buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

xbox 360

EA makes me cry

by 5 Comments

This is getting ridiculous. I mocked EA earlier because they weren’t able to deliver on the on-line community promises. Turns out the data was handled by a third party, and their systems were fried. My bad. They still could have put up a notice about that.

So easportsworld.com is now accessible and so is my NCAA 08 profile. Funny thing is, I still can’t find a way to share my uploaded videos with friends. I don’t even know how to send them a link to my EA Sports World profile. It’s ridiculous. Unfortunately, it gets worse.

I went over to their forums, hoping that someone else was able to figure it out. Surely I’m not the only one who wants to do this. Besides the fact that the forums are populated by 13 years olds who love to use the Caps Lock key, the forums were completely worthless. No one had a straight answer to the question, “How do I sure my uploaded videos?” Simply worthless. So nothing could be worth less than that, right?

Wrong. The forum search is atrocious. I did a simple forum search for “share uploaded video”. “No search results for “share uploaded video”. You should try a less restrictive search.” was the result. Fair enough. I try “uploaded video link” nothing. “Video Link”, “Profile Link” and “I sure wish I could send my friend a link to my cool video” all failed to produce any search results. Deflated, I simply tried to search for “NCAA” hoping that something would result. This is what I got:

EA Search SUCKS!

Did I mean NASA?! No! Why the hell would I be searching for NASA on EA’s NCAA 08 forum? The name of the flipping forum is NCAA 08! Is search that hard for one of the biggest electronic entertainment companies? I can use NCAA 08’s recruiting system to search for a 5-star QB that is 6’2″ and from Ohio and I can’t do a simple text search on their site?

I’m speechless.

Frustrations GALORE

by 5 Comments

Electronic Art’s EA Sports World site sucks. Plain and simple — it sucks. Don’t bother clicking that link, because IT WON’T FREAKING LOAD.

I have been trying, rather unsuccessfully for the past 24 hours, to log in to EA’s NCAA 08 community site so I can watch a highlight video I uploaded to the site last night. I just want to show it to a couple friends. It’s really no big thing, the video. Just the thought of sharing a short video clip from I game I had just played was very cool. I was super excited about showing it to the readers of my other site, too. They would appreciate it, as Buckeye fans, as it was an interception I made as Ohio State against Michigan, returning it for a touchdown. It was a thing of beauty. But I can’t show it to anyone because EA’s site is such garbage.

I imagine their servers are getting absolutely slammed right now, as NCAA is only a couple days old and everyone is excited about this new feature, but the fact that their site is completely inaccesible is just sad. They had to be expecting a huge response to these additions and added more servers to up their capacity. This isn’t even their flagship enterprise. Sure, there are a ton of NCAA fans, but there will be way more players playing Madden when it drops next month. If their servers are down now, they will literally discorporate when the hordes of Maddenites start punishing them. It’s going to be ugly.

How could they not be ready for this onslaught? I hope they get things working soon. Like by tomorrow, so I can show my friends my NCAA interception skills.

In my hands…

by 3 Comments

NCAA 2008The college football season starts right now!

(actually, it starts in about an hour, after dinner and the kids are bathed. So almost now)

Update: Okay, I’ve been able to put a couple hours in so far. One huge glaring problem I have is the absence of the “Create-a-school.” I was aware that this feature was left out of NCAA 07 but I thought it surely would have been left in the game. Disappointing! No University of North Royalton Bears Dynasty this year. (I should have known better, of course. This is EA we’re talking about. It will be “in the game” next year.) That means I’ll probably take over as the Kent State coach and take them to the national championship. I wanted to stay in Ohio and have a 1-star team, so that’s my only option.

Outside of that issue — ME LIKEY. I’ll have a more comprehensive review/post up after I get a few hours with the Dynasty mode in.

E3 musings (day 1)

by 4 Comments

By now you’ve hopefully read all that Microsoft had to offer up at their press conference. I can’t comment on everything that was announced (Aeropause has a good summary) but I would like to point out a couple things that me likey very much.

The Halo 3 Xbox. I’m a sucker for these kind of things, and it sure is purty.

Halo 3 Xbox 360

I was suprised that it’s not the Elite version of the system. If they’re going to fleece us over and over, at least be committed to the fleecing!

I mentioned earlier I wanted something about Resident Evil 5. A teaser is what we got. It doesn’t reveal much (and being set in Africa, I doubt I’ll be able to do a translation page like RE4) but unbridled excitement doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about this game:

There is more, almost too much. The 360 Fall lineup is outta sight. My wallet (and my family) are already cringing. It will be NCAA 2008 around here for a while, then it’s going to get thick with games. Mass Effect, Halo 3, Two Worlds. Crazy!

