Madden NFL 08 Franchise Mode: Part 4

In the Draft you can play the College All-Star game in order to try out some of the draft prospects. After this you are given 7 chances to try out any players you want. Like in the Mini-camp you must complete drills and if you score high enough a certain key rating is revealed. But apart from this you have no real chance of figuring out which players to draft. All you are given is a list of stats that mostly pertain to their speed, such as times on the 40- yard dash. You mostly draft based on need of position as well as projected draft round. A player that has been projected to be a 1^st round pick by the computer is most likely better than a 6^th round pick. It is almost impossible to trade picks with other teams without having to give up a ridiculous amount of veteran players to the opposing team yet they keep offering you really bad trades all the time. Although trades aren’t always a major part of the NFL Draft they can sometimes turn out to be a steal or catastrophe. Changes were made to the Madden NFL Draft in later installations of the franchise. Once in the draft the order has been determined by your standing, with the Superbowl winners drafting last in each round and the least winning team drafting first. No help is given to you during the draft and you draft rather blindly. You get an advice box that for the most part informs you that a Kicker in the 6^th round is the best kicker in the draft, or informs you of positions that you have absolute need for. For the most part it isn’t too bad, most 1 and 2^nd round picks are in the high 70’s rating and low 80’s with the occasionally mid 80, as well as some steal picks in the third round. Rarely, if ever, does it happen that you pick a sleeper superstar in the 5^th round that turns out to be the most winning quarterback of all time. This does happen in the NFL often, more so with undrafted players that turn out to be superstars. After signing draft picks and another round of free agency the off-season comes to a wrap. Beginning a new season leads to a new set of Mini-camp drills and a new regular season with your new team.

Franchise Mode is a great game mode that combines several different mechanics and features in order to give a full experience. Unfortunately, and this goes for most sports games, there is no win condition and no end to the game. While this does mirror the real world of sport, a team just wins the season and then begins a new one, this is a real unsatisfying way of playing. Once you have played through an entire season and won the Superbowl you want some kind of fulfillment but you don’t get it. You just start a new season and get to try doing it again. There is in fact an end to the Franchise mode, after 30 seasons you are informed that you have played 30 seasons and then the game tells you that you can start a new franchise. This is the issue with “endless” games, you can play forever and while it may be fun for the most part you still long for some kind of closure and ending to the whole thing. Overall Madden 08 has remained my favorite game ever since I bought it in 2008 and is the most played game, I have won the Superbowl several years in a row, with several different teams, I have had a team almost filled up with 99 rated players, I have bankrupted an entire team, I have taken the worst rated team and turned it into the highest rated team, I have won Coach of the Year and MVP, I have been selected to several Pro Bowls. I have done it all.

Madden NFL 08 Franchise Mode: Part 3

 After the Pro Bowl (which in 2008 was placed after the Super Bowl) you enter the Off-Season. This is where the business side of the player has to shine. There are a lot of negotiations, signings, firings and trades occurring during this time. First you start of by looking at your staff. Some of your coaches may have been offered jobs on other teams or may have retired, or maybe you want to fire your coach. You must hire coaches if you are missing some. In this part of the game you can also hire a Staffing Team, which is misleading name because it is actually a medical staff. This staff can help prevent injuries for happening as well as reduce the amount of time it takes to recover from an injury. The more expensive the staff is the better they are. You can also set prices for everything during the off-season but these prices can be regulated during the regular season as well. However you can not change your stadium during the regular season but you can do that during the off-season. You can rename it by choosing a sponsor that will give you money for achieving certain goals in exchange for naming rights to your stadium. You can rebuild a stadium entirely after your own design. Perhaps your fan support isn’t great, business isn’t blooming and you just want to move your team out and start from scratch. You can relocate your team during the off-season. First you must come with a proposal where you chose which city you go to, how you’re going to fund it and what your team name and uniform will be. If it is approved it takes a year before you are relocated. It is a very expensive process and hurts fan support throughout the remaining season. But desperate times call for desperate measures. If you chose not to relocate or rebuild your stadium you might just want to upgrade it. By having a modern and upgraded stadium more fans will attend and some of the upgrades comes with benefits. You can have an on-site medical staff which reduces injuries or a rain-water collection system that cuts down on maintenance costs by recycling water.

