Did the M10 Crew set the bar too high for M11?

[TheCreep]

I dont think its set too high. They pretty much added in most of what was needed this year, which, if you think about it will lessen the amount of work they have to do next year, which in turn will give them more time to focus on specific things.

Those specific things being tighter trench play and phyics/momentum. This year should be a little easier.

The majority of Madden players dont notice the nuances that we here at OS do, so it wont take much to please them anyway. The sim heads here at OS are basically harping on trenchplay and physics.

With the presentation, and pro tak now implemented (mainly the presentation) thats 2 major things they dont have to worry about this (besides a little bit of polish), so now they can focus on the physics and lineplay this year.

[GQman2121]

Quote: Originally Posted by that's_what_she_said

I don't understand why making the game as good as possible for M10 would be a bad thing. Are you insinuating that M10 should have less positive things just so M11 would have less potential to be a letdown? If they did this then every single year Madden would suck because the bar wouldn't be set "too high" and they could improve for the next year's Madden easily. Sorry man, this is a badly executed thread.

Do you honestly believe that this has not already been going on for years now?

I mean seriously, leaving out player contracts, cpu AI, and salary cap for the online franchise mode is screaming maybe next year. Don't buy that BS that they couldn't get into the 2010 game. It's far to large an omission to ignore. They intentionally left that stuff out this season, just like the previous season they intentionally didn't really give us online leagues.

What they can improve is what Bill Abner was talking about for the single player game. Practice squads and such and just fleshing out the offline franchise mode so that each season feel unique.

[Artman22]

Quote: Originally Posted by King Gro23

Graphically Yes they have, Gameplay wise needs a lot of work in my opinion. I will say it is decent above avg. with some tweaks. The complete blocking system needs an entire awareness and know how upgrade. I also think they need to re-prioritize the way things work, weather it be atribute driven, physics driven or other. Presentation, Not quite add in the mic'd up , videos at half & post game along with the weekly shows + Commentary , Presentation really has more to go, I think the bar for presentation is really high.

I agree 100% the gameplay needs a lot of work. Especially the animations which looks stiff and isn't smooth.

[Broncos86]

Quote: Originally Posted by GQman2121

Do you honestly believe that this has not already been going on for years now? I mean seriously, leaving out player contracts, cpu AI, and salary cap for the online franchise mode is screaming maybe next year. Don't buy that BS that they couldn't get into the 2010 game. It's far to large an omission to ignore. They intentionally left that stuff out this season, just like the previous season they intentionally didn't really give us online leagues. What they can improve is what Bill Abner was talking about for the single player game. Practice squads and such and just fleshing out the offline franchise mode so that each season feel unique.

Honestly, man, you need to put on your tinfoil hat, or drive to the Tiburon office and root out the obvious Madden conspiracy.

[GoodImmigrant]

what i'm saying is, in next gen, M10 has made the bigest positive leap of any of the other years, and that "set" a bar of how much change people will expect. I don't see that as a bad thing, that's how things get better (that's also true when talking about life and growing as a person) but with great improvements come great expectation, if you've been in this forums for a while you know that people have some, sometimes, crazy expectation.
I asked in your opinion how high did they set the bar. in other words, how bigh of a change was made? and then I asked what kind of change would you expect from M11. in other words what feature do you see as being the next step to set the bar again (make the change in M11 bigger than the change of M10).

read the questions again, they are asking how big was the improvement and what's the next step? all personal opinion questions.

[that's_what_she_said]

Quote: Originally Posted by GQman2121

Do you honestly believe that this has not already been going on for years now? I mean seriously, leaving out player contracts, cpu AI, and salary cap for the online franchise mode is screaming maybe next year. Don't buy that BS that they couldn't get into the 2010 game. It's far to large an omission to ignore. They intentionally left that stuff out this season, just like the previous season they intentionally didn't really give us online leagues. What they can improve is what Bill Abner was talking about for the single player game. Practice squads and such and just fleshing out the offline franchise mode so that each season feel unique.

Madden 09 was my first next-gen Madden so I can't speak as if it's been going on for year's now.

I don't think there's conspiracy but it's pretty plausable that some of the past dev's were lazy and didn't really care because there hasn't been competetion for years..

