About 2 months ago I wrote an article proposing what a college football video game could look like in today's world despite all of the player likeness & NCAA licensing issues going on.
Click Here if you want to read that, but let's get to the meat of this article:
Click Here if you want to read that, but let's get to the meat of this article:
So yes, it's true: Doug Flutie's Maximum Football 2019 will be the first college football video game released since NCAA Football 2014! This, in and of itself, is a phenomenal achievement and I tip my hat to the developer Canuck Play.
The game is coming out on PS4 and Xbox One with the following features:
- A 130 team US College Football Dynasty Mode (All generic teams and rosters)
- A 27 team Canadian College Football Dynasty Mode complete with Canadian football rules
- A recruiting mode that partners with Phil Steele
- Phil Steele branding will appear throughout the mode
- Team, Uniform & Roster customization
- A logo editor to create custom logos for your team (or re-create existing logos)
- Unfortunately, no online file share (At least not this year)
- No custom stadiums (At least not this year)
- No online mode (At least not this year)
- No in-game commentary (At least not this year)
So how does the game look? Well we don't know yet. Canuck Play has promised a game-play trailer sometime this summer, but hasn't revealed anything publicly outside of a few player and helmet models. If you're supporting them on Patreon they've revealed all 130 of the generic teams appearing in the dynasty mode. If you follow the game's Twitter account, you'll find that the developer is actually very transparent in the development process as well, constantly throwing out little tidbits of what they worked on that day.
To get an idea of how the game will play, we have to look at the previous 2 games made by this developer, but even that should be taken with a huge grain of salt as the info released by Canuck Play regarding this year's game seems to suggest Doug Flutie's Maximum Football 2019 will be an enormous step forward from their previous entries.
But let's take a dive into the previous 2 games anyway. If you haven't figured it out yet, Canuck Play is based in Canada. I mean Canuck is a slang term for a Canadian so that should have been a dead giveaway.
So their first endeavor was Canadian Football 2017. At the time Canuck Play was a 1 man operation. Yes, that's right. Canadian Football 2017 was made by 1 person (a former EA Sports developer). As a result the game was plagued with bugs and clunky game-play, even becoming the comical fodder of some you-tubers.
The game had no franchise mode. Play Now, Practice and Single Season Mode were the only options, but it was still impressive considering it was made by 1 single person.
Maximum Football 2018, in contrast, was a vast improvement to Canadian Football 2017. There's still only Play Now, Practice and Single Season Mode, but it fixed most of the bugs, improved the player models and added American Pro and College football rules. Most impressive, though, was the addition of a logo editor along with Team, Uniform and Roster customization. I also believe the development team went doubled from 1 to 2 between these two games.
If Canadian Football 2017 was a laughingstock that you only play because it's so bad, that it's good, then Maximum Football 2018 is at least a solid, completely playable football game that costs less than 2 fast food trips ($18). The first game appears to be the developer just trying to get something out there while the second game smoothed everything over.
I recently bought Maximum Football 2018 to support the developer and I will definitely buy the upcoming game even if it does underwhelm because this developer has shown themselves to be transparent, passionate and capable of consistent improvement.
I also wanted to get a taste of the gameplay and try out the team editor. I created the Nebraska Cornhuskers because that's my team and our uniforms are pretty easy to create. I also created the Penn State Nittany Lions for Nebraska to play against for no other reason than their uniforms are obnoxiously easy to create.
Note: All photos are taken from my phone of the TV screen.
Both the logo editor and uniform editor are very impressive for such a small developer, but not the most robust I've ever seen in a video game. The logo editor in particular isn't terribly user friendly, but in the right hands is robust enough to create practically every team's logo. The uniform and helmet editor can handle most traditional uniform designs, but not many of the more flashy modern uniforms of teams like Oregon and TCU. The helmet editor can also handle any helmet that has a few stripes and logos on each side, but cannot re-create busier helmets such as Michigan's iconic wingtips or Maryland's state flag wrapped around it.
Here's hoping both are improved in this year's game and in future titles, but this is incredibly impressive for their first stab at a uniform and logo creator.
Gameplay wise, the game is still a bit buggy from time to time. The playbook is tiny. The player models still move a bit stiff, resulting in clunky feeling gameplay and the graphics are a few years behind. This is the part where I remind everyone once again this is a small, indie developer.
And it's actually for these reasons that I'm incredibly excited for Doug Flutie's Maxium Football 2019. Getting Doug Flutie on board appears to suggest a much higher budget for this years' game. The inclusion of partnerships such as Phil Steele, as well as multiple apparel companies such as Xenith helmets, also suggests more money to work with and lends legitimacy to the growth of this developer, who has added a 3rd employee to their staff for the development of this year's game.
Going from only having a single season mode to a full on 130 team college football dynasty mode AND a Canadian college football dynasty mode alone suggests the leap between Maximum Football 2018 and this year's game should be significant.
If you follow the game's Twitter page, you'll also know they have done extensive motion capture work for this years' game, which should alleviate the stiff, clunky animations from the previous 2 titles and result in much, much smoother game-play.
Here's a rundown of all the improvements coming to this years' title (that I'm aware of)
- Extensive motion capture for much smoother gameplay
- US & Canadian college football dynasty modes
- A postseason playoff system and bowl games
- A recruiting mode featuring Phil Steele branding and data
- Improved graphics and player models (the developer seems to be suggesting these improvements will be significant, but we won't know until we see it)
- Generic college football drumline music to play in the background
- Official items such as balls, gloves and helmets from real apparel companies such as Xenith, Wilson, Mokom Gloves and Phenom Elite.
- Brand new user interface (final design voted on by Patrons)
- Improvements in AI
- Expanded playbook
- Additional unspecified features hinted at by developer
- And Doug Flutie himself is in the game I guess?
Hopefully things such as stadium builders, file sharing, commentary, online play as well as improvements to customization will be coming in future installments. In the meantime, I'd encourage anyone passionate about bringing college football video games back to pick up this game in September. The past 2 games were $17, but the developer has stated this year's game will be slightly more expensive, but definitely under $30.
And if you want to support them even more in the meantime, feel free to become a Patron or buy a copy of Maximum Football 2018 on the digital stores on Xbox & Playstation.
And now I'll just post a bunch of other pictures from my game as Nebraska vs. Penn State on Maximum Football 2018.
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