Not So PC
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
VISUALS
Visually I don’t really care for the player models. They just look off and the way they move reminds me clearly that I’m playing a video game. Some animations are nice but often they are jerky. Just watching a player round a base looks odd as they practically make right hand turns at the bags rather than a nice arc around them. The Show certainly does a better job of making it look like a real baseball game imo.
I think the stadiums look really nice and the colours are great. The fans in the upper deck are 2D but I only really noticed that once in three games. I played at Comerica, Target Field and AT & T (SF) and the stadiums all looked very nice to me. Again, the colours do stand out to me.
I do like the camera options for hitting and pitching. I haven’t played with the options much but they are nice. My biggest beef is with the fielding camera. What happened here? I thought the fielding camera in the 2K9 demo was great as it really zoomed out on fly balls so you could track them. This is much more of a zoomed in camera that doesn’t let you track them at all. It’s far more of a broadcast camera and there doesn’t appear to be any options. I’m definitely disappointed in that.
PRESENTATION/AUDIO
I think the commentary in this game is fantastic. The presentation is also excellent and that includes the organ music throughout the game. I’ve always been a sucker for organ music at a ball game and this is good. The atmosphere seemed great to me in all three games. When Kruk was talking about Morneau he mentioned that he was a Canadian and they don’t play many games in Canada. I thought that was cool and he’s right. The focus is on hockey up here and it gets colder sooner making baseball a summer sport only.
Can I say the menu system sucks? Why do I have to use an analog stick to move around? I did get used to it over the course of the night but I’m not a big fan. It would be nice to see what hand the batters are in the lineup somehow when I warm up my pitchers. Right now you just see the lineup and have to know them on your own. I don’t know the scrubs on most teams.
When you strike out someone the game often replays the pitch sequence for the entire at bat leading up to the strikeout. I thought that was pretty cool. The end of game stuff is really nice too. You can watch the Top 3 plays of the game along with selected highlights for certain players. As cool as that is, it would have been even better if you could record them! You can only record replays immediately after they happen and you can make highlight reels. I haven’t played around with this but it would be a lot better if you could save those highlights that they have available at the end of the game.
There is a slow motion camera that I left on. I think I only saw it twice in three games so it’s not overdone and I think it looks good.
Overall the presentation is excellent.
PITCHING
This is the biggest reason I decided to go with 2K10 this year. I needed a change of pace and the r-stick pitching does not disappoint. I’d say this is easily the strength of the game and it’s done better than I thought. Right now I’m not too good with the gestures and miss my spots quite a bit. I only walked one or two batters in three games because I was giving in. The hits and runs allowed reflected that. But I was certainly not pinpointing my pitches and my pitch counts were good. CPU hitters were working the count nicely. They would also chase good pitches out of the zone and I struck out at least two batters looking.
Furthermore, if I missed the gesture it wasn’t a meatball or a wild pitch. Most often it was simply a ball. You really have to blow a gesture for it to be a wild pitch which is good. In real MLB you should only see a wild pitch about every two or three games. This part of the game is a lot of fun. I love pitching with a zoomed out look behind the pitcher and I liked the way the catcher called the game although I often took my own advice.
I’m sure Pro will get easier for me and initially I thought pitching was too easy but I certainly ended up giving up quite a few runs. I gave up 5, 11 and 9 runs in three games. In my final game I was leading 4-3 until I gave up 6 runs in the bottom of the 7th. I put most of the blame on my weak stick skills at the moment but I do think the pitchers’ composure affects them too much when rattled in this game. There is a slider for this and I really think I will reduce this affect. Other than that I’m pleasantly surprised by how well pitching is done and the strategy with setting up the hitters.
BATTING
This area is mediocre imo. 2K10 has a very different feel from the Show which isn’t necessarily bad but requires a big adjustment for me. Pitches come in much slower but your bat speed is also slower giving it a different feeling. With the Show I always dropped the pitch speed to 0 since I find it too fast (I don’t understand the Show’s weak slider system). With this game I find the default pitch speed good and I actually dropped it a touch in my last game so I could draw more pitches and pull more balls as well. The slider is VERY responsive so I’m sure people can find a speed they like. I found myself hitting most of my balls up the middle or pushing them initially. But once you get used to it you can pull balls down the line although I still find more balls go up the middle.
