Shouldnt we be happier about Madden 08......

[jmood88]

Quote: Originally Posted by Alburt Poohole

The single most interesting thing IMO that has not been addressed is..If true what is being said about manual control and manual playmaking then that alone makes this game great or potentially great. I think the lack of response to that alone sais alot...Most players don't care about making their own plays because they'd much rather be concerned with unrelated matters such as signature style or computer controlled catches, tackles or anything else that has the CPU doing the work while they sit there staring mesmerized by presentation and signature style or anything else that does not require them actually using their stick in a skillful manner. (cough..2K...cough...cough..2k) IMO Madden has always had the edge on other games based on the way it controlled and gave users an advantage if they opted to make attempts to make plays on their own. As an avid 2K Football, Basketball and baseball player the one downfall of all their games IMO is a lack of user control. I don't want to watch the game as a spectator with a controller hiding in my hand...I want to make the plays on my own and actually use my controller to make plays or screw them up myself. I'm tired of seeing the 2K animations that look pretty but are all CPU generated and driven leaving me as a spectator or slave to the game. I want, need and demand more control in making plays and creating the animations Its just funny seeing all these people complaining about signature style, hand warmers and other non-gameplay related issues when the fact of the matter is GAMEPLAY and CONTROL are what make the game fun. Mark my words...when this game drops you will have a TON of complaints by the people who have become accustomed to button pressing w/o skill..They will complain about dropped balls and anything else that requires skill as opposed to the easier methods of just allowing the cpu to make the play then pretending like they have skill when truth be told they hadn't done anything.

Actually that's not true at all, most of the people who complain about having to do anything manually are older people who play coach mode anyway. People aren't excited because every year EA Sports hype up everything they've done and just about every year their hype is better than what's actually done on the field. I don't know where you got the idea that 2k sports game are driven by the computer, that couldn't be further from the truth, especially in 2k football games.

[jmood88]

Quote: Originally Posted by RaginCajun

People will always bitch about Madden just because of what it is. Its the most popular videogame in the country. Its always been the "cool" thing to do to hate the most popular, mainstream thing. EA could add everything anyone ever wanted, and make the perfect football game, but people would still complain. Its just the way its always going to be.

If EA ever made anything close to a perfect game and people complained then you would have a point but coming up with hypothetical situations that will never happen doesn't really mean much. People "bitch" about Madden because their complaints about the game haven't been answered and since the game has moved onto the 360 and ps3 they have been getting excuses because they've "only been working on the systems for a couple of years".

[jmood88]

Quote: Originally Posted by Alburt Poohole

I disagree...To say "Everyone wants to like EA"...IMO is clearly false inaccurate and overlooking the constant hatred that people spew out with the very mention of EA...EA could crap roses and pee daisies and people would still be dissatisfied just because its EA. The cool and hip thing to do these days and definitely since the exclusive deal is to hate EA...Has EA earned some of the hatred...hell yes...But to sit here and act as if they will ever get a fare shake or as if there is no bias and resentment particularly from disgruntled 2K people is just being BLIND to the facts. This forum is no different than any other community that talks about EA games. You have your reasonable fair minded people who jus want a great game, You have your crowd that will never be pleased no matter what and you have the straight up haters who hate because thats what they do when they see those two little letters...EA Oh and BTW when the other poster talked about "LOVING 2K"...hell I loved their games and played them all...But not to the extent of loving anything just based on its brand. 2K Football was good but if people really wanted to be fair and reasonable it was not nearly as solid as people would have you think. How soon we forget. People at like 2K5 was the "perfect football game" and it had no MAJOR flaws. Too many people fall in love with Fluffy things like presentation and non-gameplay related issues when in reality a good football game is and should be defined by its GAMEPLAY and CONTROL...Control IMO has always been an area that EA has crushed the competition...2K Football and most of their games are spectator games where the CPU does it all for ya while EA games tend to be more prone to forcing you to actually use your stick in a skillful manner.

