With the 2008 NFL Draft now complete it is time to look at which teams improved their rosters the most for Madden 09. Continue on to view my breakdown of each team’s potential instant impact picks for this year. Be sure to vote in the poll at the end for which team had the best Madden Draft.
More so than ever before the cover of Madden is up for grabs. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the series. With that in mind the “traditional cover athlete” and decisions behind who gets chosen could be completely different. So lets look at some of the different aspects to consider, some players who won’t be on the cover, and the top contenders.
I’ve held off writing about the current patch situation for MLB 2K8 throughout the week. My general feeling was that just waiting on the patch isn’t really news. But developments over the past few days warrant some discussion.
March 13th was the day the news came out (via Game Informer) that a patch was in the works to address the poor framerate and Padres franchise roster glitch for the 360 along with a PS3 patch that would only fix Padres issue. Amusingly 11 days later 2K Sports sent out their official press release which was the exact statement that had been made prior. In both cases it was mentioned that the patch was already under technical review and was to be released shortly. So here we are three weeks later and that has yet to happen.
Earlier this week overly eager 2K Sports representatives on their official forum posted information that the patch was going to be released on Monday night. That didn’t happen. Then one actually posted that the patch had gone live with instructions on how to get it on Tuesday morning. It hadn’t. Then it was that the patch release was simply “imminent”. Three days since that period apparently started and still nothing. But things have really been elevated now as they have started blaming Microsoft for a delay. Doing that publicly to a company who they have a business relationship with is irresponsible and inappropriate.
After a couple weeks of sales it seems like a good opportunity to look at how the two MLB games have fared and what it could mean for the future. With the EA purchase of Take Two still looming largely ahead that could certainly change perceptions going into next year. However we’ll just look at it from the current standpoint of 2K vs SCEA.
Back in early January I wrote an article regarding how a few companies had decided to no longer provide 1UP/EGM with prerelease copies of their games. The companies in question felt that they were not being treated fairly and that they could go to other outlets instead. This wasn’t a case of trying to buy off reviews. Instead it was simply wanting their titles to be treated with the proper level of respect. There is obviously no way to stop them from reviewing the game however they weren’t going to provide them with the copies to do so.
One of those companies was SCEA who produces the MLB The Show franchise. Last year 1UP gave MLB 07 a ridiculous 5.5 which was the lowest score the game received. While people will concentrate on the low score the text of the review was riddled with misinformation and factual mistakes.
1UP has just posted its review of MLB 08: The Show giving it a score in their new rating scale of a B-. That equates out to a 6.7 per their system (of C=5) which is how Metacritic converted it. That is the second lowest score given to the game with only the embarrassing 6/10 from X-Play coming in below it. No other media outlet has even scored the game below an 8. Believe it or not this makes it two straight years that The Show is rated lower than 2K’s franchise by 1UP. This year MLB 2K8 on the PS3 got a 7.5 from them. Lets take a look at some of the points made in the review.
The main period of coverage for MLB 2K8 and MLB 08: The Show is coming to a close. There will continue to be content featuring these games as well as the Online Baseball Nights, but now that they have been out for about a week the impressions side is pretty much complete.
Below you can find a full list of links to all of the original content created since the copies of the games arrived.
Related To Both
MLB 2K8 vs MLB 08: The Show
Online Play Report
Online Baseball Night one recap
MLB 2K8 Specific
Pitching Poll
360 Downloadable Content Available
Initial Impressions of MLB 2K8
Full Game Video
Pitching Practice Video
MLB 08: The Show Specific
Padre’s Road to the Show part one
Padre’s Road to the Show part two
Initial Impressions of The Show
Full Game Video
Team Rankings
With the EA purchase of Take Two seeming likely, and sooner rather than later, that brings up the question of what will happen to that which is now known as 2K Sports. After TT decided to drop the College Hoops franchise I took a look at the outlook for the future of the rest of their titles. However given the circumstances this would present a totally different scenario. While we don’t know some of the behind the scenes details of these games there is some reasonable expectations that could be made.
The potential acquisition of 2K Sports actually appears to be a secondary factor in the deal. Rockstar (which is also owned by TT) and their catalogue of big titles such as Grand Theft Auto is the main target as well as other studios such as 2K Boston with Bioshock. In actuality 2K Sports means more to EA (in removing competition) than it would mean to TT who has been looking for suitors to dump the unprofitable division off on.
EA’s official FAQ on the potential deal included the following:
Would you kill 2K Sports?
Any integration starts with our respect for the teams and people that make great games. Beyond that, it’s too early to discuss plans for managing Take-Two.
Continue on to read my analysis of the possible future of the 2K Sports franchises.
Following the Super Bowl I wrote an article about how Eli Manning had propelled himself into consideration for the cover of Madden 09. Being that it was just a couple hours after the game ended that was just pure speculation on my part. However now there is buzz going around that not only is he at the top of the list, but that he is actually in negotiation and appears to be EA’s top choice for 09.
The problem with this is the basis of the rumor comes from a random forum post on an obscure Madden fan site. That was picked up on by Deadspin which wrote an article on the topic. Those two things were then cited along with my article in a Yahoo Sports blog. The blog posting has now reached the front page of Yahoo which is huge. Unfortunately it is probably without merit as it’s simply speculative and has a reliance on a random forum poster who almost certainly made the story up. However the blog does a good job of representing how the mainstream views Manning completely differently now than just a two months ago.
It is something to follow regardless. Manning is now at the point where the thought of him being the cover athlete is accepted. To break through from “no chance” to “makes sense” in such a short period of time was definitely unexpected. It wouldn’t be surprising to find out that EA had a few favorites in their sights but given the events Manning entered the picture and changed who their top target ultimately would be. Unless there is some sort of leak it’s unlikely we’ll find out who ends up on the cover until at least mid-April.
The interview held with Peter Moore has sparked some good discussion and the reaction has been interesting to follow. One of the more frequently commented upon topics is Moore’s use of Metacritic as a major basis for considering Madden 08 to be an excellent game. While in some ways it may have been, everyone would agree that there is a lot of room for improvement in the series.
That got me to thinking. I’m of the belief that Metacritic is not the best method for determining how good a game was, how well it has been received, or what would need to be improved on going forward for reasons I’ll go into shortly. The Wall Street Journal touched on this topic with a piece about how important the scores are to companies (a great read that can be found here). What other ways could the overall success and reaction to a title be determined if not by reviews?
Here is the full recording of my interview today with EA Sports President Peter Moore on the topic of the NFL exclusivity extension. Check out my earlier post for a preview of what you can expect to hear discussed.
The interview goes on for 22 minutes. Given the short amount of time available I basically just bounced from question to question to try and get as much in as possible.
Click this link to download the audio file from rapidshare. Scroll down and click “free”. It’ll make you wait a short amount of time before the code that you enter into the box appears and you can begin the download.
