Bill Abner Impressions

[ezio]

If anyone is intersted Bill Abner posted early impressions on his blog:

http://nutweasel.blogspot.com/

[ryan36]

I'm happy to see Bill things OL ratings matter, this was huge for me. Being able to complete 38 passes to a HB stinks tho. And his comments on the wounded duck, didn't they patch this last year?...sounds like a day 1 or 2 patch is in the works.

[SoxFan01605]

Some good points. Glad to see the Extra Point wasn't flat out removed (a little thing, but cool). I know all these things are individual, but I'm also glad that running feels so good to him and ratings seem to matter in blocking. Still bummed to see that DB AI is still so bad.

As he said though, it's with a "beta" version of the game, so hopefully any early patches include a fix to cover that.

On a side note, it's kind of amusing to me that they are actually releasing retail games and openly referring to them as "beta" in any way...the "launch patch" is officially the standard, I guess...lol.

[Dog]

good stuff. cant wait for this game!

[KingV2k3]

Thanks for posting the link...

I'm always very interested in Bill's impressions...

[ryan36]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoxFan01605

Some good points. Glad to see the Extra Point wasn't flat out removed (a little thing, but cool). I know all these things are individual, but I'm also glad that running feels so good to him and ratings seem to matter in blocking. Still bummed to see that DB AI is still so bad. As he said though, it's with a "beta" version of the game, so hopefully any early patches include a fix to cover that. On a side note, it's kind of amusing to me that they are actually releasing retail games and openly referring to them as "beta" in any way...the "launch patch" is officially the standard, I guess...lol.

LOL, that's what I'm basing my assumption on...but the thing is, if the day one patch takes up half the free ones...would they be better off waiting a week or two for impressions?

Although it seems patch #1 is more technical and patch#2 is more gameplay,so possibly that's SOP for EA now?

[ChubbyBanana]

Nice Read. Seems abner was a little more calm in his impressions than he usually is. Also seems like he might actually be enjoying the game a bit more.

Sad to hear that kick returns are still difficult a la NCAA, but hopefully something that can be addressed.

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryan36

LOL, that's what I'm basing my assumption on...but the thing is, if the day one patch takes up half the free ones...would they be better off waiting a week or two for impressions? Although it seems patch #1 is more technical and patch#2 is more gameplay,so possibly that's SOP for EA now?

Well, I don't know how it applies to their patch allotments, but it's a good question though. I would be interested to know how that works as well.

As far as SOP, it seems to be that way for games in general, not just EA. I don't know too many games (especially sports...or anything on an annual cycle) that comes out now without a patch at launch or shortly after.

Guess it's the nature of the beast; blessing and a curse. Faster fixes, but weaker QA in general (or so it seems). At least the truly bad stuff can actually (in most cases) be fixed though.