After deciding on staffing and stadium you move on to managing players. Some players decide to retire during the off-season and you must find replacements. First is the restricted free agents, some players are almost free agents (meaning they can sign with any team) but are restricted by a contract to your team. If you decide to match an offer they have received you can resign them. Next is resigning of any player who has expired contract. This is where Madden 08 becomes tough. It is impossible to have a full team of 99 rated overalls without going bankrupt within a few seasons. There is a very delicate balancing game of signing players will still remaining positive in the scheme of money. The player must decide which players are worth holding on to, and for how long and which players are becoming to old or expensive. Players that haven’t been resigned become free agents. As said before a free agent is without a team and can take any offer they want to. The player (user) can offer contracts to any free agents. Some of the biggest stars of the NFL may be in the free agent pool because their team decided to cut them or because they were getting to expensive. Free agents are also an inexpensive way to fill any holes in your roster that may just need backups and not a mega star. Next is the NFL Draft, the most exciting part of the off-season, but extremely poorly designed part of Madden 08.

Madden NFL 08 Franchise Mode: Part 2

After the preseason the regular season begins. Made up of 16 games your team must try to win as many games as possible in order to advance to the postseason and eventually fight your way to the Superbowl finale. In the regular season menu there are variety of submenus that can be used throughout the season. In Team Management you can look through your roster, change your depth chart, release and sign new players. In Weekly Tasks you are looking at your PDA with a bunch of messages pertaining to recent developments and games, for example a player with low morale by send an email complaining about not getting enough playing time or a sponsor may congratulate you on an award or victory. Very much in style with the PDA from Superstar mode this really adds to the feeling and narrative of the player being the owner/CEO/coach of the team. Storyline Central adds to this feeling even more. Composed of two newspapers, one national and one local the newspaper writes short articles about recent games as well as coming with relevant news and information. The last sub-menu is one of the most important ones for a successful business – Owner’s Box. In this menu you can set the prices of food, drinks, merchandise, tickets as well as spend money on advertisements. There are several graphs and charts that show you how you are doing. Two important factors to look out for is Fan Support and Attendance, it is important to keep both of these high as this optimizes your revenue. If your team is playing poorly the support will decrease, fewer people will attend the games and eventually you’ll start losing money. There is also a Board Members Thoughts that give you information on how you’re doing and the thoughts of the board seen from a business side. For example they might tell you that you have set your prices too low and that should increase them to profit or that fan support is beginning to dip and you should try to do something about it.

The rest of the game follows the normal regulations of the actual NFL. You play 16 games, based on your standing you may enter the post-season. If you win all your games in the play-offs you win the Superbowl. At the end of the year players are given awards based on their performance throughout the year, these include : Most Valuable Player, Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year, QB/RB/WR/ect of the year as well as Coach of the Year. You don’t really get anything out of winning but it is a great feeling having a player that has played well enough to win a prize such as best running back in the NFL. Players are likewise also voted to the Pro Bowl where all the best players play a friendly game in Hawaii. The game has not impact on anything but it is nice that Madden follows the NFL for the optimal realism.

Madden NFL 08 Franchise Mode: Part 1

Madden NFL 08: Franchise Mode

As noted in previous journal entries regarding Madden NFL 08, Franchise Mode is one of the main modes, the other being Superstar, in this game. In Superstar mode you control one player only and their actions, in Franchise Mode you control an entire team as well as the organization of the team. You set the ticket prices, you sign new players, hire new coaches as well as getting to play games with your team. You’re a combination of a general manager, owner, coach and player and it is your goal to have a successful organization that will lead you to the Superbowl!

After choosing a team, (and potentially doing a Fantasy Draft) you begin in the summer during mini-camp and practice. There are 9 different mini-camp drills that allow you to score attribute points that you can use to boost your players ratings. Each drill is different and in order to win attribute points you must get a bronze trophy or higher. The drills start on Rookie difficulty and the highest points available is 3 points. You can either chose to get the points or risk them all and try the drill at the next difficulty level but get more points. After each drill you can add these points to the player you chose and increases their ratings in key attributes according to their position, for example for a wide receiver you can increase their catch, jump and acceleration rating.

This feature is golden and I was bummed out when I found out that it wasn’t in Madden 12. Mini-camps are a very realistic part of the NFL and all 32 teams have them each summer. The purpose is of course to improve their players as well as spot potential stars as well as weed out burn-outs and players without talent. In the context of the game it is very useful for several things and can lead to different strategies. You could choose to improve an already highly rated player in order to make them complete superstars with a 99 overall. I have often done this when I had a player with over 90+ rating. Your team greatly benefits from having a complete über-star on their side. You could also choose players who are lacking in certain attributes and improve this particular attribute. I have had many running backs with fumble issues that I have then run through mini-camp in order to increase their carrying rating. Last but not least, improving young talent. Fresh out of college and with ratings in the lower end I like to only improve my youngest players. Veterans are experienced enough and will eventually retire within a few seasons. By improving young players each season you can get a team full of fresh young players with high potentials. After a couple of seasons you can easily boost a young talent from a 80-range overall to a low 90-range. Most of my talented teams have been because of the yearly mini-camp that really just gives an overall boost to the entire team even if it only directly influences 9 players.

