EA's John Madden Football 08 and moving on to 2009

[BluDrum]

Thank god he is off the Madden team. I wonder if he has ever watched a football game???

[HiDefSushi]

Originally Posted by BluDrum

Thank god he is off the Madden team. I wonder if he has ever watched a football game???

I doubt it. If another development company hires this guy for anything besides cleaning toilets I'd be very surprised.

[HiDefSushi]

Originally Posted by samsonite

He has a look on his face as though he can't believe how bad Madden 08 is.

[samsonite]

Originally Posted by samsonite

Actually, it looks like someone just asked him, "Hey Dave! How do you like Madden 08?".

And his response, "Buh, Buh, Buh, BuBuh, Buh, Buh".

[DNA]

When the qb vision cone was introduced into the madden game, I knew it was a sign of Maddens demise. Then, a few years later they introduced another horrible feature; the weapons feature.

After I played madden08, I knew the franchise was dead under it's current leadership over at EA Tiburon. Hopefully, now that David Ortiz has left EA Tiburon, the madden franchise will regain some control over it's top spot in the gaming industry (Hopefully!).

all the have to do is get back to basics like this thread and so many people on this thread are saying. Football doesn't need to be changed, added to, tweaked, modified, helped, expanded upon or anything else for that matter.

All we want is great graphics, great physics, new rosters, new player movement, hard hits. That's it. How hard is it? It's not brain surgery.

NO ADDED FEATURES! JUST PLAIN OL' HARD NOSE FOOTBALL!

REMOVE VISION! REMOVE WEAPONS! ALL GARBAGE!

[DNA]

Originally Posted by Mystique

When I first bought Madden 07, I couldn't put it down. When I bought Madden 08, and I played it for a few days and then I just stopped and haven't played since.

You and 2 million other people. You stopped playing it because it sucks!

[Glow007]

Originally Posted by Steelmaker

If you play Madden, you are really just participating in one big beta test. They release a new engine each generation, and then proceed to tweak that engine every year until that generation is over. It really is a shame that EA feels like they do enough work to the game year in and year out to justify charging consumers full price every year. The ONLY time I can remember where they developed an entirely new engine mid-generation was when they made the transition from 2d sprites to 3d polygons on the PS-1. And that was only because Sony came out with a 3d polygon football game first and completely owned Madden that year.

Ideally, what EA should do is release a full game one year and then release a simple update the next year for roster changes, etc at a discounted price. Then just alternate doing that for the current generation. The years that EA releases the updates, they could be working on REAL changes and improvements to the game. Then they could release those versions at full retail the following year.

That sounds like a great idea in theory and I actually like the idea but we all know that will NEVER happen. Its sad that the new platforms SUCK so bad. The 360 and PS3 versions are just terrible. The Xbox/PS2 platform owns the new version and it pisses me off BAD!!! They werent perfect but I would rather have the great gameplay of Madden 07 on Xbox than the crappy gameplay of the 360/PS3 no matter how much better the graphics are(and they arnt that much better graphicly)

[KevinJones34]

Phil Frazier still worries me though. I mean, he just came off of producing NFL Tour, which is like one of the worst games ever. Sure, the PS2/XBOX versions of Madden were very solid from a programming standpoint, but those player models... yeesh! Is he going to get the graphic detail on 360/PS3 back up to snuff? Will Madden '09 have MORE arcade elements? Peter Moore was saying he wants Madden to be MORE accessible to the casual gamer (which makes me laugh), so could this move to the NFL Tour guy as lead producer be the first (mis)step in that direction?

Basically, if Phil Frasier does the following he'll be hailed as a "savior" in my book:

*Make the team work like dogs to fix the glitches that destroyed Madden '08, and deliver a solidly programmed football game that doesn't need to be patched like 5 times only to find that not all of the patches actually work...

