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CNN Saturday Morning News
High-Tech Touchdowns Keep Some Game Fans Busy
Aired January 25, 2003 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And if you are a football fan who wants to line up against some of the game's top stars but don't want to imperil life and limb, then huddle up. Your game plan may involved video games.
CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us now with a closer look at a coach potato competition, and maybe a prediction for tomorrow, and a good one, right?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Heidi. We'll have to get that to that in just a second.
You know, everybody's hearing about the Super Bowl, you know, predictions for the Super Bowl. What about the tech bowl? If you're a video game fan out there, this is the time of year when you're getting what we call gamer's thumb. You're using your controller so much, you're literally developing blisters on your thumb by playing all the football games out there.
We wanted to show people some of the games that are out there and even demonstrate some of the realism that's in the games.
Now, first of all, we can show you some of the titles that are out there right now. We can see here NFL 2-K-3 from Sega, there's NFL Fever from Microsoft, Madden 2003, NFL Blitz from Midway, you can play it on your Nintendo game cube, your X-Box, your PS2, any of the gaming systems out there have some or more football games for you to play.
We actually have Sega's NFL 2-K-3 hooked up to a PlayStation II right now, so I can just demonstrate some of the realism that goes into these games. We've actually set up a simulation here. You can choose the stadium that you're in. We have set up Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. We've chosen the two teams.
I am on offense. Every time I play this game live, I throw an interception. So we're hoping that that doesn't happen in this case. Right now, I'm playing Tampa Bay. You can see the teams are lining up here on the field. They break down the realism to the plays, the size of the players, the statistics, just about everything they can throw into the game.
I'm going to see if I can run my pattern here. Oh, I dropped the ball.
So you can see, there's all sorts of realism here, even the players' reactions after the play, whether they miss the ball or not. It's 7-7 right now, Tampa and Oakland, in the game that I am simulating. But, you know, you can actually go into these games and simulate them yourself. You can create a simulation between two different teams, between Oakland and Tampa, and just see who wins.
I did that with NFL Fever the other day. Tampa won 44-42. Now, another company that does this as well is 989 Sports. And recently they took their Game Day 2003 and took -- this is -- they do this every year, this is a tradition now -- they take one player from one of the teams in the Super Bowl and one from the other team, and they match them up and see who wins.
And you can see here that what happened was -- OK, we're not going to tell you who won, of course, in the -- we don't know who wins in the Super Bowl. But in this competition in 989 Sports, it was Keenan McCardell from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who beat Charlie Garner from Oakland 28 to 8.
What's important about this in terms of prognostication and figuring out who wins, in the seven years previously that 989 has done this, the team that won in this competition went on to win the Super Bowl. So whether you want to put any faith in that or not, that's maybe something to look for coming up on Sunday.
But, you know, a gamer's paradise out there if you're a football fan.
Heidi and Miles, back to you.
COLLINS: That's for sure. All right. Thanks so much, Daniel Sieberg.
SIEBERG: All right.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, gamers, got lots to do today.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And tomorrow.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: The pregame has started, right?
COLLINS: I think so.
O'BRIEN: All right, OK.
COLLINS: Clearly.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 25, 2003 - 09:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And if you are a football fan who wants to line up against some of the game's top stars but don't want to imperil life and limb, then huddle up. Your game plan may involved video games.
CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us now with a closer look at a coach potato competition, and maybe a prediction for tomorrow, and a good one, right?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Heidi. We'll have to get that to that in just a second.
You know, everybody's hearing about the Super Bowl, you know, predictions for the Super Bowl. What about the tech bowl? If you're a video game fan out there, this is the time of year when you're getting what we call gamer's thumb. You're using your controller so much, you're literally developing blisters on your thumb by playing all the football games out there.
We wanted to show people some of the games that are out there and even demonstrate some of the realism that's in the games.
Now, first of all, we can show you some of the titles that are out there right now. We can see here NFL 2-K-3 from Sega, there's NFL Fever from Microsoft, Madden 2003, NFL Blitz from Midway, you can play it on your Nintendo game cube, your X-Box, your PS2, any of the gaming systems out there have some or more football games for you to play.
We actually have Sega's NFL 2-K-3 hooked up to a PlayStation II right now, so I can just demonstrate some of the realism that goes into these games. We've actually set up a simulation here. You can choose the stadium that you're in. We have set up Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. We've chosen the two teams.
I am on offense. Every time I play this game live, I throw an interception. So we're hoping that that doesn't happen in this case. Right now, I'm playing Tampa Bay. You can see the teams are lining up here on the field. They break down the realism to the plays, the size of the players, the statistics, just about everything they can throw into the game.
I'm going to see if I can run my pattern here. Oh, I dropped the ball.
So you can see, there's all sorts of realism here, even the players' reactions after the play, whether they miss the ball or not. It's 7-7 right now, Tampa and Oakland, in the game that I am simulating. But, you know, you can actually go into these games and simulate them yourself. You can create a simulation between two different teams, between Oakland and Tampa, and just see who wins.
I did that with NFL Fever the other day. Tampa won 44-42. Now, another company that does this as well is 989 Sports. And recently they took their Game Day 2003 and took -- this is -- they do this every year, this is a tradition now -- they take one player from one of the teams in the Super Bowl and one from the other team, and they match them up and see who wins.
And you can see here that what happened was -- OK, we're not going to tell you who won, of course, in the -- we don't know who wins in the Super Bowl. But in this competition in 989 Sports, it was Keenan McCardell from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who beat Charlie Garner from Oakland 28 to 8.
What's important about this in terms of prognostication and figuring out who wins, in the seven years previously that 989 has done this, the team that won in this competition went on to win the Super Bowl. So whether you want to put any faith in that or not, that's maybe something to look for coming up on Sunday.
But, you know, a gamer's paradise out there if you're a football fan.
Heidi and Miles, back to you.
COLLINS: That's for sure. All right. Thanks so much, Daniel Sieberg.
SIEBERG: All right.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, gamers, got lots to do today.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And tomorrow.
COLLINS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: The pregame has started, right?
COLLINS: I think so.
O'BRIEN: All right, OK.
COLLINS: Clearly.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