When you're a business and you provide a service, you can't please EVERYONE to their heart's content so there will always be nay sayers and nit pickers. I myself keep my standards and expectations low because at the end of the day it's a video game intended for entertainment purposes only, if it doesn't entertain you don't but it.

[JB0B0]

there are still many many MANY issues with this game. Yes, it's a fun game, and I will be playing it for many months, but that doesn't discount the fact that blocking is still broken, and that online franchise doesn't even have salary cap or player contracts

[Mofficial]

Are you serious? m10 is really what next gen football should've been from the start. How could they have possibly set the bar too high? Many of the improvements they made to the game were fixes from a broken m09. EA still has a lot of work to do for m11.

Madden's only problems IMO are one, its running animations; two, its blocking; and 3, its playbooks as well as other features. Oh! and 4, its commentary.

Ian had said that m11's focus would be primarily on running animations and locomotion which is good. M10 has basically laid a great foundation for next gen maddens to come. Really what needs to happen is that EA needs to find a way to make running fluid, progressive and realistic with realistic animations. They have the ratings down, they have pro-tak down, they just need a complete re-do for the running animations to make them look realistic. Once they do that, they'll be able to make tackles look realistic and unpredictable. If they continue to focus on physics and momentum, they will be able to double the effect of pro-tak i think.

Pro-tak is a great new engine because it really does look realistic when tackling players. I think because it is procedural, they can add in more and more animations in between each animation to make it as procedural as possible and as dynamic as possible. I think if they commit to improving the game next year as they did this year, madden'll finally crush 2k5. But think about pro-tak for a minute. If you can add on players to a gang-tackle, with new improvements, you should be able to hit stick an opponent that's already being tackled; you should be able to strip the ball from a player that's stiff arming a would-be tackler; you should be able to hit different parts of the body of the ball carrier that is already being tackled. If you can now throw the ball when getting hit, with a new and improved pro-tak system you should be able to throw the ball while being dragged down by a defender. If you can gang-tackle, and push the pile as a defender, linemen should be able to bunch up at the goal line and allow the RB to leap over. And an improved pro-tak system could allow the RB to try to reach again if he gets stuck. Things like this will go a long way and I think pro-tak has been able to open many of the doors that madden will need.

I mean m10 really has set the bar high. But I don't think of it in terms of installments. I think of it as room for future improvements. As I mentioned above, I think that EA can just keep building and building but i digress.

I think that if EA focuses on locomotion and running animation for m11, then a new controller configuration is in order. Really, all I want to see is the quick-burst juke and double jukes to come back. I loved that from m06 (ps2). It was great. I also think that it'll allow players to stutter step if they press them repeatedly. This would be awesome. This is really a feature that I miss from 2k5.

Speaking of 2k5, imo, the only thing that made 2k5 great was its blocking and animation. Its gameplay wasn't really that great and its controls were terrible imo. But because it had great blocking, physics and animation, it looked ultra realistic especially for its time. But that's it for me. If EA can get blocking and its physics down, then it'll blow 2k out of the water. I'm sure of it. As of right now they're fine with me especially considering the amount of effort EA has put into other aspects of the game. But for m11, this is a must. No excuses, they have GOT to find a way to get that blocking down. That's the building block of football, and it should be for madden.

Also, it's playbooks really need work. I am seeing too many plays that have been used year after year and that are in every teams' playbook. They need to provide a play creator and they need to design it so that it works seamlessly with your team and with current playbooks. This will add a lot of much needed strategy to the game because of the schemes coaches create to best suit their personnel.

I think this year -- based on videos -- madden's presentation is better than 2k5's and any madden to date. However, its commentary is lacking. I can't stand tom hammond. chris collinsworth is nice, but i'd like to see al michaels or the big guy himself come back to comment on the game. that would be great.

I'm tired of typing so i'll wrap up with this: All in all m10 has set a great foundations for future maddens. Madden's problem for the past 5 years is that they went 2 steps forward and 4-9 steps back each year. If they just LEAVE THE GOOD STUFF ALONE, build on what they have, and add in stuff that is missing, then maddens 11, 12 and on will be great and we'll forget all about the exclusive license (maybe).