In my opinion, I think they've always been known for both. The critics certainly seemed to think so too, not that I put a whole lot of stock in what mag critics say but still.
Until this generation, I can't think of any sports game that rivaled 2K's offerings graphically. Gameplay is debatable for different games, but I thought 2K football was more fun to play until All Pro which was a total disaster.
But you're dismissing what those things will do to the overall picture. More characters (graphical resources), more interaction (AI resources) means a hit to the other parts. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have, but at the expense of what happens on the field? It would be a big mistake. They had trouble getting AI for the refs into the game when it was at 30 frames so we didn't get refs, and even more at 60 and so we of course still don't have them. Adding interactive sidelines will mean an even bigger AI challenge, and that's going to mean cuts someplace else.
I said:
Except that Madden's graphics got worse from '07 to '08, and Madden's graphics were a joke for the entire XBOX/PS2 generation.
A few things here... just an FYI, it's not just
MY opinion. Aside from it being a pretty widely held opinion, it also happens to be Phil Frazier's opinion as well, as he posted over on the EA boards clearly stating that the graphics in Madden '08 were not very good (I read it myself). And he was right, and I appreciate his honesty. The graphics were not up to par. But they did a great job with 09 so they redeemed themselves quite nicely.
Also, while how good graphics look can be a subjective matter, the technical aspect is not. It cannot be disputed that Madden 06 and 07 carried more poly's and greater texture/detail than Madden '08. Even if you didn't know it was a fact, just looking at both games side by side would make it obvious that '08's counts were definitely down.
Madden '07 had 3D grass, Madden '08 did not (and I'm not a fan of 3D grass by the way, I don't think it's sensible). Madden '08 also did not have progressive/dynamic lighting. Those are simply facts, so the bottom line is that '08 did indeed go backwards graphically, overall. Now, it can be argued that the player models had better proportions in '08, but that's all that can really be claimed from a technical standpoint. Now if a person likes those backwards-going graphics, more power to'em. But me, I want my graphics to go forward, never backwards in any regard.
As for what they did with the XBOX/PS2 versions, lol. Well, I'll say if you thought those models looked anything other than a poorly drawn cartoon/caricature, god bless you. But I'd imagine if EA didn't think they needed to make major improvements to those models since the 360/PS3 gen hit, they would'nt have. Heck, they've been updating the models every year this gen. Last gen, the differences from year to year were negligible and that's being nice about it.
It's not quite that simple. Believe it or not, football games are arguably the toughest type of games to program. The AI component affects and is affected by so many things, not the least of which is the number of characters being manipulated all at once. In shooters, you have only a few characters in a frame to allot resources to in a split-second. In football, you're talking 22+. It's not a small task, and certainly not one you can compare from a resource standpoint with a shooter.