Articles tagged with ea sports
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22-10-11
Posted by Duane at 16:11
Ah, its football season once again and that means EA's yearly release of FIFA is upon us. Thankfully in recent years this has been something to genuinely look forward to, from FIFA 09 onwards the series has been genuinely excellent and has truly shown up its competitor PES. EA has this year made alot of noise about certain aspects of their new release, so is it more of the same with minor tweaks (as some perceived FIFA 11 to be) or has it genuinely changed?
Well to be honest, there's only so much you can do with a game like FIFA, much like racing games or any other sports title, theres certain restrictions in place, so really its very hard to make a game within a genre such as one FIFA 12 finds itself in and make it totally different, different enough to be worth spending £45 of your hard earned cash on thats for sure. But all impressions EA have managed to really seperate the really rather attack dominated play of FIFA 11 and focus instead on an intelligent pressing game thats not going to be to everybodies liking but is genuinely tactical and requiring of skill to play properly.
As mentioned, this time round EA has put an effort on pressing play and defensive interaction. Gone is the ability to just hold down A and B (on the XBox controller) and walk away with the ball, now its all about containing the threat from the opposition and skillful and intelligent timing when defending, and then opening up spaces quickly whilst attacking. An element of patience is certainly required resulting in probably the most intelligent game of football thats ever been released on consoles. It takes a fair bit of practice to get right, but is richly rewarding when you do and have learnt the system efficiently. For those who lack that patience or just cannot get on with it, you can switch back to the FIFA 11 method of defending but that kind of devoids spending so much money on this years release. It would also mean you can't really play online properly as to balance things out, everyone has to use FIFA 12's defensive mechanics.
Online is certainly where EA want you to spend the chunk of your time with the game this year, this has always probably been the case, but its even more apparent this time round. With the staple Be A Pro and Ranked matches being included but also the inclusion on disc of Ultimate Team, plus a ranking system that see's you competing in a Seasonal play scheme where you build up your own reputation on the game and rise up the leagues season by season (which is generally speaking 10 online matches) or drop down them according to how succesful you are within that 10 game span. There are also challenges based on real world matches that are updated frequently giving everyone a choice of different ways to play the same game.
Rather brilliantly, EA has seen fit to bring back club allegiances, I'm not sure why they did away with this before, but essentially when you first boot the game up you can pick your favourite team to represent and then every single match that you play (regardless of the club you're playing as at the time) you contribute points to your favourite club in the games worldwide rankings which are then averaged out by how many fans that club has worldwide and are organised into leagues on a leaderboard. It gives the game a stronger community feel than previous iterations and is most certainly a positive inclusion to the series that could lead to some interesting developments if EA decide to keep it for future iterations.
With all of these new features, FIFA 12 feels much more experimental than last years release, which felt a little safe. Its certainly not without its problems, menu's are often very slow to respond, the AI is far too often too reliant on you when playing the Career mode as a player or player/manager meaning unless you play upfront and literally drag your team through every game matches end up at 0-0 far far too often, with the ball trapped in the middle of the park with very tedious midfield "battles" that are ultimately just the AI controlled players losing possession with rather sloppy passing and no desire to push forward. There's also a few bugs that really need ironing out, one in particular that pretty much cripples Ultimate Team and see's players not receiving coins for playing matches be they online or offline. Somebody more cynical could see this as a move to make players buy card packs using micro-transactions rather than in-game cash but I'm of the opinion its a bit of coding thats gone awry.
The question is then, is this years version worth getting if you have 11? Personally speaking, I prefer it, I felt the defensive side of 11 was severely lacking, both in the way you interacted with it and in the way attacking teams could easily exploit it and 12 goes someway to repairing that, and if you play online theres so much here that could keep any football fan busy for a long long while its ridiculous. It's hard to call a game thats "updated" yearly good value for money, but with FIFA 12 EA Sports have really made an effort to make their product exactly that, good value for money.