Hit variety is not that good. I’d say 95% of grounders are automatically scooped by the infield or super fielding pitcher and are out. I did see two or three balls sneak through the infield but it’s certainly rare. You need to hit it to the outfield if you want to get a hit. A lot of balls did go up the middle although that was early on. I would caution people to not boost the pitch speed too much as I think it may get worse that way. The timing window shrinks and it may hurt this. I did see a nice variety of foul balls while playing. I don’t have any issues with that. I had read about the lack of doubles and triples so I had reduced fielder speed to 25 for all my games and I saw a triple and a number of doubles so I think that does fix that part of it.
I think there may be too much opposite field power but I’m not so sure. I hit four home runs in the game and one was a pull, one to dead center and two to opposite field. I used the power r-swing every time. I do like the r-stick system and I’m not sure how often you will hit a HR with a contact swing. I have a feeling I would like it to be more often but I did hit a couple strong doubles in the gaps with contact. I usually tried to power swing with my bigger hitters until I got two strikes. I’ve always been a timing only hitter so this system works fine for me.
One complaint I have though is that hitting a HR is a dead giveaway. There is no suspense since an arrow sits on the wall and the announcers comment on it usually. Some home runs were barely over the wall and I didn’t like the spoilers. I also felt that some of my home runs were too much like line drives and didn’t have as much arc to them as they should.
I was looking forward to trying out the hitter’s eye but it only works with the strike zone turned on. I had it off most of the time I was playing since I prefer a more natural look and that removes this option. I did see a green ball flash one time on my screen. Is that a meatball indicator? I have no clue.
Overall hitting was fun but increased hit variety and an infield that doesn’t suck up everything is needed imo.
FIELDING
This is easily the worst part of the game and the most disappointing to me. First I am disappointed in the fielding camera and that there are no options for something else. I’d like it to zoom out more on hits to the outfield, especially pop flies. Although it probably doesn’t matter what camera angle you use since this game is pretty much an auto fielding game. This is very annoying. I feel I have little to no control over my players when making plays. Other than trying to make the occasional dive with an infielder, they are sucking up balls before I do anything. Pitchers suck up almost any ball around them too although I did have one ball get by the pitcher and infielders on a ball up the middle. The outfielders have super suction that does all the work on routine pop flies. I don’t want auto fielding with a manual throwing system. I just don’t like the way the game does this at all.
Furthermore, in three games I have yet to see a single error by either team. No throwing or fielding errors. I haven’t touched the sliders here but I will certainly have to as the default settings on pro are not good in this area.
Maybe this is a 360 issue as I don’t have a problem with the strength of the player’s arms. With the speed of the base runners I think it’s been fine. They might be too accurate but I saw plenty of players score from second to home on singles including slow ones with nobody thrown out. I know I had read complaints about fast players being gunned down at home on bloop singles but I didn’t see this at all. I did have Magglio get thrown out at first on a hard one hopper to right. It was annoying seeing the cpu even attempt the throw to first from the outfield as this is extremely rare in baseball. However, I don’t see that as an outfield arm strength problem as much as a defensive positioning problem. It seems to me that both the infield and especially the outfield play way too shallow. In MLB most outfielders play near the wall and try to guard against extra base hits. In 2K10 the right fielder seems to want to play shallow to have that quick throw to first.
GLITCHES
I have to say that I saw two bad base running errors including a glitch and both happened in one game. On a gap shot to left center the cpu had a runner on first. He was way too timid in running as though he was worried it would be caught but it wasn’t even close. The runner only ended up on third but the batter stayed at first. This was a ball that was up against the wall in left center and he could have had a cup of coffee on second. That was odd. Worse was soon after when the cpu had a runner on second and the batter also ran to second and just stopped about 15 feet short of the bag. My third basemen had the ball so I simply ran over and tagged him out. He never even moved.