Game Review – The Bigs [360]

by 5 Comments

THE GIST: THE BIGS is developer Blue Castle Games’ offering on the whole “extreme” take on sports in the vein of NFL Blitz, NBA JAM, and MLB Slugfest. Build up your respective POWER BLAST or BIG HEAT meters by performing certain in-game tasks and unleash some hurt on your opponent.


Pitching and batting all take place from the behind the plate perspective

THE GAMEPLAY: Normally with these kind of games the gameplay is rather bare bones and all pick-up-and-play, THE BIGS is no different in that regard. I felt right at home within minutes with the controls save for the always initially confusing base running. The title offers several modes, all with the depth and character as Keanu Reeves doing Shakespeare except for the compelling Rookie Challenge. In this mode you build a prospect from scratch, assign him some limited ability, and take to the minors to work on beefing up his ratings. This mode is akin to the 24/7 mode in NBA 2K7 and is quite fun.

Blue Castle also tossed in Home Run Pinball, a unique mini-game where you tee-off in downtown NY and earn points for taking out everything littering the city streets while the pitcher gradually throws more mixed pitches at you, this is mindless fun.

Standard games are stretched out over 5 innings though you can switch that to 9 if you’re a rawhide purest at heart. Much of the action in THE BIGS seems to be focused on the batting, you will see fly balls hit to the track in droves and you will see just as many fence-climbing catch attempts. Though the 5 innings may read like too little it isn’t. You will complete a game in about 20 minutes, perfect for quick gaming fixes.


Homerun Pinball rules. Just about everything seen here is hittable and breakable.

THE GRAPHICS: The stadiums all look very good, and there are some nice effects when you use your power-ups. The player models often look like their respective counterparts (best Jim Thome I’ve ever seen, he almost oozes hillbilly off of the screen when he steps into the box) though they have a somewhat doughy look to them. The framerate and camera angles are all spot-on as well.


Plays-at-the-plate are made all the more dramatic with a bullet-time buttonmashing fest to see who will win the most grand of jousts.

THE AMBIANCE: This is baseball, from the fans in the stands to the homer schlep in the booth you know you’re engaging in America’s pastime. Fan noise, ball-on-bat sounds, etc. are all what you’d expect in a game like this however the 2K beats soundtrack is awful. “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead in a baseball game? Lemmy and his facial tumors should not be involved with a title about baseball, period.


Fly-ball hit deep, he goes back, at the wall… Will you be Griffey or Canseco in the spotlight? You’ll have plently of chances to find out.

THE VERDICT: Blue Castle pulls off a… wait for it… homerun with THE BIGS. Though I can imagine a title like this losing much of it’s luster after a week or two the rather deep Rookie Challenge mode is enough to justify a purchase.

I can easily see this becoming a series that improves year after year. Not based off of what I see, but rather what I don’t. For as many opportunities as you get to rack up points there feels like there should be more like bonuses for back-to-back HR’s, home-run distance, and hits in clutch situations, expect to see things like this in future incarnations.

Still, as an initial offering you can’t go wrong with THE BIGS.

Photos courtesy of www.gamespot.com

It’s about fricken time

by 3 Comments

First off, thanks to Glen at tBftSG pointing me to the new HD videos of NCAA 2008.

I watched the tutorial video in particular and learned that EA has FINALLY put in a “sim to complete” feature into the game. I cannot stress how important this is.

It’s called the “Skip Ahead” feature and it may supplant sliced bread as the greatest thing ever. Using it, you can skip to the either the next possesion, the next quarter or the end of the game. EA calls it the Super Sim feature. Sounds awesome. I call it the “What took you so fricken long feature?” We have been clamoring for this feature for years and they’re finally getting around to putting it into the game. It’s about time.

But it gets even better. You can watch the simulation “real time” and jump in and take over the play calling at any point. You can even resume playing (from what I can tell) at any time during the simulation. This is most excellent.

It simply cements further my belief that EA has a laundry list of “features” that they could put into the game, and they spin the wheel and add a few new features each year, stringing us along every year while we lap up the newest greatest thing. It’s frustrating to be sure, but what can you do?

I skipped out on NCAA 2007 but I’m not skipping out on 2008.

