Operation Sports Forums - Here is the problem...

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- - Here is the problem... (/forums/showthread.php?t=136328)

Here is the problem...

Played the game for a few hours last night...honestly, last year I thought Madden had a slight edge over 2K5 in terms of AI/gameplay but 2K5 was so much better in terms of presentation and fun.

The bottom line, there is just no way this is worth $50 in terms of an upgrade. EA is doing the bare minimum to keep sales up. Take a look at the ESPN NFL series leap from 2K4 to 2K5, it was huge. EA had the exclusive license, so there was no incentive to spend dollars on huge upgrades. Let's look at upgrades and the non upgrades:

1. QB Cone - This does not seem to be a huge task to upgrade. It is still basically the same passing engine, only where there is a light shining completion percentage is higher and where there isn't one, it is lower. This does not seem like it needed 12 months of development to implement.

2. Superstar mode - It pulls together some of the minigames and adds some fluff regarding emails, agents etc. Again, nice extra but does not seem revolutionary.

3. Precision passing - Nice tweak to the passing game. I would consider this a further refinement of what was already in the game.

4. A few more audibles, hot routes, truck stick and line shifting - very nice but largely building on what was already there or in NCAA.

What was untouched and in some cases downgraded:

1. I hate the presentation. I hate the fact that replays are infrequent and often times half screen only. How awesome was the 2k5 presentation? In Madden, you are lucky to get an update about how many yards the running back ran for. I expected a lot more here.

2. The play by play. In fact, I think Madden has less commentary here than ever before. I can go back to 2002 where he at least would discuss certain players and how good they were.

3. As far as I can tell, the CPU does not use formations. You will never see the wideouts shift the sides of the field or a HB lined up at WR. Come on EA....NCAA has this which I thought was an awesome feature.

4. Playbooks are better but EA does not really capture the team feel. For example, the Falcons run Duckett and Dunn a lot. When you play the Falcons, you get Dunn until he gets tired. It would be nice to have some specific formations for Duckett.

5. Sliders. We have had the same freaking sliders for 7 years. Can't we get some more control over other variables (e.g. punt return blocking, QB long, short, medium etc.)

6. Coaches. I loved the VIP concept in 2k5. We should be able to program profiles for each NFL coach, e.g how often they run on first down, second down etc.

7. More atmosphere for big games. Have some different commentary when the teams are battling first etc.

8. Player ratings. For 7 years, we have had the same ratings. Take QB's, accuracy and power. As we all know there are some QB's who are great at the short pass but not great at the long pass etc. How about a crunch time rating? Let's show some creativity here for once.

Basically, I like the game, but I think EA aimed very low in terms of improvements so they can continue to milk the cow. This is why it stinks to not have competition in football gaming. I know it will never happen but it would be nice for people to just not buy the game for one year. Would I have liked to download this update off of XBOX Live with new rosters for $20? Absolutely. I just do not believe it is worth $50.

Hopefully, I can save some of you some money. Download some new rosters for Madden 2005 and 2k5 and you will have just as much, if not more, fun than Madden 2006.