AFL Live - A Brief Review (PS3 Edition)

Howdy Folks, here is what we have a very short and non-too-detailed review of the new AFL Game that's been out since yesterday on the PS3. (Or Friday if you were lucky enough to live in Western Australia)

First of all, the last AFL game that was released was all the way back in 2007. The last AFL game I probably played was 2004. In comparison those games were crap. The best AFL games ever made were AFL 98 and 99. Thanks to a little bit of help from EA Sports.

 

However AFL live makes a pretty good claim at taking the crown from those EA released games. Last night I spent about 4 hours playing, after a bloody long day at work, followed by another 3.5 hours of Tafe. So I was pretty tried, but excited about having a crack at this game.

Here's a little list of pros and cons that I have thought about after playing the game so far. 

Pros:

* An AFL game for the next gen console, at last.

* Gameplay is excellent. I think its going to always be a challenging game. Previous AFL games were pretty simple to master (even on the harder difficulties) after a couple of matches, I get the feeling that whilst you may be able to dominate some games easily, it won't always be the case. 

* Momentum is huge! Just like in real life. We had a few games last night where our team was cruising 3-4 goals in front before the opposition scored a quick goal  and suddnely got on a roll and started to dominate. We still squeezed home by 4 points in the end, with some good defense. But that situation is very true to life.

Cons

* Graphics. Aren't terrible, aren't awesome. For a game made on a shoestring budget its probably a little unfair to criticise the graphics of this game. However at the same time its an improvement over the older games, where all the plays looked pretty much the same, the only difference was their number on the back of the jersey (obviousness)

* Commentary TERRIBLE! As excepted, if there is one thing that has never improved since AFL '98 its the commentary. Don't get me wrong, commentary in sports games can get stale over time, (NBA 2k11 fans know of the "spurt-ability is what I call it" line that the special comments guy uses pretty much at the start of every fourth period.) AFL live gets stale after about 30 minutes of play.

* Lack of a Career mode, VFL ect. The Wii version has both of these, and it baffles me why the consoles (not sure on the PC version) miss out.  There is a promise that next year's game (if it gets made) will have career mode across the board, I hope so.

* A few stupid little glitches that aren't game destroying or anything, just niggling little issues. For instance a smothered kick can go about 50 meters in the opposite direction (not very realistic)

At the end of the day, I'm just happy to have an AFL Game on the PS3. One that isn't infact complete rubbish. It'll never be as fluid as say FIFA, but its getting there, and a pretty accurate representation of the real thing (except my first game saw North Melbourne absoultley demolish Collingwood (hardly realistic)

Can't wait to play it some more!