Well to be honest, there's only so much you can do with a game like FIFA, much like racing games or any other sports title, theres certain restrictions in place, so really its very hard to make a game within a genre such as one FIFA 12 finds itself in and make it totally different, different enough to be worth spending £45 of your hard earned cash on thats for sure. But all impressions EA have managed to really seperate the really rather attack dominated play of FIFA 11 and focus instead on an intelligent pressing game thats not going to be to everybodies liking but is genuinely tactical and requiring of skill to play properly.
As mentioned, this time round EA has put an effort on pressing play and defensive interaction. Gone is the ability to just hold down A and B (on the XBox controller) and walk away with the ball, now its all about containing the threat from the opposition and skillful and intelligent timing when defending, and then opening up spaces quickly whilst attacking. An element of patience is certainly required resulting in probably the most intelligent game of football thats ever been released on consoles. It takes a fair bit of practice to get right, but is richly rewarding when you do and have learnt the system efficiently. For those who lack that patience or just cannot get on with it, you can switch back to the FIFA 11 method of defending but that kind of devoids spending so much money on this years release. It would also mean you can't really play online properly as to balance things out, everyone has to use FIFA 12's defensive mechanics.
Online is certainly where EA want you to spend the chunk of your time with the game this year, this has always probably been the case, but its even more apparent this time round. With the staple Be A Pro and Ranked matches being included but also the inclusion on disc of Ultimate Team, plus a ranking system that see's you competing in a Seasonal play scheme where you build up your own reputation on the game and rise up the leagues season by season (which is generally speaking 10 online matches) or drop down them according to how succesful you are within that 10 game span. There are also challenges based on real world matches that are updated frequently giving everyone a choice of different ways to play the same game.
Rather brilliantly, EA has seen fit to bring back club allegiances, I'm not sure why they did away with this before, but essentially when you first boot the game up you can pick your favourite team to represent and then every single match that you play (regardless of the club you're playing as at the time) you contribute points to your favourite club in the games worldwide rankings which are then averaged out by how many fans that club has worldwide and are organised into leagues on a leaderboard. It gives the game a stronger community feel than previous iterations and is most certainly a positive inclusion to the series that could lead to some interesting developments if EA decide to keep it for future iterations.
With all of these new features, FIFA 12 feels much more experimental than last years release, which felt a little safe. Its certainly not without its problems, menu's are often very slow to respond, the AI is far too often too reliant on you when playing the Career mode as a player or player/manager meaning unless you play upfront and literally drag your team through every game matches end up at 0-0 far far too often, with the ball trapped in the middle of the park with very tedious midfield "battles" that are ultimately just the AI controlled players losing possession with rather sloppy passing and no desire to push forward. There's also a few bugs that really need ironing out, one in particular that pretty much cripples Ultimate Team and see's players not receiving coins for playing matches be they online or offline. Somebody more cynical could see this as a move to make players buy card packs using micro-transactions rather than in-game cash but I'm of the opinion its a bit of coding thats gone awry.
The question is then, is this years version worth getting if you have 11? Personally speaking, I prefer it, I felt the defensive side of 11 was severely lacking, both in the way you interacted with it and in the way attacking teams could easily exploit it and 12 goes someway to repairing that, and if you play online theres so much here that could keep any football fan busy for a long long while its ridiculous. It's hard to call a game thats "updated" yearly good value for money, but with FIFA 12 EA Sports have really made an effort to make their product exactly that, good value for money.
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If for some reason you want to read more about that then visit their site, I'd bleach your monitor afterwards though
Alternatively you can watch the video below. It's taken from an EA Sports and City event where Micah Richards blurts out that he doesn't know the controls because he plays Pro Evolution
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POW!
Yeah that's right, I'm pretty incredible. But if I can be serious for a moment, EA Sports are no longer going to be including instruction manuals in their games.
It's a move apparently inspired by wanting to make their games greener, and fair play to EA for that. But it will also save them money.
