EA should take a year off from football - LetsGoPitt's Blog

LetsGoPitt's Blog

EA should take a year off from football

Posted on February 13, 2009 at 10:11 AM.

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Let me get this out of the way first: I anxiously read every update that the Madden bloggers have been posting. And some of what they're saying sounds really nice, if it turns out as I hope it does.

That said, I'm about halfway through my first season in a NCAA 2009 dynasty (I just got the PS3 in January), and I came to a rather unfortunate conclusion yesterday: I've played this game before. On my XBox (minus the 360). In fact, in some ways, the game was BETTER on the XBox. Yes, there have been improvements here and there. The recruiting system, while still far from perfect, is much better than the "throw points at them and cycle through the pitches until you find one that works" method of the past. And yes, the graphics are somewhat better (they better be! But see more on this below). But the meat of the experience...the actual playing of the football games is shockingly similar, right down to the same animations in a lot of cases. Sure, some aspects of gameplay have gotten better -- running between the tackles is a good example -- but that's a lot like saying your team only lost 10 games last year instead of all of them. I don't want better, I want GOOD. On top of this, I was struck by how some things that were in the XBox version were missing in the next-gen game. Referees? Atmosphere? I'm not saying that the old version had tons of college atmosphere, but this version is like playing in a vacuum.

I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that the only real solution here is for EA to take a year off and rebuild their game from the ground up. They've done this before, taking the horrific Triple Play and turning it into the best console baseball game ever before The Show came around. If they want to keep the same out-of-game things, that'd be fine with me, because the real problems with the EA brand of football come on the field. Sure, you can tweak things year to year, but you end up with the same game with a few more coats of polish on it, and that just isn't going to cut it anymore. Is it really too much to ask for

NO MORE MARIO RUNNING It's inexcusable to have a flaw in a PS3 game that I remember from NCAA 2002 on the PS2!
Realistic secondary play. By this I don't mean having a linebacker with his back to the ball with eyes in the back of his head jumping 10 feet in the air to swat down a pass.
Truly random ball physics. The pass above swatted by the linebacker magically goes right to a defender about 80% of the time.
Intelligent blocking. Right now, blockers act as road cones with vacuum cleaners. If you get close enough to them, you'll be sucked in. If you go wide enough, they won't move to follow you. How many times have you been sacked/tackled with a nearby lineman in a blocking stance engaged with Harvey the Rabbit?
Receivers with breakaway speed that can actually outrun linebackers BEFORE they get the ball.
Physics. When a running back gets nailed from the side by a defender, his path should be altered, whether he is tackled or not.
Making playing defense actually feel like an intelligent exercise, not a Chinese fire drill.
Good to excellent players with a skill set other than "fast"
Graphics that actually take advantage of the capabilities of the next-gen systems. Look at the Pittsburgh skyline in NCAA 2009 and compare that to MLB '08. Not even close. Same goes for the so-called fans. They're a joke. To me, it just looks like something marginally better than a previous-gen game in HD. I'm not saying EA isn't trying, but that's how it looks.

I'm sure there are a lot more, but the point is. There are a lot of things wrong here, and I don't think they can be solved in an incremental basis. In fact, I know they can't because they haven't been to this point. I know that it'd be hard to go a year without a football update, but it'd be worth it in the end if EA could come through and give us a game that would truly blow us away. Either that, or let's do away with this exclusive license BS and let someone else make that game.

Comments

# 1 rudyjuly2 @ Feb 13

You make some good points but this will never happen. Taking a year off would just cost EA a lot of money unless they somehow tied in a DLC model to recoup the lost profits.

# 2 jmik58 @ Feb 13

I like the point you bring up about blocking. I would like to see it taken a step further to get someone intelligent on football to help them understand the concept of blocking schemes.

# 3 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 13

Rudy: I know it would never happen, because the lost profit is just too high. Part of the reason EA was able to do what they did with Triple Play/MVP was because no one bought that steaming pile of mess

# 4 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 13

jmik: I absolutely agree. Heck, at this point I would be happy if they could get something simple like pulling guard to actually work.

# 5 jmik58 @ Feb 13

LetsGoPitt: Being a football coach and a fan of football games, I haven't purchased a football game for almost 5 years because they blocking borders 'magnetic football'. Anyone who grew up in the 80's/90's knows what I'm talking about. Hell, I would do it for free...but someone with some football knowledge needs to work with these developers to teach blocking schemes and to make the blocking more dynamic. The arms and legs and head all need to operate as parts of the blocking system. As it is, the blocker is just a magnetic mass that can either hold it's attraction on a scale of 1-10 to a metalic object known as a defender.

# 6 thudias @ Feb 13

I like my yearly release of Madden football.

# 7 statum71 @ Feb 13

All the things you mention are the things we've been asking for. I got a buddy thats new to the PS3 and he wanted to know what more we all wanted in Madden....I gave him my MLB 08 The Show and told him to just play it.

Thats what we want in football, as far as realism. Not perfect but definitely the best.