EA brought this on themselves. From trying to charge people for alternate jerseys(and talking about how much work it was to change the colors) to keeping almost all the features out of their games and talking about how they rebuilt the engine despite having some fundamental flaws from Madden's past, it's not as if they've been trying their best to make the best game possible but people just won't give it a chance.

[Step2001]

EA adding Owners Mode & such additions from past gen versions is a step in the right direction.

To be giddy over something that should have been in the game 2 years ago is your choice.

I want to see & read about these features expanding past the last gen versions.
I know the IGN states that EA did expand things. But the details were not there.

The game sounds promising. We won't get the low down on NCAA or Madden until the Mods get their early copies of the game.

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

or at least a little more optimistic? Hear me out. I played last year's game for about a month and then sold it because of the fatigue issue. It bugged me to no end. For the first few months after the release of Madden 07, I heard multiple complaints....."No Coop", "No Gang Tackling", "No Player Editing" and all the complaints were legitimate. Now this year EA comes straight out and says it added the following things to next gen: Coop Owner Mode Alternate Jerseys Player Editing Realistic Fatigue Gang Tackling Double Team Oline Blocks Mid Air Collisions Defensive Hot Routes Those probably cover 80-90% of the major complaints most people on this board had with last year's game (The only major exceptions I see are ESPN presentation and formation subs). So they fix or add alot of features but it seems that the majority of this board is underwhelmed or unimpressed. My question is WHY? Are we at the point on this board where there is so much bad blood about EA, the exclusive deal and the previous installments that even if EA fixes the things we complain about...we still are unhappy?

My take:

Coop - That is great!
Owner Mode - Uninterested but glad for those that want it
Alternate Jerseys - Uninterested- But cool
Player Editing - nice but 2 years to get it?
Realistic Fatigue - They fixed a problem and now it's a feature.
Gang Tackling - Awesome! yet a few years late.
Double Team Oline Blocks - Great!
Mid Air Collisions -Great!
Defensive Hot Routes - Great that they finally got it in

So all in all yes it seems they are finally making a little bit of stride.
However it still looks "Maddenish" and no where near what they said it would look like 2 years ago. They still have the shoulder tackle, bad WR/DB interaction and all in all it seems to be a "fixed" Madden and nothing that says "I have to get this game!". Will I get it? Yes. However I'm not going to get all giddy over them finally getting some things right.


Maybe once I get it and play it my "mood" will change. You just have to understand EA has left a bad taste in lots of gamers mouths the past few years so it will take a while to get them back in the fold.

[NovaStar]

Well, I am one that has a great disgust for ea. Why? To me ea has shown a total disregard and lack of respect for not only its own consumer base but for anyone that enjoys video football games. They seem to take the position that if you are a casual fan of football games you are going to buy madden irregardless of what we do or what we don't do to make the game play better. If you are a simulation fan tough s***! We are not changing a thing because you don't represent the majority of our sales. In essence we will do what we want to do, screw consumers.

Madden has a brand of football that it plays, if you like it fine, but if you don't like it, you had no alternative. They have forced the market to bend to their will, and have done nothing to further the genre. Last year when they were the only game in town, they did'nt even have the decency to show many screenshots or give out any info prior to release of the game. Hell, they even threatened websites if they gave any info concerning the game! What was that all about? It was about them controlling the market. I don't like companies that show a blatant disregard for consumers, if ea was a girl, most of you would have cut that b***h off a long time ago.

The big question I have concerning madden is did they change the game engine? Because if they did not change the engine how much better can the game really be? What you will have is alot of enhancements on a game that will play the same. Madden became a boring game of football to me, all of the new features they are claiming to have implemented won't mean much if it is the same old game play.

[GTheorenHobbes]

Good post, Skyboxer...cosign.

[Alburt Poohole]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmood88

Actually that's not true at all, most of the people who complain about having to do anything manually are older people who play coach mode anyway.

We OLDER players remember the days when you actually had to have good stick..Its the newer younger players who have gained legendary status by living off of animations and CPU controlled gameplay. lets keep that in perspective..OL SCHOOL Madden is making plays on your own and stick work..not Purty animations which have plagued the NG game