If you are worried, all the information you'd get from a manual will now be on a disc, as it has been for years.
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The largest of these are Play a Friend modes and Friend Leaderboards.
You can find out more by visting the FIFA 11 Ultimate Team websites.
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So about half-way through last year, EA Sports became the English Premier League's Official Sports Technology Partner, which means... I'm not sure, but the upshot is that Premiership coverage would from there on be in some way adorned with EA logos, usually next to statistics or somesuch.
Last September, Digital Spy reports, said logo appeared fourteen times in one match between Everton and Manchester United, which was described as "irrelevant", "unnecessary" and "blatant" by one person who complained to Ofcom.
Long story short, as EA were only financially sponsoring the league, and not providing it (or Sky) any actual service, Ofcom are of the view that despite contractual obligations between the Premier League and Sky, the logo should not be appearing in play whatsoever.
More information can be found in this fortnight's Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin (PDF, some NSFW descriptions), starting on page 9.
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01-11-10
Posted by Duane at 07:48
I can't say I'm entirely interested in MMA, UFC or anything remotely similar like WWE, I've never minded a bit of boxing, and here I'm talking about the actual sports, but in reality I don't mind some of the games that are released that are licensed by such franchises as they can be quite fun.
The UFC games have been knocking around now, and doing fairly well I understand, since the days of our beloved Dreamcast. MMA is another all-out fighting series and direct competitor to UFC, the success of the licensed UFC games and the interest in the sport in general have led to EA picking up the license for MMA. Here is the first release in the series.
As you'd expect, from the outset it has all of the typical EA Sports spit and polish. Nice menu's, introductory systems, EA Trax and as usual they've gone to great effort to make full use of the license they've purchased. In this respect no sports fan could ever be truly dissapointed with what they get in an EA Sports package and these things can be the deciding factor between having an official title like this and going for something a little less lightweight on the licensing front. Fortunately for EA they don't have to rely solely on such things, as despite having UFC on the shelves next to them, each series will have their individual fans who will pick up the respective game that carries whichever fighters they have the most interest in. So, all that aside, lets get down to the important stuff and see if EA Sports MMA will be delivering some heavy winding body blows or if its wrist is a little limp.
Jumping straight into the character creation aspect of the career mode there's a wealth of options to choose from, and I spent far too much time choosing the apearance of my shorts, you can download a "Game Face" if you've uploaded one to your web based EA Sports profile and apply that to your character or play around with the in-game visual appearance settings. From there your taken into a gym and are shown the ropes and taught how to control the game. The basic controls are very similar to that of Fight Night, where-in you use both sticks to throw punches, changing the type of punch from standard jab, to full punch or uppercuts by using different motions on the right stick, movements to the left will throw left handed punches, motions to the right will result in a right hand punch. If you pull the left trigger whilst moving the stick you'll execute kicks which work in the same manner as punches. Face buttons control grappling, pins and things like that allowing you to take your fight to the floor if you feel thats where you will be strongest.
For the most part this all works pretty well, although you can never get over the feeling that its a little slow, I'm not talking about the response time between input and action here, but the game in general. But thats a problem I've personally always found with games of this type. I'm not expecting Street Fighter speeds here, but even the likes of Fight Night have always felt slower than a human being would normally react and ultimately it feels a little too un natural and almost scripted at times.
You are given the ability to choose your fighting discipline and cusotmise your character around that, but are also given the opportunity to visit trainers who specialise in other disciplines, allowing you to learn special moves and finishing moves that don't fit in with your own traditional style if you so wish, this obviously allows you to mix things up a little and ultimately make fights a little more unpredictable and entertaining.
So, from everything presented in this first release of EA Sports MMA, the brand is off to a bright start. There are always a few things that need to be addressed, and personally speaking, the speed of the game should be the core focus, fights should be able to ebb and flow with the fighters controlling the speed from brutal, fast paced action, to something more reserved and tactical, as things stand, it sits far too comfortably in the latter regardless of wether your playing against the computer or a real life/internet opponent.
