Well it’s that time of year again. Madden is almost upon us.
So far, the early coverage has been mostly positive from those who have played the game. Granted, there are no reviews that are out yet that I’m aware of, but I’m always finding that people doing previews tend to drop calculated hints about how they feel about the game. Right now, Gamespot and IGN haven’t dropped much info in their “Madden 360 Superstar” previews that seem to hit towards many glaring problems. So- I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
One thing that does kind of irk me is the revelation that defensive hot routes (abbreviated: DHRs) aren’t in the next gen game. To me, DHR’s are a built in system of checks and balances that help dissuade the always annoying offensive-only shootouts that can occur. Many of us have seen that with NCAA 07 360 already (it too does not have DHR’s). The lack of inclusion of DHR’s tip the balance more heavily towards offensive fireworks, and- lets face it, even with them Madden has always had a tendency to be a “big play” game. I worry that not having that feature will only feed this pre-existing dynamic even more. I hope that’s not the case, but we’ll see.
But- in keeping this article focused mainly on next gen- I think I can say that it will be very important for EA to hopefully make this the last year of what I call the “pre-destined animation”. Since so much of the physics and movement in Madden and NCAA have to do with generating various animations at various times, what currently happens is that a pre-induced animation will cause your player to react wrongly (or not react at all) to the action on the field.
Here’s an example:
You are playing as the strong safety in a zone trying to cover a deep endzone corner fade on a WR. QB throws the ball, you are in great position to make a play on the ball and either intercept the pass or knock it down..
..and your player gets hung up in some ridiculous, lengthy swat animation that you have no control over (and YOU didn’t even press the button to “swat” yet.. so you didn’t cause the animation at all.) The lengthy animation routine your player goes through misses the ball completely.. receiver catches ball. Touchdown. This despite your body position, and waiting till the proper time to jump/swat, and yet the AI opts to make that decision for you, and in return you get six scored against you that you could do absolutely nothing about.
Lets face it, its one of the most annoying things in the Madden/NCAA franchise, and it has been for some time. As long as Tiburon keeps doing things with the “automated animation string” dynamic, we are at the mercy of what seems like a “random animation generator” inside the AI. The same is true on offense. Here’s an example from NCAA 07 for 360.
You call a play action pass and your impact receiver gets a step on a CB in single coverage. You lead the pass perfectly, the ball sails perfectly down from the heavens at an angle whereby the wide receiver need only extend both hands out in front of him… you press the “catch” button to accomplish that very thing…
..and for some unknown reason, your receiver goes into a half-hearted one handed showboating catch animation where he barely even extends one hand to try to take a stab at the catch. The perfect pass sails past his one handed attempt (that could have easily been a two handed, easily secured catch attempt) only to hit the ground harmlessly and result in an incompletion. It wasn’t your pass that doomed the play. It wasn’t your well-timed press of the catch button that doomed the play. Instead, strike it up as another casualty of Tiburon’s “random animation generator”.
Now, don’t get me wrong- I think their should be drops and misses by defenders and receivers alike, but those should not be so tied to your player getting induced by the underlying AI into doing something completely beyond your command. As it stand now, even players you control directly are duped into animation strings that you did absolutely nothing to induce or cause.
Its been a problem with both football series from Tiburon for far too long now.
Hopefully, the days of the “random animation generator” are winding down and will be replaced next year by better player physics modeling that has less to do with 3D player completing a long string of mo-capped animations.
Hey, at least we can hope…
Quietcool72