After completing the mini-camp session you enter the pre-season. Perhaps the most useless feature of any sports game but it continually featured in every installation of Madden. It wasn’t until Madden 12 that EA Sports actually figured out how to improve this part of the game, despite the fact that fans had come with those suggestions for several years. Much like in the real NFL, preseason games don’t affect any score and for the most part it is second, third, and fourth string players who play the games in order to prove their worth. In the preseason all you really do is chose which three team captains you want and update the depth-chart that determines which players are starting and which players are benched. I have never played a full preseason and usually just simulate through it. In Madden 12, EA added the feature of having an expanded roster of 75 players, something that actually happens, and it is up to the player to determine which players to cut until they have 55 players. This was an important feature because it forces the player to cut team members that they are unsure of and may become stars on another team, as it often happens in the real world.

NFL Flick QB - Part 2

Playmaker game mode is perhaps what one would call regular play. You are given three lives and have to score as many points as possible. If you lose a life you can get an extra one by throwing 5 complete passes for touchdowns. There is only one receiver and more defenders are added as the game progresses. The wind speed starts out a 3 mph, which doesn’t affect throwing at all but will eventually increase to 30 mph where it becomes such a big factor that you must pay attention and think about how to throw the ball.

Quick Fire is basically the same exact thing except of three lives the player has 60 seconds. If a throw results in a touchdown the player is awarded with extra seconds, 3 seconds or so, and if they throw an interception they lose seconds. This the “Arcade” version of the game, while you are only given 60 seconds to start with you can keep the game going for several minutes if you are doing well enough. Like Playmaker more defenders and higher wind speeds occur after playing for a while making it harder and harder.

Both modes are quite well done but are very similar, and that is a problem. This game lacks variety and change and after a few games it just feel catchy or interesting anymore. If some of the things I’ve mentioned, more receivers and more defenders, were added this might improve gameplay slightly. Overall the game just runs out of steam, it is too flat and one-dimensional.

Trick Shot and Trick Shot XL are slightly misleading names. In fact they should be called something like Practice. The modes teach you how to be better at playing Playmaker and Quick Fire rather than being a separate game mode. Trick shots often imply some sort of extraordinary skill with a ball but the trick shots here simply imply that you are throwing it with great accuracy down a bucket. The two modes, Trick Shot and Trick Shot XL, could easily be combined into one mode. While I don’t have any real suggestions for how to improve this part of the game something needs to be fixed.

Although it is only a iPhone game and perhaps comparing it to console games that I cannot compete against but there are some issues that really take away from the pleasure of the game. For example each time you successfully throw a pass you automatically score a touchdown. Defenders don’t even try to tackle your player and the receiver just waltzes into the endzone. While they’re bad at tackling the defenders are perhaps some of the most athletic players in this game. Several times you will see a defender jump 5 yards vertically and then grab a ball one-handed without any problems. If this was to be a realistic game the defenders wouldn’t always catch passes that easy. Their main job is to tackle and defend and not to catch balls. On that note the receivers are also too good at their job. They never drop a pass and will often catch balls that are thrown too much to side. While it does happen in the NFL these catches are rare and few in between. If a ball isn’t thrown almost perfectly there is a high probability that the receiver won’t catch it. And sometimes they drop passes they shouldn’t be dropping.

A much more successful game than it’s kicker counterpart NFL Flick QB still feels like a lite version of a Madden game. I guess it’s the game equivalent of methadone. A quick fix that just doesn’t cut it. It is a good game with multiple strong suits but some of it’s flaws overshadow the good sides of it. Once again I’d recommend American football fans to buy Madden instead of these mobile games. One thing I do hope will happen is that Madden will incorporate features like the ones used in these mobile games with swiping and flicking using the touchscreen to throw passes instead of pressing buttons on a controller or keyboard. 

NFL Flick QB - Part 1

NFL Flick QB

NFL Flick QB is another game by Full Fat that uses many of the same game mechanics and aesthetics as NFL Kicker 13 (mentioned in previous journal entry). Instead of being a kicker the player is now the starting quarterback for their desired team. The player must throw the ball accurately to their receiver without being intercepted and score as many points as possible.

As in NFL Kicker 13 there are a few different game modes, that don’t vary that much. There is Playermaker – three lives to score as many points as possible. Quickfire, one minute to score as many points as possible. Trick Shot, four “downs” to get the ball in a bucket. Trick Shot XL, three lives to hit a bucket and get it to fall over.

One of the best things about NFL Flick QB is the way it utilizes the touch screen. Depending on how you flick the ball changes trajectory, spin and distance. You get extra points for throwing a perfect spiral, which is done by drawing a straight line with your finger. The direction of a thrown ball can also be changed by rapidly swiping your finger across the screen.

