EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

[CreatineKasey]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

If you'll remember, ProTak was all procedural, which leads me to believe they coded it themselves. It's definitely not random using the laws of physics via PhysX.

They definitely need a new physics engine, or a rewrite / fix of the current one.

You are right. It was good in relation to 09, but in relation to reality... it can obviously go much further. A real physics engine is something we'll see in this game or another one and I'll be interested to see if it ends up being a lot more like APF

Regarding extended animations, I'd prefer those over the levitation acts that ballcarriers put on to give the user more control. Some situations just don't allow for more control. I think OL/DL play needs more extended interactions. Really, the fact that we can't bull rush into the QB or manipulate the OL as much is really disappointing. If anyone checks out APF... see how you can bull rush blockers around. It's awesome. It changes how blocks work everywhere. The game flows smoothly across the field. Madden is full of split-second interactions where that isn't always the case.

Adding in physics can only help.

[mm boost]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

You are right. It was good in relation to 09, but in relation to reality... it can obviously go much further. A real physics engine is something we'll see in this game or another one and I'll be interested to see if it ends up being a lot more like APF

Regarding extended animations, I'd prefer those over the levitation acts that ballcarriers put on to give the user more control. Some situations just don't allow for more control. I think OL/DL play needs more extended interactions. Really, the fact that we can't bull rush into the QB or manipulate the OL as much is really disappointing. If anyone checks out APF... see how you can bull rush blockers around. It's awesome. It changes how blocks work everywhere. The game flows smoothly across the field. Madden is full of split-second interactions where that isn't always the case.

Adding in physics can only help.

Right on, man. I bought APF2k8 for 360 last week and been playing it religiously, and the attention to detail is phenomenal!!! I was watchin' a replay last night of a run I had with Emmitt Smith, and it showed an offensive-defensive line battle, the o-line man was high coming out of his stance, d-lineman was lower and bull rushed him. Instead of running past him like on madden, the o-lineman pushed off of the d-lineman, threw his hands out to the side, hopped his feet back, squatted, re-positioned his hands under the defender's pads, and stopped his rush (when I played college ball, we called this "hop-hop" where you hop your feet backwards and get lower to regain position and hault the bull rush). It was amazing. Right beside of this, the tackle stood straight up, linebacker came off the edge and just completely ran over top of him. On the other side, my right guard and tackle double teamed the d-tackle and pancaked him. Center had a crucial pull and kick out block that sprung me for a 65 yard TD. THIS is football, folks. EA, please deliver.

I think all of EA's devs should sit down with APF2k8 for about 3 months, play it religiously, and see what they are missing from their games. The pace of the game is slowed down and drives actually take time, you have to be methodical about your play calling and moving the football, taking advantage of your opponent's mistakes, calling the right defense for the given situation, and set up plays for later in the game. I ran this outside stretch play quite a bit last night with emmitt. Finally, in the 3rd quarter, I set up the same play, they shifted the d-line to that side, and I actually had called a weak-side counter. Faked the stretch, countered back the other way and it was 2 lead blockers vs 1 safety and needless to say, I was doing the Robot in the endzone a few seconds later. It is truly amazing how the game of football is conveyed in APF2k8. If EA can pick this up, we have our football utopia!

[ODogg]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

There will never be a football utopia though simply because some folks want realism and some folks want a better videogame. What is realistic to one person is boring to another. What is arcade to one person is exciting to another. And honestly, WE are in the minority. I think Madden is probably about as realistic as it's going to get without upsetting the majority, of which do not prefer ultra-realism.

[dfos81]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

There will never be a football utopia though simply because some folks want realism and some folks want a better videogame. What is realistic to one person is boring to another. What is arcade to one person is exciting to another. And honestly, WE are in the minority. I think Madden is probably about as realistic as it's going to get without upsetting the majority, of which do not prefer ultra-realism.

