Riding the Pines – Grand Slam Tennis 2 interview
Joining us today on the Riding the Pines podcast is Thomas Singleton, the Producer of EA Sports, Grand Slam Tennis 2 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Here's a bit of what we covered in the interview.
- How the new control scheme (Total Racquet Control) works alongside the other "standard" controls as well as the Playstation Move controls
- How the legendary players compare to today's players as far as styles of play and how that is handled in the game
- What classic matches are included in the game and whether or not new classics will be able to be added
- How fun it was to deal with working with John McEnroe for his various parts in the game
- How realistic the career mode is (whether or not you will be able to jump right into playing the Grand Slam tournaments with your created player)
- Which players can be used in the online modes
- The details of all of the online modes that are available
Click on either of the following links to download the new episode either via direct MP3 or via iTunes.
Enjoy!
Super Bowl Sunday notes
From what I hear at work, things should be slowing down there and it will allow me to get back to a somewhat normal schedule. That should be nice.
- As for the beta of the game that I was playing the other day... well, it's certainly the next version of the game that I had played in the past.
- I'm curious as to if anyone you know actually has 'Super Bowl parties.' I don't know anyone that hosts an event for the game unless they actually like one of the teams that is participating.
As for me, I'll be playing hockey tonight and won't see a minute of the game, and don't really mind that I'll miss the entire thing. I've steered clear of the hype for it and have been quite content with that fact.
Also, just to let you know, this is a typical behavior for me every year. I typically don't watch the game unless the Packers are playing in it. Just don't see the point.
- In other gaming news, I finally gave RAGE a test seeing as how it's gone through about 10 different patches since release, and I'm happy to report that all of the screen tearing issues that I was running into with it in the past, are now gone. The game itself seems to be confused as to whether it wants to be a car racing game or a FPS though. Maybe that's only because I'm in the first few hours of the game.
- Madtowner nailed it with his analysis of Twisted Metal based on the demo. Why on earth would steering be different when you are driving in reverse? Eventually you can get used to it, but it just doesn't make any sense at all.
- I'm working on scheduling an interview with the Grand Slam Tennis 2 team, so hopefully I can bring that to you in the next few days.
- Still hoping to be able to put together an interview with the SSX and UFC staffs as well, but... well, you know you can't get all that you want.
- Enjoy the game, to those of you watching.
NFL Blitz first impressions
- You have to give EA credit for going out and grabbing the old Midway licenses and trying to revive the old NBA Jam and NFL Blitz franchises. With Madden and Backbreaker being the only two football titles released in the last 2 years, we're really in need of a bit more variety in the football gaming genre.
Does NFL Blitz provide enough of a change of pace? I guess that remains to be seen.
Be ready when you purchase the game, it is a rather large download, coming in at 1.8 GB. That definitely makes it one of the larger arcade games that I've seen in recent memory.
First off, the online component was completely empty last night. I'm sure that's due to the fact that the game does not release until 10:00 a.m. today, so that's not something that I can hold against them. What I do wonder, based on the configuration of the online, is how easy it will be to actually play online games.
The first thing that it asks you when you connect to the servers is to choose a state that you are in. Once, I did that, I never had the option to connect to any sort of lobby to match up against any other players. All of the online games seem to be done through automatic matchmaking.
Again, with no one available for the matchmaking, I'm not sure if that's the case or the fact that all of the online features are not configured yet.
If there are no lobbies and the only options that you have are to play against friends or against a random opponent that the server finds for you, that would be disappointing. Not being able to see an opponents record or gameplay status (whether their a late game quitter etc.) would be a real drag on the online component.
- Online aside, I spent a few hours last night with the Gauntlet mode, the single player mode for the game. The Gauntlet consists of a series of matchups against CPU teams, then a matchup against a "boss" team, then 3 more CPU's, another boss, another 3 CPU, then a "final" boss battle.
After playing through the first boss battle (a matchup against a team of Cowboy players, not the Dallas teams... 1800's Western guys,) I can see why they didn't implement any sort of season mode. The game, while fun (in spurts) against the CPU, just doesn't have any long term appeal. As you beat the bosses, you unlock new codes for the game that unlock the teams that you play against, but the experience just isn't as much fun as playing against a real person.
