Should the next Madden hire actors for commentary?

[SteelerSpartan]

I don't know if they really need a new commentary team but....

They should fire whoever is in charge of it.....I can't think of another sports title with worse commentary implementation....the lines are just so cut up and out of sync

They need new tech and a fresh perspective on not just their sound but all of their presentation

[myownsun]

Quote: Originally Posted by jnes12eaglesfan

you gotta be kidding me. chris an gus recorded a ton of lines. its ea's fault that it doesnt blend well.. its not chris and gus's fault at all. ea should have done a much better job with putting the commentary together. actors for commentary = very bad idea

I agree 100% Chris and Gus are great but its the tech running in the background that ruins the voice talent

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by jnes12eaglesfan

you gotta be kidding me. chris an gus recorded a ton of lines. its ea's fault that it doesnt blend well.. its not chris and gus's fault at all. ea should have done a much better job with putting the commentary together.

I said this long before they made the switch. You're 100% right. But no one gets that so they ask for new people every year, then they get the new people and the same problems are there... but folks still don't see the problem even after that, so they ask for new people again and... it never ends.

It's just like with a football program that always loses. They bring in star coach after star coach and they keep losing. Eventually you have to stop blaming the hires and start looking at the organization as the problem.

I'll say that the commentary is better this time around, but the writing is still a problem and there are too many dead spaces. It's just not done very well.

Quote: Originally Posted by jnes12eaglesfan

actors for commentary = very bad idea

I don't think actors for commentary is a bad idea though. 2K Football set the standard that EA is still not reaching all these years later, and they did it with two actors. It's just that in the context of Madden football, this would do nothing to fix the problems with script writing or the massive amounts of dead space areas.

Back when I managed my own team as a QA Analyst for Verizon, one of our standards called for us to deduct points on an evaluaton for any advisor who allowed too much dead-air on their calls. It really is just a basic concept of communication to not have a lot of dead-air when communicating something, and considering their QA standards it does amuse me a bit to see that Verizon is one of their sponsors (which just has to be announced after every extra point). Maybe Verizon should be writing their QA standards for audio, lol... couldn't hurt.

[silence1206]

Shannon Sharpe would certainly make an entertaining announcer :P

[supermatt9]

Before reading the thread I voted in the poll to keep Chris and Gus. I agree with others on here that Chris and Gus did a great job and that EA really butchered the process of putting all the audio together.

But after reading your post I really like the idea of hiring a couple of voice actors and spending a LOT of time with them and getting a ton of great audio. The point is that Chris and Gus probably don't have that much time to give to a football video game. So even though they do a great job, they could never invest as much time as two hired voice actors could.

Combine great voice actors who put in a ton of time, with EA stepping up and giving the audio presentation the respect it deserves and you would really have some amazing commentary.

[Triathlete_201]

Quote: Originally Posted by jnes12eaglesfan

you gotta be kidding me. chris an gus recorded a ton of lines. actors for commentary = very bad idea

IMO, not nearly enough. Compared to other sports games, I keep hearing the sames lines way more in Madden. I've been playing APF2K8 for 3 years now and still hear new lines.

[rooney8]

Quote: Originally Posted by jnes12eaglesfan

you gotta be kidding me. chris an gus recorded a ton of lines. its ea's fault that it doesnt blend well.. its not chris and gus's fault at all. ea should have done a much better job with putting the commentary together. actors for commentary = very bad idea

Quote: Originally Posted by Phil Frazier

If you total up all of his time on microphone, Gus Johnson, our new play by play announcer, recorded more than 70 hours of dialogue.

Agreed the problem with the commentary is how it's executed nothong else. EA's excuse for the bad commentary this year is they were "laying the foundation". This is not an excuse and I think this is a huge problem with the Madden franchise. Constantly implementing features poorly so you end up having to spend loads more time on them. They worked on commentary this year and should have nailed it and moved on to the many other areas in desperate need. Instead they will have to keep working with the terrible code they put in this year while they complain about the terrible code that was left to them.

[Lakers 24 7]

I don't really care who's commentating to be honest, presentation is the last worry when it comes to Madden. But, I vote to keep Chris and Gus simply so they can continue to build upon that instead of starting from scratch again.