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

NBA 2K13 Gets Technical

On Friday, 2K dropped it's first developer insight into NBA 2K13 and boy was it a doozy! After seeing it, I'm left itching to play the game. Below I will provide a link to an ESPN with further details (luck Jon Robinson got to play the game). Here are the main points:

-Technical Fouls: For years, many NBA 2K13 fans (myself included) have been screaming for technical fouls to be somehow implemented into the game. For years, we got the runs around. "We fought hard for it, but it just didn't happen." "The NBA doesn't want to promote that type of negativity." "We couldn't think of a good, consistent method of calling them." Finally, thanks to the Kinect, technical fouls can be called in NBA 2K13. Now, any back talk to the ref that the Kinect hears can result in a technical foul for you. Though I've yet to test this system, it sounds super fly!

-Dribbling: Also, the controls have changed. The right stick is now used for dribbling. Crossovers, between the legs, etc. are now done with the right stick. If you move the stick left, your player moves left. If you rotate, you do a spin move. Be sure to invest into some extra cushions of your sticks because your thumbs will be doing a lot of work! This is great news to me; I had a hard time figuring out the dribbling in 2K12. If you are a fan of using the shot stick (Hint: Some players shoot better with the shot stick; others with the X button in my experience), you can still use it. Just hold down the Left Trigger and pull the shot stick

-Defense: Also, the defensive controls has gotten better. The Right Stick (in conjunction with the Left Trigger) will help you defend against your foes. At times in NBA 2K12, I did feel like it was impossible to stop players due to the lack of what I could do defensively. Offensively, players seemed to move a lot more smoothly than their defensive counterparts. This time around, it appears that the fluidity of player movement on defense evens things out.

Kinect Implementation: It seems as if the Kinect will play a HUGE role this time around. In addition to technical fouls (stated above), one can call out plays, call for substitutions, call for picks, and a plethora of other thins while playing the game. This is monumental. We've all played someone that would bring up the substitution screen when we are trying to run our offense and witness that impediment. Heck, I've done it to myself when playing the computer. It's great to have the on the fly stuff, but I felt too pressured to try to hurry up and do it before the opposing team brought the half past half court. With the Kinect, having the ability to simply say, "2-3 Zone" saves me a second or two as opposed to opening up the defense screen and pressing on the 2-3. It always seemed like the computer made the perfect timely cut during those situations......

With an October 2nd expected drop date, I'm sure that we could expect more Developer Insight in the coming weeks. Since the first one was on Friday, I presume that we could expect to get some insight each Friday until the drop date. As Sleepy Brown and OutKast would say, "I Can't Wait."

Link: http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/tech/post/_/id/1566/first-hands-on-look-at-nba-2k13

Fight Night Champion

As a huge boxing fan, a boxing game is always in my arsenal of video games for a system. Sadly, as the popularity of the sport dies, so does the production of quality boxing games. As with football, EA has monopolized the boxing realm with it's Fight Night series. As with football, EA has no competition. With Madden, many die-hard fans (including me) will say that NFL 2K5 is still a better game than any Madden. As far as boxing, the closest thing to compare Fight Night to is...........Mike Tyson's Punch Out? Ready To Rumble? It's own predecessors? For EA, they have boxing fans held hostage; either we buy Fight Night or we join a gym. So how does Fight Night measure up against it's toughest foe: EA's game play development?

The Game Play: As with all other EA games, the graphics in the game are astounding. They did a great job making sure that they picked up on the little intricacies of each boxer (how Ali throws his jabs, Frazier's bob, etc.).An effective jab really snaps the head back on a boxer. Power punches aren't the super slow haymakers of year's past; they look similar to a normally thrown punch, but the reaction and gameplay response is completely different. Your boxer won't be as quick to put up his guard, it saps a lot of stamina out of you, and if it lands, the screen distorts in a way that is potent, but doesn't mess up the vision of the gameplay. Many fans would be excited to see that there is a good mix of control settings in the game. People used to Fight Night 4's use of the right stick for punches have that same ability, but a little cleaner this time around. Fans of the button use of controlling will be happy to see that EA listened and implemented it back into the game. A major problem that I have with the game is that once you turn it on, it immediately attempts to connect you to the EA servers. If you've ever played any EA games, this could be a long process. It comes in handy because if there is someone in your weight class holding a title online (with a created player), as soon as you enter into the menus, their name will pop up and ask if you'd like to challenge them. The downside is, if you don't care to play online, you are still stuck waiting 2-3 minutes just for the game to start. As with previous incarnations of the game, stamina is still a problem, though after a few updates it's gotten (slightly) better. When playing against other players, it seems as if power never leaves the boxers throughout the rounds despite someone constantly throwing and missing power punches. Against the CPU, it's the opposite; your power seems to fade quickly though their power and stamina stay stagnant. One thing that I do like is that if you land goo, clean shots, the stamina doesn't decrease nearly as fast as if you just throw a lot of punches. Also. after playing with lighter weight classes, the heavyweights seems to throw abnormally slow. Granted they are bigger, but Ali's jab was incredibly quick and (after playing a few middle and welterweight fights) his jab seemed more like Butterbean's. The Legacy Mode (for your created player) is pretty much the same from the previous games. It seemed a little short to me though; I feel like I peaked too fast. The online play is pretty lousy. I got frustrated with it within a couple of days having the game. People make ridiculous boxers with otherworldly reach and power, which leaves you ineffective. I've notice a lot of 90" reaches, with a boatload of power all put onto one punch that they throw all fight long. Also, the boxers tend to be maxed out in chin and heart making it impossible to knock them down. Essentially, to compete with others, you HAVE to buy XP points in order to win matches so you created boxer could have XP points for Legacy Mode. I'm not down for that, therefore I stay away from online play on EA shoddy servers.

Story Mode: The Story Mode featuring fictitious boxer Andre Bishop is certainly the highlight of the game. The Story Mode plays out like a movie comparable to the movie "Undisputed" starring Ving Rhames and Wesley Snipes. Bishop goes from top contender to inmate, to champion as well as progressing through various weight classes. I'm not one to watch cut scenes and watch the storyline, but I was thoroughly captivated by the story. Though the story is REALLY fun to play, it is also relatively short and leaves you wanting more. If I'm EA, I do something similar next game, but have different outcomes depending on what decisions you make. That way, we'd be required to play Story Mode (which they obviously focused the game on) multiple times to get the full experience.

Unlockables: There are plenty of unlockable characters in the game. Some that obtain as you beat them in Story Mode. There are also a plethora of unlockable legends that can be purchased. Many of them are boxers like Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao; boxers that have been significant in multiple divisions that they've locked in their best division.

Overall: This is probably EA's best installment of the game. There is a lot to love about the game. The Story Mode alone makes it worth playing. The game is fun and intense when you first play it, but the more you play it, the more it's shortcoming come out. Nevertheless, it's worth of the title "Champion."