Within a few games, I was able to find formations that were very difficult for the CPU to stop on offense, and on the defensive side of the ball, putting quick pressure on the QB prevented the computer from gaining more than 5 to 10 yards on any given play on most occasions.
As the developers mentioned in our interview, the fact that you can no longer make late hits in the game is certainly noticeable, but it doesn't really detract from the game. It's just.... not there. You really want to be able to move your guys after they've knocked a guy to a ground... and you can't. I know that eventually that feeling will go away, but it won't stop me from continuing to hit a button after the whistle to try and give that offensive player another hit.
- Graphically, the game is very nice to look at. One of the cheat codes that I stumbled on (a single press of X, Y, and B at the code entry screen) unlocked the NFL Blitz team ball. On the ball it consisted of the signatures of all of the members of the team that took part in the making of the game. In an instant replay, I was able to zoom in and clearly see Mark Turmell's signature on the ball. That to me was a sign of the quality of the graphic fidelity on the field.
Player models are, seemingly, bulkier versions of the Madden gameplay models and they look as good as you would want them to for an arcade style of game like this.
- As far as the audio is concerned, Tim Kitzrow seems to have taken his typical enthusiasm down a notch. Maybe it's due to the fact that, comedian, Brian Haley is taking part in some of the commentary with him, but he just doesn't seem to have that "BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA" type punch to him this time around.
Again, not a bad thing... just different than you would have expected.
- Well, that was certainly a long winded first impression, but hopefully in the coming days, I'll be able to play the game against people on my Xbox friends list (Dan? Any other takers?) and we'll be able to see how well the co-op and other online modes will work.
Riding the Pines – NFL Blitz interview
Recently, I had the chance to interview NFL Blitz project lead, Dave Ross and designer Yuri Bialoskursky and talk about the upcoming release of NFL Blitz for Xbox 360 Arcade and Playstation Network.
Here are a few of the topics that we covered in the interview.
- How does the game compare to the recent EA arcade football games?
- The decision to have an in-game market where you unlock things by gameplay, but not via money.
- The removal of late hits from the game and how that impacts gameplay.
- How the Elite League feature compares to the Ultimate team modes in other EA Sports games.
- If you can play couch co-op against other people online
Click on either of the following links to listen to the interview
Saturday notes
- Congrats to UW: Whitewater as they won their 3rd consecutive Division III football title over Mount Union last night. Crazy to think that the football program there has gone so far since I was there in the early 90's but there you have it.
- I'll be posting my interview with EA's NFL Blitz developers on Monday morning. Hope you'll enjoy hearing what they have to say. (I had a pretty bad cold, so I hope that my voice is strong enough throughout the interview.)
- Dan is right about the Ambassador program for the 3DS being great. The 10 games that they gave out to the early adopters are terrific titles. Funny thing is that I have almost all of them sitting down in game storage area. Oh, well. Not all that likely to bring out the GBA SP again to play them. Although... the GB player for the Gamecube.... hmm....
- I was supposed to receive my new Galaxy Nexus phone yesterday... but for some reason Fedex didn't deliver. It's going to be tough using my Blackberry Torch for a few more days until I get that Ice Cream Sandwich phone goodness.
- Have a great weekend!
MLB 11: The Show – $12.99 and MLB 2K12 – $9.99 at Gamefly.
MLB11: The Show (PS3) - $12.99
Speaking from experience, PS3 games from Gamefly are usually in terrific shape when they arrive.
They are this price until tomorrow afternoon, so act now if interested.
Wednesday notes
- Well, now I guess we can step away from the events at Penn State and get back to normal events.
- Last night I had a chance to finish up the campaign for inFamous 2 (for the record, I was a good guy.)
I have to say that I was surprised at the ending and the choices that the game allowed you to make. Definitely one of the more surprising endings that I can recall in quite some time. Not sure that I'll be going back to complete the game as an evil bastard now, but it has been fun to run around the city zapping street musicians... damn harmonica players.
- With the NBA Players association deciding not to take the owners last offered deal, and seeing highlights of an exhibition game last night, I wonder why the players don't just start a barnstorming league at this point. Create 6 or 8 teams of superstars and travel the country playing in non-NBA owner owned venues and build up the public interest in seeing them play real games.
