EA Trax is no more. At least for Madden NFL 13. The team will use an original score this year.
Also of note. The top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL will have their cadence captured for the game.
Quote:
Every year, members of the “EA Trax” team would sift through thousands of songs to come up with the 20 or so that would give gamers a sense of cool and cutting-edgeness as they played America’s highest-selling sports game.
This year, however, the Madden creative team wanted to go in a different direction.
The presentation in “Madden NFL 13” has been completely redone, from the all-new menus (they’re very industrial looking… in a good way) to the quarterback cadences (recorded in-person for each of the “top ten quarterbacks,” according to EA) to the recently introduced announcing crew of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.
And the accustomed sound of “EA Trax” just didn’t go with the new look.
I love this idea. I was turning off EATrax entirely anyways. I used to play the NFL Films tracks, last gen, but once those disappeared the music was shut off entirely.
The article does mention that only the "top 10" quarterbacks' cadences were recorded. Don't think we had an exact number before.
Also saw this in the Gamesradar article
For example, specific quarterback cadences – the ‘Blue! 32! Hut Hut Hike!’ before every snap – have now been captured for most of the real NFL QBs for use in the game. When Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers step to the line, you’ll be hearing their actual voices barking out the signals instead of a generic one. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Im a big hip and rock fan but EA trax sucks b/c they picked top 40 songs that were played out on the radio which were stale by the time Madden came out. Not to always use 2k as a contrast but their soundtracks are always fresh b/c 90 percent of the stuff is underground or fresh material.
My only question is...Are they trying to brand this score permanently. I mean when I hear Fox NFL's theme I know it, Year to year it doesn't change, Same goes for CBS...So is this the theme they're going to use every year in madden or is it just for this year??
Sounds like the general consensus is that this is a good thing. I like the Trax though. Yea they could get repetitive but why not just keep EATRAX but still add the new theme song. I would have much rather had the option to add your own music into the game like in FIFA.
I like this move. I never understand why developers spend money to pay for rights from so & so artist just to have their music in the game. Write something that fits the game. Either that or allow the user to use their own music within the game.
You don't understand how important this is. I wrote a blog about how important original scores were in gaming. http://www.examiner.com/article/licensed-music-has-helped-ruin-gaming
I still don't understand why sports games don't tie in with online radio, and provide streaming music instead of standard music that will get old after a few days. I know EA would be more than capable to team up with Pandora or iRadio and deliver this feature.