August 11 - 15

Section: 

You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask of the ol' Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with ... Madden.

For those of you uncivilized philistines who don't recognize Jim Croce's mostly accurate lyrics, I think you get the drift. This week Madden 09 wins Game of the Week essentially by default. You might notice that there is no list of games below, painstakingly cut and pasted from other locations to peruse for your gaming enjoyment. Again, no point.

Here's the deal. For PC there's a game I've barely heard of from Sega called Space Siege, a smattering of DS titles, and Madden. That's it. If you don't like Madden you can stop reading two paragraphs back, because there's nothing else to talk about.

Despite my better judgment, I have every intention of falling for the hype and being a drop in the ocean of those who will shell out hard earned greenbacks for another year on the virtual gridiron. If nothing else, I'll at least bask in the glory of a Packer Brett Favre on the cover, and think not about his throwing errant gunslinger passes to Jerricho Cotchery.

Comments

I hereby dub this the week of Digital Distrubution titles!

I have some hope for Space Siege. I was not too happy with Dungeon Siege 2 but maybe the Sci-fi face lift will breath new life into the franchise. The original Dungeon Siege was good even if it practically played itself.

DON'T DO IT!!!!

The game of this week is GenCon

I don't know how EA Sports fans do it every year.

Arovin wrote:

I have some hope for Space Siege. I was not too happy with Dungeon Siege 2 but maybe the Sci-fi face lift will breath new life into the franchise. The original Dungeon Siege was good even if it practically played itself.

I never beat DS, I got stuck and gave up, I couldn't figure out where to go, everywhere except backwards was blocked by a rock.

PyromanFO wrote:

The game of this week is GenCon

If I've got it right, then Elysium isn't going to GenCon, instead he's just going to sit at home and play Madden.

What's this Madden? Some kind of sports game?

Time to dig into--I mean, build up--that pile of shame.

Favre as a Jet makes two boring has beens exciting again. Hey even as the crotchety old grandpa of the NFL he still throws better than the younger Manning brother (forgot his name) who won the super bowl this year (sort of).

So for those of us just joining in, is becoming a NY Jet bad enough to satisfy the Madden cover curse or should we look for more interesting things in the future?

I'm slightly positive for Space Siege, but I'll need to check system requirements and get some player impressions first.

As for Madden, I don't think it even gets sold here.

Space Siege got 83% in this months PC Zone.

The bullet points offered at the end are...

Good :
Cleverly simplified currency
Decent Plot
Satisfyingly Tactile Combat
Real Sense of Strategy

Bad:
Low frame rates
Script Occasionally Weak

Overall a positive review though - I'll certainly be checking it out (I don't think it's out until the 22nd over here).

Totally being a lemming, but only because we can do online leagues this year. Hopefully this will run nice and smooth with little hiccups.

divorced wrote:

Totally being a lemming, but only because we can do online leagues this year. Hopefully this will run nice and smooth with little hiccups.

That would be nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm still waiting for people to realize that they will be playing in one giant 32 team division.

I have yet to see a decent league of more than 14 players on a console. Madden makes it even harder, as it brings in so many more players, that it is much harder to find a group without asshats. I'm not sure why so many people have signed up for a league in a game no one has played, and early impressions have been so poor. Couple that with the number of guys that signed up for GWJ just to get into the league, and it spells trouble.

I hope it's a great game. I'm going to rent it and give it some time, to be honest. If it feels like it will be fun, then I will try to organize a league of other guys that have taken the time to get a feel for the game. If it blows, so be it. Season IV of 2K8 is around the corner either way. And I know its gameplay will not blow.

Seriously, I would love to have a game where I can ram Larry Johnson down people's throats, and wing passes to Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzalez. The problem is that the last two editions of Madden made that not very fun.

Bionic Commando Rearmed is coming out on 14th August on Gamersgate. You can keep your Maddens.

Say "Packer Brett Favre" several times fast, it's a game in itself.

I would be happy to make this the 8th or 10th madden I have purchased except for the fact they deicded to not release it on the platform I have been playing it on since 1997.

Way to make the PC gamer feel loved EA....

For PC there's a game I've barely heard of from Sega called Space Siege

Perhaps you've heard of, and probably played Dungeon Siege? Space Siege is essentially DS in space, pretty much like how StarCraft was WarCraft in space. Sega is just the publisher. It's developed by Gas Powered Games, founded by Chris Taylor, a name I'm sure you've heard of. I will admit that the game has gotten almost no hype. I had forgotten about it until about a week ago, when I saw a news post somewhere stating that a demo was available.

I played and enjoyed DS1 for a little while, but never played DS2. After playing the short demo for SS, I think it will be a decent game. As long as it gets positive reviews, I'll most likely get it. Since I've recently revisited the action RPG genre (been playing Diablo 2 as a result of the Diablo 3 announcement), I think the sci-fi/space facelift will be a nice change of pace for a while.

mcdonis wrote:

I would be happy to make this the 8th or 10th madden I have purchased except for the fact they deicded to not release it on the platform I have been playing it on since 1997.

