Where Football Games Should be in 2011

[RaychelSnr]

Over the years, the Madden franchise has remained a staple not only amongst sports gamers, but also in American sports culture. Despite being held back year after year by nagging gameplay issues, Madden has continued to succeed in large part due to exclusiveness. However, that same exclusiveness is a big reason why football gaming as a whole has yet to reach the heights of other major sports games.

I’m not interested in debating which football games would be superior in an open NFL-gaming market, but I find myself dreaming of a gaming landscape where competition exists and thus drove innovation in all football games.

Here are four things that I am almost certain would exist in this alternate universe of games on the gridiron if the exclusivity of Madden were to vanish.

Read More - Where Football Games Should be in 2011

[wallofhate]

I figured we would have physics in football by now like backbreaker. Maybe next year with he inclusion of Fifa using a sytem of this type but i think football should have been at the top of the list in this catagory being so much interaction between players. Also penalties i hought at this point wouldhave been an afterthought. One thing i would like to return is all the qb"s cadences i thought it was a nice touch of realism. I just want the players to seem like they have more awareness and more importantly awareness of whats happening. Emotion is the name of the fame with football and it just seems dead people walking around the field like its mid town manhattan no interaction with each other and when they do it seems forced. Hopefully madden can make a huge leap

[everydaygorship]

#1 Lineman interaction this needs soooo much work.
#2 Online Franchise to have same or better features than Offline
#3 Make animations like 2k, having specifics for stars/each skill level, size, and ratings.
#4 Better scouting i.e. kinda like in NCAA.
#5Gameplay updates/TUNER SETS?!?!?
#5 Please EAsports/tiburon take some pride and don't lie to us/yourselves

[mike24forever]

Passing should have advanced more by this point. NFL Fever was the most advanced with their passing. It was a head of its time and I would like to see it implement in Madden.

[StL_RamZ]

* QB vision shouldn't have been scraped. It really gives a feel to how well a QB sees down field and how he is aware of his receivers...separates peyton manning from should i say josh freeman

* Real time physics (with no players that just look like they just died after contact) developers do not even need to work on tackle animations because they would always be different and they can just put all the work on coverages, blitzes, routes, different play styles, franchise mode, commentary, stats overlays,

If these can be implemented into a football game with a Madden camera view we could possible see the greatest football game ever



Im not trying to troll or anything but if Backbreaker put maddens camera view, had the NFL license and added signature styles and fixed a little bit of stuff this thread wouldn't even exist!!!

[rightallthetime]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

Practicing situations and game plans in practices mode.
Truly adaptive AI on defense.

[Senator Palmer]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

#1 Lineman interaction this needs soooo much work.

It's 2011 and long past the time that this should have been nailed.

[loganmorrison1]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

I think this list of missed things is huge:
1- Better sound, i.e. announcing, gameplay chatter, stadium
2- Better graphics, players still look like robots
3-Slowing down the computer hiking the ball so you can reset ur D and read the CPU's offense
4-Adaptive AI, if I run the ball 10 times in a row, the CPU should be loading the box
5-Slow the game down
6-interactive sidelines
7-More stat overlays
8-Better CPU gameplanning, the CPU just doesn't play real, the games are close b/c they come up with some cheeser play. Where are the long drives
9-More realistic secondary, the backs swap the ball 15 times a game, when do you ever see that in the NFL, again its something else cheesy to keep keep the games close

I could probably go on forever. The thing that really sticks out to me, is when I read that IGN preview of MLB 12, they talk about how the development team oozes baseball, and how much these guys love the sport and their product. You don't see any of that with Madden. If there were no exclusivity, this game would be dead

[GiantBlue76]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

The list of things that are missing from Madden is far too large to list here. However, I see the biggest problem being the development team who works on the game. They don't acknowledge the problems and lack the ability to fix them or improve on them. There is very little vision from them, and they also have an arrogance about them that will prevent them from achieving true success. Even with an exclusive license, a better, more talented development team would be able to reach new heights.

Sorry, but it's the truth. 7 years is plenty long enough to have nailed this game beyond recognition. Instead it's gone backwards in those 7 years. It's downright embarrassing in my opinion.

It's not really worth discussing though, because EA will never relinquish that license nor will the NFL. Each year we will be left with another lackluster effort missing the boat on the key elements of football and will have zero innovation. 2k and Sony will continue to embarrass the developers at Tiburon and they developers at Tiburon will continue to make excuses as to why something CAN'T be done as opposed to believing that things CAN be done.

[ChaseB]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

The list of things that are missing from Madden is far too large to list here. However, I see the biggest problem being the development team who works on the game. They don't acknowledge the problems and lack the ability to fix them or improve on them. There is very little vision from them, and they also have an arrogance about them that will prevent them from achieving true success. Even with an exclusive license, a better, more talented development team would be able to reach new heights.