OVERALL
This game is a pretty decent game. I think the player models and animations could be better but the presentation is top notch. I think the selling point of this game is the pitching system. It’s a lot of fun AND I think produces great results. Hitting is a mixed bag as the hitting variety could be better. It is hurt by the super suction infield. The fielding needs a lot of work. I’m not sure how much of that I can take after playing 50 or more games. It definitely needs to be patched to allow more user control and I would love more camera options on defence as well. So far the game has probably been about what I expected and that’s decent. Not great but not bad either. I will keep on playing this game as I had fun in the 3 ½ hours I played last night. I’ll see how much fun I will be having in a couple weeks.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Many fans of the Show will flock to the stores and buy it on day one. I won’t be one of them. I consider MLB ’09 to be the best baseball game I ever played. It wasn’t perfect but it was better than anything in the past. I expect MLB ’10 to be a great game. But will it be significantly better than ’09? Everyone will have a different opinion on that. Some of the bigger changes like catcher mode in RTTS, online leagues, franchise mode improvements or broadcast camera angles may be a big reason for someone to love ’10 much more than ’09. Those things don’t do much for me. I am looking forward to real time presentation (RTP), the fix of DH fatigue and the new Minnesota stadium. Will those improvements justify paying $60 for the game? Possibly.
How the pitch speed slider works is important to me. I have slow reflexes and play with pitch speed bottomed out. Any increase to this will hurt my enjoyment of the game. I need to ensure this hasn’t been changed for the worse for me. I won’t go back to the way ’08 played. Will I see more fielding errors than last year which were almost non-existent? I certainly hope so as it drove me nuts initially. The fielding error slider didn’t even work right last year. I’m hoping that got fixed. Until I play the game and double check that certain pet peeves are fixed I will not blindly buy this game.
Call me old and cranky but sports games are no longer automatic purchases anymore. They have to justify a new purchase with more than a few minor upgrades and a roster update. Everyone has a different opinion but mine is the one that matters when I open my wallet. And I need to see evidence before I buy.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
I left my hitting camera alone but I've pitched from the pitcher ('07 and '08) and outfield ('09) camera exclusively the last three years. This is where I've felt the most bored with the game lately. But I switched to High and I really struggled. It's a behind the batter view (which is obviously a big difference) but a bit higher up so it doesn't feel like the hitting camera I use. I was really struggling to hit my spots and that felt good. Plus the transition to the fielding camera is a bit nicer.
I think we could fix a burn out with any sports game by changing camera angles up from time to time. Your enjoyment of a game is really tied into the fun factor and preference of particular camera angles. Take heed EA and your football teams! Some people like high camera angles. Some like low ones. Some like the action zoomed in while others want a zoomed out look. Try to cater to everyone!
And what’s with these people in the before pictures? I know you are being paid to sell a product but I always find it hilarious that in the before pictures people are so depressed that they can’t smile, put on makeup or comb their hair. In the after picture, people are all smiles, neatly groomed and sucking in their guts and flexing. Anybody would look better doing that – with or without the P90X.
So I hope all you people doing this program are doing great. And don’t forget to take before and after pictures to sell to the company. Any day now your face could be one of 100 ads popping up on my internet annoying me.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Is the Universe a Friendly Place?
Dr. Peter Jensen talked about a lot of things, many of which can help your personal life. He talked about eliminating stress. He talked about how to get the most out of your abilities. He talked about learning more about yourself. Einstein once asked the question, “Is the universe a friendly place?” The truth is that each of us will answer this question differently. Some will say yes, others no and some maybe. There is no wrong answer. You just have to know how you answer it and how that can affect your decision making. Peter joked that his wife asked him, “Why are you always so defensive when students question you?” He replied, “I’m not being defensive!” Knowing that you may behave like this can help you make the changes necessary to improve. A person can’t change from being a negative person to a positive person. But if you truly recognize the areas that you are weak in, you can adjust.
Managing Stress
There are many ways to deal with stress. One of the best ways to deal with it is only worrying about the things we can control. Worrying about things we can’t control does no good. Peter joked that we shouldn’t worry about the problems in this world. His mother-in-law does that for everyone. The old expression, "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” is a truly great one.
The other ways to deal with stress are to maintain relationships and discuss our problems. Women live at least five years longer than men. And a significant portion of that is due to men’s inability to discuss their problems and deal with stress. Studies have shown that the best support group for a cancer patient is other cancer patients. Shocking! Talking with people that can understand your problems is a tremendous benefit.
