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Midway Talks Arena Football

We bring you new details of Midway's upcoming Arena Football game for the PlayStation and the Dreamcast.

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Midway has revealed new information on its upcoming Arena Football League-licensed title in the works for the PlayStation and Dreamcast. Slated to release next summer, the new four-player football game will surely please fans of Midway's arcade-style sports games.

The Arena Football League title will offer an arcade mode, a tournament mode, and a season mode. In tournament mode there will be single, double, or best two-out-of-three elimination. In the season mode you'll play a complete AFL season with playoffs. The game also features a custom play editor and customizable playbooks and audibles.

As for how it will look, Midway has revealed that while it is using all new animations, the game will still retain much of the NFL Blitz look. In fact, the team developing the game is the same team that worked on Blitz for the PlayStation. This time around, however, the developers claim that the AI has been dramatically improved, and there's no more need for rubber banding. There will also be player injuries (severe hits can knock an opponent out of the game) - each team member will have his own set of power stats. Midway also says that there will be an "on fire" mode.

The fact that this new football game is based on the Arena license will bring some new aspects features to Blitz-style football. For example, because there are short walls that mark the out-of-bounds line, Midway will be creating new animations for tackles off the walls, along with some insane wall combos.

The game takes place on a 50-yard field, with eight-yard end zones. First downs occur every 20 yards earned. Also, if a ball from a pass, field goal, or kickoff happens to hit the goal posts and bounce off, it will still be considered a live ball (and can be picked up by anyone). The same is true if the ball happens to bounce off a wall. One other change from NFL Blitz is that there will now be six players per team, rather than seven, which was the case in Blitz. The game features the 16 official teams from the Arena Football League.

American Conference:

Western DivisionArizona RattlersLos Angeles AvengersPortland Forest DragonsSan Jose Sabercats

Central DivisionGrand Rapids RampageHouston ThunderbearsIowa BarnstormersMilwaukee Mustangs

National Conference:

Southern DivisionFlorida BobcatsNashville CatsOrlando PredatorsTampa Bay Storm

Eastern DivisionAlbany Firebirds Buffalo DestroyersNew England Sea WolvesNew Jersey Red Dogs

Midway's Arena Football game is scheduled to release in June for the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles. Other console versions will no doubt follow, as Midway has earned the Arena Football license for the next four years. Stay tuned for more details soon.

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