Madden 2010?

[b-ravens4ever]

[b]August 15, 2008[/b] - Now that Madden NFL 09 is out the door and in everyone's hands, it's about time that we start looking forward to, naturally, Madden NFL 2010. (Will it be Madden NFL 10? It can't be, right?) While we expect that the next version of the game will have more graphical improvements and further online integration, we've come up with our own wishlist for features we'd like to see in next year's version of Madden. They range from drastic new feature suggestions to tiny refinements of the game's engine. We think each one would turn an already-very good game into a superlative one.

[b]1. Rebuild Franchise Mode [/b]
NFL Head Coach 09 has taken Madden's franchise mode and absolutely blown it to smithereens; that probably has something to do with the fact that the developers who formerly worked on Madden's franchise mode have moved onto Head Coach. While brand differentiation means that Madden 2010 won't get the same level of franchise development options provided in Head Coach, the franchise mode's AI simply needs to be rebuilt.

That's a huge task, but it's the most important one facing Madden. Teams need to properly value players and draft picks. Players should progress and age properly, get whiny when they want a new contract, and bail on the team if they get franchised in multiple years. The draft should become the year-round fascinating process that it is. That leads to #2...

[b]2. Significantly Better Integration With NCAA Football 2010 [/b]
Plenty of people buy both Madden and NCAA, despite the fact that they're both EA football games. Reward them beyond the simple draft class integration. If a player has both games, Madden should automatically generate highlight reels of each player based upon actual play-by-play from the previous season as seen in NCAA. The combine should feature the NCAA players with their previous look and feel, as should Pro Days.



[b]Maybe by next year...

3. Clean Up The Menus [/b]
The menu system in Madden is busier than arguably any game on Earth. While you're just trying to get to your roster update, you have to maneuver past video, trophies, bombs going off...it's a disaster area. While that wouldn't bother us too much, when it does become a hassle is when the game slows down while trying to traverse the menus. There absolutely should not be a lag when I'm trying to view a player profile or move from team to team. The processing power of next-gen systems is way too significant for that to be the case. Going back and playing older versions of Madden is aesthetically appealing because of the simplicity of their menu systems. At least offer a skins option to allow users to create their own backgrounds; then, someone can create a plain background for us, and we can get down to the business of actually playing the game.

[b]4. Blow Out The ESPN Content [/b]
This is one we hear a lot from other IGN editors. EA has the exclusive license to use ESPN imagery in their games. Why not actually go out and use it? The ESPN brand is downright ubiquitous when it comes to watching sports, but there's nary a presence of it in the game. If it were up to us, we'd have Scott Van Pelt narrating the week's action in franchise mode. We'd have Chris Berman and Tom Jackson presenting the post-game analysis, NFL Countdown-style. We'd have Stuart Scott and his lazy eye yelling "Jacked Up" at big hits from around the league during the week. The game's graphics and style would be like an ESPN presentation, and since we're dorks, we'd include another option to create skins here so that fans could make their own downloadable images and styles to replace the game's imagery. Can anyone say "Original ESPN2 graphics set"?

[b]5. Say Our Names [/b]
Part of the problem with including that sort of detail is that, in Franchise Mode, teams are consisting of fake players by the time the fourth or fifth year rolls around. That would lead to the announcers talking about "Number 51" any time he wanted to hype up your 99 overall linebacker. That's no fun. Instead, since Tom Hammond will have nothing to do after the Olympics, get him in the studio for a month and have him record names. Thousands of names. Get a phone book in front of him and don't let him go till he gets through every name in the book. At least make sure he can say the name of every game-generated player, and expand that out to double or triple its size. That should keep him busy.
[b]
6. Make Quarterbacks Act Like Quarterbacks [/b]
On the gameplay side of things, quarterbacks still move and act like running backs in Madden. The reality is that when JaMarcus Russell tries to move to the left or right, his protection breaks down, since they don't know where he is. Linebackers gain the advantage, since Russell has to re-adapt and re-perceive where everyone else on the field is. When your quarterback has to move around, it shouldn't be a positive -- it should be a negative.

[b]7. Change The Camera Angles [/b]
Tie that into the camera angles. Right now, when your quarterback moves around, he can still see the entire field. Why isn't there a camera angle from the quarterback's perspective? With that option, players could actually see and feel the difficulty of serving as the quarterback and moving around in the pocket, which would result in a much more realistic gameplay pattern. This should at least be available in Superstar Mode.

[b]8. Defensive Backs Can't Read Minds [/b]
The other issue with passing is that defensive backs tend to make moves on the ball before they're thrown, often simply "breaking up" a pass they should take to the house. Make it more authentic. Defensive backs shouldn't move on balls before they're thrown, but when they do, they should get more picks.

