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Old 01-24-2011, 06:02 PM   #29
youALREADYknow
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Re: Shorter or longer animations.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Only1LT
Here is the thing though. Not being able to do anything until an animation finishes is not simulation either.

A player can make any move that he wants to make at anytime. Doesn't mean it will work. Doesn't mean that he won't fall flat on his ***, but he could still try to do it.

I don't like the way that Madden is designed and prefer the way that 2K is, but to say that having total control to branch out of animations is arcadey, is not being completely fair. What makes Madden arcadey, is the way that they handle their design of total control.

Players should ALWAYS be able to interrupt animations in a sports game. Making invincible animations isn't the answer to real life. The answer is making real life consequences for doing things that aren't possible, and having animations in the game that represent those consequences. I.E. allowing you to change direction when ever you want to, but having animations in the game, or done on the fly, that represent you not being able to pull off what you attempted, if this is not physically possible.

Now I'm not saying that 2K has no branching animations, or that it doesn't do a better job of representing these consequences in the game, but a reason why, not the only reason, but definitely a reason, why 2K appears to play better than Madden, is because it animates better. One reason, but not the only reason, it animates better, because of the longer animations. Again, I prefer this to Madden's design, but that's only because, as stated above, Madden gives you all the control, but none of the consequences, and none of the animations to represent those consequences.

You are right about one thing though. There is a right and wrong. The right thing is to have total control, and consequences, and a slew of animations pre-captured, or done on the fly, that represent those consequences. Neither game does this.

2K does it better, but neither does it "right".
I never implied that either 2K or Madden was correct. Both are wrong, but one is a 7 year old product while the other is current. And the one that is 7 years old used the available technologies of that time better than the one which is currently in development.

A move in the right direction is the use of animation technologies such as the ones developed by NaturalMotion to dynamically render animations at run-time and allow physics-based interaction to branch animations together.

This is why everyone was so excited about Euphoria/Endorphin when they were released.

Animations, specifically motion captured, will be required for the foreseeable future to duplicate real world complex actions. The way those animations occur in Madden is a travesty and that's what my comments were in reference to. The goal of a simulation game should be to simulate the real world product and I find it hard to believe that has been the goal of EA/Tiburon based on the product we have right now.

Also, as for this thread and many others like it.... can we stop looking to the past for answers about where this game and the sports game industry as a whole needs to be in the future? Sports gaming has been a stale product for YEARS and needs to move forward instead of reproducing past successes. Most of the advancement in the industry has been presentation focused and not focused on the actual product which they are supposed to be simulating. 2K did not produce a realistic football simulation. EA has not produced a realistic football simulation. Nobody, to my knowledge, has produced a realistic football simulation. The answer is not in the past because nobody has done it right.

Last edited by youALREADYknow; 01-24-2011 at 06:05 PM.
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