The Power of Visualization
People do not realize the power of visualization. It can have a significantly positive or negative affect on your body and your ability to deal with adversity. Constantly beating yourself up over mistakes only creates more stress and problems. There was a study where athletes had their brain patterns analyzed when committing a mistake. They studied the neurological affects from a physical error and then had the athlete visualize the same mistake. They found it had the same effect on the body. So when an infielder boots a ground ball and then relives it in his head another four times, he’s actually committed that error five times. He needs to let it go much like a cornerback who got beat on a touchdown pass. Noted speaker Ben Zander has stated that after every mistake we should say, “How fascinating!” We learn through mistakes. Taking risks and aspiring to be great are positive things so don’t dwell on the screw-ups.
A post-Olympic study of Canadian athletes showed clearly that those who did their personal best at the 1984 Olympics used mental imagery two and a half to three times as frequently as those who did not perform up to their expectations. The four minute mile was once a psychological barrier. Nobody thought it was possible until Roger Bannister did it in 1954. But as soon as he did, that barrier was broken. Within 46 days someone else broke four minutes. By the end of 1957, 16 runners had done it. You can’t do it if you can’t imagine yourself doing it.
Change Your Perspective
Sometimes we allow ourselves to get frustrated. We get angry or stressed and our body and mind tenses up. When our adrenaline kicks in, our mind can lose the ability to process a lot of information. Ever got into a heated argument with someone and minutes later wished you could have remembered some key points that seemed to go blank in your mind? It’s because you were too hyped up to process things properly. There are times when we need adrenaline to have key focus and there are other times where we need to use techniques such as breathing or refocusing to regain our composure so we can perform at a high level.
Dr. Peter Jensen told a good joke.
One day a mother was driving her seven year old daughter to school. The daughter turned to the mom and asked, “Where are all the bastards mommy? I don’t see any bastards.” The mother replied, “They only come out when your father drives.”
The father viewed every driver on the road as an annoyance which raised his stress level. The mother chose to remain calm. Instead of allowing some things to annoy us, we need to relax and refocus. Allow ourselves to become an observer rather than just viewing a tough situation in a first person perspective. “Act as if” you know what you are doing. Some guys have a tough time approaching girls as a teenager. When approaching a girl you can act like the no-confidence dork you feel like. Or you can act as if you are cool like some other guys you have seen. Act as though you know what you are doing. Visualize success. After winning a major Johnny Miller once said that it wasn’t just him that won it. Whenever he was looking at a tough shot, he visualized another great golfer making a similar shot from memory. Everyone gets nervous. You are not your feelings. Even though you may be nervous, you don’t have to act like it or let it govern your actions.
How We Deal with Challenges
When Bell was declared a monopoly and broken up into smaller companies, many middle management employees had their livelihoods threatened. A total of 207 of these managers were studied over the course of seven years to see how they handled it. They examined the differences between those that ended up getting promoted and being successful versus those that languished behind. They found the floundering managers had seven times the amount of sick time used as the successful ones. This wasn’t a case of the lousy employees dogging it. This was an example of how negative energy and worrying actually affects your physical well being. The mind and body are connected.
When faced with challenges, you can choose regressive coping or transformational coping. Regressive coping is negative. “Why me?” “Why can’t it go back to the way it was?” These types of questions do not help deal with your problems. The successful managers took a more positive attitude. “What skills do I need to learn to be successful?” “How can I use this opportunity to better myself?” We can choose how we deal with challenges.
Conclusion
This experience was great. Dr. Peter Jensen told quite a few good stories and provided some great examples of how we can challenge ourselves to better deal with the issues we face. Hopefully some of these comments will be useful for anyone struggling with stress or problems either on the court or off of it.
Friday, November 6, 2009
I own a PS3 and my family does have a Wii which largely collects dust. The party types of games are hits for parties but that’s about it. A good first party game with poor graphics comes out once in awhile to keep people interested but there really isn’t much to like for a sports gamer other than Tiger Woods. This machine feels like it was entirely created by hype and somehow Nintendo has ridden this propaganda into massive profits that Microsoft and Sony will never come close to matching. Nintendo can make all kinds of claims about the Wii. It’s a great party system! It’s a workout machine! It’s unique since you have to shake your wrist at the screen! Their commercials even show grandparents joining in on the fun. And every time I see that crap I just shake my head. People get suckered into an idea that the Wii is great fun and then this overpriced console gets used once a week and pads Nintendo’s profit margins.
