Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

[grunt]

Re: New game play video!

yup, it's the same game.

Peace

[K_GUN]

Re: New game play video!

By the time the game comes out, I am going to be so sick of snow games, that I won't want to play any.

Video looked good. The Minnesota defender still took a poor angle at the ball carrier on the TD pass.

at the risk of sounding like Ben Brinkman

"sometimes defenders take bad angles to the ball"



i liked the vids


amazing snow gfx
very smooth
DBs look like they are angled inward (ala APF)
cool zooms into the LOS look
hunchbacks seem to be gone


i have a feeling that 09 is all about:
presentation
online leagues

[dukie5021]

Re: Online Leagues

I have my doubts as well...

positives:

flex scheduling
flexible trading rules and options
"profile" draft -- if it works right

negatives:
no info on d/c's and how they are fixed
no fantasy draft
no rookie draft
32 users? gimme a break...
no mention of playoffs
no free agents
10 game season? who came up with this number???
"profile" draft -- if it ends up like a yahoo fantasy football draft and i end up with 3 good qb's and no rb, 4 good de's and no mlb...

questions:
if there's no draft and no free agents and we use ea updated rosters, is there progression?

at the end of the season what happens? do i start season 2 as the 09 packers, play it, then start season 3 as the 09 packers?

so we profile drafted and played our season... we profile draft again with the same draft pool and start season 2 with a different semi-random team?

conclusion:
this isn't an online franchise like i was hoping for... this seems like more of playing guys on my friends list then what i wanted it to be. why would you take the basis for every online league over the past several years (franchise) and completely scrap it when designing your game's online league? last night i went to bed thinkin this madden was gonna get it right and was excited... now i'm going to bed contemplating whether or not i even wanna buy the game...

[TDKing]

Re: Online Leagues

Dissappointed again ! Well EA you just set up your on line league feature to fail. On-line leagues = Wasted Server Space. There will be a ton of leagues started and only a handfull, if that will be active. So far this game has been one dissappointment after another, for me anyway. They just can't get things right. Worst of all with this 32 player league thing they proudly admit the did it on purpose and try and back it up with a lame excuse. Doesn't NCAA have cpu teams in their online dynasties witih flex scheduling ?

IGN: Say I only have five friends, but still want to play in a full season with 32 teams. Is that possible with flex scheduling included?

Ferwerda and Castorani: Actually, you cannot. This was a conscious design decision by us. We decided it would be better to ensure that all teams are controlled by users which would allow for us to implement our flex scheduling. To be clear, there is not a 'set' schedule in our leagues. All schedules are flex.

[hokupguy]

Re: Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

why is everything there showing pic's and vid all snow related?

[callmetaternuts]

Re: Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

I think it has a chance, this is probably a very early build. Hopefully alot of new things are yet to be seen.

And yes, im trying to be positive.

[TDKing]

Re: Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

why is everything there showing pic's and vid all snow related?

Because they are trying to distract you, so you don't focus on gameplay.

By the way did the snow effect the gameplay on the field? I didn't notice but I don't study the videos like some of you guys do.

[Mrcabone]

Re: Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

It is a early build, but the animations and graphics are set which dissapoints me ,adding the stat overlays and the commentary won't change those tired animations from 10 years ago.

[noplace]

Re: New game play video!

I told you.... No, Double team blocking! No Offensive or Defensive line push! No Pocket around the QB! Just the same old **** just a different Year... But now they have 2k5 pursuits, yikes.

LMAO! I have lost all hope in EA...They just dont get it....

[jpringle]

Re: Online Leagues

I agree with what every1 is saying about online leagues. 1st NCAA09 said they would have online dynasties & told you how it would work. I cried with joy. Then I hear Madden09 would have online leagues and I'm thinking at least 30 seasons(hell NCAA has 60), full draft at the end of every season with imported rosters(Hell I would even take fake names with the plan that EA will include imported rosters in the future), me & borother & our 10 friends(I have more than 32 friends, but not all of them play Madden)creating a league and battling for a Super Bowl ring. Now after hearing what their online league consist of.....I'm very very disappointed. I thought with GTAIV, NCAA09 & MADDEN09 I would be living a hermit life this summer, but looks like I'll get some sun. EA you drop the ball in your 1st yr with online leagues. Maybe next yr you will do better.

[ausar72]

Re: Online Leagues

I'm extremely disappointed in everything they talked about. Mandatory 32 user leagues, no rookie draft from NCAA, no free agents...if they have the foresight to give us back the EA locker, there are ways around this but otherwise this news has got me rethinking a Madden purchase.

I'm not so sure about the 32 user required...

Or maybe EA is not so sure at this point. Take a look at this...

IGN: Say I only have five friends, but still want to play in a full season with 32 teams. Is that possible with flex scheduling included?

Ferwerda and Castorani: Actually, you cannot. This was a conscious design decision by us. We decided it would be better to ensure that all teams are controlled by users which would allow for us to implement our flex scheduling. To be clear, there is not a 'set' schedule in our leagues. All schedules are flex.

IGN: We just mentioned flex scheduling, but some might not know what we're talking about. Explain why it's cool.

Ferwerda and Castorani: Flex scheduling is cool for a multitude of reasons. First off, flex scheduling is what we refer to as an 'open schedule' with no set order. What this means is that if you log online and ten members of your twenty member league are online, you can play any of your opponents that you have remaining games with. The nice thing about this is that it doesn't allow for leagues to get stale or held up waiting for others to play. If the stars align, and you have all of your opponents online, you can, in theory, knock out your entire league in one day.

Why would he say in one answer that all teams must be user controlled, but then in the very next answer use twenty-member league as an example?

[davep]

Re: Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

The video IS boring, and I'm not sure why exactly.

The snow is a nice addition, but as someone stated before, shouldn't they be sliding around? Aesthetically it's more pleasing, but fundamentally it's exactly the same. As of now, looks like I'll be sticking with the 08 pc version.

[DONF]

Re: New game play video!

I still am unhappy with the way this game looks and feels in motion; it's been a problem in every next-gen EA football game for me. Put next to any other quality sports game, or any other quality video game for that matter, the animation is disjointed, robotic, and unnatural.

To be honest, and this is probably a gross overstatement, but I feel like next-gen Madden is an exponentially pretty version of a PSX/N64 iteration of Madden.

Not sure what can be done to address that at this point either; it seems to be the way the next-gen Madden engine runs.

Well said!!

[DONF]

Re: Madden NFL 09: First Online Leagues Details and Video Clip

The big question is will you buy the game?? Will you continue to keep funding EA's poor efforts?

I will be waiting for/playing the demo for both NCAA and Madden. I refuse to get caught up in first day action.

[Radioactiveman]

Re: Online Leagues

I'm not so sure about the 32 user required...

Or maybe EA is not so sure at this point. Take a look at this...



Why would he say in one answer that all teams must be user controlled, but then in the very next answer use twenty-member league as an example?

You can probably have a 20 man league as long as a human controls every team...I'm guessing that the point they are making is that there cannot be cpu controled teams....Seriously, who is making the decisions at EA? They hudled around one afternoon and decided how they were going to do this online league thing, they gear up for this big announcment and no one is excited...it's hilarious. Just think if 2k was in the mix...thier online leagues and such weren't the cat's meow but at least they'd have a shot at getting it right....and a better one at that.