Facebreaker characters profiled
Let’s get one thing straight, the only thing that makes Facebreaker – the first title to debut under the new EA Freestyle brand – a boxing title, is the fact that it takes place in a boxing ring and that the contestants are wearing boxing gloves. Everything else about it screams “arcade fighter” and developers at EA are fine with it. They refer to it as “laugh out loud gaming.” For those of you who only speak internet let me translate for you: LOL.
Facebreaker sports a host of kooky original characters who bash each other hilariously around a ring. At the recent EA Sports Season Opener editors day at EA Canada, we were shown most of the characters and had a chance to see some of their unique styles and special finishing moves. The cartoon pugilists we got to check out included:
Romeo: He’s the consummate Latin Lover, who may be a hit with the ladies, but in fact hits like a lady. His slap move will likely throw you into a rage, inciting you to rip off his moustache and feed it to him. Unfortunately, that move is not included in the game.
Kekoa: A Hawaiian surf bum who now lives in Jamaica. Hmm, wonder why he moved there? Are the waves really that much better, or is he perhaps more interested in the local flora?. (Disclaimer: that’s my joke; EA would never suggest, hint at or condone the use of mind-altering substances. Bummer, dude.) Kekoa has a special style called surf n’ turf. Because he’s a surfer. See what they did there?
Tokusha: She’s a Japanese rave girl with a fighting style derived from dancing. That’s all I have to say about that.
Ice: In his spare time he’s a bus driver. Considering the grief those dudes have to put up with, I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy was the most dangerous fighter in the game. So much pent up rage. Spin: A British DJ. Are all Brits DJ’s these days. I bet he’s got some really fit trainers on, mate.
Sparrow: Everyone loves a tough as nails chick with a fetish for military type tactics and weapons. Why do you think every male of my generation had a crush on Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. We secretly wanted her to kick our ass. Just me? Fine. Sparrow is an ex-fighter pilot, so she’s killed people, guaranteed.
Molotov: A big Russian dude who is a demolitions expert. Hence the name Molotov. You know, like the cocktail? How come the Russians are always big menacing dudes? He and Zangief should start a “Russian video game characters with body issues” support group.
Steve: Steve? Steve is you. A pudgy gamer nerd who loves him some D&D and kung fu movies. A cross between Chris Farley and Jack Black (America’s two favorite pudgy funnymen – sorry Frank Caliendo), Steve has a weird finishing move. He winds up real big like he’s going to smash you with a ton of bricks, then simply pushes you over with his fingertip. Can you say, anticlimactic?
Socks: A crazed mental patient who seems vaguely French. I don’t mean that he surrenders the minute he steps into the ring or anything, but he seems to have a thing for puppets and whimsy. Get that dude some new meds.
Brick: Seven feet of pure sculpted muscle, topped by the brain of a five year old. No, I’m not talking about Jamarcus Russell (oh man am I gonna get my ass beat by my friends who are Raiders fans).
Voodoo: An enormous witch doctor with a skull painted on his face, if you don’t die from fright when he enters the ring, then you might have a chance. Watch out for his special ability though, he can summon a voodoo orb that will take over your mind and make you punch yourself. Stop hitting yourself!
A Monkey: They wouldn’t tell us much about the monkey, but I think we all know how wily and evil most monkeys can be, so let’s leave it at that. We did confirm however that his special attack has nothing to do with flinging poo.
The wackiness doesn’t just extend to the characters, the arenas are a bit on the zany side too. You’ll fight in places like the zoo, an aircraft hangar, an arcade and the asylum, each with their own unique crowds and background action. Extra points to you if you can figure out which of the characters above calls each of those arenas home.
The fighting mechanic is intended to be very simple and easy to pick up even for those who don’t play a lot of videogames. Attacks are divided into your basic light and heavy and can be thrown low or high. Throw in block and parry moves and you’ve got the basics of the fighting down. Except for maybe the most important move of the game, the facebreaker.
