Madden 2011 Wish #11: Capturing the moment

[TheWatcher]

We need more cutscenes as there are a number of situations that really do matter but they kinda go by as an afterthought in Madden.

For example... When you throw a long TD pass in Madden, do you feel the emotion? When you punt a coffin corner, or run down on special teams and down the ball deep in the opponents territory after a punt or kickoff... do you feel the energy?

Neither do I. And the reason is simple: there are no cut scenes to accompany the moment. This can be fixed. Here is what we need:

1. After a long TD pass a cutscene should be shown with the QB running downfield with his hands high, in celebration. Here is one picture example:



When I hit a pass that goes for a long TD, I want to see the emotion come out!

2. When a punter hits a coffin corner or pins a team deep with an out-of-bounds kick, I'd like to AT LEAST get a shot of the punter clapping... something.

3. I wanna see special teams players celebrating when they pin an opponent deep in their own territory after a punt or kickoff. This needs to be a cutscene. It happens rarely enough during the course of a game (once... twice maybe) that the emotion and energy of it will flow well.

4. We need a sideline cut scene showing an eruption of emotion over a big TD, a game nailing INT or sack, or a big stop on 4th down. I won't name the game that did this well (*cough* 2K5, *cough*), but they fit that cut scene into the TD sequence and other cut scene sequences and it was perfect. Right now, all we've got is one shot of a guy scoring (which is nice) but we need more. This a prime example of where Madden's lack of having switching camera shots during cutscenes and auto-replays doesn't allow for the moment to be captured as strongly.

I hate to say how basic this is, but it really is very basic. I can't think of too many sports games that haven't been doing this (having multiple camera shots per sequence) for a long time except Madden.

[fourthreemafia]

I agree with most of this.

Football is a game of emotion.

Playing Madden, you wouldnt know.

[doddy13]

Madden feels like this
"He scores a touchdown, oh that was nice, moving on..."

Madden needs excitement and that can come through cut scenes of celebration, and commentary.

[Boregard]

While I agree with the lack of emotion being a serious drag to playing the game, I really think they should really be looking to eliminate the cut-scenes altogether!!!

A better way to create that emotion would be to vastly improve the crowd reactions to big plays and give the player (you) control for a bit longer after the whistle blows! Let us "map" celebrations for each player to different buttons on the controller, within the edit player feature!

Add some element where we can put custom sounds into the game - an improved version of NCAA's "stadium events"

and get some tapes of the announcers actually calling games and edit those recordings and "map" them to gameplay aspects within the game. The current announcers are very bland, but they are recording in a studio rather than actually calling action at a game!

Add more "animations" of players without the ball celebrating and set those to be picked at random based on the score and situation of the game!!! By animations I mean no cut-scenes, just add animations in of players pumping their fists or mobbing the player who scored or whatever!

[Phixius]

I want to see more excitement as well. Fans jumping up and down with their hands in the air when a player takes off for the endzone example (today's game Jaguars vs. Titans), players on the sidelines reacting to the play. There should be more emotion inside the game. It will make the game come to life.

There should be some signature moves as well. Not every QB get all excited after one TD like Favre is known for. Coaches like Andy Reid and Bill Belichick wouldn't get all excited over one TD oppose to Josh McDaniels.

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boregard

A better way to create that emotion would be to vastly improve the crowd reactions to big plays and give the player (you) control for a bit longer after the whistle blows! Let us "map" celebrations for each player to different buttons on the controller, within the edit player feature!

I would like to see button assignable celebrations for touchdowns like we've had in the past, combined with cut scenes. 2K5 was able to mesh that together flawlessly. You have to have cut scenes if you want the game to look like a broadcast, because essentially what happens in a cut scene is very much the same as what happens in real life. Once you give that control 100% to the user, that's probably going to go out the window.

Having button assignable celebrations for all situations doesn't work well. I suggested this for APF 2K8 for sacks (The Sack Dance). They put it in, and it was a great idea in theory, but in practice it just held the flow up. I still can't quite put my finger on why it didn't translate well, but you basically never even think about hitting the celebration in this instance for some reason.

Quote: Originally Posted by Boregard

Add some element where we can put custom sounds into the game - an improved version of NCAA's "stadium events"

I'm pretty convinced that we're never going to get custom stadium sounds. I'd have to imagine it has to be because of them not wanting to take any attention away from the efforts they put into EA Trax.

Quote: Originally Posted by Boregard

Add more "animations" of players without the ball celebrating and set those to be picked at random based on the score and situation of the game!!! By animations I mean no cut-scenes, just add animations in of players pumping their fists or mobbing the player who scored or whatever!

That's already in the game, but I think there needs to be more variety and more situations. I personally think players jump in the air too much in these scenes in Madden. It's not bad by any means, it's just a little bit exaggerated. I think sometimes these things are done as a way to keep the excitement level up, but what really winds up happening is that it gets overdone and when you see it for the 100th time, it loses its luster. The more subtle scenes seem to have a longer lasting impact in my opinion and I say that referencing sports games over the past few generations.

EDIT: You were talking about this outside of cut scenes, I believe. Yeah, seeing it as a seamless part of the action would be cool, of course the risk you run here is not being able to get the right broadcast-style angle. That's the one thing that a cut scene can always ensure that a live action shot can't.

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by Phixius

I want to see more excitement as well. Fans jumping up and down with their hands in the air when a player takes off for the endzone example (today's game Jaguars vs. Titans), players on the sidelines reacting to the play. There should be more emotion inside the game. It will make the game come to life. There should be some signature moves as well. Not every QB get all excited after one TD like Favre is known for. Coaches like Andy Reid and Bill Belichick wouldn't get all excited over one TD oppose to Josh McDaniels.

Yeah, some players and coaches show emotion more than others. But my hope is that somehow that's handled with a new rating (emotion, celebration, something)... overall, the entire model of how players and coaches react to plays during post-play needs a total overhaul.

The big problem I see is that every QB is too low-key after a big play and the special teams players are complete zombies. I'd rather the QB show some fire after a 50 yard TD pass, as opposed to what we have now which is really nothing.

[Boregard]

You may be right about the custom sounds, but i still say that EA is horrible at picking music for the EA Trax, and the custom sounds/soundtrack deal would really improve them playability of the game.

The music in the game this year (outside of the NFL films ones for about two weeks) stink!!!

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boregard

You may be right about the custom sounds, but i still say that EA is horrible at picking music for the EA Trax, and the custom sounds/soundtrack deal would really improve them playability of the game. The music in the game this year (outside of the NFL films ones for about two weeks) stink!!!

I hope I'm wrong about it. I've been wanting to put my own music in the game for a long time now.

The last two years the music has been tolerable for me. I actually like some of the songs on this soundtrack, but 08's soundtrack made my ears bleed.

I'd say overall, sound in general hasn't been their strong point for quite some time now.

[Joborule]

I wouldn't let down the dreams of having custom soundtrack in the future. It's a highly requested feature and the NHL series does have it. So EA Trax is probably not that big of a hurdle.