Is Madden Schooling NCAA this year?

[boxtrev]

Does anybody else feel that Madden 10 is schooling NCAA 10 in terms of info release this year? I mean every week I wait with eager anticipation to read the latest update on the EA Sports blog for NCAA only to be disappointed with some fluffy announcement like the following: wind socks, field goal nets, QB auto pass, and custom conferences. Meanwhile, Madden has provided us with GREAT updates from day one: procedural awareness (mind you, this was there FIRST announcement, and don't excuse the NCAA dev. team for saying, "uhhh...we'll have that too"...please), QB pass ratings, QB animations, etc. Is this the year that Madden surpasses NCAA? I don't want to sound completely cynical but I do want to be realistic. We are the consumers and EA should listen to our requests or expect their sales to suffer.

Now, I know what many of you are thinking, "It is still early. They are not going to give out the good info early." The problem with that logic is two-fold: 1) Madden is already giving stellar info releases and it comes out a month later AND 2) If the whole philosophy behind releasing info early to the community is really so that NCAA can be revised and improved based on gamer feedback then EA would not hesitate to release its info as early as possible so as to have plenty of time to make adjustments and corrections. The Madden team seems to understand this. Have you noticed how after every release Ian or the other developers always ask, "What do you guys think about this?" The NCAA team isn't encouraging this at all. They are just simply telling us, "You will be getting: windsocks, field goal nets, and custom conferences." Please.

NCAA should consider what we have all been asking and implementing the following features based on fan request:

*Improved Presentation: Pregame, halftime, and postgame shows.
*Improved Commentary: Include sideline reporting and more realistic injury reports.
*Improved Gameplay: Make defense more realistic. Less interceptions and more swatdowns. Shouldn't be so easy to pass over the middle. Kicking game should be effected by weather and we should have a strategy to blocking punts and field goals.
*Improved Dynasty: Include an ESPN weekly show, game tracker on the bottom of the screen, game of the week feature, put the div 1aa teams in the game, correct the BCS rankings, bring back player suspensions, show press conferences for major games, etc.

All of this would make the game better and the fans happier. Instead, we will probably get these few minor adjustments and a new package that says: NCAA 10 with another 60 dollar price tag.


Blah.

[RynoAid]

I think we are still so far out from launch that we don't know how it's going to play out yet.

I really hope they work on the gameplay aspects... bad persuit angles, LB speed deficiency, horrible CPU play calling and tighten up the game all around.

Im happy enough with Online Dynasty as it is (minus the really bad bugs that mess with stats, standing and offseason tasks) but i think gameplay needs alot of work done for 2010. If they focus on that, i will be happy to spend my 60. Otherwise ill just be spending 60 and won't be happy about it...

[da ThRONe]

Quote: Originally Posted by boxtrev

Does anybody else feel that Madden 10 is schooling NCAA 10 in terms of info release this year? I mean every week I wait with eager anticipation to read the latest update on the EA Sports blog for NCAA only to be disappointed with some fluffy announcement like the following: wind socks, field goal nets, QB auto pass, and custom conferences. Meanwhile, Madden has provided us with GREAT updates from day one: procedural awareness (mind you, this was there FIRST announcement, and don't excuse the NCAA dev. team for saying, "uhhh...we'll have that too"...please), QB pass ratings, QB animations, etc. Is this the year that Madden surpasses NCAA? I don't want to sound completely cynical but I do want to be realistic. We are the consumers and EA should listen to our requests or expect their sales to suffer. Now, I know what many of you are thinking, "It is still early. They are not going to give out the good info early." The problem with that logic is two-fold: 1) Madden is already giving stellar info releases and it comes out a month later AND 2) If the whole philosophy behind releasing info early to the community is really so that NCAA can be revised and improved based on gamer feedback then EA would not hesitate to release its info as early as possible so as to have plenty of time to make adjustments and corrections. The Madden team seems to understand this. Have you noticed how after every release Ian or the other developers always ask, "What do you guys think about this?" The NCAA team isn't encouraging this at all. They are just simply telling us, "You will be getting: windsocks, field goal nets, and custom conferences." Please. NCAA should consider what we have all been asking and implementing the following features based on fan request: *Improved Presentation: Pregame, halftime, and postgame shows. *Improved Commentary: Include sideline reporting and more realistic injury reports. *Improved Gameplay: Make defense more realistic. Less interceptions and more swatdowns. Shouldn't be so easy to pass over the middle. Kicking game should be effected by weather and we should have a strategy to blocking punts and field goals. *Improved Dynasty: Include an ESPN weekly show, game tracker on the bottom of the screen, game of the week feature, put the div 1aa teams in the game, correct the BCS rankings, bring back player suspensions, show press conferences for major games, etc. All of this would make the game better and the fans happier. Instead, we will probably get these few minor adjustments and a new package that says: NCAA 10 with another 60 dollar price tag. Blah.

I agree that they are a step(or two) behind Madden. These forums should be use to allow us to vote or give us some say so in how features are implemented does seem like a good idea considering we are the ones who buy the game not the developers. Like with the QB ratings we should have been asked about it. Will everybody get what they want no ,but the majority can and I can live with that.

But even with the improvement they made im still going buy NCAA this year!

[dex26-]

I do know that if Madden comes out with a online franchise alot of people are going to be switching to Madden including me. Seems like Madden might be the better game this year.

[Solidice]

I don't know, most of the updates in the Madden blogs are also in NCAA. don't see how Madden is "schooling" NCAA in Info being released.

[Sausage]

First I did not read the posts beforehand, but every year on paper Madden is like the Redskins-preseason champions. Then for some reason NCAA just outplays it and lack of a better word feels more footballish than Madden.

I know for certain both NCAA and Madden are gonna be nice, because of our inputs and developers pride in proving they can make an outstanding game.

[youALREADYknow]

Quote: Originally Posted by da ThRONe

Like with the QB ratings we should have been asked about it. Will everybody get what they want no ,but the majority can and I can live with that. But even with the improvement they made im still going buy NCAA this year!

All of these aren't directed at you, but the community in general.

1. This online community is but a tiny portion of the NCAA customer base. Asking "us" isn't and shouldn't be priority #1 for every decision made on the dev cycle.

2. I'm 99.9% certain that nearly every development milestone was created months ago for NCAA and they are nearly done at this time.

3. When you really break it down, Ian and Phil have made it their goal to interact with the community and make decisions WITH us, not always for us. We have had zero input from the NCAA leads and that's where the difference lies. I don't know whether the NCAA leads simply are anti-social, don't believe they have the time to commit to community interaction, or are simply too stubborn to admit that a colleague (Ian/Phil) made a better decision than them... but I have zero expectation for NCAA to make more strides this year than Madden because the effort wasn't there from day 1.

4. Most of the Madden announcements have been gameplay related and that is a shared team between the two games. That means most Madden features are NCAA features as of this point, so we can't discount NCAA simply because they didn't announce them. I think Ian works closely with the gameplay team and actually does gameplay changes himself, so that's why he's more likely to announce those changes.

Having said all of that, I still think NCAA will be the better game next year because I doubt Madden has online franchise and college sports in general have more depth than professional sports aside from the finance aspect. There's simply nothing like building a college powerhouse for me and the only years I've ever truly enjoyed Madden were when I transferred draft classes and the ratings actually made sense.

If the NCAA team can really focus on offline and online dynasty, then that would make up for a lot of the problems in this year's game.

[Boucher]

OMT said himself, that talking and interacting is not his style