Info On NFL2K4

[Guest Flyboy]

The impressions can be found here.

 

I already know 2K4 is going to own Madden this year. The playcalling screen is fixed (inside the huddle~!).. the gameplay was damned good. The pics of the Bear fans and the Michael Bennett stats makes me drool.

 

 

 

If I only had the money, I would buy a PS2 just for this game.

[Agent_Bond34 0]

That looks great.

 

I like what I'm seeing.

[Guest razazteca]

Moe Williams had more TDs. 2K4 is only on PS2?

[Guest Flyboy]

2K4 is only on PS2?

PS2 and X-Box.

[Guest Kingpk]

I think Gamecube dropped Sega's sports lineup. I'll rent both and make a decision on which to get, but 2K4 DOES look pretty good.

[Guest DrTom]

I may not buy Madden at all this year.

[Guest Flyboy]

I think Gamecube dropped Sega's sports lineup.

*goes into the corner and cries* NOOOO!

 

I can't even enjoy NBA 2K4.. and NBA 2K_ owns Live with a steel dick. Lmb Sega and Nintendo. Lmb.

[Guest Flyboy]

I may not buy Madden at all this year.

I have to buy Madden this year:

 

1) I still like Madden's Franchise mode over 2K's. Plus, this year you can actually improve your rookies in mini-camps.

 

2) Ownership mode. One thing I wanted in the Madden series (remember the thread I made?) that I thought I would never get.

 

3) No 2K4 for me.

[Guest redbaron51]

*cant wait to buy 2K4

[Guest Eagan469]

I am getting an X-Box *just* for RAW 2 and NFL 2K4

[Guest El Satanico]

I'm going to rent both this year then decide which to buy.

 

If 2k4 has a weak franchise mode my decision will be simple.

 

No matter how good 2k4 looks a weak franchise mode will chase me off. Franchise mode is the main thing I use the games for.

[Guest Flyboy]

I think Madden will alwys have a better Francise than 2K_. But 2K_ owns Madden in gameplay, graphics, presentation, commentary, and overall.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Lets get it right folks! Nintendo didn't dump Sega Sports titles, Sega did it on their own.

 

Of course, now the sports options for the Gamecube are Midway's not so extreme any more series, EA sports/EA BIG(they didn't even release MVP baseball for the gamecube, the dumb bastards), Acclaim's perenial suckfests (I did get ASB 04, and its OK, but its not that great..but I needed a baseball game, and between Slugfest, High Heat (not even out until sometime in July) and ASB, I figured I'd take my chances with ASB, which does have a decent franchise mode...) and the various ripoff/knockoff titles like disney sports, backyard sports..etc.

 

Clearly the gamecube is not the system to own if you want sports games.

[Guest Flyboy]

Clearly the gamecube is not the system to own if you want sports games.

I don't know how I'm going to live without NBA 2K4 and NFL 2K4.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Clearly the gamecube is not the system to own if you want sports games.

I don't know how I'm going to live without NBA 2K4 and NFL 2K4.

NFL options - Blitz or Madden

NBA options - NBA Live (?), or the numerous streetball games

[Guest Mole]

I'm still getting Madden because 2K4 isn't even out for Gamecube.

[Guest Flyboy]

Clearly the gamecube is not the system to own if you want sports games.

I don't know how I'm going to live without NBA 2K4 and NFL 2K4.

NFL options - Blitz or Madden

NBA options - NBA Live (?), or the numerous streetball games

Yeah, I was going to get Madden 2004 no matter what. I like the 2K_ series better. I had both this year and will miss 2K4 next year. I always gets Madden on PC, though.

 

I HATE HATE HATE the Live series. Even on the hardest level of gaming, it is one of the easiest games ever. I refuse to buy it, but I have no choice this year. NBA 2K3 was an awesome basketball gaming experience and fuck Sega for taking that away from me.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

I'll still get Madden, but the 2k series looks to be catching up. EA better get motivated...

[Guest Flyboy]

EA better get motivated...

I don't think they are at all. They figure, "Well, we have the sporting game industry on lock, so what's the point in making our series better?"

 

I really don't see a difference in Madden 2002 to Madden 2003 than mini-camp, Franchise tidbits, and moving the coverage.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well if Sega keeps getting rave reviews year after year EA will eventually wake up and work on improving the game.

 

Sega just needs to keep it up for several more years to show EA they're here to stay.

[Guest redbaron51]

Sega allready took me away from the NHL, NFL, NCAA area.

