Re: Madden NFL 10 Impressions (Pasta Padre)
Excellent post and I agree with you Pasta has been called out about this very thing on several occassions..at least on this site..I think it goes without saying that alot of people take Pasta's reviews about EA's game with a grain of salt..I do think to some extent that in order to be invited to some of these events you have to be pro-EA to some extent...
That's just not true, Adem. Pasta is basically an EA/Tiburon employee at this point, and will almost NEVER say anything negative about a major EA game, especially Madden. Let's look back at some of what he had to say about Madden 09 during his early Hands-On, shall we:
"As I mentioned as the blog began I have a completely different feeling about the game this year compared to how I felt last year. That is accented even more by how it is still a few months to go until release. Outside of a few bugs, which were reported to the producers and some already having been fixed by the time we left the studio, it felt like a game that was prepared for release.
Originally I didn’t want to be too enthusiastic considering how my thoughts could’ve changed as the day progressed. However I left with the same general feeling as I began with. Last year, playing the actual release copies, I quickly identified the fumbles, poor o-line blocking, and overpowered kicking as issues that would be relatively serious. However with 09 I didn’t come across any of those type of things. Instead I passed along some feedback on minor areas along the lines of reducing the camera flashes and adding return plays with a single returner deep."
Now, we all know that Madden 09 ended up having more than just a few "minor" issues. Notice, nowhere in his 09 or 10 previews does Pasta mention anything about the lack of camera angles (especially compared to other next gen sports games), the lack of in-game saves (just a terrible, terrible omission), or last year, Robo QB.
Some more from his preview last year:
"The presentation really enhances the experience and isn’t just thrown on the top. The replays are well integrated, things are easy to access on the play call screen, and the commentary is quite good (especially Chris Collinsworth)."
"Online leagues were talked about quite a bit, much of which was already known, but if you have questions I can probably answer most of them. They really wanted to focus and get the base right so they could expand on it over the coming years. Some other things they are working towards are spectator mode and possibly saving/reconnecting into online games that were interrupted (which would eventually grown out of the in-game saves feature they will have next year). Those might not be next year but they are things that they would like to add in down the line."
If Online Leagues were talked about quite a bit, then why wasn't anything said about the bogus (i.e., non-real) schedules that were being used? And spectator mode? Where's that??
I appreciate Pasta's website, because he does come through with a lot of pre-release videos. But I take anything he says about EA's games with a HUGE grain of salt.
"As I mentioned as the blog began I have a completely different feeling about the game this year compared to how I felt last year. That is accented even more by how it is still a few months to go until release. Outside of a few bugs, which were reported to the producers and some already having been fixed by the time we left the studio, it felt like a game that was prepared for release.
Originally I didn’t want to be too enthusiastic considering how my thoughts could’ve changed as the day progressed. However I left with the same general feeling as I began with. Last year, playing the actual release copies, I quickly identified the fumbles, poor o-line blocking, and overpowered kicking as issues that would be relatively serious. However with 09 I didn’t come across any of those type of things. Instead I passed along some feedback on minor areas along the lines of reducing the camera flashes and adding return plays with a single returner deep."
Now, we all know that Madden 09 ended up having more than just a few "minor" issues. Notice, nowhere in his 09 or 10 previews does Pasta mention anything about the lack of camera angles (especially compared to other next gen sports games), the lack of in-game saves (just a terrible, terrible omission), or last year, Robo QB.
Some more from his preview last year:
"The presentation really enhances the experience and isn’t just thrown on the top. The replays are well integrated, things are easy to access on the play call screen, and the commentary is quite good (especially Chris Collinsworth)."
"Online leagues were talked about quite a bit, much of which was already known, but if you have questions I can probably answer most of them. They really wanted to focus and get the base right so they could expand on it over the coming years. Some other things they are working towards are spectator mode and possibly saving/reconnecting into online games that were interrupted (which would eventually grown out of the in-game saves feature they will have next year). Those might not be next year but they are things that they would like to add in down the line."
If Online Leagues were talked about quite a bit, then why wasn't anything said about the bogus (i.e., non-real) schedules that were being used? And spectator mode? Where's that??
I appreciate Pasta's website, because he does come through with a lot of pre-release videos. But I take anything he says about EA's games with a HUGE grain of salt.
I can't wait until Ian opens up for discussion. I'd be interested in knowing what some of there thought processes were for doing some of the things they did.
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