Chris,

I think the main reason why it feels like everyone is unhappy with NCAA/Madden is that 95% of OSers are football fans and frankly football has sucked on the 360/PS3.

I'm extremely disappointed with NCAA and Madden on the 360. We all know why they have been crap.

But I think EA's NHL and Fifa teams are making fantastic games. They are not perfect but they are a blast both online and offline.

Fight Night 4 was very good, especially since it was the first time EA Canada developed the fighting franchise.

It's too bad more football fanatics don't give NHL, Fifa, and FN4 a chance.

Great article and points - I agree somewhat, but I also have to agree with many that have posted here in response. I try to enjoy the games as they are and overall, make my own judgments on a game based on what I like vs. what everyone else is hyping up or flaming down - I do think that we had our hopes a bit high for this round of consoles, but do think we are right where we should be at this point and fully expect the next generation of consoles to make the move that really draws us in to another level of gameplay.

I think that gamers share in the blame for why expectations have been lowered. WHy have we decided to accept mediocrity? Why not take a stand...some times it pays to save your money until a game is worthy of buying year in and year out.

There is a reason competition is healthy...not exclusive licenses. Complacency sets in when nobody is around to challenge you, but when there is somebody pushing you...things are different. One can easily continue to go into a game having fun...but that does not mean we should lower our expectations.

My take is... we and the developers share the blame.

Anybody remember the Madden 06 trailer? At the time, the game didn't live up to the promise of that trailer...but as consumers we shouldn't have been so gullible either.

I am very discontent with sports gaming. In fact, this is the first time in 14 years that I am not buying Madden nor NCAA. They're both good games...and that's the problem. They're just "good". We see no leaps and bounds in depth, graphics and the overall football experience. Instead, we get incremental, glacial improvements. You can be excellent at Madden/NCAA and know very little about football. Glitches abound, play-calling contains the same old recycled plays and the presentation is appallingly anemic. The game gets boring fast.

Understandably, they have to cater to the casual gamer. Hardcore football enthusiasts, like me, currently have nowhere to go in the digital realm. At least for now.

Even in Soccer, where competition forced EA to actually improve the game, the game is not all that it could be.

Expectations are not high enough in my opinion. I expect that we should have seen presentation on the first or second year of Xbox 360 that would blow away what 2k did with ESPN. Not. Or how about Backbreaker type animations by now. Not. Or how about designing plays and taking them online. Not. Or, finally, how about not loosing to someone online that just finds gimmick after gimmick and cheeses their way to a victory. Is that expectation too high.

At any rate, I don't know when I will get another football game. I love football, love to watch it, love to play it and love to play videogame football. Unfortunately, that will not happen soon. When I plop down $59, I want to be satisfied. It's a free country. So, I am not spending any more money on those games.

I think it all comes down to what school of gaming your from. If your one of the people, like me, who actually played double dribble or the first Madden on Genesis when they were brand new, your not as critical. I'm amazed that the graphics of today allow the characters to actually have fingers.

I wrote a blog about this myself a few months ago, but if you think about it, when the systems are able to replicate real life to the highest extent, there really won't be a difference between platforms or publishers anymore. A virtual D-Wade should look exactly the same at that point, no matter if it's NBA Elite 2020 or NBA 2k20. Once we get there, just a simple roster update each year will probably suffice, but people kill me when they criticize the lack of innovation on sports games. The sports themselves haven't changed in decades, so what exactly is supposed to be "new" about football or baseball?

The Superbowl this past year looked just like the one from last year, until they start expanding the size of the field or adding weapons, the game will remain essentially the same, just like it's real life counterpart. People need to realize that the leap in graphics and gameplay happen generation to generation, not annual iteration to annual iteration. You shouldn't expect it to look significantly different until the hardware is strong enough to make significant changes to the technology. Maybe some of you guys should go play John Elway's quarterback and remember how far we've come....

Our individual expectations grow (or should grow) as we grow. When you were 20 and looking for a girlfriend, you probably didn't care if she wasn't the smartest girl; you just wanted her to be cute, laugh at your jokes, and do "things" with you when the mood struck. Once you reached 30 and were ready to settle down and get married, now you want a woman who's mature, educated, good credit, (preferably) no kids, employed, etc.

Some make the point that video games have come a long way and we should be happy in how much technology has contributed to the evolution of sports games. True. It is nice to be able to read the letters on the ball and identify logos. But as each year passes and we get deeper into this current generation of consoles, games have to work harder than the year before to really impress me.

I'm not expecting games to be perfect, but when the same issues from your 2007 product still exists in your 2010, it makes me less excited for future products from that company. I can see if the issues are universal and it's something that continually exist in rival products as well; at that point I accept it as an issue without a technical solution just yet.

Sports games do get the shaft versus other genres because they generally don't have the luxury of pushing back release dates if the product is not quite yet finished or at a stage it was expected to be at by a certain date.

jdareal21 pretty much nailed it. I remember how games were back in the day and how basic they were, but still immensly fun at the same time. All the complaining and sky high expectations are a product of the technology we have access to these days. The internet allows everybody to have an opinion/complaint about everything. Thats not always a bad thing, but most of the time people are just saying stuff just for the sake of having something to say.

Honestly i dont envy the position that a lot of sports game developers are in. With them having only about a year to make a game that so many are expecting to be the second coming, they dont really have that much time to implement all of thousands of demands. And the minute someone doesnt see their suggestion in next years game, its now broken and a peice of crap. We game in the age of patches, mods, workarounds etc. Things that once were a luxury are now expected an common place.

I am going to have to disagree with pretty much everything you said in this blog.

This is , in no way, a generation of diminished expectations. This article is written with football in mind and nothing else. Every genre, wether it be from first person shooters, to adventure games...to fighting games...to sports games ( football excluded ) have gone far and above what most people expected years ago.

There have been some fantastic games released and when you look at the lack of progression in the Madden / NCAA series , then it becomes more noticable about just how far this series has fallen.

You should retitle your blog to "Why has Madden / NCAA fallen so far..." Those 2 sports titles are the only games I can think of that have seriously gotten worse over the course of this generation. NHL, 2k basketball series, FIFA, UFC, Fight Night, The Show etc...are all light years ahead of video game football at the present.

Football is the only genre this entire generation that sucks, period. Its 6 years into the "next gen" era and we still cant get features into the games that were back in the PS1 / PS2 generation.