Reviewers don’t actually bother with online play
July 26, 2007 by pastapadre
I've stated this before in write-ups, but media site reviewers don't bother to fully evaluate the online modes of sports titles. Whether it be due to having to push out reviews before the game actually releases or just a lack of caring about it, clearly it is the one area that is routinely ignored for sports games.
Issues such as the distance based lag in EA Sports titles and the broken leagues in 2K titles never have been mentioned in the past. Some games may even end up with nothing written about the online mode.
Most of the time all the reviewers do is look at the what the company says the game has for online play and regurgitate that info along with a generic statement about what they think about those options. They might even add in another generic statement such as it being "solid" or having some lag…as you'll see as you read on.
I've become more strongly annoyed by this in recent days. The latest examples are saying that All-Pro Football 2K8 has online co-op (it doesn't), The BIGS has 4 player online co-op (it only has 2 player co-op vs CPU) or that NCAA Football 08's online play is any good.
I detailed last week how poor the overall experience NCAA Football presents in the online area. Since then nothing has changed or improved. So lets look at a few of the reviews when it comes to NCAA Football 08's online play and see what they had to say.
TeamXbox: The online elements are well-done, too, particularly when it comes to sharing your gameplay videos with your friends…Online options are very solid.
Yes, that is the ENTIRE look that TeamXbox gives you regarding NCAA's online play. How are the options solid? There are no options! No mini-games playable, no leagues. Just quick games. There is no variable weather or night games or even a way to view a player card showing record and statistics. The video/screenshot sharing is awesome but I would hesitate to include that as an "online option".
IGN: The online play is still solid, although it's still disappointing that there are still no online season options included for players to join and play. You're still relegated to ranked or unranked matches, but that's pretty much all that you have outside of the lobby system.
Again, the FULL analysis of online play by IGN. Thanks a lot! I'd love to hear why they considered it "solid"? Games are consistently laggy with disconnect issues, there is horrible menu/button lag especially in depth charts, the clock doesn't allow enough time to choose a play on defense. They do mention the lack of options, but I thought TeamXbox said that was "solid"? I'm so confused!
Gamespot: Online play is OK, but lag makes it consistently difficult to tackle and kick.
Thankfully GS came through and at least mentioned the lag. But they don't go into anything else. They also bring up the Weather Channel feature in a way that makes it seem as if it works in online games. I'm not sure if they actually meant it that way or not. Regardless it could confuse some people as many were expecting that feature to be included online.
1UP: So does anything taint this revitalized gridiron? Yep, and it starts online. Once again, the NCAA series (along with EA's Madden 08, which we'll review next month) are severely slackin' in this area. Sure, the online matchups run pretty much without a hitch — but, man, what do we gotta do for an online Dynasty mode across the Internet? C'mon, EA: It's about time you made it possible for a bunch of online friends to join up and battle it out for the BCS crown and recruits.
Ironically the site that generally gives the most brief reviews had the most written about online. At the very least they do address the lack of attention EA gives the online side, but the statement how it runs "pretty much without a hitch" is baffling.
actually I haven’t experienced any lag at all playing ncaa
Nice read Pasta!!
I would say that both of these latest blogs about the lag need to find their way onto someone desk at Tiburon because all of this info is so TRUE..
Man I couldn’t have said it better. It is like EA still thinks the online community is very small and deserves zero attention.
Completely off-topic, but are we going to get any more updates about your Campus Legend?
Those guys don’t even bother to play the games they are about to review.
anaxamander- yeah I should have the next campus legend update sometime this weekend.
i think the lag and disconnect issues suck real bad online
Keep bringing this topic up. It is important to a lot of us.
why it takes ea sports 2 months to fix the game .you can’t play online it is so bad ,i will every buy a ea games .its wast of money playing the same game every year.
all pro foot 2k8 is the best game on xbox 360,
Great follow up to the lastwrite-up about the ncaa lag issues! Have you talked to Rac recently? Are they still ‘looking into it’? Keep making noise so this kind of stuff doesn’t happen for Madden!
Pasta -
Good read and you are dead on right. The big media sites never look at the online play and this helps to perpetuate the idea that online play is a niche or small percentage of the market for agiven title. Sadly, until there is a wider shift in paradigm across the industry, this will continue to be the case.
The one thing that consistently bugs me about it is the steady DECLINE in online options since it debuted on Madden NFl 2003. The fact that we USED to be able to do rudimentary things like select gametimes, jerseys, stadiums, and quarter length for online games and we now CANNOT do any of that is a clear indication of what value companies assign to the online features - NONE.
Also, for anyone really hoping that Madden NFL 2008 will somehow be different, they need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid - Madden is going to be nearly identical to NCAA for online options - with the possible exceptions of online challenges and the ability to use franchise teams for online games (though not actual online franchises).
The last part (online use of created franchise teams) coupled with statements in interviews of EA producers that hint at “future online franchise mode” is what holds out the last glimmer of hope that EA won’t eventually strip down online play to the point that it goes away entirely…
I’ve been playing Madden and other sports games since the late eighties across all consoles. It saddens me that the genre of football continues to decline in ingenuity, innovation and attention to detail, especially in re: to online play. No wonder EA is trying to get 2K to slow down. I thought I’d never say it or think it, but this is probably my last year of Madden.
I guess if I want to watch what’s really “in the game”, I’ll have to kick back and check out the NFL and my Horns on DirectTV or ESPNGameplan. =[
Oh my god, there are sane people still left on this earth. I agree with you almost 100 percent The menus are imppossible to navigate online (don’t bother with your depth chart). tackling is better than last year but even with a great connection, you miss tackles that you should have made.
What they need is some more competition. Joe montana football, gameday, and 2k football forced EA to fix the game or have consumers go to those titles. Maybe if Sony was releasing there own football madden 08 and ncaa football would be as good on the ps3 as the 360 version.