AFL Computer Games

[QLD Tiger]

Just wondering does anyone know of any AFL computer games apart form EA's dismal AFL 98 & 99? Are there any under development, or are there any shareware games around?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[TheMase]

There was a game made in '96' called AFL Finals Fever ...

Not too bad ... its a bit easy though ...
A few years ago I was bored and decided to play a whole match .... 25 min qtrs

I was the Swans and I was playing Carlton ...

I won something like 954 - 60 or something

Lockett kicked 64 goals ... and I think Paul Licuria who was in the side at the time kicked 60...

 

[QLD Tiger]

Thanks Mase I've seen that game, looks dated and as you say the AI must be a joke, Plugger 64 goals? Sure he was good but....???

I wonder if there is a market for such a game and if the AFL would charge huge licencing fees for anyone considering development of such a game.

 

[Macca19]

Originally posted by QLD Tiger
Thanks Mase I've seen that game, looks dated and as you say the AI must be a joke, Plugger 64 goals? Sure he was good but....???

I wonder if there is a market for such a game and if the AFL would charge huge licencing fees for anyone considering development of such a game.

AFL Finals Fever rocked. Because my computer is very quick the game now runs extra quick, which makes it harder - therefore better. You rarely get big blow out scores. With 5 minute quarters (which gives pretty acurate scores to real life games) the scores are usually between the 50-120 bracket.
I sitll usually win every game...and funnily enough the hardest team to beat (and one i rarely can beat) is Fitzroy!!! They are the quickest, and in this agme player speed is the most important thing.

There is a game that will be released VERY soon called 'Aussie Rules Coach'...created by Akaei.

www.akaei.com

It looks alright and is a management game. It doesnt have the AFL licence tho so you have teams like "Paradise Surfers" etc

 

[TheMase]

I can win the 3min qtrs like 150 to like 20 ...
I have scored 200+ in the 3min qtrs before ...
Kick like 8-10 goals per qtr hehe


I reckon it rocks aswell macca hehe!!

 

[Macca19]

In fact here is a review of the game written by Nos from the aus.sport.aussie-rules newsgroup

"Aussie Rules Coach (PC)
by AKAEI
www.akaei.com

review by nos

As great as our national sport is - the relatively small market has meant
that Ccomputer games based on the sport have been few and far between. AFL
99 by Electronic Arts has been the best effort to date but in comparison to
FIFA or THIS IS SOCCER on Playstation it is a very poor game.

Akaei have taken a different route with their take on Aussie Rules. For
Starters - lets get one thing straight - this is not AFL. It's a sport based
video game loosely based around the rules of Australian Football and the 16
teams are all fictitious (Southern Cyclones, the Heroes, Paradise Surfers
etc). Befoe going to far into the differences I'll quickly run through what
is the same as normal football. Well the ground is identical , the ball is
the same , there's 18 players and youe score 6 points for a goal and 1 for a
behind. Now the differences:

There is no Bench!
There are no free kicks except for OOF and Marks. and no 50m penalties
There is no time on
You can't move players between positions during a game
You play each team in the season Once. 15 games in the season plus finals

What you can do before a game:
Choose your team of 18 from squad of 30
View player stats and attributes
View Premiership Table
View Stats for Disposals and Scoring
View Fixture

What you can do during a game:
You can select and single or group or all players in the team
Each player has the following 'Rules' sliders:

SHOOT SHORT -------------------------LONG
PASS SHORT -------------------------LONG
LEAD SHORT -------------------------LONG
TACKLE STAY CLEAR ------------------ATTACK BALL
MARK TAKE KICK --------------------PLAY ON
POSITION SHORT-----------------------LONG
FOLLOW STAY IN POSITION-----------------FOLLOW PLAY
STAY IN POSITION ----------------FOLLOW MATCH-UP

The slider can be set anywhere along the line. So for Tackle - if it was set
to full right then the player would always try and get the ball rather than
hang off for the receive. In addition some sliders also have a second slider
for left and right allowing leads to be set diagonally. Shoot determins from
how far and what angle a player will try and shoot from. Pass is obvious -
either go long or look for short option. players can be set to hold up play
or play on quickly and they the position slider you can have them move up or
back a kick behind or in front of play.

The game is RTS (real time strategy) meaning that it doesn't stop (it does
at the quarter time breaks which are oddly enough called Tactical Timeouts)
but you can change all the slides on the fly. So if your full forward marks
too far out and you have him set to shoot from any distance but see a player
leading into space you can (in theory) change his slider in time to have him
change his decision making process. I've done it a few times but find that
it's more important to just have a full match strategy planned.

On the technical side you have a few camera views and the ability to speed
up the game to double time. Camera modes include TV coverage - live (full
width of ground)and player focus (follow one player). You also have a radar
view which is suprisingly helpful.

