Madden
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
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05.14.08 Madden 09 Tackling Engine Blog & Video [Glossary] - Procedural: This means results are changed by the hardware during gameplay - in essence an animation can be changed as it plays back instead of having to be pre-canned - Ragdoll: When physics are used to take over posing a 3D character, usually with a system that behaves like a crash test dummy, or a dummy with springs attached called "Powered Ragdoll".
Intro First off I want to say hello, this is my first blog as the animation director for the Madden and NCAA football titles so I wanted to offer up a brief bio/intro so you guys can know where I am coming from. I started my career in film working as a special effect animator and technical animator, moving on to lead animation and rigging on films including "X-Men2". I moved to games about 5 and a half years ago, but still do action sequence and fight choreography pre-visualization for films once in a while (most recently on "Transformers" and "Jumper"). In 2003 I moved with my family to Vancouver to work as a Senior Animator for the FIFA franchise. After 2 years I was promoted to Animation Director and worked on a few other titles at EA-Canada, most recently as the Animation Director for "NBA Street Homecourt". While working at EA-Canada I collaborated frequently with Ian Cummings as all EA Sports titles now share our proprietary next generation animation technology that I have spent many years working on designing with my colleagues. After Homecourt, Ian Cummings and the team here made me an offer I couldn't refuse, to move to Orlando and work on the historic Madden NFL franchise. As a former football player myself, and a guy who loves working on sports titles, I jumped at the opportunity to transfer to Tiburon and work on one of EA's best games. Animation technology for simulation sports is held to a far higher standard than any other genre in our industry. Animation volume is also about 10 times that of an action title, and our character to character interaction is at a level that no other genre of game must even come close to dealing with. I have always been one who likes to attack the most complex challenges head on. So on to the fun part! The all-new Tackling Engine One of our primary pet-peeves in Madden NFL has been in the responsiveness of tackling. We wanted to feel like as a ballcarrier or defender you are always in more control. The feeling of delay before a tackle started really took away from responsiveness. Also the "suction" you get when being pulled into tackles, well, sucks. We found that the cause of the delay was searching through our 300 and some odd tackles for one that "matched" the current scenario as close as we can, and while this may only take 1/10th to 1/4th of second, I found that delay un-acceptable. So we invented a whole new way to tackle this year...
(Read full blog and see new video HERE from the Madden09 site)
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
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Yesterday, Consolesports.net took part in the EA Madden/NCAA/Head Coach community conference call (happens every Tuesday at 6pm EST). This was the second call since this program began, and they have been very entertaining, informative, and interactive. There’s lots of good info that comes out of these calls, and in some cases we can’t always share the details just yet. I have to hand it to EA, their level of involvement with the community has been steadily increasing over the past 2 years since we've been involved. On yesterday’s call, Will Kinsler, the EA Community Manager, told us that EA is hoping to have one of the Madden devs on next Tuesday's call to answer questions and interact with those of us site reps in the EA Community Leaders program. This call will take place on May 20th (next Tuesday) at 6pm EST. There should even be some recording of the call that EA will put up on their site, so you guys might be able to listen-in afterwards. Will said he’s hoping to get one of the dev guys such as D-Cas or Phil Frazier take part in the call, which should be pretty informative. Its great to have access to those guys. In the meantime, we are to gather questions from our readers about Madden NFL 09 that we will ask on the call. We will set up a thread for that in our forums. Go here to post questions: http://consolesports.net/forums2/index.php?showtopic=4077
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 May 2008 )
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
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 Summer is right around the corner and an old feeling has suddenly returned that I haven’t had for some time.
I’m excited for football video gaming season again. That’s not to say that over the past several years that I haven’t eagerly anticipated Madden 2XXX or even All Pro Football 2K8. However, relatively speaking, I don’t think I’ve ever been this hopeful about the feature sets. To be perfectly honest, EA looks like they are bringing a jaw-dropping amount of features to the table with their three football products due this summer. Online dynasty for NCAA, online seasons for Madden, vintage playbooks in Madden, adaptive AI, new commentary, and many other features gamers have been asking for. Last but certainly not least, NFL Head Coach 2009 also looks to provide a unique football experience the likes of which we haven’t seen on consoles, even adding play creation that can be carried over to the Madden 09 game. Heck, Consolesports.net even knows about some Madden features we aren't at liberty to discuss just yet- but believe me when I say that I’m very excited. Of course, as we are prone to say here at Consolesports, the proof is in the pudding, and feature sets are nice, but if they aren’t balanced and working as advertised, there’s still potential problems. Still, I think EA is doing their darnedest to bring back the “wow” factor to its football franchises, and I’m very happy for that. I know most of us will be quite busy in July, August, and probably throughout the whole of football season, particularly if the online offerings are what we hope they will be. EA is taking some welcomed and necessary steps several months before release to make sure that the online portions of its new football games offer a stable connection throughout the country. That has been done in the past, but its being done VERY early, so if any problems or unforeseen lag issues arise, they may be easier tweaked in the next few months before the games ship.
