The team obviously used somewhere around 10,000 polygons to model the face and some form of bump mapping to get the skin features just right. The face doesn't look too "robot-like" and looks VERY convincing. Kudos to the programming team at EA!
Test Madden 2007 Screenshots???
Take note that these images are not that of a real althete!!! These are test renders!!! Although these say that the engine is for Fight Night Next Gen, EA tends to use their game engines for all different game titles. I think I can speculate that Madden 2007 may have similar graphics too.
http://www.gabosgab.com/reviews/EAGames.htm
Why would football players need 10k polys for the face? The face is hidden under a helmet and most of the time you see the players back!
Things I would rather see time/power spent on: Uniforms that were like similated cloththing (they twist, stretch, get stained, tear, shift when grabbed, etc...), extremely detailed stadiums, dynamic fields that had poly grass that tore up and got muddy, SNOW that actually could be pushed around built up, and an animation system that was NOT video captured, or at least included some type of physics interaction (like some type of animation/ragdoll blending). I am tired of a tackle animation and when you hit the players in the animation nothing happens. I am tired of the preset running animations. I want it to be dynamic--if a player is running, covering the ball, in the middle of a stride or short stepping it, etc... all of these things should affect what is going on. If your shoulder pads hit the knee, ankle, thigh, hip, torso, etc... could all result in different effects.
Yes, I know this would take a lot of processing power, but is that not what the new systems offer? Might as well put it to good use
Anyhow, until the animation system changes the graphics will only be eye candy and nothing more. I would rather have todays levels graphics with dynamic physics driven player movement than CGI quality graphics. Both would be nice, but if I had to choose I would go the route where it would improve gameplay and the actual feel for the game.
Also, a lot more depth could be put into players, how they think and react. Is your CB afraid of big hits and give a half effort on the run (Deon)? Does your SS like going for the big hit... and get fines and penalties and sometimes misses a tackle (Atwater, Lynch, Lott)? Does your QB suffer from extreme streaks (Plummer, Kreig)? Is your team bad in the cold (TB, Indy, StL)? Do you have a coach that makes your team a lot better than the parts (NE)?
All of these are elements in the game, but they really need to be built on. I played Front Page Sports Football way back before they had an NFL license. ESPN and Madden only got to the level of franchise and sim features in the last couple years (about 10 years later).
