Tag Archives: EA

Dominic Cooper Has Developed A ‘Need For Speed’

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Dominic Cooper Has Developed A Need For Speed

Dominic Cooper has got a need… a need to be in the “Need for Speed” movie.

He’s the latest actor to consider joining the upcoming video game adaptation that is going to be based on EA‘s popular game franchise. Variety has the news, reporting that the “Captain America: The First Avenger” star is in talks for a role in the movie.

He’ll be joining Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots in the film, which we’re guessing is going to feel like something out of the “Fast and the Furious” series. Though it’s not going to be based on one game in particular, it’s been reported that “Need for Speed” is going to stay very true to the franchise that it’s based on.

In addition to the casting news, we’ve learned a bit more about what “Need for Speed” is going to be about. Paul is to play a racer who also runs a garage that upgrade race cars (the perfect venue for him to create his own dream vehicle, we’re guessing). The best friend of Paul’s character is murdered during a race and Paul gets wrongly charged and sent to prison over the crime. He later leaves looking for revenge.

Cooper will play a man named Dino who is a major businessman in the world of car upgrades, while Poots could portray an “exotic car dealer” who works with both Paul and Cooper’s characters.

“Act of Valor” helmer Scott Waugh is directing “Need for Speed” of a script from George and John Gatins. The movie is going to be an original premise, and not one directly related to any of the previously released “Need for Speed” games. This movie is said to be targeting a 2014 release date.

Do you think Cooper is a good fit for a “Need for Speed” movie? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!

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Aaron Paul To Trade Meth For ‘Speed’

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Aaron Paul To Trade Meth For Speed

“Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul is making his first break into mainstream Hollywood, and it turns out he’s got a need for speed.

DreamWorks announced back in June that it’s going to make a “Need for Speed” movie based on the popular video game series, and Entertainment Weekly has learned that Paul will be the man behind the wheel. It’s unclear what route this story will take, but we’re guessing Paul will again be playing a man on the wrong side of the law.

This casting news has earned “Need for Speed” a lot of credibility. Paul earned an Emmy (his second) for his turn as Jesse Pinkman in “Breaking Bad” this year, and it was well-deserved. He’s added plenty of depth to a character that easily could have been one dimensional and, though he had five seasons to do it in “Breaking Bad” and will only have two hours or so in this movie, we are sure he can do the same for the character he plays in this film.

The “Need for Speed” concept was developed by George and John Gatins, with John writing the final script. It is apparently inspired by, but not based on any particular game in, the “Need for Speed” series. EA‘s Patrick O’Brien and Mark Sourian are producing the movie alongside Gatins. Also, it has Steven Spielberg‘s stamp of approval.

“I’m excited about getting back into the creative trenches with John and George Gatins and my partners at EA to bring to life an exhilarating script based on an epic video game that seems to have been made for the movies,” he said in a previously released press release. “This is a big piece of business for DreamWorks and we are grateful to Frank Gibeau, Pat O’Brien, Kevin Maher and John and George for choosing us to deliver their goods.”

“Need for Speed” will start shooting early next year. It’s due for a February 7, 2014 release date.

Do you think Paul is a good choice for “Need for Speed”? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!

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‘Need For Speed’ Movie Picked Up By DreamWorks

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Need For Speed Movie Picked Up By DreamWorks

DreamWorks has got a need. A need for a “Need For Speed” movie.

The studio has announced that they’re going to be adapting the popular video game franchise into a feature length filmed with “Act of Valor” director Scott Waugh at the helm.

Screenwriting brothers George and John Gatins have come up with an original premise based on the EA series’ tried-and-true gaming formula and are going to pen the script. Apparently the flick is being fast-tracked at Dreamworks and is being planned for a 2014 release date. Oh, and Steven Spielberg is pumped about the idea.

“I’m excited about getting back into the creative trenches with John and George Gatins and my partners at EA to bring to life an exhilarating script based on an epic video game that seems to have been made for the movies,” he said in a press release. “This is a big piece of business for DreamWorks and we are grateful to Frank Gibeau, Pat O’Brien, Kevin Maher and John and George for choosing us to deliver their goods.”

“Need For Speed” is a well-known title in pop culture, but it’s not a franchise that’s especially known for its story. We’re hoping this flick will be along the lines of “The Fast and the Furious” series, with the emphasis on cool cars and crazy driving stunts over plot, characters or anything else. Of course, those elements would be an added bonus, but “Need For Speed” is a series that’s perfect for a big blockbuster action flick. We hope DreamWorks doesn’t try to make it anything but that.

Would you be interested in seeing a “Need For Speed” movie? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!

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Origin Uninterested in Offering Steam-Like "Going Out of Business" Sales

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Origin Uninterested in Offering Steam Like "Going Out of Business" Sales

It was roughly a year ago that Electronic Arts unveiled Origin, the relaunch of its existing EA Store intended to sell PC games and connect gamers across platforms. Its lack of an appearance at EA‘s E3 press briefing was not what one would expect considering it is meant to be a pillar of the company’s presence on PC. That doesn’t mean the subject of Origin was not broached at all by EA this week, with senior VP of global ecommerce David DeMartini making it clear one thing about Steam we should not expect to see replicated is the steep discounts Steam sales regularly provide.

