Madden’s presentation has always been a spot where the franchise simply didn’t measure up against the competition. This lack of quality presentation seems to, at least partially, be the result of a disastrous start on the last generation of consoles where a TV-style presentation simply wasn’t even included in the game in the first edition.

This year, Madden finally arrived with a broadcast presentation which is much more believable to the eyes, unfortunately your ears will leave you wondering what went wrong.

Visual Elements

When playing a game of Madden, the game simply looks the part of an NFL broadcast. There are a few cameras which you’d never be able to find on the field in a real NFL game still, but I’m not sure they’re as big of a deal as some make them out to be since they are camera angles most of us probably wish we could have on Sundays anyways.

Madden sorely needed a TV-producer’s touch to enter into the picture and make this game shine from a graphics standpoint and it got exactly that this season. Not only do the TV-graphics look better, they actually fit within the context of the game typically rather well. There are still hiccups, but the overall visual presentation has improved once again.

Another bonus is the sporadic use of real footage for QB intros. I’m never sure what I think about the mixing of real and virtual visual elements in video game format, but I think Madden could stand to really get an infusion of real NFL action. Maybe even to the point where tailgaters and such were part of the pre-game intro.

There are still other graphics I’d love to see, including historical references and tie-ins and even the famed ‘Aflac’ Trivia Questions — Madden certainly took a step forward in its visual use of on-screen graphics and how it presents information to gamers while they’re playing on the field.

The camera angles could use more work, with more shots of fans and general stadium atmosphere needed. However, Madden did take a sizable leap forward this year and at least matches up decently well against the competition.

Crowd Audio, Stadium Audio

The crowd audio seems more responsive this year, and much more reactive to what’s going on the field. I have had instances where the crowd does react to a play, but it’s more of a slight rise in volume to a big play rather than a realistic pop from the crowd. The audio itself is captured pretty well, but if I’m playing in Kansas City and the crowd sounds like a country club crowd — the mark was missed with regards to in-stadium audio.

I can’t help but get the feeling that Madden NFL 15 is still missing quite a bit of what makes a real stadium atmosphere tick.

The first problem is that stadiums are all the same, and anyone who has spent time in multiple NFL stadiums knows that each home atmosphere sounds and feels different. Kansas City and Seattle are very loud, Miami isn’t nearly as much so. Maybe in future editions stadiums will sound more to their part.

Another thing I’d love to see is more accurate crowd swells as a big play develops, or a big pop when a big hit is delivered. The crowd audio seems to be in the background most of the time, and rarely seems to come to the forefront. This is both a mixing and possibly a production issue in the sense that the crowd simply doesn’t react as it should to the atmosphere on the field.

One thing many sports gaming developers get is that more accurate presentation would add more to the gameplay experience than a minute tweak of how zone defenses run, especially when it comes to audio. It would be far more exhilarating to break a big run if the crowd realistically swelled and then roared to life as you broke into the open field. How awesome would it be to break into the open field, have the crowd roar to life only to have a safety come out of nowhere to stop the run and the crowd then lets out a big, “Awwww!.”

See? Far more effective. As Cubs fan say, “Maybe next year.”

Commentary

Let’s be positive for a couple of sentences — the commentary from Simms and Nantz is better than last year, it really is. The lines flow better, you don’t have mismatched splicing, and all in all you have a few new lines which do add to the experience. This area did move forward this year.

But moving from atrocious to simply bad is not the progress people are looking for.

You will hear in every game repeated lines, wrong lines, wrong players named out who aren’t on the field, insights which don’t match the situation, and corny one-liners you’ve heard every game in your Madden career up to this point.

The lack of quality lines to choose from is not a disk space issue, that’s not a plausible explanation anymore since Madden isn’t using at least half of the available space on PS4/XB1 disks. The lack of proper execution is even more indefensible, in no way shape or form should you ever have the number one rated defense and a line is delivered that indicates your defense is the worst in the league — that really happened to me once.

So while Madden’s commentary moved forward, it’s still possibly the worst in our genre. Repairing it will take a more concerted effort and a commentary team willing to log ridiculous hours into giving lines in the booth. Then, those lines are going to have to be delivered properly, there are far too many repeated lines and mistakes for this not to be a seriously lazy programming effort.

Madden’s commentary did go from an F- to an F+ this year, but it’s far from being amongst the best in our genre.

Final Thoughts

In my opinion, Madden has nailed half of the presentation pretty well. The visually presented half is done quite well, especially compared to its peers. The graphics and the cameras, along with the in-game cutscenes now, make the experience a visually believable experience. Madden’s presentation would likely be regarded as one of the best in sports video games if the audio half was even just above average.

As it stands, the visual elements do need a few tweaks, but the audio needs a complete overhaul and improvement to go from genre’s worst to something that’s even passable as average. But if and when that does happen, do not be surprised if Madden suddenly starts feeling a lot better than it does now simply because the presentation is top-notch.