[BreakingBad2013]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

So for the sake of not being an ignorant critic, I caved the other day and played through the entire "The Journey" in FIFA 17. Now, even moreso, it just doesn't make sense to me in the same way the Spike Lee NBA 2k thing didn't. It is a cliche-ridden, over-written, and disjointed experience of ham-fisted cut-scenes with dialogue trees, some generic in-engine stuff, and slightly abridged standard gameplay with additional targets and scripting/game shaping elements overriding the usual experience. Now, even if it is a groundbreaking interactive movie experience—I don't think I want that in Madden. I just don't see the value from a game design standpoint or an artistic one. Now, I believe "The Journey" was well-received, but to me, it still feels like the mania everyone had over impressive FMV in the PS1 era, and that wore thin rather quickly, and people realized it was a rather hollow experience when the awe wore off. Is this type of mode really going to bring new customers into the series? Is there a swath of casuals out there who think Madden is too open-ended and unwieldy for their tastes, but they'd be in if they could play an interactive football movie? I'm skeptical. Purpose-built narrative and cinematic games have a tough enough time producing valuable contributions to the medium, and the standouts are few and far between. It might not be a valid interpretation of the allocation process for Madden's development, but there are so many other things I'd like to see improve that are related to the football and NFL football world simulation aspects of the product. Instead we get a big budget football video game dialogue tree movie.

I think the only impact longshot will have on madden, is devs teating the market with new mechanics, that they're too afraid to put in the full game at launch.