Has EA's pro football experience peaked?

[Flamehead]

Quote: Originally Posted by bpd115

The problem is the development time table.

Games like EA’s NHL ’11 contradict this, however. The past 3 (counting ’11) iterations of that game have been outstanding and that community is almost the inverse of this one—they love where EA is going with the NHL series and the development team’s emphasis is on realism of all things.

As a result, it’s winning sports game of the year awards and casual fans of the sport (such as myself) are picking it up and loving it as well. They have options/sliders galore.

Contrast this with Madden where there seems to be a “casual” emphasis, producers who “take our word for it” when asked about legitimate concerns, and who think too many options is overkill. Why are we getting changes and features nobody asked for while longstanding requests get ignored year after year?

Why is there a sense of struggle with Madden when NHL fans are really excited about what EA is giving them? I mean, don’t you envy them sometimes? I do.

So with all due respect, I believe Madden’s peaked, but not because of technology.

[phant030]

Quote: Originally Posted by stocksy

Like alot of "next gen" games they still havent caught up with the "last gen" in terms of depth and features. By the time we do itll be time for the next gen again.

And we'll be stuck in the same cycle.

bigger budgets = higher priced games = shorter campaigns = shorter MP, less maps/modes = More DLC = me staying w/ PS3/360 longer than last generation.

[bpd115]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flamehead

Games like EA’s NHL ’11 contradict this, however. The past 3 (counting ’11) iterations of that game have been outstanding and that community is almost the inverse of this one—they love where EA is going with the NHL series and the development team’s emphasis is on realism of all things. As a result, it’s winning sports game of the year awards and casual fans of the sport (such as myself) are picking it up and loving it as well. They have options/sliders galore. Contrast this with Madden where there seems to be a “casual” emphasis, producers who “take our word for it” when asked about legitimate concerns, and who think too many options is overkill. Why are we getting changes and features nobody asked for while longstanding requests get ignored year after year? Why is there a sense of struggle with Madden when NHL fans are really excited about what EA is giving them? I mean, don’t you envy them sometimes? I do. So with all due respect, I believe Madden’s peaked, but not because of technology.

You do have a point. Also, they've gone and totally scrapped a series (NBA Live) and rebranded it with an all new physics based system (Elite 11). The main factor here? Competition. NBA 2K and NHL 2K.

They don't have when it comes to this sport.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I know on Sundays teams have about 35 plays to choose from.(not counting the different formations)

This is a major area EA missed on. Another reason folks use the same plays a lot is because real teams do the same. The difference is they run the same/similar plays from different formations. Because the playbook is set up so that most of the plays exist in only one or two formations, we're runnin the same play, from the same formation, many times.

This is why I think this feature came too soon. There are fundamental issues that need to be addressed before features are pilled on.

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Also, they did do the offensive game planning correct, but I disagree a bit with the yardages.

I just think it's unfinished. For example, there are desparate situations outside of 2 minutes. The CPU doesn't call good plays when losing by more than one touchdown, in the 4th qtr, but with more than 2 minutes remaining.

But there's some coding there. I was beating the CPU by 20 in the 4th. They kept running on 1st down. They would hurry up sometimes on 2nd, but the plays called weren't time savers. It was wierd.

We need: Losing by more than 1 score with 6:00+ left and losing by more than 2 scores in the 4th qtr regardless of time.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

This is a major area EA missed on. Another reason folks use the same plays a lot is because real teams do the same. The difference is they run the same/similar plays from different formations. Because the playbook is set up so that most of the plays exist in only one or two formations, we're runnin the same play, from the same formation, many times. This is why I think this feature came too soon. There are fundamental issues that need to be addressed before features are pilled on. I just think it's unfinished. For example, there are desparate situations outside of 2 minutes. The CPU doesn't call good plays when losing by more than one touchdown, in the 4th qtr, but with more than 2 minutes remaining. But there's some coding there. I was beating the CPU by 20 in the 4th. They kept running on 1st down. They would hurry up sometimes on 2nd, but the plays called weren't time savers. It was wierd. We need: Losing by more than 1 score with 6:00+ left and losing by more than 2 scores in the 4th qtr regardless of time.

Yeah, I agree.

Last night , I was up 20 pts on the CPU with outside of 2 minutes left on the clock. It wasn't 2 minutes or under and the game plan called 3 straight running plays and the CPU AI decided not to call a time out.

I thought that part was realistic. I did notice the CPU trying to hurry up outside of 2 minutes when they had the ball by running no huddle and calling pass plays. Less than 2:30 left in the game, they threw the towel in.

Some good, some bad. Definitely needs more refinement.

[DaSmerg]

I don't see how this game ever really got a chance to realize what it's peak could be with the core game play elements that haven't essentially changed since around 2002.

.

[buckeye02]

Compared to Maddens 08 & 09, Madden 10 & 11 are leaps and bounds ahead of those titles. I know that the PS3 systems are capable of doing much more than what EA has already done with their football titles.

I just get tired of seeing the same things remain broken, or the same things having to be patched year after year. But all in all, the games have improved so much from a few years back that I almost feel like im in the wrong to complain about something in this years releases.

Dont different EA studios make the FIFA game and NHL? Not Tiburon.

We are seeing what one company can do on the PS3 with football titles. And it doesnt seem fair to me or any other football fan. Not fair at all.

I mean look at NHL, NBA, and MMA. Im a fan of all those sports but football is my top sport and we just dont have options like those sports have. Theres not two companies competing for a better product. We are stuck with one version. Games like NBA Live and EA MMA are nowhere near on the same level as their competitions such as NBA 2K and UFC Undisputed. Same went for NCAA BBall and College Hoops 2k8. When people are preferring to play college hoops 2k8 over NCAA Basketball 10, that tells me that football fans just arent getting a fair shot.

[kbmnm247]

The thing that bothers me is that it really does seem like we are the yearly Madden 'XX testers. What's worse now is that franchise wasn't touched and the back of the box feature was Gameflow... something I will never use and don't see why I would. What is the point of spending 30 minutes "gameplanning" rather than just spending 30 minutes picking my plays as the game goes, because it's still risking a ridiculous playcall by the AI even if you gameplan.

Also confusing is that the community asks and asks and asks for things year after year and instead of those being added or even addressed, we get something like the Strategy Pad. Why was there even time spent on this feature? And now because of the obvious complaining of people who have been used to that hot route system for more than 6 years, they will waste time and resources by adding the old way back in in a patch.

I just feel like EA HAS to be smarter than this don't they? I mean, this is THEIR cash cow, right? So why does it seem like they intentionally F it up? There are things that have been patched in previous versions that show up in early, unpatched versions of the new year's games for Madden and NCAA. How is that possible? What is the development plan over there? Wouldn't it seem smart that instead of working on last year's first build that you would start working on the latest, 2 patched build that you had finished up the year before?

I understand catering to the casual fan because they are a business and in this to make money, but I feel like they are catering to the casual 7 year old fan recently and that is saddening because the people who can purchase and afford the new maddens have jobs nowadays.

That being said I like this year's Madden but there are definitely things that irk me and should have been improved (strat pad, zone play, instant snaps by QBs[something that was patched last year], CBs/LBs who can see behind them[something I believe that was patched previously as well])