Way to make the PC gamer feel loved EA....

I think I read somewhere on Operation Sports that they are bringing it back to the PC for 2010 (supposedly NCAA will make a PC appearance again as well). The last few PC versions have been getting less features than the XBox/PS2 versions for some reason.

Jayhawker wrote:

Seriously, I would love to have a game where I can ram Larry Johnson down people's throats, and wing passes to Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzalez. The problem is that the last two editions of Madden made that not very fun.

Maybe they already do this, but I remember the old school sports games where none of the players were the actual players, but they had the same jersey numbers and/or names and at least similar abilities. And then you could ram Jarry Lohnson down people's throats and wing passes to Bwayne Dowe and Gony Tonzalez.

I'm pretty sick of reading all the anti-EA/"Madden gets it wrong again" stuff. It's all beating a dead horse at this point and it has been for a few years. Don't get me wrong I'm not advocating EA/Tiburon and what they do, but people are going to buy Madden and have fun with it (barring major bugs). I just wish people would stop trying to piss in my burrito. If I want to enjoy lowest common denominator football please let me do so in peace. I know it is bad, but I can't help it.

It's not our fault (the Madden consumer) that there is a lack of innovation due to the parent organizations signing exclusivity agreements that limit competition between third-parties using the same license. Unfortunately, we are stuck with Madden if we want the NFL license (and 2k baseball for MLB [although I've heard Sony's first-party MLB game was decent]). I don't have high hopes for Madden because it is what it is (and what it has been for the last few years), but they already have a patch and roster updates ready so obviously they care at least a little bit. Not much, but it is something. They are also supposed to have some free DLC available to address some other issues.

That being said I realize I need to pick up a copy of 2k8 football as well. After reading one of the threads about it in the Sports forum last year I told myself it was a game I should take a look at if I got a 360 and I just recently purchased a 360 so I need to pick it up. I saw that it was under $10, but I don't remember where. I'd like to get in on the online league action there too if y'all will have me. Guess I need a copy of that game first.

kaostheory wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Seriously, I would love to have a game where I can ram Larry Johnson down people's throats, and wing passes to Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzalez. The problem is that the last two editions of Madden made that not very fun.

Maybe they already do this, but I remember the old school sports games where none of the players were the actual players, but they had the same jersey numbers and/or names and at least similar abilities. And then you could ram Jarry Lohnson down people's throats and wing passes to Bwayne Dowe and Gony Tonzalez.

2K tried to put out a generic game, but people didn't buy it. They would rather play a game of Madden, where they are actually releasing the game with an AI that cannot detect where the sideline is, than actually enjoy the game of football. EA designs a game for the average Joe that you find at a game, that doesn't know if the difference between a 3-4 and 4-3. They make a lot of money, and don't have to worry about if the game plays well or not.

So I played a lot less football until 2K8 came out, but people whined that they needed real players and full franchises to enjoy the game. Maybe when the game was $60, that was legitimate. You can get the game for $10 now. For $10, it is awesome. there is a reason we are getting ready to do our own draft for a second time, leading into our fourth season of 2K8. The gameplay is fantastic, and deep. It is a different kind of deep than your typical sports game, but it has everything a great game needs except the license of the NFL and NFLPA.

And when you can get 30 Goodjers to commit to a game that not only has not been released, but has shown to be pretty bad in early impressions, what motivation does EA have to release a decent game?

maxox wrote:

That being said I realize I need to pick up a copy of 2k8 football as well. After reading one of the threads about it in the Sports forum last year I told myself it was a game I should take a look at if I got a 360 and I just recently purchased a 360 so I need to pick it up. I saw that it was under $10, but I don't remember where. I'd like to get in on the online league action there too if y'all will have me. Guess I need a copy of that game first.

Of course we'd have you, if you bought the game and enjoyed it.

I understand being sick of the anti-EA stuff, but I am still coming around after having boycotted ALL EA games for a couple of years. I even bought last year's Madden, only to be completely disgusted by its gameplay. The fact that so many people will just buy it regardless is damn frustrating. But I have come around, and will give Madden another try this year, despite the impressions I have read by Bill Abner and others. I am also now buying EA stuff, as the boycott was just me being bitter.

Nah. No reason to boycott EA. If their products suck, don't buy them, of course. I bought skate and it's one of my favorite games ever. I use Linux at home, but bought a Microsoft console in spite of disliking Microsoft as a company. I think it's fair to make pragmatic decisions. And sometimes those decisions include never buying Madden because the game always bites. I always at least rent it or play a demo. That's usually enough to remind me why I've been playing 2k sports since they first arrived on the Dreamcast. It has nothing to do with boycotts or EA and everything to do with the product being bad.