Initial Madden 13 Impressions

The Madden franchise is like a fake diamond; from a distance, it looks nice, but upon closer inspection, it's inferior. After two weeks of play, I can say that I'm not as disappointed in the game as I was last year.  In terms of gameplay, the same issues from the previous years are still there. But, where the game shines is with the new Connected Careers mode. It's obvious that they put the majority of their development effort into this aspect of the game. It is a better, more expanded version of the Superstar mode of previous years. This could possibly be the saving grace of the Madden franchise. A lot of people that I've talked to about this would love to make it so multiple players to play on the same team online (sort of like My Crew from NBA2K11). One frustrating thing that irks me about the game is the new catching system. While the catches are fantastic, you have to be looking at the ball to make the catch. While this seems to be more realistic, often times I've thrown an over the shoulder pass or another lead pass and the player won't even attempt to make a play on the ball. Hopefully that will improve with the next game. Overall, I enjoy the game a lot more than Madden 12. I'd say it's one of their best post-NFL 2K offerings.

2K Updates

With less than a month left, the heat is being turned up on leaked information regarding the highly anticipated release of NBA 2K13. One of the most interesting aspects that has been released is the list of what they call "Signature Skills." There are 31 skills (33 if you include the My Player only skills) that are applied to players. Each player can have between 0 and 5 skills. To me, the skills seem to be broken into offensive skills, defensive skills, and intangibles.

Here's a link to the list of the skills and what they mean: http://t.co/fldvB6yw

Also, this week the good people at 2K are focusing on releasing information regarding My Player mode. Now you player will have a wardrobe. There's also a sort of social hub implemented into the game. Could they reverting back to the My Crib a la 2K5? Take a look at these and tell me what you think: http://t.co/bIdBL6TT http://t.co/56OnXcS1

NBA (Not So) Live

It was reported today that sometime in October, EA will release a digital only version of it's NBA Live franchise. Do you find this as laughable as I do? EA hasn't put out a basketball game in three years and hasn't been competitive since 2008 when it did put together a game. Supposedly this will only be a trial run for next year (hence no physical disc), but due to the lack of visuals, marketing, or general information about the game, I don't see how much of a success this can be. I'm one that fully embraces developer competition, so I'd like EA to try to compete. Though 2K doesn't show any signs of lacking innovation, we don't know what the future holds. Since 2K has been unable to put out a football title, EA's lack effort in improving the gameplay has led to a lot of discontent amongst fans. I find it ironic that EA priced the game at $20. 2K employed the same method when it was trying to cut it's way into EA's sports gaming market. Could EA be waiting for 2K to falter to strike? If so, they may be waiting for for a long time.

Madden 13 Ratings

Alas, in anticipation of the Madden 13 drop on Tuesday, EA has finally released the ratings of all of the players in the game. Ratings are always fun to debate. As being an unofficial voice of the sporting public, it is interesting to see the hierarchy of players and how they play (virtually). How do you feel about the initial ratings? Here's a link to view all of the ratings:  http://www.pastapadre.com/2012/08/24/madden-nfl-13-all-player-ratings

More NBA 2K13 Progress

As October 2nd rapidly approaches, more and more exciting details about the new NBA 2K13 is released. This week, in addition to more developer insight from the 2K team, we also were blessed with a great, detailed impression video on Youtube by Chris Smoove (who you should follow after the game comes out. His videos are GREAT!). Here are the main things you need to know (Links below):

-Improved Triple Threat Moves: Patented triple threat moves were highlighted. You know how Kobe palms the ball and extends his arm behind him before making a move? That's in the game. Same for Paul Pierce's elbow. Jordan had some great triple threat moves as well, which I anticipate being in the game along with a plethora of others.

-Speed: NBA 2K took a step back from NBA 2K11 in this aspect. In NBA 2K11, I was able to drive past bigs at will with quick guards such as Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, etc., but in NBA 2K12, if was difficult to pass them at the top of the key. That has been addressed in NBA 2K13. This is a welcome addition. A big man should be dominated on a switch off by a quick guard. It adds a little more realism to the game.

