08/01/07 IGN Masterbit Theater....Insiders Only (Review Coming Up)

[DaveDQ]

I liked the atmosphere at home field. At first, when they are introducing the Bears, it felt somewhat dull because there was noone calling out the names of the players, but then the crowd noise gets much louder and they go right into introducing the Packers, with a definate difference in excitement and atmosphere.

I also like the new cutscenes inbetween plays. They could use a little more player interaction, but it's a lot better than last year's panning of the defensive huddle. The cutscenes do seem to be choppy, but I think that is because they stop and freeze before going to the play screen, instead of fading out. Still, there seems to be some lack of fluidness there.

I do agree that the game runs fast, but this game doesn't seem to have the same speed of the steelers/patriots one. This game seems more steady paced.

The snow looks great. The sidelines remind me of that superbowl shuffle video the Bears did with McMahon. They all do everything in unison. It's like they took the cheerleaders moves and put them into hollow player models.

I think the game looks great.

[K_rob11]

Quote: Originally Posted by spin1993

Fred @ sportgamer.com has some impressions and said you can turn it off.

boy, i really REALLY hope that is true, because it is on the border of being annoying...and distracting. To me it makes the screen too cluttered. I think its a good addition for those who are casual fans of the NFL, but for those of us who are already big followers and NFL diehards, its really unessesary and annoying.

[eaglesfan27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tomba321

yes, howver i'm unsure about the lighting. the lighting in NCAA make even the snow atmosphere look great even though it completely blankets it ina storm... personally madden looks good in this regard bhut again i watched the youtube take and since i play NCAA 08 in HDTV at 1080i I tend to think nothing can beat it we'll have to see what madden looks like on our setups to really judge...

Not to sidetrack this discussion, but doesn't playing at 1080i slow the game down to 30 frames/sec?

[NEW_ORLEANS]

I was watching the finial vid for that game and i have a question, is the hamstring on the calf muscle?

[seanmac]

It blows my mind that anyone could think this was a better football engine than 2K, and that's said as someone who has traditionally enjoyed playing Madden. Things that popped right off the screen-

1) There is no pocket. Again. How hard is it to have defensive ends rush upfield at the snap? Apparently, it's very hard, seeing as they just ran right into the tackles on every single pass play.

2) Defenses continue to react in unrealistic ways with the OL at the line of scrimmage. On most of the defensive stops, one or more defenders ran into the backfield untouched. That happens in the NFL, but not with anything like the frequency. OL seem far too likely to completely ignore defenders in their area, especially in the run game.

3) The tackling looks absurd. Most of the tackles looked bad, but the piece de resistence was when the Bears LB ran up on Bubba Franks from behind and tackled him with a shoulder charge. Everything was wrong with it, from the angle to the type of tackle attempted in the situation to the way Franks responded to the hit.

4) I make it a point not to comment on presentation issues...but I have to comment on the announcer. He's not just bad, he doesn't seem to have any resemblence to a real announcer. Home town announcing or no home town announcing, you will never hear a radio announcer go, "OH, MANNNN....he thre an interception!" There were a couple of other instances that jumped out where the guy was saying things that were just completely implausible for any professional announcer. It sounds amateurish. Really amateurish.

I'm not normally hard on Madden, but I seem to have reached the limit of my patience with their next-gen efforts.

[seanmac]

Quote: Originally Posted by NEW_ORLEANS

I was watching the finial vid for that game and i have a question, is the hamstring on the calf muscle?

No.

[SeaNNyT]

Quote: Originally Posted by seanmac

1) There is no pocket. Again. How hard is it to have defensive ends rush upfield at the snap? Apparently, it's very hard, seeing as they just ran right into the tackles on every single pass play. 2) Defenses continue to react in unrealistic ways with the OL at the line of scrimmage. On most of the defensive stops, one or more defenders ran into the backfield untouched. That happens in the NFL, but not with anything like the frequency. OL seem far too likely to completely ignore defenders in their area, especially in the run game. 3) The tackling looks absurd. Most of the tackles looked bad, but the piece de resistence was when the Bears LB ran up on Bubba Franks from behind and tackled him with a shoulder charge. Everything was wrong with it, from the angle to the type of tackle attempted in the situation to the way Franks responded to the hit.

I have to agree, there is nothing that resembles a pocket in the slightest. Its either a suction blocking fest or 3 guys are pancaked leading to a sack immediately.

Also like you said about tackling, most of the tackles are just not even close to being physics based or realistic. Many times I saw the stupid tackle where the defender would grab the ball carrier and swing him down like it was nothing, when the guy was already at full speed running. The gang tackling also is just the same scripted thing over and over. No variations to gang tackling animations at all.

I really wanted this game to be good, because they have the NFL license, and I really want to play with NFL licensed teams and it really aggravates me year in and year out to see the same tiresome problems.