I’m not at all impressed with the still screenshots of Madden 2006’s graphics. Now, that doesn’t mean I think the game will be good or bad, because I would never make such a judgment on screenshots alone. Still, I think after what appears to be the 6th release of the Madden 2001 graphics engine with enhanced textures, EA is ripe for some criticism by anyone seeing even these still shots. Anyone at all familiar with the Madden franchise will probably recognize the player models as more of what we are used to- and have gotten used to- since 2001. Granted, EA could surprise us with mad frame-rates and thousands of extra animations, but I think its safe to say- we have what looks to be “last year’s models” in these screenshots.
Perhaps we could go one step further and honestly say that we have “2001’s models, with enhanced textures and slightly more polygons on the pads.”
It is because of this trend that I feel EA is losing some fans and earning some deserved criticism. I’m also of the opinion that Electronic Arts has been disappointing the members of the gaming populace who deem themselves to be what is referred to as “Graphic-Whores” for a number of years now on most of their sports franchises. I’m also of the opinion that even gamers that don’t claim to be “Graphic-Whores” (or “GW”s for short) also have desire for some level of visual enhancement in their sports games from release to release. I know I do, and I know of many others who do. Addressing this need – or NOT addressing it- is where myself and many other people feel that EA’s sports games haven’t lived up to expectations for several years now. From some of the other forum boards I follow, I see this trend as an ever-growing complaint about the EA football games since about 2002 after the release of Sega’s NFL 2K3, which myself and others often feel looked so good that EA should have reacted with a new engine and super enhanced graphics for Madden 2004.) Needless to say, we didn’t get it. And, at the risk of judging screenshot graphics, I don’t think we will get it with this Madden/NCAA 2006 release either.
Meanwhile, in the 2 years since NFL 2K3, Visual Concepts always managed to really blow out the graphics on their football product, reaching what I personally felt was a graphic peak of excellence with ESPN NFL 2K5 on XBOX, while EA appeared to merely pushed some quasi-enhanced dazzle knit jersey/pant textures for parts of their players uniforms. Keep in mind, I don’t believe that graphics are the end-all, be-all of the greatness of any football video game. That said, I also feel its something that should not be relatively ignored over the span of 5 game releases. This is seemingly what EA has done, and it appears that the same might be true of the Madden 2006 graphics- again- if only by the screenshots.
I once wrote an article for the old www.football-gaming.com called “Under The Hood, The Engine Is The Key” way back before the release of Madden 2004 (probably July of 2003). In the article, I predicted that EA might get caught in an unfortunate rut of “graphic engine-rehashing” until the next gen systems shipped. (At that time, the Next Gen Systems were thought to be releasing in late 2004). So, at that time- I was assuming that in a worst case scenario, we’d have to tolerate Madden’s “same-ol” graphics only through Madden 2005, but with an option to buy Madden for the Next Gen systems on 2005 as well. As we know now, those systems got pushed back 2 years later than expected, but that didn’t at all change EA’s reliance on the same-old Madden 2001 engine.
But I also feel we need to step back a second and remember EA’s recent claim that “Madden hasn’t done away with the competition, it has to compete with other popular games like Halo, etc.” Well, I think it is safe to say that if any of the publishers of other non-sports games decided to utilize the same basic graphics engine for SIX consecutive releases (and for 6 years in a row), their would be deserved criticism. Could you imagine if Id Software released Doom III using the old Quake II graphics engine from 1998? Could you imagine if Warcraft III had come out using the Warcraft II engine? Could you imagine if GTA San Andreas had the same graphics as GTA III, and the exact same city size, cars, and limited polygon engine? Now, lets take it one step further- multiply those proposed graphic “re-releases” by six years. Now do you see my point?
Electronic Arts really needs to address this problem. As gamers, we want good graphics and expect more improvement year to year. Its hard NOT to say that EA has been ignoring this fact in favor of “same old stuff.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m hoping all the additions – those we don’t know about yet- will make up for some of this. However, I don’t see any way around the fact that EA’s 2006 football graphics appear to be pushing the same-ol “Staleness” as they have for the past five years. It’s also embarrassing when you consider just how little they have utilized the advanced graphics capabilities of the XBOX. (Vicarious Visions sure did when they made Doom III for XBOX!) To me, that’s disappointing. We’ll see what they can do.
However, if EA really believes that they have to compete with games from other genres, I think they had better start doing much better visuals to keep up with those games. As of this moment, it appears that the rut continues at least in terms of the graphics engine. That is indeed unfortunate, and at this moment I really can’t disagree with people who expected graphic enhancement of the series…
..and have been mostly ignored for what appears to be five releases now.
Hopefully, the feature list will be so fat that many of us can overlook this fact. Graphics ARE NOT everything, and that’s a fact. However, lets face it- there’s a little “graphics whore” in all of us. The sooner EA realizes this fact, the less criticism they will face. Sadly, by comparison to what was once Madden’s competition, it is nearly impossible to say anything other than Electronic Arts was quite lazy in the football graphics department during the PS2/XBOX generation of consoles. I would certainly hope such a trend IS NOT repeated on the next generation of consoles. I sure as hell hope that Madden NFL 2007 on X2 (or whatever) doesn’t look nearly identical to Madden NFL 2012 (with merely a few enhanced textures/shading).
EA, please take note. The grumbling noises you hear while on the web and on sports game forums are the “graphics whores” in all of us.
…and they (EA) would be very wise to learn from this “grumbling”.
Quietcool72
