f13.net

Yeah, I know- EA is Satan, they raped your dog, they pistol-whipped your aged grandmother. They still make a good football game. I boycotted the past 2 years, but I think I am going to have to take the plunge this year. Any other secret dirty EA whores with me?

I think I just might get the Wii version.  Sssshhhh!

I'm waiting for the Wii version.

Why do 360 screenshots look better than PC screens? Blah.

Bring back NFL 2k!

I'll be playing my own dirty EA whorebag. It's kinda like football, I "pass" (lob) the "ball" (grenade) to the "receiver" (poor shlup about to demonstrate ragoll physics).

(http://www.ebgames.com/common/images/lscreen/646509l3.jpg)

vs

(http://www.ebgames.com/common/images/lscreen/200159l6.jpg)

Why do all Madden's characters look like the Fat Elvis?

Cause they insist on dumping the PC version in with the XB and PS2 dev group. No idea why NHL07 isn't like the 360. Next gen conspiracy theories.

I miss the 2k series too (2K4LIFE), but might have to go against my loud protestations and get Madden '07 this year. I've got a hankerin' for some football on the 360 and hate it or not, EA is the only one supplying it to me.

What about Midway's Brand X Football?  Does it have to be Green Bay?

Noo... but I haven't heard (nor looked for I guess) a peep about any other football games in developement for the 360. I actually bought Blitz: The League and kinda enjoyed it and would definitely give any other football games a look.

...that's what the extra $20 buys you?

 :rimshot:

Yes, it really does have to be Green Bay, and not just Green Bay, but Green Bay Packers with Brett Fav-RAH as QB. The days when I would accept #4 as my QB are long gone, which is why I was (and still am) so upset about the monopoly license.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3673&Itemid=2

TYSIR

October eh? Will have to look for a preview of some sort since I kinda liked the first one.

Bill Romanowski's involvement would prevent me from ever purchasing it. That douchebag doesn't need any of my money.

Awesome Madden article (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=gallo/060822) from the author of sportspickle.com.

Bought the Xbox version and strat guide (I am weak!) at lunch. Will play some tonight if my cold doesn't kill me first (50/50 atm).

Weak.

Strat guide? STRAT GUIDE?

If the receiver is open, THOW IT TO HIM.  Linebackers HURT.  John Madden TALKS TO MUCH.  Jon Kitna may appear better than in real life. Touchdowns are worth 6 points.  Shaun Alexander is a good player. If you keep throwing interceptions, you're going to lose. Use X for a burst of speed.

There. Send me my $15.

Edit: Reading that almost brought back the "angry Van Der Beek" avatar.

Strat guide has lots of play diagrams I can glance at during play. At least I hope it does.


I told you. I am weak. I  :heart: shiny pictures.

*scratches head*

He meant touchbacks. See, there was a typo on the way to the printing press. Call Prima for further details.

For some reason I had two point conversions in my mind while typing that out. 

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Strategy guides always have misleading information for features that were changed before the game went gold.  This could have been one of those times! That's why we give you the free website for updates!  Buy now! Free t-shirt!

Oh, comedy gold in this thread.

Fixed that for you.

Haven't bought madden since around '98 and I don't plan on doing so now. 

Yeah, I need one every decade or so.

The last real sports game I bought was UFC for Dreamcast. Before that, NBA Jam TE for the Jaguar. Before that, RBI baseball for the NES. It's arguable none of those are really sports games.

Just felt like sharing.

Get Sensible Soccer for X-Box.

I bought it for the 360 at Circuit City. (they had a $12 off special and that's how I rationalized it to myself). I'm not to happy with the camera angle and the graphics seem less shiny than last years so far but we'll see.

It's still a fun game, though my "superstar" QB plays more like a high school 3rd stringer with both arms broken.

Bring back Joe Montana Sports Talk Football, bitches!

(http://www.consoleclassix.com/info_img/NFL_Sports_Talk_Football_93_Starring_Joe_Montana_gen_ScreenShot2.jpg)

I really think they should make the markings on the grass with lye.

BRING BACK MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL DAMMIT

Fuck that noise, give me Blood Bowl or give me death.

I think EA is releasing a version of Mutant League on the PSP in their classics line.

GO GO ORCLAND RAIDERS!

I have Madden 2005 for my vanilla xbox.  The prior version I had to that was something like Madden 93 for 3DO (I don't remember the exact vintage, but that is close enough).  I bought the xbox version because I was nostalgic, and suffering from a bit of NFL fever towards the end of last year. 

Roughly 12 years between the two versions of Madden.  Guess what?  Same game.

Yes, Yes!

Go buy Madden!

EA's stock is pissing me off. I expected it to break out by now with the PS3 coming up but it still hasn't. It's been fairly stagnant the past year or so during the transition.

Maybe if Madden does really well it will have some nice momentum going into the release of the PS3.

Front Page Sports football rulez all.

Best playmaker ever. The triple pitch-out ownz jooz.

