Loose Sleeve Jerseys
Quarterbacks in pro football normally use loose sleeve jerseys to throw the ball better and have no resistances from the jerseys. These types of jerseys should be added to the game and can the sleeves could be animated like the player towels and hair is.
Line of Scrimmage Line
All telecasts for NFL now make use of the LOS line. Let’s bring that back and change it up a bit to make the line match the team colour of the team in possession. Perhaps even add the down and yards to go.
Officials Cut Scenes
The cut scenes for first down and touchdowns occur too much when the spot of the ball is fairly obvious. These cut scenes should only occur when it’s a matter of inches. The margin of dispute should be very limited for touchdown disputes.
Custom Touchdown Celebration & Teammate Celebrations
I liked the custom touchdown celebrations that were in Madden 09. Those should make a return and be more dynamic in control like it is in FIFA. Do celebrations while moving such as arms up, high stepping, final celebration moves, signature celebrations, and of course celebrations that end in teammate celebrations.
What is really needed though is a lot more real time interaction between teammates after plays and for touchdowns. It’s a team game and rewards should be treated as such. Those turning point plays in a game should feel special from all the teammate interaction going on.
Field Goal Presentation
The Field Goal nets needs some physics so it reacts when the ball hits it as well wobbles when moving up or being moved by the wind; instead of being a wall and has no movement whatsoever.
The game winning or late game go ahead field goals presentation is pretty weak. The camera angle from the posts don’t show if a ball made it through the uprights on close call field goals, and the celebrations for them, especially final second, is so dull that you figure the players or crowd don’t even care that they won or lost the game or have the lead in the final minutes. Those field goals need to be a lot more special and reward experience on top of the new score or game result.
Some final touches that should be done for field goal presentation is the wind speed and direction should be shown on the play call screen at all times, so we know prior to picking a play if a FG would be wise or not from the ball spot. And on last minute drives the kicker range line should show on the field so we know how far the team has to go down the field to get within projected range for their kicker.
Stadium Environment, Crowd and Audio
The crowd still needs work done to it so it’s more aware of what’s going on and get more vocal at turning points of the game. Get loud when the home team is coming back on the scoreboard, complete the comeback late in the game, defensive stand to clinch the game. Any game defining moments should get the crowd amped up. The more important the game, the louder they should get.
But there times they feel dead enough that they want to get out and leave the game. There should be a return of crowds leaving games in blowouts.
Unique team props such as the Steelers “terrible towels” or the Raiders “Black Hole” costumes should be noticeable in the crowd and cut scenes.
The game environment isn’t complete however without the return of the cheerleaders. The sidelines glamour girls’ entertainment crew should make a return to the Madden series in authentic outfits for each weather condition. Team mascots should also be a new addition to the Madden series.
Environment Presentation & Graphics
What is up with 4:15 being dusk already in the summer? In the winter that`s about right in the northern regions of the country, but in the summer dusk isn’t until much later. The position of the sun should correspond to game locations time zone, time of year, and of course, location. 4:15 ET in the summer on the pacific coast is only 1:15 PT (2:15 MT), it should be fairly bright outside still if it’s clear skies. The same time in winter should still be bright since sun is still at mid point in the sky. 8:00 ET in New York is different than in Denver since its two hours behind (6:00 MT) there. In the summer, those games should start with a big of daylight still before its evening or shadows if the stadium gets in the way of the sun.
For being the year 2009 and having the power of these consoles at your disposal, it was a step back from Madden 07 to have progressive lightning and then remove it from the game. This HAS to make a return since it’s expected for a game on PS3 and Xbox 360. The first quarter of an early afternoon game should not end in mid afternoon and the sun in the same constant spot. (Unless you played two minute quarters and only got 15 plays in or something...)
The sun should progressive over time or play by play, thus if a game starts at late afternoon or dusk (with reasonable quarter times), it ends at dusk or in the evening. The sun alone should be progressing at real time. Weather doesn’t stop for anything and it should progress play by play and be dynamic.
If a game starts sunny, doesn’t mean it would stay sunny. It could end partly cloudy, cloudy, or even start raining/snowing by the end of the game. Or it could be the same thing just the other way around. It could start cloudy, starts raining mid way, then stops, and rain again. Weather should be dynamic and not so constant. Of course this doesn’t mean that if a game has clear skies and sunny, that it can’t stay that way the whole game, or rain/snow all game. We could have heavy snowfall translate to light snow fall, then no more snowfall. Just make the weather work in different ways. Accumulation should occur real time so the more it rains/snows; the more builds up on the field. If the sun comes out, it could actually melt/dry up some of the effects of the weather. Lastly, weather could leave its presence before the game starts. It could have rain or snow pre-game and you’ll have a wait/slippery field to deal with, even though there is no more precipitation throughout the game.
