It seems no matter what platform you own, EA Sports has released a Madden game for it this year. PlayStation 2? Yep, you’re covered. Popular consoles? Again, covered. Even iPad owners are getting a taste of high definition football with a version of Madden NFL 12 to call their own. Problem is, it’s not quite the full game they might be expecting.
All of the NFL teams are represented fairly, complete with official numbers and names, and even official stadiums, so you feel like you’re on your stomping grounds when you play at home. The roster contains over 2,500 players, so there’s no doubt your favorites are included here. What’s more, they perform adequately, so Tom Brady has an amazingly good passing game, similar to what he did earlier this week on Monday Night Football.
However, accuracy can only go so far. Sometimes you also need to have game options to keep players entertained, and this is where Madden NFL 12 comes up short. Though there are a number of modes available, including the ability to relive moments from either the Green Bay Packers’ or New Orleans Saints’ seasons as they proceed towards the playoffs, they aren’t nearly as deep as what’s offered in the console versions.
What’s more, the playbook is severely lacking in running plays. Most of the time you end up passing or tring to do something with the quarterback. This takes away from the realism of the game, especially if you’re playing as a team that has a high dependency on the running game. EA could’ve easily mixed this up with more variety.
As for presentation, there are pros and cons, but unfortunately, most of the bad stuff outweighs the good. Being able to play your customized iPod soundtrack in the background is a nice touch, and a good change of pace from the arena music selected for the game. Unfortunately, that’s the primary benefit, as the graphics run into a serious amount of problems. The detail and frame rate aren’t that good, save for some of the background environment settings. Then there’s the game’s performance, weighed down by a good amount of frame rate issues, crashes, and freeze-ups. It’s almost like EA released this game before it could be a peak performer.
If all you have is an iPad and you want to get your football fix, we suggest sticking with Madden NFL 11 for the time being, until this version is fixed. It runs way better and has a much more varied playbook than this game. For a minute there, we thought that Madden NFL 12 would be as promising as its console brethren. Instead, it feels like a worn-out quarterback scrambling to find his game.
From gamezone.com
Just when the Driver franchise was on the rebound with the amazing San Francisco entry for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, we get a game that almost sinks it back down again, back into the stinky depth where Driver 3 still lulls after all these years. I’m talking about Driver: Renegade, the driving series’ foray into 3D territory. With the right kind of development, this game could’ve been right there on the same quality level as San Francisco, with multi-tiered events, a wide-open city to race around in, and unique gameplay to keep it from becoming a dull ride. Sadly, none of this happens, and as a result, we’re left with something that’s the equivalent of a flat tire.
John Tanner once again returns to active driving duty, bringing his skills to a city that needs it, as the mayor of New York has called upon him to help clean up the streets by taking down local thugs and keeping things from getting too out of hand. But along the way, something happens. Your driving becomes so haphazard that you yourself become the threat, though you’d never really be able to tell because things get dull and repetitive in a hurry.
The game contains a series of missions to complete, but there’s only about 20 in all, and you’ll wipe them out within about two to three hours time. There are additional races to take part in, including time trial events and elimination races, but by then you’ll have probably lost interest, due to the fact that you’re never doing the same kind of mind-blowing events that you could be doing in San Francisco. It’s as if you’ve chosen to ride around in a crappy Prius rather than living the good life in a sports car.
Driver: Renegade’s controls actually aren’t bad. Your vehicles handle with the kind of aplomb of a good street-driving machine. However, their stability is heavily questioned. If you hit any sort of object in the game, be it street signs, other cars, buildings – hell, at this rate, even thin air – you begin building damage on a bar. Do too much and your car explodes, forcing you to try again. Or not, depending on your tolerance level.
Even worse, the game’s AI isn’t well balanced. In fact, it’s way too easy to put enemy vehicles in their place, due to the fact they can’t drive worth a damn. In fact, during some pursuits, it was simply too easy to box them in and finish them off with a few bumps, rather than endure the thrill of the chase. Boring. And you can’t even take on others in multiplayer. The only connectivity you have with your friends is through leaderboards. And despite three trips around the city, no one registered. Not one fellow driver.