To be fair, PC wasn’t ignored during EA‘s press briefing — the company devoted time to Star Wars: The Old Republic and SimCity, which are both PC-only games, and several of the other games shown will be released on PC. Origin, though, was not given the time of day, despite this being an ideal time to tout what EA has managed to do with it in only a year and to reveal some of the features we’ll see in the year to come.

As of yet, Origin doesn’t offer a compelling reason to use it over the much more feature-rich Steam. Steam may have achieved its foothold with Half-Life 2, but with it having established itself as the leading digital PC games distributor, EA can’t expect exclusive games alone to elevate it to a similar position. It does have exclusives, in a way: Those who want a digital copy of The Old Republic need to purchase it through Origin, and Battlefield 3 players are required to install it. But the inclusion of Origin with these games alone won’t convince gamers to use it anytime other than when they must. BF3 has gotten me to use Origin from time to time, and then when it comes time to buy a game, it’s off to Steam. Using Origin doesn’t ever cross my mind.

That means Origin (and other, similar services) have an uphill battle to climb. Not only does it need to reach feature parity with Steam, it needs to offer something above and beyond that to drag people away from their game collections, friends lists, and Achievements on Steam. This is not to say gamers can’t use both services, but I’m sure EA would like Origin to be people’s first option, not the place they check if Steam doesn’t have a particular game. And as it stands, there is little to no reason why an existing Steam user would opt to buy a game on Origin.

I previously believed mobile could be one place for Origin to set itself apart by enabling gamers to talk to their PC friends from their phone or tablet. Origin is included in some of EA‘s games, but there is no standalone Origin app to chat with friends, make purchases, and so on. Valve beat EA to the punch here by releasing the Steam Mobile app back in January, making all of that possible and more.

Failing to get there first, one area Origin could still match Steam and have an edge at times is with sales. The appeal of Steam for many is the regular, steep sales on games — as I write this, the Far Cry complete bundle (including Far Cry and Far Cry 2) is only $4.98, 75 percent off the regular $19.98 price. This is not uncommon to see, and Valve boss Gabe Newell has spoken of the success these sales have seen in driving more revenue than usual and even leading to an uptick in sales of these games in places other than Steam. Despite this, EA has no intention of following suit and offering such heavily discounted games on Origin.

“We won’t be doing that,” DeMartini told GamesIndustry.biz at E3 this week when asked if Origin would offer the sort of sales seen on Steam. “Obviously they think it’s the right thing to do after a certain amount of time. I just think it cheapens your intellectual property. I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The gamemakers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual property, and we’re not trying to be Target. We’re trying to be Nordstrom. When I say that, I mean good value – we’re trying to give you a fair price point, and occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount, just don’t look for 75 percent off going-out-of-business sales.”

I do think DeMartini has a point in suggesting these sales can devalue games. Like pay-what-you-want bundles, there is the potential for gamers to begin viewing games as being worth far less than they currently do. That could be good news for gamers; developers and publishers, on the other hand, could be frightened by that notion, and it would not necessarily be good for gamers if the scope of games was narrowed in order to compensate for the lower prices they have to begin being sold for.

DeMartini went on to mention customers could begin to look at PC games as things they only buy after waiting months for them to be 75 percent cheaper. “It’s an approach, and I’m not going to say it’s not working for Valve,” he said. “It certainly works for Valve; I don’t know if it works as well for the publishing partners who take on the majority of that haircut.”

He suggested that, in place of such sales, EA has something planned, although he gave little indication of what that could be. He did state, “[T]here are multiple ways to build the universe. One way is to discount the price, the other is to form a longer-term relationship with them and draw them in that way.” Even if the latter mentality is the driving force behind whatever EA has in the works, there are many possibilities for what the idea could be, like exclusive content or small discounts on sequels to games you’ve purchased through Origin. Whatever it is, it’ll need to be good to start converting Steam users into Origin users.

Poor E3 Showing or Not, Wii U Remains Full of Potential

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Poor E3 Showing or Not, Wii U Remains Full of Potential

The perfect time for Nintendo to convince us all to buy a Wii U at launch, its E3 press briefing, has come and gone, and the consensus seems to be the company failed to sell core gamers on it. There was a lot missing from today’s showing, and much of what was there did not do the greatest job of demonstrating how the Wii U will provide markedly different gaming experiences over the consoles on the market today. And while I was certainly down on today’s briefing, I think it’s too soon to condemn the platform itself.

Today’s briefing did bring with it demonstrations of a new game from Shigeru Miyamoto (Pikmin 3), a new side-scrolling Mario game (New Super Mario Bros. U), and what Nintendo sees as Wii U’s Wii Sports (Nintendo Land). Third parties had games to show that will sell well no matter what innovation they provide (Just Dance 4) and ports of quality games that may not have a compelling reason to play them on Wii U (Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition, Mass Effect 3, Trine 2).

Missing from the showcase was a mixture of obvious and not-so-obvious games from Nintendo and third parties.

Outside of Ubisoft, which made its support for Wii U abundantly clear, original titles from western publishers were not much more common than new EarthBound games. Sports games lend themselves to all sorts of applications for the touchscreen — where was EA or 2K Games to show Madden 13 or NBA 2K14 with the ability to draw up plays, see stats, and make substitutions on the GamePad? In Madden’s case, that exact functionality was seen not here, but at Microsoft’s press briefing, working on SmartGlass. If Nintendo wants to ensure it lures in core gamers, which are likely to be the early adopters, word on Grand Theft Auto V coming to the system with some exclusive Wii U features could have been a big deal.

