Full game w/ EA Designers (Colts vs. Vikings)

[Boregard]

Tons of positives from the video, but here are my top 3.

1. Substitutions - Great, and glad they went over the top and allow you to do them in the play call screen!!!

2. Game Speed - I would rather it be too fast than too slow!

3. Commentary - The "nameless radio guy" got his pink slip - THANK GOD!!!

Negatives

1. Oline vs Dline interaction - as mentioned before it looks better than 08, but still needs work. This would be a great "point of emphasis" for Madden 2010!

2. Special Teams - still want return left/right/middle and reverse/fake reverse. Punt coverage/ blocking still needs to be improved. Kick meter should be used to determine the amount of time the play takes from snap to kick. As soon as you pull back the stick the ball should be snapped, that way if you miss at the top you run a higher risk of the attempt being blocked. On an extra point/ short field goal you should want to stop the meter at about 70 - 75% power so that the kick gets off quickly from snap to foot. The more power you put into the kick the longer the time would be from snap to foot.

3. The Blocking - The blockers still look like they are puppeting off the ball carrier. The blockers should indepently "seek out and engage" defenders. There is no reason that the RB turning left should affect the blocker in front of him because the blocker cannot see out the back of his helmet, even if he had eyes in the back of his head (which I am fairly certain is no the case to begin with)! This may be very difficult to accomplish, but needs to be the goal of both the Madden and NCAA dev teams.
I also still see instances of the blockers engaging the wrong guy or passing the first defender to block downfield and that is the most agravating feeling in all of Madden!

4. User catch vs DBs - I have heard the SPCs were too powerful in 08, and while I agree, I think the biggest factor in that was the lack of control/tightness and issues with switching to the defender.
I have always wondered why EA does not take better advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the controllers. Does X360 not have this???
I think that if you tap the triangle button you should get an "in stride" animation. If you press slightly harder, but still fairly quickly you should get a moderate jump catch, and if you press and hold the button as you approach the "arrival point" of the ball you should get the feeling from the annimation that the WR, or who ever, is gathering to go up and get the ball. Now this obviously has to take into account the player's JMP rating, the higher that rating the higher you can go (within reason) and the longer you can hold the button. Now to make it a risk vs reward - if you hold the button too long the player should go into a stumble or slip animation. The way you allow the D to counter is you tune the defender to "play the reciever", delivering the hit in a well timed manor if the user playing D does not switch. The counter for the guy who does switch should work the same as the offensive user with both the "swat" and the "int" button and it should be tuned to give the "swat" a higher chance of success. This is the way to go because it allows the user to feel as though they have control.
I do not think of these as being spectacular catches. To me, a spectacular catch is a 1 handed grab, a diving catch, a jump up behind the DB and pull the ball out from his grasp and over his head type catch (think TO alone in end zone early last year, or B. Lloyd catch that's on Best Damn 50 catches, or well you get my point). Those spectacular catches should only be triggered by a non user animation! I would also like to see the user dive catch make a comeback. It would require tuning of course, but the main area I am envisioning would be at the sidelines with the pressure sensitivity in play here as well, in relation to getting your feet down or dragging your toe etc etc.

5. Controls - although this is not derived from the video, I have to say my piece.
When the Madden 09 Anniversary package drops Aug 12th (I want the Head Coach play creator), I will have spent around $320 on EA next gen titles. Add that to the nearly $900 I have spent on the PS3 (60 GB backwards compatible) and extra controllers/ accessories and I have spent about $1200 to play, almost exclusively, Madden (I buy NCAA for draft classes)!
I bought the PS3 because they kept the controller from PS2 and the Madden controls on that system were nearly perfect. Those controls are the single greatest "user to game" interface in the history of video games, hands down!!!
In the next gen you made a great move and brought back the "user hurdle", but that could have been accomplished within the aforementioned system. You make triangle the hurdle, and you move "cover ball" to holding both L2 & R2 at the same time. i do not want to hear about other EA Sports titles using the trigger for speed, or how the game is "tuned" to one set of controls. I am not asking you to take out the "next gen" controls or take away the L stick moves. I am pleading with you to give us "preconfigured" PS2 controls as an option!

