Madden NFL 11 Video: Developer Series - All About Gameplay

[o Mass Murda o]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

They keep talking about having a guy that the defensive player is supposed to block. What happens if someone moves players around, or manually controls a player. Is the blocker going to ignore the player right in front of them, and try to block the 'guy' they are supposed to block according to the play art? That's not a fix, that's just another bug. Can some of the CD guys respond, or anyone that's seen/read more on the subject?

yea thats a good Q Valdarez..im interested in knowing that as well. if the logic can be easily manipulated and broken as seen by the numerous nano setup vids of '09 and '10, this is no improvement. we all know humans will move players presnap all day. i hope it constantly changes on the fly.

as far as the new features talk...im with rgiles and only1lt...i mean they have to address it out loud somehow and let us know they improved or fixed something. i dont care if they back of the box it or whatever. i mean it is as assinine as a FPS saying new features such as "guns shoot bullets", but no biggie. i just need to know its in and working properly(EA's biggest prob to me)

also just want to say this vid didnt expose jackshizzle and im sick of seeing that reggie bush clip. its nothing special and nothing i cant already do in ncaa09/10 and madden 10 by moving LS side to side to break down and shoulder fake and then burst juke with RS to explode or spin. i really hope this momentum thing pans out cuz so far im not seeing much difference to me other than the occasional overrun by the D and a slightly diff run animation. the transitions are still god awful and look like "turn on turn off". it still looks like instant acceleration outta break tackles and such and i thought this was addressed. hope this isnt the case. at least ncaa 11 demo is next week and we can get a test drive since theyre sharing tech in the same yr for once. need some E3 news bad right now!!

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

They keep talking about having a guy that the defensive player is supposed to block. What happens if someone moves players around, or manually controls a player. Is the blocker going to ignore the player right in front of them, and try to block the 'guy' they are supposed to block according to the play art? That's not a fix, that's just another bug. Can some of the CD guys respond, or anyone that's seen/read more on the subject?

In the blocking live chat, someone asked this and they said that the blocking assignments changed as the formation changed. I think they even said that the play art would change to show the new blocking assignment.

Whether it really works this way or not is, as always, undetermined until retail, but that is what they SAID in any event.

[charter04]

It is old gameplay footage, the Cowboys (Marion Barber) run was the same from the first Dev Series video. Might not be any better now, but it is deffenately old game play footage. I am more exited about NCAA 11, but Madden still looks really good to this point. Blocking AI and locamotion is huge! Hope the Franchise mode is much more indepth this year. Haven't heard much about it. I play offline franchise 90% of the time so it needs to be more like Madden 05's franchise mode. Loved change prices for food and parking. It made you feel more like an owner. Even though the logic didn't make much sence sometimes, I also loved the players mood changing. Making comments about wanting to be trading or not having enough playing time. Why oh why have they not been able to include that in the next gen games! Am I the only one who loved that stuff. It gave so much more life to a franchise.

[bucky60]

EDIT: Think I put this in the wrong thread

Exclusive Rights deal.

It was a great business decision by EA, but terrible for NFL Video games. This gave EA the time to move from Last Gen to Next Gen, maximizing profit, by minimizing expenses while moving to the Next Gen. People still bought it because it was the only NFL game in town. EA didn't need to put in the resources it would take to innovate. They didn't need to. The sales would still be there w/o it.

I don't blame the Dev team, I blame the decision making at EA for NFL video football taking over half a decade step backwards.

With competition (w/i the exclusive rights), we would have seen a much better NFL Video game from either EA or some other publisher.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by charter04

Loved change prices for food and parking. It made you feel more like an owner. Even though the logic didn't make much sence sometimes, I also loved the players mood changing. Making comments about wanting to be trading or not having enough playing time. Why oh why have they not been able to include that in the next gen games! Am I the only one who loved that stuff. It gave so much more life to a franchise.

The MLB 2005 series had a much better implementation of setting prices and expenses. If Madden did something more like MLB 2005, I would be into it.

For me, better (more accurate) roster management would be the thing. True IR, 80 man rosters with cut downs to a 53 man roster, with a scout team.

There are a lot of other GM/Franchise features, but I'm not going to list everything.

[stux]

at 3:10 Ian sums up what EA's focus has been in 09, 10, and apparently 11?:

Ian:

"If gameplay is not there then it doesn't what else you do. It does matter what your presentation is, it doesn't matter what you franchise mode is if you gameplay is not there. So, um having core blocking and locomotion like major rewrites in those areas; I can't think of any better way spend out resources and time."

Third year and gameplay may be where EA wants it?

What about everything else?

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by sois

That's like 70% of us according to OS polls. I wouldn't take improving franchise lightly. I swear, if IR is still broken...

I'm not aware of that particular poll, but regardless that's just OS. OS is very influential but represents a tiny, tiny, tiiiiiiiny group of hardcore players compared to the overall Madden fanbase of millions who are very casual players who buy this game and plays franchise once if at all, and spends the rest of their time playing in Play Now or against friends. I totally understand the passion of those who are into franchise, but they tend to think they represent a much larger group than they actually do.

Quote: Originally Posted by Only1LT

Having said that, if you are actually playing the games and not simming, how could you not want gameplay to be focused on first before anything else, even as a franchise guy? I'm not a franchise guy again, but like I said, unless you are simming, I can't see franchise being worthwhile if you aren't actually enjoying playing the games.

This is the part that leaves me scratching my head as well. I don't know how franchise modes can be looked at as more important than actually playing the game on the field. That boggles my mind.

Quote: Originally Posted by cowboykmoney

ell Im a firm believer of that myself, Because it has to be fixed in order for them to turn the corner for madden to start to become great.

But franchise heads represent the minority. Madden doesn't make its money on franchise mode, it makes it on graphics, features and strong marketing. If franchise were their bread and butter they would've never been able to get by with it being so broken and feature-lacking as people say it's been all generation.

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by sois

However, replay value only comes into play when the franchise stuff works. If I wanted gameplay, I'd go play those that shall not be named, which are great on the field, but lacking in replay value.

That's how a franchise guy would define it. However, replay value is not defined the same for everyone. My personal view of replay value has to do with whether or not the experience of actually playing the game on the field is fun and makes me want to come back for more.