wco81 said:
Don't get me wrong, I agree with much of what Acert said about physics in Madden. But I'm trying to look at how publishers may approach marketablity.
I agree 100%.
Imagine this: I am EA and I have to choose between the following choice...
(A) Stick with current game engine with upgrades (more mo-cap, better AI) and kick it into high gear with insane graphics. This way I can market a proven engine that many gamers like and are familiar with and spend most of our development time and money on the rendering engine so we can hit them with near-render quality graphics. Graphics is a known value and we have experience with SM 3.0 and such from the PC so the investment is a safe one with a high reward factor. High quality graphics look GREAT in Gaming Magazines and on Game Box Art. Most reviewers will be swept away with the graphics and demo units in gaming stores will wow consumers over quickly in the short time they play the game. Oh, and since there is no competition there is no baseline to compare the gameplay to. And since the Madden engine is good for casual gamers in general they are not losing out on much.
or
(B) I can plot a course to impliment an entirely new course with a physics driven animation system with advanced AI. The benefits are a game that, in motion, has no equal. Every hit has force and momentum. You get to feel the thrill of a RB with balance making sweet cuts and breaking tackles, a bruising FB crushing a DB, and the joy of ramming your 250lbs LB into a stationary QB from the blind side. Every pass, tip, move would just feel like the real deal. "If it is in the game, it is in the game". The draw back? Unlike graphics upgrade that is familiar ground from PC development, this is new territory. Look at the HL2 delays. Having physics is fun and looks great, but more often than not a miss than hit. Finding a way for animation to work with joints that are dynamically affected by the gaming world is a lot to ask (and a pileup may bring the system to its knees). So development may take a long time--we just do not know. The next step is tweaking it. This is starting at ground Zero. Instead of building on the same solid engine we are starting at scratch. New exploits, unbalances, etc... are going to take years to get right. And then there is the problem of making the game "familiar" to Madden players. Many gamers do not want to learn a NEW game, they want their FAMILIAR game. And while the animation system would make the game more real it will be a hard sell through screen shots. "We promise, it looks great in motion!" And while this would be the best path, we all know that game reviewers are going to eat us alive for every error and exploit--and human players are great at breaking a game. So without a known return and possible unforseen delays, a totally new "balance" and feel to the game, and the fact spending more time/money on animation may mean the graphics would not be quite as good if we spent almost all our time on the graphics engine, well, we would have to know this was an ace in the hole because we spent MILLIONS for the license--the point now is to sell as many copies as possible. With the new animation system do that or will a new graphics engine? Which has more risks?
Obviously option (A) is safer, easier to plan for and design, and will have a big impact with gamers. (B) Could be revolutionary, but could delay the games development, cost more than anticipated, and runs the risk of either a) making the game too unfamiliar or b) really messing up the gameplay and requiring YEARS to fine tune. (B) Is far to risky considering they paid big bucks to get an NFL exclusive. EA is not about revolutions but updating, patching, and slowly improving. With no competition and a need to make money the safe route is the only route.
We could hope that EA has set 3 or 4 programmers aside the last 3 years planning for this day so maybe they will surprise us. But I doubt it. It may be 2 or 3 years into the next gen before some of the big problems this gen get fixed in Madden. That actually follows the course the PS2 Madden took. It took a couple years before we got our features back and the game started taking on a new life of its own. Look at how long it took to get good Def changes.
Sega was really pushing EA the last couple years, I am sad to see that end.
I am just hoping Sega makes a College FB game and really tries some new stuff and pushes the envolope. VC has shown a nack for trying new things so I really hope they take on College Football and try to really change the way we view football.
