San Jose Mercury News: The Secret Behind Madden 15's Upgraded Graphics

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by jbd345

That's awesome, was wondering this myself. Wondering what jumbotron stuff they'll add for the bills. Maybe well see the charging Buffalo's before kickoff.

Maybe so because it says they have the Jets engines firing at MetLife as the crowd cheers.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmurphy31

How much development time was lost adding something that doesn't benefit the current Madden Gamer, can be turned off (and probably will for most people)

I would assume the core player base wasn't really high on the list of considerations for a feature which has the primary objective of teaching new players how to play. On top of that, contextually overlaying a graphic on the field in front of a player based on a radius check to the ball carrier isn't difficult.

Quote:

Why couldn't they just leave this in the Gauntlet or Training area

The most effective gameplay tutorials are the ones that are enabled during a real gameplay context and are passive (i.e. they don't hold the player's hand and/or obviously lock the player into a "you must do this to continue" flow). For a great example of this, look at how Portal teaches new players how to play within the flow of the game. The tackling cone is exactly this; it's a visual aid for timing of the tackle commands without getting in the way.

Quote:

With a bunch else wrong with the game, couldn't they fix some of those areas first

Tiburon also has a responsibility to themselves to grow their potential customer base. Making the game easier to learn to play does exactly that; Madden's control set to a new player is, in a word, intimidating.

Quote:

Its a back of box feature, that will probably be gone in two years

There's literally no reason for them to take out a passive aid for new players.

[wordtobigbird]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmurphy31

You have to see the pro's and con's of adding a tackling cone. Pro's: Helps new players learn how to tackle Can Be turned off Other games have built in tutorials (Usually first level of a game, they add on screen cues) Con's: How much development time was lost adding something that doesn't benefit the current Madden Gamer, can be turned off (and probably will for most people) Why couldn't they just leave this in the Gauntlet or Training area With a bunch else wrong with the game, couldn't they fix some of those areas first Its a back of box feature, that will probably be gone in two years As to JP...Adding a tackling cone doesn't count as teaching someone how to play football. It teaches them when to make a tackle in a video game.

Your first and 3rd con are the same thing. How much development time did it take to add a yellow highlight that shows which direction your defender is facing? Probably not much. That cone is purely visual. What they changed was the tackle buttons but I can't imagine that took much time either. Tackling cone is no excuse for other features to be lacking.

If they are forreal about the 50+ drills or whatever they said they have now we will see because thats where people will learn the most. Everyone doesn't go through the drills though, so they added a visual cue to help those pick up and play players. Not that big of a deal really. It's off by default on higher levels.

I don't see tackling going away in 1-2 years so yea..

[wordtobigbird]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gman 18

Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk

No way they removed formation subs/auto subs. They probably just didn't add a way to do formations sub in a main menu so they stick every game. Autosubs needs a complete re-haul but I doubt they touched it.

[jmurphy31]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Tiburon also has a responsibility to themselves to grow their potential customer base. Making the game easier to learn to play does exactly that; Madden's control set to a new player is, in a word, intimidating.

I agree with adding new customers but to say madden is intimidating isn't quite accurate. My son who just turned 5 can once in a while beat the computer on rookie and my nephew who is 8 can beat the computer easily on pro would beg to different.

[JKSportsGamer1984]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmurphy31

You have to see the pro's and con's of adding a tackling cone. Pro's: Helps new players learn how to tackle Can Be turned off Other games have built in tutorials (Usually first level of a game, they add on screen cues) Con's: How much development time was lost adding something that doesn't benefit the current Madden Gamer, can be turned off (and probably will for most people) Why couldn't they just leave this in the Gauntlet or Training area With a bunch else wrong with the game, couldn't they fix some of those areas first Its a back of box feature, that will probably be gone in two years As to JP...Adding a tackling cone doesn't count as teaching someone how to play football. It teaches them when to make a tackle in a video game.

I could see how the tackling cone could help casuals learn to take better pursuit angles though. I don't get the big fuss over adding visual aids to help casuals as long as there's always an option to turn them off. Now if EA didn't improve on pursuit angles, wrap tackles, proper gap assignments, etc... then the cone won't even matter.

[wordtobigbird]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmurphy31

I agree with adding new customers but to say madden is intimidating isn't quite accurate. My son who just turned 5 can once in a while beat the computer on rookie and my nephew who is 8 can beat the computer easily on pro would beg to different.

I agree.

Compare Madden's controls to FIFA or NBA 2K's and Madden is like riding a bike with training wheels. The controls are far from intimidating. What do you even need to learn?

Move player with left stick.
Hike ball with A.
Throw with icons.
Juke with right stick, spin with whatever button.

You're already will on your way to beating the CPU. Imagine if Madden had 5+ different kinds of button combination for passes and you had to pick the right one for the right situation. In FIFA you can do a regular pass, through pass, cross pass and each of those has a modifier you can use on them. Same with shooting, skill moves, etc.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmurphy31

I agree with adding new customers but to say madden is intimidating isn't quite accurate. My son who just turned 5 can once in a while beat the computer on rookie and my nephew who is 8 can beat the computer easily on pro would beg to different.

And I've got friends who do not like Madden because it is too complicated. We can compare anecdotal evidence all day if we wish.

I've got another friend that plays Madden but has very little football knowledge and I'll ask him what defense was he just in and he would have no idea.