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Does this year’s Madden deserve a Turducken leg?
The most consistent yearly criticism of Madden is that it doesn’t innovate, and it’s 95 percent the same every season. New annual editions are pretty much just roster updates, the criticism goes, because EA Sports, without any real pro football competition, can rest on its laurels.
This year, the Madden people seemed hellbent on beating those critics back. They promised an overhauled franchise mode, all new defensive intelligence, an all new collision system, as well as a shiny new presentation that promises to make the game prettier than Brady Quinn(notes).
They talked a big game. Did they deliver?
I’ll hit what I feel like are the important points here. You should know upfront that I’m a franchise mode specialist. I don’t dabble much in online play, Superstar mode, or Madden Ultimate Team, so if those are your areas of interest, I can’t help you much. If you’re a Franchise person, buckle in.
The Commentary
I hate to start with a criticism, and I know it isn’t fair to the rest of the hard work that went into the game, but the commentary here is a crime against the video game community. It’s inexcusable. It is worse than anything else is good. And I feel justified in talking about it first, because it’s the thing that stands out the most upon popping the disc in your console.
I can’t overemphasize how bad it is. The game commentary in Madden ’12 is the worst in any sports video game since this happened. It’s inexplicable that this happened in 2012. They might as well have hired this guy to do the commentary.
Gus Johnson will sound completely different from one statement to the next, with his soundbites clearly having been recorded at different times and at different levels. One sentence will sound like he recorded it clearly in a proper studio, and the next will sound like he smoked seven packs of Marlboro Reds and then recorded a cell phone call underwater. It’s jarring.
And not only is the execution bad, but so is the theory behind it. Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth are not the right choices for this. Gus yelling works perfectly well in a real, organic, exciting game situation. In a video game environment, where you’re trying to artificially match Gus’ enthusiasm to what’s happening in the game, it doesn’t work. It’s too hard to get right.
As far as Collinsworth goes, his style isn’t right, either. The long, meandering thoughts are great in the NBC booth, but when you apply them to a video game, and you’re hearing the same long things, said the same exact way, again and again and again, it makes you want to stab Cris Collinsworth in the throat.
In four straight games, he said the exact same thing about Antonio Gates(notes). It’s a long season. I’m not going to keep listening to that. And when he broke out the “Listen, I would never, ever want a block a d-lineman” paragraph that I heard 892,947 times last year, I was done.
I turned the commentary off. I’ve never done that before in a video game. I can’t imagine how the game developers let this happen.
Game Presentation
The pregame camera shots and in-stadium player intros seem like something the Madden people were really proud of this year, but to be honest with you, they have failed to move me.
It’s not that they’re bad. They’re not; in fact, they’re really good. But when you’re playing the game in franchise mode, and half your games are in the same stadium, it just loses its appeal really quickly. It’s nice, but how many times can you see it before you’re skipping through it?
I’d probably complain if they hadn’t changed it, either, but it’s my own opinion that that time could’ve been better spent elsewhere.
The Franchise Mode Improvements
This is the milkshake that brought me to the yard. I play almost exclusively in Franchise mode, and I felt like I was owed an upgrade here. EA promised a significant one, which they haven’t had in quite some time.
I don’t feel like I was shortchanged. There are changes, there are upgrades, and I like them. They’re maybe not as polished as they should be, but they’re there, and for the most part, they work. Each big franchise change gets its own section.
Cut Days
The first thing you’ll see is that you start with a 75-man roster at the start of each preseason, and you’ve got to cut players before each preseason game. If they’re rookies, you will not know exactly how good these players are. You get more information as you progress through each preseason game, but not enough to make a definitive call. You end up having to choose between cutting a serviceable veteran backup and a young guy who is probably going to suck, but might not. It forces you to make some decisions, which is what a new addition should do. I approve.
There’s kind of a way to game this little system, if you happen to not like it. During the free-agent bidding system (more on that in a second), you can just sign 16 or 20 guys with ratings under 50 to one-year deals with no bonus, and you can cut them in the preseason with no penalty. It’s not sporting, it kind of defeats the purpose, but it’s a way around it, if you want it.
But I like the cut days, and I’m slightly ashamed of myself for thinking of a way around it. I’m going to work on forgetting that.
Scouting System / Draft
The news isn’t as good on the new “scouting” system. There’s not much to it, it doesn’t ask a lot of thought of the user, and it doesn’t leave you with anything rewarding. Swing. Whiff.