Actually, the facebreaker is just the ultimate level of the special attacks, and is an instant finisher. There are four levels in the “breaker” special attack tree, in ascending order: Bone, Ground, Sky, then your Face. Pulling off the breakers is only possibly once you’ve built up your meter by punching the other dude and not letting him land any punches on you. So making it all the way up to facebreaker should be a challenge. On top of that, there’s a small window of opportunity for you to hit the combo, and if you fail you’ll leave yourself vulnerable and drain your meter.
Facebreaker will let you create a boxer from the ground up too, even letting you put your own (or someone else’s) face on the model by using the Xbox Live Vision camera. So you can put your face on the body of a monkey like you’ve always wanted too, or you can create up to thirty unique boxers and share them online. If you’re crazy enough to create the family from “Small Wonder” and put them in the game, more power to you. Facebreaker looks silly and fun, and that’s what the developers seem to be going for. It’s a game that’s meant to be a quick diversion and not some deep gaming experience. If that’s so, then it’s looking like “mission accomplished” for the new EA Freestyle label.
UEFA EURO 2008 REVIEW
I have now played a lot of Uefa Euro 2008, and therefore I will give you a review of it.
The game plays very well and offers new modes that I like very much. The graphics are slightly better, with puddles on the pitch, very nice weather effects and stadium visuals. Some faces are a little bit strange though, but when you have looked at them closely, you will recognize them. The game is also slightly faster that feels great. It said that this game is more responsible, and its true, but not by very much.
The thing that is very sad for Netherlands fans, Wales fans, Faroe Islands fans and Iceland fans is that their national team isn’t licenced! Trouble with the rights from FIFA I think. Especially Netherlands since they are a very good team and they have a chance to win EURO 2008.
Now over to the gameplay. New animations, new passing system, managers on the sideline, new heading system and better keeper. New animations is especially for the manager that we now can see on the sideline. He shouts, interact with the play and do manager things. If you shoot and miss you will often see the manager get disappointed on the sideline and if you substitute a player you see him standing there thinking.
Its a new cool feature but it can be too much of it, because you see him in every stop of the play. When you substitute a player you cant skip the manager cut- scene. A bit annoying, but you can live with it.
The passing is better as you now controls the power of the pass, and have better control over where it goes. Its a good feature, but I had hoped for that you could choose if you would use the “tap the pass button” or this “choose the power of the pass” system. Don’t misunderstand me, its a good system that works great.
The heading is also improved as the player now really goes for the ball in the air, and that you controls the heading better. It is very difficult to head at goal at very close range, but I think its a training thing.
I also think the keeper is better. You cant score from 16 meters so often now on amateur, as on FIFA 08. You must really work to get a goal. New goalkeeping animations do it more various and fluidly. If you run out with the keeper, he will now go for the ball more often than he did in FIFA 08. The keeper in FIFA 08 went out and waited for the ball to come to him, this is now much better. He is a bit slow to react on some shots, close and from long range. Should be better in FIFA 09.
Modes: Kick Off, CYC (Captain your Country), UEFA EURO 2008 mode, Story of Qualifying and EURO online knockout cup. Kick Off is the same as in FIFA 08, you pick two teams and play. A quick match. CYC is the new mode everyone is talking about. It is nearly the same as BE a Pro in FIFA 08. In EURO 2008 you create yourself or pick a football star that is in the game and play your way to the EURO finals. You pick a national team that you would like to play for. Then you first play for the B-international team and if you play good enough, you will be playing for the first team. If you create yourself, you earn points for playing good. These points are used to improve yourself in the game. For example you improve your shooting.
This is a very funny mode that I have played for many hours. Very cool that you could play for your own national team and maybe win EURO 2008. You can set your commentator name also, so if your have a common name, it should be there.
UEFA EURO 2008 mode is where you play the tournament itself. You can choose to play only the finals or begin at the qualification. If you begin straight at the finals, you can only choose between the teams that have qualified in real life. A mode that must be in to be called UEFA EURO 2008. Funny and challenging.
