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Madden NFL 17 News Post


A new commentary team featuring Brandon Gaudin (play-by-play) and Charles Davis (color commentary and analysis) will replace Jim Nantz and Phil Simms in Madden NFL 17. The team will be able to add new commentary to the game throughout the entire season.

Quote:
Today EA Tiburon revealed the new commentary team that will be calling the games in Madden NFL 17. Brandon Gaudin will be the new voice providing play-by-play, with Charles Davis adding color commentary and analysis. Thanks to unprecedented access to Davis and Gaudin, Madden NFL 17 will ship with the most commentary ever at launch. This year’s game also features the opportunity to add commentary updates throughout the NFL season on Xbox One and PlayStation®4.

Brandon Gaudin will be joining the Big Ten Network as a play-by-play announcer this fall after being the Voice of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets since 2013. Additionally, he has been named the lead college football play-by-play voice for Westwood One Sports, and will also call occasional NFL games for the network. Gaudin will continue to serve as one of the voices for Westwood One’s coverage of men’s basketball, including conference championship week and the NCAA Tournament.

Charles Davis is best known for his work on the NFL Network and NFL on FOX. This past season he could be seen providing analysis each week during NFL on FOX broadcasts, as well as providing extensive coverage of the NFL Draft on NFL Network. Davis is known for his meticulous and detailed knowledge of the NFL, which he will bring to the Madden NFL 17 broadcast booth.

Read more about the new Madden NFL 17 commentary team in the official blog.

Game: Madden NFL 17Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 17 - View All
Member Comments
# 141 Gilley @ 06/11/16 01:15 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by redsox4evur
Hasn't everyone else been doing the same thing by saying it's great???


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I mean everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but based on what we've heard so far it seems far more likely for it to be great than awful.
 
# 142 TheBleedingRed21 @ 06/11/16 01:17 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by redsox4evur
Hasn't everyone else been doing the same thing by saying it's great???


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Willing to give it a chance is the same thing as saying a promotional video that shows absolutely zero in game retail commentary makes you automatically turning it off?

Blew my mind there.
 
# 143 aguero90 @ 06/11/16 07:58 AM
Come on bro, at least wait until you hear it in action before making that choice.
 
# 144 BritPitbull @ 06/11/16 08:18 AM
I've played Madden since it was on the Commodore Amiga but I lost interest as it turned into a disinterested, lazy and soulless annual cash grab. The monopoly over the NFL licence basically meant the death knell for the game as there was no reason for EA to release anything more than a roster update each year. Because of this, I stopped playing Madden for many years but with online transactions EA have a new reason to improve the game - the better it is, the more money people will spend with them throughout the year, not just in August.

The last two releases have piqued my interest once again and contained some real improvements (penalties, better oline play, reimagined defence, etc). In Christian, Madden seems to finally have a director who genuinely understands what the game is lacking and how it should be improved. This new commentary is a prime example of how the game is changing for the better. It's a fantastic change. Creating a Madden broadcast style is so much better than a half-hearted attempt to ape the real TV production. This will ensure that the commentary remains relevant for years and can be constantly improved upon and broadened. I'd be surprised if, after a couple of years, the result is anything less than the best commentary ever in a sports video game.

Things seem to be looking up for Madden. Now please fix the AI, special teams, stats and attributes progression, trade logic and franchise mode experience and I will be a happy Madden player once again and for years to come.
 
# 145 ryan36 @ 06/11/16 09:25 AM
Well, I like it but I wonder how much is new vs. how much is re-recording old lines?
 
# 146 NateDogPack12 @ 06/11/16 09:28 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ryan36
Well, I like it but I wonder how much is new vs. how much is re-recording old lines?
From a conceptual perspective, I'm sure they had to record a lot of basic / generic lines.

That said, I doubt they literally recorded scripts from Nantz / Simms.
 
