Madden 09 Player and Team Ratings
May 31, 2008 by pastapadre · 524 Comments
Looking forward to Madden 09 ratings? Well here you can find overall player ratings via pictures of each team’s current depth chart. Most of the players will be listed on these, though ones that are low on the depth chart (such as WRs) won’t be displayed. Keep in mind that it is possible the ratings will change by release. Continue on to view the pictures within a gallery setting and the team ratings list.
Madden NFL 09 hands-on report
May 30, 2008 by pastapadre · 145 Comments
Some of what I will detail from my time with Madden 09 was covered through my live blog from the studio but I have tons more to add to it. I’ve also included a few videos throughout the write-up. As I mentioned as the blog began I have a completely different feeling about the game this year compared to how I felt last year. That is accented even more by how it is still a few months to go until release. Outside of a few bugs, which were reported to the producers and some already having been fixed by the time we left the studio, it felt like a game that was prepared for release.
Originally I didn’t want to be too enthusiastic considering how my thoughts could’ve changed as the day progressed. However I left with the same general feeling as I began with. Last year, playing the actual release copies, I quickly identified the fumbles, poor o-line blocking, and overpowered kicking as issues that would be relatively serious. However with 09 I didn’t come across any of those type of things. Instead I passed along some feedback on minor areas along the lines of reducing the camera flashes and adding return plays with a single returner deep.
Live Blog: Madden 09
May 30, 2008 by pastapadre · 209 Comments
136: I’ve managed to pull myself away from Madden. I don’t want to sound too enthusiastic about it at this point, given I’ve only been playing a little over two hours. But coming out of the community day last year I was probably the most discouraged of everyone there. It is a totally different feeling right now and that is the general sentiment in the room. I haven’t dug into many of the question you guys had, but I have noted some things which I’ll be adding throughout the hour. I also have a lot of videos, most of which will go up late tonight or this weekend, but two short clips coming in a few minutes.
139: This is such a significant leap over what we played last year. And there is still a couple months to go with it. I thought that NCAA felt polished for a game that far out when I played it last month. I’d say Madden right now feels like it could almost be released in this state.
142: The first thing you do when you start up is determine your Madden IQ. I really hadn’t thought much about this feature going in, other than it tailoring to each person’s skills and being a benefit to the more casual gamers. But it was actually quite fun to run through. I came out with All-Pro grading on run offense, pass offense, and run defense, and rookie on pass defense.
NCAA Football 09 hands-on report two
May 29, 2008 by pastapadre · 42 Comments
A lot of the thoughts on my second run-through with NCAA Football 09 was covered in the live blog from Thursday but here are more detailed thoughts after finishing up.
Overall the game feels slightly more restricted than when I played it last month. You still get the sense of the wide-open gameplay but big plays happen less often and scores in general were coming out lower. I would attribute that to a decrease in acceleration which seemed a little extreme at the time for fast players. There is more balance between the offense and defense, though if someone is patient on offense they could be extremely efficient and make it difficult to stop them. Ultimately I do believe that the hardcore community will be more pleased with how it is playing now than how it played back then.
NFL Head Coach 09 hands-on report
May 29, 2008 by pastapadre · 23 Comments
As mentioned in the live blog, NFL Head Coach is a difficult game to assess after a handful of hours. This game is packed full of options to an almost overwhelming degree. The session began with a producer presentation which stretched on for about 45 minutes as they discussed different areas and answered some questions. Even after all that time there was many aspects of the game that hadn’t been touched on. That really is a testament to how much thought went into the making of the game.
Live Blog: NFL Head Coach 09
May 29, 2008 by pastapadre · 81 Comments
428: It is tough to go over everything about Head Coach or experience it in a short amount of time so I’ll do my best recapping it late tonight. We had a producer presentation and have since been playing. This one is more difficult because it is only single player and we only have 360 builds so there isn’t as much chance to do some digging. Any specific questions on it feel free to drop in the comments. I have some videos for play creating and one of me running through a draft. There is so much though packed into this game its crazy.
431: It was funny when I first pulled up the player ratings, I thought people were going to freak out. Apparently it is a bug in the front end where I was viewing them. Tony Romo has a 78, Peyton Manning an 88, Tom Brady 86, ect. All the player ratings were really low. Don’t go crazy though I was told those weren’t correct and would be fixed. I warned them though that Cowboys fans would riot if those were real. Ratings ultimately will also be somewhat dependent on the system that each is playing in and how well they fit into it.
