Building a Better Madden Article (5W-G)

[Steve_OS]

5W-G has posted an article entitled, Building a Better Madden.

Quote:

"For the first time since the Xbox 360 debuted, a “next-gen” console’s version of Madden is finally up to snuff with the series’ past greatness from its PlayStation 2 heyday. But it’s not perfect - no game is. Certainly, more patches are forthcoming, but online issues and AI quirks still frustrate many Madden gamers. Based on my time with the game, there are a few reasonable changes that I believe could be made that would make the game better and fit within the current development cycle - which is always the real catch."

[BezO]

My list is longer, but this is a good start. And I agree that fixing the line interaction would improve the game more than anyting.

[bigfnjoe96]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

My list is longer, but this is a good start. And I agree that fixing the line interaction would improve the game more than any new feature.

You want to see the line inter action call "QUARTERS" Defense & watch your 3 down lineman during the REPLAY....

[Jet Sufferer]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

My list is longer, but this is a good start. And I agree that fixing the line interaction would improve the game more than any new feature.

Mine too and I agree about the line play being crucial, I want to fight in the trenches, I want to be able to do a double move as a DE, if I try to inside rip and I only move the O-Lineman a little bit I would like to be able to interrupt the animation and go with an outside club. Line play should be a mini game within itself, it's weak right now. I can live with the current player models BUT madden needs to have people working right now to double or triple the frames of animation if they really want this game to be a technological marvel. Then they can maximize the different animations, there should be at least 100 different catching animations, endless tackling animations, and any and all animations should be able to be broken at any time depending on the situation.

If they just did this and stopped with the endless new "features" and gimmicks. The game looks pretty nice now but just doesn't animate that well.

[Nintari]

There's alot of things that alot of people want in this franchise, but I'll dumb it down to only TWO.

1.)Basically just rip off 2k5's presentation and ESPN integration. If you took that, and put it into Madden 2010 with more polish, it would be amazing.

2.)Make franchise the main focal point. Really flesh it out, and give it the attention it deserves.

If they ignored just about everything apart from these two things next year, we would have one hell of an amazing game. All they'd have to do after that in 2011 is tweak the gameplay and it would be perfect.

[MaxMan1000]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nintari

2.)Make franchise the main focal point. Really flesh it out, and give it the attention it deserves.

They'll never make franchise the main focal point. It's not where Madden's money is made. Never has been. It's always been about "new features" and of course gameplay with this product.

Making sure franchise works properly is probably the most important thing about franchise, and that's been their biggest hurdle for years.

What I'm not quite getting about this year's Madden is how things we've had for years in Madden just upped and disappeared, like the temperature control setting... What was the reason to get rid of it? Or why are the weather settings less varied than they've been in the past? What happened to light rain/snow settings?

The rational side of me says decisions like that were made because of code conflict. But the fan side of me says it was just overlooked for no good reason. Why? Because when I go into franchise (and I'm not really into franchise by the way), I see cold fields without snow but I can't select it in exhibition. I see the players breath in some cold games, but I can't make that happen in exhibition because there are no temperature controls.

Or take how you can't abort a highlight when creating highlights; you have to watch the entire highlight before you can select another highlight camera angle. Couldn't they have programmed a command to abort the highlight whenever you want? It's very frustrating.

Madden 09 is a good football game. But some of the omissions make no sense. The omissions get me more than the mistakes, lol.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet Sufferer

Mine too and I agree about the line play being crucial, I want to fight in the trenches, I want to be able to do a double move as a DE, if I try to inside rip and I only move the O-Lineman a little bit I would like to be able to interrupt the animation and go with an outside club. Line play should be a mini game within itself, it's weak right now.

Yeah, only 2 defensive moves is baffling. We need club, rip, hump, speed & bull rushes. And we need to be able to string them together like the jukes.

Why EA thinks everyone cares about offense only is beyond me.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet Sufferer

I can live with the current player models BUT madden needs to have people working right now to double or triple the frames of animation if they really want this game to be a technological marvel.

I'm sure this is one reason why the animations look so stiff. They need to watch that All Pro 2K8 vs NCAA 2008 vid, study the patterns by Rice and update thier animations to that level.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet Sufferer

If they just did this and stopped with the endless new "features" and gimmicks. The game looks pretty nice now but just doesn't animate that well.

I wish they would take at least one year off from new features, lay-off anyone that's not involved with gameplay, play calling design, animations or in-game presentation and just work on the fundamentals of football... and presentation.

Quote: Originally Posted by Nintari

There's alot of things that alot of people want in this franchise, but I'll dumb it down to only TWO. 2.)Make franchise the main focal point. Really flesh it out, and give it the attention it deserves. If they ignored just about everything apart from these two things next year, we would have one hell of an amazing game. All they'd have to do after that in 2011 is tweak the gameplay and it would be perfect.

I'm primarily a franchise player with sports games, but I can't even enjoy a play now game at this point. Franchise is worthless to me without the gameplay fixes. I won't buy this game, much less start a franchise until the line interaction is fixed.

[LAKE4742]

Quote: Originally Posted by MaxMan1000

They'll never make franchise the main focal point. It's not where Madden's money is made. Never has been. It's always been about "new features" and of course gameplay with this product.

New features-yeah. But, gameplay? Are you sure? Because I can't effin' tell!!!!