The visuals look okay, though New York seems to be barren of any given street life. There are literally no pedestrians in this game, and every once in a while, you do see a fellow driver on the street, but their behavior is so plain that it’s hard not to think that a robot is behind the wheel. Worse yet, the 3D effect in this game doesn’t really do anything for it. You’re better off just driving in 2D and saving yourself the eyestrain of looking at crap in the third dimension.
Thankfully the music is at least easy to listen to. Though it’s lacking the kind of diversity you’d find in San Francisco, it’s suitable for a 3DS game. It’s just a shame we can’t say the same for the voicework. Tanner comes off like a complete pompous jerk rather than a man of the law, constantly yelling at folks with the same taunts over and over again. It gets to the point you want to ram him off the road just to silence him. The sound effects are average, nothing exceptional but not bad either. But really, shut Tanner up.
Driver: Renegade is a game that had the potential to sit alongside San Francisco as a mean machine, but instead winds up being a lemon due to its shoddy production values, bad collision detection and lack of replay value. Leave this sucker sitting in the lot.
From gamezone.com
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. It’s one thing to release a game and then space out its sequels every two years or so, but it’s another to release a game, then follow it up every few months with a new adventure, to the point that we never really got to enjoy the previous one as we’re curious about venturing into new territory. That’s the case with The Baconing, the third adventure to feature DeathSpank, the peculiarly named hero who last fought on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in Thongs of Virtue a few months back.
It’s business as usual for DeathSpank. He’s enjoying the thrill of justice, but is busy seeking out a new adversary after finally snagging the Thongs of Virtue. Bored, he decides to put on all the thongs at once and throws the world into chaos, creating a new enemy – a robotic version of himself that’s known as the Antispank. Before you know it, he’s off creating all kinds of terror, and DeathSpank finds himself having to burn the Thongs of Virtue in bacon fires in order to save it and stop the evil menace. But nothing comes that easy – not for DeathSpank.
If you’re a fan of the first two games, you’ll feel right at home here. Hothead Games continues to load up its franchise with all sorts of weirdness, whether you’re seeking justice for a mooing cow (because, hey, cows deserve great justice!) or dealing with the likes of such characters as Tankko and Bob From Marketing. Hothead knows how to write a swell, Monty Python-esque tale, and the third time around, there are a few laughs digging through here.
So then, why the less than favorable score? Because it’s mostly the same stuff that we’ve dealt with in the last two games. While there are some interesting power-ups that tend to change the shift in battle every once in a while, most of The Baconing is spent beating up guys. And beating up more guys. Though you have a number of battle techniques and weapons that prove useful, results are about the same – you kill until you die, and then you’re brought back in an outhouse (of all places) to do it all over again. Worse yet, Baconing seems a little more linear, as you’re following a guided path throughout most of the game. As a result, exploration is cut even shorter here than it was in Thongs of Virtue.
The visuals are nothing spectacular for Baconing though they work for the most part, with plenty of cartoon-style animations and interesting locales, such as a retirement home for worn-out Gods. However, there are times they can be a little fuzzy, due to a lack of polish that was apparent in the first two DeathSpank games. It’s not a horrible game when it comes to appearance, but you can see marks of where Hothead was growing a little weary. The dialogue is still humorous, with DeathSpank sounding like some kind of spin-off of The Tick. We almost expect him to yell “SPOON!” at any given second.
As for extras, there aren’t much. The game will take a few hours to get through, provided you can put up with the monotonous gameplay. There is some co-op available, with you and a friend sharing a life bar as you take on enemies, but it can be mildly frustrating. What’s more, you can’t play others online through Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. What a bummer.
The Baconing is proof positive that if you push a franchise too soon and too fast, signs of wear begin to set in. There are still moments of fun scattered in the game, but they’re hidden beneath slightly worn out gameplay and limited options. Maybe Hothead ought to take some time off and wait a couple of years for the next DeathSpank game to make the rounds. Otherwise, he and his Thongs of Virtue will wear out their welcome.
From gamezone.com
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