02:54 PM - July 30, 2014 by Steve_OS
EA Sports is currently livestreaming Madden NFL 15, detailing the presentation and graphics. (Note: As of 3:30 PM EST, the stream has now ended. We'll effort an archived version soon!)
UPDATE: Click here to watch the archived stream. (It takes some time to load...)
Here are some thoughts on the stream today:
- The halftime show is definitely improved and of good quality. The problem will be most will find it perfectly skippable, but there aren't any real cases where a halftime show is must-see TV, even in real-life. It's sponsored by Verizon, so there's that.
- Commentary was ok, you didn't hear much of it due to the dev commentary over the gameplay, but it seemed to flow a bit better. We won't know anything about that until a later date.
- Coaches have unique body types and head models, so they do look better. Coaches we saw today (Reid, Tomlin mainly) were definitely a step up.
- Celebrations and such definitely are smoother/more aware of the context they're happening in since they happen within the gameplay itself and not a loaded cut-scene. Still some wonky instances but overall better.
- The developers talked about equipment a bit. The new uniforms for each team are going to be in, and uniform/helmet degradation are in as well.
- Switching of cameras was very smooth, definitely a huge improvement there.
- Sidelines are much busier now, more people on them, etc. They still don't look perfect, but from where we were to where we are now, huge improvement.
- Overall the presentation is quite good in-game this year, it definitely has a new layer of polish on it that wasn't there last year. It's not perfect, but clearly its taken yet another leap ahead this season.