I understand what your saying and this is how you feel. I'm a fan that wants both realism and a better videogame.
So does that put me in the majority.
Now if your saying some want more sim, others want more arcade.
I would say EA is already attempting that, they introduced more sim into Madden 10 and according to Ian's twitter pg. they are still going in that direction for M11. They also introduced Madden Arcade.
Now, whether or not they reach football video game "utopia" is all in the eye of the beholder.
You saying that there will never be a football utopia, is like me saying you will never enjoy another Madden after M10.

[favredollarfootlong]

The only thing that is going to be new are disappointments to those whom haven't already realized them yet.

[Swingking77]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

There will never be a football utopia though simply because some folks want realism and some folks want a better videogame. What is realistic to one person is boring to another. What is arcade to one person is exciting to another. And honestly, WE are in the minority. I think Madden is probably about as realistic as it's going to get without upsetting the majority, of which do not prefer ultra-realism.

The base game should be as SIM as possible... I do not agree with you that the majority want an arcade game. If that were the case what's your reasoning behind the FIFA and NHL games, or from another company, The Show? All VERY sim games, and all very successful. Unless your point was that all football gamers just want an arcade game, to which I'd have to disagree as well with all of the people calling for the 2K series... You can make any game into an arcade game... Just take all the penalties off and play on a super easy mode. It's really THAT easy to do... To make a sim game takes more effort and THAT is the reason we haven't seen it yet from EA... The "majority" case is simply the Cool-Aid that EA has been feeding everyone for years as a scapegoat for not having to make a better game over all, when the real reason isn't the "majority" but the exculsivity of their product which allows them to sit back... You can argue the fact, but ask yourself, which of their franchises has an exclusive deal? And follow it up with "Which of their franchises has least improoved over the past five year?" The answer in both of these cases are their football franchises... That is all.

P.S. A few years back NBA Live was SO bad that they didn't even release it. I had played it, and some of the core game play issues were not as bad as has been seen in the Madden games of the same time period.

[Tick32]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

The base game should be as SIM as possible... I do not agree with you that the majority want an arcade game. If that were the case what's your reasoning behind the FIFA and NHL games, or from another company, The Show? All VERY sim games, and all very successful. Unless your point was that all football gamers just want an arcade game, to which I'd have to disagree as well with all of the people calling for the 2K series... You can make any game into an arcade game... Just take all the penalties off and play on a super easy mode. It's really THAT easy to do... To make a sim game takes more effort and THAT is the reason we haven't seen it yet from EA... The "majority" case is simply the Cool-Aid that EA has been feeding everyone for years as a scapegoat for not having to make a better game over all, when the real reason isn't the "majority" but the exculsivity of their product which allows them to sit back... You can argue the fact, but ask yourself, which of their franchises has an exclusive deal? And follow it up with "Which of their franchises has least improoved over the past five year?" The answer in both of these cases are their football franchises... That is all.

P.S. A few years back NBA Live was SO bad that they didn't even release it. I had played it, and some of the core game play issues were not as bad as has been seen in the Madden games of the same time period.

Maybe they should let him make another NFL STREETS. That was ment for arcade, but Madden should not.

[Valdarez]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

The new take on Madden will be a retro styled game sporting a top down side view ala Super Tecmo Bowl circa 1991. All endzone touchdown animations to be replaced with sliding views of cheer leaders. Upon hearing the news, the youth of the Madden Nation rejoiced.

To manage the ongoing Madden needs, President Obama appointed a new Madden czar Frank Caliendo. With the new czar in place and to keep with the throwback look, the game is tentatively titled 'Osama's Been Madden'.

[HesTheCoach]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

The new take on Madden will be a retro styled game sporting a top down side view ala Super Tecmo Bowl circa 1991. All endzone touchdown animations to be replaced with sliding views of cheer leaders. Upon hearing the news, the youth of the Madden Nation rejoiced.

To manage the ongoing Madden needs, President Obama appointed a new Madden czar Frank Caliendo. With the new czar in place and to keep with the throwback look, the game is tentatively titled 'Osama's Been Madden'.

You're obviously joking about Madden taking a side view like Tecmo Bowl, but I honestly think that's the easiest and best way to make a football game more realistic. That way you focus on the actual game instead of just the graphics.

