Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Cheese Head

Now from the title you may think I live in Wisconsin and have a number 4 in the window of my pickup truck. Not even close. This week I want to talk about the all debated topic of cheese on Madden. There are probably to things many to cover here, because if you look around all the message boards across the net, eveyone has there own ideology of what cheese is.

Well for me cheese is using anything that's not in the real game of football. So all you nano blitzers out there I'm talking about you! I thought I was a pretty good player a few years ago. Amongst the buddies I played with I didn't lose a game between 1999-2003. One time I was down by 21 with under 3 minutes in the fourth quarter and came back. The good old days.

Then I went to the world wide web and I got a rude awakening. The very first online game I played on Madden 04 the guy comes out in a goal line blitz. I'm thinking to myself "he's an idiot this is a touch down". Before my hand was off the X button I was sacked. It took me the entire first half to get a hold of all the things he was doing. Needles to say I didn't think I was good anymore.

In the second half I managed to put somethings together and take him off his nano blitz rocker. By the fourth quarter he gave up and pulled the old plug on me. But wait, what is this, I get back to the main menu and I didn't get a win?? Another hard lesson learned by the hand of a cheeser. They work there cheese whiz magic, and find ways to get out of games they can't win playing "staight8" football. I don't even want to talk about the studda step. That was just sicking.

So I'm trying to figure out win did all this start? Win did people get the idea that breaking all the rules to get a win is something to be proud of? Even if your a hardcore gamer and you're at all the Madden Challenges you still haven't accomplished anything. Do people honestly think they done something good because they cheated there way to a win or up the leader boards online?

I really feel like it's a generational gap and too many people these days want something for nothing. No one wants to work or actually have a real skill at something. They want all the "bling bling" to fall in there lap for little effort. That's why I'm apart of the Madden Players League. After to much frustration with online play, I had to find people like myself , who played for the love of the game. And thanks to every one's best friend Google I did just that. I haven't played in any other leagues but I can tell you this one is great.

They have a nice set of rules in place and everyone respects each other. Also the boards are active with many different topics. No league would be complete without a few trash talkers, and they got those too. All in good fun of course. The best part for everyone it's FREE. Also if your interested they have a few spots still open for the new season so check it out. I would like everyone to post any give your best cheese stories and some of the crazy things you have seen online. Tells about anything new you have seen in 08 as well. Next week I'm going to talk about ways you can improve your game. "Cheese Free" of course. Until next time Peace!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

1 week down

So far Madden 08 has been out for a week and a big debate is the PS3 is playing at 30fps and the Xbox 360 is at 60fps. Also we have some online connectivity issues. I'm very happy with the visuals so far. I have not played the Xbox version (not a fan either) but I will give EA the benefit of a doubt on this one since the PS3 did come out later than the Xbox. I love the changes that have been added over the PS3 version from 07.

I barely played that version. It seemed very rushed and a lot of features were just simply left out that you had on PS2. This was suppose to be next Generation gaming but EA dropped the ball on this one . A very big disappoint for myself. Now on 08 I've played about 5 or 6 games online and I've been booted from all but one.

Rumor mill has it EA is coming out with a patch to fix some of the online issue. Well I hope this true. It's all about the online gaming and taking your buddies. Next thing I've heard people are upset about not having is online league play. With the popularity of Madden you would think EA would be all over this. With all the events around the country I thought this would be a no brainier! Can we get a patch for that EA?

I have to say adding the ESPN Sport Radio is a very nice addition. I liked that one from playing Tiger Woods 07. The Game Cast and video highlights are a very nice touch also. Now if they could really take it to the next level and let me have highlights from my online play, or if I could watch my buddies games in the Game Cast and not just get the score board that would be tight.

The one thing I can say the game play feels more real and the defensive AI is much better. Although I am worried that interceptions might be a huge problem this year. In the one online game I did get to play I had about 3 or 4 picks and 2 of those I took to the house from the Red Zone. The new player weapons adds to the realism, but will those become the new cheesers dream? Which is a whole nother blog. What is cheesing and what isn't. Will hit that up next time. Enjoy the new year of Madden I'll post again next week. Until then everyone weigh in.