Essentially, the possibilities are endless, from an NFL kids game to an Xbox Live football trivia game to an NFL cheerleader dancing game -- football experiences that we have never seen before.
This sounds fantastic! Let's completely kill off the competition and then release a shitty "trivia" game, a cheerleader dancing game (which actually may tap into an untouched female market) that guys will only get to look at the digital tits, and then completely copy the Backyard sports games for kids. Not to mention that impressively "innovative" title, NFL Head Coach!
Whoo!
But in the next three years, football fans will be able to play five, maybe six -- maybe more -- types of NFL-licensed videogames in total, games that would not have been developed without the NFL agreement. At the very least, EA has demonstrated a commitment to expanding on the NFL license when it very well could have updated rosters and sold millions of copies to disgruntled gamers. If there has to be an exclusive deal, then as football fans, that commitment is all we can ask for.
You know, there are some of us who don't care for all the nonsense and want to play a football video game. Plain and simple. Sure, being immersive with the playbooks and real quarterback voices and stuff is pretty cool, but the last Madden game did a pretty good job of that while being a complete piece of shit to play.
I liked the NFL 2K series when I played the first one on Dreamcast years ago, and NFL 2K5 kicked the shit out of Madden '05 as far as gameplay was concerned, and now they just killed it. Sure we'll be getting some new things from the deal, but I think Madden '06 will be pretty crappy despite the fact it has "real quarterback voices" and "rendered faces."
All I have to say is: Stop all the bullshit and get back to the basics. Cinematic football games are neat, then you throw them away. Good football games are the ones you'll be playing for years after it was released when the roster is "no longer up to date."
I just want Tecmo Bowl back!
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