Sure there would be high costs involved with doing something like this, but right now, all you have is people thinking that rich people are not happy about how much money they are getting.
Give people some games (for very good prices) and they might think a bit better of you.
- Considering my run on all things sequels in gaming lately, I'm having a really hard time with buying Skyrim this week. Uncharted 2 is sitting next to my TV begging to be complete, along with Killzone 2, Resistance 2, and other games from the past few years like Oblivion, and addons to games I have already finished like Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Retribution and Episodes from Liberty City for Grand Theft Auto 4.
Perhaps waiting a few weeks for prices to continue to drop would be for the best.
- As part of the most recent Humble Bundle I had a chance to start playing two indie games that were new to me, The Binding of Isaac and Blocks that Matter.
The Binding of Isaac is definitely a strange game with a very twisted story and plays as a combination of the Legend of Zelda and Robotron. For the price, it's very interesting, and incredibly challenging. You only get one life, and when you die... it's back to the beginning of the game. Unforgiving would be one way to describe it.
Blocks that Matter has been a very fun puzzle type game to play as you acquire various blocks with your character and re-assemble them to escape from each level. The trick is that when you reconstruct your blocks, you have to do so in the form of a tetromino. That adds an interesting challenge level to the game as well.
You also get Voxatron in it's current alpha state as part of the bundle, and all you have to do is spend more than $5.10. Well worth it for those titles.
- Have a good rest of the day.
Monday notes
- They have to stumble at some point, but the Packers offense is just so damn impressive right now. Rodgers has thrown 24 TD passes in the first 8 games of the year, his high for an entire season is 30... hell, he should have that by the end of week 10.
The defense is making far too many mistakes to be considered a truly dominant team, but I would call you a liar if you didn't think this isn't one of the best offenses you've seen in recent memory.
- Since I finished up one sequel last weekend in Arkham City, I decided it was time to try and get through one of the other sequels that I had started this year, inFamous 2. It only made sense to jump from one open world game to another and it's amazing how much fun it is to ride along the electrical wires, jump just before the end, and then do your electrical hover so that you can fly to another high wire. I could do that for quite some time before getting bored. If only the missions had a bit more variation. Go here, kill bad guys, go there, kill bad guys.
Still, even with the lack of variety, the game is just so much fun to play. With the holiday season coming up, you should be able to start finding it in the $29 or $39 range and it's well worth that, for what you can get out of it.
- The game that I'm really debating picking up this week is Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Via Direct2Drive, you can get it for $40-something with a coupon, and I really think that the PC version would be the one to grab. Anyone else planning on picking it up this week?
- Have a good week
Thursday notes
- Yesterday, I stumbled across a great article on Cracked.com which shows the 7 stories that the sports media writes about when there is nothing to write about that day.
I'm sure you won't be surprised by the types of articles that they find commonplace on a very slow sports day.
What amazes me is that Pulitzer prize winning newspapers will actually allow one of their columnists to write a column talking about how their QB performs when they use him in a game of Madden.
I can't even imagine doing something like that on a site such as this, let alone doing it for a professional news organization.
- Gamefly sent my copy of Lord of the Rings: War in the North yesterday and I have to say that I'm disappointed by it thus far. I only spent an hour or so with it, but it just feels so very empty compared to some of Snowblind Studios previous efforts.
There is such a special place in my heart for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and I really hoped that this game could have close to as good, but sadly, that does not appear to be the case.
Having the camera so close to the action allows you to see a great deal more of the violent attacks and kills that you unleash upon the various Orcs and other creatures that you face, but it just doesn't feel right to be so close to the action when you're playing in an Action RPG.
Due to the fact that you're view of the battlefield is so narrow, there have been a few occasions already where I have thought that I was done fighting off the Orc horde and started to run around to attack barrels, only to find that the other two members of my party were still battling other enemies that I did not know where still around.
So, if you were thinking of picking it up... please rent it first. It might be a fun hack and slash for a few hours... but I'm not really feeling all that great about the game.
- Just finished watching Season 2 of Dr. Who last night.
I really enjoy that show. No idea why I didn't start watching it before now. Thankfully Netflix has all 5 seasons via streaming and I can keep catching up.
