After all, it is Football, isn't it? - jdareal21's Blog

jdareal21's Blog

After all, it is Football, isn't it?

Posted on July 22, 2009 at 08:09 PM.

(8)

As a long time lurker, and life-long Madden football fan since the Genesis days, I've felt compelled to finally log on and sound off on the most erroneous slight to Madden & Sports games in general I've encountered over the years.

And that is the claim that Madden "is the same old game every year." Now, I don't know about any of you, but over the last 20+ years I've watched football, not once has the game changed significantly in real life. EA's yearly iteration is not some type of action game that we should expect crazy additions to from sequel to sequel. It's football, and the closer we get to realism, the less changes we can expect to see.

I mean think about it, if these games are to be realistic interpretations of the sport, at some point, every sport's game should in theory look & play almost exactly the same, no matter who the publisher is. Once the technology is strong enough to thoroughly replicate human movement & mannerism, what will be the difference between a John Madden Tom Brady or a 2K Tom Brady? A NBA Live Lebron James & a 2K version?

Furthermore, as more and more features are introduced, exactly what will there be to include? This isn't Mutant League football where we can add missiles or bombs, as long as sports stay the way they are with the same rules and regulations, eventually the games will all be identical across the board, for every sport, period. But isn't that what we want, to feel as though we are actually stepping into the shoes of Derek Jeter or Alex Ovechkin?

I think all sports game developers, and EA especially should be commended for finding new things every year to tweak and fix in that ever so sought after "realism" we all want but whose implications we seem oblivious to. One day, these games truly will be as real as we could hope, and then maybe a download with roster updates really will be the only feasible action to take. In the meantime, appreciate every new season as another step in that elusive direction. After all, it is football, and every year, it is exactly the same game, on consoles and indeed, real life as well...

Comments

# 1 jdareal21 @ Jul 22

I suspect people want a better Madden without really knowing what they want, they say it because it's expected of them to say it. I don't think anybody could possibly make a football game that MUCH better than what we'll most likely get this year, but I guarantee people will still gripe with the same petty complaints they always have, warranted or not...

# 2 TreyIM2 @ Jul 22

jdareal - Good blog. This is something I've pondered several times myself and never posed these thoughts to anyone else cuz when u think about it, the lacking of then the adding and improving of is what makes the wait for new games every year so exciting. It's really about what can be done to get us a step closer to realism that fuels gamers, not so much the what is already there aspect. The anticipation is the greatness of it all, truly. It's like being a kid waiting for Christmas every year...

True Blue - U at the EA hate, again? I agreed with what u were saying up to the mo-cap and the canned animations that "aren't even close". Dude, come off it. Obviously, the tech is not completely there yet. Only ONE company has even ventured to create software that is uber realistic and we all know that is Natural Motion and their Euphoria engine but see the probs those dudes are even having implementing it in a football game?? How long ago was Backbreaker announced? 3yrs ago, if I'm not mistaken, and based on ALL the hands on reports from E3 that I have read, that game STILL has a LOONNNG way to go with NO official release date. It is NOT easy to implement in a sports game or any game, dude. If that type of tech was, there would be SOOO many games using it, by now. But there are not. GTAIV and The Force Unleashed are the ONLY TWO games to use the tech with only Red Dead Redemption (making it two Rockstar games to use it out of potentially 4 games to use it, in total) to use it and be released later this year.
The mo cap is fine and, imo, EA is doing the best they can with it, based on their football game's engine. Again, u are really sounding like a brat. Appreciate what's there and what they have done, thus far, with the CURRENT gen consoles. The PS3 is only going to it's 3rd year and the 360 is headed to it's 4th. It's still early for these systems and the devs learning to get the most from it.

# 3 jdareal21 @ Jul 22

Appreciate that TreyIM2, I just feel like when your making sports games you already have that inherent problem of things being the same because the sport itself is essentially the same, and I dont think alot of people give that any thought when they should.

IMO, I rarely play anything outside of sports games because of the fact that every game INDIVIDUALLY is different. Whereas something like Gears of War has a specific way to get through a level, every single game of Madden or NBA 2K etc., unfolds in a different way (unless your cheesing with the same play, that is)

# 4 trufootball @ Jul 22

I sorry, I have to chime in but saying that madden is pretty close right now to real football is ridiculous, no one has even played thus game yet, unless maybe you went to e3. But that wasn't even the final build and if it was the. There is still much to improve on even though I applaud the great strides we've made this year, the line play in the running game is the biggest weakness I've seen the player movement and physics need tuned more, the spins and turn rates are something that of a UFO. Running animations need a little more tweaking to.

# 5 jdareal21 @ Jul 22

I don't think that anyone is saying Madden is "real" football like it's almost perfect, but my issue comes in when people act like it's not football at all lol, people make it seem as though it's Tecmo Superbowl or something.

IMO, I don't feel 2K or anybody else could make a football game SIGNIFICANTLY better than Madden, people just like to whine about Madden because at this point it's customary to do so. I believe All-Pro was a good look at what 2K MAY HAVE done on this current gen if given the chance with the license, and it wasn't anything significantly better than what Madden gave that year, in terms of gameplay, which is the bottomline factor to me

# 6 Hells6Angel66 @ Jul 23

i see what you are saying jdareal21 but All-Pro football was good except it is not the same without current NFL players... The only reason EA got the liscense was because they knew if they didnt they would be terribly outsold by 2Ks version... otherwise they would have never gotten the liscense in the first place and its not only EA that did it 2K is guilty 2. MVP baseball 2005 was probably the best baseball game made for the xbox and when 2K realized this they got a liscense with MLB. So both sides r guilty. In my opinion a liscense should not be allowed. It forces you to buy a game that is probably inferior to another. Another example is college hoops 2K9 it was way better than March Madness 09 and when EA sees this they get a liscense so if u want a college basketball game u must get college hoops 10 even though most people would prefer college hoops. My point is a liscense is simply stupid in the first place its basically a monopoly. People compare madden 10 to NFL 2K5 so basically they r saying EA is 5 years behind. Had 2K been allowed to make a game for the past 5 years they may have made the absolute perfect football game. EA is just afraid of them.

# 7 jdareal21 @ Jul 29

I think it's good to remember the reason why 2K pulled all the stops out for 2005 anyway, and it's because Madden 2004 was so strong. They had to up the ante and drop their price to make a dent, I think Madden 2004 is one of the most underrated sports games of all time