Looking at Japanese studios, it would have been nice to hear about the Wii U version of Dragon Quest X coming to the U.S. or a Final Fantasy game being made for Wii U. Phantasy Star Online 2 would have been a welcome RPG, too.

An idea surfaced on Reddit today for a Dungeons Dragons game where one player on the GamePad serves as the Dungeon Master and four Wiimote users play the game set up by the DM. We didn’t have to see this specific idea, but something with this sort of setup could have driven home what kind of game is only possible on Wii U. Instead, we got the ability to choose what dance move comes up next in Just Dance 4.

Even Nintendo was conservative with what it had to show. The Nintendo-published Project P-100 from Platinum Games looks like it could be fun, and Wii Fit U will be a big seller. Beyond that and the games mentioned above, where was the Zelda HD demo that blew us all away last year? Where was a project — Metroid Prime or not — from Retro Studios? Where was the surprising announcement of a classic franchise being revived or the introduction of a brand new IP? Why couldn’t we have heard a peep about the new Super Smash Bros., even a reveal of a character or two making it into the game’s roster? Couldn’t Nintendo have announced a Xenoblade sequel? Or something about a new Advance Wars or Battalion Wars, which seems like another perfect fit for the GamePad?

That’s a lot Nintendo could have decided to show us and didn’t. Some of it, like GTA V, might have been impossible because Rockstar isn’t planning to bring the game to the platform (although it did plan to support the system according to a report from last April). Other omissions, like Zelda, are more curious. Last year’s showing was more of a tech demo than a game, sure. Had Nintendo decided to show that it’s made some progress on crafting an actual game, though, it would have alleviated any lingering concerns prospective Wii U buyers may have about the company’s capability of developing a full-fledged, high-definition game of that quality — something we’ve still yet to see out of Nintendo’s internal studios.

Also going without much of a mention so far this week has been the online network for Wii U. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime alluded to unique features for the online entertainment apps (Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc.) that we’d be learning about in the future; it was a very brief portion of the briefing, and yet it was still present, unlike anything regarding the Nintendo Network. Nintendo did outline Miiverse, and that does open the door for a lot of interesting possibilities (and raises any number of questions about how it will work). What we’re all waiting to hear about, oddly enough, are the basics. Nintendo has yet to release a console with an online system that works as well as we would like; Sony has shown us with PSN that an Xbox Live-style experience is possible without charging a subscription. Will Wii U rely on friend codes yet again? Will Network accounts allow for games to be transferred from system to system? The sort of things that have been taken granted for years on other systems are still not a given on Wii U.

Nintendo not being forthcoming about any of this is not encouraging. However, until we hear otherwise, it’s still possible things will work out as we hope. Wii U may abandon friend codes, offer the ability to share Virtual Console games with 3DS, and have original games that make great usage of the GamePad and were simply not ready to be shown today. A price still needs to be announced; its absence today might very well be due to Nintendo itself being unsure of the specifics rather than it planning to charge an obscene amount it didn’t want to reveal until the last possible moment. $250 or $300 can’t be ruled out yet.

Because of the possibility for all of this to come true, I remain cautiously optimistic. What was shown today did not convince me I need to pre-order a Wii U ahead of its launch, which is what I had hoped to get out of today’s briefing. But it also didn’t do anything to make me think I don’t want one, and it was heartening to hear Nintendo has found a way to make two GamePads work with a single Wii U. I still need to see a lot more to be sure I want to risk being an early adopter — Nintendo hasn’t demonstrated to me it has learned its lesson from the 3DS about having a poor launch lineup — but the important thing is the potential for Wii U to be as special Nintendo would have us believe it is still exists.

The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

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he sound of bitingly cold wind echoes in your speakers as you lead your hero into an ice-encrusted open space. Sprays of snow gust around your heavily suited protagonist. A harsh alien sun glares, blinding you in the whiteout conditions. Suddenly, the ambient music spikes to a sharp crescendo to announce the presence of danger: A deadly creature has appeared, a wild beast defending its turf from the otherworldly incursion that you represent, or maybe just a roaming predator that sees in your hero a tasty foil-wrapped snack. Your on-screen avatar whips out his weapon and you take aim, shakily lining up the reticle with the glowing vulnerable points on the monster’s body to the best of your ability as you dodge and juke through the snow. Suddenly, the creature leaps and you’re forced to fend it off with desperate melee strikes aimed carefully at the creature’s exposed maw. Finally, after a fierce struggle, it goes down. You relax slightly — but not too much — and pause to recover before making a break for a nearby pneumatic door that leads you into an enclosed space where countless other creatures are bound to lay in wait within the claustrophobic corridors ahead.

52ff5 992 The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

So, which game did I just describe? Was it Electronic Arts’ Dead Space 3, in which hallucinating hero Isaac Clarke crash lands on an icebound world and battles his way through a seemingly abandoned outpost? Or was it Capcom’s Lost Planet 3, wherein a working-class mech pilot named Jim stomps across an icebound world laying down beacons as prelude to the events of the previous games in the series? Was the glowing creature a native of E.D.N. III, or was it a Necromorph? Think carefully!