The UFC games have been knocking around now, and doing fairly well I understand, since the days of our beloved Dreamcast. MMA is another all-out fighting series and direct competitor to UFC, the success of the licensed UFC games and the interest in the sport in general have led to EA picking up the license for MMA. Here is the first release in the series.
As you'd expect, from the outset it has all of the typical EA Sports spit and polish. Nice menu's, introductory systems, EA Trax and as usual they've gone to great effort to make full use of the license they've purchased. In this respect no sports fan could ever be truly dissapointed with what they get in an EA Sports package and these things can be the deciding factor between having an official title like this and going for something a little less lightweight on the licensing front. Fortunately for EA they don't have to rely solely on such things, as despite having UFC on the shelves next to them, each series will have their individual fans who will pick up the respective game that carries whichever fighters they have the most interest in. So, all that aside, lets get down to the important stuff and see if EA Sports MMA will be delivering some heavy winding body blows or if its wrist is a little limp.
Jumping straight into the character creation aspect of the career mode there's a wealth of options to choose from, and I spent far too much time choosing the apearance of my shorts, you can download a "Game Face" if you've uploaded one to your web based EA Sports profile and apply that to your character or play around with the in-game visual appearance settings. From there your taken into a gym and are shown the ropes and taught how to control the game. The basic controls are very similar to that of Fight Night, where-in you use both sticks to throw punches, changing the type of punch from standard jab, to full punch or uppercuts by using different motions on the right stick, movements to the left will throw left handed punches, motions to the right will result in a right hand punch. If you pull the left trigger whilst moving the stick you'll execute kicks which work in the same manner as punches. Face buttons control grappling, pins and things like that allowing you to take your fight to the floor if you feel thats where you will be strongest.
For the most part this all works pretty well, although you can never get over the feeling that its a little slow, I'm not talking about the response time between input and action here, but the game in general. But thats a problem I've personally always found with games of this type. I'm not expecting Street Fighter speeds here, but even the likes of Fight Night have always felt slower than a human being would normally react and ultimately it feels a little too un natural and almost scripted at times.
You are given the ability to choose your fighting discipline and cusotmise your character around that, but are also given the opportunity to visit trainers who specialise in other disciplines, allowing you to learn special moves and finishing moves that don't fit in with your own traditional style if you so wish, this obviously allows you to mix things up a little and ultimately make fights a little more unpredictable and entertaining.
So, from everything presented in this first release of EA Sports MMA, the brand is off to a bright start. There are always a few things that need to be addressed, and personally speaking, the speed of the game should be the core focus, fights should be able to ebb and flow with the fighters controlling the speed from brutal, fast paced action, to something more reserved and tactical, as things stand, it sits far too comfortably in the latter regardless of wether your playing against the computer or a real life/internet opponent.
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31-10-10
Posted by Duane at 06:15
Its always difficult to review yearly updates of sports titles, quite often there's a few new tweaks here and there to the structure, trying to iron out any issues with the previous instalment, plus adding in the latest squads/rosters and league line-ups that kind of thing.
On the surface, FIFA 11 appears to be such a beat, Okay theres the addition of Be A Goalkeeper (more on that later) and smaller aspects like Player Personalitie's but initially it feels much like FIFA 10 and 2010 World Cup South Africa, only more difficult. Which isn't strictly true, the game feels tougher but only because EA have seemingly tightened up the defence and weakened exploits that existed in the previous release such as luring the keeper out and playing a square ball across the goal. By tightening up the middle of the park, making the defenders a little more savvy and happier to stick their foot in (rather than stand off you and let you make the mistake) plus nerfing certain play methods that were a little too powerful in the grand scheme of things EA appear to have added some challenge to each of the difficulty options resulting in scorelines that are usually closer to what you'd expect to see on Football Focus each weekend.
