OT - Madden '11 May Be A "Game Changer"
ESPN gives the game a First Look and it looks like EA might be releasing a game that might finally be worth calling "new." New play-calling screens, controls and a brand-new focus on being a field general rather than scheme memorization that the writer describes as a "make or break" departure:
The difference? Try one of the biggest gambles in EA Sports history, as "Madden" designers have completely changed the play-calling system to incorporate offensive and defensive coordinators actually telling you what plays to run over the headset. After that, it's up to you to execute.
That's right: If you use the new GameFlow feature, you leave the play calling in the hands of the AI, cutting game time in half by simply eliminating the back-and-forth decision-making and sorting of menus to find the right formation.
Of course if you don't want to be told what's coming up you can "audible" out of the huddle and select a new play but this is pretty huge. What's more, the gameplay focuses more on overall attributes and less on guys who are able to do bubble screens 40 times in a row with their ridiculously fast RB/WR.
Once the play is called, football fans will recognize immediately that the game they've grown up mastering has completely changed in terms of player control, speed, acceleration and movement. These changes have made every aspect feel like a completely different experience. No longer is it about the guy with 99 speed. Now players with high agility will be able to cut better and take better angles to get to the ball. Players with high acceleration, such as Chris Johnson, will be able to burst through a hole that a guy like LenDale White will watch close before his virtual eyes.
In addition, although all movement, acceleration and turning is based off left-stick movement, all offensive moves have now been mapped to the right analog stick, enabling ball carriers to juke, high step, truck and spin as gamers flick the stick in different directions. This also enables runners to combine moves, as gamers might juke right, spin back left, then high-step over the outstretched arms of a defender.
Better graphics. Better AI. One of the first "new" Maddens in years. Drew Brees on the cover.
I'm sold.
Sounds like it definitely has potential. Let's hope this isn't QB Vision 2.0.
Sounds awesome. Madden is a must buy for me just so I can destroy shit with Suh and the Pain Train. Jared Allen's mullet should have been on the cover though.
April 30th, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^
without him in jorts is improper. in fact...
Try, try, try to separate them, it's an illusion.
Try, try, try and you only come to this conclusion
Drew Brees had to be on it. to maintain balance in the world.
that the real "Madden players" (Think Madden Nation) will bypass the new feature and do "what they want to do."
NCAA football and I'm in.
NCAA already has some of the features. If you play the campus legend mode, you have no control over play calling, just like they're bringing to Madden.
They've also said they're going to do the same stat realism in NCAA. Now a guy with 90 acceleration and 99 top speed wont be better off the line than a guy with 99 acceleration and 90 top speed.
So you're going to want to actually pay attention to those other stats now. About time.
I'm skeptical about the right stick move thing. It's been pretty shaky in NCAA. Especially on the defensive line. You flick that stick all day, and the offensive line just man handles you quite often.
to call my plays? Half of the fun is finding an offense with plays that you are good at running successfully, and using them to FkShUp. I have always prefered the NCAA football to madden, and that will probably never change. The running game in Madden is a joke, and so is the way they block in the interior line. Madden is for kids that like to bomb the ball all day...
April 30th, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
I took this comment three ways...
#1 It IS fun to find an offense to work with that suits your playing style to take it online. However, most of the online play consists of, like the OP said, 40 bubble screens to a speed guy. Or playing as the Eagles with Vick at QB.
#2 The playbook is too complex for a 'speed' game of Madden. So unless you really study all 30 team's playbooks, or you like to play really long games of Madden, picking every play can be a chore. I mean honestly, how many times do you think that your 13th play of the game is going to be in the shotgun with putting Calvin Johnson in the slot as the hot route running a fly pattern?
#3 Or, you do study the playbook of a team you are most comfortable with and know exactly what plays are easy to execute. Like running an out route every single down. Which would be the absolute most boring way to play if you ask me.
I always used the 'Ask Madden' feature to call plays. Although it doesn't switch players positions (like putting CJ in the slot) it does give you a nice variety of plays to choose from. It also keeps you from choosing the same plays over and over again. Plus I get lazy when I play and I don't want to waste my time picking plays that the CPU can do for me anyways. So this 'new' feature is basically 'Ask Madden' with a new name.
