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ESPN NFL 2K5 Rushes Into Bug Issues
Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing issues with the online modes of Sega's PS2/Xbox title ESPN NFL 2005, as "a server update will be released on Friday 'to address the login and roster problems some of you are experiencing.' The problems affect both the PlayStation and Xbox versions of the game." Amidst messageboard rumblings of "AI issues", the high-rated, budget-priced title also seems to have a separate problem with the Xbox Live version, as it's advised if you're "having difficulties getting another user to accept your challenge or if you are not receiving challenges once you've created a match, [to] power down your Xbox and restart" - the developers, apparently wrestling with the previously mentioned Xbox Live "LSP (Live Server Protocol)", are planning to fix this problem by August 6th.
Some armchair critics will say that this stuff (especially the camera) should have been in the game in the first place.
Early reports (such as at IGN) are stating that the new camera, surprise surprise, is essentially useless in combat. It apparently mostly helps in the adventure sequences (ie finding stuff in the environment). I wonder if Team Ninja is just including this camera to show certain people "See, a full control camera you havet constantly fiddle with in a fast action game like Ninja Gaiden sucks!"
So I think it is pretty safe to not call it a patch, IMO. Only a week or so until we can all try it and find out.
(And for the record, I have been playing the new ESPN NFL for close to twenty hours now, with no major bugs whatsoever. There are some definite interface and commentary quirks, but the gameplay has been perfectly solid. Would love for these bugs not to be there, but this game is easily one of the more complicated games around, so I can cut Visual Concepts some slack.)
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
All in all, this game compares favorably to Madden 2k4, which i rented recently, especially to someone like me who isn't as familiar with football or football games (which seem to rival flight sims in terms of sheer number of buttons, and RTS's in terms of strategy and coordination of actions) as many. I can understand someone being faithful to the Madden franchise however due to its storied history.
The only complaint i really have is that the trading stuff seems to be needlessly confusing.. I can't figure out how to find free agents for example, and it's hard to quickly check out the stats of players on other teams' trading blocks.
Granted, I haven't taken it online yet, not being a Live subscriber (although it did come with a "2 month free trial" of some sort.. i gotta try and figure out if it really is free or what). It'll be interesting to see if they remove Ricky Williams, and how it will affect my Patriots franchise!
Ummmm, not even close. Consoles have a very strong presence in the RPG market, and console RPG's most likely outsell PC RPG's several times over.
Game developers are not allowed to patch games via Xbox live unless the update fixes a problem related to Online play. The problem with ESPN 2K5 clearly meets this requirement.
Theif 3 will not be patched because the AI bug does not effect online play. (besides the fact that Theif 3 is not a Live enabled title in the first place)
Well, I think you are wrong again.
From the same article I referenced earlier, here is the breakdown for PC games:
strategy (27.1%)
children's entertainment (14.5%)
shooters (13.5%)
family entertainment (9.5%)
role-playing (8.7%)
sports titles (5.8%)
racing (4.4%)
adventure (3.9%)
simulation (3.5%)
So, role-playing on a PC (which is about 1/3 of console market) being 9% equals about 3% of the console market.
Really- I am not trying to tell you that RPGs suck, but I do want to put the facts out there that YES a lot of people do play sports games.
No reason to lie.