Although far from being the NFL, the game does teach some basic understanding of the quarterback position. You should only throw to a receiver that is open and try not to force a pass to a covered player. Always throw the ball slightly to the side when the receiver is running so that they can run to the ball without being intercepted by a cornerback. The best throw is a precise one. In Trick Shot mode you are basically faced with a test many young players try, hitting buckets with the ball in order to improve accuracy and get a feel of how fast you should throw a ball and the best angle to do it.

The game is very simplified in some ways. For example there is only one receiver on the field whereas the opponent can have as many as three cornerbacks covering him. For a more realistic and more dynamic game it would make sense to add some extra receivers. This would make the game harder as the player would have to decide which receiver to throw to. While there is some defensive players trying to tackle you this mechanic could have been incorporated better. You can spot them from far away and it is too easy to avoid these players. Some stress is felt because of these players trying to sack you but it is far from enough. Adding blocking players on the offensive side while increasing the defensive players would once again add to the realism of the game and would also teach players about the idea of pocket presence and how to avoid getting sacked.

As with NFL Kicker 13 it is a neat detail that the actual NFL authorized the game and all the team names and uniforms are the same as in the real sport. One thing that I mentioned in my journal entry about NFL Kicker 13 was that they had these credits or coins in their game that could be used for virtually nothing. NFL Flick QB hasn’t made the same mistake and have just instead not added such a feature. The game does still feature a “leveling” mechanic where the collective points gathered through playing eventually causes a player to level up. The levels just unlock the other three game modes.

NFL Kicker 13

NFL KICKER 13

NFL Kicker 13 is a prototypical iPhone game made by Full Fat. It has several different modes, coins that can be collected throughout the game and used for purchases and the controls all lie in the fingertips of the player as they flick the ball across the screen. 

The player is a kicker in the NFL and must kick as many field goals as possible in order to post the highest score. NFL Kicker 13 is actually a licensed game meaning that they are allowed to use the name NFL as well as all the names and uniforms of the 32 NFL teams, something that is rare within the sport video games (For example NFL 2K did not get a license and were not allowed to reference anything that had relation to the NFL, despite being a American football game). Players can chose any number and any team for which they want to play, this is purely an aesthetic choice and the game is not affected by the player’s choice.   

There are three different modes to choose from, each new level is unlocked by reaching a new level. In The Zone is the first mode; you have three lives to score as many points as possible. The points are measured by distance and accuracy (the field goal posts are divided into various zones, gold being the best). As the game continues the distances increases and the accuracy zones become smaller. The wind increases making it more and more difficult to kick with great accuracy.

Coffin Corner puts you in the posistion of Punter and it’s your objective to kick the ball as close to the 1-yard line without hitting the end zone. The same mechanics apply as In The Zone, it because increasingly more difficult the more time passes and the more successful you are.

Time Attack is like In The Zone just with time instead. If you kick the gold-zone first you are awarded extra time, so essentially it’s a sort of Arcade mode. The better you perform the longer you can play.

After playing through a game you are awarded with credits that you can use to buy new equipment, such as alternate uniforms, and being able to upgrade your stadium. By upgrading your stadium you increases the amount of credits that you get after each game. You can also buy boosts to use during a game such as Phoenix, allowing one extra life after using all three, or Slow-mo that slows down the time. Despite these attempts at trying to hook the player they don’t work well. The boosts are overpriced and it takes a long time to save up for one. The stadium upgrades don’t really do anything other than give you more credits that you can’t really use for anything. It costs 15,000 credits to buy an alternate uniform, you get maybe about 200 credits per game, you do the math.

Even though there are several different modes they just aren’t different enough. After playing each mode a couple of times you are already bored, In The Zone and Time Attack are basically the same mode and Coffin Corner just isn’t that interesting.

Kicking is perhaps the least interesting part of an NFL game and it doesn’t translate well into mobile app games. The game is rather redundant and looks like most other “flick” games out on the Android Market and the App Store. Implementing credits but not having a good solution for how to handle them is bad design. Hopefully Full Fat will come with an update to the game with more modes and some things to spend your credits on. Until then I would recommoned picking up a version of Madden 12 if you are a football fan. 

Dominon: Card Game

Dominion is a turn-based card game created by Donald X. The objective of the game is to get the most victory points by the end of the game. To do so the players build a deck of cards, all with certain beneficial actions that will gain them coins to buy victory points as well as new cards. 

Each player starts with a small deck of cards. On the table are 10 piles of cards that can be bought and added to your hand. Taking turns the players draw cards from their deck and are allowed certain actions. Once a player has gone through their entire deck they reshuffle their discard pile and start drawing again. As the game progress the players keep adding new cards to their deck that will help them get victory points. Once the game is over the players count their victory points to see who has the most.

