PRESENTATION:TIME FOR A CHANGE PART II

[Cato06]

So another year, another Madden, and more run-of-the-mill, over hyped back of the box feature set for us to chew on leaving us all with a hunger for much more flavor to be desired. While some may argue Madden 19 has made a step further by re-creating their “halftime show” and adding their “brilliant” new backdrops for franchise and the draft and calling it new “presentation”, I on the other hand see right through the “quick, easy fix, lets get back to working on Longshot and MUT” approach EA has come to be known for…

Some of you may remember this post from last year about presentation……



https://forums.operationsports.com/f...sentation.html



and while I DO think the Madden team made some efforts to fill some of the voids that the community felt was missing from the presentation aspect, it also seemed the effort was to just mask or put a band aid on some of the complaints or wants from previous years. I like they are starting to use the word “immersion” when talking about franchise because that is exactly what a good franchise mode should have, However I feel EA is still finding cheap easy ways to create it. Theres a new word they should be using with immersion and it should be “soul”. Maddens franchise needs more “soul”







Lets start with the lifeless stadium exteriors that we barely see during the course of a game that they love to boast about….heres a pic of the eagles outside stadium.







Ummmm…….does this take place in a post-apocalyptic era in the near future? Wheres the fans walking into the game?




I hate to bring this up, but I have too. It’s the same dead horse that’s been beaten to death for the last 13-14 years….I wouldn’t even call it a dead horse, by now its more of a fossil. That fossil is NFL2K5 and we are STILL comparing it to Madden in 2018. Lets take a look at some of the cutscenes they had to fans and player interaction with the fans.













Boy, this game had life, soul, & character. Some of you may remember EA added some similar cut scene stuff to fans back in Madden 10 (I think) just to be mysteriously removed and replaced with something else. A classic EA move. Add something promising, leave it alone for 2-3 years, replace it with something else, then put it back and add it to the “new” back of the box feature set.





Stadium Exteriors grade: C

(Great idea, they look sharp, but a herd of zombies walking in the background would give it more “life” than what it has now.



How bout that “DRAFT PRESENTATION!!!!????”











You’ve got to be kidding me….. You advertised this as having the draft stage with your player appearing on stage as they are drafted……

I see what you did there....



What you ACTUALLY did is just added a backdrop image of the stage and then when you draft your player ..POOF.. your player was so fast at changing into his full uniform and pads, Superman would be jealous still sitting in his phone booth trying to get his tights on. C’mon EA, you know this isn’t what we asked for. It’s literally the same mode with a new picture in the background. That doesn’t classify as “new presentation” in my book. How bout we at least show the first round players come out on stage or at least show a still photo of all the first round players on stage with the commish like they do in real life? There are other easy ways to go about this that would have worked better. I also think some fan reactions would be a nice touch on whether you draft a bust or diamond in the rough.











Draft Presentation grade : D+





Halftime Show



I will say I feel this is the best feature they have added this year to try and keep us immersed and connected to whats going on in our league, but I just can’t help myself to be the nitpicky thorn in the side that I am. The show looks beautiful, shows a map of the country, takes you to a few games, shows the scores and key stats and then finishes with the key highlights from your game. Check, check, check, and check. There is just one little thing that irks me…..All these scores from every game come up on the screen and I feel like my eyes are racing through the screen to see what games I care about and next thing you know it cuts away and I have no idea what I just read and missed half the scores. Why not show the teams records so we know what games are more important? How do I know if I care if the (2-6)Jets beat the (4-4) Bills? Or am I looking at a game that has two teams that are undefeated? What do those scores mean to me?


Show the team records





Halftime Show grade : B (need moving highlights of other games and team records while showing scores)





Overall I do feel Madden is making the effort to address some of these franchise/presentation features we continue to ask for but they still got a long way to go. We still need a solid weekly wrap up show. If you cant create one at least give us a better news feed page that puts the key league info,stats,scores,etc into one area that we cycle through and not force us to dig through countless menus to get up to par with whats happening in the league.







We also still need bigger playoff presentation. EA does a nice job with the commentary and they added some new graphic screen swipes that show an NFL playoff logo and a cutscene to playoff picture which is a nice touch. However the crowd and stadium is still lifeless and other than the small additions it feels very much like a HO-HUM week 2 regular season game. Im still not letting EA off the hook with the Super Bowl presentation either. They changed the angle of the teams running onto the field so we cant see that they are actually just running out from the endzone and not an actual tunnel. Your not fooling anybody. We still need more hype.

