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Pick the Madden 08 cover athlete contest
With the announcement expected any time now over the course of the next two weeks, speculation continues to run rampant as to who will grace the cover of Madden NFL 08. Here is your chance to take your best guess and possibly win a Madden 07 faceplate for the Xbox 360. If there is more than one correct entry then the winner will be randomly selected from that pool of people.
Use the Contact Padre page to send in the name of the player you think will be selected for the cover. Make sure to include a working email address as I will need to reply to the winner in order to arrange the shipping of the faceplate.
Entries will be accepted right up until the moment that the player chosen to be on the cover of Madden 08 is revealed. Good luck!
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Madden 08 details coming in a few weeks
The recent media event held at EA Sports Tiburon studio has brought about the first looks at the 08 titles of NCAA Football, Nascar, and Tiger Woods. Within a recent Gamespot article it’s also noted that Madden was discussed at the event and it will be a few weeks before any of that information can be revealed.
As for Madden, well, we’re going to have to wait a few more weeks before we can spill the beans. Without giving anything away, though, I’m happy to report that I appreciated the theme and approach of this year’s Madden demo–it was proof to me that the team behind the game is most assuredly listening to its knowledgeable and vocal fanbase. I wish I could say more but, trust me, the information is coming.
The theme, generally based on one of the main new feature additions, is something everyone looks forward to finding out about now. The last two centered on Vision and Precision (06) and Run to Daylight (07) and they were both met with mixed reaction.
Regardless of the ultimate theme, it’s a good thing to hear that the impression coming out of the media event is that EA is listening to the fans with this year’s titles. It looks like there is a lot to look forward to in the coming months leading up to their releases.
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Hot Topic 4/13: The Game Informer preview of All-Pro Football 2K8
The news coming out of the May edition of Game Informer magazine has caused a stir on sports gaming message boards over the last couple days. This is mainly due to an overwhelmingly negative reaction to both the content of the article and the tone in which it was presented.
- Lack of customization
Many fans of the series were expecting 2K8 to have the ability to customize the game to their liking. This was practically confirmed in an interview with Gamespot when the game was originally announced at the end of January.
GS: A lot of people are curious as to the degree of customization there will be in the game. Is there anything you can tell me about that?
GT: I think that [last] gen games had a level of customization. I think the next-gen games now, people are really asking for a lot more customization as you get into much more detail, finer details, and that kind of thing. And so our goal is to really appeal to those next-gen consumers. And so the idea is, hey, we want to give our fans an experience–very much what they expect from us.
Yet in the Game Informer interview, Jeff Thomas of 2K states “I’ve decided long ago that we’re not doing that.” Well that is curious considering Greg Thomas’ comments only a few months prior.
Then you can add in stunts pulled by a moderator on the 2K forum that were never curtailed by the company, essentially sponsoring that foolishness. That only led to more belief that the game they were envisioning was on the way.
The effect this will have on how successful the game is arguable. On one hand, it will alienate some of the hardcore fans who were looking forward to replicating an NFL experience. At the very least the game could’ve offered the ability to customize team and player names. Even that would’ve satisfied most people, it didn’t have to get incredibly deep with offerings such as uniform, logo, or player appearance editing. On the other hand, that crowd would still be considered a minority of the consumers they are targeting. If that hardcore group was the majority, the game would never survive. There just aren’t enough of them to support a game on their own. So 2K had to do things to market the game to the more casual consumers. However that is no excuse for removing simple text editing, which in the end would’ve been purely optional. There was no downside to including it.
- No Franchise mode
The reaction to finding out that there is no franchise mode was more on the side of disbelief from fans. How can the game go without a franchise mode? Franchise/dynasty is a staple of sports games today. For the offline-centric player that is where many spend the majority of their time in the games.
This is another hit to the same hardcore crowd that was rocked by the customization issue. After the months of 2K championing the fans who have kept the hope alive for a new game the past few years, claiming that they were the reason for the game being made in the first place, the first news that comes out includes insults and ripping the heart out of the type of game they were looking forward to. It’s certainly curious, definitely unexpected.
There likely will be some mode to replace Franchise. It would’ve been smart to reveal that now though. If you’re going to say that a mode that everyone would expect to be included will not be, the explanation needs to include what alternatives will be there in its place.
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First NCAA Football 08 details revealed
TeamXbox and Gamespot both posted articles presenting the first information on NCAA Football 08 as the clock struck Midnight PT last night. Some of the main points of interest are recapped below:
Lead by Example: Expanding on the ‘Impact Players’ this will allow any player on the field to influence their own play as well as the team’s by succeeding on the field. The better an individual does, the more confidence they will gain. No longer is that restricted to only the few impact players on the team. It also looks to reward user controlled moments as opposed to those done by CPU controlled players.
Video Highlights & Screenshots: As discussed in the news about Tiger Woods 08’s GamerNet, user created content is huge with examples such as MySpace and Youtube leading the way. After a big response to the screenshot feature in NCAA 07 where a process to transfer those screens to the PC was figured out, EA will be taking the idea to the next level. The game will record every play (in shorter quarter length games) or the big plays (in longer quarter lengths). You can then take those replays and/or screenshots and upload them on to Xbox Live for others to view.