What do you think Madden NFL 2010 needs to contain to make it a legendary football game? Leave your suggestions in the comments and we'll pick and analyze the cream of the crop next week.

[raven43]

I liked on the older versions of Franchise mode they had a radio newscaster talking about the games from teh past week. Like he would say "Jamal lewis rushed for 200 yards yesterday and led his team to victory". Plus they had a newspaper. that was cool.

Also, before every game in franchise mode, you could look at the other team's roster and it would have a description of the team's players at every specific position. Very cool.

In the draft, I hate it when there's like fifty rookie QB's starting. Can we make the draft a little more realistic? Other than that, I'm good.

[theFRANCHISE]

Franchise/Owner mode has been horrible on the next-gen systems for years. It boggles my mind how NFL Head Coach 09 got it right, but the development team working on Madden couldn't coordinate with theirs on the integration of features, to make a more consistent experience.

I know NFL Head Coach 09 is supposed to be a different game, but c'mon now...the development teams for both games are BOTH under EA, so you'd think they could have a couple of team members go back and forth between games to keep features together...

I used to play Franchise mode forever, but for the past two games, I've quit after only two seasons through.

[Toreno]

EA has already talked about some of these things.

I know that there won't likely be another head coach. EA has talked with the producers that made Head Coach and are probably going to ask them to rebuild franchise mode for Madden 2010.

Ian Cummings (not sure if that's his name) has stated that in the next Madden 2010 they will be working on the D-Line and O-Line more.

To me I think the draft in Franchise mode is horrible. To many teams draft players that they don't need. One thing I also found out is that when I uploaded my draft class from NCAA 09, Tebow was already in the 90's and was asking for unrealistic amounts of money which would take up all of my cap. The year after that I upload another draft class and a DE from OSU was drafted 1st overall and was a 99 right off the back. what the heck? Then the team that drafted him couldn't sign him, because he was asking for way to much money.

Also, Tom Brady was released after the first season of franchise and no one signed him. Then over time you start to see elite players sit in FA for years. Makes no sense.

[Shawn`]

Isn't it being called Madden X?

Anyway I really hope for some big changes, the only thing different they did to the game was presentation, that's great and all but for the next one change the dynamics of the game itself. Here's some things I want to see:

Commentary- If you're keeping it to Chris Collinsworth you might as well drag in all of his commentary from the games that he covers in real life and drop them into suitable places in the game. I'm tired of hearing him put the same dialouge for multiple players, sometimes when it isn't even logical. The best example is when he talks about Joe Flacco doing well and puts in "I talked to this player in the off-season and asked him what he did differently coming into this season, as opposed to the last." What the?

Crowds- No more cardboard cutouts of human-like shapes with 2 animations. This is next gen after all, I'm not expecting each fan to be different looking with a full range of motion. I want it to look good, I don't care how at the end it should look presentable. Not only looks but what I really want out of the crowds is to see sold out tickets for monday night or primetime games if your team is hot and doing good. On the flipsyde if your team is doing horrible for the season like, the Detroit Lions not even half the stadium should show up. This includes fans leaving and emptying the stadium near the end or start of 4th quarter depending on how the home team is doing, i.e if you're getting shutout 40-0 in the 4th quarter the stadium should be a ghost town minutes into the last quarter, just like in real life.

Retirments- Why does it seem like every single player has a limit on how many seasons he can play? Which is around 15 years, if you start a franchise with a 15+ veteran you're almost guranteed that he is going to retire. Now I know it's highly possible that players are more likely to retire around that age but in franchise mode if you offer your vet a 5 year extension with big bucks behind it, he should stay. The longer he stays though will be more taxing on his performance.

I think these along with the other additions mentioned in this thread are very reasonable out of EA. It all comes down to, if they want to do it. Why waste time putting features in your games when theres no competition, right?

[CP`C-Pain`CP]

Get some new dialouge and I'm happy.
I'm tired of hearing
"You know, No one wanted to draft Willis Mcgahee after that Gruesome knee injury in college....."
Every time I run the ball.

[JonM229]

[quote name='CP`C-Pain`CP' post='97017' date='Dec 1 2008, 09:42 PM']Get some new dialouge and I'm happy.
I'm tired of hearing
"You know, No one wanted to draft Willis Mcgahee after that Gruesome knee injury in college....."
Every time I run the ball.[/quote]
Agreed, especially after the 500th time hearing it. That and talking about how he's not just a speedy back, but also has a lot of power.

[beetus]

I agree in that the nex-gen system franchise mode is awful. I miss having training camp at the beginning of the season and they took out the scouting rookies aspect. I absolutely loved franchise mode in previous games for Xbox/PS2 versions.

[beetus]

What irritates me about the new commentators is that everything they say is so bland. It's always "the running back" and "this guy" they never say player names anymore, unless they are making comments about a specific player, like the goddam McGahee comments. They should bring back Al Michaels and John Madden.

