I stumbled upon a couple of interesting Madden 11 articles this morning, which will eventually take us into a digression into why EA sucks donkey balls. It’s not as if I do not enjoy Madden, I do, however at some point enough is enough.
First, from joystiq, the Madden 11 developer diary talks mostly about blocking improvements. If they get this one right, and blockers actually block, lead, engage, and play with a little common sense, I think Madden fans everywhere will rejoice. It is just a damn shame that it has taken so long for the developers to decide it is time to overhaul the blocking. Seriously, WTF is wrong with them. The side-by-side video of “old” blocking vs. “new” blocking is amusing. As if there was some revelation on the part of the Madden team? “Boys, we better do something about the blocking before someone notices.”
Second, a user comment in the joystiq article lead me to some commentary bemoaning the lack of Madden 11 franchise improvements, especially considered to NCAA Football 11, which looks like it is innovating it online dynasty mode instead of just tweaking.
Let’s be honest. Without competition, EA will continue to stagnate. It’s clear that the Madden developers should concentrate on gameplay; however at this point in the current generation, the gameplay should already have been fully defined, with only incremental steps necessary in each subsequent version. Ooops. That’s where we are; we are getting an incremental improvement in blocking AI. Thanks EA.
Minor improvements can only take us so far. EA also needs to offer new features, modes of play, and serious updates to the features gamers really expect – pretty graphics and online improvements. You can laugh about the graphics and animation, but I call for a reboot in the look and presentation.
In my younger gaming days, I spent massive amounts of time in dynasty and franchise modes. These days, with work, kids, and a whole host of other non gaming commitments, I no longer have the time to invest. That does not mean that I do not want to see improvements in the way the AI helps handle off-season matters and online league play. Something akin to OOTP management style gaming via online franchise or dynasty modes would be completely captivating.
The crux of the matter is that there is no one to push the Madden and NCAA Football teams, so why bother putting in a serious influx of cash for R&D efforts? After all these years, NCAA Football is finally getting back the mass substitution feature? You have to be shitting me that the EA is even bringing this up as a new addition to the game.
Last year was the first year that I skipped NCAA Football; I just do not see improvements from the PS2 games, and for that matter the PSX games – NCAA Football was glorious 7 years ago. Now the NCAA Football team is working on dynasty mode improvements, which is great; WTF is the Madden team doing with their franchise improvements? Not a damn thing. Why? They do not have to spend a single red cent because there is no competition, which means no incentive.
I have already preordered Madden 11, and am strongly considering returning to NCAA Football this year because of the announced dynasty mode improvements in this year’s game. So I am part of the problem; like a damn drone I keep putting dollars in EA’s pockets. Why? Because I love football; like so many other gamers I have loved Madden and the NCAA Football series for years. I want to see improvements. I want the games to be fun. Mostly I want to see real innovation.
They have tried to play with blocking before. Like the Lead Blocking was one thing they featured.
Or they let you control blockers with the right stick while controlling your runner with the right stick. None of these schemes really worked.
And through it all, you had the same suction blocking, the return of stupid AI which was easily exploited for nano-blitzes, stacking and looping.
I don’t think they can change any of this fundamentally. Some of these problems go back to the Genesis days. The way they have the linemen interact is probably deeply-set in their code and they don’t know of a way to produce stats for running, sacks, etc. without having these flaws in the game.
I used to think EA couldn’t afford to be complacent, even with the exclusive license, because they had a high bar to overcome each year. They were hitting 5 million or more units each year in the PS2 days so to do that every year, they had competition from all video games and other forms of entertainment, not just NFL2K.
But it’s obvious now they can sell enough copies with marketing (including all the web promotion with blogs and “community” interaction) and promotions (last year I preordered from Amazon for final price of $45-50 shipped).
APF apparently showed how much better OL interaction could be (although I remember in the NFL2K series, there were other types of problems with the lineplay). Backbreaker apparently shows it as well, with a real physics engine.
All you can hope is that EA will modernize their engine at some point for physics. They’re supposedly doing that with NHL and a rebranded NBA Elite game this year.
If we assume that EA holds on to the NFL and NCAA exclusive licenses for a few more years, I strongly suspect that things will stagnate. The only way we get a refresh if for more competition, if EA feels threatened (not sure Backbreaker applies), or if sales dip to the point where EA thinks that a refresh will revitalize sales numbers.