We need players walking out of locker room.




National anthem televised.




We need more intense crowd. Make the controller shake more or go back to NCAA when the receivers routes would be effected by the loud noise.






That’s all I have for now, I may update this post in the future if anyone else has some good ideas that are worth mentioning.

[Cato06]

Added a photo of NCAA 14 receivers routes being effected by crowd noise. Would love to see this effect in playoff games to make them seem more intense.

[Toupal]

Great write-up.

If I were to throw Any suggestions, it would be upgraded stadiums.
Similar to the way the coaches office gets a super bowl trophy after winning the super bowl, stadiums should add/ upgrade banners within the stadium after winning a super bowl, conference, or division.

[ODogg]

Great post, instead of just complaining abstractly, like most people do, you actually wrote with SPECIFIC EXAMPLES and ideas for improvement. Usually I get highly annoyed seeing these posts because it's just people complaining and trashing Madden but this post actually seems very in-depth and well written by someone who cares so kudo to you...

I am right there with you, however I fear we won't get a lot done because it seems most people seem to want to skip a lot of this stuff, esp the esport/tournament crowd.

As I have also said elsewhere, I'm not sure the programmers that EA employs for Madden are talented enough to do some of the stuff being discussed. I just don't believe they have it in them unfortunately.

At some point I'd like to think we'll see some real changes but at this point I have, as many others have, learned to accept the game for what it is more than what it isn't.

I would hope that you have sent this information on to EA though in some form as they need to see this.

[Cato06]

Quote: Originally Posted by Toupal

Great write-up. If I were to throw Any suggestions, it would be upgraded stadiums. Similar to the way the coaches office gets a super bowl trophy after winning the super bowl, stadiums should add/ upgrade banners within the stadium after winning a super bowl, conference, or division.

Thanks, I 100% agree with you here. I’ve asked for Banner upgrades in the past. At least have some opening night unique presentation for the super bowl champs in the following season. NBA 2k does this very well.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Cato06]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Great post, instead of just complaining abstractly, like most people do, you actually wrote with SPECIFIC EXAMPLES and ideas for improvement. Usually I get highly annoyed seeing these posts because it's just people complaining and trashing Madden but this post actually seems very in-depth and well written by someone who cares so kudo to you... I am right there with you, however I fear we won't get a lot done because it seems most people seem to want to skip a lot of this stuff, esp the esport/tournament crowd. As I have also said elsewhere, I'm not sure the programmers that EA employs for Madden are talented enough to do some of the stuff being discussed. I just don't believe they have it in them unfortunately. At some point I'd like to think we'll see some real changes but at this point I have, as many others have, learned to accept the game for what it is more than what it isn't. I would hope that you have sent this information on to EA though in some form as they need to see this.

Thanks man, appreciate the feedback. Sometimes I wonder about the devs talent as well but don’t really want to go there and insult them because I’m sure they work endless hours to get things done. But they do tend to add features in such a way that gives them the “most bang for their buck” approach. Plus they have other agendas besides just presentation so I get it. It’s hard to just sit and accept madden for what it is because the other sports franchises are still doing so much more. We just need to keep pushing the ideas and not let them get drowned out by EA’s own agenda which seems to be revolving around other things.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[dougdeuce]

Agree.

As for the halftime show, I would suggest if they can show us 3 games, just show us stats from all of them. In my week 17 game where I needed to win to get a first round bye, they showed me three games of teams with losing records, and didn't show me the two other games that mattered to my playoff seeding. Hell, they didn't even mention playoff seeding.


And keep each game up for 10 extra seconds. It's too quick as of now.

Then, show us the same stat screen for our game.

That would get an A from me even without highlights.

[SilverBullet19]

Great points here. The draft bothers me, why include a stage without having guys walk up to the commissioner to shake hands?

I like the idea of scrambled play art (that's what it's called in the NCAA coaching trees). I think it would be wise to have it directly related to QB confidence. Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers are going to be calm and cool on the road and in the playoffs. A newer guy like say Darnold, Allen, Rosen etc, I could see being nervous. The first couple drives goals could be like "get on the board to improve confidence" or "complete 2 passes to improve confidence." If you do them, he settles in and the play art goes back to normal.