Sorry, but it's the truth. 7 years is plenty long enough to have nailed this game beyond recognition. Instead it's gone backwards in those 7 years. It's downright embarrassing in my opinion.

It's not really worth discussing though, because EA will never relinquish that license nor will the NFL. Each year we will be left with another lackluster effort missing the boat on the key elements of football and will have zero innovation. 2k and Sony will continue to embarrass the developers at Tiburon and they developers at Tiburon will continue to make excuses as to why something CAN'T be done as opposed to believing that things CAN be done.

Yeah, those Tiburon hosers never listen.

/arrogance

Spoiler

(PS, just fooling around, for the record)

[GiantBlue76]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

Yeah, those Tiburon hosers never listen.

/arrogance

Spoiler

(PS, just fooling around, for the record)

Now's your chance Chase! I'll be the first one to admit that guys like yourself and AJ can only help the problems there, but when I play the game I call it like I see it.

[allgames]

If anyone who has a serious interest in contributing to a documentary on the history of computer/video game football and the travesty that is the current exclusivity/broken Madden franchise, please let me know.

[Big FN Deal]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

I don't know if an open NFL license would make this a reality but I sure as heck would like to know why we still don't have online Spectator Mode for spectator sports games.

I agree with most of the write up but think the entire gameplay view, is outdated in it's current format. Competitive innovation would have probably caused a more refined Backbreaker view by now for all gameplay aspects. This view would give each position on the field, a unique realistic perspective and make User controlling each position, be it's own mini game. It would also allow things like QB and ball carrier vision to be differentiated in an understandable and realistic manner.

Lastly, I am convinced with direct competition there would be a "Simulation" setting in football games by now. It is unbelievable that 7+ years on next-gen console, there is no factory preset mode in licensed football games, where everything is optimally tuned for representing real life football parameters and their inherent challenges.

[steelersfan77]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

I'll admit I actually like madden and Ncaa but I guess I have to. It's the only option I have when it comes to a new football game during this next gen of entertainment. My youngest one believes it's the most incredible football game in the world and he should. He's a youngster who doesn't fully understand what kind of technological advancement these new systems hold. Hell, maybe I don't either. I'm no game designer by any means.

I do believe that the exclusive license has held everything back as Madden continues to sell extremely well. It's the only game in town with the NFL label so it's going to sell well. As for gaming reviews, well, they continue to give Madden high scores year after year. I don't think Madden is deserving of a 9.0, an 8.5 or even an 8.0. For the most part the game has become stale and isn't a true simulation of NFL football. Players are still very robotic and whatever engine's the Madden team is using causes more harm than good. It doesn't allow them to concentrate on the nicks and nacks of football. Instead they continue to add different selling points by introducing something new on something that's already broken.

This game would've been so far ahead of where it is now if they just would've scraped what they had the first year of this gen, said this isn't what we wanted, skipped a year and started fresh with new technology. They would've been 4 or 5 years in with the new technology and everything else would've been an afterthought. I say this because in my opinion whatever they're using as far as technology seems to be outdated. Like I said though, I'm no game designer by any means.

All that is coming from a fan of the game because it's the only NFL licensed game in town this gen that I have to choose from. Such a shame where this game could've been with a little bit of competition and the added EA sports budget.

I guarantee it would've been far ahead of the best football game in town, FIFA.

[dfos81]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

To add to the list,

Others may have mentioned this but the Replayability for me is Adaptive A.I. Tiburon(former team) tried this before w/ My Skill feature but failed.

IRL, teams will watch video on what the oppenents are doing and try to catch tendencies and exploit that in the next matchup. Also adapting while in games too. This should be more based off the players Awarness imo.

So why not have the CPU a.i. catch/compute my tendencies from the previous games and adjust accordingly for the next game. Not just what MY Skill did, b/c it didnt take into account my opponents ratings at all. I could rush for 300yds against the worst run D and it would make my next opponent turn into All-Madden Run D and stuff behind the los all game.

So a more advanced My Skill/Adaptive A.I. would really be something expected by 2012 imo!

So, for ex.
1. If I run on 1st down 3 out of 4 times the CPU should catch this.
2. If I PA on 2nd down 3 out of 4 times the CPU should catch this and adjust to stop it.
3. If I run Punt Blk too much, the CPU should try a few more fakes(in the right situations to swing momentum)

4. If I run Man Blitz schemes too much, the cpu should adjust and start making me pay for being too aggressive.


Team/Player ratings should still matter too b/c players like Ray Lewis(high awarness) doesnt need to see you do the same thing 3 times to figure out what your doing. He sees it once and your done the 2nd time around!

This would keep me and others from playing w/ Slider for months and months. It would allow me to get past YR 1 of my franchise.

Adaptive A.I. in all aspects of the game Offense, Defense, and Special Teams. Along w/ what other areas guys have mentioned is really something that should be expected by 2012.