4 years in, is next gen football where you thought it would be.

[cdon2k]

With all due respect, they are not going to give up $60 a year (and neither would I lol) so people should give up on complaining about a 1 year cycle. You should consider yourself luck that they only release Madden once a year because they could probably do it twice and most would be right there in January buying the superbowl edition with the other half of the features that were left out of the preseason edition. Consider yourself lucky and hopefully you're not a fan of Gran Turismo!

[NYGmen56]

Quote: Originally Posted by cdon2k

Basically when we talk about the "engine" we are talking about graphics, physics, and animations. When Madden 06 came out and we saw robotic looking animations (specifically running, but most everything) and weird repetitive player interactions (physics or lack thereof) and graphics (that while very nice still had a bit of the Madden Cartoon look to them, basically the color palate that was too pastel and bright, the faces, and player models/4th year and they are still being adjusted for 09), that's what we define as the "engine", the building blocks of the game. To take the point further, we were told that the engine had been totally rebuilt, but some of the problematic old animations that had been seen for years were there and stuck out like a sore thumb (I give the alligator arms WR catch as an example). This is what we define as the engine that's broken, despite all of the amazing work that is being done this year by your team, and your great interaction with us, and the positive results that will no doubt bring us a MUCH better game this year, you and your team are still putting lipstick on a pig. The "engine" as we describe it, must be built right from the ground up to truly achieve something mind blowing. These basic fundamentals must be built from the beginning and tweaked from year to year to get it right. Take physics for example, if the physics were done right in the first place say with the havoc engine back in the day, you wouldn't have to spend SO much time trying to get the situation specific animations to match up correctly to cover up for the flaws in the system. As I have said in a previous post, if the "engine" was sweet up to this point, I could have lived with the lack of certain features and whatnot, but when you add a bad "engine" to a skeletal feature set, you get a pretty pissed off and disapointed fanbase. With all that said, I am not saying what you are trying to do with this gen can't be accomplished. I watched as your team took a hapless Madden 01 and added features and touched the game up into something great over the years. Even though you got the game to greatness, I still could see the flaws of Madden 01 shining through, and this will always be the case until you guys change the way you do things. The difference between then and now is that this is the next generation of video games and the industry has grown and the competition is much stiffer. We can't be expected to play a mediocre Madden when Call of Duty 4 is blowing our gaming peers minds. We can only get frustrated and upset, and consider giving up what we are so passionate about, because we are unsatisfied customers. That's what the "engine" is..... Cdon

Wow. Excellent post cdon2k, very well put.. I think you pretty much nailed it on the definition of game "Engine" and what it has to do with Madden.. couldn't have been said better.. Not to put anyone down, but it seems like some don't want to get it or understand, or just maybe don't have the power to make those things happen..

And spankdatazz, as always great stuff..

[Danimal]

Quote: Originally Posted by cdon2k

With all due respect, they are not going to give up $60 a year (and neither would I lol) so people should give up on complaining about a 1 year cycle.

With all due respect try reading my post again. I said twice I never expected them to stop this practice, I can guarantee you I know this drill with my own job. Also I'm not sure how posting my opinion on something comes off as complaining.

I'm quite sure that most devs would love a longer cycle, ask the Blizzard guys how it feels to work in a deadline free environment, apparently they have been working on Diablo 3 for four years and if we're lucky it will come out in 2010

[cdon2k]

Didn't mean to offend, but bringing up the 1 year cycle seems as pointless as bringing up the exclusive NFL deal. It's just a fact of life and it's not going to change. And there's nothing wrong posting an opinion, but when we have the ear of an Tiburion team member, I think there's more important points to make than things that will not change.

[PVarck31]

I am 99.9% sure that the agreement EA has with the NFL requires them to release a Madden game every year. So there is really no sense in bitching about the 1 year cycle.

[maddenps2]

Quote: Originally Posted by cdon2k

Well, the issue we were discussing specifically was rewriting an entire engine in less than the 1 year cycle, as per madden 06 to the 360 (made in less than a year). That's the issue, and I think Ian has a solution. Port the 1st year, and upgrade the 2nd. The one thing that concerns me Ian, is if you port the 1st, how will you not lose the features the 2nd? Or am I getting too technical?

Just because Madden 06 for 360 came out early for the 360 doesn't mean the engine was necessarily written in the time period after 05 on the Ps2/Xbox. I doubt the new engine was written in less than a year, as developers knew when the 360 was launching and could have started early in anticipation of the 360 launch. The development might have started earlier than 05 and along side the last-gen maddens.

[cdon2k]

Maybe so, but if you read in an earlier post that the final 360 specs weren't available until two months before release. Basically the game was rushed, and it doesn't take a genius to see that.

[Vikes1]

No. Next Gen. football isn't where I thought it would be by this time. To be honest...I didn't realize that the step up to the new systems would come at such a heavy cost. I thought that we'd see more innovative game play and features right out of the gate. Of course that didn't happen...and the progress has been slower than I expected to achieve that. And yes, the Madden game has a ways to go yet. But I have to say, IMO...the best feature thats been added for the '09' game, and hopefully well into the future is the interaction between Us and the EA reps. I sure hope this "Feature" doesn't come with an on/off switch.

For the first time ever, I feel a sense of confidants that we're actually being listened to...and that our input matters. This to me is a big jump forward for these newer gen. games.