What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

[Papi34]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

Personally, I just want something that looks like watching a game on TV. CFB 25 is far from perfect, but it does a better job than Madden has for years.
My last Madden was ‘23 and the presentation was awful in my opinion. The opening to every game was EXACTLY the same each time. It pissed me off every game before I even got started.

I LOVE how NBA 2K and The Show have things like slow mo replays, relevant commentary/music, and the screen fading to black at the end of a quarter/inning.

Apart from the fun factor, the reason I’m personally loving CFB25 is that I’m always finding myself thinking “Whoa! That’ was pretty cool. Just like a real game!”
Madden is always the exact opposite of this and I think “WTF?”

[Dagan]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

I have to agree with others' mentions in another of today's threads. I'm consistent, though, in my mindset. EA can add all of the fancy presentation and off-field stuff that can be thought of, but at the end of the day, truly, all I personally desire are for the options that allow me great play on the field - what is actual gameplay. As others have previously mentioned, yes, do make presentation pieces easily skippable (give us the skip intro tab) because if I "have" to sit through long-winded intros and presentation, I will just eventually not want to put in the effort of waiting around to "play the game."

Customization options, editing, sliders, settings, uniforms and equipment all equate to playing the game / on the field results. It's obvious that's what we care about most because that's 90% plus of every thread in these forums. Those aspects are exactly a sports game at its core. If you are making a game and don't first focus on those aspects, then you are more suited to do movie visuals or architecture work overall, as those are "looks based end goals" kinds of jobs. Games require the interactive portions more than anything else. It's called gameplay, not game watch. I'm not saying to neglect everything else that graphics and cinematics can offer, but those areas better be what is worked on secondary, third or down the line. For lack of better phrasing, I'm talking about pretty much the difference between modding / polishing a 65 Mustang or a turd.

[Hooe]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

I think a great starting point for refreshing Madden's presentation would be to take the exact same ethos that guided their work for CFB 25 and apply it to Madden — "Every team is someone's favorite team".

There are so many opportunities to present unique NFL team traditions, stadium audio cues, touchdown songs, and whatnot which Madden does not do, at least not consistently. For example, "Bang On The Drum All Day" plays after Packers touchdowns and it's been in and out of Madden for years. Even the Lambeau Leap, the staple touchdown celebration for the Packers for the past three decades, hasn't consistently appeared in Madden.

It's not just the Packers, though, it's every team. And it isn't just licensed music that either has never appeared in Madden (ex. "Renegade" by Styx for the Steelers at the start of the 4th quarter) or comes and goes with each passing Madden game at random. The "In-Com-Plete" chants at Denver, the Gjallahorn at Minnesota, the raising of the 12th man flag in Seattle, the Baltimore Ravens marching band, banging the giant drum and war chant at Kansas City, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders' kick line... the NFL team traditions might not be as consistently visible in NFL broadcasts as they are in college football environments, but they are there, they don't appear in Madden, and adding them back permanently could go a long way to making playing with and against each team feel a bit more individually special.

[Dagan]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

Yeah, licensing music or just simply "trademarked / copyrighted" materials (sounds) has gotten really convoluted the last ten years, though. It's just stupid sometimes. You see it on youtube pretty easily. They have an algorithm to recognize any music, song, TM sounds, etc. and will immediately toss up the copyright information and then some on said video. Do the same thing just taking a snippet of any film or video, and more than half of the time, nothing happens similarly at all.

Ideally, we'd all think that each team / NFL overall owns blanket enough licenses to cover the extended use of the songs played in stadiums to be used in games, but I have seen instances of music being crazy-specific in licensing limits. One site I used to frequent for foley sounds had multiple different tiers of paid licenses for use. A freaking sound effect. Songs and chants being as complicated wouldn't surprise me.

Oddly, I do think that in however many different ways, someone / some group / varying persons does own the licensing to stadium chants. It shouldn't be that way, as it just doesn't make common sense, but at the same time, look at all that Caleb Williams has been able to TM / (c) and still is going after (because he honestly is allowed to). I'll dig into it and look around.

