OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

[Live2K]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

What are the screen names of the contributors of this article? Be nice to know what they post and where they are coming from. This goes for all round table discussions here.

[vannwolfhawk]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

I had bought every madden until the last 2 years. This is the 1st time in a few years where I excited about what I am hearing. I'm old school in wanting a defensive type of game. I do think this team gets it and is going in the right direction. 5 things that drove me crazy the last few years in the demos I played was that there was still stale defensive line play, every kicker made 55 yd fg, no shed blocking, qb accuracy and no differential between elite qbs and backups, and curl and out routes being over powered. I like the fact that they are listening to the community and it's legacy issues. I also liked what I heard last year with the offensive line play but I knew that would be way overpowered without hearing anything about the defense.

What I'd like to see this team do instead of doing 1 side of the ball 1 year to the next like they did with offense last year and defense this year is to work on both simultaneously. For example, they should have focused on the trenches both offensively and defensively in the same cycle to balance the two out. That would have eliminated so many issues last year alone. You can't over power one side of the ball without giving the other side counters to stop it. It should be a game of chess and everything should have a counter. 4-5 yard dive plays every run, over powered strong power runs to the outside, etc. I'd like to see the same with cb/wr interactions when they finally address it. I am glad they put band aid on it rather than completely neglecting it all together.

I just don't understand how 2k who has less than half the development team madden has finds a way to put in 3-4x the features in the same cycle that madden has? I think that's where the frustration lies. Other games blow us away with numerous new features that the community asks for while madden does not. You see devs for FIFA, 2k, the show, EA MMA all on these forums while I never see any ea madden guys on here anymore. Correct me if I'm wrong but last I remember was Ian. I think I'm getting sidetracked but my point was that ea seems to not care about making a football simulation game the past few years. I think that is changing with this regime however. I like the direction and everything I'm hearing but it's just not enough year in and year out compared to what other games are doing.

It was nice to read that they actually added new defensive plays finally! This game needs so much and is so far behind that you can't blame us for being impatient. Maddens a game I could pick up tomorrow after 2 years off and go on all madden and light the CPU up for 400 yards and score 35-50 points playing sim football. Same routes beat this play or that one.

One thing I'd like to see the devs fix is the sliders to make them work properly. This alone can alleviate and fix what they can't get around to in a dev cycle. This allows us to fix the game to our liking. Bumping man coverage to 100 should have eliminated curl route issues. Block shedding at 75 should mean ray Lewis doesn't get swallowed up by any and every lineman so I didn't have to run a half circle around them, etc...

Anyways, I like the direction and vision of this new team. I like Clint and his willingness to be candid and listen and be outlet for the community. I personally shared the above issues I had with the game with Clint last year and it appears to have been addressed whether he pitched ideas or not it's nice that we have someone listening and open to suggestions. Who knows what the suits say behind closed doors and that's got to be frustrating as a developer to be handcuffed. In the future I really hope they address ratings and rosters aka dan/fbg to differentiate players from one another like you see in 2k basketball. I look forward to seeing this game at the end of their 3 year cycle THIS regime! I think they get it. Will it be enough without rebuilding from the ground up is another question!

[GiantBlue76]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

I just don't understand how 2k who has less than half the development team madden has finds a way to put in 3-4x the features in the same cycle that madden has? I think that's where the frustration lies. Other games blow us away with numerous new features that the community asks for while madden does not. You see devs for FIFA, 2k, the show, EA MMA all on these forums while I never see any ea madden guys on here anymore. Correct me if I'm wrong but last I remember was Ian. I think I'm getting sidetracked but my point was that ea seems to not care about making a football simulation game the past few years. I think that is changing with this regime however. I like the direction and everything I'm hearing but it's just not enough year in and year out compared to what other games are doing.

This exactly ^^^. That is one of the things for sure. However, I will say, I like Rex's mind set about "building". That being said, they need to be able to do more each cycle. Give us a complete game. There will never be no more things to add to make the game realistic and great.

Great post...

[shotgun styles]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

I dug this up to make a point.


Ten years after madden 2005, EA is still not listening. We get the same old crappy game they gave us at the changeover to PS3 in 2006, just with prettier player models. Why? Because 2006 was the beginning of the "exclusive license" era and the end of market competition.

IF YOU ARE SIM, EA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU.

EA is in the business of selling pretty looking games that barely function to 8 year olds who know nothing of the sport. That is their bread and butter and it has not changed in the last 10 years.

This philosophy, called "pickup and play" has killed this game. Killed it deader than hell. It looks arcade, plays arcade, and because of the exclusive license will have no significant challengers.

THIS GAME WILL SUCK

You know how I know? Because the ENTIRE PS3/Xbox360 generation of games sucked. Read the Original Post of this thread. None of those great PS2 features ever made it to last gen. And they won't make it to this one either.

I'm not a malcontent. Read my threads and posts, I tried like hell to get EA to make some of these changes when I had their ear. But the bottom line is that EA corporate (not the dev team) is calling the shots. They want pretty player models and could give a damn about the sim part of the game. They are afraid that if they give us a sim game that kids won't be able to pick it up and throw TDs five minutes after ripping off the plastic wrapper.

