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

[yamabushi]

Of course not. No competition = no innovation.

Madden seems to be making some very slight improvements (mostly fixes) but EAs focus on back of the box selling points gimmicks year in and year out doesnt exactly leave me with baited breath as to what the future holds.

[BrianFifaFan]

I have to add a thought: Fifa08 is exactly where I think next-gen football should be!

[Danimal]

Quote: Originally Posted by speedkills

I agree. If EA does manage a hostile takeover of Take Two we can only hope they slap the Madden name on the 2K Football engine. Can you imagine what NFL 2K9 would've have been like on next gen systems? I mean they pulled off First-Person-Football mode as a lark.

Please don't lump me in with the 2K bias, I played APF and I can imagine that game play wise it's equivalent to what a 2K NFL title would have been, if that's good enough for you terrific.

My point was simply that no football title has achieved what I was expecting from next gen it was not to single out Madden.

[jewelz1132]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

I'll say "no" but quite honestly, I think the Madden team set themselves up for this sentiment after releasing that ONE video of Philly vs. NY... with the snow... Had I not seen that, my expectations would have been lower. Once the Madden team said that the video released was pretty much their bar, I have been expecting that ever since...

Exactly..When I first saw that video..the first thing I thought was OH ****!!..But compared to previous football games from last gen..Madden is still missing a lot of things and it kinda feels like its just has next gen visuals without the gameplay and innovation

[dave374]

Quote: Originally Posted by jorge380

Bottom line Ian and Phil will fix the mess Ortiz left.By next year will be talking about how good this title is.Damn maybe this year.it will for sure be better than 08.

I appreciate the work these guys are doing, but cosmetic touchups aren't enough.
IMO, they should have one team work on Madden 10 ... and another working on a completely new engine for Madden 11 or 12.

The core stuff can't be changed that dramatically in the current engine IMO.

My gut feeling is these guys are restricted in everything they do for Madden because of the current code.

The only way we'll ever get a truly fresh Madden is starting from scratch.

[spankdatazz22]

I still don't find this thing very impressive:



The players look animate stiffly in '09, but it's way better than what's shown in the vid. I guess a more valid comparison would be to Madden '06:



wow at how bad '06 was lol. And Gametrailers still gave it a decent review score. What a joke

Funny that the QB anims sucked in the hype video and they still suck lol. Only thing I thought was fairly decent in the hype vid [at the time] was the 3D "feel" of the players. Other than that the animations were pretty bad, the stadium looked like it was straight out of NFL Blitz, the injury closeup is [still] silly, and overall it felt nothing like the Nike commercial they were trying to emulate

[maddenps2]

Quote: Originally Posted by dave374

I appreciate the work these guys are doing, but cosmetic touchups aren't enough. IMO, they should have one team work on Madden 10 ... and another working on a completely new engine for Madden 11 or 12. The core stuff can't be changed that dramatically in the current engine IMO. My gut feeling is these guys are restricted in everything they do for Madden because of the current code. The only way we'll ever get a truly fresh Madden is starting from scratch.

Yup I totally agree, I believe the problem began when the core engine was created. I have really never had a wow moment while watching this engine at work, or ever thought, wow that couldn't have been similarly last gen.

They really had to work just to get some sort of gang-tackling system in, and yet I believe limited to 2 defenders at once.

Now it is up to Ian and others to help push this engine to it's limit, because it's the only option we will have this generation.

[Beardown]

I feel I had low expectations for next gen and I still feel that it has disappointed so far. At the very least I thought I would have an improved last gen product. We are on Madden 09 I still have to play with one camera angle, I still am not able to save a game in progress which is really unbelievable at this point. Penalty sliders are a complete joke, in 08 they never even called face-mask penalties, I am tired of having to max out the penalty sliders and still not see many.

The biggest expectations I had for next gen was going to be an improvement in the tackling animations, possibly rag doll, and then weather having an affect on the game. We all know about the animations, which have followed last gen, and the weather, although pretty, does not have an impact on the game. I want to slip and slide in the snow and rain, I want the wind to force me to hook a field goal through the uprights.

I guess what has made me the most disappointed in next gen Madden is, I hate to say it, 2K5. I feel Madden is just now trying to surpass it when we shouldn't even be thinking of it anymore.