[Guest Flyboy]

Sega owns me in NBA 2K_ and NFL 2K_. They still can match up to EA's NCAA Football games.

[Guest The Notorious CRD]

I don't think they are at all. They figure, "Well, we have the sporting game industry on lock, so what's the point in making our series better?"

EA does have a history of growing complacent with their sports games. Let us not forget that it was 989 Sports that were able to show EA up in the early days of the PS1 by being the first to put out a fully polygonal football title.

[Guest The Tino Standard]

989 showing up EA in ANYTHING is mind-blowing at this point. Their sports games are AWFUL.

[Guest Kingpk]

I don't think they are at all. They figure, "Well, we have the sporting game industry on lock, so what's the point in making our series better?"

EA does have a history of growing complacent with their sports games. Let us not forget that it was 989 Sports that were able to show EA up in the early days of the PS1 by being the first to put out a fully polygonal football title.

Too bad the gameplay sucked, a constant with 989's ventures. The only series I could ever stand was the NHL Faceoff one. Seriously, why even BOTHER putting out these things if you aren't going to make an effort to improve ANYTHING?

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Sega already blew away EA in the NHL department IMO.

 

Since EA is only putting online into the PS2 games...I'll probably get 2K4 for XBox instead. I have a PS2...but it's just not as good.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Interesting news from about a week ago:

 

Recently it seems Sega's been busy shoping for a fellow publisher to merge with these days. Now Sega's President to be, Hisao Oguchi, is now in the talks with EA to help Sega's Western sales and to help EA's Japanese sales.

 

And if this all goes down Sega will have to bring their 2K Sports titles to a halt. Add to that its rumored all development credit will stay the same but the Publishing name in Japan will be Sgea for all EA & Sega games. But Stateside all of the games will be published under EA. Hell I just hope it doesn't end up EAS - Electronic Arts Sega.

 

thats from GamersMark.com (kinda looks like Gamer Smark if you don't capitalize the M..wierd)

 

Interesting..the old if you can't beat em (in this case SEGA's sports titles becoming better than EA's) join 'em adage..

[Guest Flyboy]

Interview on 2K4 (credit football-gaming.com for the interview):

 

FBG: Talking to Anthony Chau about NFL 2k4

Chau: So you think.

FBG: So I think.

Chau: NFL 2k4, last year we got the ESPN license late. We got it around March, so we really didn’t add a whole lot of ESPN elements. Ya know, like a logo in the bottom right. That was about it. This year we’re really blowing it out, as you can see, the whole SportsCenter presentation right here, the same style, the same overlays, everything.

 

 

 

    Chau explained that during load screens, 2k4 will display keys to the game. In our game of Jets versus Falcons, he explained that it would say something like "The Jets defense needs to contain Michael Vick."

 

Chau: One of the things they did this year, the game is running on a new library system. The programming team went in to the code and found an extra meg of memory. Now, a meg of memory doesn’t sound like much, but for us, it’s a huuuuge difference. What it allowed us to do was to add these cut-scenes. We call it a cut-scene buffer. Anytime in the game, after a big stop, on third down, or after a touchdown, we can load up these high-quality cut sequences, just to add more atmosphere to the game.

 

Chau: Another thing you notice-

FBG: -playcalling. A little different.

Chau: A little?

FBG: A lot different. Way more accesible it seems.

Chau: Well you see, that was a complaint a lot of consumers had. We really like the radial menus. Bam bam bam, you could pick your play really quick.  But a lot of consumers couldn’t the system, so we said, why fight with the consumers?

 

Also, another new thing, we have on the fly substitutions.

 

So what you do, you just press a button. We have already pre-made substitutions that make sense.

 

FBG: Can you edit the substitution sets?

Chau: Yeah in a menu, you can edit that.

FBG: And will it remember that when you play online?

Chau: Yes, it will remember your subs for an online game. You can also take your edited playbooks online now.

FBG: I've heard you will not have a play editor?

Chau: We still have no play editor. We understand that people want to make their own plays. But our playbooks are so in depth, so expansive…

FBG: There's just a lot of logic?

Chau: It screws up the logic a lot. We might have a play editor some day, but as of right now it's not planned.

FBG: What about as far as custom playbooks, as far as editing. Is that a little bit easier?

Chau: Yeah, it's a lot more organized. Last year it was a pain in the ass. It's a lot easier this year.