Monday notes
- Finished up Batman: Arkham City on Friday night, but keep going back in order to finish up a few of the missions that I didn't complete. I've debated going back and playing the New Game Plus mode, but I just don't know if I have it in me right now.
Also, this is definitely a spoiler, but it's most definitely the creepiest part of the game. Don't click on the link if you want to keep an event of the game a secret.
- Amazing what 8 days will do. The Badgers went into the Michigan State game looking like a national championship contender and left the Ohio State game looking like a team that won't be playing in a January bowl game.
What goes without saying is that if this team didn't have Russell Wilson, they would probably be a 4 or 5 win team at this point. He has single handedly kept the team in the last two games, orchestrating some amazing drives to put the team in a position to get to overtime or win the game, but has been let down by bad coaching and poorly played defense. Oh, and don't forget about the special teams unit that has had 2 punts and a field goal attempt blocked in the last 2 games. Ugly stuff.
At least we still have the Packers to talk about up here.
- Thank you, Gamefly. Lord of the Rings: War in the North and Uncharted 3 are on their way and should be here on Wednesday.
I know at least one other person who's going to be playing the PS3 version with me, so if anyone else gets that version let me know and we'll get some co-op gaming going with that version.
- That'll do it for today. Have a great week.
Friday notes
- Not ashamed to admit it, I played Batman: Arkham City for 3 1/2 hours last night. I really have to give the Rocksteady people credit as they have made an incredibly enjoyable game that I keep getting sucked into each and every night. According to the game meter, I'm 40% done, but I have no idea if that's tracking all of the subquests and Riddler trophies. I know that I've finished off a few side-boss missions and have completed those story lines, but I really hope that there will be plenty more in store... although, based on the story, I have my concerns about how much is remaining.
Having said that, still enjoying the ride.
- As we get closer to the release of the Playstation 24" 3D tv, I've been debating upgrading my PC monitor at home with a 3D monitor that I could use for PC gaming as well as for my PS3.
Earlier today I got an email about how I could get this Asus 27" monitor for $539... and I've just been fighting the urge to pick it up all day.
Has anyone spent any time with 3D gaming on the PC or PS3 side that can speak to the quality or how much they enjoy it?
It's tough to think of giving up a 40" screen for PS3 gaming, but it could be great to play some of the PS3 games in 3D. As well as having a 3D monitor that my girls could watch some Disney movies on as well.
Thoughts?
- Don't know how many got a chance to see it last night, but I thought that the first two Beavis and Butthead episodes last night were pretty entertaining. Of course, I was watching them at 1:00 a.m., so my need for sleep might have clouded my judgement a bit.
- Trying to put together a podcast tonight, so stay tuned for that.
- Have a great evening and weekend.
Monday notes
- Well, let's get this out of the way...
The Badgers clearly deserved to lose the game against the Spartans. When you have a blocked field goal, blocked punt, and give up a safety, it's hard to say that you were the better team that day.
Having said that, a hail mary is a hard way to lose a game. I only saw the video of the play a few times, and while it was hard to know for certain that the guy crossed the plane with the ball, I can't say that I was surprised that they lost.
Probably the biggest play of the game was the Wilson interception when the Badgers were up 14-0 in the first quarter. Wisconsin was driving to go up 21-0, but the interception gave the Spartans new life and they took advantage. If Toon runs the right route, there is no telling what could have happened.
I have to give the team credit for fighting back when down 14 points late though. They showed a lot of heart in the 4th quarter. Oh, well. Gotta regroup and win out to play for the first Big Ten championship. Maybe they'll get another shot at the Spartans... who knows?
- On Friday night, the Mrs. and I got a chance to see the Badger hockey team for the first time this year. Man, that's one really young team. On a roster of 25 skaters, they have 19 underclassmen... and only 1 senior.
They really out hustled the Sioux that night though and deserved the win.
I always enjoy seeing UW/UND games with my wife as she is a long time Sioux fan, so it's one of the only times that we're not cheering for the same team. Stuff like that keeps a marriage lively, am I right?
- So, we're going to get a new NFL Blitz, without late hits? Hmm... not sure I would be interested in that. The old game was just so much more fun when you hammered guys after a big play. It was a nice little bit of payback on your friends after a nice play or a score. Without that... not sure how much fun the game will be.
