Madden NFL 12 Super Bowl Halftime Blog: Tuner Sets and Surprise Onside Kicks

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Again, back to the tuner sets... I think we all expected them, but it's confirmed now, and that can't be anything but a good thing. It isn't huge news, anybody who's been here the past two seasons knows it's not gonna be huge news (year 1 was head tracking, I don't remember what it was last year, but I know there was a similar "where's the real news" kinda thing).

AJ, it was the goose egg hunt on the white board. The Go Pack Go chant, Pycho D, the Jets Chant, Tom Hammond's name crossed out, etc...... The backlash was the people didn't look perky enough. lol.

[Hova57]

Quote: Originally Posted by Senator Palmer

I agree with you there. There are nuances and subtle innovations in both NCAA and Madden that don't cross over. This could be a very good thing

yea not only that but they borrowed an animation from Fifa team for the onside kick. Pretty Cool. As it stands now Ncaa and Madden only games in EaSports Division with no added physics to the game so we could be in for a good surprise eventually

[DickDalewood]

Quote: Originally Posted by Meast21Forever

- still a bunch of individual players out there. each one is kinda wandering around doing his own thing. after playing nba 2k11 for so long, it'd be nice to see a player or two come together and hit helmets or high five or something. they recovered an onside kick, a few guys celebrated to themselves, and then it's off the field at the exact same rate of speed lol. a bit robotic almost. 2k11 spoiled me i guess

Yes, one of my largest gripes as well, and it would go a LONG way in improving the feel and presentation.

[Flamehead]

I'm indifferent to the surprise onside kicking, but the tuner set is a very positive step. To me, that's pretty significant as I've wondered for two years why Madden didn't have them but some of the other EA titles did. Now they do, and that's good news.

The text "The days of shipping a disc in a box and forgetting about it are long gone, and we want to be at the forefront of blazing new trails in reacting to our audience and improving the game quickly."

...was a little eye-rolling as it seemed to ring of marketing jargon, and for all I know, someone in Marketing added it after Ian wrote it, but who knows (nevermind that Madden is NOT at the "forefront of blazing new trails" in regard to the tuner sets as other EA titles have had them over some time now).

In any event, better late than never. A good addition.

[mm boost]

Ian, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to make us a blog to get the hype train rolling for 2012. A lot of times, everyone over looks small things like this that you do for this community, only to moan and complain about zomg there wuz no franchiz newz!?!/11!11 Wtf!!??11 off with EA's HEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The true immature children come out in these threads when news is released, and allows the moderators to do their jobs more diligently. Regardless, again, thank you for making this blog. I am about to go listen to the podcast now, and get even more excited. Personally, I loved this blog. The tuner sets is a MAJOR thing for me. I'm still playing my NCAA 11, and the tuner sets, IMO, was one of their best additions. I think it truly allows you guys to listen to our feedback, and fix certain parts of the game. And honestly, I feel like this will keep frustrating problems from staying around for a while.

Prime example. I just finished my 2nd season in Madden 2011 with my Cowboys this weekend, played in the Superbowl against the Chargers. Had a really awesome game with some AWESOME highlight plays from it, get to the superbowl presentation and I am enjoying the trophy presentation and the dialogue from Gus, and then BOOM, the game freezes and I lost everything. Want to talk about being upset? Yes I was, no doubt about it. So much so, that I quit my franchise, and I am starting a new one tonight. It completely sucked the life out of my franchise. My sense of accomplishment was completely gone, so I have no desire to continue that 'chise. So I am downloading the latest roster update tonight, and starting a fresh one.

Regardless, my point is, with a tuner set, this would fix this type of problem right? I have seen numerous threads on the superbowl glitch, so I know it is not me and that it is a widespread problem. With tuner sets, you guys would be able to address this, correct?

Another COMMON issue, was the issue with the pre-game presentation tidbits, where Gus Johnson said the same intro over and over and over and over about the quarterback comparisons. No defense comparisons, no other star players, only the two quarterbacks. And if they are not familiar quarterbacks, we get the same standard intro which gets old very quickly. This is another area I am assuming the tuner sets could address, which would make the tuner set feature one of the best additions in a long time for Madden.

I am looking forward to the Franchise news, which will be my major selling point. I hope you guys knock it out of the park with presentation and overall depth in the franchise mode (which I have faith, and I am feeling optimistic that you will). I love Madden and I purchase it every year, but I would love for a few of the areas that bother me to be fully addressed so I no-longer have to ignore and chalk up to difficulty of delivering a perfect game.

[Rebel10]

Quote: Originally Posted by Senator Palmer

Just curious, what was wrong with the NCAA tuner? I thought they worked great. It's just the NCAA team tuned to the point of screwing up what was so great about the game, then went radio silent.

NCAA Tuners were a disaster when coupled with patches & EA Online Pass, because the tuners were released simultaneously with patches and they were meant to work in tandem... The problem was for people without EA Online Pass, because the two things worked together, it legitimately broke the game for anybody who didn't have EA Online Pass... the only way to make the game playable was to disconnect from XBL / PSN, and delete all updates whenever you wanted to play NCAA.

As far as I know, EA never rectified this ridiculous issue, nor even recognized it.

[huskerwr38]

This blog was a very nice surprise compared to last year as they actually talked about new features. Anyways, for people talking about presentation and stuff (or lack thereof) I would just relax right now. The game is about 6 and a half months away from shipping right now. I'm sure they do not have that stuff installed yet.

[econoodle]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dayman

I approve of the new scoring bug. I like it a lot. I was sick of looking at the current one, since they've had it for 2 years. The new one's smaller, which is excellent, because the current one was huge.

i did notice that the scorebug is off center.
this could mean a few things:


1- that its 6 months from release and its just a placeholder position [likely]

2- that its set off to the left to be more like tv broadcasts, which oare usually off to one side [tho tv network bugs are smaller i think].

3-that its set where it is so stat info can slide out from the right side [hopefully].

In any event, I've fallen for it. Much more classy.