Madden NFL 18 on the Frostbite Engine: Reactions

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

If you had to guess, when will the full potential start to be scratched? Only reason I ask is because we're coming up on its sixth year of use with CFM and IMO franchise mode has seemed severely stagnant since the concept of CFM was introduced. As someone who is essentially "all-in" on franchise mode, I truly hope the future is very bright, it's just a lot harder for me to see it given how poor recent features have been from both an execution and quality standpoint. Doesn't mean that can't or won't change but just based on the last couple years I don't have much confidence in CFM being able to return to the level of enjoyment that previous Madden's had or on par with other sports titles franchise modes any time soon.

There were two parts to my response. I refer you back to my original statement. I have reasons I do not wish to elaborate further.

Also... uhh, so, franchise mode was better when the CPU teams ran in played games 8-12% of the time, draft picks could literally not progress past 85, and no substitutions were made in simmed games? I spend hundreds of hours at MaddenMania on the Manifesto team testing a 20 page document of weekly tweaks you had to do to create a remotely playable mode. Eventually I moved to Football-Freaks and spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out what fields held what in a compressed SQL database to create external tools like Gommo's MaddenAmp.

Take the rose colored glasses off, franchise has ALWAYS been a mess. The difference is at least now there's a reasonable semblance of functionality. Apparently you'd prefer a repetitive radio show and 17 2,000 yard rushers a year?

I tuned progression in M12. I promise you, it's the most realistic in Madden history (out of the box. Modded, it's '06 PC with MaddenAmp. I tuned that too). Seriously, please, sim 10 seasons of any other Madden and I'm sure you'll agree if your honest. If I'd had that responsibility on '13, it would have been INFINITELY easier. FranTK is a test bed, basically. It can run a full season in about a minute. It's a fantastic tool that finally has a designer who'll use it.

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[LionsFanNJ]

I hope the switch to frostbite gives the devs an excuse to rework the damn weather. I heard frostbite is good for weather effects.


...and let us manually pick weather in CFM.

[OhMrHanky]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

You had up me all up to the radio show. I'm in if it's not Tony Bruno, the guys voice was nauseating and repetitive. I'll take the mini-skills over the radio show, but I think EA will try to reinvent the wheel and not try to copy features from 10 years ago. Just my take. It's starting to become more of a wish list thread. lol

Lol. I'll agree with this. I HATED tony Bruno. Lol. I liked the idea, but didn't like him, personally, so the radio thing was annoying. I think there's probably a few sides to how people want to see franchise improved, and/or what would better 'immerse' the user. So some people seem to want more fine tune controls. I agree with coaches as far as that's concerned. These can make a big difference in real life. And/or, it's just cool to pick up a retired player u liked and make him an assistant coach and/or groom him into a head coach or something. Then, there's the draft and scouting. There seems to be not much consensus there, lol. For me, I'm actually close to ok with most of the CFM related functionality in terms of gameplay, injuries, etc. Coach selection would be the final thing needed to make that piece more complete. I actually don't want to go back to the days of setting hot dog prices and whatnot, lol. But, if they added that and u didn't have to control it, that would be fine for people that want that. For me, personally, and I know some people wouldn't even care about this, but for me, man, I want a weekly wrap up show of some kind. This would give me the 'immersion'. The thing would only need to be 2-5 mins long. Basically, it would be exactly like the 2 minute warning with Chris Berman, I believe. Give me a quick 2 min show WITH fake clips as highlights from other games. Let me SEE The actual players making the plays in all their digital glory. Near the postseason, of course, references should be made to post season seeding battles. But again, I want to SEE and HEAR it. I don't want to READ it. Lol. When u have a little highlight show, u remember a little more about who is winning/losing throughout your season. As it stands right now, I don't know who's even close to the playoffs until I play them IN the playoffs. If I see/hear a weekly show while navigating the menus or something, I'll know Aaron Rodgers is doing good and GB is winning, or cam Newton is stinking it up again and Car is losing. So, for me, I would actually put weekly wrap up show at #1, but I know it's more like #10-20 on their list. So, don't think I'll ever see this. But, I just think it be really cool and would give some 'life' needed to the mode.


