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infinitebitgaming · 4 years ago

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20 years ago, the homie Mario introduced me to the Xbox and Halo. I was still heartbroken with the demise of the SEGA Dreamcast and never fully made the transition to the PlayStation 2 being a little bitter on how it just came and totally killed my favorite console at the time. The Xbox ended up being everything the Dreamcast was to me and more. More powerful than any console at the time with a built in modem like the Dreamcast ready for online play right out the box, I was all over Xbox Live once it launched playing Halo 2 to NFL2K5 with a more sophisticated class of gamers. The good old days before all of the kids were able to sign on and ruin the experience 😂. The launch of the Xbox 360 had me ditching work and standing 8 hours in line at my local Wal-Mart for the first and only time I’ve ever waited that long for something and it was well worth it. The HD era had fully arrived and I definitely had to get an HD LCD to fully take advantage of those graphics. I was also Day One for the Xbox One. I actually dug the voice and TV features to go alongside my gaming, but the lack of games and overall bad branding gave it a rough start and it didn’t fully win me over until the introduction of backwards compatibility and the release of the Xbox One S and then eventually the X with true 4K gaming for the first time to once again make it the most powerful system ever made. They’ve followed it up with the Xbox Series X and I love being able to play OG Xbox games and Xbox 360 games all over again along with playing other older games for the first time with the higher resolutions and frame rates that the Series X is able to produce that the predecessors couldn’t, making it their definitive versions. Not to mention quality of life enhancements like Quick Resume and all of the 3rd party games running better on the Xbox than any other console like back in the OG Xbox days, more exclusives coming from all of the new developers they’ve scooped up, Xbox Live more active than ever and Game Pass being the Netflix of gaming, Xbox is not going anywhere. Thank you for all of the great gaming memories these last 20 years. Here’s to 20 more! 💚 #xbox20 #infinitebitgaming https://www.instagram.com/p/CWU0WPFrUwp/?utm_medium=tumblr

#xbox20 #infinitebitgaming

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thiseprsonoded · 4 years ago

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Blizzard broke my heart when they adopted Activision business model.

I gave up on NFL after NFL2K5 for 20 dollars lost license to EA sucks

Titanfall fans unite

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junker-town · 8 years ago

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Michael Vick is a video game Hall-of-Famer, but in which game was he the best?

An investigation.

If there were a video game athlete Hall of Fame, it would have entire wings dedicated to Pablo Sanchez, Bo Jackson, and Michael Vick. Vick was a problem for NFL defenses and video game developers alike — rightfully so, he was an explosive athlete — and you can see his influence in all the Maddens after 2004.

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Bring up Madden 2004 in a conversation, and it’s likely followed up with “Michael Vick was OP in that game” OR “Michael Vick was unfair.” This persistent statement that Madden 2004 Vick was the most unstoppable video game character ever got me thinking: Do we just agree that he’s the best video game character because of the legend and nostalgia attached to it?

So I took that thinking a step further. Is Madden 2004 Vick even the most unstoppable version of Vick? If not, which other candidates are worthy of the title? I took a small poll.

1 more question before I go. Michael Vick was most OP in...

— Sandy Kofacts (@KofieYeboah) October 19, 2017

Do I have too much time on my hands? (Not enough, in my opinion.)

Those three games are, of course, Madden 2004, NFL 2k5, and NFL Street 2. And I spent many hours late at night replaying each one to see which game takes the crown for having the most dominant Vick.

The case for NFL Street 2

When compared to NFL 2k5 and Madden 2004, NFL Street 2 is unpredictable as hell. The jukes were crazy, and you had style passing and style catches.

But most of all, you could use the walls. For those of you who have never played this game, think of arena football, but the walls are still inbounds when you touch them.

You could do crazy trick moves off the wall:

This includes using the wall to throw a pass:

And using the wall to catch the ball:

With a few wall jukes, you could turn a bleak situation into a huge gain.

Bringing someone down in NFL Street 2 was already pretty difficult due to the frequent laterals and broken tackles. With Vick, it’s damn near impossible. If he does scramble, you have to worry about his blazing speed and the freaking walls:

The wall is an added element both behind the line of scrimmage and past the line of scrimmage. Vick is fast enough to run out of the pocket, reach the wall, and throw a wall pass in the same time it takes regular QBs to do a fraction of that. He can even pass to himself:

LOLOLOLOL.

My middle school basketball coach told me that on defense the out-of-bounds lines serve as an extra defender. If that’s the truth, then this game doesn’t give you that. On certain field levels in the game, you can step out of bounds, but it’s not that noticeable.

In Madden, you could just try to suppress the damage and force Vick out of bounds. You can’t do that here.