*Not add anymore gimmick icon features

*Force the graphics team to: 1. Work harder and deliver the same graphic detail that '06 and '07 had, AND do it at 60 frames (every other top franchise is doing it!). If 60 can't be achieved this year for some reason, then just do 30 frames and keep the detail high! 60 Frames aren't so important that they should outweigh the importance of graphical detail. 2. FINALLY get the uniforms right and stop giving us the WHACK throwbacks that nobody likes! 3. Get rid of that ridiculously overdone shiny finish to the jerseys (what were they thinking?). 4. Bring back dynamic lighting and make it progressive again

*Give users the same level of editing functions that have been available in the PS2/XBOX versions of Madden

*Do whatever it takes to get Madden back to it's serious sim glory days on PS1

... do I have any reason to believe that these very reasonable wishes will be done? After suffering through Madden '08, I have no more reason to believe.

[LitBoyBlue]

that game is the best football game ever. except for tecmo bowl. there's still a few kinks they have to work out.

[KevinJones34]

Originally Posted by LitBoyBlue

that game is the best football game ever. except for tecmo bowl. there's still a few kinks they have to work out.

NFL Tour?

[DNA]

Originally Posted by KevinJones34

NFL Tour?

Tour is not the worst but it's second to worst. Street is the worst, then Tour.

[KevinJones34]

Originally Posted by DNA

Tour is not the worst but it's second to worst. Street is the worst, then Tour.

I didn't care for Street either, but you know quite a few people actually liked it. Certainly much more than Tour. Street also got really good reviews (not that those are worth much). Tour got buried in the press.

Worst football game ever? For me it's a toss up between NFL Football for NES, and Touchdown Football for 7800 by guess who? EA! But that's strange because EA was actually good at making football games in the beginning. But if I had to choose any three, I couldn't go wrong with Tour... what a colossal failure.

[big angry]

Originally Posted by KevinJones34

With that said, NCAA '08 could've been better. The graphics could definitely still be better.

Overall, both NCAA and Madden should be on the same level graphically and that level should be high. The technology and resources are there. There is no excuse for weak graphics anymore, especially when '06 and '07 versions had incredible detail. There is also no reason one game should look better than the other. They need to fire their graphics people because they clearly lack the talent necessary to get it done. They can't even get uniforms right in Madden, lol. What a joke.

Boy, you're not kidding.

Just take a look at this year's NHL game. It's absolutely beautiful.....probably the best looking video game I've ever seen. There's no reason that EA's football games can't look something closer to that.

[Ice2Dragon]

Originally Posted by samsonite

Yes. David Ortiz is a blithering idiot. His ideas ruined the Madden franchise. I'm glad he is gone.

I'm not so sure Phil Frazier is any better though. We will see if he can fix Madden in 09.

I say he has a 50/50 shot. If he listens to Madden Nation and reads this thread he might have a chance.

See the dude in the red. That is David Ortiz. The man who ruined Madden.
He should be wearing a dunce cap!

Why are they playing with the play and charge kits connected...? The lights are green.. theres no reason for them to be..?

[DNA]

Originally Posted by Ice2Dragon

Why are they playing with the play and charge kits connected...? The lights are green.. theres no reason for them to be..?

It's a new 360 and the controllers weren't charged yet. That's the reason.

Does that really matter? Plugging in the controller doesn't change the fact that Madden 08 sucks moose nuts.

[superdynamite]

Originally Posted by Ice2Dragon

Why are they playing with the play and charge kits connected...? The lights are green.. theres no reason for them to be..?

Are you kidding?

[superdynamite]

Originally Posted by samsonite

See the dude in the red. That is David Ortiz. The man who ruined Madden.
He should be wearing a dunce cap!

I agree. Ortiz is a bufoon. Completely Ruined madden with the Weapons feature.

[samsonite]

Originally Posted by superdynamite

I agree. Ortiz is a bufoon. Completely Ruined madden with the Weapons feature.

Maybe Madden 08 was never supposed to be good. Maybe the guys over at EA had an office pool going. They all tried to guess how many Trade-in's they could get.

[HiDefSushi]

Originally Posted by samsonite

Maybe Madden 08 was never supposed to be good. Maybe the guys over at EA had an office pool going. They all tried to guess how many Trade-in's they could get.

that's funny.

Well, who ever guessed a million won! LOL

[samsonite]

Originally Posted by HiDefSushi

that's funny.

Well, who ever guessed a million won! LOL

Do you think Madden 08 only hit 1 million trade-ins? I think it was more. I think I read that EB & Gamestop said 65% of all Madden 08's sold came back as trade-in's.

I'm not sure. I'll look it up and post the link.