Photo Face still unavailable for Tiger Woods 08
September 2, 2007 by pastapadre · 8 Comments
Updating previous articles on 8/30 and 8/28, the EA Sports World site is still not functioning thus preventing consumers from utilizing the Photo Face feature in Tiger Woods 08.
There is now a new message that states the max number of connections has been exceeded. Occasionally I have been able to log in, however the process of creating a photo face has never completed. It is amusing seeing commercials advertising the feature and Tiger Woods promoting it even though it hasn’t worked since the game has been officially released.
Making things even worse in this situation is that when the EASportsWorld site goes down it affects all other games that use the site. Those who wish to upload screenshots and video clips from NCAA Football or anyone who wants to look in on their online Madden stats and results are out of luck.
Still no word on when to expect the site to work properly. It should be a concern that NHL 08 releases in a little over a week. How much that game will use EA Sports World is unknown although it is expected to in some capacity.
Update on the status of EA Sports World
August 30, 2007 by pastapadre · 10 Comments
As I addressed on Tuesday with this article, the EA Sports World site has not been functioning ever since the launch of Tiger Woods 08. This has meant that consumers who purchased the game have not been able to utilize advertised and highly promoted features such as Game Face.
I received word early on Wednesday that EA was aware of the problems (how could they not be) and that they were working to get them fixed. Despite that there was no indication of how long it could possibly take. Later in the day the following message was posted on the Tiger Woods 08 website and the EASportsWorld site (which has since been taken offline).
Due to overwhelming response, we are currently having issues with the EA Sports World website which is preventing customers to upload their photos for Photo Game Face in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08. The feature demand has exceeded our server capacity, we are in the process on fixing this issue and expect to have the site running properly very soon. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience - we will have this problem resolved as soon as possible. In the meantime, players can start a career with a regular game face golfer and still add photo face head later. Please check back for updates.
The question becomes why they were unprepared to meet the demand on this feature when there was no question it was going to be extremely popular. There are also problems such as online lag and a bug that freezes the game in career mode that they are apparently going to address in the near future.
Shawn over @ 5WG posted an article on Wednesday evening regarding the same topic I’ve addressed in recent weeks, which is the apparent inability of EA (although 2K is guilty as well when it comes to online leagues) to have all their game’s features functioning properly on and around release day. Whether it be online lag and disconnects or the disaster that has been EASportsWorld, it is completely unacceptable to have features unavailable when people get the game home. The excuses just don’t fly and they are irrelevant to the consumer who purchased in good faith expecting what was promised to be delivered.
Problems with EA Sports World persist
August 28, 2007 by pastapadre · 34 Comments
One of the most significant additions to the future of sports gaming has been through the new EA Sports World site. While this appears to be the hub for all sorts of new online features (uploading videos/photos, statistical tracking, leagues and more) it has been plagued by problems since launching alongside NCAA Football 08 back in July.
Some of the issues faced thus far have been login problems, users unable to match their EA names to their EASportsWorld account, the site being down/slow, and aspects of the site not fully implemented or working.
With NCAA the biggest problems came from how many people (especially on the PS3) had login or account matching issues. With Madden the online play stats have not transferred onto the profiles on the site as they are supposed to. In addition to those things the site has proven to be unreliable. Even simple things like having direct links to profiles or a password reminder/reset were omitted.
Today it seems the site is not logging anyone in. It just hangs on “processing please wait” message. Not coincidentally it is Tiger Woods 08 release day. That means currently those people who are hoping to use their photo to create a Game Face are out of luck. I have contacted EA and hope to have some sort of response to this situation shortly.
Obviously with “BETA” slapped on the banner this is still a work in progress and EA doesn’t want to guarantee anything about it. However that doesn’t abolish them from the responsibility to have features that have been advertised for their titles available and working properly.
Update 8/29: I have received word that EA is aware that the site is not functioning and that they are working to get it back up and running. Unfortunately there is no word on when to expect it to be fixed.
And another day goes by that those who purchased Tiger Woods 08 can’t utilize advertised functions of the game…
Madden 08 online play review
August 12, 2007 by pastapadre · 50 Comments
After how poorly the entire online experience turned out for NCAA Football there was a great deal of concern whether Madden 08 would be afflicted with the same issues as well as a similar lack of options. So after spending time playing and going through the online mode, how has it turned out? Click through to read all the details and full analysis.
Vote for the highlight clip contest winner
July 24, 2007 by pastapadre · 14 Comments
There were a ton of submissions for the NCAA Football 08 highlight clip contest and narrowing it down to only five was extremely tough to do. I went back and forth on several of them. In some ways I don’t feel satisfied with this top five because there were some really cool clips that I had to leave out. But I said I would trim it to five final candidates to be voted upon, and that is what I have done.
Ultimately I ended up taking a handful that had some sort of variation to them. There is a run, an INT, two long pass TDs, and an INT turned fumble turned TD. Thanks to everyone who entered. I plan on having more contests in the near future.
Continue on to view the candidates and vote on your favorite! Voting will end on Thursday night at 8PT/11ET.
NCAA Football 08 highlight clip contest
July 17, 2007 by pastapadre · 16 Comments
Grab the most impressive/exciting/unique play you can and submit it for this highlight clip contest!
Using the new video highlight feature in NCAA Football 08 on the 360 and PS3 people are able to upload clips from their games to the EA Sports World website for everyone to check out.
There are two options for submitting your highlight to qualify for this contest. Both involve sending me the info via my contact page.
The first way to do it is to send me the direct link to your video page on the EA Sports World site. If you do this you must send me the correct URL, as well as details on what clip it is. I would need more than saying “the 2nd one”. Specify the two teams, the score, the quarter, ect. Also a brief recap of what happens in it so I know I’m grabbing the right one.
The other option is showing it off via Brightcove. Because the clips are deleted off EA Sports World when new ones are added, and since there are no direct links to individual clips, this is a good way to do it. In order to set up your video clip, you must first upload it to the EA Sports World website from the game. From there you can download it to your computer. If you rename it you need to make sure that it ends in .flv -Then you upload it to your Brightcove account (which is free to set up). From there you’ll be able to grab the direct link and use the contact form to send that to me.
From all the entries sent to me I will be selecting what I feel to be the five best. From there it will be opened up to everyone to watch those five and vote on their favorite to determine the winner.
The deadline for submitting videos will be Sunday night 7/22 at 8pm PT. Voting will begin on Monday the 23rd and will run through Wednesday night the 25th at 11pm PT. Only one entry per person will be accepted. Please make sure that the email address entered in to the contact form is valid as I will need to contact the winner to get the information needed for shipping the prize out.
The winner will receive their choice of Def Jam Icon for the Xbox 360 or NBA Street Homecourt for the PS3. Good luck and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone sends in!
EASportsWorld.com has gone live
July 13, 2007 by pastapadre · 16 Comments
Update 8/28: An updated article on EA Sports World and the problems people are facing with the site can be found by clicking here.
Update 8/30: News on EA’s response to the problems with the site can be found here.
The website EA has set up to host the screenshots and video clips from NCAA Football has just gone live. The address is http://www.easportsworld.com
I haven’t gotten a chance to really go through the site, but it seems to offer more than just the ability to view and download those. It looks like you can add friends and leave comments on their profiles among other things I have yet to discover.
I have a few pics and videos on there, nothing extraordinary though. I have been recording to my PC for the highlight videos so I only put a few up to test out now that this site is up. Later tonight or tomorrow I’ll get some better ones on to this site for people to check out. Here is the link to my page.
