Madden 08

[Cactus Drags]

Y'know, for a game that's billed as a sim, the be-all end-all of realistic footballg ames, Madden's fucking shite. Players returning within a quarter from dislocated joints, broken hands and fingers, and then taking a game or so off for a bruised fucking knee?

[Meacon Keaton]

Y'know, for a game that's billed as a sim, the be-all end-all of realistic footballg ames, Madden's fucking shite. Players returning within a quarter from dislocated joints, broken hands and fingers, and then taking a game or so off for a bruised fucking knee?

It's the be-all end-all of realistic football games, because that's the closest we're able to get. All Pro Football 2K8 (from what I hear) is a decent game, but with a roster of Hall of Fame players, it doesn't really qualify as realistic. So as long as Madden has the NFL rights all to themselves, it's "the best NFL video game out there"! I agree on the injuries being sadly pathetic, though.

[Cactus Drags]

I've said it before, it doesn't take a great deal to make Madden absolutely bang on, it's just a shame EA and Tiburon don't seem to be bothered to put in a bit of extra time/effort/care. They need to sort out the whole forward progress thing for instance, and the AI guys tackling guys to push them forwards when there's already someone (i.e. me) tackling them down short of the line.

I mean with injuries, how long does it really take to research average recovery times? A few hours on google maybe? Same goes for the uniforms, they have the license, they must surely have access to the official style sheets for all the teams, and if not, there's AP, Getty, hell even fan photos from Flickr to use as references.

I refuse to believe that the development team ever watches games, other than maybe the odd highlight reel, because they're so off base with so many things that are so obvious to even a casual fan. Roster ratings are facked. The upgrades the Packers secondary got (Al Harris in particular after being torched by Plax in the playoffs, and he was hardly a shutdown corner throughout the season) are crazy. Yet guys like Joe Thomas and the entire Raiders defense it seems get completely ignored.

[TheTruth]

This is my first Madden so I can't really comment on how the games were in past years or on ratings (barely know anything about the players, except for the big names). They really need to work on the presentation though, but that might be already fixed on future gen's because I'm on PS2. Overall, it's a good game & is definitely replayable but it does need some work.

[Cactus Drags]

Nope, presentation blows on 360, possibly even worse than last-gen. Unless you count a small box with what happened last time you were in the red zone with a giant UNDERARMOURPROTECTTHISHOUSESCREAMINGANGRYBLACKMAN as quality presentation, in which case, cheah it rules.

[TheArsenal]

Nope, presentation blows on 360, possibly even worse than last-gen. Unless you count a small box with what happened last time you were in the red zone with a giant UNDERARMOURPROTECTTHISHOUSESCREAMINGANGRYBLACKMAN as quality presentation, in which case, cheah it rules.

[alldaws1]

The 'Red Zone' is the last 20 yards on your drive. If you get that close to the endzone you're expected to score at least some points.

[Cactus Drags]

Almost, redzone is goalline to the 20, it's not relative to your drive.

[alldaws1]

That's what I meant. I was trying to explain it in a way so that you don't get confused and think you're in the red zone when you're between your own goal line and twenty yard line. And if you think about it, it is the last twenty yards on your drive because the last twenty yards on your drive are always going to be 20-->goal line.

[Cactus Drags]

Unless you're picked off, fumble or are forced to punt.

[alldaws1]

I don't mean the last 20 yards as in the last 20 yards you progress. I mean the last 20 yards as in physically the last/final 20 yards on the pitch.

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah, if it's a scoring drive, but that's still not considered the red zone. Red Zone is specifically referring to scrimmage from within the 20 yard line, hence "red zone offense" and all that, because you have to switch up your strategy having less room to work with and the like.

I get what you're saying, but you're technically incorrect, young 'un.

[oldskool]

It's actually related to Madden 07, but tough shit. The lowest rated player in Madden 07 went to the Pro Bowl this year. Here a man attempts a satirical piece, and ends up inadvertently pulling off a decent critique of the Madden player rating system:

http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?S...p;LayoutType=1/

[Sacrafice540]

While I completely agree Al Harris got his a$$ handed to him in both the Giants game and the Cowboys game he was virtually untouchable the rest of the season.

One thing that you all must think about is in order to make a great team good in this game you have to make the players good. The Packers played man coverage 95% of the plays all year and if he sucked so bad then they wouldn't have been where they were. Thats what the Packers Defense was known for so the ratings were made to reflect that. I agree that the rankings are skewed, but how many players are in the game... Let's see 50x32 is 1600 plus whatever the amount of free agents are. I don't care if there are 100 guys doing the ratings thats a lot of tedious work that should be spent working on other parts of the game along with programming to make those ratings come to life on the field.

