EA Sports is currently
livestreaming Madden NFL 15, detailing the presentation and graphics. (Note: As of 3:30 PM EST, the stream has now ended. We'll effort an archived version soon!)
UPDATE: Click here to watch the archived stream.
(It takes some time to load...)
Here are some thoughts on the stream today:
- The halftime show is definitely improved and of good quality. The problem will be most will find it perfectly skippable, but there aren't any real cases where a halftime show is must-see TV, even in real-life. It's sponsored by Verizon, so there's that.
- Commentary was ok, you didn't hear much of it due to the dev commentary over the gameplay, but it seemed to flow a bit better. We won't know anything about that until a later date.
- Coaches have unique body types and head models, so they do look better. Coaches we saw today (Reid, Tomlin mainly) were definitely a step up.
- Celebrations and such definitely are smoother/more aware of the context they're happening in since they happen within the gameplay itself and not a loaded cut-scene. Still some wonky instances but overall better.
- The developers talked about equipment a bit. The new uniforms for each team are going to be in, and uniform/helmet degradation are in as well.
- Switching of cameras was very smooth, definitely a huge improvement there.
- Sidelines are much busier now, more people on them, etc. They still don't look perfect, but from where we were to where we are now, huge improvement.
- Overall the presentation is quite good in-game this year, it definitely has a new layer of polish on it that wasn't there last year. It's not perfect, but clearly its taken yet another leap ahead this season.
What did you think of the stream?