Touched for the very first time… The cold metal pads against my feet, the hard metal bar behind me, and in front of me the large circular speakers and a dancing model on the screen. Yes, this was it. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. Finally the soles of my feet were touching a real dancing arcade machine. I knew no fear. I knew no wonder. I was a point of order and calm, fully prepared for the task I was to face. I was ready… Ready to dance!
Finding an arcade in the first place proved to be a challenge. The two that I had known previously both turned out to have been shut down. Alas for the fall of the arcade… Thankfully a trip to a game store got me directions to one on the other side of town, so all was not in vain. The arcade was at the side of a bowling alley, and mostly filled with children and teenagers. It contained two dance machines: Dancing Stage Euromix 2 and Dancing Stage Fusion. Before we go further, I’d best explain for those who don’t know – “Dance Dance Revolution” does not seem to exist in Europe. Instead we have “Dancing Stage” games made by Konami, using the same engines as the DDR games but with different songs. Dancing Stage Fusion apparently uses the same engine as DDR Extreme. I only found all this out after I got home…
The dance games seemed to be the main attraction in the arcade, so I had to wait my turn a few times before I could play. It was £1 per play on both machines (about $1.80 at current exchange rates), which gives you 3 songs to dance to unless you fail one of them. This obviously makes arcades expensive, which is the biggest reason why I’ve been using Stepmania all this time. Considering how much I’ve played I’d be out of pocket by at least £150 ($270) from the last few weeks of gaming.
Euromix 2 first got my attention, and I tried 3 songs on it. Overall I got annoyed with this machine. There were very few songs in the playlist, with pretty much nothing I wanted to dance to, and the menu system was quite poor. For instance it didn’t display the difficulty levels a song had available until you chose it, so for the first song I chose I could only do 4-foot since that’s as high as it went. All my future playing was made on the Fusion machine, which had a mix of old and new popular songs, as well as some DDR “classics” – PARANOIA survivor and the like (no, I did not attempt that). Thankfully on its song selection menu it shows which different difficulty ratings are available underneath the name of the song before you pick it. Some of the songs I enjoyed playing on it were Like A Virgin, Ladies’ Night, and best of all It’s Raining Men. Those reading these articles may have picked up that I have a certain preference for old cheesy classics…
As it turns out I did very poorly on that first 4-step anyway. Getting used to the new interface was difficult. I was like a virgin – fumbling, disorientated, with poor rhythm and often just not hard enough to do the job right. I’m used to playing in just my socks on a thin, soft mat that’s responsive to even the lightest of touches. This large, hard dance machine was cold and unresponsive, requiring firmer and heavier steps to be registered properly, and wearing shoes didn’t help my usual sense of where my feet were. Freeze steps were the worst – often halfway through it wouldn’t sense my foot on the pad any more and I’d get a NG (whatever that means – obviously not as good as the usual OK). This may be due to damage to the machines through abusive players, or possibly I just need lead weights in my shoes to help me dance… To add to my frustration there was a glare on the screens that made me miss arrows now and then. I failed on 2 songs, which I’m not particularly proud of, and more importantly annoyed at since that means I lost my money.
Overall I played around 15 songs, ranging from 4 to 6 foot (mostly did 5s). Interestingly, although I felt like I did terribly, my ratings weren’t too bad overall – mostly Bs and Cs. It seems that the rankings are far more generous in the arcade games, because I definitely wouldn’t have gotten that high a mark for such a performance at home. Also, the difficulty ratings are most definitely toned down from what I’m used to. 6-foots were like 5-foots, 5-foots were like 4-foots, etc. The 6-foots I played had nothing in comparison to the intensity of what I’ve been trying at home lately. None of the songs remotely tired or exhausted me, in spite of a fair amount of perspiration. It’s a pity I didn’t try any 7-foots actually, but with the troubles I was having on the machines I might have just been throwing my money away.
One interesting thing about the machines themselves is the announcers, who come out with all sort of supportive comments as you play. “That was beautiful!” “Hear the crowd go wild!” “You’re fantastic!” I now see why some DDR players get really offended if you insult their genre – they have these damned commentators telling them how amazing they are no matter how badly they screw up! Playing this game on the machines too much would quickly give you an ego the size of Greenland. I don’t have any announcers on Stepmania, but if I’m ever having a bad day I’ll be sure to load one up and hear them praise my footwork.