Call me a bitter fanboy and you will be right. I take delight in seeing Wii sales down 40% from last year and I hope they continue to fall. I want the gaming industry to focus on making high quality games with high quality graphics for myself and not some glorified stick figure game for a seven year old. Nintendo is innovative and creative. Nobody can dispute that. Nintendo is also the next gen console leader without question. And that makes no sense to me.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The original Uncharted was a sleeper hit that eventually sold well over two million games. It was a third person shooter that featured a good shoot and cover system and solid gameplay. But what really sold people on the game was the story and character development throughout. This game felt like you were playing a movie rather than a video game. The musical score was fantastic and the graphics were solid. Throw in some platforming, treasure hunting and a little puzzle solving and you had one of my favourite games of all time. You were Indiana Jones without being Indiana Jones and who doesn’t love Indy? Or should I say who doesn’t love Nathan Drake?
How Does the Sequel Compare?
Uncharted 2 has many similarities to the original game. We still have the same cover and shoot system that worked well in the original. There are still many different guns you encounter over the campaign to keep things interesting as well as provide strategy options. The game forces you to choose between short range, long range and clip capacity and you can only hold two guns at once (a hand gun and a large gun). Thankfully the game removed the six-axis controls for grenades making them easier to use.
There are a few improvements to the game from the first one. First, the graphics and locations look great. You can be fighting in the jungle, a burning city or find yourself in the middle of a snow storm. Each environment feels unique, looks great and often has different objectives. The original Uncharted seemed to bog down a little near the halfway point due to excessive fighting in the jungle. The sequel does a better job of mixing up the locations and it keeps the game feeling fresh throughout rather than repetitive.
Second, stealth is now a true option and occasionally a necessary one in gameplay. You can sneak up on a bad guy and take him down without causing a scene. This certainly helps level the playing field when facing numerous enemies. You can still choose to shoot first and ask questions later but it’s a subtle improvement to the game. I personally like throwing a guy off a ledge without using my gun.
Third, the hand to hand combat got a bit of an upgrade. While still using only a single attack button (square), you do have a counter move button (triangle) that can make hand to hand combat more fun. While the game still centers on gun play, hand to hand combat is used a little more than the original which rarely required it.
Game of the Year?
So with all these improvements, is Uncharted 2 better than the original? As with all sequels, they face a challenge when trying to out perform an original that was loved by many. I loved the original and there are a few things with this game that held me back from stating that it was better than the first.
Too Linear
Parts of this game were simply too restrictive for my tastes, particularly the first half which I found slightly disappointing. The original Uncharted was linear but not to this extent in my opinion. The Uncharted series is not a sandbox environment but this game featured so many cut scenes and animations that it sometimes felt scripted. In the opening sequence alone, climbing the train was full of animations of the train falling apart. You have to wait for an event to play out before regaining control of Drake. Is this great story telling or an example of the lack of control over your character and outcome? Another example of this is a fight that the game requires you to use hand-to-hand combat. Never mind that I’ve pumped a few rounds in a guy that has no armour – this has zero effect. I have to wait for him to charge me and then engage in hand to hand combat. Often these cut scenes and animations are great but the scripted feeling did bother me at times.
While I praised the new locations as being more varied and less repetitive, they are also smaller and more restrictive in design for the first half of the game. Exploration seems to be an afterthought. There is always a burning bus or a closed gate preventing you from checking other areas out. The original game also restricted access but you could usually backtrack to where you came from after a gun fight to fully explore for treasures. The sequel pushes you forward constantly. Often times a leap from a building results in the platform falling down preventing you from jumping back. Many times a door gets closed, the floor caves in or the previous path seems to get cut off somehow. Keep it moving is what the game is screaming at me! You have to get to the next cut scene to advance the story! The first game certainly had elements of this but not to this degree. There is a more frantic pace in this game than the original. Some may like that while others may not.
Furthermore, the smaller environments of the first half lead to more cramped fighting areas. We get a bunch of quick gun battles in tiny spaces that don’t require a lot of strategy simply because you can’t move anywhere. The second half of the game was much better for my gaming habits. The environments were bigger, we got some epic gun battles over large areas and the pacing seemed to be a little less hectic. I just wish they would have spread these areas out over the entire game a little better.
