Madden demo is out

Ted: Of course I used the Hockey League Simulator as well and did the same thing. :-) Additionally, you could buy updated player disks each year, and on top of that they had a really easy-to-use roster editor so when they eventually stopped making disks, you could still make your own rosters.

I kind-of agree with your comment about 2D helping it play realistically, IMO it's actually the camera angle and small players that did it, but I don't think 2D helped it attain statistical accuracy per se over a 3D game.  I think they attained statistical accuracy because of the game design, the AI, and the tuning, which I'm pretty sure should have worked for 2D or 3D.

Amazingly enough, the gameplay and fun-factor still holds up years later (at least the last time I played it which was a few years ago).  This is true of many old DOS games (and early Gameboy games too) that HAD to have gameplay because they couldn't do much with high-end graphics!!


Last for tonight: WGH III came out before I got into the industry, and when it did I was tremendously upset and bummed out.  They went 3D, and in the process re-did pretty much all the AI and tuning.  I'm not sure why they decided to do that, because except for the puck, hockey mostly happens in 2D anyway (since guys rarely jump).  Anyway it was a completely different gameplay experience, and in the transition the game lost pretty much everything that to me made WGH and WGH II so great.

So I sent a letter to Bethesda Softworks who made the game, praising them for WGH and WGH II and tearing them up for WGH III.  It included point-by-point lists of what they had broken and why it was so tragic.  A few weeks later they called me and offered me a job as an AP on the next version!! :-)

I'm glad I didn't take it as that version never came out, and the series soon thereafter died.

Tried the demo, besides the graphics nothing else really impressed me about the game. The Test feature seemed useless and only being able to be on Offense in a football demo seems really stupid. I think I'll stick with NCAA 09 for now, it certainly is keeping me busy and entertained.