[ravensterpsbills18]

[quote name='beetus' post='97952' date='Dec 3 2008, 08:36 PM']What irritates me about the new commentators is that everything they say is so bland. It's always "the running back" and "this guy" they never say player names anymore, unless they are making comments about a specific player, like the goddam McGahee comments. They should bring back Al Michaels and John Madden.[/quote]
i didnt know that they got rid of them in 2009, because im still using 08

[raven46]

no one likes to play corner in the simple "play now" mode?
Whenever I play corner and the QB huts the ball I can never see the receiver because the view is not wide enough, really annoying so i usually play safety or linebacker.

[Slick981]

[quote name='CP`C-Pain`CP' post='97017' date='Dec 1 2008, 09:42 PM']Get some new dialouge and I'm happy.
I'm tired of hearing
"You know, No one wanted to draft Willis Mcgahee after that Gruesome knee injury in college....."
Every time I run the ball.[/quote]

Agreed. There's that line and before every single game I play he says..."and this game is a bit of a rivalry..." reguardless of who I'm playing against. It absolutely drives me nuts.

[theFRANCHISE]

[quote name='ravensterpsbills18' post='97982' date='Dec 3 2008, 09:55 PM']i didnt know that they got rid of them in 2009, because im still using 08[/quote]

Well, the PS2 version of 09 still has them, I think.

The next-gen versions since 2007 have had a fake "EA Sports Radio" play-by-play announcer, with this fake-sounding radio effect added to his voice. He was horrible.

Speaking strictly in terms of the game, Tom Hammond and Chris Collinsworth are better than Michaels/Madden from 2006-now, in my opinion.

The only thing that bothers me is how the development teams for the NCAA Football and NHL games are able to write and record enough dialogue to make the commentary seem fresh enough for repeated gaming, yet the Madden commentary gets stale after roughly a couple of days. Pay these commentators extra to stay in the booth and come up with pages worth of unique dialogue for the league's 32 teams, as well as the top players at each position, and you've got enough new commentary to add on top of the old commentary from this year's edition.

I'm not sure if the DVD discs that the XBOX 360 uses would have the space, but I know the Blu-Ray discs for PS3 would definitely have enough room for that much high-quality formatted audio.

EA Sports needs to get these audio guys to be more consistent with their products.

[PurpleClawsOfFURY]

Madden 09 was a huge let down.. congrats on the good graphics but thats about it.

When ever i'm about to intercept a pass and hit the y button.. my guy does a little arm twitch turned around towards the sideline or something.
I counted one game on my skill how many broken tackles their team gets. 56 in one game... thats insane i can't do anything about that.
Playing quarterback sucks cuz your limited to the middle of the field most of the time because you cant see outside where the Wide outs are..
I get locked onto a block automatically some times where i'm running to the ball carrier.
The computer can just operate a 2 minute drill every time and go down field and score no matter what against me. (They completed a 50 yard pass while i was in prevent with 7 sec left which set them up for game winning field goal)
None of my recievers have ever caught more than 50% of there passes.
Chris Collensworth is a idiot and they should just leave commentary to the person who says (Mcgahee on the carry, gain of 7)

I really hope they make this game better because they're losing me as a player

[JO_75]

I was very happy with the overall product of Madden 09. My problem of course is that I don't play online and I can't get the updated rosters. Why couldn't EA make it possible for everybody to get the updates and not just limit it to online players only. Now I have a solution with the Roster updates. EA always releases Madden in August, while teams are endiing training camp and making final roster cuts. How about they go and work on the Rosters throughout the entire month of August and Pre season. That gives them time to get the Overalls right, and the accurate roster updates to prevent them from creating Roster updates through each week. They can last update the Roster to finalize the game two weeks before opening weekend. They can than release Madden 2010 on the Thursday of when the season gets started.

[theFRANCHISE]

[quote name='JO_75' post='108008' date='Dec 19 2008, 09:06 PM']I was very happy with the overall product of Madden 09. My problem of course is that I don't play online and I can't get the updated rosters. Why couldn't EA make it possible for everybody to get the updates and not just limit it to online players only. Now I have a solution with the Roster updates. EA always releases Madden in August, while teams are endiing training camp and making final roster cuts. How about they go and work on the Rosters throughout the entire month of August and Pre season. That gives them time to get the Overalls right, and the accurate roster updates to prevent them from creating Roster updates through each week. They can last update the Roster to finalize the game two weeks before opening weekend. They can than release Madden 2010 on the Thursday of when the season gets started.[/quote]

Good idea, but the problem is, games are finalized roughly TWO months before they're released, for quality assurance and testing purposes.

