Madden: What to Look for Out of the NFL Offseason

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by SVCbearcat10

In short, yes I agree with you because I find some older games (like NES) just as fun as PS4 games. However in sports, the attention to detail is every bit as important as the gameplay itself. That's what takes the game from being good to great and that's the direction Madden needs to take.

I agree with this wholeheartedly, particularly with respect to Madden which lags behind its simulation sports game counterparts with respect to attention to detail. That doesn't make it a not-fun or not-good game for me - I've spent quite a lot of time playing Madden over the years, so I obviously enjoy it - but it certainly doesn't capture the little nuances of the NFL the way NBA 2K captures the minutiae of the sport it strives to represent.

[elgreazy1]

The problem is management and suits who have absolutely nothing to do with the creation and development with the games. I've seen far too many times creative teams (across design, advertising, gaming, etc) having to crumble or submit to half-thought marketing campaigns that turn into "features" instead of add-ons. It's a complete waste of the creators' time and resources and it doesn't allow the creators any time to polish or improve the final product.

[MossMan84]

Lets face it... We are all doomed when it comes to a great NFL football sim! The Golden Age of NFL football video games has come and gone sadly. What I dont understand is why the foundation of the game was never properly built in the 1st place but like others said why fix something when it sells like hot cakes. Madden 25 for ps4 was some what better than the 360 version I had but the appeal didnt last for very long as I am back to simming seasons on my ps2 with 05. And as far as cut scenes go its just to cover up glaring issues they are having with the game!

[Bruce LeRoy]

Quote: Originally Posted by elgreazy1

The problem is management and suits who have absolutely nothing to do with the creation and development with the games. I've seen far too many times creative teams (across design, advertising, gaming, etc) having to crumble or submit to half-thought marketing campaigns that turn into "features" instead of add-ons. It's a complete waste of the creators' time and resources and it doesn't allow the creators any time to polish or improve the final product.

Hate to bring 2K up again, but it seems as if 2K Sports devs have way more lead way than Madden devs. This is the problem with exclusive license, a game goes from being creative and innovative as possible to being only a money making machine. Management is afraid to take chances with Madden because they just want to make their exclusive license money back plus more.

[FreAk47]

Well, if the NFL can just keep doing away with things involving kicking, the broken wind meter might just eventually correct itself...but I digress.

What do I expect from next gen Madden? Nothing. It's just as dumb to hope that this game will change as it is to hope the exclusive license is gone. This game just absolutely lacks any "Wow" factor...it never does anything creative or innovative. You would think one of the top selling sports games of all time would be on the cutting edge of every thing...but it's not. Games before it have done better, games representing other sports do better, and what does Madden do? Nothing...just bobbing along riding that exclusive license.

[TheBuddyHobbs]

Madden by far has the ugliest animations of any sports game on next-gen and it's not even close. The picture in the OP is an example of that. Nobody looks like that catching the ball... lol...

[TheBuddyHobbs]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Maybe past 2k NBA games, but I traded mine in after 2 months. The push of VC and online connectivity was bothersome. Good article. Time will tell what happens.

VC was a terrible idea and should be killed. I'm not an online player as far as sports games go. So I can't really comment on it as far as that. I do know one thing though. The gameplay, animations, presentation, and graphics were great in NBA. Those are the most important areas of a sports game and those are the areas Madden always lacks in. I think that's why it's much a better game than Madden.

[TheBuddyHobbs]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

The five best games I played last generation were Portal (less than 650 MB on XBOX 360), Portal 2 (4.5 GB on XBOX 360), Rock Band 2 (4.6 GB on XBOX 360), NBA 2K11 (6.7 GB on XBOX 360) and Minecraft (113 MB on XBOX 360). As you can see the disc footprints of those games are all over the board, yet all are great games. Game mechanics are a far greater piece of the puzzle, and that's just code which has a trivial disc footprint. If Madden doubled its disc footprint, the only immediate results you'd see are higher-res textures, higher-poly-count geometry, and a larger sound bank to draw from for commentary (note that this is completely separate from the commentary being any smarter, that is all code-side). Again, file size absolutely has no bearing on how fun a game is.

I don't think the disc space argument with last-gen products is a good route to go. This is a new and much bigger generation of games.