I played one season to teach myself the game and learn the nuances and got
to the grand final in my first effort - so ithought geesh I'll have this
beaten by my second go, I chose the Southern Cyclones (coz their logo is an
upraised arm holding a windswirl a bit similar to Port's Power logo) - they
came 6th last year and have fairly average stats across the board but they
are fairly fast. in my second go with them I had each player sussed out and
playing in his correct position and I had an excellent tactic going that saw
me win the minor premiership with 13 wins and 2 losses and an enormous
percentage (400+). I had all my pockets and flanks move into the corridor
with my wings dropping back into the defensive 50 as sweepers. All players
were told to kick as long as possible down the corridor with my onballers
providing run down the corridor when marks were dropped andthe ball had hit
the deck. But Alas - the game was smarter than I thought - I played the
Sharks in the Grand Final and as the blurb says the AI Coach will adjust
tactics accordingly to beat you. By quarter time i was down 3.0.18 to 0.1.1
. THey had been playing a possession game and taking it wide. They had been
very arsey with their goalkicking (it was like playing the crows!). It looks
like they had changed their mix in the centre as I wasn't getting the
clearances either. Damn the inability to not be able to sub or move players.
My onballers were there for the duration.
I switched the midfield including the wings to go man on man and not play
loose . I got the half forward flanks to play up n the wings and the full
forward line to move up and leave the f50 open like pagan's paddock. 2nd
quarter looked better - I got the opening goal then rattled on 3 points
before they scored a late goal to take a half time lead of 4.0.24 to 1.4.10.
I went with the same tactics for the 3rd quarter trying to manually pick off
players to break to the outer side for switching play - alas it was harder
to time than it seemed. Still I manged to get another goal back and the 3/4
time score was 5.1.31 to 3.5.23. The AI adjusted again for the last
quarter - sending almost every player onto the ball. I had loose players all
over the ground but the play was bottled up on the wing for ages. I scored a
point then another before they suddenly broke and got a goal to seal the
game before a late goal and point by my team left the result at 6.1.37 to
4.7.31

So There's so many things i would do to make this game better - but hey at
least we've got a half decent one now and hopefully they will release a 2002
version.
And until I win the ARC cup I'll keep playing it

I'm starting my 3rd season tonight but I'm gonna try the Vipers (their black
and White like Port Adelaide Magpies!).

Ratings:

Graphics : 4.5 /10 OK Intro Movie, Nice control screens - 3D game
graphics not very clear and the colours of the teams are clashy (sic!)
Sound : 6/10 Drew morphett Samples and crowd noises - at least you
can play your own music cd's (we'll never stop stop stop ..)
Playability: 5.5/10 Limiting in so many ways yet strangely compelling -
Nice to muck around with what if's.
Overall : 5/10 Having the official AFL license would have made this
game almost twice as good. And playing a full season..and having an
interchange bench...and there's no wind or home ground advantage etc etc etc
etc But STILL it's the only decent AFL game on PC . But remember
Championship manager it ain't."

 

[straightshooter]

games suggestions

a suggestion is that we turn all the robotic type players in the AFL eg. jakovich, mick martyn etc into little monsters and get a first person shooter game to blast them all

alternatively the carlton football club could be melted down into a frisbee or some cheap object to throw or kick around the park....that would be a popular game

or how about an ancient empires game where you build up yr club eg. collingwoodm then see it destroyed by by marauding tribes from interstate or opportunistic ****ers like ed mcarse

i'd buy that

 

[TheMase]

Do you know when it get's released macca??

 

[Macca19]

Originally posted by TheMase
Do you know when it get's released macca??

not too sure sorry

 

[Stealth bomber]

It is really a shame that EA discontinued the AFL series because the standard of their products have increased substantially the last few years. I've have a couple of the NCAA Football games as well as NHL 2000 and I've played Madden 2001. The standard keeps getting better.

Not sure how well an AFL game would play though...the problem with EA games (most computer games in general) is the game play is generally pretty unrealistic. EA games always have a problem where the computer opponents are often inhumanly difficult to beat. I bet the graphics they could come up with now would be unreal, though.

 

[jod23]

Man i hate not having a really good AFL Playstation game. AFL 98 and 99 were second rate, too easy and no stats?? This other game Macca speaks of sounds ok at best but no bench and not being able to change positions and stuff like that takes away from the game. Plus i hate not being the Eagles, you have to go the Superstars or the Gorillaz or something gay like that. Plus none of your favourite players play. Very annoying.

If only they would bring out an AFL 2002 super kick ass game. With the quality of sport game they bring out nowadays it would be awesome. But i think the game would be very hard to make work seen as Footy is so freeflowing. I remember in AFL 99 your person on the wing would actually stay right there on the wing and not move all game unless you kicked it to him. No bunch ups at half forwards or people actually following the ball.

