Madden NFL 12 to Kick Off Another 3-Year Plan

[Senator Palmer]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

Also I don't see how Madden gets singled out and NCAA isn't included. I didn't play NCAA, and perhaps it's that much different than Madden. But it seems to me they're fundamentally the same game, and would seem to share some of the same core problems. But I don't doubt it's the more refined game, as it was last gen.

After NCAA 10, the NCAA team made an announcement about about going back to the drawing board and delivered a great game out of the box with '11. NCAA is on the uptick and on solid ground as far as direction in my opinion. Not perfect by any means, but when compared out of the box, NCAA played a game of football that was lightyears ahead of the unbalanced game that Madden dropped last August. The tackling, line interactions (run blocking and d-line play) weren't even close.

It's very telling about where NCAA is when it was stated that the final patch for Madden would try to mimic the tuning of NCAA 11 in order to balance the gameplay out.

[brza37]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

Also I don't see how Madden gets singled out and NCAA isn't included. I didn't play NCAA, and perhaps it's that much different than Madden. But it seems to me they're fundamentally the same game, and would seem to share some of the same core problems. But I don't doubt it's the more refined game, as it was last gen.

Quote: Originally Posted by rgiles36

I don't think that it's all that different. At all. I always have a scratch-my-head moment when people praise NCAA and belittle Madden. There are marked differences, but not enough to say one game is lightyears ahead of the other.

Gameplay and graphic-wise the games are pretty similar. But NCAA gets praised for its replayability because NCAA's Dynasty mode does blow away Madden's Franchise mode both offline and online. Dynasty mode isn't perfect though and could use a lot of improvement (like a CH2k type Coaching Carousel) but it does keep people involved alot longer than Franchise mode.
Custom Stadium Sounds is another feature that helps with immersion that has been in NCAA for years but not in Madden. Even Road to Glory which really pales in comparison to 2ks My Player or The Show's RTTS is still much better than Superstar mode. But that stuff is just extra. I think the main reason for the NCAA love is the difference between Dynasty and Franchise modes.

[WakeUp]

*SIGH*

So let me get this straight. People believe that adding MORE devs to the already LARGEST DEV TEAM in video games, is going to make a difference? You mean like the same difference it made when their team was LARGER THAN IT IS NOW during the Madden 06 and 07 cycles, yet both games were garbage? Remember that they fired a large amount of the staff that worked on 06 and 07, and with the smaller staff the game was better in 09 though still trash. Think about that and realize that manpower has nothing to do with this problem, and this "news" is just preying on gamers gullibility of not understanding how this works, because they know you believe that fallacy so its no surprise that they'd mention it as a part of their "3-year plan". I get that gamers don't make games and aren't inclined to understand how it works, but this is a matter of common sense and paying attention to what's been happening there, to the point that you wouldn't have to have ever made a game to understand.

They can increase the team to 10,000 members, it won't make a difference. 2K's team was always much MUCH smaller than any team EA has, yet they've produced fantastic sports games at different points in each generation they've been in. We haven't gotten a single great Madden this generation yet. But you still think it's because they don't have enough people? Yeah that's the problem. Smh. Okay.

The only change needed is them getting better talent, because when it's all said and done smaller teams with more talent can turn out a better product than a larger team with lesser talent and that's been proven too many times to count now across all genres including the one we're talking about. That right there is the real problem, and when they keep hiring guys with no background in making games as a way to avoid paying a good starting salary instead of something an entry level Fedex customer service agent might make (because that's why they really have no reservations about hiring this way) this problem will never end. While they're at it, they could bother to pay their beta testers better too. But who cares about beta testers right? They don't matter. I mean, they only find bugs that kill the games and surely gamers don't care about having a game that isn't full of game crushing bugs, right?

Wake up people.

[Armor and Sword]

Quote: Originally Posted by brza37

Gameplay and graphic-wise the games are pretty similar. But NCAA gets praised for its replayability because NCAA's Dynasty mode does blow away Madden's Franchise mode both offline and online. Dynasty mode isn't perfect though and could use a lot of improvement (like a CH2k type Coaching Carousel) but it does keep people involved alot longer than Franchise mode. Custom Stadium Sounds is another feature that helps with immersion that has been in NCAA for years but not in Madden. Even Road to Glory which really pales in comparison to 2ks My Player or The Show's RTTS is still much better than Superstar mode. But that stuff is just extra. I think the main reason for the NCAA love is the difference between Dynasty and Franchise modes.

Nailed it right there. NCAA 2011 will be in my sports rotation for at least another 2 years. Deep replay value. I also think overall a better looking game, and tighter gameplay. Plus I love the unpredictability of the college game.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by WakeUp

words

Of course there's the law of diminishing returns; adding more coders to a project isn't a silver bullet, as the new coders have to get up to speed with the codebase before they can even begin to be functional with it. That could take a month by itself for each coder.

And I'm curious as to how you came to your conclusions about EA Tiburon's hiring policies; how much interaction have you ever had with the company to ever get a bead on this?

[GGEden]

Good post, WakeUp.

[GGEden]

EA's Madden is never going to change. In the end, all our wishes and complaints are in vain.

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by rgiles36

I don't think that it's all that different. At all. I always have a scratch-my-head moment when people praise NCAA and belittle Madden. There are marked differences, but not enough to say one game is lightyears ahead of the other.

NCAA 11 is just a more enjoyable game to play than Madden 11. Gameplay feels better, hurry up offense is better replicated, lighting is better, it's dynasty modes are better than Madden's franchise modes, etc.

I mean, yeah, as a whole NCAA 11 isn't lightyears ahead of Madden though I will say that the game made Madden 11 look like "Madden 10.5" (at least in my opinion).