A new experience for me was getting to see other people play. I was very impressed watching two teenage girls doing a double together (no, not in a sick way, you pervert). Their style of play was quite different to mine – turning their bodies 90º for up and down arrows, and shifting their whole bodies over for single left or right arrows. They were very active and bouncy (I said stop the dirty thoughts!) and moved in time with the rhythm very well. On a couple of the songs I saw them do they got AAs. Watching them I thought they were very impressive, but when I looked at the arrows on the screen I realised they were only doing what looked like 4-foot difficulty. I also saw a couple try out the game for what looked like their first time – trying to use the tutorial mode to learn. Didn’t seem to do them any good though… I’m definitely glad I used Stepmania to learn rather than throwing money away on these useless machines.
Positives: Step-wise this is actually much easier. If the settings were right I could achieve way higher difficulty ratings.
Negatives: Difficult to get to, other music in the background, small selection of songs, annoying menu timers, unresponsive buttons, light glare, other people queuing for a go, not being able to shower straight afterwards, and worst of all having to pay a lot of money to play. I’m beginning to see why one would prefer to play at home…
Overall: An interesting experience, but certainly not something I’d want to repeat. However, this site has never been particularly about what I want, has it…?
August 28th, 2006
Session Time: Two hours split between Sunday morning and Sunday evening. One and a half if you don’t count… well, you’ll see. Advanced a good ways into Level 11.
Let me preface this whole thing by saying, first and foremost, that I am not blind to the deficiencies produced by my playthrough. I will be the first to admit that by only relying on what is presented to me in-game and in the manual, I am missing out on quite a bit of information. So I’ve taken the advice of a few of the people posting here and made a couple changes to what I try. The results have improved my opinion of the game enough to warrant their mention.
First, the idea of selling items in the Auction House over a longer period of time certainly was a good one. The Notched Shortsword of Strength I’d found in a random chest in some godforsaken hole (ahem, beautifully-rendered godforsaken hole) sold for almost double what it would have through an NPC. Also, asking the guards for information actually works. Had someone been kind enough to point that out in-game instead of ignoring me, maybe I wouldn’t have been as lost and pissed off. Finally, I’m getting the impression that being a Shaman isn’t specifically a caster-type role; I found a Dreamwatcher Staff which deals a lot more damage than the mace I’d been using. Of course, finding new armor is getting to be a chore.
Now, then, let’s talk about the 800-lb. ogre in the room. The server queue. Last night, for the first time since starting the trial, I was subjected to the dreaded “Anvilmar is Full” message. Let me reiterate. Anvilmar, a server touted as “new” when I first started in late July, is now a “full” server. Granted, I have not been playing on weekend evenings specifically so I can avoid getting this, but last night I just had to get on. I’d gotten to that point of the weekend where you’re saying, “Goddammit, Monday, just get here already!” So I logged in, saying, “I have to check my auction anyway and get my stuff back”. And found myself at position 130 in line to get in.
Now, yes, 130 is not that bad. It wound up only being a five-minute wait. But, for those five minutes, it was eternity. Can you imagine if someone truly addicted wound up delayed by this screen? I don’t know about you, but even in my quasi-apathy I was pissed. Imagine someone who actually likes the game having to wait. Or, worse, someone who got randomly disconnected in the middle of a party situation or guild event. Getting stuck in line while your allies are getting slaughtered in turn is not going to endear you. You may lose DKP, whatever those are, and that’s Serious Business.
Once I was in, there were no obvious signs that the server was straining. There was no lag, no overpopulation, nothing that would say, “We need to limit the number of people here”. Maybe the server wasn’t straining. That’s a possibility; maybe “full” really means “If we add any more people, there may be 1/128th of a second of lag and heaven forbid that there be lag in my Horde”. It would be nice to know what Blizzard considers “full”. It would also be nice to have something to do during the wait time other than stare at the queue countdown. I mean, sure, you can curse at it, but that gets old after a while and your throat gets dry really fast.
I’ve found that I’m eligible for the Warsong Gulch PvP Battleground, so I’ll be heading into that later this week. Y’know, assuming I can get in.
The Good: Even in a situation where the game’s in a “critical” state, it’s responsive (which makes the spike of lag I had on the first night very very odd). The game remains quasi-fun if you have the time and mood to get into it.
The Bad: I promised that there would be whining when I had to wait, and here it is. Waiting sucks. It’s not clear if I could have tried a character on a different server and still kept my place in line. There should be something more engaging during the queue screen.
Opinion Change: Slightly less. I’m gradually moving away from outright hatred of the game and more into neutral tolerance, but unless something wows me here in the next week or so, there’s no chance I’ll be continuing.
August 28th, 2006
Session Time: About 3 hours spread out over Saturday and Sunday.
