Some gaming musings

In no particular order:

MADDEN NFL 09 - This will probably sound weird coming from me, but I think Madden 09 is showing some serious potential to be a good game. There's a lot of little things that are starting to add up for the better.

They're getting rid of the goddamn radio announcer.
Replacing the "home town announcer" will be NBC commentator Tom Hammond and the NFL Network's Cris Collinsworth. I don't recall either one of them really off the top of my head, but at this point even Michael Cole and Tazz from Smackdown Just Bring It would be better than the radio guy.

MULLIGAN!
I haven't looked into all the details of it but it looks like they're going to implement a rewind feature where you could do-over a play if you're satisfied with it (or if you want to piss off a human opponent). You can set it to X number of uses, so you can just turn it off completely if you don't want it. Admittedly it would be nice to maybe get a do-over on the occasional play. Obviously, not available in online play.

Actual High-Def graphics?
It seems to me that the graphics in Madden 08 only look good if you're playing it on a regular TV set in 480P, otherwise the graphics look washed out and blotchy. It's especially evident with some uniforms textures changing depending on how far away they are from the screen (Try this with the Green Bay Packers).

Now for all I know these are renders, but this shot of a snow game from Madden 08 and this shot of a snow game from Madden 09, it looks better, and it actually looks like there's snow on the ground, instead of white turf.

It's not as if EA isn't capable of good graphics. NHL 08 has fantastic visuals. I guess that's the difference between EA Tiburon (who make Madden) and EA Canada (Who make NHL).

ESPN?
They may try to incorporate ESPN into the fold a little better other than just having ESPN Radio Sportscenter playing whenever you're in one of the menus. It sounds like it could be some ESPN Insider content and the occasional episode of PTI.


MIAMI VICE THE GAME

You know I thought it was a little weird when I heard that the Miami Vice film would get a video game adaptation, but only go on the PSP. I just can't think of many instances where a major film release would go on just one console, let alone it being a handheld.

Anyway it's an alright little game. It doesn't follow the plot of the movie at all, which begs the question of why they bothered to call it Miami Vice The Game. I've kinda wondered why companies feel the need to title their licensed games Whatever: The Game, especially when most people take to calling it The Whatever Game, and especially if the game in question isn't really based on the movie at all.

The gameplay is taken almost bit for bit from Resident Evil 4, except now the Spaniards have guns instead of pitchforks. Crockett and Tubbs control like tanks just like Leon Kennedy, but with the addition of being able to strafe (Something Leon can't do), albeit this "strafe" really just changes the analog knob from normal third person to Move In Whatever Direction You're Pointing The Stick In.

There's also some arbitrary minigames which go with any handheld title. One, called "Hacking" (for hacking USB sticks you find) plays like a cross between Asteroids and Bomberman, which is pretty amusing. The other one is a pain in the ass and is used to negotiate major drug deals.



Imagine if I had you play Rad Racer. Now imagine there were no road signs. Now imagine you're driving a hovercraft. Now imagine you're drunk as fuck. That's pretty much it. Your goal is to keep that line in the blue so your drug-o-meter goes up. If it falls into the grey, it goes down, and if it goes in the red it REALLY goes down. The sections will occasionally move to the left and the right and completely without warning. Also, that line refuses to stand still. It will frequently move to the left and the right, and you'll be forced to push the other way to compensate, and then you'll have to push the OTHER direction to compensate for your oversteer, and it's just a massively painful process because it can be as easy or as frustratingly difficult as the game wants it to be. If you succeed, you sell all your drugs and make massive $$$. If you lose, you make nothing, and they steal all your drugs. You'll need to complete the minigame twice in order to win.

The reputation system is kinda neat. If you storm nightclubs with high-tech weaponry and SWAT gear, your reputation won't increase, but if you barge in wearing your pastel colored suit and your sidearm, it'll shoot up, allowing access to more drug dealers.

Once you beat the game, you can buy the Cheat suit, which is basically a slightly different pastel colored suit but with additional upgrades for it you can unlock infinite ammo and invincibility.

What's also kind of strange is that they use Colin Farrell's likeness for Crockett, but he sounds more like Don Johnson, which can't outdo 007: Nightfire, where he looked like Pierce Brosnan but just sounded like an idiot.

It's not a bad game, and if you like the way Resident Evil 4 played, you can't go too wrong.