[spacedog]

Quote: Originally Posted by FaceMask

It's not hating. That term gets used far too often to describe opinions. The fact that any of those things you mentioned are even considered a big deal (with most of them having been done before and better in the past) is more a reflection on how fans have been conditioned to accept mediocrity, and in increments to boot. Those things should've been in Madden 06 when you consider how far football games were ahead prior to the exclusive license disaster. The sky was the limit in 2004. And technically, real-time physics were supposed to be in Madden 06 for 360 as they had started development with Havok, but it failed and never made it into the game. Most of these things could've been done last gen, heck, 2 gens ago in fact (and many were), and its seems fairly obvious that they started scaling back or purposely screwing some things up on last gen so that next gen would stand out. I mean, helmets suddenly going dull the past couple years, and replays being completely butchered, neither being patched, and then suddenly seeing both things appear magically returned to their past state on XB1/PS4, makes it pretty clear what they were doing. If Tiburon wanted to convince us they were really trying, they would've taken the time to rebuild this game rather than continue on with its incremental tweaking operation that's now almost 10 years running of an outdated engine. ------- All of the above being said, Madden 25 plays a lot better after the patches. Same can be said for the last gen version. But people buying Madden regularly have to be frustrated by how it takes months waiting on patches for the game to play respectably, and even then there are often tons of issues. The low sales numbers are a good indication that people have had enough, and if the sales remain on its current projection there is going to be some major personnel fallout. Like Madden 11 level fallout. Nobody connected with Madden or the NFL can be pleased with the knowledge that a Basketball game (even with all of its problems) is neck-and-neck sales-wise on XB1/PS4 with an NFL licensed football game in a rabidly NFL football-hungry country and has outsold Madden on consoles in some years (NBA 2K13 over Madden 13). It doesn't even sound possible, but it is actually happening.

I don't know, I hear what you're saying that this stuff should have been in earlier. But now that they do put it in, people say they're not trying because they should have had it in earlier? So they should just not put those key features in then? We've seen what happened last time they rebuilt an engine, it's taken them this long to get it to start working like it should. The foundation for a good football game is starting to develop in my opinion, if they were to start over they'd more than likely set themselves back quite a bit. That's my opinion though, some may not think this is a good foundation, which would explain where many people are coming from. But to me I think they are trying, and it isn't some insignificant effort.

This Madden plays better to me than pretty much any of the past gen, it's not perfect of course lol but it's a strong start. Would it be best if they got it right years ago? Of course, but they didn't, and they're trying to fix it now, so I don't think its necessary that some keep shutting down the game saying they're not trying or that it's trash when I don't think either assessment is fair or correct. I'd have a bigger problem if they tried what 2k is trying and gave us a game that took away lots of features people enjoyed and tried to force modes, VC, etc. on every mode, basically ruining it for lots of players. The main thing 2k has going for it is that it looks great and plays prettying great as well. But look at the forums, many hardcore fans aren't too thrilled with the direction it seems to be heading in. Anyway Madden 15 and NBA 2k15 are going to have arguably one of their most important games in years. I think Madden is headed in the right direction, we'll see next year.