Story of qualifying is moments that has happened in EURO matches in the history that you play and try to do various challenges. Funny, but difficult at some matches.
Euro knockout online cup is where you choose a team that you use in all matches. You search for a opponent and play. If you win, you go further in the cup. Each time you win, you come closer to the semi-final and then the final. This is a great mode, but since you choose one team for the whole cup, you get troubles if you use San Marino and meet Portugal for example. Its therefore a difficult mode. Haven’t played it so much.
Battle of the Nations isn’t a mode, it is statistics of how good you and your country are. The first time you play UEFA Euro 2008 you choose the team that will get the points for every match you win in any mode. So if you chose Norway, they will get higher on a table if you win much since Norway gets points for your victories. Its great too see how good you and your team are, and you will try hard to get higher on the tables.
A new feature this year is also Gamer Controlled Celebrations. Here you have about 40 different moves you can pull off after scoring a goal. This is very funny I think, because you can celebrate how you want to for about 10 seconds. The two categories is running celebrations and finishing moves. Running celebrations is when you run and do a goal move, for example you get your hands high. Finishing moves is when you do a move that end your celebration. For example the “robot dance”. Some of the advanced moves is more difficult than the easiest ones, and that feels correct. You wont get bored with it.
The referees is unstable and don’t judge as they should. Sometimes he give just a free-kick for a tackle that he gave yellow card for earlier in the match. And he blows the match off when I sometimes is at an attacking position. Frustrating.
I also think that the players reaction to the situations is too slow. Its a little bit better than 08, but not good enough. When you turn around in some situations, the player is very slow, and the opponent can just take the ball from you. Something that should be fixed until FIFA 09.
I think I have written the most important things here. A very good and funny game that you will enjoy for several hours both offline and online. Some irritations is there, but not that will tear off your gaming time.
I give it 5/6 or 8.5/10.
First Tiger Woods 09 details!
This morning’s press release announcing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 included some details of what to expect this year. Tiger Woods’ personal coach Hank Haney will assist gamers and contribute to dynamic personalized gameplay along with enhancements to Gamernet and online play. The game will be releasing on Tuesday August 26th.
Looking to drive the ball long and straight? Trying to nail the pin with the approach shot? An all-new addition to this year’s game, Haney will assist gamers as they hit the links and try to advance their career to win the FedExCup. In Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, a player’s skill level is dynamic, constantly adjusting throughout the round just as it would during a real afternoon out on the links. Following each round, Haney will deliver customized feedback on a player’s performance. This feedback system allows all gamers, rookies or PGA TOUR pros, to compete and enjoy the game at any level.
This seems to be a trend in the 09 titles. From the QB challenge after interceptions in NCAA, to Madden 09’s backtrack feature, to this EA is attempting to assist players in learning how to play the games and improve their skills the right way.
EA SPORTS GamerNet is a ground-breaking online innovation that features a refined, easy-to-use interface in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09. EA SPORTS GamerNet challenges, such as long drive, approach shots and putting will be delivered instantly throughout all game modes and players will have the ability to post their challenges from the fairways. EA SPORTS GamerNet also features an all-new daily leaderboard and challenges customized to fit an individual’s playing style.
I don’t remember specifically the issues people had with Gamernet last year, outside of the frustration of knowing most of the shots that were up could not be replicated.
Online play has also been enhanced with Simultaneous Play. This all-new online engine gives up to four players the ability to play each hole at the same time, allowing players to get in a rhythm, swing when they are ready and make one round of golf even faster and more competitive than ever before possible.
Madden 09 online play details
Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details
We recently sat down with Ryan Ferwerda and Daniel Castorani from the Design Team to get the skinny on two new features in this year’s Madden: Online Leagues and the Virtual Training Center. Oh, and we also managed to snag the first ever gameplay footage for your viewing pleasure.
*Note: Since the video is of an early version of the game, Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond’s commentary has yet to be implemented.