WE NEED ANOTHER GAME

EA will never relinquish the exclusive license. So my new mission is this: Madden Strategic. A purely sim game, with last gen graphics so that all that next gen power can be put into proper physics and strategic AI. I will do all I can, up to and including raising money for the project myself.

EA has produced multiple games before, so there is precedent here. But sim is dead for standard madden, and it's never coming back. A separate game that's strictly for sim players is our only hope of getting back to the 2005 quality Madden experience.

Discussion can be continued HERE

[BizDevConglomerate]

No the focus should be on putting out a game that isn't a hold over till next year. They say to often "next year." Who wants to hear next year when your buying the game this year. How bout take time of. Up date what you have out, and release a game that you feel is 100 % complete. Take all the testers from three private sessions and let them get it in, point out what's go and won't.

So trying to push us to all digital, just full up the disk, and sorry with DLC. Who cares how long it takes to upload the first time. Is the first time! We have 500 GB. Then the cable providers are trying to limit downloads, yet we have to much storage. This is backwards. Focus on putting our a top notch game.

Ib will say I like what they are doing, but it's not enough.

[BezO]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

NO!

They game won't be right until it animates realistically.

How can you improve coverage without addressing WR/DB interaction, for example? How can you defend the run without steering for ALL d-linemen? Without gap/contain assignments? For them to have focused on defense, they left a lot out.

And basic things like footwork. I'm not seeing True Step. I've seen several ball carriers swerving up & down the field. How can the spacing & timing of the game be right if the players don't move about realistically?

But hey, it's early. They held onto improvements and turned off features in early vids last year. Hopefully there's a lot more coming. Until then, no!

[moylan1234]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

Given that I haven't seen any actual football in the videos thus far I'm going with no

[theman021]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

I still believe (as I did in November) that they should have delayed a Madden release on next-gen until this year. NCAA did this with 07 on 360 and it was a smart decision. Madden would have been better served to do it with 06 - I don't think anyone would argue with me on that point.

That being said this was the most complete first release on a new system Madden ever. Which isn't saying much.

[theman021]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

How about they get simple things right. It doesn't snow that much at game time every week. You can have piles of snow on the sideline and it be cold. It does not have to snow every game because it doesn't come close in real life.

The other thing that makes no sense it 1pm west coast games have 4:30pm east coast shadows and shade on the field. That also makes no sense.

[theman021]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

Im still not sure why we didnt have a madden 14? Madden 25? The game should be somewhat better than last years but how can it not be. The list of improvements sounds pretty nice but how can we have icing without cake? Im still afraid that there will be glaring holes in gameplay along with a broken franchise mode. I could care less about graphics, (to a point) presentation, mut, ect. Just give me a all around good gameplay with adaptive ai and a franchise mode that I can immerse myself in forever! "Focus Daniel Son!" Madden is simply getting sucked into another cycle of poor overall games. It sounds like they have good intentions but the overall vision is not there.

EA's only intention with Madden is to sell games. They ****ed up their NBA live money trying to make it play like NBA 2k. They aren't about to do anything drastic such as make a complete game to **** up the next year's Madden money.

[roll2tide]

Do I like the defensive focus? Yes. Do think that:

-Most or all new additions will either not work properly or work way to well? Absolutely.

-The Colts might still use a #3 draft pick on a QB in year 1 and cut Andrew Luck in year 3? Yes.

-Schemes still won't work properly? Yes

-I can still run the same play over & over & over and the CPU be none the wiser? Yes.

-The XP system will still be jacked up? yes.

Will I buy it anyways? Yes. EA and exclusivity win.

[Ueauvan]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

i play coach mode, i try and get sliders etc that make things reasonable. qb acc for both teams is at 5, wr catching 25 yet 12-15 qbs every year hit 4k+ yards and over 70 acc. part of this is the classic defender stands there as russell wilson advance past the line of scrimmage and runs past (my favourite was him doing this past willis and bowman) or a 93 ovr db (95 prc and 90 awr) who moves out of the way of wilson to enable him to do this. we have all seen cover 2/3/4 dbs let someone go past them regularly.

offence sells madden, and yet i love defence

[BezO]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

...

Will I buy it anyways? Yes. EA and exclusivity win.

Don't blame EA for this one.

[Jerros]

If you want a better product then don't buy the game. EA gets a pass every year because they know they are the only game in town and the incremental changes are not an accident. It's the illusion they use to make people believe they are giving you some brand new game with awesome changes when really they are feeding us cherry picked features from other older games. This year it's their old Madden 05 theme of Defense. The Ravens were SB champs back then if you recall and they had the same exact theme as this year's Madden. The defensive cam from Backbreaker, the power circle from 2k, just this time it's used for defense. These things are not innovative nor are they new. So in truth, you're still not getting a true next gen title. And until they rebuild Madden from the ground up we will get the same robotic animations we've been getting for years. Here's something you guys should check out. A very interesting video about a very interesting article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNLSfjYZbT8

If you get a chance, watch some of his other vids as well. Very informative as to the problems with the game that any Sim guy will appreciate. And anyone else who may want to learn more about the sport we love.

[Blue12]

Re: OS Roundtable: Is Madden's Focus Where it Should Be?

-The Colts might still use a #3 draft pick on a QB in year 1 and cut Andrew Luck in year 3? Yes.

To make it more realistic, they should have the Colts giving their pick to the Browns for a suspended Josh Gordon