When the draft rolls around, you don’t just see a list of players and their ratings. You see a list of guys, where they’re projected to be drafted, and that’s about it. Now, drafting is an inexact science, so I get the idea of pumping some mystery into the proceedings, but here’s the problem: You can scout as much as the game will possibly let you, and when draft time rolls around, you’ll have the complete rating on, at most, five players. You can have a few of the attributes of 20 or more guys, but those numbers aren’t particularly helpful.
I’m chalking this up in the fail category. It was a nice try, and you can see the idea behind it, but I just can’t get behind a system that leaves you so frustratingly short on information when draft time comes around. If you haven’t scouted a guy, you don’t have access to anything — his 40 time, his bench press reps, his cone drill, nothing. It’s like scouting in 1872, before the Internet, fax machines or even phones. You only know how good a guy is if you happen to be his neighbor.
Free-Agency Bidding
Swing. Boom. Maybe not a home run here, but a solid double. The off-season free-agent process you were used to is gone, and in its place is a system that’s faster, more exciting, and more fun.
It’s nothing that gets anyone any closer to realism, but that’s fine — I think we’re at the point now where things have gotten so close to real that it’s time to shift back towards things that are fun, whether or not they mimic reality. Many times, reality sucks.
When you start the free-agency process, you get a list of guys who are available, and the second that you or anyone else bids on someone, the clock starts. Two minutes later, the highest bidder will own that player. What makes it tricky is that every player is being bid on at the same time, and that can be a dozen or two dozen guys. If you get caught poking around looking for something in particular while you’re bidding on multiple players, the Vikings are going to step in and railroad you at the last second.
Think of it like this. You need to buy seven different things on eBay, and with each thing you need, there are two or three different options. Every single auction ends within about two minutes of each other.
It forces you to have a plan heading into free agency. If you need to upgrade multiple positions, if you go in and wing it, you’re probably going to get burned.
It feels like there’s room for improvement here, too. I don’t mean this as a complaint, but it definitely feels like the first year for this system. Which it is. But it’s a good system and a quality addition, and it’s got room to grow with some tweaks and little additions for next year.
Player Improvement/Degradation in Franchise Mode
A player’s ratings will jump or slide way more dramatically from year-to-year than they ever have in the past. Before, a guy would improve a little each year until he was about 26, stay in his prime for about five years, then start a slow decline. In Madden’ 12, you might have Chad Ochocino at an 84 overall in 2013, and in 2014, he’s a 72.
A guy can make an eight or nine-point jump, too. If he was riding pine before, and then he suddenly shines in a starting role, his ratings will jump. It better mimics the frequent breakout stars or immediate, Favre-ish slides into sucktown that we see in the NFL from year to year.
How The Game Looks and Plays
In a word, brilliantly. The game looks and plays brilliantly. After pounding NCAA Football ’12 into the ground for a month, it took a slight bit of getting used to, but that’s fine. That’s the way it should be. I want them to be two different games, and they really, really are.
The player movement, and the individual ways that different guys do different things is outstanding. Philip Rivers’(notes) weird from-the-shoulder throw is as different from Michael Vick’s(notes) cannon in the game as it is on your television. Even running styles and strides are different. You could spend days going through all the little variations and nuances in individual player performances.
Tackles and collisions are smoother and more natural than they’ve ever been, by far. You’ll play game after game and not notice a ton of repetition in the way guys are tackled or the way they fall. It seems like there are countless ways for one player to hit another, and it makes it really gratifying to have an aggressive, hard-hitting defense. I’m all for the player safety measures in the real NFL, but in the video game world, I want to make Wayne Gretzky’s head bleed for superfan #99 over here.
There’s also a new little gimmick in the game called “Dynamic Player Performance,” wherein a guy’s rankings will go up and down in any given game. It’s noticeable, and it adds an enjoyable wrinkle to the gameplay. You’ll notice that quarterbacks can get hot against you. You’ll also notice that if you’re beating them into the turf and maybe you force an interception or two, they will turtle and cry and not want to play anymore, at which point, you’ll just destroy them.
I’m sure there’s more to the Dynamic Player Performance than that, but the effect on quarterback play, to me, to this point, has been the most noticeable. I’ve also had a punter on a cold streak who couldn’t drop a ball into a specific area if he was playing bocce on sand.
Let me say this again before I start in with a few gameplay quibbles: The game plays magnificently. I’m trying to avoid letter or number grades here, because I don’t think those are fair, but if I had to, I’d give the action between the whistles an A. It is challenging, fun, smooth and nearly hiccup-free.