For online play and offline live weather play, the game should be streaming up to the minute weather in game. If it was raining a minute ago, but stop raining, rain should stop in the game. Live time should be incorporated so if it’s night time, it should be night time in game.
When there are clouds in the sky and the weather and sun are progressing real time, the clouds should be part of the action too and not feel like a painting being stuck on a blue landscape. Clouds should travel with the wind real time therefore two things can occur with sun and cloud interaction. A big enough cloud could cover the sun thus giving a darker overcast over the field until the cloud passes by.
Of last note for environment, the field could use more work in having realistic texture and 3D-ish looks rather than looking so 2D when the camera is zoom in and on an angle. While the grass shouldn’t be super long like we’re walking in a forest as in Madden 07, it should have some depth and dimension to it like in FIFA. It would be really neat to see a bit of those black clay pop up and show a little on the field for the turf grass. The player jerseys for the printed name and numbers could look more of a layer on top of the jerseys itself rather than painted on.
TV & Replay Presentation
The Madden Presentation needs to continue to feel like a real Telecast. From what NCAA Basketball 10 looks to be doing, they’ve got it right by mimicking CBS and I believe ESPN telecast presentation to a T. Hopefully with that coming from an EA game, we can finally see ESPN Monday Night Football presentation for our Monday Night games. In the meantime, when making presentation for EA Sports theme and a real life telecast theme, the current presentation is missing these aspects.
First thing first, starting lineups needs to be put in. They’re part of each and every telecast. And I’m not talking about the lame attempt in 09 as well, FULL starting lineups is what should be in.
Second, replays need to occur a lot more frequently. Should occur after each significant play or action during the play such as good run, good catch, hard hit, 4th down conversation, 3rd & inches plays, highlight play of course, sacks, tackle for losses, interceptions, fumbles, knockdowns, ect. Hard hit or highlight replays should have audio on them to reflect the sounds during the play.
Third, replays need more annalistic look from the commentators. Why the result of the play happened or what a particular player did that helped in the success of the play. Not to the degree of backtrack, (too slow) but gives knowledge to what went on during the play in a quick method that players don’t have to wait too long to move on from the replay like in Backtrack.
The same annalistic approach should be applied for the halftime and post game show highlights. Don’t need to explain what happen exactly for each play since you want to get through highlights quickly.
Individual spotlight also needs some work. The quick stats on the score bug is nice, but more can be done in showing how productive a player has been in a game or in the season for the matter. You see that a camera would focus on a player and not always the QB for each huddle break. But the one thing that can make the individual spotlight be improved greatly is video highlights from in game and from previous games. If a receiver is being productive, show some of his catches and touchdowns in the game. If it’s earlier in the game and he is a player of interest, show his highlights from previous games. It gives that immersion that franchise mode moments do get notice in later games.
For season games, they need to make more use of season stats. (As well playoff stats instead of only reflecting upon regular season stats) They may show current game stats, but I haven’t notice use of season stats popping up.
Outside of the telecast presentation realm, we should be able to save replays and screenshots too the HDD, and upload them to EA Sports site. When I say save replays though, I mean save the replay fully like on Madden back in the PS2 days and be able to access it at a later time and operate the replay like you can in instant replay. Therefore we can create a replay to upload on specific custom or in game angles without having to do it right after the game is done. But the option to do so should be there all the same still. On the same subject, whenever a user quits or mercy quits in the middle of an online game, we lose the ability to save highlights from plays over the games. A highlight upload worthy thread is lost for the game. Play by play highlights should be available from first play to the final play of the game.
Play by Play
The current play by play engine is underwhelming and needs improvements done to it. It doesn’t seem to really take notice in what is going on in the play, over the game, or trends in a season. As well lines can get repetitive quite quickly. The biggest thing however is that when it comes to the big moments in the game, especially if the game is a big game in the season or during the playoffs, the play by play doesn’t seem to recognize the significance of the moment. The play-by-play needs to be more aware and involved in what is occurred in the game to make it feel much more live. Be more analytical and in depth rather than being so basic and plain.
A number of times in a game a play would occur where the PBP would make a comment on the result of the play and may mention a particular player for their impact on the game. The issue here is that the engine seems to just pick a line and insert instead of actually be aware what happened in the play. This leads to player x did y which why z happened, where actually player x did w which is why z happened. If a linemen made a tackle in the back field, don’t say he got there because he wasn’t blocked if he actually was held up initially. Instead say that he overpowered his blocker, or the blocker didn’t do a good job. Or perhaps the reason the linebacker made it into the backfield was because of linemen good gap control to allow the blitizing linebacker to get through.
