The annual appearance of the Madden franchise seems to be a constant in the videogame industry, acting as a reminder to football fans everywhere that the new season is right around the corner. Except, potentially, this year, when the fate of a full NFL season still hangs tenuously in the balance.
After six months of negotiations over collective agreements, lock-outs, and the inability of businessmen to a pleasant model to find the billions of dollars split, my hands on Madden 12 at EA Summer Showcase was like receiving a warm, comforting embrace.
Madden NFL 12 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [Preview])
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
To be released: August 30, 2011
The first thing I noticed while playing Madden 12 was the attention given to presentation. In the past, to the proud franchise small improvements, the players really feel they are in the game to help show, but these attempts pale in comparison to the newly designed presentation. All teams in the unique intros were reproduced faithfully, supported by consulting with the NFL team's official camera.
These dynamic camera angles - often unique to each individual stadium - are surprisingly apt at upping the intensity of one aspect of the game that usually quickly skipped over by the players. They also serve to highlight one of the main goals of EA with Madden 12 , Brings the "Match football" into the living room. A few other camera tricks to help emphasize this point. Kick-offs are shown for example in a panoramic-view, as you would see on television before the camera pulls around the traditional gameplay see the camera angle for field goals was also drawn some. They are small, seemingly insignificant touches, but really helped me appreciate the size and scope of the stadium, even if the public was largely modeled by simple "box" fans together.
While these subtle changes to help in the presentation, EA's goal to bring soccer to serve faithfully to the living room, they are ultimately secondary to the gameplay. Fortunately, the core gameplay, where I found some of the greatest advances that has seen the show, know that translates into a faithful recreation of the game fans, and love.
When I finally began playing a game, pitting my St. Louis Rams against a computer-controlled Baltimore Ravens team (on "Pro" difficulty), I was a bit surprised by how much more visceral the game felt relative to previous iterations. The reason for this change, I would soon realize, is the completely revamped animation system. In past Madden Games, animations, players would often begin before contact, leading to cumbersome and sometimes frustrating moments where the player inexplicably "warp" seemed into each other without cause on the distances between them as if they were forced by a "pull" or magnetism.
In my hands-on time with Madden 12 , I found that irritating anomaly is no longer, as not kick animations, players have to contact. Apart from making the game feel realistic, I felt a lot more satisfaction in player movement and interaction. Every hit seemed to bear an appropriate feeling of heaviness, although it is not infinite by a physics engine (something EA Dimento Anthony mentioned that his team would look into the future) is driven, and fighting a lot more rewarding because, even if you do not use the hit stick.
Whether the implantation of the new animation system or a simple AI optimizations, there are other noticeable improvements over the previous year for the title. The secondary seems to play much better when in the zone defense, zone defense instead of the ineffective Madden 11 And route seems to have been cleaned a little. I also felt like my players were much more competent blocker, while at the same time seemed a much less favorable screen plays his offensive tactics. I also play the All-Madden difficulty by two quarters against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and while I was down 10-3 at half-time checks on the spot, seems much more reasonable All-Madden and less frustrating than previous iterations. A game, and half is not nearly enough time to make a decision about balancing, especially when it comes to hundreds of pieces that I left untouched, but my hands-on time, I was pretty optimistic.
The two other new features of the core game rolls are custom playbooks, and dynamic player performance. Okay, the ability to create and use custom playbooks is not a new feature - they were in the game of the last generation - but their return is definitely a welcome (re) addition and something that the fans were for loud, because the function was removed be.
Dynamic Performance-player system is intended to give to true-to-life accuracy. There are a number list of trends that may have the player, the player statistics are bound. These trends can change a player's performance during the game. For example, could affect a lot of pressure on Bears quarterback Jay Cutler negatively its accuracy, while at the same time could be the same amount of pressure on Tom Brady on the clutch go unnoticed stoically pocket passer. While I only got a brief taste of this system, it has the potential to add some authenticity, regardless of player performance statistics add fold and add a little extra strategy to the game.
In a subtle attempt to weave the new system into the gameplay, the announcers' commentary on the game actually know the players in these changes in real time. While interesting in theory, it was much easier, simply on the Start menu, where the effects of the system are clearly visible. How long MaddenPlayer, I basically subconsciously tune out the speaker, as you hear the same comments tend Satiety after the game for any amount of time. On a related note, I was pleasantly surprised to find many more new comments in total of which was for many players-specific and involved a bit of banter between Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth to hear. It is bound to get old eventually, but it seemed as if there were more new content added to this time, it should take a bit longer than usual.
Perhaps disappointingly to some, the online franchise mode, essentially unchanged from last year's game, although I was assured the rest of the modes have seen "significant improvements", including the previously ignored offline franchise mode. Good news for the future Madden Games: Dimento mentioned that the team bridge the gap between online and offline franchise mode, which means that new feature will not implement more done two different times can be. This means that hopefully the two modes is also seen progress in the future, as one always seems to stand outside in the cold with equanimity.
An online connection is in addition to online communities that are going to be given formally announced and detailed 15th July are. Dimento could only describe it as "a way for players to really come together and play Madden how they want to play it with the people they want to play with, adding that social aspect that is so huge. This is our answer to this, and how we are to conquer the audience. "
Perhaps it's just a symptom of my regular yearning for football by this time of year, but I walked away excited for Madden 12. Whether the improvements to the game it's enough different from the past iterations in the long run, if the veneer and the novelty of the new wears off, remains to be seen, but Madden 12 aims to be a new experience in the franchise, a goal that along, how much better and stronger on the game helped the feels during playback.
0 ความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น