Best classic sports game ever though:

(http://www.consoleclassix.com/info_img/NHL_94_snes_ScreenShot2.jpg)

Nothing beat drunken 6 man tourneys in to the wee hours of the night back in '94. Ok, maybe sex with girls would have beaten that back then, but the hockey was pretty fun.

Six-man sex with girls?

Depends who gets to go first...

http://www.bannister.org/software/gplus.htm

Dwarf Giants!

And I have to say the Blood Bowl novels are good cheesy fun.  Giant fantasy versions of Jumbotron Screens (crystal balls) rolling around the field and stands.
FUN.

First! Woot!
Sloppy seconds.
Thirsty thirds.
Frothing fourths.
Filthy fifths.
Sickening sixths.

I don't think my band ever came up with a term for sevenths.

Nothing better than gaming info for throne reading, 'tis true. I haven't sullied this particular guide yet (been laid out in bed sick or playing  :nda:), but I will have to give it some time over the weekend.

Anyone play yet? The Hall of Fame Career stuff is really interesting. I can't figure out how to make it run the other plays when I am not involved quickly yet, but I BET IT IS IN THE STRATEGY GUIDE!  :-D

I scoffed too at the thought of a strategy guide for a football game but have found myself flipping through it at work. The game came with such a piss-poor manual, like 7 pages and was mostly just a button guide. I haven't played a Madden game since 97, so I don't know what all this new shit is.

They changed the play calling screen and now the person you are playing against can see exactly what play you pick. Is there some way around this or is this some ploy to force me to play my friends on Xbox Live instead of having some actual human contact?

EDIT: Figured it out: pressing X lets you pick the play you want and then A is your bluff play. Or you can press A straight away to choose that play.

Yeah, the manual for Madden is piss-poor.  No joke about i being only seven pages or so.  They explain, "Oh yeah, we created this new thing called superstar mode.  If you wanna learn how to use it, buy the strategy guide!"

Bastards.  I for one will not be giving them a cent for a strategy guide.

Anyone else having problems connecting to the EA servers?  I can't seem to play online, even though my Xbox Live account is up to date and I'm logged in.  I can chat with friends, play other online games, just not Madden cause I can't connect to their damn servers.  Any suggestions?

tom

Don't buy EA games for online play, their servers suck  :p   sorry I couldn't help.

The EA Sports games have long had shitty, button-guide manuals.

Superstar mode rules. But godDAMN is it hard, and I have only been playing defensive players! I can't imagine the nightmare a rookie QB is.

I haven't tried an online game yet- my fragile ego isn't quite ready for that level of pwnage.

Also- folded this into the existing Madden thread.

It's all about online play, everything else is subpar IMO. They even took out fantasy drafts, what the hell is that shit about? That's been one of the top features for ages...

Fantasy Draft is in for Xbox. Just the next gen systems lost it, I think. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sigh I can confirm this... bought Madden for my Xbox 360 and found out it doesn't have fantasy draft... which sucks =/

Future downloadable feature.  It will download directly into your cornhole.  keke

So it is safe to assume that the Xbox version won't play on 360 due to compatibility issues? Fucking bastards.

From Jeux-France (of all places), here is a video of Madden 07 for Wii (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi03Fm9u8J4) gameplay.  I haven't really watched the whole thing, but there you go.  Madden looks boring.

Looks good to me.

Necro-post!

Response (http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=3159&SectionID=2&LayoutType=1) of Madden 2007's lowest rated player, Ethan Albright. Just classic!

That was awesome. I always wondered how those guys felt when checking their total bullshit stats.

Fantastic.

I remember in Madden 01 that Tom Brady was ranked real low like that. He ended going second string that year....But then came the playoffs, and we all know what happened.

I remember Kellen Winslow being ranked ridiculously high in his rookie year as well, while Shockey was ranked a plain 80 in his rookie year.

Basketball games are even worse. I adjust this stuff the minute I buy them.

Cool.

But I espeicially enjoyed the comments at the bottom from people who didn't quite understand what was going on...

Oh wow, thank you interwebs, thank you f13, such a funny thread.  Strat guides for sports games followed by that fantastic letter I'm literally holding back tears of fucking mirth right now.  Bravo!

Does a football game exist that isn't full of strategic holes?  I find that most of them are ok when two humans play eachother, but I can usually destroy the AI after playing for a few hours.  In some cases, it's like the people designing the game know absolutely nothing about the sport of football. 

If you guys could recommend a football game with decent AI, I'd be interested. 

The 2K games could be pretty good with a little rule tweaking (especially for the run game).

I can't remember the last time I played Madden by myself.

The 2k Games are fantastic. Madden 2007 on the other hand... meh. It's difficulty settings are wonky. At normal difficulty, it feels like the game plays itself. At the next step up, forget completing a pass without an INT. Fiddling with sliders is the only way to make it work, and even then, they are as precise as a retard with a hammer.

Shamlessly Stolen, but made me giggle.  Wondering if H wrote it. (http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=3159&SectionID=2&LayoutType=1/)

Heh.