- Not sure how many of you have tried out the service, but Onlive is running a promotion that allows you to buy your first game on the service for $1. I have an account where I've activated a few of my Humble Bundle games and really debating picking up something like Deus Ex for a buck.
When I've played games on the system in the past, the lag hasn't been bad enough to cause any issues with the gameplay, but it's hard to say how a promotion like this might impact their server performance.
But when you're only paying $1 for a game, it's a risk worth taking.
- Arkham City continues to eat up all of my gaming time. I've enjoyed dropping into the game and getting lost in my pursuit for more of the Riddler trophies as well as crusing around the city looking for thugs to beat up.
I do have to give them credit for the story as well. I'm only 17% into the game, but have already run into Two Face, the Joker, Bane, the Penguin, and Mr. Freeze (Along with several other baddies.) I really wondered how well a story would work when you had that many guys involved, but they make it work really well.
- Lastly, the Packers didn't play their best game, but are 7-0 after beating the Vikings. The player that surprised me the most was Christian Ponder. He really showed some poise in the 4th quarter and kept the Vikings in the game by completing 1 3rd down pass after another.
I thought they reached when they drafted him, but he looked pretty good yesterday.
Worst play? Bryan Robison's kick to TJ Lang's groin. How he wasn't ejected from the game is beyond me.
Thursday notes
- Looking back at when I was a kid, I'm amazed at how many really difficult games I played from time to time.
Games like Mega Man or the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stick in my mind due to the fact that they were incredibly difficult games, but I really stuck with them over time because, well, they were the only games that I had at the time. I couldn't just put them away and pick up one of any of the ten other games that I have sitting there at the moment and start playing them, because it was the ONLY game I had at the time.
So, when people told me I had to try out Dark Souls, I heard about how challenging it was, but thought it would be worth giving it a shot. Soul crushingly difficult would be a more accurate description for the game, and after 2 or 3 hours of pointless struggling, I abandoned it because there were countless other games where I wouldn't want to throw my controller out the window sitting right next to me. So, in the drawer it went, and that's where it still resides.
So, when I started to play the advanced AR missions on Batman: Arkham City, I had a very similar feeling to when I started to play Demon Souls, but I stuck with it... because this felt like something that was actually possible to complete.
The only thing that really kept me going was the fact that I knew that the entire game wouldn't be like that. The missions, while very difficult and relying on crazy split second reaction time, would come to an end eventually. That's what kept me going and when I got the trophy bing, I felt like I had really accomplished something.
In fairness, the missions only took me somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes... but it seemed like an eternity when you don't accomplish anything.
I do know now that I will never, ever, want to go back and complete them again though. That's a certainty.
Having said that, the game is absolutely terrific and I can't wait to get the kids to bed each night so I can start beating the crap out of more lowlife characters in Arkham City.
- Punch a guy in the face and try to twist the head off of the opposing quarterback and get 1 game off.
What's funny is that the Big Ten doesn't even seem to mention the play where he jerked Denard Robinson's head around, the punch is all that gets him the suspension.
- Having said that about the suspension, I wish Gholston hadn't commited the actions because I'd like to see the Badgers play against the best team that Michigan State can put on the field. The Badgers have a huge axe to grind for the game that they lost there last year and have to prove that they can beat a quality opponent on the road this year.
This week and next weeks game against Ohio State are the defining moments for the Badgers season, and you'd like to see them play them against the best that the other team can offer.
- One last Badger note. Here's the average score for their games this year.
50.2 to 9.7
Ugh.
- The Jerome Harrison for Ronnie Brown trade wasn't the biggest trade that happened this week, but the fact that the trade was vetoed made it odd. Now we know the reason why, Harrison has a brain tumor.
As was reported, this is a blessing in disguise for Harrison as neither he nor his team knew he had any issues like this.
Hopefully his treatment can begin quickly and he can start the recovery process.
- Have a good evening
Wednesday notes
- If you listened to last weeks podcast, you'd know that Dan and I were trying to convince Craig to pick up Batman: Arkham Asylum. I can say without reservation that he should pick up Arkham City as well. Damn, this game is fun. While some of the Advanced Augmented Reality training segments are pissing me off a great deal, it's still a terrific game.
