Last week Crescent Moon Games announced on their Twitter that they would be publishing an upcoming game called Last Knight, developed by Toco Games. Attached to that announcement tweet was a promo image that didn’t show actual in-game graphics, but did hint at the cartoony art style in the game and provided several interesting tidbits of information.
First, the game is described as an “endless 3D jousting” game, although more accurately it’s a third-person endless running game with a jousting theme. As explained by Josh from Crescent Moon, you’ll travel down a path in various environments and encounter evil knights and other types of enemies as you collect gems along the trail. The second bit of information we know about Last Knight is that it’s being built using the Unreal Engine, and it’s looking mighty sharp as you can see for yourself in the first screenshots of the game (click to enlarge):
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the promo image claims that Last Knight will include ragdoll horse physics. Again, that’s ragdoll horse physics. Long have I waited to finally see a game which will accurately portray a horse flopping around the physics environment of a game, and Last Knight promises to fulfill that wish for me. So far the game isn’t scheduled for release more specifically than “this Fall”, but we’ll keep our eyes open for any more pertinent information on Last Knight and in the meantime you can discuss the game in our forums.
I love this.
This is amazing.
The Madden series in general has completely lost me (even though Im not big on football), its generally good ideas muddled with inconsistent presentation and gameplay mishaps. Although Im mostly talking about the console versions, so I guess I'll check this one out.
Lost me a while ago and I'm a huge Football fan.
Damn I miss 2k football
Eli - look I get rehashing the old review; it's a great metaphor for what EA appears to have done - rehash Madden 11. My real beef with the review is this: do you, as a gamer, think that it's OK for EA to have rehashed last year's game and slap a "12" on it? Shouldn't we expect more from the iOS Madden team? Shouldn't we say that just because EA has a lock on the NFL license, doesn't mean they can just "phone it in" this year? I'm curious what you *really* think about this...but I get the joke.
It's what EA does. They find an IP that sells and milk it dry through yearly iterations. Whether or not it's "OK" is up to the consumers that speak with their dollars, and I don't think there's ever been a year where EA didn't sell millions of copies of Madden due to their monopoly on the NFL branding, players, and everything else.
Thats the thing, theres no practical reason for EA to not annualize their sports games, other than having a better game which would still sell just as well. Liscensed products always make for dicey games.
I understand that's what EA does - look, I've been gaming since video games were called pinball machines! So, I get EA's M.O., but as a reviewer, you have an opportunity to take EA to task somewhat. Of course, I realize there's a symbiotic relationship between publishers and reviewers, but my opinion is that's what editorial balance is about.
At the end of the day, I guess I feel you could have called EA out a little bit more directly, and said that what was a big improvement last year, is not good enough this year.
Thanks for reading.
I don't know. I thought a copied and pasted review from last year was about as harsh a "call out" as you could get. :)
I agree. It's pretty clear what he is saying.
They phone it in every year and it doesn't matter if it on a console, computer, or iOS. It's the same damn thing year after year and the reason they do it is because people gobble the sh** up. If people would stop buying this crap then maybe EA would actually make a new Madden game.
this made my day:)
what you did with the review is what EA did with Madden's code
I guess this means that the 11 version can't update rosters any longer. It probably didn't looks so good with last year's edition sitting on the app store. Even the choppy slowdown is still there. Oh well, maybe they will update it at some point. I only paid a buck for 11 so I'm not complaining. It was worth a buck. I'd wait for 12 to be a buck
Great review, hope someone from EA takes this to heart.
(while we're at it..)
Dearest EA:
If you release a clean port of NHL 95 I will buy it. And if you release that same port of NHL 95 every single year hereafter I will purchase it again each consecutive year. How about it? No tweaks, no upgrades, no updates, no effort. Same game, same love, same cash. I want it.
Wasn't 95 where they changed the whole game engine? If it was then 94 was my favourite - where they first introduced "One Timers" - that game was friggin awesome
Whichever one let's you "bleed out" your opponent. 95' (if it's the one I'm thinking) is a gem and one that still gets played on the Genesis.
lol @ real football
I agree with DotComCTO. EA needs to be called out on their lazy work ethic. I understand that you kind of reach a plateau when striving to improve sports games. However, that doesn't mean you shrug your shoulders & peddle last years game. Forget expanded playbooks & leaderboards. Can I get a Madden game that doesn't repeat the same 5 corny lines?
Re-hashing(if the game itself, was stellar at it's core) is cool, but Madden on iOS has been poor from the outset.
I mean, just LOOK as the pi$$ poor animations & stuttery graphics. A complete joke, that's been using the same game engine for nigh on 4 years straight, which probably originated from the PS2.
A total slap-in-the-face for the fans.
Love the strikethrough review - says it all! I got into Madden on the PS1 i.e. Madden 2000 or 1976 or something... How far have they really moved forward with these iterations? There's no consistent improvement, just:
a. 2 steps fwd, 1 bk
b. 1 step fwd, 1 bk
c. 1 step fwd, 2 bk
(adjust according to year)
Put some stuff in, take some out...
...and another thing...if 2012 were good enough EA wouldn't have to remove 2011 from the Appstore. It should be able to hold its own against the cheaper older model
End of rant...I'm off to let off steam on the netball court
I'm afraid this is EA's (and Gameloft's) new game - why tempt people with a discounted previous version when the app store lets you 'disappear' it?
Sheesh - now that you poitned it out I just noticed that 2011 was removed from the Appstore. Those EA f*$&ers! Glad I have a copy of the game on my PC. Terribly lame that I can't download it from the Appstore now though.
Now *that* was comedy, err, review, GOLD!