Treasure Hunting
Treasure hunting is frustrating in this game. Normally I am not much of a trophy or treasure hunting nerd. But I found myself searching like crazy for them in the original. I would spend all kinds of time looking for them and got 38 out of 60 in the original (41 the second time). It was fun. The sequel made it frustrating as they were too hard to find. I felt like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Uncharted 2 has 100 treasures but I was only able to find 34 on my initial play through. And that was mainly due to a few chapters leaving out some easy treasures to pad the stats.
Overall Thoughts
Uncharted 2 is a very good game that every PS3 owner should experience. It’s similar to the first one and the story and development of the characters is second to none. If you loved the first game you will probably love the second game. The graphics are outstanding and the varied locations add to the overall enjoyment. However, the first half of the game was just too linear and scripted for my tastes to consider one of the greatest PS3 games ever made. The original Uncharted still has a special place in my heart as my favourite PS3 game of all time.
86/100
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
So why were TV networks in such a rush to hire this guy? He WAS a great announcer. But that was because people trusted and valued his input as a former player and talking football head. The credibility he once had with viewers is gone. While Millen may still make relevant points while working on college of NFL games, how can anyone take him seriously? When he talks about how great a player is should I believe him or laugh since he proved in his time in Detroit that he knew nothing about what makes a player great? When he talks about what a team needs to do in order to win, should I take that advice as better than mine or just hit the mute button as his dismal winning percentage with the Lions proved he doesn’t know what it takes to win?
SI’s Peter King feels Millen’s past reputation as a great announcer should be maintained despite what he did in Detroit but that’s foolish. If you thought your financial advisor was great and he went bankrupt, would you keep listening to his advice? Absolutely not. You’d pull your money and move on. Matt Millen is a not a football genius. He’s just another talking head without a shred of credibility. I can no longer stand listening to him.
Monday, October 12, 2009
The guy chose OhioState while I had Miami. I had no problem with that and he seemed like a better player than me. If he would have just played real football, he probably would have won. I knew he wouldn’t do that from his first possession when he ran a fake punt on 4th and 10 and tried to convert with a pass from the punter (he failed). He then went for it on 4th down twice on his next possession to score a TD. This guy just didn’t believe in a punter. I was down 14-7 at the half as I struggled on offence.
In the second half I return a pick 80 yards for a TD to tie it at 14-14. On his next possession he tries to no huddle me on 4th and 16 from his own side of the 50. He fails to convert the first down and then promptly quits. What a douschebag.
There are so many advantages to playing offline only. You can tweak sliders, play whenever you want and don’t have to worry about cheese. The only advantage to playing online is to hopefully get a smarter opponent. Instead I get an annoying one. So it’s back to my offline cave for another couple years.
Monday, September 21, 2009
There seems to be this level of anger against the Wildcat that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It’s as though proponents of the NFL feel their sport is denigrated by anything other than a pro-style attack. People laughed at Mouse Davis for trying to bring the run n’ shoot to the NFL and they hoped he would fail. It didn’t work out that well but at least the Lions offense scored points and moved the ball. Could you imagine if a college coach like Urban Meyer moved to the NFL and tried to implement his version of the spread? Whether or not that would work as a full time offence is certainly questionable but the amount of hatred and ridicule he would face would be high.
Urban Meyer had this to say about the NFL and it’s aversion to the spread. "I think it (the spread) would have worked years ago," Meyer said. "No one has had enough - I don't want to say courage - no one has wanted to step across that line. Everyone runs the same offense in the NFL. A lot of those coaches are retreads. They get fired in Minnesota, they go to St. Louis. They get fired in St. Louis and go to San Diego. I guess what gets lost in the shuffle is your objective is to go win the game. If it's going to help you win the game, then you should run the spread."
Andy Reid faced criticism for throwing the ball a lot with Brian Westbrook in the backfield years ago. Those criticisms faded because his offense worked. Any different offense that doesn’t work will get crucified. If you run a standard offense and suck, that’s fine. At least you are doing the status quo. It’s similar to the basketball coach that gets fired for losing too many games 125-120. The basketball coach that loses all his games 85-80 is much smarter because he played good defense. But both coaches lost by 5. Does that argument really make sense?