[Dagan]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

Okay. This is a decent example of licensing audio. It probably bears tossing into the cfb25 forums somewhere, too, of course.

https://www.sportslawblondes.com/blog/2017/9/6/4-ways-copyright-law-works-with-respect-to-college-fight-songs

[reverend_heat]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

I think a great starting point for refreshing Madden's presentation would be to take the exact same ethos that guided their work for CFB 25 and apply it to Madden — "Every team is someone's favorite team".

There are so many opportunities to present unique NFL team traditions, stadium audio cues, touchdown songs, and whatnot which Madden does not do, at least not consistently. For example, "Bang On The Drum All Day" plays after Packers touchdowns and it's been in and out of Madden for years. Even the Lambeau Leap, the staple touchdown celebration for the Packers for the past three decades, hasn't consistently appeared in Madden.

It's not just the Packers, though, it's every team. And it isn't just licensed music that either has never appeared in Madden (ex. "Renegade" by Styx for the Steelers at the start of the 4th quarter) or comes and goes with each passing Madden game at random. The "In-Com-Plete" chants at Denver, the Gjallahorn at Minnesota, the raising of the 12th man flag in Seattle, the Baltimore Ravens marching band, banging the giant drum and war chant at Kansas City, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders' kick line... the NFL team traditions might not be as consistently visible in NFL broadcasts as they are in college football environments, but they are there, they don't appear in Madden, and adding them back permanently could go a long way to making playing with and against each team feel a bit more individually special.

Great point, with only 32 teams the workload is obviously so much smaller than the college game for EA, gotta step this aspect up.

[Rules]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

Like to see changing weather during a game. NFL 2k5 had it. Also, like to see other game updates like you guessed it...that is in NFL 2k5. Just seeing other teams struggling or succeeding at halftime and at the end of your own brings the league to life.

[Kramer5150]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

(ex. "Renegade" by Styx for the Steelers at the start of the 4th quarter)

Actually, Renegade is played during the 3rd quarter of every home game..

Now, during the third quarter of every Steelers home game, a video compilation of defensive plays are shown with the utter rocking of "Renegade" in the background.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/84211-the-pittsburgh-steelers-renegade-a-brief-history

The fact still remains though, that this along with everything else mentioned needs to happen.

[Kanobi]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

I'd love to see more drama surrounding injuries, and actual blue tents on the sidelines But that'd also require some sideline reporting (something else Madden's gameday presentation sorely needs).

Have the drama play out over the course of the game depending on severity. We've seen players go to the tent, to the locker room and then return to the game. Meanwhile, other players might exit on a cart.

Bottomline, seeing the same, cheap injury cutscene after so many years hurts immersion. This is one aspect of presentation that, if done right, would be a tremendous boost to gameday realism and overall repayablity.

[nedope]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

Since PS4-Gen i wish AAA sports games would take a big step forward when it comes to presentation, especially when "NEXT GEN" (PS5) was announced...

The only game looks something like a real broadcast TV is MLB the Show, and even this game regressed since the glory days.

I never understand what is so difficult about it to replicate a ESPN broadcast ? I mean this AAA publishers like 2K, EA make millions every year and are not able to give us a true simulation of the sport? ridiculous...we have 2024....

[Dagan]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

Thinking about injury presentation, and per what we know of the NFL not wanting to show a lot, coupled with devs trying to still give us something, I have figured upon just the power of suspense:

Show us the player clinching / writhing just a little - cut scene to all other players reacting however - cut scene to crowd reactions - cut scene to coaches reacting however, likely talking up another player - cut scene back to players reacting more positively, as if the hurt player is moving off field from them - cut scene to crowd reaction again - cut scene of player going into blue tent - (in-between all of these scenes could be different replay angles of what occurred) - finally back to the gameplay. This whole set plays out giving us the drama, realism but also keeps us in suspense of not knowing and not guessing because we don't see the player grab any body part ever. We find out however many plays later, and it won't contradict any of the cut scenes we witnessed.

Obviously, make all of that skippable, as well. Win-win.

[Papi34]

Re: What Would Make Madden 25 Presentation Great?

I remembered one thing that’s been missing since the PS2 days and still irritates the living **** out of me. Why, in 2024, can we not have the player numbers called on penalties???