APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...ia_how_pr_.php

Good read on how the video game media can be biased and "paid off" in a sense. Since I'm a video game journalist as well, I can attest to the fact that whenever you give a glowing review, they (publishers/developers) offer to fly you out to their headquarters for an "exclusive view" of next year’s title. Just wanted to let you guys know.
<O:p
Interesting thought is how come APF is receiving such lackluster reviews compared to the competition. Both games appear solid with its collection of flaws; however, it cannot be argued that APF received significantly lower scores across the boards. The superior game play battle is arguable but I say APF wins and the “competition” only gets the “nod” because of the Professional license. <O:p
<O:p
Remember when information was scarce and we were all dying to get every little bit of info on APF 2K8. Well, perhaps gaming journalists are taking their revenge for being left "out of the loop". The media can make or break you, and gaming developers/distributors/publishers know it. Does Take Two/2K sports get it? Aside from online forums (such as OS) dedicated to presenting objective reviews, can we trust the big revenue generating websites/magazines to be objective as well? You be the judge. <O:p

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

Here's my opinion.

If the reviewers spent any time playing online with APF2K8, the review score would go up. It plays like glass online. Well done.

If the reviewers spent any time playing NCAA 08 online, the review score would go down. (I still haven't gotten to half-time without a dropped game..but my opponent stays with me on the headsets... go figure..)

But most reviewers just say "yeah, this game has online play" when it comes to sports video games, and they just seem to read the online feature-set.

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

Yes, that's it. The media is to blame for VC's near total failure to market this game. :google:

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

There is some media bias, but VC does do a bad job of marketing.

Also, the game review sites gotta be taken with a grain of salt. They really need to get reviewers that actually PLAY both games and when I say play I mean KNOW how to play both games. The differences in the gameplay styles warrants this. If the reviewer is biased towards one or the other the reviews are gonna show that.

Also a good weeks time needs to be spent with the game to get down all the changes with the game and to learn what works and what dont.

Last night at about 12am I had a Madden moment. I actually got in a groove and adjusted to the "precog" stuff thats going on in the game and now I am actually feeling the game more than I did the first day with it. I can do alot of the things in madden I like doing in AP2K8 pretty much now, all except the hot routes. I like the way Ap2K8 lets you call hotroutes better than Madden, but its not a big big deal.

Its unfortunate that Ap2K8 is being judged moreso for lack of franchise mode than the GREAT gameplay it provides.

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

Its hard to market half a game. What will they say go out and buy all pro but only if you play online. Do you realize more people play offline rather than online.

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

Naw. I blame the media when they give bloated reviews scores to games.

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

You all need to understand something about game reviewers.
They are casual NFL fans. (typical nerds who have never read a playbook, or read any football coaching lit)
2k8 is for hardcore football fans.
All the bells and whistles Madden offers appeals to the casual NFL fan.
All the depth of gameplay of 2k8 appeals to the hardcore football fan.

That's where 2k makes it's niche, they know they can't capture the casual NFL gamer. So they are going after the hardcore football fans.
It's a smaller market, but it's loyal and for that can be profitable.

Re: APF 2K8 the victim of Biased Media?!?!? Not even surprised!
 

Its been like this for years. That is why 2ksports has never gotten the respect it deserves.

For years they have made, better football, basketball, and sometimes baseball and hockey games....

But EA is so large, no reviewer or t.v. station. Has ever brought any kind of attention to Visual Concepts game, since they began on Dreamcast....

EA is a mogul, that has gotten stronger, since Genesis and SNES.

There are going to take some major sites, like IGN.com and Gamespot, Gameinformer.com and so on to just really give madden the bashing it deserves...before 2k will ever get any light shined on it.....