Live Blog: NCAA Football 09
May 29, 2008 by pastapadre · 126 Comments
1201: Was playing Shopmaster from MaddenWars but hopped off to start the live blog. Heading into the 4th quarter he held a 26-7 lead (my defense could not get a stop). Have a few notes already and will add them shortly. Got a couple short video clips for tonight also.
1207: Got a late start due to the 360 I sat down at having the red rings. My luck! Plus I was sick this morning but I’m feeling much better now.
1210: I’m attempting to upload a few short video clips now. We’ll see if I can get them up soon.
1211: Husky Stadium is not the best place to play a snow game. While it looks great on the field, the track surrounding the field looked terrible.
1213: Overall the gameplay is more constricted. It still has the wide open feel but the acceleration that led to so many big plays seems to have been toned down.
1215: At this point I can’t really go in and directly answer some of the questions you guys have posed. I will try and get time later to seek some of them out.
1216: Could just be a coincidence, but so far I’ve seen less turnovers even in the head-to-head. Just one INT thrown by Shopmaster and I was immediately tackled. Can’t say for sure that the INTs for TD issue from last month has been resolved, though with the overall feel of acceleration not being as extreme I suspect it is at least improved.
Thursday Community Event Preview
May 28, 2008 by pastapadre · 30 Comments
I’ve made it in successfully to the hotel and wanted to leave a short preview of what is to come on Thursday at the community event. NCAA Football 09 and NFL Head Coach 09 will be featured for this day. I mentioned some things earlier but wanted to be a little more specific on what kind of coverage to expect. Feel free to add your thoughts and suggestions here or in either of the previous postings.
Check in throughout the day as I am hopeful that I’ll be able to live blog at different points right from the studio. Expectations are that we’ll arrive by 11am ET. At that point I’ll make sure to check on the connection from the room. Assuming things go smoothly I’ll leave a note giving a time to expect the first live blogging session (would probably give about 2 hours notice). If problems arise you just won’t hear from me until the evening unfortunately. I am looking at potentially two hour long live blogs with one happening during NCAA time and the other during Head Coach time. With the live blogs I would post comments on the games as I play them or watch others play as well as attempt to answer questions about them directly.
Once getting back to the hotel in the evening (should be around 10pm ET) I’ll be putting together the first reports on the games. I don’t know how long they will take to do, but they will posted up before I head off to sleep. Of the two games I’ll be spending more time with Head Coach but will have an opportunity to offer details on how NCAA may or may not have changed since playing it last month.
Hope everyone enjoys the coverage and make sure to check back frequently for the latest!
Madden 09 gang tackling
May 27, 2008 by pastapadre · 58 Comments
Madden 09 producer Ian Cummings has a new in-depth discussion going on over at Operation Sports which you can check out here. He started it off by displaying some highlights and lowlights of the game’s tackling engine.
Among what is mentioned is how the community has directly led to the improvement of gang tackling for this year, that there will continue to be no more than two players making up a gang tackle, and why motion capture has been shown to be more beneficial than the NaturalMotion tackles in the game. A follow-up video may be posted on Wednesday displaying what has been adjusted since this particular video was produced.
While it is great to have this level of dialogue and input it certainly would be natural to wonder about these developments. Given the confidence and apparent level of improvement that is said to have been made in such a short period of time (less than a day) why has the gang tackling been so slow to progress?
Overall the “good” tackles looked really natural while the “poor” ones were all too familiar for anyone who has played the game the last two years. Continue on to watch the video in high quality.
MLB 2K series joins NHL 2K in studio move
May 27, 2008 by pastapadre · 29 Comments
The writing was on the wall and 1UP has confirmed that the MLB 2K series will be developed out of the Visual Concepts studio after the closing of 2K LA/Kush. Recently it was announced that the NHL 2K series would be moving to Visual Concepts, though at the time the reasoning behind the move wasn’t clear.
While the departure of Ben Brinkman is a disappointment, a fresh start could be the best way to go for a series that has had major issues over the last few years. It isn’t known yet whether the game will be developed from the ground up as they have stated for NHL 2K9. In the poll posted a few days ago 89% of respondents felt that doing so would be a good step for the future of the franchise.
