What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

[cdon2k]

Anyone else tired of seeing the stadium walls because there are like 12 people on the sidelines? I know this has been discussed before and Ian said there aren't any resources left to do this, but I have a workaround:

Use flat animated pics for people as they use to do with the fans

Sure, it would look like crap in the stadium flybys and whatnot, but from the field level, it would look fine like the fans used to. If I see a bare sideline one more time...

[Segagendude]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

***waits for the inevitable "Fix gameplay first!!!!!!" posts...

[RGiles36]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

***waits for the inevitable "Fix gameplay first!!!!!!" posts...

^^I'm not one of those guys (lol), but I'm satisfied with sidelines personally. Sure, they could be interactive like they are in APF. But beyond that, I don't want resources placed there. I like to see the fans animate, though it's done a bit better in basketball games (NBA2K for sure).

[sniperhare]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

I've wondered why they couldn't have a high detail mode that you could play with if you installed the game to your hard drive. That way you could have the team specific details and sidelines including mascots and skyline of the actual city.

[longshot23]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

I could careless about the sidelines, or ultimate team...i wish they would use their resources on making a better all around game.

[OrangeCrush]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

Gameplay first, everything else second...

[Jimixiii]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

That's far from what Madden really "needs" fixed.

[cdon2k]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

What you don't get is that this would be such an easy fix and wouldn't tax the resources. It's an animated cardboard cutout for pete's sake. I hate seeing the walls of the stadium while playing... It's never like that in reality.

[Tengo Juego]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

More like: What Madden can do to improve presentation.

[dougdeuce]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

***waits for the inevitable "Fix gameplay first!!!!!!" posts...

four responses... hahaha. God forbid we want more than just gameplay.

[Dianwei32]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

I think that this is not a good idea. It's already bad enough having the current static people who players just run through and who never move, adding in 2D people just to fill out the sideline would absolutely kill any sense of immersion that the game has.

One thing I will say about the sidelines, at least very up the player numbers on the crappy 2D models who are supposed to represent the rest of the team. I don't expect the models to be brought up to PS3/360 quality, but it kills immersion to see 40 players on the sideline all wearing the same number.

[KANE699]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

Theres already well over 60 players on the sideline, then add the coaches and the chain gang, you're gettin up there.


None of this is counting the random characters populating the sideline beyond the players such as photographers and what not.

[kjcheezhead]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

***waits for the inevitable "Fix gameplay first!!!!!!" posts...

I'll be one of those guys for you. I gotta say, I wonder how much disc space Madden has at the moment. Doesn't adding cut scenes and more detail to the images eat up space? Could this force them to limit the number of transition animations or tackle/catch/blocking/jostling animations? I personally would rather they get the gameplay solid enough to add a play editor, add audibles on the fly and individual bump-n-run as well as deeper franchise mode.

Sorry, but you'll have a hard time convincing me gameplay and presention isn't competing with one another on some level unless you can show how they each get funds for improvements from different areas and separate amounts of disc space allotted to each area.

[jvaccaro]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

It's really too bad they don't take advantage of the PS3's bluray disc size and standard HDD to improve the PS3 version in this manner. They'll never do it because they'll hurt the feelings of too many 360 fanboys, but it's really a shame that us Sony owners are limited to the same cruddy disc space and limited hard drive install options as Microsoft folks.

Oh, and it's been stated that the gameplay team and presentation team generally consist of different folks, so improving one doesn't always sacrifice the other. For the record, gameplay is definitely where the priority should be, but the sidelines do look like poo still. If they were even more crowded with cutouts, it would look better. Not great, but better.

[TheWatcher]

Re: What Madden Needs: A Crowded Sideline

I've wondered why they couldn't have a high detail mode that you could play with if you installed the game to your hard drive. That way you could have the team specific details and sidelines including mascots and skyline of the actual city.

I threw this idea up to Ian last year, and he said that he discussed it with Art and they weren't interested.

The issue with adding more characters is sacrificing detail in the overall picture, and because they run at 60 FPS you could be looking at enough detail loss that the game wouldn't meet the graphical standards of this generation.

I think the graphical focus should stay on the field for now. I imagine a new generation will pop up over the next 2-3 years, so with more power this will likely be addressed then. I just don't agree with cutting from other areas this late in a console cycle... I'd like it to stay steady and see the increase next generation.