This ultimately makes the game more entertaining for a longer period of time but will be frustrating for some as it's seemingly difficult to score goals. The main new addition this year is the Be A Goalkeeper mode, and the vast majority of the Accomplishments that are designed to make your player better seem to be focused around this. This can be frustrating for someone who, like myself, likes to play in the midfield, it makes progression slow and difficult although it feels all the more rewarding when you make a difference in a match by making sure your team keeps possession and uses it well. This is probably the most difficult aspect to the game however, as in Be A Pro mode the AI for your team mates appears to be switched off completely. Unless you either instruct them to pass or shoot there seems to be no forward progression and all too often games end in 0-0 bore draws with hardly anything to note.
Ultimately FIFA 11 is very reminiscent of PlayStation 2 era Pro Evolution Soccer. Changes have been made, that ultimately make the game feel very different, stats have obviously been updated, but at the end of the day here we have a case of the player needing to try FIFA 11 and FIFA 10 to see which they prefer the feel to, obviously its going to be harder to find online games on FIFA 10, so if thats what you want the game for FIFA 11 is definetly the one to go for but it really is down to the end user which game they prefer this time round as its too close to call.
On the surface, FIFA 11 appears to be such a beat, Okay theres the addition of Be A Goalkeeper (more on that later) and smaller aspects like Player Personalitie's but initially it feels much like FIFA 10 and 2010 World Cup South Africa, only more difficult. Which isn't strictly true, the game feels tougher but only because EA have seemingly tightened up the defence and weakened exploits that existed in the previous release such as luring the keeper out and playing a square ball across the goal. By tightening up the middle of the park, making the defenders a little more savvy and happier to stick their foot in (rather than stand off you and let you make the mistake) plus nerfing certain play methods that were a little too powerful in the grand scheme of things EA appear to have added some challenge to each of the difficulty options resulting in scorelines that are usually closer to what you'd expect to see on Football Focus each weekend.
This ultimately makes the game more entertaining for a longer period of time but will be frustrating for some as it's seemingly difficult to score goals. The main new addition this year is the Be A Goalkeeper mode, and the vast majority of the Accomplishments that are designed to make your player better seem to be focused around this. This can be frustrating for someone who, like myself, likes to play in the midfield, it makes progression slow and difficult although it feels all the more rewarding when you make a difference in a match by making sure your team keeps possession and uses it well. This is probably the most difficult aspect to the game however, as in Be A Pro mode the AI for your team mates appears to be switched off completely. Unless you either instruct them to pass or shoot there seems to be no forward progression and all too often games end in 0-0 bore draws with hardly anything to note.
Ultimately FIFA 11 is very reminiscent of PlayStation 2 era Pro Evolution Soccer. Changes have been made, that ultimately make the game feel very different, stats have obviously been updated, but at the end of the day here we have a case of the player needing to try FIFA 11 and FIFA 10 to see which they prefer the feel to, obviously its going to be harder to find online games on FIFA 10, so if thats what you want the game for FIFA 11 is definetly the one to go for but it really is down to the end user which game they prefer this time round as its too close to call.
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23-09-10
Posted by Duane at 06:41
Ice Hockey, probably the finest sport played across the pond, with the skill, speed and fluidity of Football (that's "Soccer" to any potential "US English" speakers out there) and the violence of Rugby. It's a shame that it doesn't get as much attention in this country, probably because the majority of our ice rinks are right "holes". But hey, we can play it on our XBoxes right?
Thank heavens we can then, as there's something about the brutal pace of Ice Hockey that makes it perfectly suited to a videogame. This year EA Sports have tried to revitalise the games physics engine, last years effort was a bit of a slap slap slap passing affair where it would be possible to smack the puck around the rink so fast that the opposition couldn't catch up, great to watch, brilliant if you're the person doing the passing, if you're on the defense though it was ultimately frustrating as it became near impossible to retake possession once this act had begun. Now passing is less accurate than before, not to the extent that the game feels like a bunch of amateur's dressing up in their favourite teams gear but slack enough that not every pass is succesful and its much easier to intercept or indeed put your stick in the way of the puck before it even leaves the opposing players possession. This obviously makes for a much more even experience regardless of wether your facing off against computer controlled opponents or online players.
