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Denver, 11:17 PM
Tue Nov 24
55 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/14/09
11/14/09
I won't be playing an NFL title again until Visual Concepts gets the license back. To hell with madden. #sports
11/14/09
11/15/09
Do people still update and download rosters for 2K5? I might go re-buy it, as I had Madden 10 and after playing it for two weeks returned it. It's a broken game. #sports
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
There needs to be some form of anti-trust action taken for this sort of stuff, lol. #sports
11/14/09
Still, I understand your frustration with a predatory business deal that has diminished the quality and quantity of selection. #sports
11/14/09
[www.nfl2k5rosters.com] #sports
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
And I think you're right, Owen, in that it has something to do with storytelling-- we consider that an essential criterion for a game that could win GOTY. Sports games simply don't tell stories; they create structures in which the gamer can tell a story. That, of course, brings us back to NFL 2k5, which used the ESPN format to come closer than any other football title to telling a story. It gets my nod as Sports Game of the Decade.
11/14/09
This isn't necessarily true. Real sports certainly do have narratives - multiple ones at any given time - and I would *love it* if any sports game really tried to model this in both a realistic (ie. non-cheesy) and in-depth way. Some EA games have started to do it; the whole "player happiness" and "media reaction" things are *parts* of the real-life narrative of sports, but these are basically just treated as score modifiers right now in most sports games.
It would be great if sports games had real, multiple storylines that ran throughout your career (so you could really get to "know" the players involved over the years), that changed depending on your actions, that affected gameplay and were an integral part of the game rather than an afterthought. Like, I want to see players shooting themselves in the leg at nightclubs in the off-season. Or deciding to retire, then un-retire, then retire again, then un-retire again. Throw some wrinkles like that into your team management!
This is probably the last frontier in sports games - everything else has been done. I feel like all EA's doing in all their sports games anymore is improving the graphics and adding a new move or two each year that just makes the controls more complex. #sports
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
People will have differing opinions on THE best football title but I think even Madden fanatics have to admit that 2K5 did things 5 years ago that Madden 10 finally implemented. So at the very least, it was a game ahead of it's time. #sports
11/14/09
2K5 was a great product at an even better price point, but it seems to me a lot of people are looking at the title with rose-tinted glasses because of their distaste for Madden exclusively adopting the NFL license. 2K5 was great, but it still was pretty arcadey because of not having momentum/physics built into the players -- you could practically spin in a circle. Still a great game, still had an unbelievably rich set of features, but I still prefer Madden 10, personally. #sports
11/14/09
My opinion should be taken lightly as I'm a casual football fan, but I too like Madden 10 and I think it is better than 2K5. But I have to say that it took EA years to get it right, and we are effectively comparing a game made 5 years ago to one made this year.
Just imagine us comparing Madden 2000 to Joe Montana's Sports Talk Football on the Genesis (still a fun game IMO). There's a world of a difference and for good reason. I can't say there is a world of a difference between Madden 10 and 2K5, though I do agree Madden 10 is better. #sports
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
I figure the games, or at least Madden, sell too well for this to even be considered, but we can dream I guess. It's a shame because given the extra time to sit in the oven, I can imagine these games being really amazing every time. #sports
11/14/09
There is a smaller group of gamers that play sports games that play all sorts of games. I used to be like that, but I don't play sports games that much anymore. There are many more otherwise well-rounded gamers that don't play sports games. People that have votes at magazines, on blogs, etc. for Game of the Year tend to be mostly the from the second grouping mentioned in this paragraph, and somewhat from the first. But the type of gamer that I mentioned in the previous paragraph is not likely to work for a gaming blog or magazine. So when it comes time to nominate, and then vote, sports games are going to be left out. Hopefully, a truly groundbreaking sports game that rethought the purpose (moving away from a telecast simulation, say) or completely rethought the mechanics (like SKATE did) could at least get nominated.
One solution I've seen that overcomes the groupthink that inherently results is to let individual writers and editors also publish their personal top ten, in addition to the collaborative list. #sports
11/14/09
11/14/09
Seriously, though, the thought you seem to have put into this is humbling. #sports
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
or is it "budd hating" in the sense that you hate budds?
Or is it "buddha thing" as in... well.. i wouldn't know as in what..
please clarify, it's driving me nuts #sports
11/14/09
11/14/09
I did the same thing with my custom soundtrack. Every time my team would sack the opposing quarterback the PA would play Tool's 'prison sex' track.
It was a double humiliation for my competition and it made me smile every damn time :) #sports
11/14/09
01/23/09
You know what this means, right? THE CONSOLE WARS ARE OVER! 360 wins!
I notice a lot of people are asking why there's no Wii love. If you ask me, Wii had quite a lackluster year among mainstream gamers, perhaps with the exception of Wii Fit. 2009 will hopefully be more interesting with games like The Conduit, Wii Sports 2, and, dare I say it? - Sonic and the Black Knight (the first one was half decent).
But putting "You Have To Burn The Rope" on the list? That took balls, Brian.
01/23/09
It's not popular with gamers to go with GTA IV, but nevertheless it's still one of 2008's best. Whether it's #1 is a matter of taste, opinion. The game has a lot of flaws, the relationship babysitting was overdone, and it seems like with most people the game either needed more San Andreas in a game not called San Andreas, or the storyline wasn't good enough. Hopefully Rockstar can find some way to satisfy more people next time without abandoning the great things they did in IV.