Madden: What to Look for Out of the NFL Offseason

[Segagendude]

Q:What to look for in regards to Madden?


A: More hype. Maybe a feature that was removed, being returned under the guise of "New".

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by SVCbearcat10

Zero correlation between amount of content in the game and gameplay?? Really??? It's not a correlation coefficient of 1, but it's fairly high. So if Madden would take out half their content, they could make a better game? Let's see what would happen to them next year if that happened. I agree amount of content does not guarantee a good game but lack of content to work with does. It's funny how NBA2K and The Show have much more content and are considered great games while Madden lacks the content and wouldn't you know it... hasn't made a great game in years. But I'm sure it has nothing to do with it. NBA2k and The Show where 3+ GBs bigger on last gen than Madden and they were considered the best sports games of the generation. You better keep preaching on these forums that the amount of content doesn't matter because as far as I can see, it absolutely does.

Maybe past 2k NBA games, but I traded mine in after 2 months. The push of VC and online connectivity was bothersome.

Good article. Time will tell what happens.

[newmich]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Maybe past 2k NBA games, but I traded mine in after 2 months. The push of VC and online connectivity was bothersome. Good article. Time will tell what happens.

To each there own, I actually am in love with 2K on the PS4. That being said I do agree with you that the push of VC is bothersome, also I am not a fan of the menu layout on the PS4 version.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by SVCbearcat10

Zero correlation between amount of content in the game and gameplay?? Really??? It's not a correlation coefficient of 1, but it's fairly high. So if Madden would take out half their content, they could make a better game? Let's see what would happen to them next year if that happened. I agree amount of content does not guarantee a good game but lack of content to work with does. It's funny how NBA2K and The Show have much more content and are considered great games while Madden lacks the content and wouldn't you know it... hasn't made a great game in years. But I'm sure it has nothing to do with it. NBA2k and The Show where 3+ GBs bigger on last gen than Madden and they were considered the best sports games of the generation. You better keep preaching on these forums that the amount of content doesn't matter because as far as I can see, it absolutely does.

The five best games I played last generation were Portal (less than 650 MB on XBOX 360), Portal 2 (4.5 GB on XBOX 360), Rock Band 2 (4.6 GB on XBOX 360), NBA 2K11 (6.7 GB on XBOX 360) and Minecraft (113 MB on XBOX 360). As you can see the disc footprints of those games are all over the board, yet all are great games. Game mechanics are a far greater piece of the puzzle, and that's just code which has a trivial disc footprint.

If Madden doubled its disc footprint, the only immediate results you'd see are higher-res textures, higher-poly-count geometry, and a larger sound bank to draw from for commentary (note that this is completely separate from the commentary being any smarter, that is all code-side).

Again, file size absolutely has no bearing on how fun a game is.

[Ovie832]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

The five best games I played last generation were Portal (less than 650 MB on XBOX 360), Portal 2 (4.5 GB on XBOX 360), Rock Band 2 (4.6 GB on XBOX 360), NBA 2K11 (6.7 GB on XBOX 360) and Minecraft (113 MB on XBOX 360). As you can see the disc footprints of those games are all over the board, yet all are great games. Game mechanics are a far greater piece of the puzzle, and that's just code which has a trivial disc footprint. If Madden doubled its disc footprint, the only immediate results you'd see are higher-res textures, higher-poly-count geometry, and a larger sound bank to draw from for commentary (note that this is completely separate from the commentary being any smarter, that is all code-side). Again, file size absolutely has no bearing on how fun a game is.

I guess Im just confused why superior games like Mlb the Show and Nba 2k always have a big hdd minimum requirement.. and Fifa, Madden and NHL are always much less. *not meant to be a wise crack or start an argument.. i truly want to know why.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote:

It’s time they finally do something about it.