Game Review – Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [360]

by 3 Comments

Fantastic FourTHE GIST: Based on the movie of the same name, veteran sports developers Visual Concepts take a shot at the “if-it’s-a-movie-we-can-make-a-game-about-it” market in this souped up version of Final Fight that is bizarrely reminiscent of Phantasy Star Online, but with significantly less depth. You control one of the four heroes but can change to anyone of the on-the-fly, and in some cases you have to.

[Read more…] about Game Review – Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [360]

Gas Budgeting Woes

by 1 Comment

Pure Detroit muscleIn a moment of weakness yesterday, I walked into one of our three local Targets (don’t ask) to get a pair of sunglasses and I walked out with a copy of the best physics game on the market, Forza 2.

I then had to go back and get some glasses.

I know that I previously mentioned that I just didn’t have the time, but something about the simlulation of it all was compelling me. I’m a sucker for realism. Of course, like mentioned in an earlier post, pretty picutres help too. Also, the last couple of years I’ve been digitally driving in games such as Burnout, Burnout 2, Burnout 3, and Burnout Revenge and I was just getting, well, burnt out. So, I cleared my gaming schedule for the first couple of weeks of June and put this disc through its paces. So as to not repeat what Tony said eariler, I won’t be giving my impression, but I will give my experience with the sim.

I never played the first Forza, but I did drive my fair share of cars in all the Gran Turismo games, so I know a little bit about driving simulations…or so I thought. I started the game in career mode, bought a Ford Focus and jumped into my first race. The timer counted down and I hit the gas. Within seconds, I’m drifting right out of the first turn. A couple of seconds later I get back on the road and then drift out of the second turn. Needless to say, my first race didn’t go so well.

However, the game has this great difficulty setting called Novice. Apparently, if you’ve never played before, this is an excellent place to start. There’s a track guide that not only shows you proper placing on the course but tells you when to brake and accelerate. There’s a credit (read: currency) penalty for playing on this setting, but it’s a must if you’ve never experienced true driving in a virtual form. However, after just nine races I’ve realized that the guide can be somewhat of a crutch. It’s perfect for time trials, but doesn’t come in really all that handy when racing against other drivers. They just keep getting in the way.

I did spend about 30 minutes customizing my car’s paint job and giving it the “pimp my ride” treatment, but then I realized why would I want to do this on a Ford Focus when I could just trick out my newly aquired Z28 and upload a pic to the Forza website. However, I may have to put that idea on the shelf. My son saw a Volkswagon in the game’s store. He adores Herbie the Love Bug.

You do the math. It equals 53.

Forza 2 setup, DIY style

by 2 Comments

I plan on picking up Forza 2 in the next week or two. Not sure if it will be a rental or a purchase, but I was a big fan of the original Forza Motorsport for the Xbox, so I figured I’d try my hand at Forza 2. Never mind that I wasn’t any good at it (I played it like I played Burnout 3. Not a good combination). I have no plans, however, of picking up the Xbox 360 driving wheel. With my current entertainment setup, it would be rather impractical. Unless, of course, I put in a little elbow grease and made my own little racing wheel set up, like this guy did. Here’s the finished product

I’m just not that handy.

Looking through some of these threads of other people’s setups is impressive. I love me some driving games, but man. That’s real love.

(Links via Dethroner)

Get Out the Gamepads Summer’s Almost Here

by 5 Comments

By way of introduction, I figured I let everyone know a little bit about myself and then we’ll get on to the good stuff. I’m a 30-year-old gamer who grew up playing Nintendo and PC games who has been married for seven years and has two boys ages 4 and 1 1/2, and you could probably say I’m a Nintendad. I work in the IT industry developing and maintiaining web sites that run on the technology that is behind this one. Sonic was cool, Punch Out should have the words “Mike” and “Tyson’s” in front of it, and Tie Fighter is the essence of a pure of computer game.

Now that that is out of the way, here’s what I’m currently playing with some quick impressions. You’ll probably be seing future posts that revolve around these games, though there are some suprises I’m not sharing right away.

  • Crackdown for Xbox 360: My Game of the Year (currently) for 2007. It’s a great game for blowing off some steam. This was the game that caused Tony and I fits (well, really it was me doing something else). It’s also the first game in which I’ve bought downloadable content, and that should say something because I think most content on Xbox Live is too pricey.
  • Pokémon Pearl for the Nintendo DS: I’ve never played a Pokémon game before. How can Nintendo put all that digital crack in an itty bitty plastic case?
  • Titan Quest for the PC: I’m a little late to the game on this title, but I never played any of the Diablo games either. I hear its supposed to be similar. For some reason I’m compelled to play…a long time. My longest play session was four hours. That cannot be good.

Now this is where you come in. Let us know what you’re playing.