Madden needs competition! 2002 through 2005 the game kept getting better and better on the PS2 and 2006 was just as good as 2005, but it's when it starting going down hill. I agree with most of what you guys said recently. I guess I'm more of an optimist than a pessimist. The game is far from great, but it's also far from terrible. I play on the PS3 and have been in online leagues since Madden 2003. Been there done that.

I just want some freakin competition!!!! Yeah they don't put forth total effort and the game resembles that. No one can disagree with that, but it's not taken to the extremes that is being proclaimed here. Maybe they just don't have enough people working on it since they don't wanna pay the wages. I love this game! I am very good and I love to beat down my opponents in league games. If the game sucked that much I wouldn't have fun win or lose.

[Cactus Drags]

It's actually related to Madden 07, but tough shit. The lowest rated player in Madden 07 went to the Pro Bowl this year. Here a man attempts a satirical piece, and ends up inadvertently pulling off a decent critique of the Madden player rating system:

http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?S...p;LayoutType=1/

[Evil Chase K]

I mean with injuries, how long does it really take to research average recovery times? A few hours on google maybe? Same goes for the uniforms, they have the license, they must surely have access to the official style sheets for all the teams, and if not, there's AP, Getty, hell even fan photos from Flickr to use as references.

[Cactus Drags]

Nah, most kits have at least something wrong with them. The Bears for example, the numbers aren't elongated like they should be, they're squidged. And I swear there's something not quite right about the GSH and sleeve stripes, but without looking in-game I can't quite recall. They also wear all white on the road, rather than the blue pants the game makes them wear.

In general, the helmet logos are far too fucking big (Dallas and Carolina being the main offenders), the Colts have some weird sock shenanigans (striped when they shouldn't be or vice versa), and the Browns wear brown pants on the road instead of all white (and the brown they use for the jersey looks wrong to me, not 100%). Yeah, you can say I'm nitpicking, but when they pay a shitload for the exclusive license, they should make the effort to get it right, or give up the exclusivity and let someone with a pair of eyes have a pop.

Oh, and many of the retro uniforms are seriously wrong, or blatantly made up. It's inexcusable. Really, we should expect nothing less than the present uniform and a mix of 5 or so alternates and throwbacks (depending on how much the kit has changed through the franchise's history). And we should be able to pick which jerseys to wear with which pants.

I was also disappointed there was no DLC. A specially decked out Super Bowl stadium and Giants/Pats kits with patches and everything would have been great. Hell, even authentic Pro Bowl teams with kits (and players wearing their own damn helmets for fuck's sake. How long have they been doing that in real life, and I don't think I'eve ever seen it replicated in-game) would have been nice. Especially since the college baskbetball game is getting a bunch of arenas, for free as well, so I read.

Edited February 12, 2008 by Dragsy 7-0

[alldaws1]

Hell, even authentic Pro Bowl teams with kits (and players wearing their own damn helmets for fuck's sake. How long have they been doing that in real life, and I don't think I'eve ever seen it replicated in-game) would have been nice.

They used to give them their own team's helmets. I remember playing a Dallas franchise on the '06 game or something and I remember having the whole offensive line wearing Cowboys helmets.

They should also give us a preview of the kit you're selecting before you go into the game, rather than having to guess by the name of the kit. All their other games do it, Madden used to it, why pull it in the first place?

[Sacrafice540]

Yeah every Madden game that came out for the PS2 has probowl players with their team helmets. I have not played through franchise on the PS3 to know about that system. It would sure suck to not have them on next gen.

Looks like you had your teams messed up when you posted because what you say is wrong is actually right. I can't go so far as say anything about Indy of the bigger helmet logos as I didn't notice in game. I'll give you the throw back stuff just due to the fact that I only ever used Tampa Bay's, New England's & Denver's old 80's unis when I played and given the fact that there are probably a lot of little things wrong with many of them like right kind of socks and little lettering and so on. The ability to decide what jerseys and pants you wear separate would be kool.

That DLC you spoke of would be kool! with getting the patches like they already have for when you play a bowl game in NCAA Football. It does add a nice touch to the feel.

[alldaws1]

I can't remember, it's been a while since I've played them on Madden but from Dragsy's post I read it as him saying the Browns wear brown pants in the game, not in real life. Some teams switch up wearing all colour or all white uniforms these days, EA should let you pick the jersey and pants separately.

And the oversized logos are ridiculous. The Panthers and Cowboys logos actually cover part of the holes in the helmets along the top.