Dominion has a medieval theme to it and reminds me in a lot of ways of Magic: The Gathering card games. However unlike Magic players don’t have to buy decks but instead build them throughout the course of the game. This is a mechanic that I quite like. Magic often has a lot of money involved in it with players spending quite large sums trying to get certain cards. With Dominion all players start equally and it is truly the skill and strategy of the player that determines the outcome rather than how much money you have. Constantly adding and shuffling to the deck was a mechanic I haven’t seen in any other game and it worked quite well.

There are also several different card types that can allow for a varied gameplay. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work out well. When playing Dominion we got piles of cards that were mostly passive cards and only one slightly attacking card. So for an hour or so we just sort of played with ourselves, gathering victory points and never had an interaction with each other. While I can’t speak for the entire game since I haven’t tried all the card combinations I missed having a game that was based slightly more on attack and defense and where it was about trying to beat each other physically rather than finically. This also lead to the most anti-climatic finish to a game that I have played. After playing for over an hour we decided to stop the game. We counted the points and concluded that it was a tie between me and another player. Then we went home. There was no sense of victory or triumph. The victory points just seemed like virtual money that you had spent hours collecting before realizing that they aren’t worth anything.

As for the narrative, while the cards did seem very medieval and knightly, the lack of waging war really took away from the narrative. Instead I felt like an outdated Monopoly man trying to gather as much land as possible. I never felt like I was fighting for a territory against my fellow players or that I was in control of any form of land. I would have like to have seen a deeper and more detailed integration of the narrative into the gameplay.  

While I had heard many good reviews of the game I don’t think I would play it again. Perhaps I owe it the game designer to try a different set of cards, as I felt like this was the main issue with the game session I had. Or Dominion might just be a too strategically based game for me, as I need some decisive action and attacking to keep me entertained when it comes to card games. I applaud the game for bringing new mechanics, rarely seen in the game industry to the table but with a weak narrative I don’t feel hooked by the game.  

Madden NFL 08 Fantasy Draft: Part 2

Here is my fantasy draft. I got the last pick (32^nd) in the first round but got the 1^st pick in every second round.

1^st Round: Pick 32 – J.Peppers, Left Defensive End, Overall 99

An unusual pick for me because I rarely draft defensive ends this high up, but Peppers is perhaps the best defensive end in the game and knowing I would have the next pick to chose a quarterback I decided to get a player with a 99 overall. Pass rushing is always something I have difficulty with and I rarely get as many sacks as I would like. Peppers allows speed pass rushing while still being able to tackle the running back.

2^nd Round: Pick 1  - B.Roethlisberger, Quarterback, Overall 88

I like to base my Madden strategy on throwing the ball a lot and therefore quarterback is the most important position for me. By the time it was my turn almost all the good quarterbacks were already chosen but I was lucky enough to pick up Roethlisberger who is a really good quarterback who is young, tough and can run the ball. In a few years he’ll evolve even further and increase his accuracy and his overall ratings.

3^rd Round: Pick 32- S. Merriman, Right Outside Linebacker, Overall 98

Another stud defensive player who is not only young back a top 5 linebacker. As mentioned with Peppers my defense often suffers form a lack of sacks, which puts pressure on my secondary (cornerbacks and safeties). Merriman is the ultimate combination between speed and strength and can easily run with a fast running back and tackle him.

4^th Round: Pick 1 – T.Polamalu, Strong Safety, Overall 98

My first few picks became very defense oriented, which is unusual for me but allowed me to pick up some of the very best defensive players within a few rounds. Polamalu secures the backfield and if he doesn’t get the interception he is sure to make the tackle. This was an important pick because I neglected the cornerbacks later on in the draft and only got some mediocre ones.

5-8 Rounds:

Peters, Left Tackle, Overall 88

Olivea, Right Tackle, Overall 88

Mankins, Left Guard, Overall 88

Joseph, Right Guard, Overall 87

N.Hardwick, Center, Overall 90(11^th Round)

One of the absolute disasters of Madden 08 is the offensive line, also known as the players who block for the quarterback. A lot of things are wrong just with the way they block and how it looks but the worst part is the way their skills are recorded. An offensive lineman is based on two statistics – Pancakes and Sacks. Pancakes is a term for a block where the player causes the opposing player to fall on his stomach or back thus causing a pancake, which is good because the opposing player will have to get up in order to pursue the quarterback or running back. The sacks are something an offensive lineman tries to avoid. A sack is the tackle of a quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. So basically it’s a measurement of the lineman’s failures. While the computer simulates all games based on 15 minutes per quarter, a player will usually choose to play with 5 or 6 minutes per quarter. This means that almost every statistic lowers for the player’s team. This means that a offensive lineman might be the best in the league based on the amount of time they actually play but will be the worst in the league because they have 40 minutes less to compile the same statistics as another lineman. Every 5 weeks players either gain attribute points or lose them. A lineman will always lose an overall point. These points add up, by the end of the year a center like N.Hardwick can go from a 90 overall to a 84. It is also impossible to draft new linemen as they never progress and only become worse after being drafted. This is why I drafted a very strong offensive line that will allow for good protection for at least 2 or 3 seasons. While the Left Tackle is usually considered the most important player out of the five I like to have a consistent line which allows for maximum protection from all sides.  

