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Saturday 9 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY:
The more I played the more I discovered about this game, and how it can be complicated. If you sack the quarterback twice in a row, then your team is on "fire". This gives you unlimited turbo running and an advantage over the other team. You tackle harder and the computer plays better on your team. It is possible to get it while on offense, you just have to pass and complete it to the receiver that blinks before the play. If you get fire on offense, it is a lot more useful because you are harder to tackle, and can throw the ball incredibly far.
When people try to tackle you, the character just drags them on their back until tackled again by another player. This sometimes can mean the difference between a touchdown or not, which makes it really unfair for the other player.
All this mayhem contributes to a great conversation between the players. A lot of trash talking is involved and game outcomes disrupted from the crazy rules of blitz. If you have 4 people playing, or at least another person on your team, it allows for a lot more strategy that the computer is incapable of. One example is the computer doesn't tackle the player until they actually catch the ball, which allows for unnecessary risks. You can just continuously tackle the player and not allow for any open targets on the field. On offense the player can actually knock over the defender, and create your own route. You don't have to follow what the play the quarterback chose.
DESIGN:
This is a very fun game to play, but the passing mechanics are really not user friendly. It gets very frustrating and annoying at times. The way the passing works is by highlighting one of the 3 receivers by moving your joystick to one of three options: right, left, and down or up or middle. Those choose between the receiver on the right, left, and the one in between them. This leads to many mis-passes and passing to people that are knocked over. Accidentally passing it to the wrong person is very likely. Especially if the receivers are running a route where they run past each other and switch field position. There are even more mistakes because sometimes a receiver will be running a route off the screen, where you can't see. So you think you are passing it to the guy on the left, but you actually are eying the guy in the middle. So you end up passing to a guy that isn't standing or that isn't open.
The more I played the more I found out the probability of fumbling on a onside kick are exponentially increased. So there is really no point in kicking it all the way down the field, because there is a large chance they will just hail marry it down the field. It is very easy for the receiver to out run the defender, and let a 80 yard pass/touch down happen. If you are going to stop them, you have sack them and obtain fire or just take out the receiver quick enough, so it doesn't matter if they are all the way down the field or close to the touchdown. Therefore an onside kick is one of the best strategies in this game, you have a huge probability of obtaining re-possession of the ball. This can easily lead to another touchdown. I actually went on a few sprees were I scored 3 or 4 touch downs in a row, then still lost. It almost seems like if you are the first to start winning in the game, the odds are put against you and you fumble easier and throw more picks. This allows for anyone to win this game if they can just grasp the basic concept of it.
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