Sony's Road to Sunday cancelled

[coogrfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by pfunk880

^^Does that look familiar to you?

Different situation. It would not be reasonable to dismiss 2k5, because the 2k series was generally well regarded by both the reviewers and the football gaming community as a whole. In short, VC's past perfomance had earned them the benfeit of the doubt.

I defy you to find any favorable comments, from either the press or gamers, concerning the various disastrous NFL Gameday or Gamebreaker titles published during this console life cycle. The consensus opinion has been that 989's football title's haven't been merely bad, they have been abysmal. Given that track record, there is no reason whatsoever to give 989 the benefit of the doubt.

Besides, the IGN story contained the following quote:

Quote:

"Road to Sunday just didn't measure up to our first party standards in terms of quality," said the Sony rep we spoke with. "

Your Honor, the defense rests.

[pfunk880]

And look at the strides the 989 MLB series has made...

[coogrfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by pfunk880

And look at the strides the 989 MLB series has made...

That is true, and it's a good point. But apparently Sony didn't feel this game was shaping up to be anything like MLB in terms of quality.

[Kanobi]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

I defy you to find any favorable comments, from either the press or gamers, concerning the various disastrous NFL Gameday or Gamebreaker titles published during this console life cycle.

Gameday 2004 was a decent game and I'm on record as saying so previously here at OS (to lazy to dig up the posts right now). It introduced some rather cool RB juke moves and tranisitional animations that, at the time, were lacking in both Madden '04 and 2k4 and then later added to the '05 editions of both games.

GD '04 even featured some voice-recognition interaction through simple commands like snapping the ball and I believe motioning wrs, etc. But It seemed to be geared more toward online play than offline though.

Overall, it was a decent game...much better than "abysmal" IMO. But that was when Madden, ESPN and Fever were all other and popular options as NFL Games. So I doubt many (including yourself, coog) really gave GD04 a fair look at all.

As for RTS, it looked like it was shaping up to introduce some new gameplay elements within a sim-oriented environment as well. Thats what peaked my interest. Particularly the position-specific controls which might have, if anything, provided EA and/or VC an idea of what improvements to make to either SS/RFTH Mode or FPF ( if VC decided keep that mode in a future football title). The off the field stuff in RTS, including the fighting, sounded like some GTA type stuff that was mixing several video game genres. Certainly, not for everyone but the open-minded would have given the game a shot. I think there was potential there. But it appears the project didn't have much direction.

[coogrfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kanobi

Gameday 2004 was a decent game and I'm on record as saying so previously here at OS (to lazy to dig up the posts right now). It introduced some rather cool RB juke moves and tranisitional animations that, at the time, were lacking in both Madden '04 and 2k4 and then later added to the '05 editions of both games. GD '04 even featured some voice-recognition interaction through simple commands like snapping the ball and I believe motioning wrs, etc. But It seemed to be geared more toward online play than offline though. Overall, it was a decent game...much better than "abysmal" IMO. But that was when Madden, ESPN and Fever were all other and popular options as NFL Games. So I doubt many (inlcuding yourself, coog) really gave GD04 a fair chance at all. As for RTS, it looked like it was shaping up to introduce some new gameplay elements within a sim-oriented environment as well. Thats what peaked my interest. Particularly the position-specific controls which might have, if anything, provided EA and/or VC an idea of what improvements to make to either SS/RFTH Mode or FPF ( if VC decided keep that mode in a future football title). The off the field stuff in RTS, including the fighting, sounded like some GTA type stuff that was mixing several genres. Certainly, not for everyone but the open-minded would have given the game a shot. I think there was potential there. But it appears the project didn't have much direction.

You're right about GD '04 being recognized as an improvement, I had completely forgotten that.

I think you're also right when you say that the game didn't have much direction, but imo that was probably the result of the same mixing of genre's that you found intriguing.

[Kanobi]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

I think you're also right when you say that the game didn't have much direction, but imo that was probably the result of the same mixing of genre's that you found intriguing

Well, as I stated before, the new on-the-field gameplay elements are what peaked my interest . Not the fighting, gambling, storyline etc. But I would have certainly tried those aspects of the game as this was going to be my alternative football title for the '05 season anyway.

In terms of direction, and as far as the mixing of genre's go, it appeared they knew what they wanted. I think the bigger factor was being able to effectively market the game...deciding what audience to target and what aspect of the game is the strongest seller. Sure quality is always an issue...but if the law is handed down from the publisher then it usually implies some potential marketing issues. However, its hard to say for sure based on the rather vague report from IGN.

[Fsu280]

This game was not looking to good, they did everyone a favor by cancelling it.

[Kanobi]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fsu280

This game was not looking to good, they did everyone a favor by cancelling it.

I thought it was looking good...particularlly on the field. Graphically, screenshots were comparable to anything else out there for the '05 season and looked better than Blitz IMHO. I also don't see how consumers are "done a favor" by having another potential choice eliminated. Especially when the game is introducing new and innovative gameplay concepts that could have benefitted the other existing titles in the future.