Round 9: V.Davis, Tight Ends, Overal 85
The tight end is often called the blanket sheet for the quarterback. Big, strong, fast and with secure hands the quarterback can usually count on the tight end to pick up some yardage. Davis is a young and incredible fast tight end with a high catch rating and was a great addition to the offense of my team.

Round 10: Pick 1 – A.Peterson, Running back, Overall 85.

I rarely run the ball when I play. There are a couple of reasons, one of the mentioned above, which makes it almost impossible to get the proper blocking. But also because of time constraints, it is virtually impossible to have a balanced attack where you throw and run the ball equally. Instead it becomes very skewed with a lot of throwing and very little running. Yet I like to have to possibility of running the ball should I chose to, and for that reason I picked up Adrian Peterson in the 10^th round. An absolute steal, as he is now one of the best running backs in the NFL, but in 2008 he was just a rookie and had yet to prove his worth.

12-14

A.Bryant, Wide Receiver, Overall 86.

G.Jennings, Wide Receiver, Overall 84.

Henderson, Wide Receiver, Overall 84.

While most of the really good receivers were gone by the 12^th round I managed to scoop up three excellent choices. Both have good speed while having a high catch rating, the two things I look for in my receivers. Henderson is especially useful as he has a 98 Speed rating, I’ll often use this to send them on a streak eliminating a cornerback from the play and sometimes allowing for an easy long touchdown.

In the next few rounds I pick up defensive players all with a overall rating over 80.

A few interesting picks:

19^th Round: D.Sepulveda, Punter, Overall 82

Quite possibly my favorite player in Madden 08. Usually the punter is an extremely boring player that has no skills other than being great a kicking, but Sepulveda has a Speed rating over 80 and is capable of tackling. This means that instead of only having 10 capable players covering a returner I have 11.

25^th Round: D.Hester, Wide Receiver, Overall 75

Hester a quite bad receiver but he makes up for it in other ways. He’s the only player with a Speed rating of 100 and has Kick Return rating of 99. Hester is the leading player in the NFL in returning punts and kicks for touchdowns. An often overlooked position in Madden a kick returner can turn the game around in a matter of seconds and Hester continues to do it.

27^th Round: Aaron Rodgers, Quarterback, Overall 76

Not a very quarterback back in 2008 but the MVP of the NFL in 2011. A suitable backup to Roethlisberger.

Usually after picking at least one or two players per position I let the computer pick the remaining picks.

I was actually quite satisfied with my picks in this fantasy draft. I got a lot of good players and a good mix between offense and defense. On the offensive side I got a good group of tackles and guards as well as a decent trio of receivers. To top it off I got two stars in Roethlisberger and Adrian Peterson. On the defensive side I got some defensive captains and a lot of young talent at different positions. For my next journal entry I’ll play with my new team and see what happens in Franchise Mode. 

Madden NFL 08: Fantasy Draft Part 1

In continuation of my journal entries on Madden NFL 08 I will now venture into the Game Mode known as Franchise Mode. This mode allows the player to control an entire team, such as signing new players, firing coaches and managing prices of tickets. But before we go deeper into this Mode we will be looking at a different aspect of the Franchise Mode – The Fantasy Draft.

In order to understand the Fantasy Draft you need to know what a draft is. In the actual National Football League there is a draft each spring where college players can declare themselves ready to participate and play in the NFL. Based on their overall wins and loses the previous season each team gets to select a player whom they want on their team. The team with the worst record gets the first pick and the last pick in the first round is the Super Bowl winners. However in the Fantasy Draft instead of picking college players you get to choose from all the players in the entire NFL, essentially reshaping every team.

There are several reasons for why the Fantasy Draft was implemented. First off Fantasy Football is a huge deal in the U.S so it would make sense to use this aspect in a football video game. Second, the Fantasy Draft allows the player to almost pick their very own team and they can mold their team in whatever fashion they want – maybe you want a hard-nosed defense so you pick a lot of defensive playmakers in the first few rounds, or maybe you want a Franchise quarterback and build your team around him. Last but not least the Fantasy Draft evens out all the teams. In the actual NFL there are 5 or 10 top teams that almost always win and then a bunch of semi-bad teams that rarely compete for the Superbowl. This is unfortunately a trend that continues in regular Franchise Mode where a few teams will continually dominate the league. With the Fantasy Draft good players are divided among all 32 teams and spread out rather than being stacked in a few teams.

