Every year impressions and previews for Madden are similar

[RaiderKtulu]

I don't think this is a Madden specific problem. Ratings for these games are way too high period. It's like if the game is playable at all, it's at least an 8. The games that actually get low scores are usually completely broken to the point of not working at all. Madden, for all it's flaws, isn't that bad by comparison. When a 7 is considered to be a steaming pile.... a 9 for Madden is fairly reasonable.

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by RaiderKtulu

I don't think this is a Madden specific problem. Ratings for these games are way too high period. It's like if the game is playable at all, it's at least an 8. The games that actually get low scores are usually completely broken to the point of not working at all. Madden, for all it's flaws, isn't that bad by comparison. When a 7 is considered to be a steaming pile.... a 9 for Madden is fairly reasonable.

Yeah numbers really need to be reworked. Nowadays, anything that's less than an 8 is considered trash when the 6-7 range is "average" on most sites.

More people look at the # instead of just reading the review. I think that sites should drop numbers and thus force people to read the review.

[mikeacard]

the way i see it is that we have 3 basic types of people.

1. the haters-they will just hate on everything and use poor logic to do it.
2. the normal people-if they like something they will say its good, if they dislike something they will say its bad.
3. the sunshiners- ea could give them a turd in their madden box and they would enjoy it.

all the haters seem to look at madden very simply. they feel that because the last few years have been horrible for madden that its their job to keep bringing it down. they do not care that this is the first year that ian and his team have been working on the game to achieve their vision of the game. they lump this new design team in with the team that made 06-09. this causes them to drag down any new feature in the game and say "it should have been in 2 years ago" THIS design team had no say in what got put in the games in years past. for that reason i gave madden a clean slate this year.

it doesn't matter how badly this game was screwed up since it came onto 360/ps3. the people responsible for all that are gone. basically madden is a restaurant under new management. maybe the old management ran the restaurant poorly and it had bad food. if the new management fixes up the place and gets a good cook in the kitchen than the crappiness of the old restaurant is forgiven because the new management had no control over the previous management.

i don't get why people can't see that this current team working on the game should not be crucified for their predecessors mistakes.

[Segagendude]

I try not to let reviews sway my decision.
The movie, "Mall Cop", was deemed as the funniest movie of the summer, blah blah blah by critics.

When I finally watched it, it was like "eh". Not that funny.

Madden 08 reviews were all positive on some gaming websites, one even calling it the "first great Next-Gen Madden". And we all know how that game was.

So I'm reserving judgement till I play the actual game.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Segagendude

I try not to let reviews sway my decision. The movie, "Mall Cop", was deemed as the funniest movie of the summer, blah blah blah by critics. When I finally watched it, it was like "eh". Not that funny. Madden 08 reviews were all positive on some gaming websites, one even calling it the "first great Next-Gen Madden". And we all know how that game was. So I'm reserving judgement till I play the actual game.

This is how I feel as well. Movie critics have also said movies were lousy and they were good.

I'm mine own best critic.

I didn't like 09 at all or 08.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bgamer90

More people look at the # instead of just reading the review. I think that sites should drop numbers and thus force people to read the review.

I think letter grades are even better; easier for everyone to identify with (A, B+,C-,F, etc.). I hate when the reviewers say "pay attention to the review/not the score". If the score isn't important, then don't use one. It's only natural that it's the first thing most people are going to look at.

[ZoneBlitz]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

I guarantee you there were people saying "this is the year" last year for whatever reasons. I can remember guys like pastapadre and old community day attendees saying the same thing (not the past year's CD guys). And I guarantee next year will be more of the same - some are already looking to M11. I'm sure this year's game is better than 09, just based on the demo. But 09 was also better than 08. And I find myself wondering how much better 10 really is, versus where the title should be. Or if that's even a fair barometer. I think it is, given that Tiburon has been making next gen Madden for the past 5yrs. It's really going to come down to individual perspective. I think for the people where Madden has been so bad that they haven't even looked at a football game in years, M10 will likely be a revelation. I generally like the demo, but last night I played the NCAA demo. Before the Madden demo I despised it; couldn't even make it through a complete game. Last night I was able to play it more for whatever reason (still don't like it though). I also couldn't help noticing the similarities between the games - outside of the speed, they are somewhat similar (to be expected though). Before work I played APF for the first time in weeks, and that gave me a much different perspective on what M10 is looking like it will be. I think this'll be another year where the game really doesn't get judged for what it is, and is instead judged for what people hope it will be. People may not even judge the game harshly because of the increased dev involvment. It's obviously better, but how much better is it really? How much more realistic is it when you see receivers getting toggled into the air like a fighting game (from hits from behind or the side, no less). I know the devs are saying they want the game to be realistic, and it's better - from what it was. But not sure how much that's really saying, given what Madden has been. And people are being told what they want to hear.

Ok, but what do you think about the specific points I raised?

[xylocaine]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

Every year the complainers and haters are similar

I really didn't want my thread to start a flame. That was not my intention at all. I really disliked M06-08. But during those years after reading the previews and the people that got the early sales through mom and pop stores I thought, they have improved it to buy it to find they hadn't.
I actually thought M09 was playable and I enjoyed it quite a bit which makes me think I'm going to enjoy M10, but the intention of this thread is if other people have ever noticed that all the Maddens get undue praise 100% of the time pre-release?