IGN: The words “online” and “leagues” have finally come together in one mode for Madden 09. Tell us why people should be excited about it.
Ryan Ferwerda and Daniel Castorani, Madden Design Team: First and foremost, this has been a feature that we’ve wanted for years and we finally felt that we had the game in a good enough place to be able to execute.
This feature is truly being built from the ground up with the help of nearly all the teams here at EA. It’s something we are all really passionate about and can’t wait to get into the hands of users.
That being said, we have support for up to 32 users, full player stats, player trades, a fantasy profile draft, news options and a myriad of other features.
IGN: Say I only have five friends, but still want to play in a full season with 32 teams. Is that possible with flex scheduling included?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Actually, you cannot. This was a conscious design decision by us. We decided it would be better to ensure that all teams are controlled by users which would allow for us to implement our flex scheduling. To be clear, there is not a ’set’ schedule in our leagues. All schedules are flex.
IGN: We just mentioned flex scheduling, but some might not know what we’re talking about. Explain why it’s cool.
Ferwerda and Castorani: Flex scheduling is cool for a multitude of reasons. First off, flex scheduling is what we refer to as an ‘open schedule’ with no set order. What this means is that if you log online and ten members of your twenty member league are online, you can play any of your opponents that you have remaining games with. The nice thing about this is that it doesn’t allow for leagues to get stale or held up waiting for others to play. If the stars align, and you have all of your opponents online, you can, in theory, knock out your entire league in one day.
IGN: Are multi-team trades allowed in an online league?
Ferwerda and Castorani: We do not allow for multi-team or multi-player trades. We made this decision for a few reasons. One, because of the flex scheduling, we have to make sure that players have played the same amount of games in order to be traded. By introducing multiple teams and multiple players, it muddies the waters quite a bit and makes it tough to get a trade done. Right now, we offer one for one trades of players that have played the same amount of games. Trades are a setting, as are the restrictions. If I have Randy Moss, play all ten games in a ten game schedule and have trades with restrictions on, I won’t be able to trade him since he’s played his maximum of games. If I have restrictions off, I can trade him to someone else who can use him for the remainder of their games.
Now, if users want to organize a multi-team trade, they can communicate with each other and then follow through with their plans.
IGN: Can people import their draft class and created players from NCAA Football 09 into the online league?
Ferwerda and Castorani: No, we don’t support this as we don’t support a rookie draft. We support the Franchise Profile Draft.
IGN: Will we be able to use altered rosters at the start of an online league or default-only?
Ferwerda and Castorani: In order to make sure leagues run as smooth as possible, we keep all rosters on the server and use the latest up to date NFL roster to start the league. Because of this, altered rosters are not supported.
IGN: Can we start our online league with a fantasy draft?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Yes, we created something this year called a profile draft. Essentially, on your machine, you’ll pre-rank the entire list of NFL players and what round you’d like to draft them in. This is very similar to a fantasy football draft pre-rank system. Once your profile is set, the league will automatically run the draft and assign your players based on your preferences.
This is our first iteration of a draft, and we’ll be looking to expand to a real-time experience in the future. However, this year, we decided it would be best to focus on the base experience and expand as we interact with our community and build features that everyone wants.
IGN: Can we play with more than one person on a console during an online league game? Meaning, can a buddy and I play on one system while two of our friends sign on to Xbox Live and play on another system 200 miles away?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Online leagues is a one on one experience, as is the rest of our online experience.
IGN: But what if the person I’m playing against in an online league game happens to get disconnected during the game. Is there some sort of forgiveness option to make it up or do I automatically win?
Ferwerda and Castorani: We will offer a full suite of GM Administration options such as force win and a multitude of other settings that will allow users to ensure that the results in their leagues are correct.
IGN: How will a dropped connection effect stats?
Ferwerda and Castorani: We’re actually working on that stuff right now and will have more info on that soon. Rest assured we’ll do our absolute best to guarantee the integrity of the league and its statistics.
