Gus Johnson Confirmed Play-By-Play Commentator For Madden NFL 11 w/ Gameplay Video

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by J Masta J

I'm referring to people who think that this is somehow only the tip of the presentation iceberg, and that we're now bound to have broadcast elements from real TV channels and two teams...

Oh okay. I see what you mean then.

[NFLHITMAN]

Gus Johnson is GREAT NEWS!

Hopefully he brings as much excitement to Madden that he did hear in week one of the 2010 season...



How about this great line from Gus...

"He has getting away from the cops speed"

[boydra]

Animations still leave a lot to be desired.

[UKCats]

I like Gus Johnson but, he isn't the best football broadcaster, IMO. I don't know who else they could have gotten. I like Hammond but, not in the game. This is an improvement no doubt but, won't make or break this game. Gus is the best basketball guy no doubt. He brings a ton of excitement. Hopefully they will implement that correctly.

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by J Masta J

Not to be a d/ck, but I think you are all setting yourself up for a colossal disappointment. EA has made some good changes so far, sure, but I'm not sure where your guys' absurdly high expectations come from.

I don't understand all the hype either. When they made the change from radio guy, there wasn't this much hype. In fact, most weren't concerned with the commentators, but about the script. Here are a few quotes from the thread that announced Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth for Madden 09:

Quote: Originally Posted by Danimal

Let me preface this by saying if there is one thing that is personal opinion it is what announcers you like. Having said that I don't care who it is to be honest, I care more about what is being said. If it flows seamless like the Show and I don't think about the commentary and it feel like I am listening to a game on TV then that's good enough for me.

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

I'm only concerned with how their lines are intergrated. Give me dynamic commentary and as many lines as possible. Then spend the same amount of time next year adding to the commentary. But history has shown that what's recorded this year will make up 99% of what we hear next year.

Quote: Originally Posted by JBucc

It's great that they have real announcers back, but tbh it doesn't matter what team they got, what matters is what lines EA gives them and how well it's programmed. If the're repetitive with stupid lines and always a play behind people will hate them no matter what.

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

I like Collingsworth myself; Hammond is okay. Imo it's not necessarily the announcers, but how they're directed. Doesn't matter who it is if their lines are full of cliches, the two don't sound as if they're watching the same game, and it's not programmed in a way to make it sound fresh

What's changed in 2 yrs? Nothing. It doesn't matter if they resurrect Howard Cosell, get John Madden back in the booth, and throw in a dash of Brent Musburger and Al Michaels (the top 4 of the 50 greatest sports announcers of all time http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slu...nouncers013009 ), the commentary will be bad if they are putting in a lackluster effort with it, like they have been doing the last 2 years.

Tom Hammond was/is the scapegoat for poor commentary programming. Now I'm no programmer so I have no idea how easy or hard it is, but I do know one of 2 things has been happening the last 2 years. Either the programmers working on commentary lack the effort to fix it or they lack the talent to fix it. I would tend to think it was more of the former than the latter. It sounds harsh, but it is the truth. Anytime Hammond can pronounce Nnamdi Asomugha's(arguably the best CB in the game today) name wrong for 2 years in a row, you know something is wrong. I can't imagine how many people sent letters, emails, tweets, texts, etc to EA after Madden 09 saying that Nnamdi's last name is pronounced a-so-mu-wa not a-so-moo-gah, yet it made it into 10 the same way. That tells me something was really wrong with the effort put forth into commentary.

Now Tom Hammond is not completely off the hook. He was the one who said asomoogah in the first place, but I put more of the blame on the EA team. I've seen Hammond call games and he sounds nothing like he does in Madden. That's because the team has noticeable pauses before obvious spliced statements ie "Today's game is between **pause** the Oakland Raiders and **pause** the Denver Broncos. Tom Hammond doesn't talk like that. That's how the game is programmed.

You may say, well he sounds dull and bland like a robot. That's EA's job to tell him to put a little more excitement in his voice. They're supposed to be there to direct him. That's just more evidence of a lack of effort. If you ever watch a game that he announces, it's like night and day when compared to Madden. The first time I heard him call a game I was like who the hell is this? lol This isn't the same guy from Madden. While he may not be as exciting as Gus, he is definitely nowhere near as bad as he sounds on Madden.

I know a lot of you all are happy about Gus Johnson joining the Madden booth, but, like all those other guys said about Madden 09, it's not necessarily about the announcer, but about how the commentary is programmed to integrate into the game. If the team puts forth the same effort that they have been for the last 2 years, Gus Johnson may quickly become the new Tom Hammond.

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

I know a lot of you all are happy about Gus Johnson joining the Madden booth, but, like all those other guys said about Madden 09, it's not necessarily about the announcer, but about how the commentary is programmed to integrate into the game. If the team puts forth the same effort that they have been for the last 2 years, Gus Johnson may quickly become the new Tom Hammond.

I understand what you are saying and agree about how things are scripted but even if things are scripted the same way as they were in Madden 09/10, Gus will still be better than Hammond imo....

Gus just has a much better voice than Hammond and shows more emotion even in the most basic of lines. I'm pretty sure that everyone "hyped" for Gus being in Madden 11 agrees. I did see Hammond on TV doing some things for the Kentucky Derby and while he was better than he was in Madden (obviously since it was real life) he was still dull imo. He had the same tone through out... didn't show any emotion and/or excitement.

[NYyankz225]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

What's changed in 2 yrs? Nothing. It doesn't matter if they resurrect Howard Cosell, get John Madden back in the booth, and throw in a dash of Brent Musburger and Al Michaels (the top 4 of the 50 greatest sports announcers of all time http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slu...nouncers013009 ), the commentary will be bad if they are putting in a lackluster effort with it, like they have been doing the last 2 years.

They have made other steps, namely hiring a writer who actually knows how to write lines for broadcast with broadcast experience. One article states that they've made some changes to the commentary engine but it was not explained in any more detail than that so we really don't know what they mean.

I suspect hiring experienced broadcast writers will make much more of a difference than Gus Johnson would with the same people. If they have made changes to the commentary "engine" then it'll be much more improved. We still haven't actually heard much commentary for the game and won't until pretty late in the game unless the E3 videos actually captures audio which it usually never can with all the noise.

[ESPOMAN]

This game is going to rock.