EA's First Soccer Game

In 1993 EA published there first soccer game for the Sega Genesis. Since I'm fortunate to have both the Genesis and FIFA International Soccer I took it for a spin.

Not a terrible first effort, considering there were not too many soccer games around at the time. It plays out as more of a kickball game. Controls are very simple and pesky rules such as fouls and offsides can be turned off. It's up and down. Goals can be scored from anywhere on the pitch (practically). It is meant to be played with four people, and in that, succeeds.

That said, it does have some game play elements that are taken for granted today. For example: Formation selection, Replay, Tournament Mode, and Substitutions. It has crowd chants and goal reactions. Lots of things that make soccer unique. It is a very well done first effort.

Let me brush off the old 2606Films skills here:



The music is Starscream (The Future, and it Doesn't Work) and the magic happens in the video where the hula girl dances. 2606 is still in here... some, where.

So where does it fall on my ranking scale? Overall, pretty low.

25

But, ranked higher then many sports titles on current generation of consoles. The average off all my rated sports games (I rank them low) is 34. So it is right in the middle.
ALL OUT!

1986: Only From Pontiac

GM File Under

I pull for GM. There are lots of things I don't like about them, but I pull for them to do well but nary a week goes by where I'm not slapping my head in disbelief in something they have done or said. I've posted some of my feelings about things on this blog. I still think the worst promotional thing I've ever seen was the Volt Dancers. I do believe that a high ranking employee was demoted after that got out (Susan Docherty).

Anywho, a couple more things to add now. First up is a question GM posted on Facebook a couple days ago, which read:

"Today's question, have you ever driven in hot
weather without air conditioning, now or even before cars were equipped with
it? Fill us in!"

I'm not going to dwell here on that because the ignorance there is striking. I know that the forum for which the post was made is for a younger crowd, but the elitism of the question is shitty. Maybe I'm overreacting I guess. But on the road after I read this post I asked Audrea to play a game with me. Whomever saw a "foreign" car with there windows down got a point. It was a hot summers day here in Columbus and we where tooling around town. We had to make it "foreign" cars because about every 5th American car had their windows down. To me, on a hot day in the mid 90s meant; windows down = no AC. We had to change the rules to foreign because we saw so many Grand Am's and Cavaliers with windows down.

The question GM asked makes the assumption that everyone is like those who work within their corporate universe. It makes me angry.

Not a scientific approach at all. We drove about an hour that day. We saw 2 foreign cars with windows down.

File #2 also stems from the web over at http://www.facesofgm.com/ where they profile exactly what it says. Today's profile is that of Ann. Ann is an intern. Ann doesn't know anything about cars but Ann is pretty. Ann must be upwardly mobile. Ann says:

"I don’t know that much technically about cars, so I can’t talk shop (yet). But I have listened to countless episodes of Car Talk on NPR and sat through a couple of Top Gear marathons on BBC, so that has to count for something."

The Hell it counts for something. It counts for horse shit (dirty word twice in this post). Personally... I'm here humping it everyday in a warehouse with 150 other folks driving rusted out 1985 Buick's, in the industrial capital of the United states, where layoffs are a part of everyday life. Where people can't walk after the age of 50 because of being on there feet everyday and have heart attacks at 60, live -

and I hear that shit.

And it doesn't stop there. Another post on the same website profiles Leroy. Leroy is a nice fellow who has been working for GM for 42 years. He had to learn what microns were, so that's good. The most telling thing about it was a response which read:

"I had to retire at 55 because of a back problem. I miss the thought of something to do but don’t miss the grind it took from my body. I had 31 years but this guy needs to retire and let some younger person raise his family on G.M. pay. There is more to life them G.M. RETIRE!!!"

Books could be written on that post. In fact books have been and are being written on it.

Pull the head out of your asses GM. You are a manufacturing company. Get your hands dirty and stop living in lala land.

It's not all bad though. I am ranting a bit and I need to simmer down. GM has yet another post profiling Carl working on LS9, LS7 and LS3 engines. Go to the link to see something great going on at GM. It only fuels my love/dislike for GM. Carl is what it is all about. Carl should be running GM. Is it that so hard GM? sheesh.

For the record. The only car I have ever owned with reliable AC is my Honda. My Honda made in your damn backyard in Marysville, OH.

English League Two

Cheerleaders?

Still playing the heck out of FIFA 10 and loving every minute of it. I read a good article over at a site http://www.epltalk.com/ where they go on and on about soccer catching on here in the US. A lot of good responses. Most of which focused on picking some teams to follow. I am happy and surprised to report that I think I have a couple. Getting pretty excited about it.

Stoke City Potters and Northampton Town Cobblers.

The NHT will be more difficult to follow being in League Two, but I'm committed. There are a couple good places to follow teams around the web. One being the team site itself (where there is an video player) and the other that frat house called ESPN. They actually have some up to date stuff on lower leagues. It can be found here. I gotten very familiar with the Cobblers. I unwittingly put them in a huge custom league in FIFA 10. I picked a bunch of random teams from all over the world. I'm something like 40 games in. I don't think I've every played that many games in a sports video game for a very long time. If ever. It is endlessly entertaining with so many teams and different ways to customize leagues. It's one of the only sports games where I actually feel and can see a drastic difference in players ability. Strengths, weaknesses. For example; Seb Harris for Northampton has a nack for getting the ball, just can't control it on the dribble and doesn't have the speed of some of his teammates like Liam Davis. He is also a good shot if he can get is foot on it in the box.

