RANT ABOUT THE SOUND (annual)
The game STILL sounds horrible. I like that some effort was put into this year's game by way of putting stadium specific sounds, but this could be SOOO much better, SOOO easily. I'm all the more convinced after this year that football video games will NEVER (I'll repeat that) NEVER have realistic sounding commentary. MLB The Show's commentary sounds great, but baseball is much more by the numbers and routine, and therefore much easier to make seem real in a video game. But football has too many things going on, and has too many variables that fluctuate WILDLY from play to play. And quite frankly, announcers on TV in real life aren't even any good at it. SERIOUSLY. How can we expect a video game to do it well? We can't. So stop trying. Just cut it and use that extra disc space to improve the game itself. Besides, there are so many sounds that happen at a real NFL game that give people goosebumps and really pumped up. Some effort to put "real" songs into this years' game and some of the "real" celebrations is a step in the right direction, but there is room for ample improvement. Even if you keep the silly commentators (which for whatever reason, everybody hates, but won't let go of) I want to be able to mute them and hear what I would hear as if I was IN the stadium. That's what the game is supposed to be! I'm a coach. I'm a player on the field. I'm throwing touchdown passes. I want to be cheered, booed. I want to hear the stadium announcer say "CHIEFSPLANET with the carry of 13 yards, that's good for another Kansas City Chiefs... FIRSTDOWN!" I want to hear the little trumpet hits when I break the huddle, ba, ba bada da... DAAAAAA! I want to hear the right songs played at the right times, and LOUD! Those stadium PAs are deafening. Ever been to a real game? And when someone breaks a long run, the crowd lives and dies with every cut. Right now, when I mute the commentary and crank the crowd and stadium sounds all the way up, I'm left with... whispers and a lot of dead air. Occasionally a song plays, and after a touchdown I get a very quiet, muted, passionless "Rock and Roll part II" and a shameful, distorted "you, you, you." Hell guys, if you're going to do it, do it like it really is. A big, intimidating, raucous celebration. 80 thousand people screaming their heads off. The sounds of an NFL stadium are like a carnival, and SOOOOOOOOO much more satisfying and interesting than a talking head repeating the same 18 mindless, soul crushing platitudes.
Being at an NFL game is a SHOW that a lot of people have put a ton of time and money and thought into, and it WORKS. We all love it. We love the game. We love the sights and sounds and smells. Watching a game on TV is fun, but it's nowhere CLOSE to being there. When football video games first decided to look and sound like tv broadcasts, consumers were easily impressed... Now, not so much. Madden has spent 20 years maxing out it's ability to look and sound like a TV broadcast and it hasn't really gotten any better for the last 10 years. Scrap it! The technology is there now for us to be immersed in the world of the game... Madden has this ability.
Do less,
Do it much better.
The game STILL sounds horrible. I like that some effort was put into this year's game by way of putting stadium specific sounds, but this could be SOOO much better, SOOO easily. I'm all the more convinced after this year that football video games will NEVER (I'll repeat that) NEVER have realistic sounding commentary. MLB The Show's commentary sounds great, but baseball is much more by the numbers and routine, and therefore much easier to make seem real in a video game. But football has too many things going on, and has too many variables that fluctuate WILDLY from play to play. And quite frankly, announcers on TV in real life aren't even any good at it. SERIOUSLY. How can we expect a video game to do it well? We can't. So stop trying. Just cut it and use that extra disc space to improve the game itself. Besides, there are so many sounds that happen at a real NFL game that give people goosebumps and really pumped up. Some effort to put "real" songs into this years' game and some of the "real" celebrations is a step in the right direction, but there is room for ample improvement. Even if you keep the silly commentators (which for whatever reason, everybody hates, but won't let go of) I want to be able to mute them and hear what I would hear as if I was IN the stadium. That's what the game is supposed to be! I'm a coach. I'm a player on the field. I'm throwing touchdown passes. I want to be cheered, booed. I want to hear the stadium announcer say "CHIEFSPLANET with the carry of 13 yards, that's good for another Kansas City Chiefs... FIRSTDOWN!" I want to hear the little trumpet hits when I break the huddle, ba, ba bada da... DAAAAAA! I want to hear the right songs played at the right times, and LOUD! Those stadium PAs are deafening. Ever been to a real game? And when someone breaks a long run, the crowd lives and dies with every cut. Right now, when I mute the commentary and crank the crowd and stadium sounds all the way up, I'm left with... whispers and a lot of dead air. Occasionally a song plays, and after a touchdown I get a very quiet, muted, passionless "Rock and Roll part II" and a shameful, distorted "you, you, you." Hell guys, if you're going to do it, do it like it really is. A big, intimidating, raucous celebration. 80 thousand people screaming their heads off. The sounds of an NFL stadium are like a carnival, and SOOOOOOOOO much more satisfying and interesting than a talking head repeating the same 18 mindless, soul crushing platitudes.
Being at an NFL game is a SHOW that a lot of people have put a ton of time and money and thought into, and it WORKS. We all love it. We love the game. We love the sights and sounds and smells. Watching a game on TV is fun, but it's nowhere CLOSE to being there. When football video games first decided to look and sound like tv broadcasts, consumers were easily impressed... Now, not so much. Madden has spent 20 years maxing out it's ability to look and sound like a TV broadcast and it hasn't really gotten any better for the last 10 years. Scrap it! The technology is there now for us to be immersed in the world of the game... Madden has this ability.
Do less,
Do it much better.
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