EA is allowing a consistent trickle of Madden news about the 80+ new features. Gamestop’s own site had some great news on their own “Madden Mondays” blog about the gameplay camera in Madden, which can be found HERE . Apparently, there’s an option for a dynamic camera that pans backward during the passing plays to allow all receivers to be in view. That’s big, because I know I struggled with Madden 07 before I got my own widescreen TV, and I know that widescreen owners had a big “passing vision advantage”. Even with widescreen, you’d often have guys in the flats you couldn’t see, causing such things as screen passes and checkdowns to the backs to be a “leap of faith” in many cases. This panning and dynamic passing camera appears to address that problem in a big way. Unfortunately, that will probably make Consolesports’ own Craig Gonzalez (Bangpow) a bit too happy. You see, Craig is known as “Captain Screen-Pass”. I’m sure making that easier for him is going to make playing him that much more frustrating. He might win more this year…. Maybe. ;)
(Also note: the new passing-cam is optional. Traditional camera is still a profile option for players)
One thing is for sure, I think that even from what little info we have, it appears that the EA football community concerns, posts, and wish-lists are really factored into the upcoming football games. I for one am very anxious to see what the results are once we get our hands 'em. Scott Hemphill
"Quietcoool72"
Co-Founder
Consolesports.net
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
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First, let's start with the visuals. Last year's game looked good. Madden 09 looks better. We were shown side-by-side in-game screen comparisons from Madden 08 to 09 and the difference was clear. Player models look much more realistic and there's also a nice little depth of field effect presented from the standard gameplay camera angle that makes everything look that much cooler and sleeker. It's a small addition but it really emphasizes the on-the-field action more than in years prior. Obviously we aren't just basing our critiques on screenshots, the devs from Tiburon fired up a snowy game at Lambeau Field (something everyone should get used to given the fact that Brett Favre is the cover guy) and played right in front of us. Speaking of snow, that's also something that the team has worked on over the off-season. Footprints are now in, as are flash bulbs from the crowd at exciting moments of the game, though those obviously aren't unique to snowy tundras. I was a bit disappointed to learn that the snow won't deform in any way when players are brought to the ground – the idea of doing a snow angel touchdown celebration was completely squashed – but the fact that footprints refill as the snow continues to fall will have to suffice. There's also a cool blue hue that is added on to snow-filled games to accentuate the feeling of actually being in the cold. It may sound a little funny but it actually looks really cool in-game.
The Virtual Trainer was seen in motion for the first time as well as the new BackTrack and Rewind replay features that we've talked about previously. The Virtual Trainer, something that every Madden fanboy was undoubtedly skeptical of when the news of its inclusion was first announced, features a cool holographic overlay that replaces the standard Madden visuals. Your players are glowing green and the opposition is glowing red, but none of the traditional uniforms or player models can be seen. The field is coated in black with hologram goal posts. The whole look of the Trainer lives up to the "Virtual" part of its name... Read Full Story HERE from IGN.com
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Written by Scott Hemphill
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
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From 1up.com Senior producer Phil Frazier gave us an early look at the plans for Madden NFL 09 last week, but now we've finally seen the game in action. At the EA Sports Showcase event up at EA Canada's studios, Frazier gave Madden 09 its first public demo. During the show, he emphasized that EA focused this development cycle on two key upgrades that both the gaming press and the fans have clamored for: a significantly improved presentation and online leagues. We got the scoop on those online leagues already, but now we're flowing with more details (some are good, and some aren't as good). The good: You can play up to 32 teams, flex scheduling allows you to play games in any order, you can pull off 1-for-1 trades, you can conduct a fantasy draft with every user involved, and the commissioner can allow users to choose any team they want (so there could be three players with the Dallas Cowboys, for example). The not-so good: There aren't any divisions. That means teams will be jockeying for playoff spots against everyone involved, lessening the impact of rivalry games. Even if you have all 32 teams in the league, it won't change the setup. As for the presentation, it's downright sharp. Everyone always claims living, breathing environments in their videogames, but the sidelines in Madden are abuzz, and this ratchets up the energy level in the stadiums. It's not just the players milling about; you'll see sideline cameras, cheerleaders -- even piles of snow during winter games. Beyond that, fog hangs in the air, adding depth (last season, devs achieved the same effect with blur), and the completely reworked grass looks good enough to eat, er...run around on. What's special, though, are the new presentation elements that finally make Madden feel like an NFL broadcast. Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond are in the booth (no more echoey doofus speaking through a tin cup), and the semi-robotic-looking onscreen scoreboard looks stripped straight from Fox's TV broadcast. When you're playing in single-player, the playcalling menu sits on one side of the screen while the instant replay sits opposite. Even better, for those who take their Madden more seriously, there's no longer a need to go into the pause screen for substitutions or tweaking your depth chart; the instant replay is seamlessly replaced with pop-up menus for those options; the pop-up menus for those options will now seamlessly replace the instant replay... read full story HERE.
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