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

[NEW_ORLEANS]

I feel like unless you gave me the $60 to pay for the game you shouldn't worry about if I like or don't like madden, or any game for that matter. If you enjoy it fine, but he the next man does not thats on him. Some people always try to force feed their opinions.

Like when I everybody in my neighborhood had a snes I got a genesis cause I felt like the sports games sucked on the snes.

[Brandwin]

I'm excited for Madden like every year, thing is, we as fans have been burned plenty of times by EA. To me Madden is never awful and always playable. I just feel they could do so much more.

So while I'm excited, I'm very cautious.

[Rocky]

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 act like 2K5 was the "perfect football game" and it had no MAJOR flaws. Too many people fall in love with Fluffy things like presentation, sig style 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...I mean it all looks PURTY but at the end of the day I want to play the game and not watch it...meanwhile EA games tend to be more prone to forcing you to actually use your stick in a skillful manner...EA fully admits they got away from that ole Madden feel but bringing the level of user control back is a good thing although I will guarantee you MANY people will not like it because these are generally the types that would prefer booting the game up and pretty much watching the game and staring at stats...then reviewing the game based on how it performed vs the CPU as opposed to playing it vs a real human player head to head or online.

Wow, I really disagree with that.

You didn't have to a great stick to play '2K5'?......I'll glad point to some online people that will smash you if you don't know how to control the game(same with NBA2K7). This is not a 2K5/Madden discussion like you're trying to turn it into however so I'll digress.

My biggest beef with Madden is often they give you no incentive to play realistically. From 2004 until now, I really believe that they relied too heavily on gimmicky like features to mask things that should go already occur in the engine. For instance, Vision Cone. If there were playbooks with real reads, a realistic dropback system, etc.....there is no need for it. Same thing with Lead Blocker, good idea for something that should've been accounted for in the game engine(realistic blocking AI/ability to control anybody on the field). I love competing against people with good stick skills, but when you can use those stick skills to completely defy realistic football, than it is not a good thing.

Which brings me to Madden 08. I was very excited until I read that Jon Robinson article about specific player tendecies. First because it was in NBA Live 06 and ruined an otherwise nice game. Great idea, but again 'gimmicky' implementation. There has to be a better way to represent a smart QB than to show the D's play diagram on the field. Will the hard hitting defender go around causing random fumbles?

Still, I'm not so quick to write the game off, I just skeptical of some the features they are putting in it.

[kmart2180]

I believe this years Madden will silence all its critics. But that is my opinion of-course. From what I've read and seen so far it looks like they are doing just about everything they can do to make the fans happy. Now of-course somethings are not going to make it into the game that somebody might have high on their list. But they are making the game better and that should be ranked higher than anything on anybody's list.

And also the biggest thing is supposably the "Madden feel" is back. This is coming from D-Cast's blog so dont take my word for it. But to me that is huge cause for the past 2 years Madden has not felt like Madden to me. Not that i didnt like the game I just didnt feel like I had the control of a player like I did in the past. Well this year they say that the control is back and better than ever. So just that right there is bigger than any new feature upgrade.

All the features are back from the current gen: Owner mode, Edit players,Fanstasy draft, defensive hot route's ect... Again another huge plus. And things for us franchise players are looking insane with all the new weapons/Icons.

If I was a betting man, this would be the year I'd put all my chips in the middle. And I feel 90% confident in that bet. But then again my top 5 things have been added that make this a absolute must buy. So I could just be biased.

1) Madden feel
2)Co-op
3)Gang Tackling
4) edit players
5)owner mode

Everything after those 5 are just icing on the cake for me.

[eaglesfan27]

I'm cautiously optimistic. I've felt burned by the last few editions and refuse to let my hopes get up too much this year. I'm going to force myself to wait a few days for the glitch thread to develop on here and other places. I want to see the draft tightened up. I don't want to see any big stat glitches (such as the doubling of interceptions which really bugged me.) And of course, I want the gameplay to be much better with a good fatigue system in place. Despite my efforts to not get my hopes up, they are rising..

[jmood88]

Quote: Originally Posted by Alburt Poohole

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

Well I've seen a lot of older guys on here and other forums who have said that they can't do all the moves anymore and have taken up coach mode.

[bkrich83]

As others have said, EA could make the greatest game known to man, people would still complain. Mostly fueled by the exclusive license agreement.

To the people who come up with the "we just want the best game argument", you're either lying to hide your agenda, or delusional. There is a significant number of people, who will hate the Madden series no matter how good or great the quality of the product is. Brand loyalty knows no bounds for some I guess.

[grunt]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

As others have said, EA could make the greatest game known to man, people would still complain. Mostly fueled by the exclusive license agreement. To the people who come up with the "we just want the best game argument", you're either lying to hide your agenda, or delusional. There is a significant number of people, who will hate the Madden series no matter how good or great the quality of the product is. Brand loyalty knows no bounds for some I guess.

I disagree. I think people expected a better game. Madden 06 and 07 was average at best. I don't hate Madden or EA. I just want a better game for my next gen gaming system.