The NFL once thought the forward pass was terrible. Running the ball was the way the sport was meant to be played. But times and rules have changed. Fans want to see more passing and the rules were changed to allow receivers greater separation. You started seeing shotgun formations, situational substitutions and multiple receiver sets become standard. College football was slow to change but now seems to have overtaken the NFL as leaders in innovation. There are a ton of ways colleges attack on offense. From a standard pro set to the triple option to a variety of spread attacks by the likes of Urban Meyer and Rich Rodriguez. They have shown that using extra quarterbacks with a different skill set can be a positive and not an afterthought.
The NFL shouldn’t dismiss the tremendous variety of offenses in college football as a fluke or a fad. They aren’t going anywhere. Rather than lament how these non pro-style attacks affect draft projections, maybe they should look at using them in the NFL. The spread, triple-option or Wildcat may never be full time offenses in the NFL. But there is no reason those concepts can’t work on a part time basis. The Wildcat may not surprise anybody anymore but neither does a dive play out of the I-formation. Both require people to block and tackle. The only difference is one set of plays is accepted by NFL snobs and the other isn’t.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The graphics are a lot better than the first game although I find the audio seems to jump volume between stuff (too quiet and too loud depending on cut scenes). I do turn up the character voices and turn down everything else a bit to hear the characters easier during the fights.
The sequel is largely the same as the first game plus fusion powers so if you like the first game, you should like this game as well. I must say the Fusion powers do add quite a bit to the game. Quite often the bad guys will swarm you and it's great to use a Fusion power to wipe them out. For those that don't know, there are 3 fusion powers: clearing, guided and target. I don't use guided too often which is a decent fusion but I stick to clearing which does a smaller amount of damage but a large area. Perfect for clearing out the ton of drones that can overwhelm you at times. The target is good for bosses to isolate one person and do a lot of damage. Lots of different combos between characters but it can be hard to pick the one you want since the action is usually nuts and I hit the L2 button and quickly scan my teammates to see which fusion effect I can use (it will show Target = circle, Clearing = X, etc. over the guy's heads). You can load up to two fusions in your meter at a time from beating up bad guys so it's definitely something you need to save when you really need it since you can't just do them whenever you want.
The story is done well too. They really did spend a lot of time on cutscenes, the characters and voice overs. I'm still early in the game but this looks to be a nice improvement over the original game.
My team is usually a flying guy, two medium guys and a slow but strong guy. Thing is perfect for my strong guy and I will gladly use the Hulk there when I unlock him legitimately (he's very similar to the Thing if you use the Hulk cheat). Wolverine is always a favourite for a medium guy but I will also be using Deadpool when I unlock him soon (my son has him already - did that part legitimately twice due to corrupt save). Captain America is good but I'm souring on him as I'm leaning pro-registration.
Gambit is OK but I barely know him. I love Spiderman from the comics but I don't really like his powers that much. A little too quick and not quite enough of a basher.For flying guys, there are quite a few to pick from. From the first game to this one I like the Human Torch and IronMan. Both are very similar in this game although Iron Man gets the nod because he's stronger and can pick up cars. But both have shooting powers and a radius power move where they can knock down anyone around them. Storm is cool but I don't quite like her powers as much. She has lighting strike down which is OK. She doesn't have a radius move but does have a powerful wind move where anyone in front of her gets blown away. That is a better move IF you can ensure all the bad guys are in front of you. Ice Man is pretty cool too. I'm going to have to use him more. He has a fusion with Wolverine that leaves ice all over him.
Ms. Marvel looks good and is pretty cool to use. You automatically get three powers with her. Both the Hulk and the Thing have a couple strong smash moves to use right away. Thing's third move is a rampage/charge move. Definitely better than Luke Cage who I know nothing about and isn't as easy/good to use. Wolverine was sweet last time and sweet this time. Quick and very powerful strikes.
I would agree that the difficulty is too easy. I do think Super Heroic is perfect for me right now. That's the hardest difficulty available until you beat the game. I've had one or two people die on me quite a bit but I usually can revive them right away because there are constant heal/revive tokens you pick up along the way (can only hold two at one time). I like the challenge of a harder difficulty set.
Tried the basic simulator today and that was good for teaching me the different combos available in the game. One of my favourite moves is just grabbing a drone, then giving him two light shots and a heavy shot while holding him. That easily kills them on the lower difficulty levels but doesn't usually finish the job on Super Heroic. Luckily a quick (light attack) foot stomp on them after you toss them will take them out.
