EA's premium ripoff: football tutorial videos on XBLM
Electronic Arts released today a set of video strategy guides for NCAA 07 Football and Madden NFL 07 over Xbox Live. Each five-minute tutorial costs 160 MS points ($2.00) and covers either Running, Passing, Run Defense, or Pass Defense.
While $2.00 is relatively cheap, a tutorial is a feature of the game that should be included when you buy it, especially at $60. On top of that, tutorials (video and otherwise) are available all over the internet for the low, low price of nil. GameFaqs has an enormous .txt strategy guide, 1UP has an in-depth guide of Madden NFL 06, and both IGN and Madden Planet have video tutorials that you can use for free. Not only that, but with these guides you can play Madden on your Xbox 360 while reading/viewing the free guides, making their application that much more pertinent.
We decided to try one of the videos out, purchasing a Passing strategy guide for Madden NFL 07. The 246.34 MB downloaded provided little that would help our game. The video depicts a series of in-game passes with the occasional overhead view; once or twice arrows and yellow circles were used to highlight a player but it did not complement the announcer. To understand the voice-over commentary, it is assumed that you have a good grasp on formation and position terminology. If "using the safety to cover the back" goes over your head, this video is not for you -- then again, if you are well-versed in football slang, you will likely learn nothing new anyways.
The end of the video gives you four bullet points that sums up the entire tutorial:
Use screens to slow down the blitz
Key on MLB to make your man or zone reads
Use your hot routes to attack defensive mismatches
Use route combinations to impose your will on teh defense
Remind us again why we spent money on this? Even at only $2.00 per video (for a total of $16.00), these tutorials seem like a waste of cash.
[Thanks, Scott]
Read -- NCAA 07 Videos (Major Nelson)
Read -- Madden NFL 07 Videos (Major Nelson)
