Madden 09: Make or Break Season

[mastershake88]

how is it a make or break year when your the only company with an "exclusive license" and you can afford to sit back with the same game every year. which what was proclaimed by game trailers, 1up.com and any other pro madden site that is payed or bribed to give good reviews.

so make or break? listen its hard to look behind at who is no.2 when your purposly made yourself the only person to be no.1.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Madden + sole ownership of NFL License= Never a Make or Break Season

IMO, Madden 08 on the 360 was a fun game

[Oldschool17]

Quote: Originally Posted by yvesdereuter

Even if the sales are sagging only because of a reduction in current gen, it still has to be a concern. It means people arent converting to next gen and games like Madden lacking quality might be one of the reasons. And actually, I think the drop off in sales that the Wall Street Journal reported was for year end March 2007...so it would have been the year before, not this past year. Maybe Im wrong on that. In any case, a sad irony in all this is that if you kill the competition, you have to be careful of that all the air doesnt leave the balloon. When you have more competition you have more people keeping the balloon full of air and so if one company slacks off, the overall things are buoyed by having someone else. EA needs to be careful. The game sucked in so many ways. Its sad to see people try to pinpoint the biggest problem, there were so many and the game is different things to different people. If they just focus on one thing, you have no reason to think something else wont be sacrificed. The game really is at a similar point to where Triple Play was at before they switched over to MVP. Another irony is that when they market or hype the game as they did last year (it seemed like the release was mentioned all over the place), you get the attention of a lot of people but when the game is a disaster, eveyone knows it. EA needs to stop letting their marketing department run things.

I don't disagree with what your saying but the only problem with your logic is your assuming EA has taken the approach that their product has been a failure when its likely quite the contrary. Alot of people are happy with Madden and the next gen sales numbers show that...I don't expect EA or Tiburon to have any feeling of make or break or that they need to drastically improve things

I only wish they felt that way. A comparison to Madden and the Triple Play series is not a good comparison AT ALL...TP was disastrous. Some may argue that Madden 2008 was disastrous but I'd counter their claim with the fact that Madden as a whole is still a decent game JUST not what many of us thought we'd be seeing and playing 4-5 years into next gen gaming

EA is nowhere near pushing the panic button on Madden

[Oldschool17]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

If the author's correct seems like fixing the game's bugs and adding some presentation aspects is what Madden needs to do to be considered turning the corner, that seems like a relatively low bar to have to jump over. Expecting gameplay depth, innovation, x's and o's really mattering - that's perhaps a little much right now. But let's say they trip again - what difference is it going to make? NOW would be the point where reviewers become indignant? After happily endorsing it/giving out 8+'s the past few years, and 9+'s as long as I can remember last gen? I can't wait to see IGN or TeamXbox explain their score again btw. I don't see how Metacritic reviews can be damned because that's what Peter Moore is using to validate Madden's quality - not any dip in sales. And EA's done a great job of insulating themselves. They have no true competition; they're about to put another bullet in 2K's head since they didn't die the first time (like Kill Bill); they just reupped the NFL license guaranteeing they'll be the only football developer even beyond the launch of the NextXbox & PS4. The time for the gaming media to step up was in '06 or '07. Day late dollar short. This year will be like all the others - people will cross their fingers and hope EA delivers. If not, they'll wait until [next] year. Hope for the best, but expect the worst. With such low expectations it's hard to fail.

Excellent points...agreed on all levels

And lets all stop fooling ourselves...Naturral Motion and Euphoria will be lucky to see the light of day even after the Ps3 and 360...We are nowhere close to any major changes in Madden...They will add the old stuff...tweak a few minor things then MARKET the hell outta the game all on their way to selling more copies than they did last year...CHA CHING!$!$!$!

The avg Madden player will be happy and content while the Madden connoisseurs and hardcore gamers will once again be disappointed and left with hopes of Madden 2010

[Oldschool17]

Quote: Originally Posted by STLRams

I can't be a Madden droid and buy it day one.

What you fail to realize is there are some of us who bought consoles specifically for sports..Then there are those of us who pretty much live for football...This means Madden is pretty much a day one purchase NO MATTER WHAT...Just like 2k was a DAY ONE Purchase NO MATTER WHAT...Now does my purchase alone ,ean I'll be happy with the game...hell no...I don't even own a copy of Madden 2008 right now because I'm disgusted with the game play...But comments like droids are just ignorant when you don't acknowledge the fact that real, true football fans just need their NFL, NCAA fix.

[gr18]

When people say they disliked the gameplay I take it they mean they were frustrated with the sliders and more directly the turnover issue.

I've never been a big Madden apologist but I find the gameplay is very good and much improved in recent years other than that.

Presentation and bugs that should've been fixed with proper testing are really the keys to putting out a product that people will find satisfying.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by gr18

When people say they disliked the gameplay I take it they mean they were frustrated with the sliders and more directly the turnover issue. I've never been a big Madden apologist but I find the gameplay is very good and much improved in recent years other than that. Presentation and bugs that should've been fixed with proper testing are really the keys to putting out a product that people will find satisfying.

