[Jerros]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

Wow factor... What is the wow factor in a sports game? To me, the WOW factor comes into play when I see something that resembles real life so closely that you can't believe that they included it in the game. I'll give a couple of examples of things that wowed me in the past. Years ago, I was playing a football game online against a friend. I called a screen play and I was trying to wait to throw it. I scrambled and managed to get the screen off. My HB caught the pass and I followed my brigade of lineman to the end zone for a 60 yard TD. Or so I thought... While I was running, I saw flags hit the field (yes, flags actually hit the field). Ineligible receiver downfield! Both of us had to pause and talk about how cool that was for at least 10 minutes. Instance number 2. Playing the same friend online, I drop back to pass and complete a 20 yard seam pass to my TE. First down - but again, flags everywhere. I had kept my halfback in to block, but what I noticed was that while my left tackle was engaged with the RDE, my HB went and took out the legs of the DE. Chop Block! My reaction? "Are you kidding me?!!! That's in the game??? That's awesome!!". Instance 3: Playing a friend online. Pass is thrown deep down the left sideline. My corner is trailing in good position but while the ball is in the air, he pulls up grabs his hamstring, stumbles, limps and goes to the ground. TD! My corner pulled his hamstring on the play! Now - do any of these things sound like ground breaking occurrences when it comes to the game of football? Are any of these things something that were invented by the World of Warcraft development team? They create the WOW factor because they are elements that I see happen in REAL LIFE. When I see my corner drop back into a zone, never even touch the receiver as he goes through my zone, then stand flat footed covering an empty patch of grass, the game has already lost me and my interest. When my middle linebacker drops back into the back of the end zone when the ball is inside the 10 and he lets the TE run WIDE OPEN in front of me without even an attempt at coverage in the zone the game has already lost me. When my linebacker blitzes and instead of running through the gap he's supposed to, he takes a direct path into a blocker, the game has already lost me. All of these things are still happening in Madden in 2014, yet all 3 of the instances of the items I mentioned above are completely absent from the game. Couple that with the fact that Tiburon is telling me that this is the most authentic, smartest and best playing Madden ever, how can anyone take this game seriously? Sent from my KFAPWI using Tapatalk

I couldn't agree more. This is a good example of how the game has been stripped down over the years. Sadly, a lot of diehard Madden fans enjoy the fact that linebackers take poor pursuit angles and pathing. They love the money plays and cheap exploits which is what makes Madden arcadey to begin with.

I remember when football video games had a lot of authentic elements like the flags thrown and actual penalties called like late hits on the field or out of bounds. But those versions of the game we're referring to were created when Madden had competition that forced them to add these elements if they wanted to keep up. But back to your point, you are absolutely right. Wow factor additions would be to make the game play and flow like real football. For me, I would love to see them just rebuild the entire thing from the ground up. Get some real players into the studio and have them replicate true football moves and play styles. How awesome would it be to see Adrian Peterson running like Adrian Peterson. Or to see J.J. Watt for the Texans playing like himself deflecting passes and wreaking havoc. This is 2014, I don't think its too much to ask to have individual player animations. Also, I'd love to see the flags thrown on the field again. I remember when Madden had replays on penalties showing which player actually did the crime and how they did it. Where did that go. What about adding a REAL halftime show where during halftime you were shown highlights from games around the league. There was a version of Madden that had a similar feature where at the end of your game, it would take you to the last few minutes of a game still in progress. That was amazing at the time. Where did innovations like that go? The chain gang use to actually run out on the field. So many things that got stripped away for no good reason. Now we just get the same game over and over. EA needs to change their slogan from "Its in the game" to "It use to be in the game".