Ever watched kids play Pee-wee football? That gives you a good indication of exactly how hard it is to make something with good physics (ie. - REALITY) LOOK good playing football - or applying the rules and strategy of the game to inanimate objects (in the case of the on-screen players).
The difference is like the difference between making a great looking, set-piece adventure game and making a so-so looking but immensely deep RPG. Games like Uncharted and God of War 3 and the like have a HUGE advantage of being able to limit reality to fit into a pre-conceived box. The games LOOK great, but they are limited by what the programmers want the player to be able to do. Then look at a game like Dragon Age or GTAIV - open world, huge amounts of freedom and options and possibilities, but the price paid is that the graphics suffer in comparison to the "state of the art" stuff like Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3.
The challenge for EA has always been how do they adapt their game - which IMO has been the best LOOKING football game ever made for quite some time now - and turn it into BOTH the best LOOKING and the best PLAYING game? Infinity Engine sure does look like a giant leap in the right direction to me. The plays that really stand out for me so far are the vastly improved running - being able to trip and bump and deflect off of other players is HUGE - and the ability to have little guys hang-on to the ball carrier (the Turner example in the debut trailer....where the CB does not just bang down Michael Turner but instead is holding onto one leg for dear life until another defender comes in and cleans up the tackle).
This IS the Madden I have been waiting for...it may be 7 years late, and it may still sorely disappoint, but THIS is the direction I expected the franchise to move going from PS2 to XB360/PS3 all along. More than anything else, I am relieved to see that the developers share a vision of making the game do things that I feel are important....things like respecting angular momentum, mass and acceleration when determining the outcome of a collision; things that are going to make the unrealistic gameplay styles go extinct - the guys who love to hit stick EVERY tackle, the guys who love to run their Safeties around in circles and morph through the O-Line for nano pressure, the guys who have no idea how to read blocking or hit a hole or actually call plays for match-ups and strategy beyond triggering canned and predictable outcomes...those "styles" may still find exploits (probably will), but they will no longer be able to dominate and exploit the game as easily (if at all in some cases), and THAT alone is worth $120 from me to EA (for PS3 and XB360 versions once more)...
Bravo to the guys at EA that are working to FINALLY bring us the "next-gen Madden" experience that I was hoping for all along. Its late. Its been incredibly frustrating to live through. And it barely made it out before the end of the console generation...BUT its finally here and the foundation that is laid here has put the abortion of Madden NFL 2006 finally in its grave forever. (I STILL believe that Madden 2006 - 2009 were essentially ruined by the rush job of getting a game released for the launch of the XB360 at any cost...that cost has been very long and very high, but with this new beginning and new engine to govern the basics of the the players and gameplay, there is hope for more than band-aids on gaping wounds moving forward!!!
06-05-2012, 08:56 PM