So, a quick story before we get started here, no? Went to go pick up Madden ‘07 (Our motto: more pancake tackles with less of the batter. Get it? Batter? In a football game? I kill me sometimes) at what I thought at the time was the nearest store, a Best Buy. I’m not a big fan of Best Buy, but hey, it’s a muggy Saturday morning in Pittsburgh, might as well make the drive as short as possible. So I pull in to this Best Buy and meander over to the PC software and games section. The sports rack is hardly deserving of that title, only a few copies of Madden ‘06 and a copy of NFL Coach. So, for the first time in human history, a male video gamer asked a store clerk for help at Best Buy. “Excuse me, you have any PC copies of Madden ‘07?”
The ‘customer representative’ or what ever the hell they’re calling the work floor drones these days gives me this blank stare like I just harshed his buzz. He’s got surfer bleached blond hair in short, curly, faux dreads. “Sorry, no, they, um, er, uh, you know, sometimes the PC games come out a few months after the consoles.” With that, I was spared having to spend money at Best Buy. I motor home, think about it, do some searching on the Interwebs, and find out it’s released. A drive to an EBGames I found is much closer ten minutes later nets me the game. For PC. Today.
So the case it comes in is about the size of two or three DVD cases. I’m expecting a large manual to help give me some hints with the scary army of controls that’s bound to be in the package. Turns out the booklet is maybe 20 pages. The only controls is a two page table that says in this situation (Passing, Running, Blocking, Defense, etc) pressing these buttons will generate that move. Not really that helpful in the long run. Also, there’s no information about the Franchise Mode or the Superstar Mode. What’s that, I hear you ask aloud to your LCD or CRT screens, what’s Franchise Mode and Superstar Mode? (Go ahead, say it out loud right now. No one’s looking, no, not even that hot chick over on the other side of the computer lab. She’s probably a hot undergrad Psych student. If you start talking to yourself or your screen, that might grab her attention. We here at Unbelievers do our best to help our readers score dates with Psych undergrads). They are two totally different and apparently divergent ways to experience the full frontal assault on the NFL portion of your gamer brain that is Madden ‘07. (Our motto: free night in jail if you play as the Bengals)
Franchise Mode lets you take on the role of the owner of the team. Not only do you get to play games, but you have to worry about how much the coaches are being paid, the price of food in the stadium, and so one and so forth. This, I believe, is the mode I’ll be playing for the majority of my Unbelievers time.
Superstar Mode lets you take on the role of a new draftee onto a random NFL team. You run mini camps, drills, are drafted, do interviews, take the freaking NFL IQ test, and apparently spend the majority of your time as a nickel back used only in 3rd and long situations. Now, this is an admittedly unique approach on the football simulation idea. When you’re on the field, you don’t control the entire team, rather, just your man in your position. You start off with your father’s and mother’s stats. Random data that you can resubmit over and over that determines your base IQ and your position. I ended generating a few sets of parents until I got my cornerback. (Note for those not hip on football lingo. First, hi, how’s the weather in the UK today? Rainy I assume. Second, cornerbacks are the guys who play defense and play deep off the line, protecting against the pass and being a safety valve if any rusher gets through the front seven. If I knew something your futball, I’d say something comparing the two. Just assume I had, please)
The good thing about Superstar Mode is before the NFL draft, you have to run practices. These are just little drills custom fit for your position. As a CB, I had to run tackling drills and drills where I batted down passes and made interceptions. At first I was horrible, but after only a few reps, I understood the controls. And when I say controls, I mean some of what I used to think was the tricky things like ‘batting down passes’ or ‘diving for the tackler’ or ’stripping the ball’. Slicing down the super-mega-ultrazord controls like this really made it easier to learn them.
However, that was the only good thing about Superstar Mode. Since you only really play an active role when your avatar is on the field, if you have someone who isn’t in on every defensive or offensive play, you sit there and watch the play progress without your interaction. Also, the training drills can be found in some of the other modes, so it is not like these things are Superstar specific either.
Franchise Mode, however, seems to be the basic “Play a season and try to get into the playoffs” mode that I remember even back to my Super Tecmo Bowl days. Sure, in this one I can charge six bucks for coffee in my home stadium as well, but seriously, I’m here to play some football (27 years of being asked if I was ready for it every Monday night, yes, yes I am). Now, when I first started the game, it asked me what my default team was. I of course made the choice of my loveless Bills. The main menu screen is Bills themed in background, and all my default choices for games are Bills. If you’re a fan of a specific team, I will admit this is a nice touch. Heck, I even had the option to change how my fans look. Maybe a bit overboard in terms of customablity, but if my Bills cheering section should all have the foam Number 1 fingers, I can make it so.
