The un-official "Top 25 must-haves" list

[Ian_Cummings]

So it's been a little over 3 weeks since Madden released, and I'm sure all of you have had plenty of hands-on time with the game, enough to form an opinion on what you'd like to see added to deliver a perfect football game experience. After personally reading what seems to be thousands upon thousands of threads, I thought it would be worthwhile to post what seems to be the most talked about issues from the community. This is of course only my opinion based on the things that I feel like I end up reading most often.

I had an idea though. To make this a little more interesting and compelling and different from normal wishlist threads, let's pretend that you're the new Assistant to the Lead Designer.





In this role, you can only fix/change/add 25 items. So if you want to add something that's not on this list, make sure you list what you'd replace. Of course if you agree wholly with this as the top 25, please feel free to post that too.

On to the list!

Presentation & Graphics
1. More real-life atmosphere & emotion: sidelines, injuries with trainers, chain gang measurements, referees, etc.
2. Make every game feel different: pre-game and post-game celebrations, blow out big games (i.e. pre-season should feel way different than the playoffs), better Super Bowl celebrations
3. Collinsworth = good, Hammond = not so much: Hammond comes across too robotic with too much stitching. He needs to be replaced or re-recorded.
4. More animated gear: towels, handwarmers, chin straps
5. Degradation: sliding marks in the snow, better field degradation

Gameplay / Animation
1. Deliver a more compelling 1-player experience - fix CPU play-calling bugs, make them much better at running the ball, get rid of "robo-QB", have them adapt and change to match what you are running
2. More sliders and options - CPU sliders, game speed, fatigue, injuries
3. OL/DL re-vamp - Edge rushing, more double teams, more accurate chips, less "suction", true pocket forming
4. WR/DB re-vamp - More interaction downfield, better head tracking, only play the ball that you see
5. Signature styles & animations: Passing, running, kicking, etc
6. Much more animation variety: More tackles, catches, swats; replace animations that have been around for a long time
7. Gang tackles: More of them, make them better, add more players
8. New ratings, make existing ratings matter more: Along with making them more prevalent, also possibly expose what each one actually does. New QB ratings are highly requested
9. Re-vamp kicking: Universally agreed that it's too automatic and not very stressful.
10. Make user-catching easier: With the removal of strafe catching, many people are struggling to user catch and would like it to be balanced so you can still "go up and get it"

Game Modes
1. Online Franchise: Self Explanatory
2. Better / More Robust Franchise Progression: Self Explanatory
3. More Franchise features and new UI: General consensus is just to focus a bunch more time and add more new stuff that was similar to what was in legacy gen. The mode feels un-touched, and everyone wants a big update
4. Remove the fluff, focus on the core: Things like rings & trophies, agents & emails in superstar, and weekly training drills in Franchise aren't well liked and aren't heavily used by the community
5. Highlight Show in Franchise: See NFL 2k5...but make it better

General
1. 100% perfect stability
2. Open (or closed) beta testing
3. Custom Cameras
4. Defensive Assignments
5. In-Game Saves



Again a quick disclaimer: This is not MY top 25 list...this is what I personally feel is the COMMUNITY's top 25 list based on what I read most often. If you don't want to contribute to this hopefully compelling and interesting exercise (I can already see people posting "why do we have to narrow it to 25?!?!?"), your post will be deleted in order to keep the thread clean.

Thanks guys - can't wait to see the responses!

Ian

[Jono078]

Wow, that's awesome TheFuture15!

You've been reading and listening well

One of the parts I like in that which is a small one is custom camera, especially for Superstar mode, I find myself holding R2 (when im QB in superstar mode) then snapping the ball so I can see the wide receivers at all times.

I got chills going down my spine reading that. If 80% of those things make it to Madden 10, that'd be unreal.

1 request I would add/fix is User profiles and stats. I liked Madden 04's style where I could see my average passing game through each game, totals etc, and also have profiles for friends to compare to and for them to use each time they play.

I underestimated how much you read and listen, good job.

[RAZRr1275]

Love the Dwight Schrute Pic. And don't forget, it's the Assistant to the lead designer . And what you listed pretty much sums it up. Only thing I can think of that's not there are team sliders like in nba 2k8

-Short, Middle, and Deep pass tendency for players and teams (and of course with that you would have a short, medium, and deep throw power and accuracy rating for QB's)

-Blitz frequency and that sort of thing.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jono078

Wow, that's awesome TheFuture15! You've been reading and listening well One of the parts I like in that which is a small one is custom camera, especially for Superstar mode, I find myself holding R2 then snapping the ball so I can see the wide receivers at all times. I got chills going down my spine reading that. If 80% of those things make it to Madden 10, that'd be unreal. 1 request I would add/fix is User profiles and stats. I liked Madden 04's style where I could see my average passing game through each game, totals etc, and also have profiles for friends to compare to and for them to use each time they play. I underestimated how much you read and listen, good job.

Custom cameras is #3 in the general list.

Ok, for User Profiles & Stats - what would you remove to add that in?

[RGiles36]

I'd be a happy man if that was the feature list for Madden 2010!

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by RAZRr1275

Love the Dwight Schrute Pic. And don't forget, it's the Assistant to the lead designer . And what you listed pretty much sums it up. Only thing I can think of that's not there are team sliders like in nba 2k8 -Short, Middle, and Deep pass tendency for players and teams (and of course with that you would have a short, medium, and deep throw power and accuracy rating for QB's) -Blitz frequency and that sort of thing.

Alright Dwight, what would you remove to add those?

[BrianFifaFan]

Great list so far, took liberty of sticking this bad boy.

[Jono078]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheFuture15

Custom cameras is #3 in the general list. Ok, for User Profiles & Stats - what would you remove to add that in?

Sorry, I guess the rings and trophies.

They have some stats but are bit all over the place and not very accessible and easy to compare like they were as in Madden 04.