OS Roundtable: Madden NFL 13 Demo Impressions

[supermanemblem]

The original Madden on Sega Genesis would be unplayable for 99% of y'all. We had three buttons to work with and we still had super LBs/DBs and nano blitzes, etc. No sports game is going to be perfect nor will it represent the sport with pinpoint accuracy. Ever. Ain't going to happen.

[GisherJohn24]

I'm gonna disagree also. I love the new feel. Feels like a new engine, and I think it's the best playing Madden yet. Not perfect, but for being an annual franchise, impressed on this end. Day 1 purchase for me.

[GisherJohn24]

Also..if there was only one thing I didn't like about it, was that they dind't use ESPN presentation. And I hope and pray that they brought back the NFL Films music from 10 and 11.

[rangerrick012]

RE: Presentation, and lack of network branding - you don't need network branding to have great/TV style presentation. NBA 2K doesn't have a network brand but it still delivers a great presentation package. So although I get why some believe that slapping an ESPN or CBS logo would make things more immersive, I'm not entirely sure that would fix every problem that people still seem to have w/ the presentation side of things.

You're focusing your attention on the wrong thing if you think network logo automatically = great presentation & a great game. Most recent example I can think of that is Grand Slam Tennis 2, which had ESPN presentation but still felt subpar on many levels.

If you look at the NBA 2K team they say they worked with guys from TNT to get as close as they could to an accurate TV presentation. I think EA could do that but not put the 'CBS' or 'ESPN' logo up there, it would still be a huge step. Granted like I said the presentation has already taken a huge step from years past, and I do think this years' is an attempt to replicate a 'CBS' broadcast w/o the logo.

[TombSong]

Quote: Originally Posted by supermanemblem

The original Madden on Sega Genesis would be unplayable for 99% of y'all. We had three buttons to work with and we still had super LBs/DBs and nano blitzes, etc. No sports game is going to be perfect nor will it represent the sport with pinpoint accuracy. Ever. Ain't going to happen.

By today's standards it would be unplayable. For that time that was all we had so we were for the most part content. Times have changed. 2k5 and 2k8 raised the bar for football standards and Madden has STILL not caught up.

No on is expecting for perfection. We ARE looking for better than what we have had. The IE engine is a good idea with a bad start. Its not garbage, and it has potential. It just needs to be tweaked/cleaned up. Its new right now so some of you this week are accepting of the flaws but lets hear from you 4 weeks from now after your 500th viewing of your HB falling down simply because he touched a offensive lineman.

[ryan36]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

I don't understand the "same old Madden" criticism levied by many in the article when viewed in the light of "it's a sports video game". What other sports video games series are consistently knocked with this criticism? Was NBA2K12 knocked for being very similar to NBA2K11? Has THQ and Yukes ever been knocked for basically releasing the same gameplay every year with the WWE (formerly Smackdown vs RAW) series? Has The Show ever been knocked for being simply an evolutionary step of its previous iteration? Did anyone criticize Forza Motorsport 4 for being fundamentally the same driving simulator as its predecessor? My point is that it's a fair criticism to apply to all those games, but I don't hear it nearly as much for those as I do for EA football. Sports video games are by their nature evolutionary and not revolutionary; I don't understand why anyone would go into a sports game anymore expecting to have their socks knocked off by something that plays completely differently than the year before it. That's not how these games are built, and everyone who is discerning enough about sports games to join a sports video game message board - let alone be a credited producer of content for one - should know that. Heck, it goes beyond sports video games to video games in general. Was anyone knocking Modern Warfare 3 for having the exact same controls and exact same gameplay as Modern Warfare 2? Did anyone ever knock the Rock Band games for having the same rhythm-matching gameplay as each of their predecessors? In my opinion, the impressions offered in the article should have been much better phrased and much more detailed. We all know we are getting a Madden football game. There are certain implications that come with that that everyone knows. Tell us what the new issues are, tell us what legacy issues have and haven't been addressed, tell us what the game actually does well and doesn't do well. To stand behind the opinion of "it's Madden; you like it or you don't" - peppering that opinion with high-level statements such as "legacy issues" without offering any specifics as to what they are, what was attempted by the team to address them, how those changes have affected gameplay, etc. - isn't exactly being bold; that's not an interesting opinion in the context of a sports video game special interest web page, everyone who views this site already knows that much. The closest we got to that in this article were the opinions offered by Jayson Young and Kenny Glover, and I don't feel like they necessarily offered balanced opinions. To be specific, I find it disappointing that no one got into some of the specifics in the Madden demo that legitimately help the series - the new passing mechanics from NCAA (having been better tuned), the excellent crowd audio, how fluid the game is, the general responsiveness of the controls (particularly compared to NCAA Football 13 retail), any mention of the new Kinect preplay controls whatsoever, and so on. From a journalistic standpoint, I don't see how you can talk about the Madden NFL 13 demo without so much as mentioning any of these things. For a website "dedicated to sports gaming", this impressions article simply could and should have been much better.

Well, the reason you don't see that criticism is because those games you mention are generally regarded as "good"...

They don't NEED to reinvent themselves.

[comen]

Quote: Originally Posted by Feldman011teen

The demo did in fact blow me away. The whole feel is what I imagined football would be in today's regard 15 years ago. The game is beautiful and smooth. The presentation is great. If you're someone that wants a change from recent Madden's get this one. I really can't believe how much flack this demo is getting?

Maybe you got a different demo and all these people are nuts!!

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryan36

Well, the reason you don't see that criticism is because those games you mention are generally regarded as "good"... They don't NEED to reinvent themselves.

Proverbial nail hit directly on the head.