The answer is Lost Planet 3. The telltale giveaway was the desperate melee action: When Jim is set upon by a foe, LP3′s third-person shooting interface switches to something like a hand-to-hand quick-time event (though one far less conspicuous than the ones in a game like God of War). Besides that one detail, though, the two games — or at least the slices we’ve seen and played of them to date — could practically sit together and pose for family portraits. It’s not that DS3 and LP3 are both ripping off the other, I think; more a matter of both sequels being true to their own designs and converging in a common direction. LP3′s shooting mechanics and enclosed spaces feel more Dead Space-like than anything in the first two chapters of the series, while DS3′s ice planet scenario places it firmly within Lost Planet‘s idiomatic setting. While I suspect neither development team was cribbing from the other, the coincidental convergence of their individual design (and their close debut timing) throws the series’ similarities into high relief.

52ff5 993 The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

With the core games looking (and feeling) so similar, one must look to the fine details to see the differences. For example, Jim’s motivation stems from his desire to support his wife and infant son who send him supportive video messages, while Isaac’s romantic entanglement involves a dead woman who speaks to him via fevered delusions. (We’re hoping the promised plot twist involving Jim’s family doesn’t turn out to be that they’re an illusion, too; Ghost in the Shell already did that one.) And, of course, Lost Planet 3 still features environmental navigation via grappling hook. But really, the biggest difference between the two comes in the new elements each sequel brings to its own series.

In Lost Planet 3′s case, that change takes the form of a massive mech suit. Unlike the compact military armor featured in the first two games, Jim’s gear is designated for civilian use only. It’s several times his height, graceless, and lacks dedicated weaponry. The game’s point of view switches to a first-person perspective while piloting the rig, and unfortunately it feels far clumsier than the standard on-foot mechanics. The E3 demo features a battle against a massive crab-like snow creature (which, yes, involves exposing its weak point for massive damage… sigh) that the developers intended to be fought with the rig. Personally, I found the timing and controls awkward and unintuitive, so the beast quickly wore down the mech and reduced me to fighting on foot… at which point I made short work of it with standard weapons and roll-dodging. Annoyingly, though, the monster was scripted so that it couldn’t be dispatched without climbing back into the rig and tearing it apart with the machine’s drill and claw and attachments — despite the fact that the identical crab alien I’d already battled a short while before could be taken down with standard weaponry.

fdfb2 994 The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

If LP3′s defining feature actually detracts from the core experience, Dead Space 3′s will quite possibly make up for it. For the series’ third chapter, developer Visceral Games has elected to incorporate a seamless, drop-in drop-out cooperative mechanic. The first player will always take the role of Isaac, but at any time a second player can join in as his gruff meathead ally Carver. Rather than saddle players with a brain-dead AI partner when a second person isn’t around (see Resident Evil 6), Visceral has effectively created two versions of the campaign mode: One with Carver in the thick of things, and one where he’s present but removed from heat of action.

When playing solo as Isaac, Carver will appear throughout the game in a somewhat detached manner. In the demo EA is showing at E3, this means Carver greets and warns Isaac from atop the wall of an installation while playing solo; in co-op mode, however, he simply trudges into the fortress alongside the first player, relaying similar information but with dialogue modified to reflect the different circumstances. When a mechanical lift malfunctions and pitches its riders to the ground, Isaac falls alone in solo play but tumbles alongside Carver in the co-op game. In essence, two versions of Dead Space 3 run parallel to one another and the player (or rather, players) can swap between them on the fly. This represents a fairly significant outlay of design effort for what appears to the player to be a minor difference, but the result may be the smoothest, most narratively coherent, and least obtrusive jump-in jump-out co-op ever to appear in a game.

fdfb2 995 The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

Despite their similarities, both Lost Planet 3 and Dead Space 3 seem likely to offer distinct and enjoyable experiences. The former’s mech combat definitely needs some fine-tuning, but its on-foot combat feels like the ideal that Resident Evil 6 should be aspiring to: Fluid yet tense. Jim is fairly outmatched by his opposition and lacks superheroic skill, yet while his movement and aiming lack the grace and effortlessness of most shooter leads you never feel like you’re battling the controls (at least, not until you get into the mech). And the potential inherent in Dead Space 3′s subtle yet ambitious co-op design should speak for itself. Still, the games’ oddly coincidental design styles will likely create a sense of direct competition between the two in most gamers’ minds. I suppose it makes sense. The two could practically pass as brothers, and sibling rivalry is literally the oldest kind in the book.

fdfb2 authordivide The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

fdfb2 666 The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

Jeremy Parish

Jeremy Parish honestly can’t decide which game looks more appealing. But he’s leaning toward Lost Planet 3 simply because it’s nice to see a fellow world-weary old-timer as a protagonist. Down with plucky young heroes!

fdfb2 authordividebottom The Curious Convergence of Dead Space and Lost Planet

EA Secures Exclusive Rights to the UFC From THQ

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EA Secures Exclusive Rights to the UFC From THQ

Among some impressive demos for Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, the big surprise out of Electronic Arts’ E3 media briefing was word that it has acquired the rights to make games using the UFC license. What makes this surprising is the fact that THQ had the rights locked up for a long time to come — it and UFC owner Zuffa, LLC announced in October 2010 that they had extended their licensing agreement through 2018.

