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Daydream Believer
OVR: 26
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Sea of Waking Dreams
Posts: 11,352
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Electronic Arts (EA) Sports
EA Sports has become a juggernaut over the sporting games industry. With their titles consisting of the Madden series, NBA Live series, NCAA football and basketball, they have been having a grip on the sporting game world for a long time. Their Madden series is the top selling football game every single year (you can mark down this year as well). The same can be said for NCAA Football 2004. Hell, their college football game is so good that no other companies even put out another college football game. But, when I see EA Sports, I see a company that needs help. They are reminding me of what I see in the WWE, right now. A monopoly that needs competition. Without competition to challenge them, the games start to lose their greatness aspect each year. EA Sports is starting to get lazy, and for one, I'm happy. I like going to Software Etc. and seeing a variety of sporting games. Just because there is a "EA SPORTS" label on a game that doesn't mean I'm going to automatically buy it. Let's take a took at what EA has released SO far:
Madden NFL 2004: Self-proclaimed best football gaming franchise ever. Oh, yes. I LOVED Madden when I had it for my Sega Genesis. The little yellow memory cart that was attatched to the game? Revolutionary, but let's fast forward to, oh, Madden 2001. Around the 2000 or 2001 games, I didn't notice how bad the series was starting to get. It was not until I had Madden 2002 and Madden 2003 when I started to notice there was no change in the two games. Madden 2003 was a steaming pile of [censored you naughty boy]. EA Sports totally rushed that game and basically the only difference from the year before was roster changes. That was it. A little-known title named, NFL 2K3 (produced by Sega Sports), was also on the scene and blew Madden out of the waters. The commentary was better, the presentation was outstanding, and what's really important is that the gameplay killed the competition. There is a huge debate about which game was more arcade-like and being that I owned both titles, Madden was the title you buy if you wanted an NFL Blitz-type game. Yes, that is a hyperbole, but my point still stands. However, this topic is not about bashing EA Sports to death. This year, Madden 2004, is a great game. The gameplay is more simulation that its predecessor. It has one of the best soundtrack of ANY game (trust me), and Madden's Franchise mode is still king of all other football games (even though, Owner Mode is highly overrated). Even though, this year's Madden has its high points, it is not without fault. The commentary gets old quickly and is not near the caliber of NCAA Football 2004 or even NFL 2K3 for that matter. The problems do not end there, as EA Sports has decided to screw over their comsumers once more. Thanks to some malfunction, the option to export draft classes from NCAA Football 2004 and import them into Madden 2004 for the Xbox version of the game is not possible. Which means I had to send EA a page of my game manual with my address on it. Was it much of a hassle? No, but I expect more out of EA than this. Kudos to them for fixing it, but this should have never been a problem to begin with. Hell, some are even claiming that this was done to get back at the Xbox owners of the game (since Microsoft and EA Sports aren't too fond of one another). Laziness is going to be their downfall and another company's asset. Would I suggest buying Madden? Without question, I would, but if I have the money will I get Sega Sports' ESPN NFL Football? You can bank on that.
NCAA Football 2004: Someone at EA Sports knows how to make college football games because there is no other game like this one. This is simply the best football game out, period. Screw Madden and screw Sega's '2K4' because this is the best. EA Sports is so good at their college football series that NCAA Football 2004 is the ONLY college football game out there. It has no competition. The gameplay is smooth as a baby's butt, the commentary is fresh (it gets old after awhile, but it's still good), and there is nothing else like Dynasty mode. If EA Sports wants to remain on top by just porting out the same Madden each year, then it's all up to this title. One thing that makes me happy is that NCAA made strides to make their game THE BEST even though there is no other game to compete with it. Doing things like making receivers look back on a pass (which is [censored you naughty boy] awesome), setting up wedges on punts and kickoff returns, and making a GREAT defense DB AI is what I'm talking about EA. Give me more of this sporting game goodness and I'm in Heaven. But, what's sad about this is that they add all those gameplay enhancements and what does Madden do? Nothing. No wedges, no receivers looking back, and a tad improvement in the defensive DB AI. You are the same company! Make it happen, EA. It pissed me off when those enhancements weren't in Madden 2004. As I said before, laziness. Who cares if you don't name your players? There's always Action Replay and Xport for petty [censored you naughty boy] like that. This is EA Sports' best game. Take the ball and run with it guys. I just hope you don't fumble it.
Since NBA Live 2004 is not out yet, I'll throw my thoughts out for NBA Live 2003.
NBA Live 2003: Oh God. What a [censored you naughty boy] waste of money. NBA Live 2003 is so bad I do not know what Gamespot was thinking when they rated it. The only thing good about this game is Fabolous' song for the game (entitled "It's In The Game" -- worth a download). This is not a simulation game by any means. This is NBA Jams with an EA SPORTS' label on it. It's so damn arcadey that it makes me mad to think I bought the game. I want simulation baskeball, EA. I do not want a five minute back-and-forth slam dunk contest. I've seen videos for the next installment and it does not get any better. Sega's NBA 2K3 which next installment will be ESPN NBA Basketball will beat out the competition by miles. Thanks, Sega Sports.
With that, EA Sports has a task ahead of them. Will they continue to lose the greatness that their games once had or will Sega Sports' really good games be enough for EA Sports to get a move on? People buy EA Sports' games because of the label and the name. I buy the game because I want a good-to-great game. Let's hope EA Sports' starts to please the comsumers like they once did.
(A mod can move this topic to the right folder since I'm pretty sure this is the wrong one.)
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08-17-2003, 08:17 PM