As is usually the case with EA Sports titles there's a wealth of gameplay options, including the now standard "Manager Mode" (or as its called here, Be a GM) and Be A Pro. New to this year are the EA Sports Hockey League, an online Hockey competition which also features monthly playoffs, and "Hockey Ultimate Team" wherein you collect player cards in order to make the best possible team, one of many features thats working its way through the EA Sports label from its main attractions (Madden in the states, FIFA in Europe). So there's something for everyone just so long as you like the sport.
Hockey wouldn't be Hockey if it didn't feature punch up's, OTT commentators and broken sticks, which are all present and correct this year, with the broken sticks being a new addition and one that can make a potentially game saving tackle or shot into an absolute disaster, whilst the fighting has had a tweak and is now much closer to the Fight Night series in terms of the accuracy of the punches and the strategy involved in actually winning a fight.
So once again, we have a very solid offering in the NHL franchise, EA Sports seem to have tried to listen to fans responses in regards to the gameplay (in particular addressing the issue of passing and deking) and offered up a bunch of game modes that cater to everyones tastes. If you're a hockey fan, you'll have this already no doubt, if you're wanting to get into ice hockey, this is possibly the perfect way to do so.
Thank heavens we can then, as there's something about the brutal pace of Ice Hockey that makes it perfectly suited to a videogame. This year EA Sports have tried to revitalise the games physics engine, last years effort was a bit of a slap slap slap passing affair where it would be possible to smack the puck around the rink so fast that the opposition couldn't catch up, great to watch, brilliant if you're the person doing the passing, if you're on the defense though it was ultimately frustrating as it became near impossible to retake possession once this act had begun. Now passing is less accurate than before, not to the extent that the game feels like a bunch of amateur's dressing up in their favourite teams gear but slack enough that not every pass is succesful and its much easier to intercept or indeed put your stick in the way of the puck before it even leaves the opposing players possession. This obviously makes for a much more even experience regardless of wether your facing off against computer controlled opponents or online players.
As is usually the case with EA Sports titles there's a wealth of gameplay options, including the now standard "Manager Mode" (or as its called here, Be a GM) and Be A Pro. New to this year are the EA Sports Hockey League, an online Hockey competition which also features monthly playoffs, and "Hockey Ultimate Team" wherein you collect player cards in order to make the best possible team, one of many features thats working its way through the EA Sports label from its main attractions (Madden in the states, FIFA in Europe). So there's something for everyone just so long as you like the sport.
Hockey wouldn't be Hockey if it didn't feature punch up's, OTT commentators and broken sticks, which are all present and correct this year, with the broken sticks being a new addition and one that can make a potentially game saving tackle or shot into an absolute disaster, whilst the fighting has had a tweak and is now much closer to the Fight Night series in terms of the accuracy of the punches and the strategy involved in actually winning a fight.
So once again, we have a very solid offering in the NHL franchise, EA Sports seem to have tried to listen to fans responses in regards to the gameplay (in particular addressing the issue of passing and deking) and offered up a bunch of game modes that cater to everyones tastes. If you're a hockey fan, you'll have this already no doubt, if you're wanting to get into ice hockey, this is possibly the perfect way to do so.
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- You can play as the keeper
- Keeper controls are move with left stick and dive with right
- When playing a 2 player exhibition, the arena loading screen allows one to play outfield and the other as the keeper
- Skill moves are tiered based on player's stats
- Virtual pro has double the number of accomplishments
- Can now play friendlies online
And there's also a demo due on September 16th, although apparently the gameplay in this will not be final. Which sounds like they're leaving it late, but it could just be to cover themselves, or it could be we're getting slightly old code (i.e. the one being used at GameCon)
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