The 12 biggest sports gaming stories of 2007
December 31, 2007 by pastapadre · 9 Comments
2007 brought a lot of developments to the world of sports gaming. From leadership changes to impactful features it certainly was never boring. Having gone back on the coverage over the last year I’ve brought together the stories that had the most impact on the community as well as others that were more controversial. They were what shaped 2007 and had an influence on the future.
Continue on to read the top 12 stories of the year.
PadreCast #7: NFL Tour
December 30, 2007 by pastapadre · 5 Comments
After a hiatus the PadreCast returns. They’ll become more regular with shows once a week or whenever a topic catches fire within the community.
The guest on the show is EA Sports Community Manager Will Kinsler. To shake off the rust, this PadreCast is more on the lighter side of things as we discuss our experiences playing NFL Tour at the recent event in New York as well as our thoughts on some of the teams and players in the game.
Utopia EASW Bowl Photo Challenge
December 30, 2007 by pastapadre · Leave a Comment
Through January 9th Utopia College Sports is running an EA Sports World photo contest. Simply take a screenshot from one of the Bowl matchups and post it in the contest thread. By doing so you are entered for a chance to win prizes which will be randomly drawn. More than one submission can be made to increase the chance of winning a prize.
You can check out the thread with the full details, view other entries, and post your own by visiting here.
Sports games showing signs of life on the Wii
December 28, 2007 by pastapadre · 17 Comments
The Wii has been a juggernaut since launch. No one would be able to argue otherwise in the area of hardware sales. It has been out over a year and is still very difficult to find in stores. It sold nearly a million units in November and that is with the supply constrained.
However outside of a handful of first party titles, sales of games for the Wii have been somewhat disappointing. This is especially the case for third party titles which seem to go largely ignored by the user base. The Xbox 360 continues to sell more software every month than the Wii and PS3 combined.
This tends to be attributed to the casual crowd that the Wii attracts. Wii Sports, which comes packed in with the console, is the face of gaming on the system. Pretty much every conversation, story, video, or commercial about the Wii has it mentioned or shown. Some people have gone as far as to say that other games aren’t purchased as gamers have been so satisfied with the Wii Sports experience. Or they lose interest in the console once that initial excitement wears off. However the Nintendo crowd definitely has proven they’ll be there to support first party titles.
Top NCAA Football 09 cover candidates
December 27, 2007 by pastapadre · 129 Comments
With EA already teasing the cover announcement, it is time to look over the top candidates to grace the cover of NCAA Football 09.
Historically EA has gone for the most popular and dynamic player entering the draft. The are a couple exceptions though such as when they went retro with Desmond Howard in 06 and chose Jared Zabransky for 08 based less off the success of him as an individual and more on the overall excitement around the Boise State team. The cover also generally goes to an offensive player as the only defensive player to ever get it was Charles Woodson in 1999. The breakdown for the series has been six QBs, three RBs, one WR, and one CB.
This year there are two good defensive candidates, with one in particular having the name recognition that could make a difference. There is the obvious player who everyone would expect to get the cover. There are some sleepers that could be in the running if they declare for the draft. And there are also a handful of QBs and those would have to be considered since the NCAA Football series has slanted towards them in the past.
The evolution of sports gaming communities
December 26, 2007 by pastapadre · 30 Comments
A significant shift has occurred in the way the sports community interacts over the past two plus years. It has gone from a time when fan sites were prominent. Those such as Madden Nation and Madden Mania provided opportunities for people to extend the enjoyment they got out of a particular game.
Those two sites, that really drove the community for not only Madden but other sports games, have since become part of larger media sites.
With that shift the goals have changed to providing things such as reviews, news coverage, and strategies.
Whether that is a positive or negative thing really comes down to each individual. It is what it is and some people will find that more useful while others will desire the way the sites used to be constructed and controlled.
Seven NFL Tour producer videos
December 25, 2007 by pastapadre · 4 Comments
Gametrailers has posted up seven new producer videos going over aspects of NFL Tour. Some of the things discussed are the overall story and concept behind the game, the controls, single player Tour mode and create-a-player, the game’s presentation and graphics, the two mini-games, and the Smash Meter.
One thing I would say when looking at the gameplay in the vids is I would recommend bumping up the difficulty level one higher than the default. It forces the action a little more because the defensive line gets pressure faster and it isn’t as easy to break so many tackles. It just balances things out a little better.
Also check out the recent content posted coming out of the NFL Tour event including my impressions and my evaluation of the NFL teams and how well they translate to Tour. You can also read a recap of the actual event on the Tour website by going here. The picture included (which you can check out by clicking the thumbnail below) has me mostly blocked out by Shanker from SportsGamer, though I went on to wax him in that game and that’s all that matters.
All seven of the videos can be viewed by continuing on.
Analyzing the college basketball game sales
December 24, 2007 by pastapadre · 20 Comments
Throughout the community I’ve seen questioning of why the College Hoops and March Madness franchises don’t get the same support that other sports titles do. This has been brought up in areas such as budgeting, feature sets, improvements from the previous year, and the differentiation from the NBA games.
However by looking over initial sales numbers for these two games it becomes obvious why that is. Below are the numbers from the Xbox 360 versions. College Hoops had nearly a three week head start so I’ve posted the first week sales along with CH’s total sales to date.
Update on the Madden 08 PS3 patch
December 22, 2007 by pastapadre · 10 Comments
I continue to get emails regarding the second patch for Madden 08 and when it will make its way out for the PS3. I figured it would be helpful to post what is known at this point.
The patch was sent to Sony at the same time it was sent to Microsoft. Apparently Sony had a long line of patches to pass through certification so that is where the holdup is.
Sony’s offices are closed all next week which means that the patch won’t be cleared and sent out until the first week of January at the earliest. There is always the possibility that it shows up next week anyway but it seems unlikely due to the circumstances.
The sixth roster update is also set to be released for both the 360 and PS3. EA is waiting on the PS3 patch to come out first though so both sides will get it at the same time.
Ranking the teams in NFL Tour
December 21, 2007 by pastapadre · 4 Comments
After having played with or against every team in NFL Tour (full impressions of the game can be found here) I came away with a general feeling on how good each of them are. I didn’t take note of the actual offensive and defensive rankings they had but it was apparent when playing as you could tell the difference between them.
So based on my experience I’ve broken them down into four tiers. The first is the most dominant teams, generally well balanced ones that will present dynamic offenses along with defenses that would be more likely to make game winning plays. The second are teams that are dominant on one side but may be flawed on the other, however the strength of the one covers for the other. The third are teams that are relatively balanced but just don’t match up against the better teams. The fourth are teams that would need to play a perfect game and catch a break or two in order to have any chance at beating the good teams.
When picking teams I suspect most people will look to the running back first. The next two most important areas are likely having at least one really tall/big receiver or really fast receiver as well as the overall defensive ranking. Finally the QB of course will be considered, although there isn’t a huge difference between them in the game which is why I would have this considered behind the others.