Campus Legend Mode: This time around, you’ll control only your specific player and the camera angles will be specific to the position played. You can choose to create your player or take over a current NCAA athlete. In an interesting twist, you start the mode by playing in a High School football tournament through a series of small stadiums leading up to a college stadium for the Championship (depending on which state you choose it will be a different one). Your performance in those games will factor in to the options you’ll have when it comes to choosing the school you attend.
Other notes: The game will have real-time weather, either 90 or 115 (depending on which article you read) authentic stadiums which is up from 40 in NCAA 07, and a “revolutionary dynasty mode experience”.
Looking over the new information, it’s hard not to be excited about NCAA Football 08. For myself, the user created content specifically is very intriguing and exciting to hear about. That is something that will extend the life of the game and give people a creative way to showcase their skills. Campus Legend mode should be fun as I’ve always enjoyed taking on the role of a specific player. However if the camera angles are anything like the ones which killed Madden 07’s Superstar mode that will be a problem.
It appears that the game will have something that appeals to everyone. The great thing is that there is even more to look forward to in the months leading up to its release.
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No franchise mode in All-Pro Football 2K8
2K Sports wants you to “play the game and shut up”. Apparently that means play in something other than franchise mode because the game won’t have it. This comes as more news breaks from the Game Informer preview.
“Although the developer won’t go into detail about the game’s league structure, we know there won’t be a franchise mode. No guiding your team through multiple years or drafting for the future.”
Another thing that many were taking for granted to be included in All-Pro Football 2K8, another thing scratched off the list. This one is baffling. Pretty much every sports game has some form of a franchise mode, and certainly the more hardcore fans which were disappointed by the lack of customization tend to favor the franchise experience.
The game seems to be shaping up to be online centric. The interview does mention how the online options will go beyond the standard ones people expect.
No franchise mode is just another slap in the face to the hardcore fans who have supported and championed the 2K football franchise over the past couple years. Hey…but everyone should just shut up and play right? Unfortunately the game has not been released yet which makes it difficult to play. So all anyone can do is talk about it, and so far reaction has been less than favorable.
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Tiger Woods 08 will introduce GamerNet
IGN has posted a first look at Tiger Woods 08. In it two new innovative features are touched upon. ‘Photo Face’ which involves scanning your own face into the game for your created golfer, and ‘GamerNet’ a youtube style video service for the game.
GamerNet clearly targets the YouTube and MySpace generation. Gamers, EA says, have changed. We play online, we share pictures and video clips, we fight for achievement points and gamer score and virtual trophies. Using a nifty new technology, the development team, formerly of Hypnotix and Outlaw Golf fame, has enabled you to save a single shot, a single hole, nine holes or an entire round to your hard drive (18 holes takes up only 200k). And with a touch of a button, you can upload all of this to GamerNet in a matter of seconds.
“When you live in the MySpace and YouTube world,” says producer Mike Taramykin, “you realize that everyone is connected. We looked at user-created content and said, ‘What about user-created gameplay?'”
Well thats certainly going to be a fun feature. With NCAA Football 08, many people really got into using the screenshot ability and transferring them to their PC to show off to others. This is taking it to a completely new level.
With the way user generated content has driven sites like youtube and others, this is really tapping into that trend. While sports titles tend to die off after a period of time, something like GamerNet could really increase the longevitity and uniqueness of a title. There is no doubt that it will be huge, and hopefully we will see similar things in other EA Sports titles as well.
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EA Sports moving Tiger Woods franchise to Tiburon studio
The Orlando Sentinel reported today that the EA Sports Tiger Woods franchise will be moving from the Redwood City studio in California to the Florida based Tiburon studio.
The local studio’s heft continued to grow Tuesday with the announcement that the Tiger Woods PGA Tour video-game series has been shifted to Tiburon from an EA site in California.
“It makes sense for us to have the franchise here,” said Steve Chiang, EA Tiburon’s general manager and one of the original studio’s three founders in 1994.
“Florida is a hotbed of golf, NCAA and NFL football, and the PGA’s headquarters is in Ponte Vedra,” Chiang said. “Of course, one of Tiger’s homes is here, too.”
It appears that EA has decided to put an increased effort into this franchise, and it could also be taking a different focus or direction based on this news. After a couple years with only mild reaction from consumers and a stale feel overall due to little innovation, this could only mean good things for the future of the series.
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ESPN examines possible Madden 08 cover athletes
ESPN’s videogame site now features a piece presenting nine potential candidates with odds on their likelihood of being the cover athelete for Madden 08.
The players/odds are:
Peyton Manning 7-2, Tom Brady 5-1, Chad Johnson 8-1, LaDanian Tomlinson 9-1, Reggie Bush 10-1, Vince Young 12-1, Larry Johnson 15-1, Brian Urlacher 20-1, Devin Hester 100-1.
For the sake of this article, lets assume that ESPN has inside knowledge of who has been chosen to be on the cover this year and that person is within this group. What could we gather from this set of candidates?
Most of the players fit in as those who have been widely suggested as possibilities. One really stands out to me though as someone who made it in to this article who might not have otherwise.
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