Speaking personally, my problems with the game are a lot more extensive than the presentation and bug issues the game had in '08. It doesn't feel like football. It doesn't even feel like Madden football, which was the staple of the gameplay last gen imo. My big issues:

Players feel like they have no weight - not sure why, but all the work Tiburon put in establishing a limited physics system last gen was seemingly completely abandoned next gen. Tackles almost feel random.

Poor animations - We're three years into next gen and the QB anims are as goofy as it gets - flat out horrible, period. While the range of animations has improved, that's only when you compare it to previous next gen Madden games. Compared to APF or even 2K5, the animations are still relatively stiff and awkward looking. Lateral movement is depicted poorly. It's improved from what '06 was, but that's not saying much.

Rock/Paper/Scissors approach to AI - Madden gameplay. This beats that. That counters this. On a base level that's true, but the system has long needed additional depth. Players play too similarly.

QB play - Sorry have to stress how poorly a job they've done w/the QBs next gen. Even the hilarious stuff we'd see last gen where QBs would face the wrong direction and still throw accurate passes was better than what they've done next gen. They animate poorly. They all seem to have the same drop back animation. They run awkwardly. They throw awkwardly. They display weird high school level mechanics, which I don't know most high school QBs have. The RB anims are better, but still aren't anywhere near where they should be.

Player interaction - always been a big issue w/the series. While they took a step forward with the way they have the animations flow (I forget the fancy name they came up with for it), it's still far behind what was done in APF. Even in NCAA 04/06 (last gen) or 2K5 imo. DBs and LBs knock down passes that in real life they'd have no play on - which forces you to play the game less like you would see in a real football game (high school, college, pro... even pickup ball) and more like a Madden game.

I could go on but those were biggies off the top of my head. Throw in the other significant issues like the limited number of gameplay sliders, lack of team/player sliders, and extremely poor presentation (which is supposed to be vastly improved this year - again, not difficult to do when what came before it was so poorly done). That's not even touching on whatever bugs the game had, like the excessive turnover issues. Last year was an improved effort over what came before it, but again - that's not saying much imo. If you like the gameplay that's cool - because I'm sure the game will continue to progress forward. I just feel the game should be a lot further than it is right now.

[gr18]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

Speaking personally, my problems with the game are a lot more extensive than the presentation and bug issues the game had in '08. It doesn't feel like football. It doesn't even feel like Madden football, which was the staple of the gameplay last gen imo. My big issues: Players feel like they have no weight - not sure why, but all the work Tiburon put in establishing a limited physics system last gen was seemingly completely abandoned next gen. Tackles almost feel random. Poor animations - We're three years into next gen and the QB anims are as goofy as it gets - flat out horrible, period. While the range of animations has improved, that's only when you compare it to previous next gen Madden games. Compared to APF or even 2K5, the animations are still relatively stiff and awkward looking. Lateral movement is depicted poorly. It's improved from what '06 was, but that's not saying much. Rock/Paper/Scissors approach to AI - Madden gameplay. This beats that. That counters this. On a base level that's true, but the system has long needed additional depth. Players play too similarly. QB play - Sorry have to stress how poorly a job they've done w/the QBs next gen. Even the hilarious stuff we'd see last gen where QBs would face the wrong direction and still throw accurate passes was better than what they've done next gen. They animate poorly. They all seem to have the same drop back animation. They run awkwardly. They throw awkwardly. They display weird high school level mechanics, which I don't know most high school QBs have. The RB anims are better, but still aren't anywhere near where they should be. Player interaction - always been a big issue w/the series. While they took a step forward with the way they have the animations flow (I forget the fancy name they came up with for it), it's still far behind what was done in APF. Even in NCAA 04/06 (last gen) or 2K5 imo. DBs and LBs knock down passes that in real life they'd have no play on - which forces you to play the game less like you would see in a real football game (high school, college, pro... even pickup ball) and more like a Madden game. I could go on but those were biggies off the top of my head. Throw in the other significant issues like the limited number of gameplay sliders, lack of team/player sliders, and extremely poor presentation (which is supposed to be vastly improved this year - again, not difficult to do when what came before it was so poorly done). That's not even touching on whatever bugs the game had, like the excessive turnover issues. Last year was an improved effort over what came before it, but again - that's not saying much imo. If you like the gameplay that's cool - because I'm sure the game will continue to progress forward. I just feel the game should be a lot further than it is right now.

You made some strong points.I was always more of a 2k guy but would enjoy a really good football game post-2k5.2k5,to me,is still very good but had some gameplay quirks as well.

Maybe it's the anti-EA sentiment starting with '06 ,but many think that Madden '04-'05 was better than it really was.They were held to a lower standard,I guess.The running game was abysmal then.

There has been upgrades,but I agree that some things are inexcusable.

A big gripe of mine has been that you play the level/sliders more than the team strengths/weaknesses that you're playing.A person has to use team-specific sliders to get close to acheiving the real difference between a Manning/Brady and the many below average qb's in the league.

It just seemed to me that many that liked previous Madden's think that this one is actually worse than ever.I think,with them,it must be turnover/slider frustration.