AFL Evolution - Launch thread

[Buddy Love#23]

I don't understand why people are starting careers or seasons before the patch to fix all the glitches and bugs. Its a waste of time because when the patch comes out in the next week you'll just have to start all over again.

**** me for expecting a competently made game on release, right? I bought this game to play Be A Pro and career modes, which should be working on launch day.

 

[relapse]

I bumped the difficulty down to easy so I could mark on a regular basis. It makes it a bit too easy to move the ball, but at least now if i'm in position I get the mark. I'll bump it back up once i've got the timing down.

I'm really enjoying this game

When you play on the easier difficult levels you see how much fun the game could be.

The problem I think is that WW have taken shortcuts with the AI so I suspect the marking and free kicks are deliberate CPU cheese that they have used as a way to increase the difficulty of the game on the harder levels.

 

[edgie]

Does anyone think that handballs travel too far in the game?

Not if you've seen an Ah Chee handball

Sent from mTalk

 

[Sixpence]

Richo pronounces Dan Houston as 'Howston'. Carn. Surely even if you've never heard of Dan Houston the footballer, you would've at least heard of Houston the place?

It's not pronounced the same everywhere, not even in the US. The city is pronounced Hyooston, but Houston St in New York is pronounced Howston. SoHo is short for South of 'Howston'.

 

[Freo16]

The free kicks are a huge bugbear though.

As soon as you play at medium or above when you tackle the CPU one of three things will happen; it's a ball up, the ball spills out directly to a teammate or they pay a free for a push in the back/high tackle.

When you're tackled, even with no prior opportunity, it's called holding the ball or throwing the ball pretty much every time without fail.

I've been playing on hard recently and have found the free kicks aren't a big problem anymore

If I tackle an opponent it either spills to a teammate (which is usually justified as they've managed to get the hands out) or it's a ball up (again they've been justified as the Ai haven't had prior)
I'm even starting to get more holding the balls calls against the Ai when I concentrate and play high intensity

The advantage rule needs some tweaking though

 

[Bardo State]

I think I've come to terms with what this game is. It's not a great game. You'd be stretching to call it a good game. But there's enough there when you string together certain passages of play as well as a pretty well specced game in terms of modes/teams/customisability.

I wouldn't recommend the game to anyone that isn't a footy nerd, but I think it's still just good enough to be worth it for me.

Players are robotic and clunky changing direction instantly, the graphics and animations are pretty shite, players are far too glued to their direct opponents, the ball can bounce around like a balloon, set shots are pretty much auto-goals, you have to be awful not to win 80%+ of the hit-outs, certain rules like AI running right across the mark just aren't implements (and thank God for that btw cos every fourth mark would result in a 50) and the commentary may as well not have been implemented. There is nothing about this game that is great other then the fact that it's a footy game. In fact, considering the developer size, the one redeeming factor of this game is that occasionally it feels like an open, free-flowing footy game. Certain stoppage passages and possession chains 'feel' like they should in a footy game. That and the variety of game modes should give it some replay-ability. I suppose the distribution of free kicks (in the back, high, throwing etc) seems pretty reasonable. Not too often to be frustrating, but not rare enough to feel super unrealistic.

Currently crushing with a Coaching career at Carlton on hard. No doubt if the AI goal kicking bug was fixed I would have lost some more games but the last few games haven't even been close. Probably should move the difficulty up to legend because things were competitive at the start but are getting silly now. Jack Silvagni is gonna win the Coleman by a stupid amount at this stage.

Is it common for everyone else to just dominate the hit-outs no matter what? It has only been against Sandilands so far that I don't win the vast majority of hit-outs even on early timing. Even then I would have had more than twice Fremante's HO count by the end of the match.