Definitely liking this game so far. If you liked the first game you should own this one. It's a nice change of pace from sports games and I love the freedom of playing 20 minutes or 2 hours. It's not a strategy game or anything like that. It's a full on arcade game full of action that is just fun to play. CFav worked on this game and has also made some comments in the OS forums here: http://www.operationsports.com/forum...iance-2-a.html . Join the party!
Monday, September 14, 2009
I do miss the old days where you had truly great teams and great matchups. The old 49er and Cowboy teams with Montana, Young, Elway, Watters/Craig, Emmitt, Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin were great. And that's just on offense. On defense you had Haley, Deion, Lott, etc. The salary cap era has deluted every team to the point where you will NEVER see a collection of talent like that again. Today's teams all have weaknesses. It's very rare to find a team that is truly good on both sides of the ball.
Teams bash baseball for the lack of revenue sharing and how some franchises suck year after year. There is a lot of truth to that. The NFL's revenue sharing is what has made it successful and the #1 sport today. But I think it goes a bit too far. I want dynasties to stay together longer before the cap breaks it up. I wish the NFL would have some sort of Larry Bird rule where teams could sign their own free agents at a discount against the cap and keep the great teams together.
New England would have never traded away Richard Seymour to the Raiders if it weren't for the hard cap. Why isn't Marvin Harrison still a Colt? Competitive balance can be fun but dynasties and flagship franchises are still important imo. I'd love it if the Cowboys were great every year. People could love them or hate them year round. It's far better than apathy which is what I felt looking at my TV Guide this Sunday.
Friday, September 4, 2009
There are three different groups of buyers for video games. The first group is the guy that buys the game day one. It doesn’t matter when you release the demo as these sales are unaffected.
A second smaller group are the guys who are probably not going to buy the game regardless unless you knock his socks off. How does a bad demo boost these sales numbers? Only a great demo can pull these sales in.
Lastly and most importantly, there is a large group of gamers sitting on the fence trying to decide if they should buy, rent or pass on a particular game. Does it really matter if these guys get a demo two or three weeks before the game comes out? I don’t think so. What really matters is getting a good demo in their hands and generating strong word of mouth. That’s why a later demo based off the final and largely bug free code would help the most. A bad demo that annoys this consumer will largely hurt sales so why release them so soon?
A side benefit is that valuable development time before a game's release isn't spent on creating the demo - it's spent on the actual game! When the game is done, then you have time to create the demo disc properly. Other than pleasing the impatient gamer, myself included, I see too many negatives of early and crappy demos.
Most sports games are released weeks ahead of the actual season they represent. Having a fully functioning demo come out after the retail release but still before the actual season starts would be best. This would give the fence sitters a much better demo to judge and probably boost sales. Seriously, how on earth does an early but crappy demo help sales at all?
Thursday, August 6, 2009
When a team has two good running backs like Miami has with Javarris James and Graig Cooper (or Clemson last year), the cpu should try to make sure the second running back gets on the field more often through packages and substitutions. Both backs need to get more touches. When you only have one great back, he should get all the touches.
If a quarterback like Bradford got hurt, shouldn’t Oklahoma try to run the ball more? Or if a scrambling quarterback like Tyrod Taylor got hurt, the cpu shouldn’t run the same plays with the backup if he’s a pocket passer. Even better, if two quarterbacks are evenly rated but one is a scrambler, would the cpu ever bring him in for a series or two to run a different offense?
Whenever we do get formation subs back in NCAA, pass rushers should be subbed in on obvious passing situations if warranted. The MLB should not always be the default LB in the dime package. Put the best player there and for the best situation.
The computer needs to recognize and utilize all the talent on the team properly. In other words, I want the cpu to play and think more like a human. Play to your strengths in every way. Make the appropriate play calling adjustments when injuries happen. I wonder how much longer this will take?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I’ve run my own league for 14 years but the end of the road has come. I just don’t care anymore. I still love draft night, although we have tried an auction the last two years, since it’s a great time to get your friends together and talk smack while picking players. It’s the rest of the year that falls flat.
I’m certain my lack of interest in the NFL is hurting my enjoyment. Family life has also played a role. I hate rooting for or against players just because of how it might affect my fantasy team. Running to check the latest update on the fantasy scores or watching the ticker during games just to see how my guys are doing feels dumb now. Anyone else giving up on fantasy football?
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