UFC president Dana White appeared on stage during the briefing to talk up the news and share his excitement about being partnered with EA — a strange sight to behold given his previous statements regarding the publisher. White claimed in 2009 that EA had previously dismissed mixed martial arts as not being a “real sport” and it allegedly showed no interest in developing an MMA game. When the company announced EA Sports MMA, White was furious that EA Sports was suddenly interested in the genre after seeing THQ‘s success with UFC 2009 Undisputed. “I’m not tap-dancing around this thing or whatever,” he said at the time. “I’m telling you straight-up, I’m at war with [EA] right now. That’s how I look at it.” He also added, “EA doesn’t give a [expletive] about mixed martial arts. They made that very clear,” and threatened to blacklist fighters from the UFC — the world’s largest MMA promotion — who appeared in EA‘s game. He later backed off this threat, as he is known to do.

EA signed a deal with another MMA promotion, Strikeforce, in 2009. The company was acquired by Zuffa last year, which may have been the first step in White and company establishing a relationship with EA. Relationship or not, with UFC videogame rights being locked up in a long-term deal, that would not have made any difference. THQ‘s well-documented struggles undoubtedly led to this deal, which THQ confirmed in a press release today. It’s stated that it will continue to publish its existing UFC games through the end of March 2013 and that it has received an undisclosed cash payment in return for handing over the rights. THQ has been financially struggling for months and is currently in the middle of trying to avoid a NASDAQ delisting; cash was expected to be tight for the company for the foreseeable future, making the appeal of a deal that lands the company any amount of cash quite obvious.

While the cash will be good for the company in the near-term, the UFC games have done well for THQ. UFC Undisputed 3, released back in March, was one of the few bright spots for THQ in its fiscal Q4. Its sales exceeded expectations, but it’s possible the margins were not have high enough for THQ to continue with the series, and it’s worth noting THQ‘s current direction of focusing on wholly-owned IP would exclude UFC (and WWE, for that matter) games.

For EA Sports, the deal makes all the sense in the world — while the popularity of UFC may be waning in some ways due to overexposure, it remains by far the biggest name in MMA, and securing that license is going to be a major boon for the continued viability of EA‘s MMA games. EA Sports MMA did poorly at retail, thanks in part to lacking the UFC name — a position EA Sports is not used to finding itself. Normally it’s other companies failing to compete without a pro sports league license, as 2K did with All-Pro Football 2K8, which was created because EA owned the exclusive rights to the NFL.

Gamers, meanwhile, do have some reason to be concerned. EA Sports is frequently criticized for not doing enough to evolve their sports franchises from year to year, and it’s not difficult to foresee its MMA franchise now becoming annualized. THQ‘s games sold well and were well-regarded; EA Sports MMA, on the other hand, was the weaker title as compared with the Yuke’s-developed Undisputed games.

None of this is what MMA game fans want to hear. It would be unfair to pass judgment at this stage without having seen the new game. It would also be hard to blame gamers for being cynical about this deal until we see that EA is capable of making an MMA game on par with one of THQ‘s (and without shutting down its online servers alarmingly fast).

PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

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‘ve been to a lot of stadiums in my lifetime. I’ve been in the Metrodome–which at its loudest is like being serenaded by a jet engine–during a playoff win. But I had never actually been intimidated by a stadium until the evening I went to see Santos FC take on Bolivia in the Copa Libertadores–the South American equivalent of the European Champions League. Heading up the stairs to stand with a hardy group of Bolivian supporters in the visitors section, the Estadio Urbano Caldeira was literally shaking with the anticipation 15,000 fans whopping and hollering for their team. The stadium–a utilitarian structure devoid of creature comforts like hot dogs or even seats–felt unstable, the home fans rowdy. In the event of an upset, I found myself hoping that I wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire and set on fire.

It’s a feeling that can only be had at a live sports event, and it made for an interesting contrast to the day before, when I experienced soccer in a much calmer setting–a hotel meeting room where Konami was showing off Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. In comparison to that wild (but exhilirating) death trap, it was quiet… almost clinical. It was there that we dutifully took notes as Konami representatives explained how we would now, finally, be able to manually control the height and power of our shots, and make perfectly timed challenges with two quick taps of the ‘X’ button.

18e54 882 PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

PES 2013 has always been among the most mechanical of sports sims, which is not a bad thing per se. It is, after all, deeply dissatisfying to play a sports sim–any sports sim–that feels off. That feeling that you’re playing more of an arcade game, or NFL Blitz, than the actual sport. For years, Konami’s soccer games were the ones that got the mechanics of the game ‘right,’ earning it a devoted fanbase. But I also think Sterling McGarvey was on to something when he said in his review of last year’s edition of PES: “It’s too obtuse for a newcomer to the sport, but those who understand the gravity of the phrase, ‘downloading the right Option File‘ and all that comes with it, PES 2012 is worth a look…”

That line was running through my mind as I stood squinting at a control card at one of the demo stations, unaware that I would be (half-jokingly) fearing for my life the next day. Konami is throwing in even more moves this year, adding to a moveset that would make Street Fighter blush with features like Dynamic First Touch. Now it’s possible to traps the ball gently using R2, then hold R1 and R2 while pushing the stick 45 degrees to either side to produce a ‘nutmeg’– a move in which a player rolls the ball through an opponent’s legs. Another new combination allows for a rapid one-two pass that can be used to confound keepers on a breakaway.