For my Franchise I decided to pick the San Diego Chargers as they’re my favorite team. I got the 32^nd pick in the first round which meant I got the 1^st pick in every second round. I rarely have an overall plan for how my draft will go down and which players I should look for. Normally I base it of what players are available and then determine what direction I want to take my team. Having played the game for several years I know quite a few things about what I like to see in my team as well as knowing which young players become stars later on. I have several key fundamentals that I nearly always follow for my drafts.

-       Building a strong core.

By this I mean that I like to pick a star/playmaker at each level of position. So this means usually a quarterback, runningback, wide receiver, tackle, defensive lineman, linebacker and a cornerback/safety. My belief is that they by having a really strong player at each of these positions will cover for the lacks of my remaining players.  

-       Age and speed.

One of the most common complaints about Madden 08 is the attribute speed and how easy it is to exploit. Basically if you have a very fast receiver it doesn’t really matter how well they can jump or catch as long as he can get enough room to run away from his defender. Likewise if you have a stud linebacker that runs as fast as your grandmother it doesn’t matter whether they have a 99 overall tackling rating. If you are fast you can make up for any other insufficient attributes. So as any other good manager I try to capitalize on this by having very fast players on every position, especially pass rushers, cornerbacks, and receivers.

Although older players usually have a higher overall than their rookie counterparts, veterans have a tendency to get injured or retire within a few years. When I draft I like to make sure that my team will be a top contender each year and not just win the Superbowl once. Therefore I draft young, cheap players with decent attributes that will hopefully evolve into superstars. Often players with low overall ratings are just players that have a low awareness rating and are otherwise perfectly capable of playing good football. 

Angry Birds Star Wars: Part 2

Although the birds have been given new powers the game still has the same functions as in the previous versions. The birds are mad at the green piggies and have decided to destroy them. Using a slingshot the player must aim and fire birds at the pigs. If the player kills all the pigs he/she completes the level. Depending on their score they either complete the level with one, two or three stars. A player must pass one level in order to move onto the next one. While a player can “win” each level there is no end to the overall game as Rovio Entertainment just continually add new content. This isn’t different from most other mobile games that also just feature a never-ending narrative and gameplay.

Some may argue that Angry Birds requires certain skills and that not all players are equally gifted at playing it. I’m one of those players that just fling my birds everywhere hoping that I’ll hit what I need to hit and that if I get a good high score that just a bonus. And perhaps that’s why I have never been a big fan of the game. I play games with the objective of winning. Whether I win a FIFA game with one goal or three goals doesn’t really matter to me, as long as I win. So when I play Angry Birds I don’t try to go for the highest high score and get 3 stars, instead I just go for the minimum required and I’m satisfied if I pass the level. While I’m probably not in the Angry Birds’ target group because of my game mentality I still believe this is poor design on Rovio’s part. What exactly is the point of getting 3 stars when you can pass the level with 1 star? The only real reason at the moment is the possibility of unlocking a new planet called The Path of the Jedi, which takes place on Dagobah. But other than unlocking one planet the star system seems to be unnecessary and is ultimately just there to satisfy players that play for the sake of beating their own highscore.

As seen by the sheer number of people who have bought Angry Birds Star Wars the game is a success on many fronts. It serves as an actual sequel to the original Angry Birds game instead of being just another “expansion” version that just featured new maps and levels. The incorporation of the Star Wars movies works surprisingly well even with the characters being played by Angry Birds. The narrative makes sense with the heroes and rebels trying to fight against the Stormtrooper pigs and Darth Vader. But ultimately if you are not a fan of the original Angry Birds game you won’t be a fan of this version. I was hooked for a week when I first downloaded it but I haven’t played it since. 

Angry Birds Star Wars: Part 1

Angry Birds: Star Wars Edition

by Rovio Entertainment 

As discussed in a previous post Fruit Ninja is one of the most popular games for the iPhone, but there seems to be one other game that beats Fruit Ninja, and that is Angry Birds by Rovio Entertainment. This mobile game has launched a whole range of things such as merchandise with the characters from the game, to candy produced by the enormous candy corporation Fazer as well as an amusement park in China.

This of course adds a lot of pressure on the company and they have continually added updates to the original Angry Birds version as well as releasing new versions. Those with a critical eye would say that the spin-off games such as Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons aren’t really anything new other than just adding a new skin or theme to the game. But this has changed with the recent release of Angry Birds Star Wars.

