GAMEPLAY UPGRADE!!

[burnsy128]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lisa_Bonami

In my opinion, and this has been said before by others, both the Madden and NCAA forums.....To truly evolve to the 'next gen' of video gaming, EA needs to incorporate real time rag doll physics that take into account real momentum, weight and physic calculations in player animations. Player models need to be rebuilt using skeletal systems that give free movement to various parts of the human anatomy rather than scripted predetermined animations. This way, you would never really see exactly the same animation twice. Everything that evolves on the field would be a variation of these physics factors resulting in a more exciting and genuine game every time you play it. With scripted motion captured animations, you can only see limited variety of action unfold until it is repeated over and over. And this of course is limited to the library of such animations that EA decides to store in the actual game year after year...Most of which are rehashed from previous year's gameplay. For the most part, what your only getting new in the Next Gen versions is just higher resolution textures and some new motion captured sequences. I think a completely new engine is long overdue.

While I personally doubt this will happen in this generation of systems (ps3, 360) for madden/ncaa, they do seem to be taking this idea and applying it to the NHL series for this year, according to the IGN preview. Because of this, I have some hope it may be done with football eventually as well.

[stagnant]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lisa_Bonami

In my opinion, and this has been said before by others, both the Madden and NCAA forums.....To truly evolve to the 'next gen' of video gaming, EA needs to incorporate real time rag doll physics that take into account real momentum, weight and physic calculations in player animations. Player models need to be rebuilt using skeletal systems that give free movement to various parts of the human anatomy rather than scripted predetermined animations.

I heard they're working on this stuff for the xbox 1080. Marty McFly's son will enjoy it.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lisa_Bonami

I think a completely new engine is long overdue.

I posted a response similar to this on CS. New engines aren't needed and often bring more problems. What programmers need to do is simply do major upgrades on current software rather than wait for next gen to rebuild and encounter new problems.

I think anytime you go to a new console, the best idea is to port the game over with all of the same features and gameplay and simply improve the graphics which is the number one reason people buy a next gen system. After that first year, then work on the engine and improve gameplay beyond current gen. Continue to work on the engine (and not just tweaks) on a yearly basis.

People act as though current gen AI can't be improved. There is no reason current or next gen AI can't be improved other than the programmers. The 5 year development cycle of consoles has lulled EA into a predictable pattern:

1) They usually build the new engine almost from scratch for a new console which means problems in AI (look how bad NBA Live was at first on the PS2).

2) Over the next 2-3 years, expect gameplay improvements to get back to what the old systems had or have and finally make the game the best they have seen (people are finally happy).

3) The last few years of the system, don't spend any money fixing major gameplay problems or making any core changes (graphics, blocking, etc). Simply tweak the main engine which has grown old and just squeeze every last dollar out of current gen without much spending much effort on anything other than adding minor new features (many non gameplay related).

4) Rinse and repeat.

This isn't all EA's fault and most companies don't rebuild a graphics engine or major AI components in the middle of a console's life. This is due to the ever revolving doors of new systems. With the abilities of the 360 and PS3, hopefully these systems will last longer into the 8-10 year range (doubt it). Only then will the developers want to spend true money redeveloping core components on the same system. If they keep selling us on new systems every five years, a developer doesn't want to spend the resources reprogramming major changes which will only be used for 2-3 years. Heck the Xbox was only out for 4 years before its successor was being sold.

[Mos1ted]

Football games have came along way. I'm 23 so I've played through 5 generations of football games starting with the days of the Tecmo Bowl series on NES to the days of Madden and NCAA (in a couple of days) for the 360. The PS1 to the PS2 was the biggest jump in regards to the technology gap between generations. I owned Tecmo Super Bowl for 3 consoles covering 2 generations. I had it originally for the NES, then I got it again for the Sega Genesis as a port, then I bought Tecmo Super Bowl 3 for the SNES. That series was pretty simple. 8 offensive plays, no defensive plays. You basically just tried to guess what play the offense would pick. If you guess correctly, then it would be a blitz. EA and Sega Sports stepped into the scene then with the Madden series and the Joe Montana Football series. That paved the way for the football games of today. It just seems that nowadays that progression is a lot slower than it was in the 90s. In the 90s we had 3 generations of consoles in that decade alone. It's 2006 and we've only seen 2 generations of consoles with the next - next gen not being expecting until 2010+. So bottomline, I would say don't expect leaps and bounds in football games because developers have caught up with the technological times. There's not much room to do anything extraordinary in football games......SIKE!!! I'm not defending EA.. Gotcha didn't I? I look at every NFL 2K game and every NBA 2K game and I say to myself, How is it possible for one company to improve their game so much from year to year, while you have the largest corporation in video games in EA doing the bare minimal? I'm still getting NCAA and MAdden this year so I feel I deserve the right to complain right ? lol

[DONF]

Good point Mos (How is it possible for one company to improve their game so much from year to year, while you have the largest corporation in video games in EA doing the bare minimal?)

I don't want to bring this to a flaming match, but how is it that 2K advanced so far and EA is at a stand still. Oh well. We are stuck with the ugly chick. ha

[J-Unit40]

Quote: Originally Posted by stagnant

I heard they're working on this stuff for the xbox 1080. Marty McFly's son will enjoy it.

I can't stop laughing at this post. Hilarious!!

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by DONF

Good point Mos (How is it possible for one company to improve their game so much from year to year, while you have the largest corporation in video games in EA doing the bare minimal?) I don't want to bring this to a flaming match, but how is it that 2K advanced so far and EA is at a stand still. Oh well. We are stuck with the ugly chick. ha

It's easy enough to answer, 2K programmers knew football better, were better programmers and had more leeway to focus on the areas they wanted.

[DaveDQ]

Quote: Originally Posted by DONF

Good point Mos (How is it possible for one company to improve their game so much from year to year, while you have the largest corporation in video games in EA doing the bare minimal?) I don't want to bring this to a flaming match, but how is it that 2K advanced so far and EA is at a stand still. Oh well. We are stuck with the ugly chick. ha

Have you seen MLB 2k6? The game is extremely flawed. I love the 2K series of sports games, but they really looked terrible in their first exclusive title release for the 360.