With other games there is off sides and stuff like that, Bball is easy because the court is so small and only a certain amount of things can happen.

But with AFL there are 36 players on the field at one time and they can run around and do anything they want. It would be very hard to make and be even harder to make a profit off it because of the small demographic it would sell to. 20 million ppl in Australia, half of them arent even interested in football, half of the remaining 10 million arent gamers, half of the remaining this and that. Not enough ppl would buy it to make a profit.

And that sucks!

 

[raboyle]

The only good thing about AFL 99 on the PC was the Hardware version. Where you got to see the ground so detailed...well done there, but it was too damn easy even on max difficulty.

The Playstation game was alright but was also to damn easy, because the opposition were **** kicks! All they get is behinds because the CPU rushes it.

Maybe if they can make the game more difficult, shove in some extra options...such as uh...

1. Create your own home ground, so you can model a ground to look like your favorite local ground.
2. Create your own league.
3. State of Origin in the middle of your season.
(3a. Hidden International Rules feature?!)

But I am pretty sure that it is a pipe dream, considering that I have contacted Electronic Arts by e-mail and they say that there are not anymore AFL games in production. That sucks...

 

[jod23]

I still think Matty Bretags Footy Fanatic is the best around. His site is back up and running and the new version is very good. Havent found any bugs yet and the rosters are totally accurate now. If you wanna check it out go to his website, the game is totally free.

http://footyfanatic.50megs.com/index.html

 

[Stealth bomber]

I remember in AFL 99 your person on the wing would actually stay right there on the wing and not move all game unless you kicked it to him. No bunch ups at half forwards or people actually following the ball.

That's a problem a lot of EA games have...NHL 2000/2001 is a good example - when you are on offensive attack and have players on either side of you, they don't do anything to set a play up, they just skate around in circles.

 

[golions]

AFL 99 - Talk about unrealistic...

I had one guy at full forward and another player at Centre Half Forward and the rest of the players in defence or midfield.

I'd usually win the ball in the midfield pretty easily and then kick it to the CHF who would kick it to the FF and hewould OUT MARK SIX DEFENDERS in front of goal nearly EVERY TIME...

 

[The Hitman]

Come on folks...you know what the original and the best game was?

The old nintendo game!

I always went Darwin

The Hitman

 

[Macca19]

Originally posted by Stealth bomber
It is really a shame that EA discontinued the AFL series because the standard of their products have increased substantially the last few years. I've have a couple of the NCAA Football games as well as NHL 2000 and I've played Madden 2001. The standard keeps getting better.

Not sure how well an AFL game would play though...the problem with EA games (most computer games in general) is the game play is generally pretty unrealistic. EA games always have a problem where the computer opponents are often inhumanly difficult to beat. I bet the graphics they could come up with now would be unreal, though.

I actually feel the exact opposite to you Stealth. I find that EA spend too much time on graphics and not enough time on the AI side of things.
I often find it takes me about 2 weeks to get so good a game i cant lose anymore, even if i try to lose.
The difference between the 'Amateur' levels and the ' World Class' levels is easy to work out.

I will use EA Fifa games as an example. Quite simply the difference is the opposition is quicker and the umpires cheat. No matter what you do you cant tackle the opposition as you will be called for a foul...yet the opposition can perform acts of thuggery on yourself and they get away with it.

After about 2 weeks you get used to it and you can easily win all the games. I won the World Cup with Aruba!!!

 

[Macca19]

AFL 98 was better than AFL 99...even tho it didnt have as many options.

The only way you could possibly make the game even in 98...which is what i did...was to do a complete season as every team. Dont choose just one team. Select EVERY team.

Say the first game is Port v Collingwood. Choose Port for the first quarter....then swap and play as Collingwood for the second and third quarters, then swap back to Port for hte last quarter.
The scores end up relativly even and its a lot more fun.

AFL 99 is just plain crap...one of the worst games ive played. Not only is it WAY to easy to win...the AI is shocking. They just cant kick. The computers score usually ends up about 3.21 on my computer, just cos they cannot kick.

We can hope and wish for a new AFL game that will kick everythings arse, but its not likely.

 

[CJ]

That ARC game doesn't look too bad! It says on the site, the makers of the game were looking at a release date of July 2001! ummm.... i think they are a bit late!

 

[Joel]

Originally posted by Macca19

The computers score usually ends up about 3.21 on my computer, just cos they cannot kick.

LOL! The computer actually gets the ball enough to kick 21 points?

Haven't played AFL 99 for a while but the computer is lucky to score a point. It is that easy.

On AFL 98, I remember scoring as much as 500 in short quarter games.