# 147 strawberryshortcake @ 06/11/16 10:05 AM
Excited, optimistic, but I do have my reservations for the simple fact that live broadcast is unscripted.

My concern comes down to the fact that they're not in their "natural" environment so to speak. The emotional expression conveyed through live TV broadcast isn't scripted. The atmosphere is undoubtedly different. The external stimuli are different. Stadium crowd noise dictated by the play on the field is missing during in studio recording sessions. The adrenaline rush is missing in action. Madden is a video game and the "stakes to make the real playoffs and win the ultimate prize" are missing. If the Seahawks lose in Madden, it's no big deal. But if the Seahawks lose in the real NFL for multiple consecutive weeks, it is a big deal.

I am interested in hearing how the collaboration with the Madden team, Brandon Gaudin, and Charles Davis will play out in video game form. Sitting in a recording studio is different from a booth in a stadium.

My other concern is "dead air." Are they going to be talking/analyzing replay? There is a major difference between Madden Simms/Nantz and live NFL Simms/Nantz. I just hope Madden 17 hits the jack pot and truly captures the feel of a real live broadcast.

@25:40 - 25:55 (real broadcast team talking during replays). Broadcast team will talk, talk and talk throughout the entire broadcast, but for brief moments when they're not talking, the crowd noise makes up for the "dead air."
 
# 148 jfsolo @ 06/11/16 10:28 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake
Excited, optimistic, but I do have my reservations for the simple fact that live broadcast is unscripted.

My concern comes down to the fact that they're not in their "natural" environment so to speak. The emotional expression conveyed through live TV broadcast isn't scripted. The atmosphere is undoubtedly different. The external stimuli are different. Stadium crowd noise dictated by the play on the field is missing during in studio recording sessions. The adrenaline rush is missing in action. Madden is a video game and the "stakes to make the real playoffs and win the ultimate prize" are missing. If the Seahawks lose in Madden, it's no big deal. But if the Seahawks lose in the real NFL for multiple consecutive weeks, it is a big deal.

I am interested in hearing how the collaboration with the Madden team, Brandon Gaudin, and Charles Davis will play out in video game form. Sitting in a recording studio is different from a booth in a stadium.

My other concern is "dead air." Are they going to be talking/analyzing replay? There is a major difference between Madden Simms/Nantz and live NFL Simms/Nantz. I just hope Madden 17 hits the jack pot and truly captures the feel of a real live broadcast.

@25:40 - 25:55 (real broadcast team talking during replays). Broadcast team will talk, talk and talk throughout the entire broadcast, but for brief moments when they're not talking, the crowd noise makes up for the "dead air."
Of course it's never going to really compare to live broadcasting, but given the constraints of the medium right now, it looks to be a significant improvement from what has come before. So people are excited within the context of the recognizing the limitations of it being a video game.
 
# 149 Pixx4Sixx @ 06/11/16 11:00 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBleedingRed21
Willing to give it a chance is the same thing as saying a promotional video that shows absolutely zero in game retail commentary makes you automatically turning it off?

Blew my mind there.
The beginning of the trailer was actual in game sound. When he introduces the teams.

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# 150 TheDominator273 @ 06/11/16 11:16 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBleedingRed21
In what shape or form did you come to this conclusion? Talk about jumping the gun!
While I like Charles Davis as an analyst, I find him to be terrible as a color guy. Add in the fact I was already annoyed by the other guys voice in the little bit we heard in the video and it's a simple conclusion.
 
