DSM's series continues on things that Madden needs to improve upon for the '09 game to call itself worthy of a $60 price tag.  Many will agree that Madden '08 was overrated going into the pre-season and now we're seeing that it really still has a long way to go with all the bugs that have been present.  We already have listed better QA testing as well as more timely patches as must haves for next year.  That stuff should be basic knowledge to a corporate conglomerate such as Electronic Arts but it seems to have gone to the wayside this year.  Also in part one we listed that the playbooks need a retuning as well as additions to the gang tackling system.  You can read part one in its entirety here .  Now lets check out part two of this series:

Completely New Presentation- Whoever thought that this presentation was authentic or even close to what NFL Football is should be fired and fired immediately.  The design decisions in Madden from the Radio Announcer straight down to the cut scenes are so atrocious that if the gameplay wasn't close to solid this would easily be one of the worst sports games in recent memory.  The crowd sucks, the radio announcer is the worst idea in sports gaming history and there is nothing special at all about the presentation.  NOT ONE THING!  In fact, this is the only thing we are touching on today because there is so much wrong with the presentation that it is going to take up a whole column's space to cover it all.  Let's start shall we? 

• Kill the Radio Announcer- Like I said, this is the worst idea in Sports Gaming history.  Get TV commentators back in the booth regardless of who they are, record thousands upon thousands of lines of audio and get them in the game.  This is by far the most embarassing design decision Tiburon made with next-gen Madden.  It isn't working, it really does suck, and quite frankly it makes the game a lot worse because of it and I'm one of millions who feel this way.
• Where's the Crowd? Good question, because EASports has never been able to model a crowd correctly and I know it can be done.  They get loud when their team is on defense, they are quiet when their team is on offense BUT THEY CHEER when their offense makes a good play.  When a ball is thrown deep and the guy is open the crowd starts a low rumbling cheer that just explodes if the pass is completed..if it's dropped or overthrown they go AWWWWW! really loud.  Guess what?  Very little if any of this is in the game.  How simple would this be to do?  Extremely.  Here's a suggestion for the Sound guys in Madden...go to an NFL game, listen to the crowd then listen to them in Madden.  If you think they're comparable fire yourself and go work at Toys R' Us.  Thanks.
• TV Style Presentation- Let's face it, this is something that with a good set of guys in the booth and some new graphics would be easy to do.  I think it'd add a lot to the game as well.  Right now Tiburon is trying some kind of bastardized middle ground and it sucks.  When you add in TV Style presentation we expect a lot of things.  One of them is....
• Situation Specific Commentary- Among other things we should have a lot more of this.  When you do put TV Announcers in like a good company should you will also record tons of lines of audio that deal with specific situations for the present day and for theoretical situations in Franchise mode (which WILL work mind you).  For instance, if a guy is closing in on 100 yards on the day why not have the TV Announcers say, "This guy needs just a few more yards to break the century mark, how about that?"  Then the partner can chime in "Yeah he is showing us today why he is one of the top 5 rushers in the league today with this performance."  Do stuff like this and immerse the gamer. 
• And when you get to halftime you can have a show or something. Why?  Because it adds to the freaking experience that's why.  The more we feel like we're a part of an NFL game the better people will preceive the game.
• And for goodness sakes get the uniforms right for once. I think this needs no further explanation.
• And those cut scenes?  Realize now that the cut scenes are pretty bad.  The camera angles for one are just awkward one some and you still have clipping of players and such going on in the year 2007.  How about this?  You add a few hundred cut scene animations that actually don't feel repetitive.  Once again, the less we feel like we're playing something artificial and the more we feel like we're playing something real you are starting to get things done.
• While we're at it, add more animations. Not just tackle animations either, although I've already said we need a ton more of those.  What we really need are the small things.  Animations of a WR and DB jockeying for a ball in mid-flight, we need animations of a LB pulling up as a QB goes out of bounds and holding his arms up after the QB trips on the sidelines to show he wasn't a part of it.  We need to see a pile form for once in videogame football history.  LBers need to fight through traffic and not just run and bounce off of players or get sucked into a black.  You see where I'm getting at?  None of this is in the game..and you think you are close to a simulation? Oh yeah and guys need to plead with refs on the field after a pass interference call or holding call, oh wait....
• You need to put refs on the field first. And please, make em smart and not like ghosts out there.  Make em a part of the field like they really are and don't get lazy and just put some kind of visible ghost or pinball out there I want a ref that's real and actually interacts with players.  Like say two guys get in a small shoving match, you could get the ref in there to break em up.  Not to mention you could have an attribute for something like that and even have it result in a flag a couple times a season.

You see where I'm going with all this stuff?  We are still so far away from having anything that closely resembles the action on the field.  We get a basic, watered down bastardized version of football on our screens but we don't get anything that feels like the real thing at least 75% of the time.  I think just incorporating the ideals above (which are just a small amount of things that can be down) and tuning up the gameplay while fixing bugs would make Madden 09 the greatest Madden in recent memory.  Check back tommorow for part 3 where we'll start to delve into some more of my issues with the Madden series!  As always leave comments about what you think should be added to the Madden series!