What happend to the commentary?

[Twizler]

In my opinion, the previous Madden games had much better commentary than the current Madden.

Well, I didn't buy Madden 10, but Madden 09 had good commentary. The announcers talked to each other. Discussions about specific teams and players were smooth. Etc.

Now, in Madden 11, the commentary really bothers me. Though this is one of the very few problems I have with Madden 11, it's still pretty annoying. It gets really repetitive, the announcers barely talk to each other, and there's awkward changes in the tone of voice at times. Not to mention that... EVERY pre-game discussion is exactly the same. It's always like this:

"Who do you think are the key players of todays game?"

"Well I think the quarterbacks are the key players. I had a chance to talk to both of them *blah* *blah* *blah* you can see a different look in their eyes..."

Not only that, but the commentary during the game is pretty bad. There is almost always an awkward transition between team's and player's names to the rest of the sentence. It's usually like this:

"tom brady... IS HUMAN AFTER ALL! You don't see him miss a pass that often."

I can see how it could be difficult to record every quarterback's name and try to match the tone of voice with the main sentence, but I didn't seem to notice any problems with '09, so I don't know what's up with that.

Then, after EVERY 2-point conversion, the SAME comment is said EVERY time:

"And you can tell the offense had a plan throughout that drive. They scored the touchdown and got the immediate call for the 2-point conversion." Please, at the least, record one alternate comment for 2-point conversions.

On the other hand, I kind of enjoy how Gus (I think?) gets really into the game on big plays. Sometimes he goes a little bit over the top, but it adds a little bit more excitement to the game.

So, does anyone know what the reason is for having poor commentary in Madden 11? Maybe they were on a tight budget or something... Or am I the only person who feels that the commentary was done poorly?

[Valdarez]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

The words Madden and good commentary don't belong in the same sentence.

They got a better commentator this year, but it doesn't look like they changed their commentary engine at all (going off the demo). Until they fix the commentary engine and introduce the concept of in game banter, the game is going to continue to feel fairly shallow on the commentary side.

[havokeff]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

Part of the problem is that most, if not all of Collinsworth's commentary is recycled from last year and it doesn't mesh at all with Gus's.

I'm guessing that doing a good commentary track is one of the harder parts of the game.

[xRobertitox]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

They need to have them in the booth so together and record lines at the same time like NBA2K to have a better vibe, I noticed they don't sound like they know there's another commentator with them, at ALL.

[oneamongthefence]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

They lead very busy lives. They commentate sports other than football.

[Gordy748]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

I've found that Gus takes some getting used to. He sounds infantile at first but after a few weeks I've found him quite entertaining.

But Chris' commentary is largely retained from last year. This wouldn't be a problem so much if they programed in some questions each could ask of the other, like last year, "What happened there, Chris?" "Well the defense rocked and the offense stank. What more do you want to know?"

But hey ho. Tiburon has bigger things to worry about. Gameflow, replays, defense... I guess these all take precedence over the commentary.

[R9NALD9]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

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</td> <td style="background-image: url(&quot;/vBulletin/images/quotes/00.gif&quot; width: 100%; height: 1px;" width="100%"> "tom brady... IS HUMAN AFTER ALL! You don't see him miss a pass that often."
</td></tr></tr></tbody></table>

this made me lol...so true

[rooney8]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

Without a doubt the worst commentary I have heard in a video game. Having spent time on commentary this year I doubt much other than tuning and tweaking will be done for M12. A game with so many issues I hate to see more created.

[roadman]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

Without a doubt the worst commentary I have heard in a video game. Having spent time on commentary this year I doubt much other than tuning and tweaking will be done for M12. A game with so many issues I hate to see more created.

Actually, Phil mentioned in a podcast that they want to have Collingsworth come in more for 12 and work with Gus more.

We'll see what happens, though.

[jcar0725]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

Why can't they just have some dudes they hire, not real life commentators, do the commentary? I personally don't care if it's someone from REAL LIFE, I just want it to work well. If they didn't use real life commentators, maybe they could spend more time getting it right.

[Todem]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

It is a huge minus in an otherwise really fun game of Madden. I can't believe how bad it is.

It needs to be worked on for 12 along with all the other things we want (deep franchise offline and online).

[deathsai]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

They just need to do what UFC does and take real commentary from actual games and implement it.

[rooney8]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

Actually, Phil mentioned in a podcast that they want to have Collingsworth come in more for 12 and work with Gus more.

We'll see what happens, though.

That's good but more time spent on commentary means less time on other things but not much can be done about that now.

[habsguy11]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

http://forums.xbox.com/29841326/ShowPost.aspx

rumors are swirling of joe buck announcing next madden

[rooney8]

Re: What happend to the commentary?

http://forums.xbox.com/29841326/ShowPost.aspx

rumors are swirling of joe buck announcing next madden

But the problem is with EA not the commentators. Gettting someone new every year isn't going to fix the bad code.
Probably just a rumour anyway.