I started up franchise mode and started the preseason, playing a game against the Carolina Panthers. Here I got the first full audio of Al Michaels (Who really is a great announcer, I have to admit, and his inclusion into the Madden games is nice) and the big man himself, Madden. I don’t know if it’s my imagination or what, but Madden’s comments seem to be lessened then from what I’ve seen in earlier games. He only spouts his tough acting brand of football strategy during long yardage plays, touchdowns, or turnovers. In fact, I hear more of his voice when I use the ‘have Madden select a play’ option on defense than any where else. In other words, I don’t mind the illusionary football commentary as much as I thought I would, because it seems this iteration of the game is less about his voice and more about the actual game.
The game mechanics, even with some drills from Superstar mode under my belt, were, and are, still a challenge to me. Every passing play I have to hold down the 8 button (The right shoulder button on my controller, translate that to R2 if you’re a PS2 person) to see not only which of my receivers are going to be where, but which number I have to press on my controller to pass it to them. I was able to bust out some long balls in my game, but a lot of the time while I was paying attention to the routes I didn’t realize I was running backwards with my QB and that he was about to get sacked. Three different times I was sacked for greater than fifteen yards. I know it’s a skill I need to learn, pay attention to my receivers and who’s in my pocket, but it’s still frustrating to learn.
My controller doesn’t have an analog stick, which I believe controls where my QB is looking during a pass. I don’t know for sure what that narrow white cone that beams out of my QB’s head is, I just have to assume it’s his field of vision. The booklet is not very helpful on telling me what that is, and neither is the in game help. Not even the training drills I’ve done have told me what this is or how to control it. If it become important later on in the season, I may need to get another controller to better mimic the PS2 setup, or figure out the mouse and keyboard system that is it’s PC equivalent.
And as good as my passing is, my running, it ain’t so good. This may be again because of the new blocking feature in Madden ‘07, which I have to assume is done with the analog stick or its PC version, and thus I’m just not doing it. When I select a running play, I try to follow the route that the play is supposed to go, but I rarely hit the holes and get a gain over two yards. This is frustrating, cause I end up passing almost all the time and to me, that just seems cheap. I mean, I’m a Bills fan, not a Colts or St. Louis fan, I like runs every now and then again. The rushing drills I’ve done tell me my pad and/or my skills don’t lend themselves well to rushing. After I hike the ball, I need to alter how I manipulate the controller with my right hand. Before the snap, it’s in the normal four fingers behind the controller, firmly in the palm, thumb having free reign over the buttons. After the snap, I have to flip my hand over and put my middle finger on the 2 button (Triangle if it were PS2), with my pointer on the 3 buttoner, or PS2 X button. 2 is the sprint, 3 is the spin. 5 and 6, which would be above the Triangle and Circle buttons on a PS2 controller (The controller has 6 buttons where the PS2 has 4) do the dekes left and right, and my ring and pinky fingers camp out on those. For sucessful running plays, it seems you need to rapidly hit the spin and deke and stiff arm buttons (The last which I don’t even use, those are the shoulder buttons), while holding down the sprint button. Even with all that, I’m only able to gain one or two yards a carry before I’m tackled. Maybe some use of the rushing drills will improve, but I don’t know.
The crux of all this is that I lost my first preseason game, but only by 4 points. Even with all this chaos, all this lack of control, when the game was close, it was a rush to play. The lead switched back and forth, and like any real good NFL game to watch, it went down to the last play. Now, I decided to take control of a defenseman for the last play and moved up instead of down, which allowed the receiver to get wide open and score the game winning touchdown as time expired. In other words, if I had just sat idly by, I, and by ‘I’ I mean my team, would have won. Yet I decided to be the playmaker for the game winning tackle, and the action of taking control from the PC ended up losing the game from me. Because of this, I’m more likely to play it safe and let the PC make more decisions for me in crunch time than trust my feeble skills.
The Good: The Bills don’t suck as much when I’m in control. The sound isn’t as horrible as I thought it would be, though it’s new, and I reserve the right to throw a brick through the wall when Madden breaks the tenants of logic when he speaks. (Note to my landlord: The Wall in question is not in your building)
The Bad: Still don’t know how I’m controlling anything at times. Things move too fast, which is realistic, but when you’re playing Unreal Tournament, you don’t want the bullets shooting you to be realistic. Superstar mode was 90 minutes of my life I want back. I fear I am wasting my time and the reader’s by not having an analog stick, though it means there’s one less set of controls I have to learn.
Opinion Change: I’ve been starved for football for six months now. Madden ‘07 is fine during the real life pre season when things don’t count, and it’s new. Opinion change to the better a bit, but right now it’s the only game in town. Be interested to see how well it holds my attention when the real NFL season starts in less than two weeks; if that will enhance my urge to play or it will appear to be ‘just a game.’
August 28th, 2006