The moves aren’t particularly easy for a newcomer to pull off–I swear I stared at that little control sheet for hours trying to memorize all the moves–but they’re required learning for anyone who wants to score with regularity. In real life though, Santos players like Neymar–a gifted young strike who would score two goals against Bolivar–makes it look easy. On one goal, he toys briefly with a Bolivian defender, breaks right with absolutely breathtaking speed, then passes to a teammate who puts it away.

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A part of me understands why sports sim developers are enamored with replicating such moves–they just look that cool. It’s easy to sell elaborate dribbling and unbelievable goals to gamers. A large part of Konami’s PES 2013 presentation is devoted to showing a particularly cool move in real life–like the rapid one-two passing mentioned earlier–and reproducing it with a clip from the in-game engine. It’s shorthand for, “Our game looks exactly like the real thing.”

In the end though, it’s actually a clip of Chelsea’s John Terry flopping like a dead fish that gets my attention. It’s not much more than a throwaway joke amid the specialized collection of animations developed for soccer’s superstars, but it’s the only that tells a story. It’s likely a reference to this hysterical dive in the 2010 World Cup, which came during the height of a scandal in which he was accused of being involved in an affair with the ex-girlfriend of a former teammate. It’s the sort of thing you never see in a game like Pro Evolution Soccer, but such scandals are as much a part of the game as a move like the nutmeg.

18e54 884 PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

Storylines are the one element of sports that tend to be neglected by sports sims; which is funny, because we’re obsessed with them in real life. As a Minnesota Vikings fan, every single season is loaded with the baggage of the past–the Gary Anderson kick, the Brett Favre interception, those four lost Super Bowls. I’m wondering if Adrian Peterson will recover from his devastating knee injury and Christian Ponder will be the quarterback of the future. At their own game, Santos fans basked in their third league championship in a row while hoping for even greater glory in the Copa Libertadores tournament. Neymar was hoping to continue his ascent as one of the game’s best players. And Santos itself was looking for a measure of revenge after being upset by Bolivar the month before.

At times, sports games come close to capturing those sorts of feelings. The ‘Superstar’ mode, for instance, is compelling because it represents one player’s journey from rookie to Hall of Famer. Football Manager‘s insane attention to detail has given us some fascinating stories over the years. Pro Evolution Soccer, though, is proud member of the old-guard, where realism matters most.

Konami is rightfully proud of their progress over the past couple years. After a difficult transition to the current generation, PES 2011 represented a real breakthrough in terms of AI, graphics, and animation. With PES 2013, Konami is offering more options on the field and tweaking the AI even further; and if the development team’s comments are anything to go by, they will finally be overhauling the long dysfunctional online play–an artifact of the old PlayStation 2 days.

18e54 885 PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

All of these changes have been made with the singular goal of producing the most authentic product possible on the field, and there is little reason to believe that PES will be abandoning that approach anytime soon. At the end of the session, I asked producer Naoya Hatsumi what his thoughts were on the future of sports games, and I think his response is informative of PES 2013′s overall outlook. In his mind, the future of sports games is in specialized mobile apps that somehow extend the experience away from the television. He would also love to find a way to pull off cross-platform online play, presumably between the PlayStation 3 and the PC.

But as I soaked up the atmosphere at Estadio Urbano Caldeira, I found myself wondering if there wasn’t more to capturing sports than all that. Everywhere I looked, I saw another little facet of the game that had nothing to do with what was going on down on the field. When Bolivar lined up for a free kick, up went dozens of cameras and smart phones to capture the moment. Up in the press box, a Santos fan leaned out of a window following each home goal and pointed and jeered, the Bolivar fans responding with middle fingers of their own.

18e54 886 PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

PES 2013 will undoubtedly be a fine soccer sim. As I acclimated to the controls, I couldn’t help but struck but the level of detail on the field, and the amount of control I had over the players. But as I left the stadium amid a tide of Santos fans delirious with joy over their 8-0 demolition of Bolivar, I felt like sports sims still had a ways to go before truly capturing that moment of victory. After all, sports are as much about what goes on off the field as on it. Every team, player, coach, and yes, fan has their own story to tell. It’ll be when PES 2013 finds a way to tell that story as well as it reproduces moves like the nutmeg that it’ll really be on to something special.

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18e54 694 PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

Kat Bailey

Kat Bailey is a 1UP contributor. As a Minnesota native, she spends a great deal of time thinking about how tortured her favorite sports teams have been over the years. She secretly hopes that EA or Konami will find a way to turn sports disappointment into a stat so that her teams can be rated 99 overall in something for a change.

18e54 authordividebottom PES 2013: What a Sports Sim Wants, What a Sports Sim Needs

What If EA Didn’t Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

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F

ootball persists because its goals are simple even though the rules are complex. One team has four tries to move an egg-shaped ball to the end of a field and if they don’t move it at least a certain distance within those tries, they have to give it to the team trying to stop them.

The actual rules of the NFL are dense though. NFL football makes baccarat look like rock-paper-scissor in terms of complexity, and the literal hundreds of NFL video games that have popped up in the past decade certainly aren’t helpful for anyone who wants to learn about the intricacies of the sport. All Zynga’s NFLVille teaches you about the game is that Peyton Manning looks horrifying as a big-eyed cartoon character and that convincing Facebook friends to help you gain yards is surprisingly easy and addictive.

