Rex Dickson on The Sim Perspective NOW

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by royounggoku

Any cliff notes?

I'm going to listen to it soon and write some down.

Rex's opening statement "We're going after sim were going after a realistic representation of the sport and away from the herky jerky twitchy arcadey type experience. That game has been fun for millions of people but were going after realistic representation. We're not there yet, but with next gen we are putting a stake in the ground to let people know this is where we're headed."

Q: Will weather be a factor at all in Madden 25 next gen with the Ignite Engine and Living Worlds?

Rex: That is something that would be more of a graphics department question, not really my department, but from my time with the game, the new snow looks amazing and individual footprints stick around, in rain games different parts of the field get muddy and it looks really cool. That's something we have on our list with weather affecting gameplay, but that is something that isn't a priority until we nail all the fundamentals of core gameplay. Once we get those in place, then we can get to some more of the "fun stuff."

Q: Will we see a difference between a bigger back and a smaller back based on speed and agility?

Rex: For sure, obviously your strategy is going to differ using those two styles. Although I think the vision for what you're asking me really is that separation of different styles where they actually look different and their running styles are different. It's definitely something we're passionate about, but if you think about Madden and the state of where it's at right now, I think we have a lot more work to do in terms of the animation quality in our game. Even though step locomotion fixes some of the pops and skating and things like that, there's still a lot of stuff going on that represents that core animation quality and I think we will spend a lot of time really nailing that before we work on and started exploring individual based styles for different running backs. One other thing, we are working very heavily on our physics system and specifically on momentum and center of gravity, and organic outcomes that happen based on a players mass and momentum. We're trying to figure out all those formulas, they used to all be ratings based, but now they are taking into account organic physics with all these size and mass ratings. Our physics team is 80% focused on that specific problem right now.

Q: How does player sense affect the secondary play?

Rex: Yeah there's going to be one major thing that changes and it's our rail tracks technology, FIFA uses it. Sum it up, it's the way an AI or player projects a path of where he wants to be, predicting where the ball is going to be or where the ball carrier will go. Now that they can make so many more calculations, those paths can become more granular, and what you're going to see is guys taking ridiculously effective paths to the ball and the ball carrier. As soon as ball leaves QB's hand, if the DB is in zone and basically looking into the backfield, have to see the ball to be able to break on it, those DB's will break on the ball in ways that you have never seen before. There reaction to the ball coming out of the QB's hand is like nothing you have ever seen before. The coverage is so different, it forces you to adapt your play style. Deep balls and lob balls are not very effective anymore, have to utilize your drag routes and check downs now, complemented by the new pass rush tuning, made to be more realistic in time that you have before the pocket will collapse. If the defense sends more blitzers than you have blockers they will get through and get through quickly now because blocking is based on real prinicples not playing by video game rules anymore. As you can imagine all of these different elements create a much more realistic game under the hood.

Q: What is Living Worlds about?

Rex: Trailer should be coming out soon, but what you're going to get is 3d characters, no more cards, for the crowds or sidelines, fully rendered 80,000 plus people in the stands, phenomenal sweeping shots of the crowds from time to time, sidelines are interactive, if you run out of bounds you'll get reactions there. I think we had grand aspirations for Living Worlds and what we did is got a solid foundation in place. What I want people to take from this, is the huge tech investment and as a result all we really achieved is just the foundation of where we want to go with it. This is just the tip of the iceberg, when you see what we have in store for the future of living worlds will blow you away.

Q: How important is it to have guys on the dev team that actually played college and pro football?

Rex: It's huge, and you start with Cam Weber on down, there's a whole mentality of teamwork and bringing passion to it and wanting to be a champion in your career. We read the OS forums and Pasta Padre articles and take it personally, we are holding ourselves to a high standard and not going to give them the material that they use to attack us anymore. We take a lot of pride in our work. We make a lot of sacrifices because everyone knows how big this mountain is that we're trying to climb and we make sacrifices to get the game that you guys are wanting faster. The other thing is the football knowledge brought to the team, especially this year with what Clint Oldenburg has been able to bring to us. If there's one feature to look at as to what having football players on the dev team means, it's the war in the trenches feature.

Q: When it comes to animations are you guys looking at going away from stock animations and letting the game happen organically on the fly?

More coming soon...

[rammerxjw]

And he honestly was truly as transparent as any dev I've heard from EA maybe ever.

[wordtobigbird]

Quote:

until we nail all the fundamentals of core gameplay.

Ok we heard it right here. I'll be waiting on the edge of my seat to see them back it up.

[TexasFan2005]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

Q: Will weather be a factor at all in Madden 25 next gen? Rex: That is something that would be more of a graphics department question, not really my department, but from my time with the game, the new snow and rain footprints and degradation looks really cool. That's something we have on our list, but isn't a priority until we nail all the fundamentals of core gameplay. Once we get those in place, then we can get to some more of the "fun stuff."

Wait, I don't get it. Rex says that weather factors are not his department, and that there's a separate graphics department. Then he says that once they "nail" the fundamentals, that they'd somehow implement "fun stuff" like weather effects.

If there are different departments for graphics and gameplay, why can't different additions be added simultaneously? This logic is flawed, and again, it almost proves that they hold back on certain things to keep as back-up features for the following Maddens.

I really can't conclude anything else.

[Urban Legend 72]

Fellas I'm not tryin to rain on anybodies parade but....haven't we been here before with EA and Madden? Am I wrong or hasn't it been said that this game has been in the works for two years? If so how could we be facing what could be a potential fail at launch? Yes I know I haven't played the game yet and it might be the best Madden ever but chances are it wont be. We still haven't gotten an explanation to why the game looks so different from what was shown earlier. Was that a straight up lie, bait and switch. If so how can we believe anything that they say now. Now they are saying you have to play the game to experience the changes. Doesnt that require me to buy the game? Still waiting to see how much support current gen Madden is going to get and now we are supposed to trust you and buy another? I know its a different team but look at NBA Live. Gone since 2010 and their Next Gen offering leaves me scratching my head. Whats going on with EA, is it just about the money? I find no comfort in hearing that they are monitoring OS and other sites to get feedback on how to better the game. We have been saying the same things for years. Sorry for the rant, trust I hope this game is incredible but I'm just frustrated, weeks away from launch and still don't know what were getting in this game.

[m1ke_nyc]

I like what im hearing. Seems they are focused on delivering a sim, realistic representation of the sport. But they gotta produce.

[roadman]

We read the OS forums and Pasta Padre articles and take it personally, we are holding ourselves to a high standard and not going to give them the material that they use to attack us anymore. We take a lot of pride in our work. We make a lot of sacrifices because everyone knows how big this mountain is that we're trying to climb and we make sacrifices to get the game that you guys are wanting faster.

Wow, that's a mouthful right there.

Urban, I'm sure there will be a demo to download before buying or renting the game, at least I hope so. I didn't read too much in the first two Monday Night videos. Heck, I even said maybe we haven't seen what's behind curtain #3.

It's obvious to me they didn't want to show much at all in those videos, they were all close up zoom shots.

I'm wanting to see more AI, game play, locomotion and how things move. I'll just sit back, relax and enjoy the popcorn and not get myself all in a tither.

[adub88]

I really appreciate Rex being so up front about the state of the game. That was very refreshing. At end of the day though, I think we all are exhausted with all the interviews, blogs, etc. Where this game is now, visual evidence of all that's being said is going to be huge. I still have my pre-order and hopefully plan to keep it after more actual gameplay videos are released.