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[Madden08PCgmr]

Thanks for sharing your insights AJ.

I'm on Madden sabbatical for now. I'll dive back in if and when the time is right.


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[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

I REALLY hope they take this opportunity to completely overhaul blocking, and yes, Frostbite could help a ton with that. I just think we're a year out. That said, I know Clint is just dying to do it. I hope I'm wrong. I think M17 took massive strides forward, another leap like that... I may not need another sports game. Sent from my SM-G930P using Operation Sports mobile app

This game completely died 3 years ago for me. As much as I love football madden hasn't been enjoyable since the ps2 days. Stale, repetitive and boring. Line play improvements would help so much with that. It's the backbone to the sport. Hopefully frostbite will be a resurrection. It needs it badly.


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[TombSong]

Even with the inclusion of "physics" into madden and whatever they call the current engine(does not really matter cause they all do the same thing) Madden to this date still has not escaped the FACT that player interactions are dominated by canned animations. Whatever dice roll/algorithm they use to determine a tackle success/fail, catch success/fail is all played out by predetermined animations, not whats actually happening on the field. Is frostbite gonna change this ?

This is why you still see suction blocking/tackling. This is why you still see warping/sliding by WR's/DB's.

The offensive line pass protection is AWFUL. You can routinely see guards and the center ignoring blitzing LBs to go help double team a DT that is ALREADY blocked. HBs don't check for blitzing LB's. They just charge to the LT/RT whether the tackles need help or not, and most of the time dont even realy help, they just slide around the blocking animation going on between the tackle and the DE.

Pulling guards may as well be pulling QB's because I've seen them so many times just get tossed to the side by DB's. The guards RARELY put DBs on their azz.

The offense makes a hot route or a audible and this makes YOUR defense shift back to the default alignment ......WTF ?!?!?! Why is the offense in control of my defense ?!?!?!

They had to implement "NANO DETECTION" as a freaking feature...a FEATURE in a football game because theses guys after 25+ years of making this game STILL do not have pass protection schemes correct.

Mario running is STILL alive and well in 2017.


Players have little to no awareness of each other. They just run their assigned paths. DB/LBs don't pass WR's off to the next zone defender correctly. There is no technique to the man coverage in the game. Inside leverage means NOTHING. They will STILL allow WRs to get inside them no matter what the ratings are of the players.

Blitzing LB/DB's don't take the shortest path to the QB. The A or B gap they are suppose to blitz according to the play art they wont take that, they will try and loop around the DE or just freaking run into their own team.

All that said and a BUNCH of other things wrong with this game. We are now expected to believe a new game engine is gonna fix all this, LOL.

I can't WAIT to see the first videos of the new game. I can almost predict we are gonna see the SAME legacy issues and get the same excuses for why this game has not evolved.

[Birdman18]

You guys have to keep in mind, this is like changing out the engine of a car. Sure you'll get more horsepower, maybe better mileage and all of that. But if your suspension sucks, your alignment is off, the tires are worn and the breaks are going out.. then your overall ride isn't going to be very pleasant.

Moving from Ignite to Frostbite is going to be similar. Whatever legacy issues that have been in the game may very well in fact still exist. The general framework of the game's code is more than likely still the same as Madden 06 on Xbox 360. There will be upgrades in certain parts, but M18 needs to be treated as any other version of Madden that has come out.


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[adembroski]

An "engine" does not in and of itself change anything. It's a tool that makes creating easier. I mention specifically visuals because the core frostbite lighting is some of the best in the industry. The MAY overhaul the gameplay code, but Frostbite does not necessitate that.

Play Mass Effect: Andromeda. It still feels like Mass Effect.

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