 

 

 

  Meanwhile, delay of game penalties are piling up

 

 

 

Chau: Another thing we've changed this year is the way the charge system works. The ballcarrier charge stystem. One of the things we did, if you're a running back, and you want to run fast, just tap (the) A (button).

FBG: And that won't kill you, like it did before?

Chau: No, it won't kill you.

Chau: I'll tap A, and you'll notice, a yellow circle will flash. See that?

FBG: Yeah.

Chau: Now see that ring? If I want to charge, it will fill-up, and the meter under me will start flashing red when it's fully charged up. That tells players when to do a special move. Last year some people didn't understand how our charge system works.

FBG: Very different from Madden.

Chau: (Laughs) Well yeah, it is. They didn't know when they were doing a special move, when it was fully charged up…now you can totally tell when you've done the move successfully.

 

 

  For those of you thinking, "well yeah, you could see it, but I sure can't," don't worry. From my brief time playing the game, and from watching Chau play, 2k4's special move system is better implemented than in years past. Tapping A was very effective when running with quick backs, and the new ring indicator is better than the old arrow system. I don't know if everyone will love it, but it certainly felt nice at E3.

 

 

FBG: What about Franchise mode?

Chau: Franchise mode is still something we really can't talk to much about. We want to focus on gameplay. We don't want to, as they say, "blow our load" out right now. But we do have a lot of plans for that.

 

 

 

  Chau then repeated "We do have a loooot of plans for that" at least two more times. They must have plans for Franchise mode. A lot of them. And there will be new modes as well.

 

 

  I next asked him if defensive audibling had changed. Apparently it has, but interestingly, the E3 build did not have defensive audibles. Chau said "there's a reason (defensive audibling} is not in there."

 

  What that reason may be, I still do not know. One of VC's software engineers mentioned later in the show that one of the new features has a direct effect on gameplay. Whether this new feature is a new defensive audible system is pure speculation and totally unconfirmed as of this writing.

 

FBG: Are you planning to do stuff online, or anything like EA Bio?

Chau: EA Bio, the idea sounds cool, but we're not doing that. The way I look at it, it's forcing guys to buy other games. That really doesn't sound right, to me at least. If I'm not a baseball fan, why would I want to play MVP? That's just kind of the way we look at it. We are planning on doing a lot more online tournaments, a lot more online stats, a lot more stuff online. We've also improved the online play overall.

FBG: Online leagues?

Chau: Maybe. That's a tough call, because…honestly, and I'm not trying to demean the market for that, but there really isn't the market for that. That being said, we're hardcore gamers at heart, so we really want that to be in there.

FBG: But online tournaments: is that gonna be in there?

Chau: Yep. Oh yeah.

 

 

 

  We then get back to playing the game.

 

Chau: 1,000 new animations this year

FBG: Yeah, looks like you got more.

Chau: 1,000 new animations this year. a lot of them, including: whole new set of gang tackles, out of bounds shove tackles. A lot of new situations.

FBG: It looks like you guys tweaked how tackles are broken this year.

Chau: Yes. I wouldn't say tweaked, I would say more like… rewrote.

 

 

FBG: There's one thing Madden might have over you; their owner mode looks really enticing.

Chau: You talking about that whole football mogul thing?

FBG: Yeah.

Chau: We think that's great, it's cool, but, it's probably tailored great for you, for the hardcore. We're just focusing on polishing and improving the game. Last year, we had a lot of complaints about the polish of our game. Lots of people complaining, "guys are moving too robotic," ya know…and it was true, because we were always innovating, trying to add new things. This year we're polishing everything. This is going to be like the most polished football game of all time.

 

 

Yeah, Madden has that advantage. But if that's all they have…they're in for some trouble. Because we haven't shown our full hand yet. That football mogul stuff is really cool, and I'm sure the hardcore fans like you and your readers will really like it. There's a lot of different ways to really get that feeling that you're a football manager, but we really want to get that feeling that you're on the field. We're gonna do that in a completely new way this year.

 

  Chau says the last sentence with a nearly foreboding tone of voice. "There is no way out." Whether NFL 2k4 really will put us on the field like never before remains to be seen, but at least VC's PR guy sure seems to believe it.

 

FBG: One of the problems with 2k3 was it felt really claustrophobic. In franchise mode you could only play as one team. I assume you can play as multiple teams this year.

Chau: Yes, we learned our lesson. (laughs).

FBG: What about giving players pats on their backs? Animations, celebrations, awards cabinets, ya know, stuff like that. Is that sort of stuff possibly in the future?

Chau: I'd say possibly.

