"budget" gaming question

[dfuze]

I got my 360 last Sept but haven't had much time to use it. Now I finally have time to get to use it but have a question. While my overtime is slowly coming back, I'm relegated to browsing the used games for now. My question is if I grab some older games, like an NHL 09 I know I can play locally against my kids fine, but are the online live portions of those types of games closed down as new versions of the game are released?

 

[DJK Frank 16]

I can't say for NHL for sure, but a lot of older games that I still play, you can still access the multiplayer, there may not be a whole lot of users online, but I don't think it would be disabled.

 

[BoberFett]

Depends. EA is known for shutting down the servers for some games.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/ea-shuts-down-25-game-servers-including-madden-09.ars

 

[dfuze]

Thanks for the link to the list, I'll keep that in mind when looking around gamestop.

Wonder if google will find me a list for all game companies, not just EA

 

[gorcorps]

Not only is EA shutting down old servers, but starting w/ 2011 games they've required you to buy the game new to access the online content or pay 10-15 extra to enable it. Every new copy comes with a one time use code that almost certainly wouldn't be found in the used copy, so you have to pay extra for it.

Not only that, but EA seems to be taking AWAY options in the NHL games in each year. In NHL 2009 I could customize how fast players go, how hard they check, how fast the passes were, etc... both local AND online (non-ranked).

In NHL 2011 online you can only toggle all rules on/off (can't pick and choose), you can't disable the incredibly frustrating new passing method, and you can only change the game clock to 5 minute increments. This is for online unranked play with friends. All these options are available offline, so why did they take them away when I'm just playing with a friend in a scrimmage game?

EA is burning us every single year and we have to take it because there's no competition. I hate it. HATE HATE HATE IT

 

[RavenSEAL]

Ea sucks at making sports game, FIFA being the exception to the rule, and that's because euros aren't afraid to burn down their offices.

 

[dfuze]

I heard about that extra fee for the used games when they rolled it out but forgot about it, thanks for the reminder.

Just curious, is it only EA that is shutting down tons of the old games online servers?

 

[AstroManLuca]

The older sports games are fine if you are okay with outdated rosters and little or no online access. EA's monopoly has kept them from doing much to improve their sports games year over year, so going back one or two revisions doesn't hurt much.

Personally I almost never play them online anyway. The games are really unbalanced and the kiddies all find glitches and overpowered strategies to win. Actually, I find the same applies to offline play against the computer too, but that's just me.

FWIW, I actually did manage to get into a game against another real person in Madden 09 a few weeks ago. Even though they supposedly shut down the servers. Don't know how that works.