Madden Manager, one of the thirty or so NFL licensed games that Electronic Arts makes based on the NFL, is probably the only one that really covers the full gamut of rules, but even that game’s built from the ground up for super fans that want to manage hot dog prices at Heinz Field.

Funny thing is it’s EA‘s fault that obtaining a license to the NFL and its teams is easy. After Take-Two sued EA and the NFL for trying to strike a deal making EA the sole maker of NFL video games in 2004, the United States International Trade Commission ruled that professional sports leagues actually had to meet FRAND commitments just like technology companies. The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, all pro leagues in the U.S. and their rules were deemed standardized technology, so the NFL was required to license its wares at a reasonable rate to everybody.

The affordability of the NFL license kept NFL game making familiar for a few years. EA‘s Madden NFL and Sony’s NFL GameDay continued to lose ground to Take-Two’s NFL 2K series in the big-budget sim category. The NFL Blitz series dwindled for awhile, but success of the free-to-play multiplayer-only version of Blitz that hit the PC then later on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade back in ’07 was actually good enough to keep Midway solvent, at least until it merged with THQ in ’09.


bd129 085 What If EA Didnt Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

What ultimately muddied the waters of NFL gaming, and arguably diminished the potency of the league as a brand, was the spread of NFL mobile games. No one really expected Finnish studio Rovio’s throwaway NFL Mad Balls to become a cultural juggernaut back in 2009, but here we are and the 32 quarterback variants of the series have been downloaded 1 billion times across iOS, Android, PC, and the myriad other platforms you can play it on.

You’ve got to hand it to them: NFL Mad Balls is fun. Lining Philip Rivers up for a perfect toss in San Diego Chargers Mad Balls so that the ball perfectly knocks down the defensive line obstacles to connect with the precious green receivers hidden within is an unmatched pleasure and a simple, brilliant play hook.

Here’s the thing though. NFL Mad Balls has been downloaded 1 billion times across the world. It’s the first time that American Football as a sport has had any cultural impact outside the United States. It hasn’t exactly translated into success for football though. Just 111 million people watched the Super Bowl in February 2012. Sure, that makes it the most widely viewed television broadcast in U.S. history, but no one outside the U.S. watched it! Meanwhile, some 815 million people tuned into the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in July of that year just to check out the Mad Balls animated short commercial that aired afterward.

More people on the planet think NFL football is about knocking people down by throwing a ball at them than people who actually know how it’s played. Funny what a lawsuit can cause.

At least the spread of Mad Balls clones and other mobile NFL games like Cut the Lineman has had one overwhelmingly positive effect on NFL gaming: Electronic Arts makes a series of the most creative, potent football games in history. When the publisher established the Madden NFL publishing imprint in 2007, everyone thought that was it; the publishing giant had finally gone insane. Now that EA Madden, EA FIFA, EA BioWare and EA Sims labels are the cornerstones of its empire, it’s hard to argue with the logic.


bd129 086 What If EA Didnt Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

The best decision EA made was splitting its football games into smaller, lower-priced packages. Not everyone wants to play the huge franchise management mode offered in Madden Manager, and now that game caters just to its devoted audience. Meanwhile, EA was finally able to deliver the visceral experience of being an individual player on the field that the old Madden games never got with Madden Backbreaker.

Studio NaturalMotion had a keen idea for a football game but even with the affordable NFL license available, it didn’t have EA‘s raw resources to make its game as polished as it could. It remains a benchmark. The tight rushing that almost mimics Resident Evil 4‘s over-the-shoulder tension; the brilliant, personal quarterbacking that delivers on the promise of the lost Saturn curio Quarterback Attack; Madden Backbreaker made playing center a fraught video game experience, a sort of cross between Street Fighter-style fighting moves that require careful inputs and Firepro Wrestling‘s grappling. Brilliant stuff.

That all sits alongside Madden NFL Street, the Madden Ultimate Team CCG, and the numerous social games. The broad quality of these almost lets you forgive EA for pushing PopCap to do Madden Bejeweled.

So Mad Balls has tainted the world’s view of what NFL football actually is. That’s a shame. NFL football is an enduring game not just because of its simple goals, but because it’s complex rules makes for tense drama and high strategy on the field. It’s still a better world than if EA was the only one making NFL video games though. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the high quality Madden we do today.

bd129 authordivide What If EA Didnt Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

bd129 084 What If EA Didnt Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

Anthony John Agnello

Anthony is a writer living in New York whose work has appeared in
Fast Company, Edge, The Gameological Society and many other
publications. His great hope is that someone makes a game that looks
and feels like upstate New York and that the game will be Klonoa 3. He
owns two beaches and likes long walks on cats. Follow him on Twitter
@ajohnagnello.

bd129 authordividebottom What If EA Didnt Have Exclusive Rights to the NFL?

In 2004, Electronic Arts struck a deal with the National
Football League giving its games Madden NFL and NFL Street exclusive
rights to use the league, its teams, and stadiums. While the original
deal was supposed to expire in 2009, it has since been extended
multiple times, barring other game developers from creating American
Football games based on the league. This has prevented numerous
games–Tecmo Super Bowl, the NFL 2K series, and others–from being
digitally re-released as well. While there have been attempts since to
market football games without the league’s license, namely All-Pro
Football by the team behind NFL 2K, they have failed to find an
audience.