Several posts up (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=8000.msg229833#msg229833).

Whooops.

The Scotsman posting in a football thread?  We're winning you over, aren't we Ironwood?  Soon there will be pasty, surly, barely intelligible dudes in kilts crashing into each other all over the heath and heather.  You'll paint yourselves blue and cry, "Freedom!" while going into the blitz.

Scotland will be the gateway for real football into Euroland, mark my words.

You haven't been paying attention.  I'm actually a closet American Football fan.

I just don't tend to talk about it much for two reasons :

1 - I know fuckall detail.  I just like watching the games and have my own team preferences.  (Packers, Sorry).
2 - There's a part of my brain that still rebels about you guys calling it football.  In my mind, the game of football should be played with, er, a ball using, um, feet.  Real football indeed(!)

Can I direct you here  (http://www.claymores.co.uk/) - back in the mid 90's I ended up getting very, very drunk with the entire cheerleading squad.  It was fucking awesome.  I'd like to clarify that this was before I met my wife.


Further, as I've also explained in the past, I know nothing and care even less about Soccer.  I am, in no way, a representative Scottish bloke, with the exception of my temper and alcohol stance.  (which is like Defensive Stance.)



Edited to Add :  The reason that AF tanks so badly over here was summed up rather nicely by Giles in Buffy : "I just think it's rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby. "
 

Sort of different, though.  Rugby tackling is less pure collision and more wrapping up the other guy.  Also your average rugby player isn't a 300 pound land monster...

As to why it's called football, well in the 19th century it was a lot more like rugby.  There was no protection to speak of (even leather helmets didn't get added until the early 1900's) and there was no such thing as the forward pass.  There was kicking and running, and that was really it (hence the name "football").  The timing of the game was also much, much different.  There were no quarters, there wasn't much in the way of rigidly defined field position (the first down also wouldn't come around until later).  What you're seeing now is the end result of people constantly tinkering with a sport for over 100 years until it's completely evolved beyond what it originally was.

Sorry, but we've been playing organized football in colleges over here since the 1870's ish. Prior art and all that. Come up with a different name for your new fangled sport. I hear Soccer works.

;)

As to the pads... I've played rugby and football. The tackling is completely different - like Big Gulp said. We wear the body armor because it's nice to play more than once a year. Trust me. Run a slant some time as a Tight End and get hammered by a MLB after catching the ball. Trust me, you just don't get hit like that in Rugby.

From Wikipedia:


I think English (or association) football beats American Football by about 55 years.

They would if they had the 40 pound of padding.

They still sometimes do without it.

Goddamn Tory.

Don't confuse me with facts and other trivialities damnit!

There's naught wrong wif likin' bof kinds o' footer.

I've played (and play) both rugby and (American) football, and these competitive comparison threads are stupid, and usually fed by fat blokes who've never been paid to play either (although my american football was purely amateur: I wouldn't want to be ruled out if they make it an Olympic sport after all).

Rugby requires a broader range of skills and fitness types, since only in the set pieces is there still true differentiation: backs need the upper body strength to maul, forwards need sprinting speed etc.  But I think, punting and kicking aside, that you'd be lucky to find half a dozen rugby players in the world who could consistently beat a first-choice NFL player at their specific skill set, especially speed and acceleration over the ten to forty metre range.  Good rugby players are generalists in skills and fitness tailored to lung-bursting 2-minute-long plays, while American footballers are specialists tailored to short bursts of unbelievably intense, explosive power.  You can't compare them directly.

Of course, the bit that usually gets the insults flying is the vast chasm in drug-testing between the codes (especially the difference between the regimen for in- and out-of-season testing in the NFL. Rugby players will never match the combination of acceleration and mass of the truly big men in the NFL, for instance, because they'd get banned for using the substances required to build that sort of power.

As regards the hits, what i would say is, if you really want to hurt somebody on purpose, and you don't mind getting sent off, football - as in soccer - is the game to do it in.  Things like spiking and collapsed scrums can happen in football or rugby, but it's very hard to intentionally break someone's neck: you have to get very unlucky.  If you really want to break someone's leg in soccer, then we could get bored listing the examples (Alf Inge Halland, Ian Ferguson etc).  Anyone can do it.

Oh, and the padding in American football does make a huge difference in the really big hits, so long as you know how to make and take contact.  Most people will never feel anything like a full-speed meeting engagement, unpadded, with a 19-stone number 8 who really knows how to tackle.  But I grant you that a rugby player will never get a helmet in the kidneys while he is in mid-air.

Daeven, btw, you're both wrong and right about the impacts.  Some rules and techniques in American football are dictated by the padding, while some padding is dictated by the rules.  But when you say "trust me, you just don't get hit like that in Rugby" you're, um, wrong.  The difference is that, without the paddnig, you are (as you say) more likely to be out for a few weeks, and to find yourself in casualty.  And rugby is, in many ways, the softer brother of Aussie rules when it comes to the hits.