Nearly. There are still times when a fullback or pulling guard will run right past someone they should obviously block. This is officially now Madden’s longest-running feature. I am convinced that the CEO of EA Sports personally hates all fullbacks and wants them to look silly and has vowed to make them run right by potential tacklers in Madden every year until he is dead. It’s the only way to explain why this is still happening.
Also, replays and challenges don’t seem to work as well as they do in NCAA ’12. In dozens of challenged calls in the college game, only once or twice has the reviewed call not been accurate to what actually happened on the field. In Madden, the first two I saw were blown.
READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE HERE
By MJD
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/The-Madden-12-Review-Is-it-everything-it-shoul?urn=nfl-wp6154
Three years after announcing the game, Square Enix finally revealed Dragon Quest X in full. Contrary to popular debate and discussion, Quest is still coming to Wii as an online RPG, and it’s being developed in parallel to a Wii U version that will feature upgraded graphics. No doubt many will scoff at Dragon Quest coming to Wii and additionally to Nintendo’s new platform. Yet this one title will likely have a huge impact on how Wii U is received in Japan, and therefore across the globe. Simply put, you should care that Dragon Quest X is on the way.
Dragon Quest is a big deal in Japan. It moves systems. It sells millions. It is one of the few franchises (including Pokemon and Monster Hunter) that still draws an incredible amount of interest. Dragon Quest IX for the DS sold over four million copies in Japan alone. Its predecessor sold about the same, and is the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time in Japan. Dragon Quest’s appeal overseas is vast compared to any interest it draws elsewhere in the world, and it’s important to understand the type of ripple effect such a significant release can have. For whatever reason, the United States has seen franchises a decade younger, like Pokemon, take the world by storm. The Dragon Quest phenomenon seems clearly localized to its home country. But in a sense, that’s all it needs to do. In Japan, the game’s success feels inevitable. It is about as sure a thing as a release of Call of Duty is here in America.
That DQX is headed to Wii is, strictly in a business sense, irrelevant. Wii has already made its mark. Its best days are behind it, after one remarkable life. In fact it’s reasonable to question whether the title will see release for that platform outside of Japan at all. If Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi can’t get his epic Wii RPG, The Last Story, published in North America, will a Dragon Quest title stand much of a chance at least a year later? Probably not. To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t really matter. By the time 2012 rolls around, all eyes and energy will be on Wii U – the future of Nintendo’s endeavors. A title for Wii next year is certainly a pleasant thought for those fully exploring the system’s admittedly strong library, but it’s clear Nintendo and Square will be watching what happens with its upgraded version. At this point a Wii version feels almost like a pre-launch marketing campaign for another title, and a symbolic gesture those who bought the system for DQX.
Nintendo’s next console is another story entirely. A Wii U system with Dragon Quest X on the way is a very, very different sales proposition in Japan. Few titles can make a difference, and this is one of them. Dragon Quest games create momentum. That sounds like marketing speak, but the fact remains that it’s true. Systems live and die by the content that exists, the content that is coming and how gamers and publishers view both of those things. Software must also not only drive interest for itself but for the system as a whole. DQX does both of those things at once, and in this case, it also drives an online community. It even ties to Nintendo’s 3DS, creating a network between past and present, portable and console. Somehow it is everything Nintendo could want from a single game, potentially addressing some key weaknesses in the publisher’s strategy along the way.
Momentum, through sales or reputation, is critical thing in this industry. Dragon Quest X coming to Wii U immediately creates a killer app for the fledgling system, one that will convince gamers to buy, even if the game doesn’t arrive at launch. It simultaneously convinces publishers to invest their time in developing for the console, since they know the Dragon Quest series will drive sales. Consumers and publishers/developers want to know their investments will pay off – that the software and hardware will be where it needs to be, when it needs to be. DQX protects that investment. Source: http://wii.ign.com/articles/119/1192679p1.html
When Deus Ex: Human Revolution hit store shelves two weeks ago, thereby ending gaming’s annual summer drought of triple-A titles, critics welcomed it with the thirsty zeal of nomads discovering an oasis in the desert.
Almost immediately, the air around Deus Ex grew thick with rapturous reviews and game-of-the-year buzz. Critics didn’t adore everything about the game, of course—no one could fail to notice its exasperating boss fights and ancient-looking facial animations—but one element in particular won universal praise from public and media alike: its story. No less an authority than London’s Guardian declared that “Story-wise, Human Revolution is unimpeachable,” an opinion echoed everywhere from Game Informer (“Human Revolution weaves an amazing story”) to the typically caustic Destructoid (“Thoroughly engrossing story”) to user-review forums across the internet. (IGN’s review was more measured, claiming that the game’s narrative “holds together well.”)