 

[KaiserJovan]

Just had my first quick sesh tonight on Season Mode w/medium difficulty. Some thoughts (though I don't think they are groundbreaking):

- Love the handballing in this game, you can get a decent run of play going.
- Sound production in this game is the absolute pits. Looping crowd track, that shitty MIDI umpire's whistle, the weird grunts that come from players and by far the worst commentary in any iteration (Richo, really?????) turning it off is a must for the sake of your brain.
- Managed to get a decent grasp on the marking thanks to reading countless posts here (spoiling also helps), kicking to one on ones is fine, but I'm struggling when it comes to packs and the bane of my existence - kick-ins.
- Speaking of kick-ins, what in the ****, the AI goal kicking being this terrible is simply no excuse.
- Love the set shots thus far, slightly more of a challenge than AFL Live 1
- I'm actually really glad they got the licensed AFL team songs for this, I almost cried happy tears when it was the actual song and not some monotone cover
- I am getting pinged for throwing the ball wayyyy too often, how do the free kicks mechanics work in this game anyway? Rarely get holding the ball, are high tackles random or penalised by aggressive tackling w/sprinting like AFL1?

Overall very rough around the edges, but there are pockets of fun to be had. We'll see how I go after a week in.

 

[edgie]

Holding the ball seems automatic of you play on from a mark, take a bounce, or just have the ball for a few seconds. I don't really have a problem with how they've done that. Probably more consistent than the real thing.

Sent from mTalk

 

[GoldbergsGold]

We get it! You hate the game! Big Ant would be a 1000x better in your opinion. We've heard it 300+ times. Do something else besides whining!!!!

I stated in that petition thread that you bumped because "AFL De-evolution is so crap" that you're better off starting a campaign to petition the AFL to fund more into their games or To approach BigAntStudios with everyone else who really wants Big Ant back about making another pitch for the AFL game rights besides posting the same crap day-in, day-out.

Jesus, It's almost like you're getting paid for this. No person has this amount of time available in a day or the absolute care to post the same amount of posts everyday with the same subject. ("AFL De-evolution is a reskinned AFL Live 2. Big Ant would have done much better than Wicked Witch and we should all beg and plead Tru Blu to bring them back as AFL Live was a 1,000,000x better than AFL De-evolution.") If you're really that concerned about the quality of AFL video games and you really want to move Heaven and Earth to get back Big Ant to make another AFL game in-between their busy schedule of creating the Don Bradman and Rugby League Live series because you see Wicked Witch as the Anti-Christ of AFL Gaming.

Get off your arse and do something about it!!!!

You're not going to achieve anything if you keep posting that childish drivel! There are better ways for you to use your time than telling everyone that you hate AFL Evolution... Sorry "AFL De-evolution" for the 25th time this week. WE GET IT!!!!

Move on!

Jesus, At least the other guys who don't like the game at least provide actual criticism.

 

[Aflsquads]

http://stevivor.com/reviews/afl-evolution-review-afl-devolution/

Btw, before I get jumped on - it's not me.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Wicked Witches any chance of some more varied kits for create a team in a patch at some stage?

I know these are carried over from AFL Live, but is there any reason the generic kits couldn't have just been some basic, well known footy designs like sashes, stripes and hoops in a few different colour variations. Given how easy some people on this board have found it to mod the PC version of the game, surely it would only take someone an afternoon to whip up some more common generic designs in various colours.

Alternatively, give us a way of editing the textures and importing them ourselves. I know it can be done relatively easily on PC, but there's obviously no way to get that into a PS4 or XBOX game at the moment.

 

[RoosterLad]

Agree with that. I made North Adelaide and I am using the Canada guernsey because it's red and white. The maple leaf is not quite the same as our V.

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk

 

[Xtreme]

I've sunk quite a bit of time into it since the first night of release, checked the Xbox stats and even I was surprised (averaging 4 hours a day, keep this up and it will be more hours sunk into it within the first month than say 3 months worth of nba 2k or fifa. Managing to do it while having small goes at other games plus mario kart on the switch). I have a few benchmarks that I want to achieve with the game, even when interest wanes (I can't play the same game forever!) I can see myself playing a match here and there.

In my current season output I should be able to get Roughead to 100+ goals in the season (should finish at 147 goals going by current average).

I'd like to see if I can improve and get a bigger winning margin.

