NFL QB Club 2002 Playstation 2 prototype
Acclaim was betting a lot on sports games, all disciplines included, but especially on the NFL license. After NFL Quarterback Club 2000 on Dreamcast, "Acclaim studio Austin" came back in force on PS2 and GC to make fans of this other oval ball live the experience of being a professional American Football player !
NFL Quarterback Club 2002 has the usual features and modes, including Exhibition, Season, Practice, Playoffs and Simulation. The biggest advantage of the software was its exclusive right to use the real NFL QB Club license.
The title uses the same engine as All-Star Baseball 2002 and 2003. Graphically, there are some good ideas like the blinking eyes, the emotion shown by the players through their facial expressions or the helmets that are reversed.
Les spécificités de la build Playstation 2 du 31 mai 2001 :
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The game starts directly on a simple temporary title menu with the Acclaim Sports logo only. At this stage of development, there is no layout and design work for the title screen. Before the prototype prompts the player to press START to proceed to the next menu, system information appears briefly: "Heap = 26.909, Requ 28.000, Max 26.910.
Heap = the amount of memory currently allocated
Requ = the amount of memory required by the game to run
Max = the total amount of free memory
What is this language ?
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A Debug Menu called "Acclaim Sports Engine Tweaks" can be activated at any time. I'll come back to this in more details.
Simple but not efficient !
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The main menu contains the option "Internet" which will be removed when QBC 2002 is released. The option is not valid, nothing happens when activating it. "Game Options" is now simply called "Options". On the left side of the menu, on the final version, a video of an American soccer game is playing in a loop. On the prototype, the video is replaced by an ordinary animation of a soccer player
prototype
final
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The prototype allows direct access to the save options in "Memory Card" from the main menu. In principle, the final version asks if the player wants to save by exiting certain menus while the possibility to load a game is offered in "Game Options".
Wow, a debug menu !
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The help menu is not yet implemented, no matter where you are. Normally, a tiny "Square (Help)" button, placed under the "Credits" option, should inform the player of its existence. In some menus, the navigation help will be displayed at the bottom of the screen by the presence of 3 buttons and their functions (X, Round and Triangle).
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When navigating the different menus, once an option is selected, it should be distinguished by a yellow color and not remain white. The sound of the cursor moving will be changed to another (almost similar) sound later.
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The "Credits" are funny. Thanks to this prototype, we learn the existence of 3 new professions in the video game industry, funny little developers! The scrolling speed of the credits slows down as soon as the names of these 3 new professions are displayed !
Stop the chatter, start the training !
Three unknown industry professions !
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To be serious, the title of the "Credit Screen" menu is non-existent. At the beginning of the scrolling, some jobs and the people doing them appear outside the box provided for that purpose.
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The default settings in the "Options" menu are incorrect. Some options are missing like "Vibration", "Sound", "Music Volume", "Reset Game Options", "Load Game Options" and "Done". On this prototype, "Commentary Volume" is named "Announce Volume". The title of the menu is "A/V Options", it will be called "Options" at the end of the game development. To leave the "Options" mode, you usually have to press "Done". To return to the main menu of this beta, you should press "circle".