Unlike Madden 2004 and NFL 2k5, the passing icons don’t go away or hide while you’re scrambling, so if you’re playing a non-AI opponent, they have absolutely no idea what your next move is. This adds yet another level of deception that makes it hard for the other team.

He played defense, too

An underrated feature we don’t think about is that NFL Street 2 uses seven players to a team, and they play both offense and defense. You could put Vick at safety and blitz, and just his speed alone can give other offenses nightmares on that game. The fact that he has the potential to be a nuisance on both sides of the ball is incredible (even though his attributes don’t hint at it).

JUST LOOK AT THE SPEED OFF THE LINE!

You could try that in Madden, but Vick’s stamina and low defensive attributes in Madden would make him more of a liability on defense.

I tried.

This is important to note because in Madden 2004, you have a break from worrying about Vick.

Hindrances

Yes, there is a turbo bar that replenishes over time, but Vick is fast enough that it doesn’t even matter in most situations. If there weren’t a limited amount of turbo you could use in this game, then it would be the obvious choice for most OP (Overpowered) characters.

The game is simple from a strategy standpoint compared to Madden. You can’t customize a playbook and go to town. You have three receivers instead of up to five in Madden and NFL2k5, but you can see that as having more space to terrorize defenses and take it to the house.

The case for Madden 2004

From a game-play perspective, Madden had a supply of fire jukes and spins that made any fast ball-carrier hard to tackle. The spin move was cheese...

... but no one cared because it’s a video game. No, this was not the highlight stick in Madden ’07, but these moves were still hard to defend against.

What it did have was Playmaker Control.

For those of you who don’t remember how annoying this function was to defend against, Playmaker Control allows you to tell a receiver what to do post-snap. Now imagine video game Vick scrambling and the user having the ability to direct his teammate's routes/actions at the same time.

So you could theoretically do shit like this:

This function made Vick so OP that Madden itself recognizes how dominant this combination is.

Another feature that kind of counts is the ability to create your own playbook. If Playmaker Control didn’t turn this into a glorified backyard football game, then this feature will surely put it over the top. You can create routes that only rival the ones that you did when you used to draw the imaginary route on the football with your finger.

Here are a few I made when I was a kid. These all work when Vick is at the helm.

Does this play work?

Yes. (Custom routes were basically a cheat code.)

What about this one?

Yes, this “pass” play works ... because it’s actually designed run.

Now, can you theoretically make any playbook OP for a number of characters? Yes. Are there other running QBs in the game who you could cook with as well?

Yes. You have Daunte Culpepper, Donovan McNabb, and Aaron Brooks. However, as you can see from the chart, the speed discrepancy is noticeable. Oh, I forgot to mention that rookie Seneca Wallace is an option.

Would McNabb be a dangerous player to use? Absolutely. Is the combination of Randy Moss and Culpepper OP? Hell yeah, but it’s just not the same as having a quarterback who’s faster than most of the RUNNING BACKS in the game.

Using Michael Vick in a game against your friends was already frowned upon, but if you really never wanted to see a person again you would use Michael Vick and a custom playbook.

Hindrances

Honestly, this all comes down to how you’re playing the game. If you’re playing it on an easier level, then Michael Vick is even more of a video game god.

NFL Street 2 does not have an overall stamina bar, but it still does limit the amount of turbo you can use at a time. Madden has a fatigue element and a wider variety of plays to keep a running QB in check. You can’t stop Vick, but you can theoretically ease the damage. It’s just too bad that it’s going to be a lot of damage, especially if all the tools I just mentioned were utilized in conjunction with Vick.

The case for NFL 2k5

NFL 2k5 is one of the best football games of all time and feels more realistic than Madden 2004. A spin move doesn’t freeze an entire defense, and there are way more drops in this game.

While Vick could still scramble ...

... it just doesn’t feel as dominant as Madden ’04 or NFL Street 2.

It just feels like the defense is more cognizant of Vick’s shenanigans. You also can’t spam the ball-carrier controls because of “The Charge,” a feature that requires you to charge up if you want to pull off the more extreme moves. This prevents one from pulling off totally unrealistic combos of said extreme moves.

In addition to this, spamming the scrambling abilities can absolutely tire out this version of Vick easily. It’s like running full speed play after play can tire you out.

Who knew.

Also, throwing on the run is extremely difficult in this game — as it should be. Like Madden, you are not able to just hold down the sprint button and press the corresponding receiver button at the same time. You have to let the trigger go:

In Madden, it’s a toggle system, but I’ll let your personal preference decide which one is easier for you. The difference that I’m trying to stress is the passing accuracy while on the run. This is thanks to the maximum passing feature:

There is a considerable difference in this game and you can’t just use Vick as a cheat code to throw an accurate pass across the field like he hasn’t been running for a while:

While this game did have a bunch of things that prevent 2k5 Vick from being as annoying as Madden 2004 Vick, I kind of appreciate the little blips of realism in the game. Both Madden and NFL 2k5 have fatigue, but it’s the passing feature that sets the two games apart difficulty wise.