6. D Hot routes/ Playmaker system - The next gen version of this makes it almost worthless. You have to select the guy, hit a button, remember which stick to move, and which direction to move that stick. You eliminated one of the coolest features ever added to the game; the ability to press WR 1, and play off WR 2, and "shade" the TE to the inside. The last gen system for this was intuitive, logical, and allowed you to do more. Yes, that PS2 system required you to select players in certain instances, but you did not have to hit a button once you got there. The greatest thing about the D "playmaker" was it allowed you to counter so much of the "cheese" that you encountered both offline and online!

7. Oline shift/ slide protection - I heard that this is in Madden 09, can you confirm?
I also have an idea to expand this feature. Let's say you are playing the Falcons and thus far R. Coleman is killing you up the middle. You come to the LOS hit "line audible" and you have up, down, left, right for slide left/right and pinch/fan and let us say that R3 is cancel. But that leaves 2 shoulder buttons, 2 triggers, and 4 face buttons. That means 8 buttons for up to 8 guys " in the box", How perfect!?! When you hit "line audible" the Dlineman and any back seven players "in the box" would have icons displayed above their heads. If you select a Dlineman "icon" that would indicate a "called double team" and any other "icon" would indicate that you are "reading" he is blitzing and the oline/ TE or RBs who are assigned to block need to account for that player.
God I am good!!!

I am really looking forward to Madden 09. I really appreciate that the guys at EA have come out in the community to get feedback and comment with us about the game. It shows a desire and dedication that some thought was not there. I know that Ian has personally pulled me off the fence and I have pre-ordered and already paid for Madden 09!!!

[bears5122]

I didn't play all of the videos but the game seemed to play a little too fast. Maybe that's just me but I'd be happier with it toned down just a tad. Maybe there is a game speed slider though that is in there.

[jrivera34]

The GOOD:
1. I like the stadium intro in the beginning.
2. Commentary is much better than that annoying radio guy.
3. Graphically the game looks sharper and smoother.

The BAD:
1. The crowd is flat and this takes so much away from the game. On Manning's first TD pass, we should hear the boo's rain down. The crowd reaction did not change at all. Is it really that hard to program a crowd?
IF home team scores THEN cheer, yell, scream
IF away team scores THEN boo
Part of the problem is that the crowd sounds like they are under water. Since EA has access to everything NFL, can't they use the actually crowd sounds that we hear during Sunday broadcasts?
2. The game is so fast that we don't get a chance to enjoy any new animations or get an appreciation for seeing a play develop.
3. The overall atmosphere of the Madden series needs to be changed. Take some tips from your own NCAA development team and give this series some life. This game is 20 years old and it feels like it. Freshen it up a bit.

Thank you for taking the time to show us some videos but I really wish EA would take the time to add features that we have been asking for over and over again. The company line is "we focus on gameplay first", which is great but I haven't felt the gameplay change all that much over the years and I obviously can't comment on this year's gameplay until I actually play the game.

Overall, same ole same ole in my opinion. Graphics are pretty but the Madden series needs a breath of fresh air. The overall experience seems a bit stale.

My 2 cents
1. Get the crowd involved.
2. Use the ESPN license and upgrade the presentation by 1000%.
3. If this hasn't already been addressed in 2009, playoff games should feel like a whole different experience.
4. Bring back the game highlights as they were back in the Genesis days but add a 2008 flavor to it. I really enjoyed watch that last second field goal from other games around the league.

As much as many of us complain about gameplay, I think the gameplay is pretty solid (aside for the T.O. issue last year). I normally don't say this for my sports games, but I would focus 75% of my time on presentation and atmosphere and 25% on gameplay. As you can see, this leaves 0% for mini-games

[CrazyLexx]

Since most of the pros have already been mentioned, just some suggestions on presentation and usability:

1. The play-sellection-screen badly needs bigger displays of the selected plays. Why not use the current four plays as they are now like a small preview where you can circle through and select plays and have the highlighted play displayes bigger on top (maybe use the package screen for this). Even better would be, to show the actual field in the background and project the routes and player icons right onto the field. This way, it would be way easier to judge if a route runs as fas as needed to get past the first down marker or see where the ball is placed on the field.