This is high praise indeed, especially coming from the very same people who so often bemoan the shoddy storytelling in today’s games, where the best that players can usually hope for is that the cut-scenes won’t induce actual groans. Like most readers of these breathless reviews, I was eager to pop Human Revolution into my console and experience this lauded story. After finishing the game, I have one important quibble with the avalanche of praise for Deus Ex’s fiction, and I think it goes a long way toward explaining why video games typically have such unsatisfying narratives. That objection is this:
The sequence of events that takes place in Deus Ex: Human Revolution does not constitute a story. What it has is a plot, and the difference between those two, as a nerdy Mark Twain might say, is the difference between a lightning spell and the lightning bug.
Now, don’t get me wrong; my intention here isn’t to call Human Revolution out as a bad game, because it’s not. At least in this writer’s opinion, it’s a reasonably decent game with an excellent sense of visual style, neither a masterpiece nor a train wreck. (And while we’re passing out disclaimers, I’ll also note that I’m not going to spoil anything about Deus Ex’s plot for anyone who hasn’t played it.) My aim is simply to point out a common deficiency in game narrative—one that is by no means exclusive to Deus Ex—and leave the rest to the gaming gods.
So let’s talk for a moment about story.
Despite the differences that divide us as individuals, all humans have one thing in common: we know a good story when we hear one. The craving for narrative is encoded in our DNA; stories are how we make sense of the universe, and as such, we have an innate sense of what makes a story truly click. When a child says “tell me a story,” he doesn’t mean “relate to me a sequence of events.” He wants something deeper than that—not just to be drawn into a new world or to see exciting things happen (two things that games provide in spades), but to have a certain kind of narrative experience. Good stories give us characters who win our emotional investment, who develop over the course of the narrative, and who shed light on some aspect of ourselves. Good stories have a palpable dramatic arc that builds toward a climax. And by filling out these requirements, good stories also teach us something about the world.
The best storytelling games—Portal, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Enslaved, and Bioshock, to name a few—fulfill these needs so slickly that they cast a spell over us, drawing us through the narrative with a tug far more powerful than the simple fun of their gameplay. The John Marston we see towards the end of Red Dead Redemption is a different man from the Marston we met at the beginning, and because of that development, we care deeply about his fate. The escalating tension we feel as we draw closer to the lair of GLaDOS (a fascinatingly evolving character in her own right) more or less provides a master class in dramatic arc, which is what made Portal so miraculously satisfying. Plenty of other games have Old West gun-play or spatial puzzles, but these titles are genre-transcending classics because they tell us engaging, fully-realized stories.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution does none of this. The game’s protagonist, a tech-augmented corporate security chief named Adam Jensen, not only remains personally unchanged through the course of the narrative; he even pronounces every one of his lines with the same breathy intensity, no matter if he’s speaking with a friend or confronting a super-villain. Leaving aside the stiltedness of Deus Ex’s sections of dialogue—jam-packed as they are with bizarre emotional left turns, crazy gesticulating, and wooden voice acting—the overcomplicated narrative line also lacks a sense of propulsion. Human Revolution’s “story” is, at heart, a linear and impersonal series of events that fails to build. In other words, it has plenty of plot, meaning that a lot of different things happen over the course of the game, but these assorted incidents just don’t add up to much of a story. If anything, Deus Ex’s overstuffed plot suffocates its story, smothering all character development and dramatic arc under the giant, overstuffed pillow of its conspiracy-laden narrative agenda.
None of this is meant to disparage Deus Ex’s writers (who made a valiant effort to create something smart) or to toss a turd into the punchbowl of those who enjoy the game. For the most part, it deserves applause. Yet at the same time, Human Revolution is a perfect embodiment of what’s holding games back from providing truly affecting narrative experiences. The franchise’s very title, it’s worth noting, derives from the Latin phrase deus ex machina, or “god from the machinery,” which is used to describe a plot development that comes out of nowhere, solving an immediate dilemma but also tarnishing the overall story. Without saying too much, the end battle of Human Revolution is one hell of a deus ex machina, and the game industry as a whole suffers from a plague of them.
What we need—what we all crave—are stories that tap into real humanity, stories that drive their ever-developing characters toward climaxes that challenge them as people, providing a resolution that means something. If we ever hope to see the quality of narrative in games improve, it’s time to stop pretending that Deus Ex: Human Revolution and others like it fulfill these duties. It’s time for games to drop the plots and start telling stories.
Source: http://pc.ign.com/articles/119/1192668p1.html
This video says it all. Team Coco is awesome.
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