.



Ever since I first played GOAL!!!!! for the NES and I always imagined ways to improve the game, and have the same immersive feeling as live games. Here are my thoughts and rants on how FIFA and PES can make a comeback.


Since the name Fifa incoporates the word international, why does it seem the only "good" teams, national and club, are the european ones. The African and Latin American teams, who play a tu a tu (man to man), with any team in the world should not be ranked as low. Even the teams ranked by Fifa, For Fifa's Official Rankings Click Here, play musical chairs going up and down in rank. Ghana and Nigeria have been playing really well in the olympic and youth levels, so why the low rankings?

Thirty club leagues is good and all but when the leagues are second/third division teams in europe, and are ranked higher than Latin American and MLS club teams, shows EA's biased towards Europe. When one of the top leagues in South America is omitted (Argentina), then other Latin American clubs team will never make the cut. Including only River Plate and Boca Juniors, who by the way are two of the best club teams in South America, we miss the great teams of Colo Colo, Olimpia, Nacional and Once Caldas. Brazil did make the cut, for EA's Fifa 08, but the Five Time champions are not the only footballing nation in South America. Adding insult to injury, Boca Juniors, Copa Libertadores Campeones, are ranked lower than their UEFA counterparts. Foul play is involved, and should be banned from the game. EA and Konami need to add world futbol fans who do not have a bias towards Europe.



The music may be awesome in the loading screens and all, but what makes football so great is the fan chants. EA should put their attention to fan club sites and incoporate their team chants into the game. Cheering and jeering the home and away teams is good and all, but in the video game world of immersive atmosphere (Bioshock) lets add layers to the beautiful game.


Fifa and PES will never get a ten in my book, it lacks teams, especially from Latin America, authentic chants, and accurate rankings of the national and club teams. Omitting Ghana, who are one higher ranked African teams, missing from the line is a blemish to EA. Fifa and PES are a top sellers in Latin America, why not give them same treatment as Europe gets?