Stupid name, IMHO.

Subby, Ray Lewis is retired.

Doesn't it always come out in August?

Will never be topped.

NFL2K series was better

Have they improved the AI or just added more shiny and advertising.

So, it is 2013, and while the graphics are obviously great... you can still pretty easily "tell" the actual game footage vs. the video game.

Don't know at what point they will be able to make game graphics that you truly won't be able to tell the difference, I would have to imagine at some point that will happen though.

dletter: So, it is 2013, and while the graphics are obviously great... you can still pretty easily "tell" the actual game footage vs. the video game.

Don't know at what point they will be able to make game graphics that you truly won't be able to tell the difference, I would have to imagine at some point that will happen though.

My grandfather was always struck by how "real" sports video games looked. IIRC, he mistook a game of Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball (for the PSOne, ca 1999) for the real thing one day when my brother and I were playing.

I think it just takes a sense of wonder and failing eyesight.

// though he was still driving on his own for a few years

Dr Dreidel: dletter: So, it is 2013, and while the graphics are obviously great... you can still pretty easily "tell" the actual game footage vs. the video game.

Don't know at what point they will be able to make game graphics that you truly won't be able to tell the difference, I would have to imagine at some point that will happen though.

My grandfather was always struck by how "real" sports video games looked. IIRC, he mistook a game of Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball (for the PSOne, ca 1999) for the real thing one day when my brother and I were playing.

I think it just takes a sense of wonder and failing eyesight.

// though he was still driving on his own for a few years

Well, I think prior to HD sets, the games were getting good enough on standard sets that it was very close.  With HD video now though, the "real life" bar has been raised, and IMO the games are not there yet where people other than 75 year olds with cataracts wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Also, you mentioned a baseball game... I think there are much less "moving parts" in baseball that it is easier to make something that looks closer to a "real game".    Football has the most players moving around during gameplay of all of the sports (22, vs. 13 in baseball, 12 in hockey, 10 in basketball)... soccer would be just about equivilent.... so, there is a reason there for the difficulty in getting to the "can't tell between a real broadcast" issue.

cousndick: Will it have an option to randomly miss penalties and shut down for 34 minutes?

Will it have an option for Jim Harbaugh to lose his shiat every time holding is called?

Ebenator: Except that the deer antler spray story was BS and the accuser recanted.  But don't let any silly facts get in the way, subby.


No, no he did not.

DROxINxTHExWIND: I was probably playing an 8 year old kid but hey, you pick up that stick then you're a man!

Why don't you have a seat here?

Smelly McUgly: Will they fix this collision engine that made '13 so unplayable?

I found a hole on the right side of the O-Line...no, wait, somehow a polygon on Marshawn Lynch clipped a polygon on one of my linemen and I crumpled to the ground after a half-yard gain.

Madden games are always pass friendly.  In '13, I basically traded away all of my RBs for some scrubs and just threw the ball.  My QB ended up with something like 5,500 yards and 49 TDs to 10 INTs.  And that was on the All-Pro setting.  Basically, if you're new to football, or don't understand how to read a defense, you'll find Madden challenging.  Those folks who have played football or studied it or coached it, will only find the difficulty in the CPU gaining superhuman powers on higher difficulty settings (I'm pretty sure one of the opposing receivers must have jumped the real-world equivalent of seven or eight feet in the air to make a catch).

I knew Madden 13 would suck, though, when I came across a demo at Best Buy.  The previous guy had left his team at a 3rd and 30 on their own 2-yard-line.  Four plays later, I had a TD.

\they were the Rams
\\I was the Jets

Smelly McUgly: I found a hole on the right side of the O-Line...no, wait, somehow a polygon on Marshawn Lynch clipped a polygon on one of my linemen and I crumpled to the ground after a half-yard gain.

whizbangthedirtfarmer: Madden games are always pass friendly. In '13, I basically traded away all of my RBs for some scrubs and just threw the ball.

whizbangthedirtfarmer: I'm pretty sure one of the opposing receivers must have jumped the real-world equivalent of seven or eight feet in the air to make a catch.

These are all things the last...4 (at least) iterations of Madden had. I'm still playing '12, and the number of -1 to +1 yard runs I've had with LeGarette Blount is mind-shattering. Sometimes he squeaks through the line like Frank Gore, sometimes an errant cleat will drop him like 3rd-period French.

The number of LBs/DEs making fingertip INTs by climbing the ladder...ye gods. Tom Brady had a 30-INT season for me (46 TDs), and probably 20 of them were ridiculous circus catches by half-frog, half-cat, mostly elephant-men.

// I've started adjusting the individual skill sliders to make the game more real
// otherwise, any pass over the middle may be picked by a D-lineman at the LOS

okdaddio: [i.imgur.com image 400x213]
The superior sports simulation from the superior sport.

Yes, because when I think of "superior sport" I think of a bunch of men running around each other and not scoring. It's literally the poor man's sport.

To quote Yahtzee, this is the EA strategy to making money. Making the same product year after year with minor tweaks. Somehow, people keep buying it. I wonder when they'll wise up and enter the subscription market and release one game with content updates on a regular basis. Less work. Just re-skin the players and adjust skeletal models.... which might be what they do now. I don't know.

Tommy Moo: How does this franchise keep bilking people for $60 by releasing a roster update every year?

It's worth scrounging from the bargain bin every 5 years or so, or a rental.

Who keeps buying it the second it comes out, though, I don't know. Every year they claim it's a "tremendous step forward" and then when you play it they've added a new tackle animation and two new variations on the receiving motion.

Also, they seem to randomly add/remove features depending on their mood. I remember one year the Create-a-player featured player genetics and you actually saw your randomized parents traits when creating your player. Then, of course, they removed it. Now, who knows? There's probably something bizarre that nobody asked for like playing games in London and a concession stand minigame.