# 151 oneamongthefence @ 06/11/16 11:16 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfsolo
Of course it's never going to really compare to live broadcasting, but given the constraints of the medium right now, it looks to be a significant improvement from what has come before. So people are excited within the context of the recognizing the limitations of it being a video game.
I think the biggest flaw in the commentary has always been the lack of replay analysis. We just get generic lines during replays. Hopefully the new team has more specific play breakdown. Instead of a generic the quarterback threw a nice pass and the receiver caught it I would like to hear for example "Andrew Luck saw Von Miller coming on the blitz and threw the pass underneath to TY Hilton who was running a crossing route." Or "Carson Wentz is a young quarterback who is still learning the game at the pro level has to see that Clay Matthews is mismatched against the TE who is not known as a blocking TE. He should have kept a running back in to block or found the hot receiver to avoid taking a sack there." Actual breakdown of the play and also as a teaching tool.
Imagine if instead of having to go into the replay menu the announcers and replay highlights why the outcome of the play happened. Hopefully we get some form of this in 17 especially since the name database sounds like it will be huge.

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# 152 jpdavis82 @ 06/11/16 11:19 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pixx4Sixx
The beginning of the trailer was actual in game sound. When he introduces the teams.

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Sounds like NFL on Fox Pregame, coincidentally Brandon sounds like Thom Brennaman, Davis' real life NFL on Fox broadcast partner. I made a post about this earlier in the thread comparing madden 17 to Thom on NFL on fox and they are very similar sounding.


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# 153 strawberryshortcake @ 06/11/16 12:02 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfsolo
Of course it's never going to really compare to live broadcasting, but given the constraints of the medium right now, it looks to be a significant improvement from what has come before. So people are excited within the context of the recognizing the limitations of it being a video game.

The hope is to get it as close to live broadcast as possible.

Let me reworded this way.

Even if we take out all the external live broadcast cues, my hope is that these two individuals aren't simply voice acting a handed script. My hope is for them to either commentate on multiple real NFL games or the replay of a real NFL game weekly in studio, with the Madden team extracting commentary from these sessions. There's a difference when trying to commentate on live real NFL footage versus commentating on someone playing Madden or watching a Madden CPU vs CPU matchup.

If the team needs more specific lines for specific video game situations, then try to match it up with these mock broadcasts. Or better yet, team Madden compile real game footage that meets the video game situations and have Gaudin and Davis commentate on those.

My hope is the expressions conveyed are consistent.
 
# 154 aguero90 @ 06/11/16 12:25 PM
I can hear that, a bit. Same cadence, but Tom's voice is a bit deeper, with a little more twang.
 
# 155 Nature_Boy @ 06/11/16 01:07 PM
I never cared much for Phil Simms. He and Cris Collinsworth are like nails on a chalkboard to me so I'm not sad to see Simms go. I'm liking what we have read about the new commentary team so far. It sounds like it will be a welcome change.
 
# 156 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/16 01:50 PM
I won't be convinced one way or another until we get at least a half or hopefully a full game of commentary. It could be great or it could be more or less the same as it's been the last several years. I went back and watched Madden 13's presentation trailer and they play the same exact bit of intro as they do here and it sounds just like Nantz does on Sunday. But obviously that didn't exactly pan out as well as we would have hoped. The fact that they can record more and provide weekly updates could be great as long as it's executed well and provides new, useful content. If I'm hearing the exact same QB intros every game or hearing about Cam's tough SB50 loss in 2024 and the flow isn't natural from pre to post play then it's still going to suffer.
 
# 157 aguero90 @ 06/11/16 02:08 PM
I agree, reserve judgment until we hear it in game.
 
# 158 jpdavis82 @ 06/11/16 02:42 PM
Sim and the guys on the sim standard said the commentary is probably one of the best in sports games now and definitely the best football game commentary to date and they were still early in development.


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# 159 TheGentlemanGhost @ 06/11/16 03:30 PM
Charles Davis is a favorite. I love watching him and Mayock's analysis and both are solid commentators, good move imo. I REALLY hope the execution of the new commentary ideas are up to bar with other sports games now. But I'm enjoying the direction this Madden team is going.
 
# 160 oneamongthefence @ 06/11/16 04:16 PM
I think we're also overlooking the fact that Brandon Gaudin is the first time Madden has had a commentator that actually grew up playing Madden. And his enthusiasm shows through in interviews and I think he "gets" it.

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