Making games in 3D with newer and newer graphics is, IMO, one of the biggest hurdles to making a sports game, or at least a football game, realistic. The programmers have to constantly spend time focusing on this area of a game instead of making the overall game complete and realistic, IMO. Think about all the animations that are involved in that and Madden still doesn't seem to be even close to emulating a real football game. It's unbelievable to me that Madden STILL has players running around like robots. Even the Blitz games, which are 3D, didn't have this problem.

I haven't played this year's Madden but have played them in the past and it's obvious that Madden will never be what a lot of people on here want it to be. I've read enough posts in the gripe thread that attest to that, players warping, LB's intercepting pitches (??!!), WR's having 4 feet inbounds but not being ruled in bounds, etc.

[Valdarez]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

Definitely joking. I still have my NES hooked up in my bedroom and play Super Tecmo Bowl from time to time though. Definitely not 'sim', but still fun to play to this day.

[CreatineKasey]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

Definitely joking. I still have my NES hooked up in my bedroom and play Super Tecmo Bowl from time to time though. Definitely not 'sim', but still fun to play to this day.

Take away the ability for users to control DL and you have a really solid, balanced multiplayer game. I used to play in the OTFL (Online Tecmo Football League) and it was an absolute riot as a child... on 56k no less.

I hope a new creative director helps take that "fun" and "solid gameplay" approach. I love using specific features within football games, but I hate playing people that "game the game" more than anything. I just want to play a solid game of football and have my football solutions to football problems work... not "come out in Quarters D blitz to stop goal line offtackle". That's lame.

[denverbro89]

This is when Madden has epic fails. Instead of building on something that was pretty good, had it flaws, but definitely was an improvement, they scrap everything and start over when that's not necessary. I don't get it because Ea succeeds in all their other games, but Madden is always behind the other titles every year now since Madden 04. Pro-Tak was good, lets see that improved.

[Nintari]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

This is when Madden has epic fails. Instead of building on something that was pretty good, had it flaws, but definitely was an improvement, they scrap everything and start over when that's not necessary. I don't get it because Ea succeeds in all their other games, but Madden is always behind the other titles every year now since Madden 04. Pro-Tak was good, lets see that improved.

Well, when you lose sales each and every year, you're going to change whatever you have to in order to stop the bleeding.

I think the head honchos are tired of the decline.

[Flamehead]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

The base game should be as SIM as possible... I do not agree with you that the majority want an arcade game. If that were the case what's your reasoning behind the FIFA and NHL games, or from another company, The Show? All VERY sim games, and all very successful. Unless your point was that all football gamers just want an arcade game, to which I'd have to disagree as well with all of the people calling for the 2K series... You can make any game into an arcade game... Just take all the penalties off and play on a super easy mode. It's really THAT easy to do... To make a sim game takes more effort and THAT is the reason we haven't seen it yet from EA... The "majority" case is simply the Cool-Aid that EA has been feeding everyone for years as a scapegoat for not having to make a better game over all, when the real reason isn't the "majority" but the exculsivity of their product which allows them to sit back... You can argue the fact, but ask yourself, which of their franchises has an exclusive deal? And follow it up with "Which of their franchises has least improoved over the past five year?" The answer in both of these cases are their football franchises... That is all.

+1

[Widowlander]

Re: EA CEO Speaks of an Innovative and New Take on Madden?

This "new and innovative" take on the Madden franchise is actually nothing more than Project Natal functionality. That's it. And if you think they are going to do ANY MORE than THAT you're wrong and begging to be duped once again by EA at years end. They aren't going to change the engine, the game will STILL have the same bugs it's had since 06, they will have some bells and whistles to destract you from the fact that this is the same game since 06 with some needed improvements in presentation and features, but completely neglected in A.I. and just plain football expression. Project Natal will be the BIG THING this holiday, and MS is scrambling the troops in order to get it into homes right off the bat. Imagine Madden 11, garunteed to sell millions, with a big old "Project Natal Enabled" sticker right on the front! Man, that will sell at least a few thousand Natals right out the gate. The GAME will still suck but at least it's got a cool 'new and innovative' take on how it sucks. It's about money folks, nothing more.