Therefore, to adjust the production cycle of Madden in order to push the release date closer to the regular season, would mean to adjust the production cycles of the other sports games released before and after it so that the titles don't directly compete with one another.

NCAA Football is always released in July, Madden in August, and NHL in September. The development teams for all three games are different, even though they fall under the same publisher. And given how rigid the schedules are to release these games annually, it'd be difficult to adjust the production cycles just to accomodate what we think of as an extra month.

In other words, the solution is not as easy as we'd like to think.

[raven43]

I just thought of something that I would like to see in Franchise mode. after about the third year a lot of the players in the league begin to be faceless. i was thinking to myself, "I wish these guys had some sort of generic faces". But how could they have faces for all these guys? well don't they have NFL greats on this game? why don't thye use those faces on the players that you draft on franchise mode. Sure, it would be hall of famers faces on made up players' names, but I wouldn't mind. What do you guys think?


Oh, and merry christmas, I'm typing this on my new laptop!

[Ravens52]

[quote name='PurpleClawsOfFURY' post='107829' date='Dec 19 2008, 01:01 PM']Madden 09 was a huge let down.. congrats on the good graphics but thats about it.

When ever i'm about to intercept a pass and hit the y button.. my guy does a little arm twitch turned around towards the sideline or something.
I counted one game on my skill how many broken tackles their team gets. 56 in one game... thats insane i can't do anything about that.
Playing quarterback sucks cuz your limited to the middle of the field most of the time because you cant see outside where the Wide outs are..
I get locked onto a block automatically some times where i'm running to the ball carrier.
The computer can just operate a 2 minute drill every time and go down field and score no matter what against me. (They completed a 50 yard pass while i was in prevent with 7 sec left which set them up for game winning field goal)
None of my recievers have ever caught more than 50% of there passes.
Chris Collensworth is a idiot and they should just leave commentary to the person who says (Mcgahee on the carry, gain of 7)

I really hope they make this game better because they're losing me as a player[/quote]

Yes! I get those problems too.

[52Kia Kaha92]

yeah as claw of fury said i hate the two minute drill for the other teams offense
it doent matter who the team is they drive down the filed like they are the 2007 pats and always score or get a TD, it is so annoying

[JO_75]

Anybody wanna take a guess at who is going to be on the Madden 2010 Cover? I am going to say it will be a Defensive Player and either will be between:

- DeMarcus Ware

- Ed Reed

- Albert Haynesworth

- Lamar Woodley

- Joey Porter

[52Kia Kaha92]

my guess is Ware but if not him whoever wins DPOTY will be on it

[theFRANCHISE]

I could see them putting Adrian Peterson on the cover next year, since they'll be shooting for the more marketable, big-name players.

Or, maybe Tony Romo if they wanted to go with a QB again since Peyton & Eli probably won't do it, and guys like Drew Brees and Philip Rivers aren't marketable enough to a casual audience.

I hope to never see a Raven on the cover again; I don't care if Ray Lewis was the least unaffected by the Madden Cover Curse, I'd rather not risk it since it technically didn't skip Vince Young nor Brett Favre.

Favre might be on the verge of getting into the playoffs, but being on the cover in a GB uniform jinxed the Packers and doomed his season with the Jets a bit since his numbers have dropped off and he might still miss the playoffs. And Vince Young is now benched, and his Titans were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs the year he was on the cover.

[codizzle]

well since there is definitly a madden curse my vote goes for james harrison, troy p. or little jen lol

[codizzle]

i think it'll be a.p. though cause he is a stinking beast

[Shawn`]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' post='112936' date='Dec 27 2008, 07:52 PM']I could see them putting Adrian Peterson on the cover next year, since they'll be shooting for the more marketable, big-name players.

Or, maybe Tony Romo if they wanted to go with a QB again since Peyton & Eli probably won't do it, and guys like Drew Brees and Philip Rivers aren't marketable enough to a casual audience.

I hope to never see a Raven on the cover again; I don't care if Ray Lewis was the least unaffected by the Madden Cover Curse, I'd rather not risk it since it technically didn't skip Vince Young nor Brett Favre.

Favre might be on the verge of getting into the playoffs, but being on the cover in a GB uniform jinxed the Packers and doomed his season with the Jets a bit since his numbers have dropped off and he might still miss the playoffs. And Vince Young is now benched, and his Titans were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs the year he was on the cover.[/quote]

Well Brett leads the NFL in INT's so that counts as a curse kind of and the Jets have slim chances of making it to the playoffs now.

I see Troy P. on the cover of X because he's an explosive defensive player and exciting to watch.

[McBoller]

I agree with the QB scrambling thing. It makes no sense for a QB to be able to SPRINT all the way to the sideline, 15 yds behind the line of scrimmage, and then complete a 50 yard pass...but it seems to work for whoever is playing me EVERY freakin time.