How to make madden more immersive and exciting. A tool and knowlege base for Ian, EA.

[Boregard]

Great Thread!!!

1. Crowd interaction/reaction - crowd should react to the events on the field as they happen. This should include big hits, sacks, penalties, ints, pass breakups, great catches, "big plays" for first down, records being broken (I'd like to point out that the video of Favre breaking the All-time TD record was a game played in Minnesota), chants - both generic and stadium specific (Denver is an absolutely mind blowing experiance, whenever the opposing QB throws an incomplete pass the PA announcer loudly proclaims "that pass by Tom Brady falls... ... and the crowd shakes the Earth with IN-COM-PLETE!!! I hate the Broncos and think that is awesome) Crowd should go quiet after big plays for the visiting team, boo when the home team is getting blown out and still punts, chant certain player's names or nicknames when they get intro-ed or make a big play, etc etc...

2. Commentary - Team standings, players in the top ten of stat categories, and divisional races and playoff berths should be integrated into the commentary. If 2 teams are playing in wk 13 and 1 is 4-8 and the other is 10-2 the commentators should be talking about how the better team should dominate this game. The record should have more to do with the commentary than the team's OVR rating. If the home team is undefeated at home that should get a mention, teams in the top 5 - 10 of team stats (ie team A is in the top 5 statistically this season in total Defense) should get mentioned - this is especially true when top 5 or better O meets top 5 or better D (statistically) in a game!
Big game - if late in the season 2 teams with aspirations for home field advantage, or 2 bubble teams for the wildcard meet up that should get commentary etc etc...

Those two alone would dramatically elevate the immersion and excitement,IMO!

3. Records - All- Time NFL records, all-time team records (most TDs recieving by a Cowboy wether single game, season or career), All-time rookie records both team and NFL. Look this one may take some doing, my suggestion would be to add NFL records first, then add team records behind the scenes until you have them all!

4. Franchise Mode Hall of Fame - tab guys who you are fairly certain will be HOFers so that when they retire you get an update that says he made the Hall and have the game keep track of them. You could also come up with some stat numbers that would allow non- tabbed guys to get in if they reach those numbers by the end of their career. We asked for this several years ago and got SS mode which is a complete waste of energy on EA/Tiburon's end, IMO.

5. Injurys - if a guy gets hurt during gameplay, have the Game quickly ascertain it, but don't tell me right away. If the injury is minor enough, let him walk off. If the injury is one that affects his legs or is more severe, show him in agony, have the training staff come out and have them help him off, get the cart or stretcher and show him leaving the field. make it so you can skip the "show" if you want, but depending on the level of the injury - make me wait to find out what is wrong. If it is a minor ding the it should pop up in a few plays, if it is moderate the commentators should explain that the player is still being examined and then it should pop up after a few more plays, but at this point if it is a severe injury (torn ACL, let's say) have the commentators say he his being taken to the locker room or local medical facility for further eval. In the case of franchise mode you may not find out how long the player is out until that week is completed on the schedule!!!

I have more, but I will let you digest that for a while and post 6-10 later.

[JMD]

If Madden added everything shown in the 2k clips above I would shed tears of joy.

I love it when I'm playing 2k5 and Tony Gonzales catches a TD pass and it shows a fan wearing his jersey.

[varo]

scores from other games during league play. makes scoreboard watching more interesting. 2k5 used the espn template, with the score at the bottom constantly updating, fox and cbs use different ones.

[countryboy]

Maddenps2...

You and I don't always see things "eye to eye" but man...




Great Post!!!

[adfletch71]

I have to agree, if madden 2010 was to implement these features that 2k5 did with there presentation, i would be praising madden and would forget about 2k5. Until then, 2k5 will always be the better game with the presentation. Please Ian, show these to the presentation dept and let them see what we are beggin for. Then i can truly say, that MADDEN is the true football experience. Its more than gameplay too..believe that!!!!!!

[DonRSD]

i dont think madden needs 2k cut scenes of the fans at all.

they need better crowd interaction.
maybe in a blowout game have the crowd leave
have team specific chants
id love when something happens the crowd responds and so do the announcers

[mike75]

WOW!!!!!


Nfl2k5 presentations are so life like!!


EA Sports please add this to Madden someday soon!!!

[Moostache]

Quote: Originally Posted by mike75

WOW!!!!! Nfl2k5 presentations are so life like!! EA Sports please add this to Madden someday soon!!!

I don't mean to pee in anyone's Cheerios here, but EA won't be allowed to match 2K5 - they are expected to exceed it by a wide margin before the ghost of the VC games will be exorcized once and for all....

Personally, while I appreciated the effort to add something to the game, I found almost ALL of the 2K "presentation" stuff really boring and repetitive inside of a couple weeks. Especially the halftime stuff and post-game stuff - probably because I personally LOATHE Berman and think his schtick was stale about 20 years ago, but also because it was really very bad in the commentary department. It WAS nice to have highlights, but I've seen a lot of criticism of Tom Hammond's voice work in Madden already (based only on the limited clips available to date) and I have to say that Berman and Kolber in 2K5 were worse when it came to vocals being sticthed together.

No doubt 2K5 deserved praise for the effort and something is better than nothing, but if EA dropped in an IDENTICAL clone of the 2K5 stuff into Madden 2010, the outrage would burn just as hot as if there is no additions - I go back to my original thought here - when it comes to the pre-game, half-time, post-game and on-field presentation aspects IF EA decides they want to really address those areas, they are going to have to do a tremendous amount of work and spend a ton of money getting there. I am not sure that such a thing "fits" the EA game philosophy though...Madden (whether people want to believe it or credit it for the attempt or merely mock the failures to attain the highest level yet) is actually striving to be more of an NFL gameplay simulator and less of a NFL TV-watching simulator. That does not mean I wouldn't like to see those thing in-game (because I would LOVE to see it happen), its just to say that in the last 4 years of the development, I have not seen a trend that would indicate a fundamental shift in EA Sports over-riding philosophy.

Look at the use of player models as an example. Others have pointed this out before, but I'll re-iterate it here - EA player models relative to the stadium crowds models (in ALL their games - FIFA, NHL, NBA Live, NCAA, Madden) shows a HUGE difference. Hell, even the sidelines of Madden NFL 2009 - while drastically better than Madden NFL 2008 - are still nearly 10X LESS detailed than the controlled player models. It creates a rather large disconnect between the player and the environment. I understand the choice though...EA has consciously chosen to focus their time and efforts in the past on making highly detailed player models that ALWAYS look better than the rest of the game. On the flipside, the 2K games - such as NBA2K8 as an example - do not have that same discrepancy, or at least not to such an obvious extreme. If the EA games feature player models 10X more detailed (or more) than the crowds, then I would guess the 2K games feature player models in the 2-4 X more detailed than fans range.

I am not sure EA / Tiburon is ever going to be willing to change that either - we are not really talking about just a "feature" to add, we are talking about an entire approach to the game and a fundamental shift in the series Mission Statement. In fact, I credit that divide for a lot of the reason that - while EA continues to add elements of presentation every year - people STILL see their offering and say "Why the hell can't this be more like the other game?"