FBG: You'd say possibly.

Chau: I'd say possibly, but I can't confirm… or deny.

FBG: Note coy smile.

Chau: I think our concentration is just polish this year. That being said, we're introducing a few modes this year that will make you see the game in a different light.

 

 

FBG: Training camp mode?

Chau: We're gonna have a training camp mode. It includes a lot of things, like the charge system, it will give you hints. Nothing quite as involved as Madden's is, but you'll get to practice plays, run through drills…but yeah, it's a training camp.

FBG: Are you going to have any other special modes?

Chau: Oh yeah.

FBG: Any you can comment on?

Chau: No. Nothing I can comment on, but they're pretty damn cool.

FBG: Are they gonna be offline modes?

Chau: I can't say that either.

FBG: On the videos you've released for 2k4, it seems the crowds react better, sound-wise. Is that something you re-did?

Chau: Yes, we felt sometimes, the crowds didn't react as well to certain situations. The commentary has gotten so good. There are times when the commentators will comment on the crowd, ya know, "Listen to this crowd!"

FBG: Do the commentators know the difference between, say, a mid-season game and two teams fighting for a playoff berth?

Chau: The analysis on our commentary now is really smart. They'll comment, "well, they're not having that great of a season right now, they're 2-7 right now, and they're playing the Super Bowl Champ Bucanneers right now." They'll say stuff like that.

FBG: And it's the same commentary team as last year?

Chau: Yeah.

FBG: Good.

Chau: I know we could use the ESPN commentators, but these guys are great. And they really play of each other well.

FBG: So I take it you've got more commentary from those guys?

Chau: Oh yeah, we're still recording.

 

 

FBG: It looks like passing the ball is different.

Chau: How so?

FBG: Well, it looks like the ball moves a little different.

Chau: How so?

FBG: Well, on short passes, you dink it a little more accurately, and on deep balls, the ball seems to have a little more velocity.

Chau: That's all polish. We thought passing was pretty good, but there were some passes that just didn't look right last quite right.

FBG: Well your balls looked floaty. That's one thing Madden had over you guys.

Chau: Yeah, well when I look at Madden, their passes are so flat sometimes. They are really flat. I don't think ours are perfect yet, but we're still tuning.

 

Chau: One thing I want to comment -- a lot of players in the past, in NFL series, when they played quarterback, they'd drop back 20 feet and then pass.

FBG: Sure.

Chau: Well to those fans out there, you can't do that anymore.

FBG: So line play, has that gotten more dynamic, is that why they can't drop back so far?

Chau: Yeah, part of the reason is, the guys are rushing harder this year, and a little more accurately. Another thing, is just movement of the players. There are very few players who can throw of their back foot. You can't do that anymore.

FBG: Do you have logic for determining which players are good at throwing off-balance?

Chau: We have player profiles. Brett Favre does it all the time.

FBG: Do you guys model that?

Chau: Part of it is logic, part of it is player profiles.

 

 

FBG: In Franchise mode, can players' styles adapt more, and will there be more player progression?

Chau: Oh yeah.

FBG: Because that was gone, that didn't exist last year.

Chau: No there was progression, it just wasn't apparent. You couldn't tell.

FBG: It may as well not have been in last year.

Chau: You couldn't tell. There are clear indicators now.

[Guest Eagan469]

check this out:

 

McGahee is playable! Sega installed the new turf that Buffalo just put into The Ralph! I MUST HAVE THIS GAME

 

In other news, they are CHANGING the name of the game to "ESPN NFL Football":

 

"June 04, 2003 - According to Gamestop, Sega's new football game will no longer be called NFL 2K4, but ESPN NFL Football. The game's release date has also been changed from August first to September second. If this is true, that means that the game's main competitor, Madden NFL 2004, will be out a full month before Sega's struggling franchise."

 

 

"Last year Sega forecasted sales in the millions, but instead of reaping the rewards of their critically-acclaimed game, Sega's football title was still outsold 10-1 by Madden NFL 2003. One of the main reasons attributed to this sales disaster was the fact that Sega released commercial's that looked almost identical to the ads for the Madden series. And since Madden is the better known of the two when it comes to the mainstream audience, Sega essentially spent all of their money to help push their competitor's games right off of the shelves."

 

that sucks

[Guest Flyboy]

Yeah. I saw all the pics posted at Football-gaming.com. That's why it's essential for me to get a X-Box or PS2 now, just so I can get EPSN NFL Football and NBA 2K4.