IGN: Are there franchise options included in the online league? Things like hot dog and ticket prices? What about franchise features like players being upset with playing time and salary cap issues?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Online Leagues is a different feature from Franchise. We view them here as completely different, divergent features. We plan on building features for each independently in the future and to make sure that they are each the best features possible for their space. To answer your question directly, no, we do not have those features, as we feel that Online Leagues is a different beast from Franchise.
IGN: Is there any sort of handicapping involved? If we have a 32 team league someone has to be stuck playing as the Dolphins. Are they just screwed?
Ferwerda and Castorani: To avoid this we’ve included a setting called ‘Unique Teams’. What this allows is the ability to have everyone play as any team they want. If you wanted to have thirty-two users control thirty-two versions of the Packers, with unique teams off, that would be allowed. However, with unique teams on, players are limited to teams that haven’t been selected.
IGN: We understand that Brett Favre is a free agent at the start of the game. Will he just accept the first offer made to him in an online league or will there be real negotiations between users?
Ferwerda and Castorani: As there aren’t any free agents, or free agent negotiations in online leagues, Brett Favre will not be playable in online leagues.
IGN: Talk about the Virtual Training Center. Say I’ve never played Madden before, how long am I going to have to spend on the Virtual Trainer to be able to beat the computer on the default difficulty? What kind of things will it teach me?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Madden has evolved into a very deep game, and while that is one of our greatest strengths it can also intimidate people new to the franchise. In years past a new gamer would boot up, jump directly into a game situation, and have to just learn everything on the fly. The Virtual Training Center will ease this transition by teaching the fundamentals of playing our game. We focus on teaching gameplay controls and isolating certain in-game situations for practice repetition. So this year if a new gamer has done the Madden Test and played in the Virtual Training Center, they already know the buttons and have had some practice reps in all the areas of gameplay.
As far as how long will you need to spend in the Virtual Training Center to beat the CPU? That really all depends on how quickly you can pick up on the skills required to succeed. Also remember that play calling and general football knowledge also plays a part of success — the Virtual Training Center doesn’t teach you to punt on 4th down or anything- so this will definitely vary by user.
IGN: There’s a Madden IQ that will be assigned at the end of session in the Virtual Training Center. How will that change the way the AI plays against me? What is that number based off of exactly?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Your Madden IQ score is used to determine the difficulty level of the CPU when you are using the My Skills difficulty level. This score is based off the four main gameplay categories that we rate you in: Rushing, Passing, Rush Defense and Pass Defense. One of the neatest things regarding this feature is that we’ve broken difficulty up into these different categories to give the game a much deeper concept of difficulty. If you are a great runner but a bad passer, then your difficulty level will adapt and provide the right level of challenge for both areas.
The Madden IQ Score is set by your Madden Test performance and then constantly evaluated as you play the game in single-player games. This means that we are always tracking your playing abilities. What we love about this feature is that everyone talks about how great they are at Madden — well now you can prove it by posting your Madden IQ.
IGN: Is there anything that Madden veterans could get out of the Virtual Training Center or is it purely for newbies?
Ferwerda and Castorani: One of the biggest misconceptions about making a more accessible game is that we have to lose our appeal with the more seasoned Madden players. This notion is completely false, and the Virtual Training Center is a good example. We definitely start the drills out easy, but I defy anyone to actually complete the Madden Test with a perfect score on their first try! There are three levels to each drill — Easy, Medium, and Hard — with the Hard level designed to test the skills of even the most hardcore Madden gamers. I definitely don’t think anyone will be complaining about the Hard levels being too easy.
Aside from the difficulty factor, the drills were also designed with fun in mind. From the awesome new graphics and visuals to the actual drill mechanics, I think that even seasoned veterans will have a great time playing through the drills.
Goalkeeper blooper I made on UEFA EURO 2008
Sorry, but I cant post the video right here, so check out the vid here: http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/video/4568#
It is funny I think:)
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