Sega Sports' Secret - First-Person Football

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to IGN Xbox's coverage of the newly revealed 'secret mode' in Sega's ESPN NFL Football for PS2 and Xbox - a full first-person mode. According to the article, "In first-person mode, you take the snap as the quarterback.. once the ball is thrown, you can either watch the ball sail toward your wideout from the QB's perspective, or quickly switch to control the receiver and attempt to catch the ball while looking through the point of view from players like Moss and T.O." There are also 'Bullet Time'-styled slow motion effects for receivers, as well as a threat meter that shows how close would-be tacklers are to your position. So, not content with just a name change from NFL 2K4, looks like Sega's football franchise is going all-out with new features to overwhelm EA's Madden series after last year's disappointing performance.

Comments

The march of progress

[lightspawn]

We need something like this every year, don't we?

2000 - Lens flare
2001 - Motion blur
2002 - Cel shading
2003 - bullet time
2004 - ?

Re:First Person Issues

[Babbster]

When I play defense in Madden, I usually start as a defensive back to give me the greatest range and attack the ball carrier rather than the QB. However I almost always switch to a closer player..."

Things work the same way in normal NFL 2kx (now ESPN) but better [IMO]. I would note, though that real players on a football field don't get to switch between bodies on a play so that they can be involved, and if a football fan were interested in such a first-person mode it would be because they would want to immerse themselves even more in the game, seeing what the players see.

It's worth noting (in response to some of your other points) that wearing a football helmet restricts one's peripheral vision pretty severely in any case, so not having that in the game wouldn't be too far off from reality. Also, as a wide receiver (in the example given) you're not going to turn your head to look for the ball until you have to do so - a fundamental at which any good wide receiver will be proficient.

The first-person view isn't going to replace third-person for most video game football players (even in the Sega game where it's only being offered as an option) anytime soon, but I think it's an interesting addition to the genre and could prove to be a lot of fun. In fact, it should be even more fun since most of the people who enjoy football don't imagine themselves as football coaches, making a game plan to win the big game - most imagine themselves as an athlete, making the big play to win the big game.

PS-
Why does every new feature like this in any game have to be picked apart before even playing the game, anyway? I'm not necessarily directing this at any one person as this goes on amongst gamers all the time. There's a bizarre traditionalist streak that seems to go through a lot of gamers and it seems very out of place considering the constantly advancing technical nature of the hobby...

Re:First Person Issues

[Z0mb1eman]

Actually I've wanted to see this in a sports game (preferrably one of the FIFA games rather than an american football game) for at least 5 years now. The technology's been there forever, I'm disappointed that no one's attempted it yet.

There are many difficulties the developer would have to overcome, definitely. Guess what, that's why games cost so much to make. It is entirely possible - not easy, but possible - to make a good 1st person sports game, but it requires some original thinking. If you take one of the standard camera-above-the-field games and simply replace the camera with a first-person view, then obviously you won't have a good game. If you rethink the entire game - frankly, all the FIFA, Madden, NHL games are fundamentally built on the same principles, just different sport - then you can come up with something good.

There are tons of features I can think of to make even a single-player first person sports game work. First of all, switching players in first person would be WAY more confusing; build the game so that you don't have to (aren't allowed?) and can enjoy the game playing as only one player - potential for a true career mode and even a storyline. Naturally, this means that you need to have REALLY good team AI. You need to add cues that exist in real life but you don't need in a 3-rd person view: audio queues of your teammates shouting as they pass, so you know when they're passing to you; a trail behind the ball, so you can estimate its speed and direction better - much harder to do without depth perception, so you need the aid; an estimate of where the ball's gonna land on the field (a glowing circle on the field would do); etc. etc. This is me thinking about the problem for 10 minutes; I'm sure a team of developers planning for a month or two can do better.

You might argue that it wouldn't be as realistic; I think it wouldn't be VISUALLY as realistic, but I think it could be more immersive - and really, more realistic overall - than 3rd person games. And there are different challenges for every sport - football would be doable, I think - the main problem I can think of with soccer is being able to see the ball as you dribble - hockey would be much harder - but I really would say there is a LOT of potential. There's also potential for the development team to screw up every single chance they have to make it work; there's no way of knowing until the finished product.

And..... of course.... I haven't even touched multiplayer, where the real fun would be :)

Re:First Person Issues

[Arkaein]

22 person live games would be cool, but I'm not sure how well they'd work out. Football requires a lot of coordination, discipline and timing between its players. This is usually only achieved with a lot of practice and experience.

I think that, except for really hard core expert teams, much in the way of play calling would end up going out the window, as routes that require precision would not be run reliably. On defense it would be easy to blow coverage, and hard to coordinate things like line shifts or coverage audibles to adapt to the offensive formation. Maybe I'm wrong, but it all seems very complicated to execute.