At first it just appears as if they’ve put Star Wars costumes on the characters from the original Angry Birds game. But this quickly changes once you play the first level. The red bird which doesn’t have any special powers in the original game has now been equipped with a blue lightsaber and is supposed to play the role of Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars movies. Likewise every angry bird has been recreated as an incarnation of a Star Wars character and been given a special ability from the Star Wars universe. There is a Obi-Wan bird that uses the force to push things, a Han Solo bird that shoots three laser beams as well as birds for Princess Leia, C3PO and R2D2. The levels aren’t just a forest or garden as in the original game but are instead placed on planets and locations seen in the Star Movies movie. Starting on Tatooine, where the original Star Wars movie started, moving on to the Death Star after completing every level on Tatooine and then ending on the ice planet Hoth.

The powers that the birds have been given in this version are actually purposeful and not just for gimmicks. In order to win you must not only aim but also time when to use your power. Red Bird or Luke Skywalker has a lightsaber that can cut through wood and harm stone while Han Solo’s laser can bounce of certain items and hit far away pigs. Not only do the powers add to the overall narrative and mood of the game but they are actually useful and needed.

Dixit: Board Game Part 2

Although the cards’ surrealist design helps each game seem different there seemed to a too small amount of cards. Each card previously played in a former game quickly reappeared but now attached with meaning already. If a storyteller has already defined a card as being sadness in a previous game it is difficult to detach this meaning from the card and come up with a new and different interpretation.

The game is based on how players perceive certain images and word combinations. Unfortunately this also comes with its flaws. Much like Trivial Pursuit is impossible to win if playing against people with a large generation gap. A 15-year old will most likely know much less than a 50-year old would. Simply because the game is based on how much trivial knowledge you have accumulated by the time you are playing. Likewise Dixit has its issues with generation gaps as well as cultural differences. While the older players knew what was meant by the phrase Count of Monte Cristo, players who had not read or seen the book or movie had a slim chance of guessing the correct card. This causes a slight unfairness and some players may try to capitalize on this by using phrases that are largely restricted to their own generation. As with most games like Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy, Dixit can not fix this issue without rebuilding the entire game and then the purpose of the game would be lost.

While on topic of games like Trivial Pursuit there is actually an issue that Dixit has fixed which Trivial Pursuit still has problems with. Turn based games are bumpy ride, you’re having fun for a couple of minutes and then you wait until it’s your turn again. Who hasn’t played Monopoly and just decided to go make a cup of tea while waiting for it to be your turn again, only to return and play for two minutes before your turn is over again? Dixit’s mechanic of having all players contribute with a card makes almost eliminates the feeling of it being a turn based game. This is definitely something other turn-based games could look at and try to incorporate in their own games, as it is a success in Dixit.

Dixit is in many ways an odd game. While I enjoyed many aspects of the game and liked how the mechanics worked I didn’t feel compelled to buying the game after having played two games. It’s a well-designed game I just wasn’t intrigued or attracted to it. Perhaps it’s more suited as a game that you pull out of the attic when your family comes to visit for Christmas.

Dixit: Board Game Part 1

Dixit by Jean-Louis Roburia

Dixit is a board game created by Jean-Louis Roubira. When first playing it I was reminded of Pictionary or the mobile game Draw Something. While the game certainly incorporates guessing and drawings Dixit is so much more than a game of Pictionary.

The game is composed of a collection of cards, all of which have been designed to be abstract, and a board. If a player wants to win he/she must be the first to get 30 points. Each player has a hand of 6 cards, for each turn one player is the storyteller. They say a word or phrase that describes one of their cards. The other players must pick a card from their own hand that they believe matches the storyteller’s phrase. The selected cards are shuffled and spread out on the table. Each player votes (in secret) for which card they believe is the storyteller’s. Points are awarded accordingly – if nobody or everybody guesses the right card, the storyteller is not given any points but the other players are given two. If a number of people vote for the right card but not all, the storyteller and those who guessed correct are given three points. If a player votes for card not chosen by the storyteller the owner of that card is given one point. The goal for the storyteller is to give a phrase that is obvious enough so that some players will vote for their card but not obscure enough so that nobody votes for the right card.

Some players decided to use sentences for their story while I decided to use single words. Neither one seemed to be the more effective, single word often led to a too obvious card while the phrases were too obscure for anyone to guess. The line between obscure and obvious is very thin in this game especially because each player has a different perception of what represents words like sadness or what is meant by phrase The Count of Monte Cristo. The design of the cards definitely adds to this balancing game of obviousness and abstraction. Each card is surrealist while still being grounded in something tangible. This allows players to come with different interpretations of the card while keeping the game re-playable after multiple turns.

The point system works very well. It rewards all players fairly based on their choices. If the storyteller is too obvious the remaining players are rewarded while the storyteller is punished. Giving points to players for choosing a card that was chosen by another player is a clever mechanic. This ensures that the players don’t chose any random card from their hand but makes the game difficult because there are now several different cards that all are interpretations of the storyteller’s story.