I can't help but feel its a gimmick by EA to dumb down the game for the casual masses. Like I said in a post before, if you could Youtube or look up the commericals over the past 5-7 years they are always about new features/gimmicks EA has dumped into the game. You dont see commercials just about the game in general anymore. It's like Ian and the gang sit around in a board room every year and say "What 2-3 new gimmicks can we add to the game this upcoming year so we have a reason to make new commericals? These will be our new selling points". I honestly really feel this way. I think some of the crap they have put in OR changed in the game is just as much for selling points that can be talked about in commercials than anything else. Could you imagine a year where they actually really just fix everything thats broken and jacked up and gave everyone the Madden they really deserve? Good for us, but nothing to write home about for them.
The public turns on the TV and sees a Madden 11 commercial "quicker, simpler, deeper" and it gets the lemmings out there all hyped up as if to say "OMG! Madden does it again! hellz yeah I cant wait for this game to come out" It's marketing. Marketing and $$$ are the reason why every year madden feels like a patch of the previous year. Now some years the patch is larger than other years, but it's still really a patch. Underneath it all its the same game engine, same graphics engine, same controls etc that just get tweaked and spruced up but they have never been torn down and rebuilt from scratch since next gen hit. They will tell you it has been in some years but the smarter people know better than this.
Overall do I like Madden 11? Sure I do... its a fun NFL game...the ONLY NFL game. Do I feel like every year feels more like a super patch than a true evolution or revolution of gaming football? You bet. EA, you have a cute dog but for the most part he's been doing the same tricks since 2006. Sure you give him a trim here and there, a new cut, sometimes you spend a little time to get the wet dog smell off of him that the year before might have had but at the end of the day, it's still the same dog, but he's aging... and rather than give birth to a new puppy you try to get a few new tricks out of the current dog every year. I get that it's smart for your business and bottom line but don't BS the public. I mean the people that are truly important to you are still going to buy the game even if you're honest about it because they just want new rosters and the ability to throw 80 yard bombs from a 20 yard drop back all day online.
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