Where Football Games Should be in 2011

[tril]

by now passing should be done with the analog stick and maybe a press of a button to cycle through the available recievers- which would be equivalent to checking down the receivers.
so basically youd cycle through to the receiver you want to throw to and use the analog stick to throw, and of course it would be sensitive based. deeper throws means youd hold the anlaog stick in the down motion longer before releasing.

in addition dealing with the play clock. its about time subbing in and out packages should be tuied into this. I want to see players subbing in and out, that does take time off the play clock.
this would allowthe game to be a bit more tactical. makes the favorite plays features in the game morre relevant. cuase cycling through plays and subbing packages does take more time. but also give th user the accelerated option of they dont want to sit through subbing in and out different packages.
this could alsoleadto better representation of delay of ame penalties.

also (EA has this feature already), but make covering the ball when going through a hole, and getting hit by multiple players more important.

those are just a few biggest things that would add to a sim football game. along with some of things other posters have already mentioned.
there was one company that I bet would have been at this stage already.
and the bacbreaker series had some nice mechanics and features in their game.
they were doing some groundbreaking stuff- passing agme.
too bad they didnt decide to make a complete football game with some sort of presentation element, and more testing with the camera angles.

[rangerrick012]

I'd be almost willing to overlook some of Madden's gameplay flaws if the presentation was at least semi-passable. Here it is in 2011 and the closest thing we've gotten to an actual NFL broadcast as far as presentation is concerned is still a game that came out in 2004. Madden made good strides in that area this year, but the bad commentary pretty much nullified the art additions.

Gameplay should be more realistic as well, but it's not an either/or situation. Both elements probably would be better if there was some competition IMO.

[tril]

by now passing should be done with the analog stick along with a press of a button to cycle through the available recievers- which would be equivalent to checking down the receivers.
so basically youd cycle through to the receiver you want to throw to and use the analog stick to throw, and of course it would be sensitive based. deeper throws means youd hold the anlaog stick in the down motion longer and push up longer before releasing.

in addition dealing with the play clock. its about time subbing in and out packages should be included in the game. I want to see players subbing in and out, because that does take time off the play clock.
this would allow the game to be a bit more tactical. makes the favorite plays playbook feature more relevant, because cycling through plays and subbing packages does take more time.
this could also lead to better representation of delay of game penalties-without having to use that automatic 20 second run off feature

also (EA has this feature already),-make covering the ball when going through a hole, and getting hit by multiple players more important.

those are just a few biggest things that would add to a sim football game. along with some of things other posters have already mentioned.

there was one company that I bet would have been at this stage already.
In addition, the backbreaker series had some nice mechanics and features in their game.
they were doing some groundbreaking stuff-.
Too bad they didnt decide to make a complete football game with some sort of presentation element, and more testing with the camera angles.

[squadron supreme]

Throwing the ball should be route based instead of being able to throw the ball to the receiver at any point in his route even before he makes a cut. The passing game in the modern NFL is about timing, quarterbacks throwing to spots and the receiver being where he is supposed to be. Madden or any other football game will have to redo the trajectory on throws and the intercations between db's and receivers.

[Bad_Intentions]

-I want to see more varied throwing motions and release points/timing...some QB's have quick release like Romo and some are slow windups like Vince Young/Tebow.

-I want the CPU to STOP reading your plays on All-Pro/All-Madden, half of the fun/strategy in football is the playcalling. If you are ramming the ball down their throat, then call a play action pass, it's no fun when the CPU knows it and the play action fools NO ONE on the defense, they just run str8 to the QB without hesitation. Also if you are successfull passing, then call a run play out of a passing formation they are somehow lined up to stop the run! hmmm?? no fun at all b/c you can't get creative with your play calls.

-Someone also mentioned offensive/defensive line interaction. It is totally broken and unrealistic. There is no real sense of a "push" from either line and no real sense of weight/speed when they 2 are colliding.

-Also i am an advocate for more ratings, they author said it best. 2 WR's can be ranked 85 overall, but they should be able to be 2 totally different players in the way they play and things they are good at or bad at. This should also be reflected in actual gameplay.

-Maybe have something like a pocket presence trait, where if your QB's pocket awareness or presence is low then some of the icons for receivers fade and are hard to see except maybe 1 or 2(his 1st 2 reads for the given play, or even 1 if he is known to lock onto a receiver).

-A QB "evade" button or use the right stick for this. QB's like Big Ben, Romo, Rodgers are masters of evading the rush and keeping their eyes downfield. If a defender is closing in a flick of the stick triggers a spin move, shoulder dip, or shrug off of a would-be defender.(I think this is in NCAA and madden12 but not exactly sure, I haven't played it in months)

-Option to Double team a defensive lineman....also modify playbook to chip block him with TE's or RB's

-Having a more realistic pass rush, this goes along with lineman interaction.

-Also Madden 12, during pass plays if there is no one for a lineman to block he won't engage in a double team block, he'll just stand there looking crazy.

-I think they just need to overhaul what they have now, go to a new engine and just rebuild the entire game. I know that won't happen, but that's what needs to be done to get this thing more realistic. I don't think I will ever pay full price for another madden again...I only got this years version b/c I was able to get it for free.

-Great article as well, I wish they would take some of these ideas and put them into the game.

[Bad_Intentions]

-Another thing I left out, is blown defensive assignments. Happens every week in the NFL. Players with low awareness ratings should sometimes totally blow assignments. In real life rarely is every player in the position that they are supposed to be in every play. Even good players should sometimes blow an assignment and play man when they should be zoning or something to that effect.