I had a game where the wind was the hardest to "aim" at goal that I've ever experienced. Attempted a torpedo where I compensated for the wind whereby I aimed as though I was kicking at another set of goals further on the left hand side. The ball still managed to be affected by the wind to the point where it sailed so far to the right it went out on the full, Warnie would have been proud of the air velocity.

 

[SugarShane]

Wicked Witches any chance of some more varied kits for create a team in a patch at some stage?

I know these are carried over from AFL Live, but is there any reason the generic kits couldn't have just been some basic, well known footy designs like sashes, stripes and hoops in a few different colour variations. Given how easy some people on this board have found it to mod the PC version of the game, surely it would only take someone an afternoon to whip up some more common generic designs in various colours.

Alternatively, give us a way of editing the textures and importing them ourselves. I know it can be done relatively easily on PC, but there's obviously no way to get that into a PS4 or XBOX game at the moment.

It's definitely possible. And you could be forgiven for thinking they'd implement new guernseys when they built the game "from the ground up" rather than reusing old assets.
DBC14 had the right base/foundation idea of giving you a variety of designs and letting you recolour each section individually. While on DBC 17 you can import actual textures to the game on all platforms which makes creating 100% accurate uniforms a breeze, meaning you can use stuff like this on PS4.

 

[CasuallyDressed]

Played 16 games for 47 goals 18 behinds in the mycareer on hard.

I put it up to legend and the ball never comes near me, so it's basically dominate or never have the ball come down to you.

 

[AngryRanga]

Played 16 games for 47 goals 18 behinds in the mycareer on hard.

I put it up to legend and the ball never comes near me, so it's basically dominate or never have the ball come down to you.

The difficulty for Be-A-Pro is basically where do you want the ball to be. Easy/Medium= your forward line, Hard/Legend= your backline

 

[Freo16]

It's definitely possible. And you could be forgiven for thinking they'd implement new guernseys when they built the game "from the ground up" rather than reusing old assets.
DBC14 had the right base/foundation idea of giving you a variety of designs and letting you recolour each section individually. While on DBC 17 you can import actual textures to the game on all platforms which makes creating 100% accurate uniforms a breeze, meaning you can use stuff like this on PS4.

I wouldn't be surprised if WW aren't allowed to do what big ant did with custom uniforms in DBC17, if a licensed AFL game has logos in the game that aren't allowed it could potentially cause legal trouble for the AFL

I guess we'll find out when RLL4 releases if big ant can do it with a licensed game

Custom team creator is something that needs some work for Evolution 2, I don't think it'll happen for a patch which I'm fine with

 

[El_Scorcho]

It's definitely possible. And you could be forgiven for thinking they'd implement new guernseys when they built the game "from the ground up" rather than reusing old assets.
DBC14 had the right base/foundation idea of giving you a variety of designs and letting you recolour each section individually. While on DBC 17 you can import actual textures to the game on all platforms which makes creating 100% accurate uniforms a breeze, meaning you can use stuff like this on PS4.

Yeah, RLL3 is brilliant in it's creation suite as well. It's strange that they've put so much into their player creation tool, which is as good as anything else on the market, but completely ignored the club creation suite.

I can live with the current system if they don't want to introduce full customisation, but there just needs to be a better choice in generic kits. The biggest problem really is that none of the generic kits are recognisable classic footy designs. Give me some stripes or hoops or sashes or chevrons or something. Give me prison bars.

 

[FearTheBeard13]

It's definitely possible. And you could be forgiven for thinking they'd implement new guernseys when they built the game "from the ground up" rather than reusing old assets.
DBC14 had the right base/foundation idea of giving you a variety of designs and letting you recolour each section individually. While on DBC 17 you can import actual textures to the game on all platforms which makes creating 100% accurate uniforms a breeze, meaning you can use stuff like this on PS4.

Tom Fell?! Is he okay?

 

[FearTheBeard13]

I've come to accept that muting the commentary is the only sane way to play this game in hour-long blocks. Richo was a horrible choice, but I'm also a 2K fanatic and shouldn't compare, but BOY OH BOY WOWEEEEEE......