Collisions: There are a ton of new collision impact visuals in the game. For example, if you get hit in the head while going up for a layup, the player will grab his head to show that. That doesn't really affect the gameplay much, but it's a nice nuance to the game to add in some realism. A natural reaction to an elbow to the lip is to put your hand on your lip and look at it to check for blood.

Dribbling Off Feet: NO MORE DRIBBLING OFF SOMEONE ELSE'S FEET! This was a HUGE problem in NBA 2K12. There were many fast breaks of mine that were foiled by me dribbling the ball off of my own teammates heel because my player threw the ball in front of him. That is gone. Thankfully! Now I can run a fast break in peace!

Shot Clock: Was it me or did the AI tend to make a TON of ridiculous shots with 1 second left on the shot clock? I didn't think so. I hated playing 23 seconds of good D only for Blake Griffin to drain a contested 20 foot J on me. According to Smoove, the developers don't think there was any issues with the shot clock in 2K12, but regardless, it seems to be fixed. That right there was my biggest gripe about the last game. I really hope that that garbage is gone.

Sliders: Not much to say here. It has been said that there as some new sliders, but they weren't specified. I'd like to see what they are.

Also, the achievements for the game has been released. From looking at them, it appears that the Online Blacktop will be back. It seems like we will be able to use the historic teams online as well. More importantly, it insinuates that My Crew will make it return! For those that didn't play NBA 2K11, My Crew is essentially a online pickup game using your My Player. It's a fun way to play with, against your friends as well as level up your My Player. This is the most exciting new of all to me.

With just over five weeks left until the release date (and three to four weeks before the demo drops), we have a lot more information to look forward to. All in all, the game appears on track to becoming the greatest basketball game ever.

Links:
NBA 2K13 Developer Insight #2: http://youtu.be/n-HCtSinpLI
Chris Smoove's Impressions: http://youtu.be/uzp9mPqbkro
NBA 2K13 Achievement list: http://exophase.com/game/nba-2k13-xbox-360/achievements/

Don't Sleep on the Dogs

After getting a solid 3 hours of gaming in yesterday, I can finally give my first impressions on the game Sleeping Dogs. The game is essentially Grand Theft Auto inverted. It's an open world game in which you play an undercover cop. In a sense, it's like a blend of GTA and L.A. Noire. For those that remember the old True Crime series, this is the latest game in that series (though there has been a developer and title change). This time the action has moved over to Hong Kong where you are to infiltrate the Triads and take them down. The fighting controls in this are similar to Batman: Arkham City.......except your character has no problem with killing anyone. You have basic moves and combos that you know that levels up over time. If a person is attracting you, they'll highlight red so you know to counter. The parkour style of running works pretty seamlessly and is both fun and helpful. The graphics and visuals are beautiful, but one problem I noticed that once I swam and I got of the water, there was no signs of him being wet. There's a fun social hub that pops up while you are in the middle of a challenge that shows your friend's records in the game. There's no online play so this is a fun addition to keep the competitive juices. The storyline is fun and engaging. I'm usually one that hates cut scenes and skips as much as possible, but I can honestly say that I've yet to skip one (which you can pretty much do for any cut scene or dialogue). And this is all before I got a gun or a car! Thus far into the game, I can say it's the best game in it's genre since GTA: Vice City and is DEFINITELY better than GTA IV.

8/14 Releases

This week was a fairly big week for gamers. There were only two releases this week, but they are highly anticipated releases: Darksiders 2 and Sleeping Dogs. Also, the Madden 13 demo dropped. Of the 3, I've played the Madden 13 demo and received Sleeping Dogs in the mail today (thank you GameFly). I also have Darksiders 2 to play (after I steal it from a friend of mine for a few days). I will give me reviews of.each one on the coming days. Also, in other Madden news, the full ratings for the wide receivers has been released. To date quarterback, running back, and wide receiver ratings has been released. Check them out here: http://m.madden-nfl.easports.com/news/article/receivers-ratings-in-madden-nfl-13