I Played Madden 360 @ Circuit City...And Kind of Liked It...

[Badgun]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoMiss2000

I hope for 2007, they get rid of that AWFUL radio announcer!!

Uh...they didn't. He is in the 360 version, but Madden and Michaels are in the Xbox version. That's what's going to drive me to buy the Xbox version.

[LowerWolf]

I finally got a 360 last month. Despite the negative reviews, I picked up Madden - had to have a football game.

No doubt it's a watered down version of what the Xbox/PS2 had. But for a first gen game, it's not bad. And to be honest, I don't miss a lot of what was taken out, such as the Tony Bruno show.

I kind of like the radio guy too. Though it'd be nice to have Madden/Michaels for the Monday night games.

[koolbubbaice]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

You do realize you're comparing it to a 2yr old game, don't you lol - In before the lock I've played the in-store demo tons of times and downloaded the demo from XBL and the game really isn't flat-out horrible. And seeing it on a hi-def tv really enhances the experience. At the same time, it's not that good either. And it's definitely not worth $60. I think as long as you only compare the game to Madden itself and don't have expectations of it being [whatever], you can come away with a semi-okay experience. I went months w/o playing Madden current gen, but finally booted it up a couple weeks ago (online). That actually gave me more of an appreciation for the next gen game. The issues are too numerous to name - but I do at least see that this engine has potential. When I say potential, I mean it can (and easily should) be better than Madden current gen. It's still extremely disappointing the game doesn't have any sort of next-gen player interaction, and that it hasn't made any strides in terms of improving from a presentation standpoint among other things. In fact it's taken a few steps back in that dept. But as long as expectations are kept to comparing it to Madden itself, rather than what most of us would hope would be in a next-gen football game, then the game doesn't seem as distasteful. Either way, I think your assessment is valid Pacman. As others have said, if you play it in short increments rather than extended gameplay it isn't as irritating. I was initially impressed with the graphics, but after seeing x-number of soft tackles and the unnatural way players walk/interact between plays, it just unnerved me.

Doesn't matter, if it was 5 yrs ago..It shouldn't be in a football title..

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by koolbubbaice

Doesn't matter, if it was 5 yrs ago..It shouldn't be in a football title..

*sigh* Neither should DBs leaping 10ft into the air to knock down passes, all without the need to even look back. Neither should soft-azz tackles that occur with frequently. Neither should a lame radio announcer that actually makes Madden and Michaels sound tolerable. But that's not what we were talking about.

[cjonesfan921]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

*sigh* Neither should DBs leaping 10ft into the air to knock down passes, all without the need to even look back. Neither should soft-azz tackles that occur with frequently. Neither should a lame radio announcer that actually makes Madden and Michaels sound tolerable. But that's not what we were talking about.

Wait, wasn't it "we" that were complaining since I can remember to have something different from Michaels and Madden, obviously this is not what you had in mind but "you" got what "you" wanted.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by cjonesfan921

Wait, wasn't it "we" that were complaining since I can remember to have something different from Michaels and Madden, obviously this is not what you had in mind but "you" got what "you" wanted.

Yeah... gimme something better, not something worse. Only those that are complacent want something "different" and are happy with EA's half-azzed attempt at improving presentation by going with a radio announcer. What NFL team has ONE person doing radio for their games? If they truly wanted to branch out and improve in that area, there are so many directions they could've taken it in. Taking Tony Bruno and making him the announcer for every team shouldn't have been one of them though lol. In the end, it's just more excuses - last year it was they didn't have the time, this year it's... well, don't know what the excuse this year is. The suits? That's a nice all-encompassing one size fits all excuse.

And for the record, I've said in the past that the problem isn't Madden or Michaels - it's how they're being directed. While Madden's maddenisms are pretty stale now, he can still give pretty good insight on a game at times and he's still considered one of the top color commentator guys out there. And Michaels is one of the all-time great play by play guys. Get them more involved, make them more lively instead of just sitting there reading lines blandly. Hell, get Michaels to throw out some of his vague gambling hints about the point spread.

A few years ago I saw Madden show disgust on an ESPN special at how football was being portrayed in his game. It was the year jetpacking reigned; where both teams could regularly score 70+pts a game in 5min qtrs. He seemed more upset about it than the devs interviewed seemed to be.

[Flamehead]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

A few years ago I saw Madden show disgust on an ESPN special at how football was being portrayed in his game. It was the year jetpacking reigned; where both teams could regularly score 70+pts a game in 5min qtrs. He seemed more upset about it than the devs interviewed seemed to be.

I remember seeing this too. It reminds me of the history of Madden where he refused to lend his name to the product during the initial video football gaming presentation, saying "if it ain't 11 on 11, it ain't real football". They had to go back and code 22 players on the field before he'd sign up with them.

So even back then, the mentality seemed to be about "arcade" football rather than real football, which sadly, appears to continue to this day with the jetpacking from a few years ago, etc. (It's almost like they said "make it fun by allowing them to score 100+ a game. Players want to score!" Hey programmers? How about "players want to play a realistic version of football"?

I wonder how many other things Madden's seen throughout the years that's bothered him that we just haven't heard about?

[PacMan3000]

What's "jetpacking?"