 

[relapse]

Just had my first quick sesh tonight on Season Mode w/medium difficulty. Some thoughts (though I don't think they are groundbreaking):

- Love the handballing in this game, you can get a decent run of play going.
- Sound production in this game is the absolute pits. Looping crowd track, that shitty MIDI umpire's whistle, the weird grunts that come from players and by far the worst commentary in any iteration (Richo, really?????) turning it off is a must for the sake of your brain.
- Managed to get a decent grasp on the marking thanks to reading countless posts here (spoiling also helps), kicking to one on ones is fine, but I'm struggling when it comes to packs and the bane of my existence - kick-ins.
- Speaking of kick-ins, what in the ****, the AI goal kicking being this terrible is simply no excuse.
- Love the set shots thus far, slightly more of a challenge than AFL Live 1
- I'm actually really glad they got the licensed AFL team songs for this, I almost cried happy tears when it was the actual song and not some monotone cover
- I am getting pinged for throwing the ball wayyyy too often, how do the free kicks mechanics work in this game anyway? Rarely get holding the ball, are high tackles random or penalised by aggressive tackling w/sprinting like AFL1?

Overall very rough around the edges, but there are pockets of fun to be had. We'll see how I go after a week in.

I have worked out my own strategy with kick ins.

My advice is to never kick straight down the ground, you turn 45 degrees either left or right and kick it into open space.

When you go to kick out you have to check which side is open, one side will 2 players standing there at the 50 (you never kick that side) you then turn to the opposite side on a 45 degree angle (which should be open) and kick to the open side. I have found by doing that normally either your player will lead into that space or the ball will just hit the ground in open space and it makes it far easier to get the ball out of the back 50 because you're not kicking to a contested marking situation.

Since I have been doing that I find it far easier to get the ball out of the backlines after the CPU kicks a point and it has stopped the cycle where the CPU keeps marking the ball from the kick in and then kicks s a point.

 

[Tom12]

I'm not someone who's comparing the game at all to the 2K/EA counterparts.

But I just can't get into it - the camera angels aren't great. Why not have a simple 'hold to rotate' sort of thing that can be implemented.

I hate that it's 18 one on one contests but I do enjoy the ball movement in general link up play - even if trying to create space and a free player side or slightly forward (forget backwards) of the ball is very difficult.
Considering that's how any game of AFL is played for the large part - not being able to adapt to the modern game, even so slightly, is an oversight and probably hard to fix in a patch.

There's positives to be had, but when it doesn't feel like a game of footy outside of handball chains it's a bit disappointing.
I'll give it a bit of time though and see what the first patch or two holds.

 

[GrimRe4per]

Such a cop out these, "You just don't know how to play the game" arguments. And then he says Live 1 wasn't all that great. I'd like to agree, but to insinuate Evolution is better is just absurd. They incorporated a lot of the mistakes that the PS2 games had into De-evolution. Where Live 1 was a completely different more competent Football game. I said before, I don't know if Wicked Witch have been doing that on purpose, however, they did say they implemented things from those old games on one of the threads.

He seemed to really enjoy AFL Live 1 though?

 

[SugarShane]

I can live with the current system if they don't want to introduce full customisation, but there just needs to be a better choice in generic kits. The biggest problem really is that none of the generic kits are recognisable classic footy designs. Give me some stripes or hoops or sashes or chevrons or something. Give me prison bars.

Yeah full customisation isn't necessary, considering probably 90% of footy jumpers follow a standard pattern. I feel like a broken record saying it (been saying it since before AFL2 came out), but all we need is a similar thing to Ultimate Footy.

Basic designs, pick your colours. Basic designs aren't trademarked, if they were half the country footy clubs would be shut down. It seems pretty inexcusable in a game that prided itself so much on the character creation that the team creation is at best an afterthought.

 

[wcesam]

The advantage rule doesn't work too well

If you give a free kick away, just switch to the player closest to the loose ball and stay away from it until the opponent picks it up for automatic advantage and just tackle them straight away = win