Madden NFL 15 Gameplay Video - Seahawks vs. 49ers (Smitty)

[m0ney_moon]

Apparently EA needs to hire ppl who actually play madden. Same Commentary, same animations, same gameplay. Again, EA deceives us with the trailer.... I wish 2k sports would release a football game already.

[hanzsomehanz]

Quote: Originally Posted by SageInfinite

Interception animation was awful. I liked Kaep's throwing animation on the touchdown, seemed fluid, and the Boldin catch was kool.

Yea I thought that was a clutch throw, on the money! I am left to wonder why Sherman pulled up though - if he had not of pulled up he may of very well made a play on the ball.

I love the block shedding by Aldon Smith. Pocket is not compressing but the pressure is there. If there is no pocket compression then we need some insta block shedding to at least hurry the QB of we cannot contain him fundamentally.

That toss play that ended outside left me a bit concerned because I did not see any edge defenders. The back got outside so quickly cause all the LB's seemed to crash the interior of the trench albeit there may have been a mid blitz called.

I am not seeing any heat-seeker tackles nor am I seeing any rediculous shoestring dives. The absense of these lazy tactics is making the tackle and run game look more organic albeit there is still work to be done to introduce more tackling interactions.

Overall, the game still plays like M25 for 360 but it does play noticably better. I am starting to warm up to the visuals but I am yet to see the D really standout in any way that screams, "this is the year of the D!" and that is the most underwhelming takeaway.

While EA may very well miss the mark on actually portraying a mean defensive style gauntlet game it does not takeaway from the fact that the game is improving but I am still deflated by the former point.

The D lacks the soul and it may be due in part to so much focus on making individual olays opposed to championship football that predicates itself on swarming to the ball and playing fundamental team defense.

Sherm did not look clutch in any way. P Willy made a great stop on the screen but the game is still fundamentally wide open for 1v1 user plays which is why it is still like M25 old gen at the core of gameplay.

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[greenegt]

I'm really liking the graphical detail and presentation updates. The game looks much better in those departments. Still some legacy issues that I would like to see fixed (wr/db interaction, working penalties, etc.), but it looks like it'll be fun.

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brother3Wright

"MoCap" no, but you can rotoscope from video reference. And just for general consumption, good MoCap is always touched up by animators. MoCap is just a good base to start from, but there's still issues that need to be resolved.

Would you care either further elaborate on these "issues" or link to sources that goes further on the "clean up" process of motion captures?

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

The issue with in studio motion capture seems to steam from the poor directing, and the fact that it differs from real game adrenaline infused performance.

Word!!!

When I 1st saw this vid, I realized why the animations are so bad. No determination, no struggle. The animations are too scripted. "OK, let's get a pancack animation. Go!" So the guy getting pancaked provides no resistance. They should instead let guys battle and record what happens.

[SageInfinite]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

The issue with in studio motion capture seems to steam from the poor directing, and the fact that it differs from real game adrenaline infused performance. @3:02 mark "... and then Eldon will look at the data after it's been capture and he can clean it up. When he's done, he'll send the data off to the game team and they'll put it on the model ... " Not exactly sure what his definition of "clean it up" is. @2:31 mark: One of the motion capture director does a QB drop back "bounce" in place. Very robotic scripted "bounce." This "bounce" is frequently seen in Madden's QB, but I have never really seen it in a real life game. This Madden bounce lacks a real purpose. I have included video highlights of both Drew Brees and Russell Wilson below. Take notice of their drop back bounces in the pocket. @2:57 mark: Not sure why they would motion capture a slowed down version of a play action pass (hand off) @3:24 mark: Not exactly sure what that is suppose to depict. Either a possible reception or an interception, but that particular "jump towards the ball" motion capture doesn't represent anything I have seen in a real life game. I think it's what's seen during a swat in Madden. It looks poorly scripted, and poorly executed by the motion capture artist. Notice how the QB "bounce" in the pocket (e.g. Russell Wilson, Drew Brees) has real purpose unlike the Madden's motion captured or directed QB "bounce." Madden's QB "bounce" looks to be aesthetics only with no real purpose.

Dope post. Another big problem with the mo-cap as you stated, the direction and talent. Add that with the bad implementation, you get the mess we have today. Doesn't look to be changing either.

[SageInfinite]

Quote: Originally Posted by hanzsomehanz

Yea I thought that was a clutch throw, on the money! I am left to wonder why Sherman pulled up though - if he had not of pulled up he may of very well made a play on the ball.

Pretty sure it was a user controlled error that made him pull up like that. Not that that doesn't happen in Madden 25 all the time, but I think this specifically was user controlled.

[Brother3Wright]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

Would you care either further elaborate on these "issues" or link to sources that goes further on the "clean up" process of motion captures?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzChtcqBRk

With any motion capture you're always going to have inconsistencies between what the motion from the actor was, and what the rig actually recorded. Things like fingers don't get recorded. Forearm rotation, depending on the complexity of your rig can be limited. The way the head moves on a neck is something that's very easy to make look unnatrual from mocap, it can look like the head is "floating" above the shoulders with the neck just skin that connects them.

MoCap also tends to create small little movements that create a stutter, or shake to the animation. As an animator I want clean, easily read movements that have a sense of real weight to them. MoCap can give me a base for this movement, but the stutters it creates need to be edited out to give a cleaner more natural look to the movement.

Animations also have to be retargeted to work with the model rigs you're using like in the video above. Doing this can warp your model if it isn't weighted correctly, or applied correctly.

These are just a couple examples, but what most people think of as "MoCap" is not an end-all be-all for animation. It's one tool that can help dramatically speed up the animation process, but still needs a lot of work after to get a finished, polished product.