I thought things couldn’t get any tougher for the Tony Hawk series. After Tony Hawk: Ride bombed at retail, Activision decided that making the sequel a more kid-friendly experience would help the game move units.
Instead, Tony Hawk: Shred has put up some of the worst video game launch numbers I’ve ever seen made public.
It looks like EA Sports listened to the voice of the people after all. After an incredibly poor response to the NBA Elite 11 demo and the anger that ensued with the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions of NBA Jam, Peter Moore, President of EA Sports, announced that NBA Elite 11 will be delayed indefinitely and that XBOX 360 and PS3 versions of NBA Jam will be sold separately in time for the holidays. For full details, go here.
EA Sports has a tall mountain to climb when it comes to basketball. Over the past few years, the quality of NBA Live has waded in mediocrity and sales have tracked well behind the competition. Basketball gamers now swear by the 2K series and perceive NBA Live as a piece of junk.
In response, EA Sports has gone back to the drawing board by giving the series to a new developer and a new name. However, preview coverage has been sparse leading up to launch, and maybe this recent video of someone playing the NBA Elite 11 demo reveals why EA has been keeping the game in the dark.
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Less than a year after Tony Hawk: Ride launched in this region for $120, the value of the game has hit what will likely be its rock bottom. At HMV, new copies of Tony Hawk: Ride with the board are now only $20, which is a crazy 85% drop in price. I haven’t seen a price drop this drastic since I bought Rock Revolution for $3, which was 95% off the original price. Meanwhile, every other retailer I’ve seen that isn’t blowing this game out still has a stack of them collecting dust. Why must retailers go to such drastic measures to get this game off shelves?
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This is an on-going series where I discuss the thinking involved in Street Fighter that I’ve applied to basketball. If you want to see earlier entries in the series, hit the link: Part 1: Spacing, Part 2: Punishing Mistakes
Resource Management
The goal of Street Fighter is to completely drain your opponent’s health meter before they can do the same to you. You achieve this by attacking your opponent. How you attack your opponent or defend yourself can vary wildly depending on what the health situation is. The easiest health situation to discuss resource management I can think of is when your opponent has a major life lead over you. When your opponent can finish you with one or two hits, you need to play much more conservatively in order to stand a chance of winning. Conversely, if you have a major life lead on your opponent, you may be able to win by “chipping them out” on wake-up with a projectile attack to avoid the risk of eating a last-ditch super move that could turn the tide.
A number of years ago, EA locked up exclusive rights to make NFL video games. Because of that, I was very confused as to how Gameloft could release their own NFL football game on the iPad. Apparently, EA didn’t lock up mobile games, which allowed for this release to happen.
I haven’t played a football video game since 1996 with Madden 64. However, the release of Backbreaker has whet my interest in something meatier and there aren’t any other NFL licensed football games on the iPad on sale for $0.99. With all of that going for it, I decided to give NFL 2010 HD a shot.
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After my overall positive experience with FIFA World Cup 2010, I decided to give my favourite sport a shot. NBA Live for the iPhone and iPod Touch was also on sale for $0.99 when I picked it up. As someone who has generally nit-picked at games based on my favourite sport to the point that I quit playing them years ago, I thought that having a mobile version could be interesting. While I’ve had some fun with it, I’m not sure the game has enough to overcome it’s deficiencies.
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Historically, I’m not a fan of sports games. This is weird, because I actually love sports. It’s just one of those things I would generally prefer to do in real life than in a video game. With that said, hockey and soccer are two of my favourite video game sports, which is also weird, because I don’t like those sports in real life.
I guess before I make this any more confusing, I picked up FIFA World Cup 2010 for the iPod Touch when it was on sale for $0.99 (85% off!). While I can recognize the game’s faults, it’s really fun to play and was a steal at $0.99.
In Third Person 