EA and their online policy

[NeilMcRae]

Many people have slated EA for their anti-Xbox Live policy but this week I experienced one of the pros of this policy. A couple of mates got Need for Speed:Underground for PS-2. I've got the PC version and I thought that we wouldn't be able to play against each other. I was wrong - you can. PC and PS-2 play on the same online servers and it works really really well. Well done EA.

Regards,
Neil.

[DjSatansfury]

Erm, except you dont need a proper key code to make an account, there patching system is ****ing stupid

and

everyone cheats, and EA has done **** all to stop it

Well Done EA

[John Beaulieu]

good online system - **** game

well done EA

[Max M]

Nice, I think you could do that with Quake 3 on Dreamcast too.

[Ginger Tosser]

How does their system work then ?

[Papercut]

How does their system work then ?

It's not 'garden-walled' like the Live list servers; they've just made their game servers publicly accessible over the Internet. Nothing special about that at all.

You could even argue it's a lazy approach to online game hosting; they aren't optimising for any particular platform, and any future patches to the PC version cannot change any fundamental net code (unless they roll out a second batch of game servers). Bottom line - they're saving money on servers and hosting.

No different than what was happening with online Dreamcast games in terms of availability. As mentioned, Quake III worked with a certion version of the PC original. Someone even ripped the DC exclusive levels so people could serve them, until he got into trouble and everyone had to pull them.

[Ginger Tosser]

Ta, thanks for that.

It'll be nice if EA made some their CG titles online as well (or maybe they assume nobody has managed to get a BBA yet !).

[Papercut]

It'll be nice if EA made some their CG titles online as well (or maybe they assume nobody has managed to get a BBA yet !).

I imagine they wouldn't want to have to support the modem (gcn being the only current console that has a modem), and as you say the bba is generally unavailable.

Hmmm, thinking about it, the US PS2 network adaptor also has a modem built in, so that doesn't really explain it. I guess with only one online game (or two if you count the sequel) EA might feel that the market isn't there for online gcn games.

[Max M]

Strangely Splinter Cell 2 is gonna be online on the GameCube, so maybe Nintendo's trying to get some online support for next year.

[Ginger Tosser]

Better late than never suppose !

[JibberX]

As usual its just a big fat marketing smudge by EA, they can now have the "online" ticked on their boxes like its an achievement, I wonder how many people play FIFA online?

[NeilMcRae]

Erm, except you dont need a proper key code to make an account, there patching system is ****ing stupid

and

everyone cheats, and EA has done **** all to stop it

Well Done EA

Keycode? What are you on about?

Same thing on XBox Live. Loads of cheats on Rainbox Six Three and MS have done nothing about it. I agree about the patching system mind you.

Regards,
Neil.

[NeilMcRae]

good online system - **** game

well done EA

whats so **** about it? I think its pretty cool.

[John Beaulieu]

well - if you discount the crappy framerate, the dodgy 'blur' effects, the poor handling, the lack of replays (something which a game based on modding cars requires imo - whats the point in customising your personal ride upto the max if you then can't see it in replays) -- yep your right its a pretty cool game 8)

for me this game is a step back for the need for speed franchise - hot pursuit 2 (on ps2 anyways) was a masterpiece of arcade racing, it might not have been in the upper echelons of games which everyone quotes normally in these threads (unlike RR5,PGR etc etc) but it was enjoyable enough to keep me occupied for some time ... whereas NFS:U isn't (on any platform i might stress - regardless of how one poster told us that the PS2 version of said game was 'pretty good' before its release)

and drifting into off-topic territory here .. how Edge could give this the same score as PGR2 is beyond me

ps EA's online strategy could be a winner ... if only they would keep the online aspects intact for all territories

camps

[NeilMcRae]

well - if you discount the crappy framerate, the dodgy 'blur' effects, the poor handling, the lack of replays (something which a game based on modding cars requires imo - whats the point in customising your personal ride upto the max if you then can't see it in replays) -- yep your right its a pretty cool game 8)

for me this game is a step back for the need for speed franchise - hot pursuit 2 (on ps2 anyways) was a masterpiece of arcade racing, it might not have been in the upper echelons of games which everyone quotes normally in these threads (unlike RR5,PGR etc etc) but it was enjoyable enough to keep me occupied for some time ... whereas NFS:U isn't (on any platform i might stress - regardless of how one poster told us that the PS2 version of said game was 'pretty good' before its release)

and drifting into off-topic territory here .. how Edge could give this the same score as PGR2 is beyond me

ps EA's online strategy could be a winner ... if only they would keep the online aspects intact for all territories

camps

In my view its a better game than PGR2. And the PC version, on my PC I get frame rate of about 120FPS . The PS-2 version with the blur gives a much better indication of speed than PGR2 does. Agree about the replays a big miss. Not sure why they are stripping things out of the UK games but I'm going to try and find out.

Neil.