[TheWatcher]

Just remember that with more characters on the sidelines, and more AI resources going to them for reactive animations, you lose things that are more important. More graphical resources there mean less on the field (Just look at how crappy the fields and stadiums looked in APF which had all of things the OP talked about).

In my opinion, the sidelines just need to look believeable, which to me this year they were good enough they just missed the opportunity of having the Head Coaches presence. Trust me, if they increase the sidelines and decrease on the field of play you'll see a mound of complaints and rightfully so.

I actually think they need to decrease the number of characters outside the field of play, bring the head coaches back, and use dynamic cutscenes like 2K5 did in order to drop in a stronger sideline presence.

As far as presentation, I think Madden is being held back by timing and understanding when, where and how to use overlays and post-play camera angles. For example:

*"Drive update" overlays aren't useful, they should be replaced with player stat overlays. Give me a drive summary after a score has been made, but don't update me 4 times during one drive.

*Ring builder stat overlays... ummmmmm... no. And I don't wanna see an overlay about my player record unless I'm playing online and even then I'm not sure I want to see it. It's just useless information that has nothing valuable to add to the game that I'm in the middle of playing.

*Post play camera's... you have to treat plays as if they're important. At no time should a sack happen and the camera doesn't closely spotlight the playmaker(s). At no time should any big play result in a camera drifting away from the field. At no point should a TD scoring player be given a far-away camera shot. These playmakers should always be framed and/or given a closeup when appropriate.

Believe it or not, things like that make a big difference to presentation quality. They tried to get too cute with the post-play camera's and stat overlays and wound up doing some things that just don't jive. See what they have to understand is that football is a big TV sport. When you set out to do a game that's supposed to have broadcast elements, you can't do things that would seem strange to the people who are strongly familiar with how it's presented on TV... which unfortunately is like 100% of the audience that buys Madden, lol.

All they gotta do is a watch a few TV broadcasts and copy the style. That's all I think people have been asking for... I don't think it's asking too much at all.