Are games too long?

[adembroski]

Beyond my clock comments above... it's the nature of the beast. In those sports, the clock runs almost continually compared to football. The nature of football necessitates a longer game. You can already "X" button your way through most things that slow it down, further streamlining would required speeding up gameplay or eliminating between-play options.

APF couldn't figure this out either. I played a game of that today, seemed like ti took forever.

[dave374]

Those games can be played in shorter times and still get realistic scores and stats.
I don't know if you could do that with football, without sacrificing realism.

For offline guys, if you implemented in-game saves, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

I BEG FELLOW OSers: Just answer the question and don't turn this into another stupid flaming thread. Ian already knows Madden suckz and NFL2k5 rulez.

[TDogg09]

Quote:

As it is right now, Madden's a chore to play through a full game...not because I want shorter games, but because it's boring and lacking in atmosphere, presentation, and the small details that FIFA, The Show, NBA2k and NHL09 offer. Just my opinion.

I agree with this. The typical NFL game or college game is 2-3 hours. But, it doesn't seem that long because there is so much going on in the broadcast (spotlighting players, going to the sideline reporters, tracking an injured player on the sidelines, looking at people in the crowd, etc.). If Madden were to implement an actual TV broadcast, with all the little things that make that broadcast entertaining, I don't think Madden gamers will mind if it's a long game because they will be so engrossed in it.

[Steeler99]

Quote: Originally Posted by TDogg09

I agree with this. The typical NFL game or college game is 2-3 hours. But, it doesn't seem that long because there is so much going on in the broadcast (spotlighting players, going to the sideline reporters, tracking an injured player on the sidelines, looking at people in the crowd, etc.). If Madden were to implement an actual TV broadcast, with all the little things that make that broadcast entertaining, I don't think Madden gamers will mind if it's a long game because they will be so engrossed in it.

Before looking at "tv broadcast" issues! PLEASE fix gameplay (run game, o-line/d-line interaction). That should be #1 priority.

[bad_philanthropy]

I do think that they can be a bit long, but it seems necessary in order to have a believable football experience play itself out. In game saves is definitely something that could help. But also I sem to recall playing Madden on the PC at some point and the accelerated clock would wind down to a very low number and take a lot of time off the clock, it seemed to really speed up my games but still allow for a believable pacing of the action.

So maybe have the accelerated clock default to wind down 20 seconds by default but if you don't make any pre-snap changes at the snap of the ball have it wind down again randomly to three, two, or one second and take the according time off the game clock as well. Of course there is the matter of late game situations, so there would need to be some design decisions made. But ultimately I think that the gameplay time can be streamlined with a well implemented accelerated clock feature.

[icomb1ne]

In-game saves

Solution to everything!

[bcruise]

Head Coach 09 proves that it's possible to have a full-length game experience on a console game, and it's all thanks to that accelerated clock. It wouldn't go over well online because of how the play clock works (it's not accelerated), but it's great for the offline game.

Online doesn't particularly concern me, but I'd really like to see a system like that for offline Madden.

I agree with adembroski's comments above about it being the nature of football to be longer than Hockey or soccer - it's the same quarter/half length, but all the stoppages that go with it run the games long. I don't think you could change that online without lowering the quarter length.

[RaiderKtulu]

Yeah the games are far too long... I mean, we're only playing 1/3 of a real game and still expecting 28-24 types of scores. Lets make the games even shorter... who needs realism?