Madden 2004 was made before EA Sports tried out the QB Vision Cone, so you could pull off some passes that made Vick seem like he can see everything except why kids like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

It’s the taste you can see, Michael.

So what have we learned?

NFL 2k5 Michael Vick doesn’t seem to be the most dominant version of him. Like Madden, if you play the game on rookie difficulty then, of course, you can go off. However, when I increased the difficulty levels in both games I felt more of a change in NFL 2k5 then I did with Madden 2004. The features implemented prevents users from spamming Vick the same way you can in the other two games. I’m not saying he isn’t dominant in this game, I’m saying he doesn’t feel as much of a cheat code in this game compared to the other two.

As for NFL Street 2 and Madden ’04, I’ll leave it up to you to decide. I think that NFL Street 2 and Madden ’04 both provide unique strengths and different ways in which they’re OP. Both characters are borderline impossible to deal with.

In terms of football video games, dual-threat quarterbacks are the most fun characters to use and it’s not even close. You can pick almost any football game, college or pro, after Madden ’04 and find a dual-threat quarterback to ball out with. Here’s a quick list of other dual-threat quarterbacks who I can think of off the top of my head over the years. (Yes I know; some are in both.)

Madden: Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick, RG3, Russell Wilson, Tyrod Taylor, Marcus Mariota, Terrelle Pryor, Joe Webb.

College Football: Every quarterback who played for Oregon, Denard Robinson, Johnny Manziel, Tajh Boyd, Tim Tebow, Braxton Miller, Pat White, EJ Manuel, Taylor Martinez ... all my created players (except for the time I made a running back).

I could go on. The point is that there have been many dual-threat quarterbacks who have been featured in video games. None of them were as OP as any of the versions of Michael Vick that I mentioned.

It’s not even close.

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talkinaboutpractice · 14 years ago

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Fake Players; Real Attachment

Licensing agreements have a sordid history with sports gamers. They can be an additive to the experience such as a realistic advertisement is placed on the outfield wall of your favorite teams ballpark or having access to team logos and player profiles. They can also be terrible absences when a game can not secure the license. Take Soldiers Field for example, home of the Chicago Bears. Until this year, Soldiers Field was not included in the annual Madden release because they failed to reach a licensing agreement until now.

Professional athletes, never known for their undersized sense of self worth, sometimes will not agree to the use of their likeness in games and replacement players will be created to fill their spots.

Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, and others who at the height of their careers could only be vicariously played through as “player” or Jon Dowd, the lanky Caucasian Left Fielder who was conspicuously absent from any of the Giants games I watched on TV. These fictional players become even more prominent after strikes, when replacement players were denied entry into the players union.

The most interesting fictional players I find however are the ones with absolutely no factual basis whatsoever. Based on no one and made from nothing.

A standard option in modern sports games is an extended career mode otherwise known as a franchise mode. In this mode you control a team not through one game or one season, but for decades. Control over the contracts, the depth charts, the personnel and the coaches decisions are all within the players control.

As the timeline progresses, older real life players will retire and rookies will need to take their places. A name like Calvin Pope may not mean anything to anyone in the NFL, but he was a steal in the 3rd round of the 2007 NFL 2k5 draft on my Xbox.

Pope played for 8 seasons, first as a back up to veteran Patrick Surtain, but midway through his rookie season Surtain was sidelined with a meniscus tear and Pope was given the starting role. He never looked back.

Kenarious Fluellen, a fictional HB in Madden 11. The NFL can't stop him from tweeting, any more than being fictional does.

Pope averaged 7 interceptions a year for the next 8 years. People had jerseys with his name and number on the back and the held signs in the stands with slogans like The Pope-mobile. He was on 2 Super Bowl championship teams and had his number retired by the Dolphins after he retired.

Of course Calvin Pope is not a real person. He never was drafted for the Dolphins and he never played those 8 seasons. The attachment a fictional athlete can have on the player is no less compelling than that of a real athlete.

And the year after Pope was drafted, Jamie Leels came and was terrible. He was a 1st round draft pick that missed every tackle. With the games skills tracker he was superior in every way, but he never made the plays that Pope did, so Pope continued to play while Leers road pine.

Pope may never have existed but he had a bigger impact on my burgeoning Dolphins fandom than any real player ever did. In my mind, he is sitting in the Hall of Fame right next to Dan Marino and Larry Czonka. For someone else, he may be sitting there next to Night Train Lane, because outside of my little box, Pope played a thousand other careers.

#NFL #NFL2K5 #Madden #NBA Jam

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