Madden NFL 15 News Post

Madden NFL 15: Why The Presentation Hasn't Quite Arrived into Primetime

12:47 PM - August 31, 2014 by RaychelSnr

Madden’s presentation has always been a spot where the franchise simply didn’t measure up against the competition. This lack of quality presentation seems to, at least partially, be the result of a disastrous start on the last generation of consoles where a TV-style presentation simply wasn’t even included in the game in the first edition.

This year, Madden finally arrived with a broadcast presentation which is much more believable to the eyes, unfortunately your ears will leave you wondering what went wrong.

Read More - Madden NFL 15: Presentation is One Step Forward, Four Steps Back

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# 21 mnuccio @ 08/31/14 03:21 PM

This article has some amateurish exaggerations in it, starting with the title.

Aside from that, I feel like I'm hostage to the broadcast presentation. I want to be able to press a button and skip it, but like a bad relative who drops by unannounced it just won't take a hint.

I would MUCH rather see an improved user interface for Franchise and a more time-saving, user-friendly playcalling menu system.

# 22 thehitokiri @ 08/31/14 03:44 PM

I can't believe that plays that are challenge are still called wrong .. you have no option to select what you are actually challenging... ive played a bunch of games where the other teams receiver has caught the ball out of bounds and they still get the completion .. smh

# 23 DeuceDouglas @ 08/31/14 04:02 PM

Difference in opinion but I think one step forward, four backwards is an exaggeration.

After seeing all the impressions and reviews saying commentary was horrible I was expecting it to be the same but I've actually been pleasantly surprised by it. I've hardly had any straight up wrong lines or player call-outs. It's not great and could be better but IMO it's really not too bad. Commentary in CFM is always going to suffer until they build the commentary around it.

Outside of some awkward camera angles and replays that still need work, I really like the presentation. The halftime show is meh. I like the format of it but a lot of times it drags out and the replay angles kill it. It's a good base to build on IMO though. And maybe it's just playing with a headset but I'm loving the crowd and stadium sound. The reactions could definitely be better and more properly timed but playing at Arrowhead and pumping up the crowd and hearing them get louder is awesome and sounds great. I've played a bunch of games their and haven't had any "country-club" crowd experiences. Another thing I liked was playing on the road in Denver and having a third down and hearing the crowd get louder as the Undertaker bell rang.

It's by no means perfect but it'd be really hard for me to say it's taken three steps backwards when there are so many things better than before.

# 24 Dr. Banner @ 08/31/14 04:03 PM

Lol @ 4 steps back.

# 25 Perfect Zero @ 08/31/14 04:05 PM

I don't agree with this article at all. I think that Madden is finally at the point where presentation is spot on. I know that the guy they used for the halftime report is awful, but other than that the presentation is the best there has been in any football video game (and I'm a guy that thought the other game's presentation couldn't be beat).

The problem with the presentation is that everything is going to be stale after a while. Even NBA 2kX, which has been noted for top notch broadcasting, repeats itself all of the time. We have a good base here...

# 26 eaglepoint @ 08/31/14 04:25 PM

Ummm tell me again why did EA but the ESPN rights for if they're not gonna use it?

# 27 Cusefan @ 08/31/14 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eaglepoint


	Ummm tell me again why did EA but the ESPN rights for if they're not gonna use it?

They used it for NCAA football. Since only one game a week is on ESPN, it would cost resources to make a ESPN style broadcast that would be better spent elsewhere.

Add another announcing crew, improve the presentation a bit, and call it a day.

Sent from my Motorola DynaTAC using Tapatalk

# 28 CarryTheWeight @ 08/31/14 05:02 PM

I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about with commentary. I've only heard wrong names/situations used after using Super Sim (which is to be expected), and have only heard the wrong name called once (an opposing QB who wasn't on the field).

There is a fair amount of dynamic content in there that has never been in past Maddens. In a game I played last night, Nantz and Simms referenced that my quarterback was 75 and 25 yards away from breaking the single-game passing record. I found that pretty cool.

Is it perfect? Not at all. Could improvements be made? Absolutely. Should they start from scratch? Absolutely not.

The reason why the Madden franchise seems as unstable as the Buffalo Bills these days is because they feel the need, either from fans or internally, to scrap promising features entirely after only a few years instead of improving them.

While that happens, "legacy issues" continue to surface so it's apparent these games truly never have been "built from the ground up".

# 29 Retropyro @ 08/31/14 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perfect Zero


	I don't agree with this article at all. I think that Madden is finally at the point where presentation is spot on. I know that the guy they used for the halftime report is awful, but other than that the presentation is the best there has been in any football video game (and I'm a guy that thought the other game's presentation couldn't be beat). The problem with the presentation is that everything is going to be stale after a while. Even NBA 2kX, which has been noted for top notch broadcasting, repeats itself all of the time. We have a good base here...

100% agree with this. Everyone seems to hold NBA 2K's presentation up as the gold standard. While it is great, the commentary get incredibly repetitive very quickly.

