What exactly is going on???

[KingVMSU]

Look, I know many people come through here and rant and rave and frankly...I'm ok with that.

But this is not a rant, more just an open question that needs to be asked. If it has I apologize, I dont stalk forums.

But what the heck is going on with this series in "next gen" where essentially every answer is "we dont have time" or "wait till next year"...what exactly is getting done?

Take this latest blog for example. I've never been a big stadium guy, just not my bag. they get the blog out and we're likely still missing stadiums? What is this? Year 4 of "next gen"?

I read the work of guys like ODogg, AuburnAlumni, etc. and while they may be a bit hardcore for my taste they make sense. I don't need earthshattering leaps in technology, just make a mediocre on field game better. Instead it seems, and I stress seems, like the dev team is more consumed with windsocks, Erin Andrews, features we dont care about in mass, almost anything to deflect the lousy product we have gotten, really since 2004.

Where is the actual work on the gameplay, having ratings matter, having some actual skill brought back to the game. I'm just very disheartened. As a gamer approaching 30 with a career and time restrictions, I miss having my go to game. In the coming weeks and months I hope I am forced to change my tune. Sadly, it seems like the game will be "tweaked" rather than made over froma gamepolay standpoint. Sad when certain games both in this series and company and outside are 5+ years old and actually play a superior game of football. that to me, as a man in corporate america and a production business, would be my focus.

"why is out product getting worse and more unreliable"-- That is how a business is run.

Instead it just seems like EA is content and finds ways to tweak things rather than get dirty and examine themselves.

Much respect to devs, the work that goes in is BRUTAL, but misapplied effort is the point of this post, in no way to question how hard they work but wqorking hard and working smart are two different animals.

Have a nice afternoon everyone. Done.

[Cardot]

While I also have been a bit frustrated with the series since '04, I don't think the problem is misaligned priorities of the developers. I think they are trying to do too much, and cater to too large of an audience.

10 years ago, developers only had to worry about gameplay and some presentation. Now they also have to focus on:
- Online Play
- Online Dynasty
- Indepth Dynsasty Mode
- RPG modes like Campus Superstar
- Minigames

And to be honest, I really like some of the little presentation touches that hardcore gameplay guys would think are useless. Bowl patches, pride stickers, subtle stadium details etc. I do value those things even though they don't impact gameplay.

[Boucher]

Good points I feel the same way

[countryboy]

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...ated-info.html

there's more being applied than windsocks, Erin Andrews, and "features the mass doesn't care about".

[chubbs0486]

And it is just April, we aren't gonna find out about the big stuff just yet.

[GatorFan1963]

I was actually talking to a coworker about this very thing the other day. But the conversation started to lean more towards sports games in general and 4-5 years ago with the start of next gen gaming. And before these systems came out, I remember seeing screenshots of how detailed next gen sports gaming were going to be. They would show screenshots of players sweating and such and I used to sit there and almost blow my load looking at some screenshots. I remember that first Madden commercial for next gen...I think it featured Philly vs NYG and it was like a last second play type thing, but all the footage was from the actual game (maybe it was rendered but whatever)...and it looked amazing. So right then and there, EA set the bar extremely high for what next gen was going to be.

The fact of the matter is that EA, or any other game developer, hasn't been able to reach that bar....in fact, not even close. And I think EA has realized this, and basically doesn't know what to do. So this is why you get answers like "we don't have time" or "maybe next year"...because they honestly don't know how much time it will take. They set their expectations without really knowing how they were going to get there. And as sports gaming fans, we are the ones suffering.

Then when you add the fact that they didn't really port over anything that was used from the "current gen" consoles, it makes it even worse because now they had to start from scratch. So when people ask why hasn't this made it to next gen yet...well it's because EA completely started over. So realistically, I think we will be waiting at least another 4-5 years before we get the product we were expecting 5 years ago.