A group of NBA Live '07 fanboys have had enough of the series' annual increase in broken gameplay and have written a letter to EA expressing their displeasure. Although the focus of the letter is on NBA Live '07, with YouTube links showing the latest issues with the series, it touches on the general unhappiness with other declining EA franchises like Madden and FIFA. "At one time, EA was producing the best titles money could buy and one had little reason to look elsewhere. Now gamers have a sense that if you want the best, it's not EA."
And as an aside, more than a few eyebrows were raised when press copies and reviews of NBA Live '07 came trickling in a week after the game went on shelves, almost as if EA knew they produced a sub-par product. Hollywood employs this same tactic on bad movies so they can get as much money back before the word gets out how bad things really are.
Although the issues expressed by the fans of NBA Live '07 are positively valid, there is the alternative NBA 2K7 from 2K Games which was released the same day as NBA Live '07. This doesn't help Madden fans who experienced similar issues with Madden '07, but have no recourse because of EA's NFL exclusivity deal. In the case of Madden, EA also shows apparent ignorance toward reasonable proprosals by fans to fix the series.
It's certainly cause for concern that EA Sports is taking the "we'll patch it later" stance toward console games this early. This is the first generation capable of console patching and ideally should be used to fix subtle errors. Instead EA is following the PC model that console gamers have fled from: ship first, patch later. It's probably time for sports gamers to show consumer activism and take their money to other franchises. That'll get EA's attention faster than any letter.
After that dreadful NFS demo you have to ask what the hell is going on? The only impressive thing next gen they've done is fight night, everything else has been really underwhelming.
Unnecessary tale from a dribbling old coot: Many long and pointless moons ago, a friend and I had great fun with a game called NHL 95. We had our own players, managed the team a bit, played a full season in co-op and won the Stanley cup. It was awesome.
Then we tried the next version (whatever it was) and it was crap. I’m sure that aficionados of the series will know which versions were good and which were bad, but the point is we sampled the series a few more times here ‘n there and were disappointed -– they’d switch to 3D but have crappy gameplay, or miss a feature that we found vital, whatever. We gave up.
Just recently with the 360 we’ve been thinking of giving it another bash. If we could play co-op over LIVE it would eliminate that whole inconvenience of getting up and going somewhere. So my friend bought NHL 07. He reckons it looks awesome, but it’s missing some pretty fundamental features…like the ability to play a co-op season over LIVE. Which (for us) makes it a no brainer. Back to EB it goes.
We’re now thinking about NHL 2k7 instead. Anyone played that? Recommend it? Is it even out? I haven’t seen it anywhere…
Talking Madden here, within one year EA went from best sports sim ever to utter disappointment. All they had to do was keep the gameplay and features from 06 and jazz it up with the graphics, sound and presentation.
"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion" - L. Ron Hubbard
Candy Arse wrote:Talking Madden here, within one year EA went from best sports sim ever to utter disappointment. All they had to do was keep the gameplay and features from 06 and jazz it up with the graphics, sound and presentation.
But no. They FUCKED IT instead.
And with that, Pro Evo takes the crown as the undisputed, best sports game series of all time.
The fatigue patch for Madden 07 is a joke. It's nothing more than a colour change, the players never sub out and rarely perform at anything other than 100%.
Well it's virtually impossible to tell. I didn't see any subs in my 7 minute game, but people on Operation Sports are saying they did. I've only played one game so it's hard to tell.
I did have one play late in the third quarter where my RB had his fatigue showing yellow, and got run down very easily. Both players had similar speed (87 for the RB v 91 for the CB). It will require more testing, but the prevailing theory is that fatigue is not scaled for less than 15 min quarters. I'm going to test a 13-15 minute quarter game tonight or tomorrow.
Yeah I've been reading on OS that some people are getting good subs. I'll hit the game pretty hard this weekend and see what I can see. Otherwise I'll be just about prepared to say that Madden 07 is a complete wipeout.
And with that, Pro Evo takes the crown as the undisputed, best sports game series of all time.
Pro Evo > Madden
Pat > Candy
Madden 06 > *. Nothing changes even though 07 on 360 is worse than your taste in games. Well...almost as bad.
Yes it is. EA didn't put up a demo (first of their sports games to not have one before release) and they also didn't ship out review copies. Check the reviews at 1up, Gamespot and IGN (all under 7).
Yeah I have steered clear of NBA live since 2K came on the scene, it's been giving gamers what they want every season and they make a huge effort to try and address problems each year. It has come a very long way in the 6 or so years it's been around to really be giving Live a beatdown year in year out now.