2. Get rid of the "user tackle", "highlight stick" etc. notification under the scoreboard. It is distracting (at first I always suspect a penalty!) and it doesn't add any valuable information to the gameplay.

3. Make play type more obvious by using a color scheme to contrast pass vs. run plays. Or include better information, if a given play uses some kind of fake (how many times have I been sacked, because a fake took to long to set up?!). Maybe something like this:
red = pass
blue = run
+ a symbol, which stands for play action

[bigeastbumrush]

I loved:
1. Animations, animations, animations! EDIT: I just wanted to point out specific animations that may not have stuck out-
*On the Vikings TD pass, look how Ferguson pushes off the LB to get open. There is no Safety help up the middle and he sneaks in the back of the endzone for the TD. That "slap" animation is sweet.
*On the Corner Blitz, the DB didn't sack the QB in the same manner that a bigger lineman or linebacker would. It was more of a "let me just get him on the ground and not mess up my uni" kind of animation.

2. QBs really sell the playaction pass. The camera work is great on these plays.

3. Gang tackling. This was done really well this year. Definately improved. I love the momentum shifters where the defense holds someone up and pushes them back. Great!

I hated:
1. The stadium sounds, or lack thereof. The crowd does not roar in big situations. Everything seems canned. To me, this can/should be fixed before the retail version hits the shelves. Inexcusable.

2. Commentary blows. There is no inflection in their voice. It's just ho-hum. When a touchdown was scored, you would have think someone died from how somber their tone was. Same thing on the Interception. I doubt this can be changed before the release, but it's a bummer.

3. On passes +20 yards, there is too much air under the ball. Or, the "play process" (don't know how to describe it) is too slow. It's almost like you're giving the DBs a chance to catch up to the ball. I'm not too fond of this when you're trying to air it out. It's almost like the game goes into slow motion for a second or two.

EDIT: 09:42 2nd Quarter- on the Vikings Punt Return, there is a BLATANT Block In The Back penalty that should be called!! On the right side of the screen, a Colts player named Hughes gets hit in his back and falls to the ground CLEARLY. Ian, can this be addressed?

Overall, I love what I am seeing for 09!

[Exonerated]

Quote: Originally Posted by CrazyLexx

2. Get rid of the "user tackle", "highlight stick" etc. notification under the scoreboard. It is distracting (at first I always suspect a penalty!) and it doesn't add any valuable information to the gameplay.

Please don't do that. I love seeing the words user pick and user catch, etc. It adds to a sense of satisfaction.

Maybe a yellow popup for flag, and red popup for user control.

[mdgoalie37]

I saw a few mentions of the lack of auto replays - is this due to playing on the Hardcore level? I thought I remember reading that.

Also, when playing the CPU, don't replays show in the play call screen?

[Ian_Cummings_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by mdgoalie37

I saw a few mentions of the lack of auto replays - is this due to playing on the Hardcore level? I thought I remember reading that. Also, when playing the CPU, don't replays show in the play call screen?

Yeah just to clarify, we had auto-replays turned off just so we could get through the game a bit faster.

Also, yes, when playing the CPU, replays show up in play call.

[Flamehead]

Liked:

1) Animations were sweet. Players moved differently based on type, i.e., Clark vs. Wayne, etc.

Disliked:

1) Gamespeed too fast. Should be toned down or at least adjustable.

2) Hardly any penalties called? This is huge, IMO, that's a basic part of football. Most NFL games average 12 +/-

[Skyboxer]

Good:
Graphics looked very good especially the field
Love the camera (Keeping receivers in view)
Animation(Running) looked pretty good
There's more good I just didn't post them....

Bad:
After opening KO and the offense having to punt the commentators said that "now the D had to come right back on the field etc.." when the D hadn't been on the field yet as it was the beginning of the game. Minor but needs fixed.

CC was ok but the commentary needs a lot of work.

Needs a lot more atmosphere

Overall it was a pleasure seeing some nice improvements.

thanks,