If you like games where you are Batman....
- What was funny about picking up Arkham City was the experience in doing a pre-order at Best Buy. I walked in, picked up a copy of the game, walked to a register and tried to buy it. Denied. "You have to go to customer service to pick up a pre-order."
Wait in line at customer service, denied. "You have to go back to the game department to pick that up." Oh, and he took the game away from me at that point too.
Walk back to the game department and wait in line. When I get to the front of the line, he takes my receipt and says, "Oh, you pre-ordered this yesterday.... this isn't going to be easy." He spends 5 minutes looking for "my" copy of the game, then gives up and goes and picks one up off the shelf and rings me up.
All in all, the process took about 15 minutes... when I could have just picked up a brand new copy off of the shelf, walked to the register and left with the game in 2 minutes.
Remind me to not pre-order a game from them again...
- One of the things that I love about having Dan in a fantasy league is that he'll always find something to complain about. Only Dan could complain about the scoring system, when it would actually have helped him win a game. Now if he wants to complain that 300 yards passing should get you more points, I'd probably be on board with that. But the QB touchdown points? C'mon Dan. In week 4, you lost by .20 and started a QB that got you 2.22 points. This last week, you started a running back that didn't even play. Not saying that there are many options out there... but when you start someone who didn't play... I can't take responsibility for that.
- Not too surprising to see Carson Palmer traded to the Raiders. Just surprised to see that they gave up 2 -1st round picks to get him. Now it just remains to be seen if Dan will complain about who gets him in the fantasy league.
- Lastly, OOTP v 12 has dropped to $19.99 for the World Series. If you've been waiting to pick it up, this is as good of a price as you'll probably see for a while.
Monday notes
- Moving on to the Michigan State/Wisconsin game on Saturday, I hadn't seen this until this morning.
For the link impared, William Gholston for Michigan State jumped on a pile late against Michigan and wrenched Denard Robinson's head around, then punched another player in the head later. Both events caught on camera. Not really sure how he managed to not be ejected from the game, but it will be interesting to see how the Big Ten handles something like this.
In the past when players have been caught doing stuff like this, the team usually suspended them (like in the case of when OSU's Robert Reynolds choked Jim Sorgi of Wisconsin in 2003.) Hopefully Mark Dantonio does the right thing and suspends him before the Big Ten has to get involved.
This is a huge game for both teams, and is the first big road test for the UW as they try to prove that they are one of the top teams in the country.
Should be a fun one on Saturday night.
- I've decided against picking up the NHL Gamecenter package. While it would be awesome to see the Islanders, especially when they're playing as well as they have to start the year, spending $160 to do so just seems like too much at the moment. Also, my wife said that it would be my Christmas present if I bought the package... and I guess I want to hold off for something better than that.
I can always catch the highlights later, I guess.
- Yesterday, I started to play Madden again after listening to Dan and Craig talk about it on the latest podcast and found that I was enjoying the game, with the major exception being the fact that I still get so tired of seeing linebackers jump up and knock so many passes out of the air.
I really tried to get out of the mindset of trying to run slant routes, but what I found is that running an offense, like the Packers do, is nearly impossible in the game play.
We'll see if things change all that much with the upcoming patch for the game. Usually things don't get tweaked too much, but we might be surprised.
- There is a demo out on the Xbox marketplace for Kinect Sports Season 2. I haven't seen which sports are included in the demo, but for those of you out there with a Kinect, give it a go.
- I think I've finally caved and have decided to purchase Batman: Arkham City tomorrow. I have a $10 reward cert and $35 gift card to spend at Best Buy, so being able to pick up the sequel to a game that I absolutely loved (Arkham Asylum) seems like a win/win for me.
- Fairway Collector's Edition is still the game that is absorbing the majority of my gaming time right now though. Simple, yet incredibly addictive gameplay with a sports feel. Just a terrific game.
- Oh, and I am partial to Nelson Cruz of the Rangers due to the fact that he came up through the Brewers system, but my dislike for the Cardinals and Tony La Russa wins out as the main reason to pull for Texas this year. As every sports fan should know, you never cheer for a team in your division to win the championship, other than your own. (And that's my last baseball post for this season. I'm sure that will make everyone happy. heh.)
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