Because We May Sale Makes Indie Games Cheap(er) for a Week

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Because We May Sale Makes Indie Games Cheap(er) for a Week

Independent game developers have at their disposal a wide variety of methods for trying to boost sales. Some of these include banding together with other indie titles to generate publicity, as seen time after time with the Humble Indie Bundle and its many imitators. The latest such scheme doesn’t actually package unrelated games together or sell them at any price the buyer decides (as is the case with the HIB), but it is eye-catching in that there are a ton of indie games available right this very moment at heavily discounted prices.

The promotion, Because We May, runs for the last week of May (May 24 through June 1) and features games from Steam, iOS, Google Play, the Mac App Store, and the official websites of computer game developers. There is a wide array of titles available with more still being added, and none of this accounts for games that are on sale right now outside of the promotion (like Infinity Blade II, Grand Theft Auto III, and many of EA‘s titles).

It’s always nice to see indie developers supporting each other, even if doing so also helps to attract attention to their own games. Some developers have gone so far as to make their games free during Because We May, and while that may be closer to a more appropriate price for some, there are some quality, standout titles.

Gravonaut is one such game. It’s an old-school platformer very reminiscent of VVVVVV and is well-suited to iOS. It gets around the usual problems with touchscreen buttons in a platformer by functioning like an auto-runner, leaving the player to only flip the gravity back and forth to make it through levels. The music becomes tiresome over time and I never like it when platformers don’t allow you to see where you’re supposed to be jumping to, but anyone who is a fan of grinding through difficult platformers would be well-served to check it out.

Because We May Sale Makes Indie Games Cheap(er) for a Week

Anodia is another free game more than deserving of your attention. It may appear to be a fairly standard Breakout-style game, albeit a nice-looking one, but to leave it at that would be doing it a major disservice. Aside from the inordinately satisfying sound effects (there’s something about the ball bouncing around that just sounds so much better than most other brickbreaker games), the levels are much more inventive than other games’. Rather than finding different ways to arrange standard bricks, each level offers something different — light bulbs rotating around in a circle, brightly-colored circles that slowly move around the level (including into your paddle), colored targets that can only be taken out when a switch is turned to the corresponding color, and so on keep things fresh from level to level.

Invader Zurp also fits into this category of freebies demanding to be checked out. Imagine Boom Blox on rails and you’ll be on your way to understanding this game, which has you shooting missiles at various buildings and structures made out of bricks. This becomes a challenge because each structure has turrets which will shoot back at you, forcing you to find a balance between protecting yourself by shooting down incoming missiles and going for hidden blocks. The game isn’t without its faults, as I wish the structures collapsing provided some sense of feedback (there’s no crashing noise or anything) and at times I feel like I’m shooting at whatever the game wants, not what I’m actually tapping, but the way the game is structured — you seamlessly move from one structure to the next — makes for an addictive experience.

You’re not taking much of a risk by downloading any of these free games; bandwidth and time aside, there’s nothing to stop you from checking them all out for yourself. Doing the same with all of the games that still cost money would prove to be somewhat costly. While it would be impossible to evaluate them all, below are some of my favorites (outside of the big-name titles like Braid and Super Meat Boy) that are worth checking out at their original prices, let alone at their Because We May prices.

Because We May Sale Makes Indie Games Cheap(er) for a Week

Anomaly Warzone Earth (iOS, Steam, Android, Mac): What started out as a unique take on tower defense on PC — you’re in charge of managing the units moving along the path, not the towers — is an even better game on iOS. The removal of a physical character you control takes care of the only potential issue with playing the game on a touchscreen, and it looks great, especially on the new iPad. There is enough content here to justify the original $10 price on Steam; now for $4 (or $.99/$1.99 for the iPhone/iPad and Android versions) it would be a mistake to skip it.

Canabalt (iOS, Android): It may lack the depth of other auto-runners like Jetpack Joyride, which remains my personal favorite, but there is something to be said for how straightforward it is. There is no fluff whatsoever, only tight controls (it still counts as “controls” even if you only tap to jump, right?) and a great soundtrack. With new features possibly on the way, this is a perfect opportunity to start practicing for some multiplayer action.

Edge (iOS, Steam, Android, Mac): Another platformer that works well on iOS by not resorting to a virtual d-pad or joystick. Edge has a very minimalist look to it and is easy to pick up and get right away, although what I appreciate about it most is the replayability of each stage. Having prisms to collect and shortcuts to find gives you a reason to go back and play a level over even when you think you’ve managed to make it to the end in good time. Plus, any time you can play a game that makes you think about Tim Langdell and giggle, you have to do it.

Because We May Sale Makes Indie Games Cheap(er) for a Week

Jamestown (Steam): A gorgeous top-down shooter, Jamestown’s graphics and soundtrack would be its most noteworthy features if not for how good the game itself plays. Cooperative play makes for an even more entertaining experience than playing solo; my only complaint is that multiplayer is local-only, though that should not stop shoot-em-up fans from checking it out.

Trainyard (iOS): While directing trains to their destination initially seems like a far-too-easy task, the difficulty in Trainyard quickly ramps up. The ability to have two pieces of track on each tile adds a great deal of complexity, as it opens up the door for requirements like not allowing two trains to touch one another. It also requires you to pay attention to the order in which trains will go, as the tile will swap between tracks as a train drives over it. The rules are slowly taught to you over time and are not difficult to comprehend, although that doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself scratching your head as you search for a solution.