April 30th, 2010 at 12:24 PM ^
if they don't do situational substitutions based upon the play called this won't be worth a damn thing. it's really frustrating to not have Reggie Bush in the slot or back as a halfback in Madden '10 because he's the #2 back, even though in real life he's used as both regularly and that i don't want to take Pierre Thomas out to put Bush in and take the 3 minutes to substitute every damn play
Haven't bought a Madden in a while. I might have to change that now, thanks.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^
There have been more than a few posts related to EA games on this site that have the distinct feel of marketing. I don't inted to besmirch the name of a distinguished poster like Geaux_Blue, but I think some suspicion is warranted. Madden has a tenuous relevance to this site, and NCAA Football an obvious one, but there was a Gears of War 3 post a while back (EA publishes the products of developer Epic Games) that was similarly suspicious.
Also, Madden has been basically the same since they introduced Franchise mode for the first time on N64.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:23 AM ^
and that you are joking regarding the marketing.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^
I like video games as much as the next guy, I just think some of these posts are presented like promotional material.
Not that it's a big deal either way.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:48 AM ^
Actually, a company did attack Scout's boards a year or two ago. If I'm not mistaken, it was 2k.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:58 AM ^
If it were happening, that would be a testament to the popularity and cachet of mgoblog.
But, again, I'm not saying it's certain, or even likely, and I'm not singling out this post (much less this poster). But occasionally I get the feeling I'm the target of a marketing effort, and every time that happens on this site, it is in a post about an EA game.
April 30th, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^
i think it's safe to say i was doing bored browsing and was interested by the topic. suffice to say, the response has warranted the post. it's not like i'm a computer auto-posting to integrate myself into the community and then casually subvert the other video game companies out there with virile marketing targeted towards EA sports.
April 30th, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^
Loading. Updating Mission Parameters. Destroy Laveranues. Parameters Flawed. Blue Screen. Rebooting. Ctrl+Alt+Del. C:\>upboot.exe. Cue:chime.wav. Loading. Initialize Level 1 Intrusion.
We posters here at MGoBlog have many varied interests. Just because we love Michigan sports doesn't mean we don't also enjoy video games, homebrew beer, unnerving Jim Schwartz quotes, and other sources of awesomeness.
Edit: I was reminded by another post that Jared Allen's jorts are also a source of awesomeness not to be overlooked.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^
I hate to be a wet blanket...
But you are naive if you can't see this for what it is: a thinly-veiled attempt to appeal to the "casual" gaming market.
The corporate masters at EA weren't satisfied with their already gargantuan market penetration. They asked themselves, "why wouldn't someone pick up Madden?" And then they decided that the complex menus and formations were too confusing for a certain demographic (see also: fucktards).
So instead of actually giving a shit about their loyal players and improving their experience, they are instead looking to expand to an even BROADER demographic by spoon-feeding the user plays to sell more units, thus absolving them from the oh-so-confusing task of choosing a formation and a suitable play.
And then they have the balls to say that this will somehow make the game even "deeper"! In fact, that's the tagline for the game: "Quicker. Simpler. Deeper". If you know anything about gaming, you know these three things are almost always mutually-exclusive.
Fuck you, EA. Fuck the fact that you have the same canned tackling animations year-in-and-year-out. Fuck your gimmicks and your continual assertions that "this year will be different". Fuck your cynical hype-machine. Your greed will be your undoing: By going after EVERY gaming demographic, you will eventually alienate the very people who enjoy your product in the first place.
Soon, a truly innovative football sim (even without the NFL license) will come and undercut the hell out of your sales. I can't wait.
/rant
April 30th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^
I couldn't agree more. If this happens to NCAA, I will be really choked.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:43 AM ^
at fucktards. Seriously, well said.
Madden has devolved into a pretty fixed market of players (particularly the online) and I suspect EA is looking at their demographics of buyers and said: "oh crap, these damn kids are all buying skateboard games and that goddamned god of war...we should market the Madden better"
April 30th, 2010 at 10:30 AM ^
Last year's version looked pretty sweet, but I passed. This sounds cool, but I'll wait for the final verdict.
They charge $60 for the game and then inundate you with in-game advertisements
Alternatively, I enjoy playing NCAA2010 and actually learning a play book or two, specifically the GTech flexbone playbook. Get 4-6 key plays, assign them to your audibles, and learn some hot routes. You'll be able to do massive amounts of changes out of your base sets.
In April they always hype up their games so much and say how different it is. Then I buy the game in the summer and it's the exact same thing as the last year.
Its possible to actually make the outcome of a Madden game count for the official team standings, I'm holding out. Either that, or they integrate Grand Theft Auto and gamers have the option of putting semi-automatic weapons into the hands of the defense. That'll keep Virtual Glenn Winston out of the end zone.
I'm not a gamer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those screen shots shown in the article not actually part of the game play, but rather just used for replays and stuff?