A comparisson that should never take place.....

As is the case with all of you, I am an avid gamer. I have played video games since i was tall enough to reach the joystick on an arcade machine. I love video games, and have greatly enjoyed witnessing their evolution throughout the years.

We have seen and experienced huge strides in technology that have greatly amplified our enjoyment factor. The technological advances that have taken place have not only given us better and better graphics (think of Kung-Fu for NES.... then think of Street Fighter for the 16-bit sytems....then think of DOA4 for the 360), but have also allowed the developers to weave incredibly intricate and involving storylines. For the most part, the videogame industry strives to deliver quality products to ensure they get our money. The vast majority of the time, they get us great value for our money.  I mean, compare those franchises that have been able to not only survive, but have been tremendously succesful (not just by measuring their sales) crossing from platform to platform, from generation to generation. Franchises like Resident Evil, starting with the "out of the blue" dominating force that became the PS1, crossing to the PS2/Gamecube generation. They delivered very high quality games, and the difference in the genrational versions was marked enough. Franchises like Final Fantasy, which although at times they delivered questionable versions, one couild really tell the difference as the generations of systems improved.

Then, we have the franchise that prompted me to write this piece.......EA's Madden. To be fair, and accurate, Madden is the grand-daddy of the grid-iron games. The problem is that they have gotten so complacent. I was playing the latest instalation of this game a few nights ago. Madden on the 360 is a work of art from the graphics standpoint. The level of detail that they can now achieve is really breath-taking. A fellow 2o2p'er and I were playing our League game, and talking. We realized that the last time he and I had played football against each other had been on the one game that really brought it to EA, and smacked them in the mouth, pulled their punk card and scared EA into having to secure exclusivity rights to NFL properties to ensure they could not compete. That's right folks, the undispouted ultimate underdog... ESPNNFL2K5!

2K Games, brought out a very high quality game, at half the price of Madden and smacked EA in the mouth. Admittedly, the 2K instalation of their football games were (in my opinion) much more of an arcade gameplay style. Depending on the version (2K through 2K5), it was either the running game or the passing game that were pretty easy to do. I clearly remember on 2K4 being able to run over 200yd games with Trung Canidate!!, and on 2k5 being able to pass for ungodly amounts of yards per game (with a huge QB Rating) with just about any QB. The Madden franchises maintained a higher level of "realism", as far as gameplay went. 

Back to my point.... the other 2o2p'er and I were actually comparing a prior generation , 2 year old game, against a "next generation" game! And the comparisson still favored the older, past generation game. That comparisson should never take place.  I mean, why are we allowing EA to deliver subpar games? You are probably asking.....How do you figure they are?  To me, the strength of a game lies in its attention to detail. Allow me to point out the things that 2K5 did right:

-100% support for the Online game. They had (have) 100% League Support. Can you get 32 players together to run a real NFL season? Good, we'll support it! You'll be able to do trades, you will have to manage your team, becasue you will have injuries. We will track all of your stats for you, for your entire league. Very impressive!

-You don't agree with a call? Let me paint a picture....you're on Offense. You drop back as the QB, your opponent called the right defensive play and their LB is beelining for you. You try to get the pass off, but he is on you like white on rice! He wraps you up, as you try to release the pass. Then it happens...fumble!!!! The LB recovers the ball, and luckily your FB tackles him. You see the instant replay on the giant screen. Your arm was going forward!!! Challenge!!!!! On NFL 2K5, it asked you: Are you challenging the fumble? Are you challenging that your amr was going forward, and it should be an incomplete pass? Are you challenging the spot of the ball? Did I mentioned this happened Online and  Offline??? AWESOME.

-You want atmosphere? How about we let you set the atmosphere, down to the detail of what song you want your stadium to play when you sack the opponent's QB? When you Interceot the Ball? When you return an INT for a TD? When you score a TD on Offense? When you complete a 3rd and long? or a 4th? Amazing!!!

-99% of the time, if you challenged a play, and the instant replay showed proper footage...you won the challenge!

-It's past the 2 minute warning, the refs didn't make a call they should've......you had the equvalent of being on the sidelines bitching at the refs. Pause, control the instant replay and focus in on the infraction/bad call scenario. Resume game, and the computer recognized what you were doing and the booth would request a review!!! Hah!! Love it! Again...available offline and online.

Now, let me review our complaints about Madden '07:

-NO online league support!

- No challenge online

-Unable to specify what I am challenging (how many challenges have I lost because the computer decided I was arguing the sopt of the ball on a questionable catch?)

-Watching their receiver catch a ball at the edge of the sideline, then come down with the ball his first foot a foot past the sideline, his second 2 yards further, and hearing the ref say "Play stands!" WTF?????

- Same scenario as above.... past the 2 nimute warning and the booth and refs are blind!!

Why, oh why is it that EA can not address these issues? They simply took the easy way out, bought the rights and ensured they were the only game in town. Given that I wholeheartedly believe in capitalism, I have no problem with that concept. They had the bank,  they used it .  But I am also a firm believer in customer service/support. Your being the only game in town should not give you a pass on delivering a high quality product.  Your reputation should be so important to you that  you look at what your prior competition did right and you match or surpass it. EA has not, and unless we the consumer light a fire under their butt, wont. I can assure of one thing though...if 2K comes out with a non-NFL sponsored generic teams/players football game....it will definetly be added to my library.