Madden makes Awareness count

"*Legion*" wrote:

Heh. I''m still waiting for any indication that a Take 2 football game of any sort is being made.

If it made any money at all, they probably will. What it will be depends, porbably on what kind of return the think they will see. Since they can''t really compete with EA now they probably won''t put as much effort into it. Maybe last year''s game, plus a way to customize teams. Try to get some low development costs and then sell it for $29 or $39 to try to make some cash and keep their name in the football arena, so to speak. That''s my quick yet useless analysis.

Awareness looks like a very cool idea, but I just don''t see how they''d actually make it work. Maybe Vick can only see that little part of the screen, but I can still see the whole screen regardless. Will the presumed time delay of switching over make that much of a difference? I guess we''ll have to wait and see.

My understanding is that if you try to throw a ball to a receiver not in your cone of vision, you will have a significant reduction in accuracy. Still possible, but more likely to miss or get picked.

Let''s play some real football:

IMAGE(http://www2.arkansas.net/~ecnobles/Atari_Football.jpg)

I find it funny that you guys have decided to boycott a publisher. Tiburon is a great developer and to not buy madden because you don''t like their publisher seems kind of like disowning a good friend because they happen to work for a company you don''t like. Further while it sucks that there won''t be competition in the football game market this year there''s no guarantee that this doesn''t come back and bite EA in the ass. Oh and truthfully i''m more mad at the NFL for deciding to give exclusive licenses than I am at EA for taking advantage of the offer, but i''m not crazy enough to boycott the NFL. I''ll buy madden and any other EA title I feel like buying and won''t feel any worse than any time I buy a game published by anyone else oh and if Blizzard decided to let EA publish their next WoW expansion don''t tell me any of you would stick to this silly boycott.

My beef is with EA Sports titles, not all EA titles. And EA made the initial overtures to the NFL. The NFL at least opened the competition up to the highest bidder.

Your friend analogy isn''t a very good one. This development house made a product that was pretty good, arguably the same quality as a title $30 cheaper. Their ""owner"" did something slimy. Now they have no competition. Not buying a copy is the only way to show EA that you don''t condone their behavior.

"SwampYankee" wrote:

Not buying a copy is the only way to show EA that you don''t condone their behavior.

We could also throw eggs at their headquarters in Redwood City.

My only issue with the boycott idea is that, up until this year, I only bought Madden and NCAA. I didn''t like Sega''s game until this year. So my buying Madden and NCAA isn''t an aberration, it is a return to the norm.

I don''t like that there isn''t any comptetion either, but I''ll buy the games until they suck or jack the price up.

Your decision is your own, JMJ. No worries. We still love you.

You didn''t have to buy the competition to enjoy the competition.

I''ve been a fan of the competition in a number of areas. NFL GameDay ''98 was a quantum leap forward, and still one of my favorite football video games ever (it was SO polished, it''s such a shame how the quality of then-SISA, now-989 Sports'' games has declined). NFL2K was another leap forward, and 2K1 took football online.

Madden has been reactionary for a long time now. They followed SISA/989 into 3D polygonal world, and all of the more accurate collisions and complex interactions it allowed. They followed Sega Sports online. Hell, they brought out online leagues AFTER THE FACT *this year* after the smashing success of ESPN''s online leagues.

It''s sort of like Apple Computers. You don''t have to use Apple products to enjoy the things they introduce that eventually get mirrored in later products elsewhere.

Without competition to push them (or for them to take from), I''m worried that Madden will swiftly head into the stagnation the series was in during the early-to-mid ''90s (basically, until GameDay ''98).

Especially since they have spent so much money on licensing. Imaging if they had put that money into game development. Or you know, paid their employees overtime.

Gamespot''s take.
Edit: Yes, I know they share content, but an article on the xbox subsite that mentions L2 and R2 just irks me.