[GameTape]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

No offense to ChrisS, but im not interested in any of those fancy ideas listed in the article, i would be happy enough if we just had the current glaring issues fixed (such as lack of realistic pass rush from DE's).

[Elgin2311]

I think player interaction and qb play are the two biggest issues. I really like to see icon based progression for qbs. its to easy to avoid zone and man,blitzing because everyone likes to spread everyrhing out with four and five wides. With progression you read the defense set your progression as to whos icons you want to come up in your order and depending on how good your qb is the faster the progression. With this it makes it so you can actually fool the opponent into setting the wrong progression and making mistakes. It really replicates the real game both college and pro. As far as line play we need a real physics engine, I like some of the ideas for passing with the analog and the AI

[Profit89]

Competition only helps... look at Fifa vs Pro Evolution Soccer... two great games this year for sports gamers.

[dcal]

Physics - canned animations for player interaction just has to go. The technology is there. I dont think we will see it until the new round of consoles though.

[misterkrabz]

The list of things that are missing from Madden is far too large to list here. However, I see the biggest problem being the development team who works on the game. They don't acknowledge the problems and lack the ability to fix them or improve on them. There is very little vision from them, and they also have an arrogance about them that will prevent them from achieving true success. Even with an exclusive license, a better, more talented development team would be able to reach new heights.

Sorry, but it's the truth. 7 years is plenty long enough to have nailed this game beyond recognition. Instead it's gone backwards in those 7 years. It's downright embarrassing in my opinion.

It's not really worth discussing though, because EA will never relinquish that license nor will the NFL. Each year we will be left with another lackluster effort missing the boat on the key elements of football and will have zero innovation. 2k and Sony will continue to embarrass the developers at Tiburon and they developers at Tiburon will continue to make excuses as to why something CAN'T be done as opposed to believing that things CAN be done.

The people behind madden suck...that includes management and the people who actually do the work. They have destroyed video game football. I miss the good old days of knowing there were 4 or 5 different football games coming out. Now there's only one and it sucks every year. Such a shame.

[RogueHominid]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

Never thought I'd be saying this, but this year's game is almost exactly where I want my football game to be.

Once you figure out what can be done with sliders, coaching schemes, run/pass ratios, and positional priorities within franchise mode, you will see:
-incredibly realistic OL/DL animations (including the elusive edge rush without the patty-cake animations)
-a wide variety of positional player types (corners who hit, corners who don't)
-adaptive AI (the CPU will adjust to the gameplan that you set prior to the game)
-you can even fix WR/DB interaction and get WR to position for the ball better

There's more too, but that's just off the top of my head.

There's already a great pre-season UFDA system and a really dynamic offline mode thanks to DPP and player roles.

I for one don't want to press three buttons and wag a stick to throw the ball. I'm fine with button-based passing that's truly pressure sensitive and that combines well with directional passing.

I would like for QB awareness to be better reflected, but not by a vision cone. I'd rather see a play develop where only the first two reads are visible as icons, and the rest of the route runners are blank, for example, if a guy has poor awareness. He could also perhaps misread routes and sail an out route when the WR was running an in. Stuff like that.

I'd also like to see less freaks of nature in the generated draft classes.

And perhaps lastly, full customization options. I hate that you can't edit body types this year.

All in all, I think this is a helluva game and I really don't get why people bag on it so hard.

[Obnoxious]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

Franchise Mode has been pretty much the same since 07-08 other than minor additions. We need something new and creative.


Physics is a MUST for Madden 13.



That's all I really ask for.

[RogueHominid]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

Franchise Mode has been pretty much the same since 07-08 other than minor additions. We need something new and creative.


Physics is a MUST for Madden 13.



That's all I really ask for.

IDK man. I mean, DPP and player roles are huge this year. Players on hot and cold streaks are really obvious, and I've seen the roles come into effect myself and it's been awesome. Santonio Holmes turned into Super Bowl MVP man vs. the Jets in my Raiders franchise, nabbing two spectacular scoring catches in the 4th to bring the game within reach.

The coaching schemes and positional priorities are also huge.

Were these things all in '07 and '08?

As for physics, everyone wants it but there are too many ideas about how it should work. Weight and momentum matter, but some folks say that if a 250 LB player hits a 190 LB player X outcome should always happen, or should happen at a highly favorable rate for the heavier player.

I don't disagree about height, weight, and speed as relevant factors, but I think it's easy to be too reductive about the possibilities and outcomes of physics based stuff.

I'm happy with appropriate animations. The way I have it set up now, Hillis WILL truck you if you're a DB. He WILL make your life hard if you're a smallish LB. McCoy WILL juke you out of your socks in the open field, and he will make you miss in the hole.

I'm good with all that stuff because it's believable from an animation standpoint.

I'd just like to see them continue to tune what they have. I'd like coaching strategies to work for each team rather than feeding off the user team's; I'd like a fix to the weird UFDA stuff, and perhaps enhance the defensive AI, which can still over blitz on late downs.

[LambertandHam]

Re: Where Football Games Should be in 2011

I'll leave the nuts and bolts to other posters as they have a better handle on the game, but presentation, especially audio wise, needs to be looked at. Dynamic audio, a halftime or weekly highlight show(2K games on the PS2 had this), making the draft something other than text, and other improvements.

My dream would be to get the ball back on a punt, see my offense running on the field, and then hear Gus go "while the offense takes the field, let's go to the studio and see what's happening with Eli Manning".

EA has made steps forward with Madden '12's presentation, but things still feel "flat" at times.