# 30 dkp23 @ 08/31/14 05:19 PM

presentation isn't very good, i wish i can skip them all and it wont let me as quickly. It is as if they are forcing me to listen to the half time show and crap.

The announcers spew the same thing over and over again in the same game becomes repetitive. Even with all this, i dont even care, i rather them focus on the gameplay,

# 31 Skyboxer @ 08/31/14 05:22 PM

SMH at OS anymore. ..

So glad I grew up from before consoles and can simply game and enjoy things.

# 32 SageInfinite @ 08/31/14 05:42 PM

They're halfway there on presentation. Some things are awesome, some are head scratchers. Madden is hit or miss in every area, and even with the hits, they aren't consistent. There's always something that makes me say "damn that was pretty awesome" then the very next moment I'm like "WTF!?!?". Never fails. Tiburon hates me.

# 33 DrYCeLL @ 08/31/14 05:45 PM

So not only is the title hilariously false and not even an accurate representation of the article, the author can't even spell the announcer's names right and we're supposed to take this article seriously? Nope.

I love this presentation. It's by far the best Madden has ever been. Coming back from "commercials" after a quarter and getting a "The NFL is brought to you by Papa John's, better pizza" on a wide shot of the field is brilliant. The injury time-out fade to black is also great. The highlight packages shown in the 2nd half are awesome, and all the camera angles sprinkled in are refreshing. The low angle camera on the opening kick-off is really cool, I wish it triggered for the 2nd half kick too.

I wouldn't hate it if they kept Nantz and Simms, but those guys need to record tons more dialog. And to say this commentary is the worst in the genre is also a bit much. I love me some MLB The Show, but the commentary for it is beyond stale, terribly predictable, and flat boring. At least Nantz and Simms sound like they recorded some of their lines together.

Seriously though, just because it's "cool" to rip on Madden doesn't mean articles like this need to be posted. This belongs with the rest of the amateur blog posts that barely get featured on the front page. Does the presentation need more work? Yes, but EA gets a pass in that department this year due to the sheer volume of improvements they made. Yeah, Nantz or Simms makes a wrong comment now and again, but I can just chalk that up to human error. I'd lose count in a hurry if I tried to list all the times I've actually corrected them on CBS, so it's just par for the course for me.

# 34 mt8732 @ 08/31/14 05:51 PM

Nance and sims are horrible in real life and i feel like madden captures that perfectly lol. No seriously tho nobody will top pat and john but i think tirico and gruden would definitely be an upgrade. Gruden has so much more knowledge of the game and could even share some input for gameplay

# 35 Richuation @ 08/31/14 05:56 PM

I really like the Halftime report... why no post game report? its weird.

The post game report would make for a great clip to share on our CFM websites.

# 36 JKSportsGamer1984 @ 08/31/14 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bull_Dozer


	They need to hire a dozen no name (see: cheap) voice actors and record a TON of commentary. No one buys Madden because Simms and Nance are in it.

This! I know I'm probably in the minority but I miss the radio guy from Madden 06 - 08. He was energetic & made me feel like I was in the game as opposed to watching it. EA needs to scrap the Sims & Nantz experiment. Sims is ok but Nantz makes my ears bleed lol. The main problem is how EA puts the commentary together. I thought Gus Johnson was a wasted opportunity because EA doesn't seem to know how to program commentary to be seemless ala NBA 2K basketball. They should just hire some generic guys that they wouldn't have to pay as much & use those resources to improve other parts of the game.

# 37 Anaxamander @ 08/31/14 06:30 PM

FOUR steps back? No way. This presentation is awesome. I would call the commentary passable at best, but in no way does passable commentary overshadow all the great strides Madden '15 has made in regards to presentation.

# 38 JazzMan @ 08/31/14 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bull_Dozer


	They need to hire a dozen no name (see: cheap) voice actors and record a TON of commentary. No one buys Madden because Simms and Nance are in it.

This. I think 2k5 had fictional commentators and that game is still the standard for football presentation. Imagine if EA just went out and recorded 4 or 5 pairs or trios of guys for commentary and give the player variety.

# 39 JKSportsGamer1984 @ 08/31/14 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SageInfinite


	They're halfway there on presentation. Some things are awesome, some are head scratchers. Madden is hit or miss in every area, and even with the hits, they aren't consistent. There's always something that makes me say "damn that was pretty awesome" then the very next moment I'm like "WTF!?!?". Never fails. Tiburon hates me.

Lol that pretty much sums up Madden in a nutshell. EA does just enough to keep us coming back & they do just enough to always keep us "waiting til next year" lol. Gotta love that exclusive license

# 40 Fist Of Kings @ 08/31/14 08:32 PM

It's easy to see who the sheep are when they're grasping at straws like belittling the OP's opinion and criticizing a couple of spelling errors, then issuing their yearly defense of why this version of Madden is so much better than last years....we get it.

No, it's not 'cool' to rip Madden, but it's not 'cool' to overate an average game with the same legacy problems as before, especially when you'd most likely like whatever EA gives us anyway.

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