The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

[Jim Jones]

No knock on the current Madden team, who I do believe put out a very good football game this year, but the Vision Cone was truly a revolutionary, ahead of its time concept that came from a team that truly wanted to make the game better and most importantly, MORE CHALLENGING for sim players. No feature before or since has asked more of its users than that feature did.

The fact of the matter is, that when you are controlling the CPU QB, it's nearly impossible to feel the difference between a great QB and a mediocre QB. Sure, take a 99 overall like Aaron Rodgers and compare him to Tavaris Jackson and you see a difference, but in general if you are controlling the QB in a football game, the QB is going to perform about as well as you perform.

It's a shame that so many people complained and got it taken out. I'm sorry to make another thread about it as I know there have been many over the years, but I haven't been following them that closely. Has EA/Madden devs ever commented about it publicly in recent years? Is there any shot of it ever being introduced back into the game, even as a secondary option that users can toggle on or off depending on if they want to use it or not?

[stp2081]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

Has EA/Madden devs ever commented about it publicly in recent years? Is there any shot of it ever being introduced back into the game, even as a secondary option that users can toggle on or off depending on if they want to use it or not?

Unfortunately, no, no, and no.

EDIT: The most recent comment, AFAIK, was an April 1, 2009 "joke" about a new version of the cone being put back into the game. http://www.operationsports.com/forum...back-play.html

[kiddlex]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

No knock on the current Madden team, who I do believe put out a very good football game this year, but the Vision Cone was truly a revolutionary, ahead of its time concept that came from a team that truly wanted to make the game better and most importantly, MORE CHALLENGING for sim players. No feature before or since has asked more of its users than that feature did.

The fact of the matter is, that when you are controlling the CPU QB, it's nearly impossible to feel the difference between a great QB and a mediocre QB. Sure, take a 99 overall like Aaron Rodgers and compare him to Tavaris Jackson and you see a difference, but in general if you are controlling the QB in a football game, the QB is going to perform about as well as you perform.

It's a shame that so many people complained and got it taken out. I'm sorry to make another thread about it as I know there have been many over the years, but I haven't been following them that closely. Has EA/Madden devs ever commented about it publicly in recent years? Is there any shot of it ever being introduced back into the game, even as a secondary option that users can toggle on or off depending on if they want to use it or not?

I agree with you. The vision cone was amazing, and better represented the differences between a Manning and a Cassell. If you watch an nfl game many times you will see open guys missed because as the qb goes through the progressions he never looks in that direction. Imagine how much xp youd use trying to get qb awareness up to increase the cone size.

Id love to see it come back for us sim players.

[roadman]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

There has been plenty of discussion on this subject the last few years.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...iscussion.html

It was a polorizing feature that I doubt will make a comeback.

[Jim Jones]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

I agree with you. The vision cone was amazing, and better represented the differences between a Manning and a Cassell. If you watch an nfl game many times you will see open guys missed because as the qb goes through the progressions he never looks in that direction. Imagine how much xp youd use trying to get qb awareness up to increase the cone size.

Id love to see it come back for us sim players.

This is a great point. I guarantee that if you fire up M13 right now, you can't really see a difference between using Peyton Manning or Matt Cassel.

[DeuceDouglas]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

This is a great point. I guarantee that if you fire up M13 right now, you can't really see a difference between using Peyton Manning or Matt Cassel.

I think it hinges more on the settings. If you're playing on rookie, you're not going to see a huge difference. Heck, if you're playing on All Pro you're not going to see a huge difference. If you get a nice set of settings, you'll definitely be able to tell the difference.

[js3512]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

The problem with the vision cone was simply that it was ahead of its time. I think if it came out today for the first time it be received much better. Personally, and I don't like motion controls much, but I'd like to see the cone brought back using the kinect and ps move camera to track the users eyes. Where your eyes go, the cone goes, when you spot someone open, you simply throw. You could also make defenses read qbs eyes using this.

[jfsolo]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

There has been plenty of discussion on this subject the last few years.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...iscussion.html

It was a polarizing feature that I doubt will make a comeback.

OS has a few vocal supporters of the feature, but I wouldn't call vision cone polarizing. If 85-90% of the people playing a game hate a feature then universally despised is a better categorization.

[tfctillidie]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

The idea is sorely needed, the original execution was terrible though and likely has forever doomed the possibility. Sad really.

Madden will forever be Madden until QB's eyes are not located 200ft above their heads.

[RLaguna]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

The concept of the vision cone can just as easily be applied to glowing icons without the added controller step placed on the user (which was why it never caught on in the first place....too much controller responsibility placed on the user during that small window of pressure which then actually turned the game into a challenge of who was most coordinated, not most sim savvy)


The higher the QB Awareness Rating, the Brighter the icon glow, the quicker to glow upon receiver separation, or even a combination of both......Problem solved with no added burden placed on the gamer.

btw, No charge for this one EA...consider it a freebie

[coke hogan]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

aren't there interviews out there stating, that this idea was created by someone on the marketing team and not the devs?

[brandon27]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

I hated it. There's just not enough time to use it effectively I thought. It was duplication, I use my eyes to find the open WR, then I have to use the stick to show my QB where to throw to? Come on... I already know where I want to throw the ball. Im the one playing the game. Im the one controlling the players. Why make me see it, and then force my QB to see it, then throw it. Just didnt make sense to me.

[mr_president]

Good idea horribly implemented.
The vision cone as it were was a perepheal representation. In no way did it rep field vision which happens more in the pre snap than the post.

I enjoyed read and lead from NFL fever more.

Sent from the Outter Limits using Tapatalk

[Iceman87GT]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

I remember playing Madden 08 for the PSP, I was spending some practice points on a QB (Jared Zabranski, you could sign a practice squad of 5 players I believe and then pretty much jack up their ratings by completing easy drills), and I asked my friend if I should add some to the extremely low AWR rating, he asked me if the vision cone was in the game, I replied no and he said don't bother.

I loved the vision cone in Madden 06 for the PS2, if you didn't have a QB with a high awareness you had to plan out your plays accordingly (deciding how long you spend on the primary receiver before moving to the next guy, and which guys you would look to before making the decision on who to throw to).

I remember doing a Packers franchise, after year 1 Favre retired no matter how many times I re-simmed the end of the season. Rodgers was the back-up but there was a QB who's ratings were ridiculous (91 accuracy and 96 throw power, if I remember correctly), his awareness was really low but I traded up in the draft to get him because Rodgers had not progressed much in the first year and I wasn't interested in trying to develop him. I had plenty of fun with the new guy but the game definitely played differently with him because of his awareness.

I'd love for them to bring it back, make it optional so those who want it can use it without affected those who don't. It makes rebuilding a team and/or the transition to a new QB much more realistic, in terms of representing the difference in QB play.

[N51_rob]

Re: The Vision Cone was the most revolutionary sports video game feature EVER

I liked the vision cone, but the mechanic was too cumbersome. Then EA bailed on it before they got the chance to refine it. I liked the fact that it represented "progression" aspect of the passing game. It clearly could've been refined and tweaked to be a great "tool" for users who wanted to replicates some of the difficulty of "real" passing.