Is this a serious statement? Come on now. It's BEEN time for them to actually show they worked full days over there. YEARS. The right studio does not work on this game. The talent is severely lacking. Let's not even talk about the problems with the football on the field - because we could spend weeks discussing those. How about things like the CFM mode? Not a single change to CFM for the next gen consoles. Laughable. Draft classes that are loaded with WRs and Corners with 65 speed. Really? The line play is still very poor. Player movement is still silly looking. The physics engine is useless - like when you have a guy running into a 350 pound DT and he falls forward after taking the hit square on. The same exact, silly looking animations over and over. The development cycle for madden is 2 months tops, where they will implement something completely unrealistic like "total control passing". Then that's it. High fives all around. Hell, Madden doesn't even have an NFL authentic injury system. Players only get hurt after the play is over and flop over like a dead fish. How about the real time injuries in NBA 2k? Guys will limp, fall down and go to the floor if they pull a hammy. Instead in Madden we have injuries that came directly out of a sega Genesis game. The idea that anyone at Tiburon could be proud of this product speaks VOLUMES of them there and we see it in the final product. The only hope for football gamers is someone else getting the license. ANYONE else would be something gamers would come out for in droves to pick up. We are all tired of it now.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ovie832

I guess Im just confused why superior games like Mlb the Show and Nba 2k always have a big hdd minimum requirement.. and Fifa, Madden and NHL are always much less. *not meant to be a wise crack or start an argument.. i truly want to know why.

In the case of the most recent NBA 2K game on next-gen consoles, I'd guess that a ton of the disc footprint relative to other games is related to a few things. Foremost, the sheer amount of audio assets. 2K has always been praised for their robust commentary, which has always had tons of lines for a smart commentary engine to play back in a variety of situations, and then on top of that you add in any game mode specific audio for MyCareer and MyGM, the sideline report audio, stadium arena audio, presentation-related audio, the on-court player and coach real voice interviews, and so on. Then add in HD texture assets for pretty much every player and coach in the league, signature animations for a large number of players in the league (2K does a tremendous job at capturing unique player likenesses), and so on, you end up with a game with a huge amount of assets.

I can't speak much to MLB The Show as I've never played it, I have no interest in purchasing a PS3/PS4 right now, and I have little interest in baseball to start with, but I imagine it's a similar set of circumstances; tons of audio, tons of unique animations, tons of texture assets to capture unique player likenesses.

All of these things with respect to assets show more attention to detail and increase player immersion, but don't necessarily make the games play better. The majority of that can be attributed to gameplay mechanics, game design, opponent AI, and online gameplay network code if the game is online-enabled.

[SVCbearcat10]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

The five best games I played last generation were Portal (less than 650 MB on XBOX 360), Portal 2 (4.5 GB on XBOX 360), Rock Band 2 (4.6 GB on XBOX 360), NBA 2K11 (6.7 GB on XBOX 360) and Minecraft (113 MB on XBOX 360). As you can see the disc footprints of those games are all over the board, yet all are great games. Game mechanics are a far greater piece of the puzzle, and that's just code which has a trivial disc footprint. If Madden doubled its disc footprint, the only immediate results you'd see are higher-res textures, higher-poly-count geometry, and a larger sound bank to draw from for commentary (note that this is completely separate from the commentary being any smarter, that is all code-side). Again, file size absolutely has no bearing on how fun a game is.

I understand your point and agree to a certain extent. However, let's look at sports games specifically, since the goal is real life simulation. I still play my NES from time to time and love Tecmo Super Bowl. I probably enjoy it more than any recent copy of Madden. However, times have changed for sports games. Having 4 offensive and 4 defensive plays is now unacceptable. Expectations out of sports game back then weren't that high and all were arcade like, because that's all the technology would allow.

I guess I'm arguing that footprint may matter more in sports game. Having accurate faces for all players is important, realistic stadiums and cities are important, details in the gear is important. While, like you said, those don't make the game better per say, it goes hand in hand with recreating what you see on TV (which is part of the goal and what makes the games fun). The technology is there to produce a life-like product. When they don't put in the extra content for realistic sidelines, player models, variety of player models; then, bugs in gameplay are focused on even more. That in turn makes the game worse because you are less likely to overlook these flaws.

In short, yes I agree with you because I find some older games (like NES) just as fun as PS4 games. However in sports, the attention to detail is every bit as important as the gameplay itself. That's what takes the game from being good to great and that's the direction Madden needs to take.