Are we heading towards a physics-based, data-driven football simulation game?

[huskerwr38]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Now, not all of these things were done well, but if you can't see the obvious change in direction, you're blind or ignoring it on purpose. A lot of people praise NHL and FIFA and ask "why can't Madden be like that?", forgetting entirely that it took 3 years for both of those games to get to that point... once the decision was made to make them sim. M11 is the 2nd Madden since that decision was made.

Problem is...Madden will not be as good as those games are at their 3rd year mark of "going sim" I can guarantee you that. Why? Because Madden ALWAYS lacks that certain polish that makes a game great. With this team, they have GREAT ideas, but they are never implemented right or just done halfway. Once they add a feature, it seems they just move on and never improve on it.

They have a LONG way to go before Madden can reach the level of NHL and FIFA of the past 2 years or so. I don't think they can even reach those levels in Madden 12 or 13.

[huskerwr38]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

If you want a real test of Madden's progress, compare it to NHL 2008 and FIFA 07. Year 2 of the renovation. Look at NHL 09 and FIFA 08 to see where Madden 12 should be.

That is a truly sad statement. We have to look to a 4 year old (by the time Madden 12 comes out) hockey and soccer game to see where the most popular sport in America should be????

[wheelman990]

I don't think they can add any physics, it would need a entire new start from scratch.

After watching Madden year end and year out. I am 100% convinced that EA has one team that makes the original "engine" and then they make mini programs that can be edited by future dev teams to make small changes, enhance graphics, and so fourth.

My guess is Ian, or any other dev team can only make tweaks, and certain changes allowed by the mini programs set up by the team that built the game. They probably do this because it doesnt cost much to pay some young kids to tweak gameplay year to year, vs paying older developers who are over qaulified to do so.

I don't think EA has been interested in really improving there game outside of what can be tweaked. I havent seen any evidence of that since current gen started in 06.

This is the same game, but the best build of it. Thats really all I can say about Madden 11. I purchased it yesterday, and I'm putting it on Ebay today.

[guaps]

Just wanted to add a bit to this thread again after having spend quite some time with the Real-Time Physics Engine in NHL 11.

First of, I'm totally swept away by the physics-engine in NHL 11. The pure excitement of timing a hard hit on somebody and see the stick fly out of the other guys hands never gets boring. In fact, I haven't grown tired of the game in the same way I kinda have with Madden 11. This is probably because I don't see the same animations over and over again and hits look smooth, natural and unique - unlike Backbreaker, which has a bit too much rag-doll-like tackling for my taste.

After several years of Madden I've seen all the tackle animations in the game (or at least I think I have) and I've ended up not having an emotional response to hits as I do in NHL 11. Adding Real-Time Physics to Madden would not only add realism to the game, but also add excitement and prevent tackling from becoming repetitive and predictable. There's nothing like preventing a big play with a big hit!