Another good feature in the game is the create a player. While it may only be one you have to build up your skills like a RPG instead of just assigning ratings to them. Never have I been a fan of this in the past but it works very well here.

Anyway, lots of homework to do on both the Premier League and the lower leagues. More then enough information out there to read up on and I need to quick, season starts in a couple weeks!

Game Review Shake Down

Changed my little Excel sheet that scores my games in my collection. I still have the same categories:

Story
Objectives
In Game Design
In Game Artwork
Music
Audio
Gameplay
Emotional Impact
Longevity
Package Design
Package Artwork
Historical Significance
xFactor

The "xFactor" has truly become a x. It is now a multiplier. I've decided that enjoyment of the game should be. It hasn't changed the scores too much (on right), but enough to notice. I taken time of the past three years to review 82 games. On the right side is only a sampling.

The argument to myself for adding the multiplier was that a game should be heavily weighted towards someones enjoyment of it. Great story or design need to come together and form an enjoyable experience. It separates a technically good yet bland game like Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts from a very enjoyable game like TMNT in the arcade (which has more then a few faults, but it crazy fun).

Here are some games that are the lowest on my no fun xFactor scale:

PS2: Prince of Persia: Two Thrones
GEN: Winter Challenge
PS2: Rise of the Kasai
360: Red Faction Guerrilla
360: Table Tennis
360: Madden 09 XX
XBX: The Simpsons Road Rage
360: MLB 2K7
GEN: Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion
360: Thrillville
360: Madden 08
SAT: Machine Head

It's interesting to see so many 360 games on there. I think if my PS2 collection were larger I may see more from that platform. Newer games may be at a disadvantage here because of the money ingredient. If I'm paying 60 bucks I expect more, but I do try and look at it that way with other games too. Games during the days of the Genesis were 50 bucks too.

The games on this list are not very fun to me. Doesn't mean they are no fun to everyone though. Hardest one to defend on here is the Simpsons Road Rage. It has all the elements of fun from the Simpsons world, but just isn't fun. Red Faction is also a tough one. I really wanted to like it and enjoy it and there is something in there with destroying structures, but for me, ultimately fell short.

Anyway, off to scour thrift stores today for more!

Consoles still selling

I've been an active participant of the game console buying public as far back as I can remember. I read something over at Dubious Quality today that got me thinking... all three, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are still selling their now four year old consoles at an incredible rate.

Nintendo is up 16% in sales over this month last year and appears to be the clear winner in this generation. But what is striking is that the 360 is up 88% over last June and Sony 85%.

Here are the to date totals:

Wii: 29,571,000
360: 20,572,200
PS3: 12,717,000

Craziness. It's been sometime since so many years of gone by without much of a hint or substantial leak of a new next generation system. In a way this may be beneficial to game players. Time has been utilized by developers to take advantage of the consoles ins, outs and capabilities.

In fact, in just taking a quick look back in time, I think all three just be approaching the longest console cycle since the NES to Super Nintendo days (7 years). Sega never seemed to be able to make it longer then 3 years save for the Dreamcast which was 4 years from the launch of the Saturn. If you sprinkle in other console makers in the past I guess it always seems that something new is on the horizon. With the current crop it seems that the market is more predictable I guess. The oddity here is that all in the generation seem to be doing pretty well. Not one company is claiming failure by discontinuing it's product for a new and improved one.

Anyway, good for everyone I reckon.

Crew Wins, Henry Watches

A beautiful night in Columbus to catch a Crew game. The Crew dominated the game winning with two beautiful goals. Thierry Henry was there in one of the spectator boxes. The stadium was about 70% full and there were more then a few Henry jerseys. Chatter after the game was about people trying to catch a glimpse of him. Frankie Hejduk for the Crew had a standout game playing in the back and making some runs up the sidelines. He was red carded in the 89th minute for an aggressive play.

All three Crew fan clubs seemed to be there, sitting in the Nordecke. The Crew Supporters Union, La Turbina Amarilla, and the Hudson Street Hooligans. I've come across some folks from the Union. They use to set up camp at Claddagh (where I caught some of the games) but had a falling out during the US v England game there when the pub expected 600 people and 2,600 showed up. Now they congregate down the block from me at Jimmy V's pub.

Crew Stadium is a great place to watch a game. It's also unique being the first soccer specific stadium in the country. Of all the sporting events I've been to it remains one of my favorite places. Easy to get in, fans are great, team is good and easy out. Doesn't hurt to have warm and breezy mid-western summer evenings either.

EA Sports: England 4 - 1 Northampton

EA Sports: England 4 - 1 Northampton

My one goal against the England national team.

VG Creation Next Level

EA FIFA 10 is a great game, but FIFA 11 is right around the corner. September 28 to be exact.

This year EA is adding something I've been dreaming about since the internets was around. That is... to create and edit online custom players and teams (with a mouse and keyboard). There is only so many times I can thumb through a virtual keyboard on my TV to enter in Ole Moses, Paul Chewbacca, and William Sasquatch.

Francis Huntington, Larkin Tysor, Breck Smith.

It's just so much easier. EA dipped its toes in it with FIFA 10 and the create a player. But I want more and more is what I'm getting.

Mark Ragase.