The same situation applies to the ‘levels’ of players. Player x is a superstar player, and he will get superstar comment, which we are to bound to here repeated. If player x is anything else though, he gets standard comment. We need to get more in depth than that. Is player x a player that has been producing well the past few games or in game? Is he a smaller defensive linemen that is playing bigger than his size? Is one linemen continually getting pushed around by one pass rusher or more? Is the quarter back showing great patience in getting rid of the ball in the pocket or rolling out to let the play develop? Has a cornerback been getting picked apart by one particular player in the game(s) or over the season? Does the running back prefer to run over players rather than juke and go out of bounce? (and don’t just judge by attributes) When commenting on a player, give more insight in how they are performing in game and the course of the season?
While we’re on the player x subject let’s cut down on the number of “the position(x)” commentary and make more use of saying the player full name/last name.
Again you could apply to the same thing to teams in general. If a team is running the ball heavily to strong side of the field and getting results, PBP could mention the team keeps go there because the linemen matchup is in favour of the team, or they are overpowering the opposing team, or the defense isn’t adapting shut down the strong side. Do the same for passing game, screens, pressure, bump and run, double teams, ect.
As I mention the PBP needs to be more analytical and stats is there best friend, so make use of season and recent game stats when discussing team/player success or struggles in the game. And I should also mention that playoff is a different season then the regular season. The PBP seems to use regular season and never use last game/playoff stats at all. When it comes to the conference finals, I do want to hear regular stats, but I need to hear some playoff stats as well. That’s how Fitzgerald rocked up his stock this past year. Everyone got to know how good he is because his team made the playoffs and then some. A team may be able to air it out well, but they’re up against a good pass defense team which is why they haven’t had much success in it. Or the weather is unfavourable. Perhaps the team home stadium is a dome stadium and they’re playing in an outdoor game which elements playing a role in the pass attack difficulty.
During the pre-game, explain what a team needs to do in order to be successful. The keys to success so be. Is it a good running team up against a bad running team? Is a key player injured and replaced by a player not as great, thus the opposing team should try to take advantage. During the game, overlook the keys to success and see how they have shaped the game thus far while the game progresses. The pass attack continues against a weak pass team. Or the elements have hampered the pass attack but the running game has been solid when they haven’t relied on it too much of recent. When reviewing the game it doesn’t have to be focused on keys to success mentioned at pre game solely. Are too many passes being made to coverage? Is defense giving up the deep ball game to easily? Too many dropped balls? Line getting dominated or Running Backs doing improper running? Defense pass formations getting dominated by offense run formations? It’s all about the PBP being aware of what’s going on in the game and commenting in it.
If all of the above gets worked on for the PBP, we’ll be on good ways to getting it where it should be. One addition that greatly helps in its ‘immersibility’ is the addition of game stories. We see it for every telecast. There is a story within a game that the analysts comment on. Rivalry games, especially for late season playoff chase, between teams battling for divisional/playoff spots. Team superstar that was traded, released, or not resigned facing his old team, (at home or away, which was old home) player possible milestone game, ect. Give games a meaning and headline to look out for.
Last but certainly not least, when the game is coming to an end and a decision appears to be clinched, start giving overviews of the next game(s) for both teams. Obviously this is for franchise mode, and it would be sweet to hear about what’s down road for both teams. Is there a big playoff race matchup for my team next week? Will a team face a former big name teammate? Is it an easy schedule for the next few weeks? How about if it’s a playoff game? Which possible team(s) could the winner face next week? What is next on the agenda is the idea.
Overall, if the PBP gets a lot more aware of what is going on in the game and in franchise mode, we won’t be so dulled out from the commentary so easily or ever.
Franchise Mode Games Presentation
Franchise games do feel different from play now games this year with the addition of special NFL week events showing on the score bug and stats from around the league. But those games are missing things that are common to what we see on TV weekly.
Real time score ticker of game score and stats from games across the league. This same thing should be accessible from the pause menu so we can check out game stats at any time during the game.
Quick highlight out of town is defiantly a top request item still in the community. We want to see what’s going on in premier afternoon games going on at the same time as well what’s going on in rival teams games. During the halftime show, show quick highlights and stats from other games ongoing.
Last note, there is no booing in Pro Bowl games! There should be neutral support between both all-star teams. There isn’t anything but love here!
Madden NFL 11: Presentation - Wishlist
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks