We Told You So (re: Madden 2006)

[Sl1p]

PS: Amped 2 is really awesome. I was lucky enough to find it on uber-clearance at a Target one day for $10 bucks and picked it up after putting it off for so long. It has a high learning curve but once you get past it, you're gold. It may not be total realism, but it's nowhere near SSX's league of craziness and the fact that they award you more for just making your tricks look nice as opposed to throwing in 20 grabs before you hit the ground makes it a great contrast.

[TobalRox]

You know what's really annoying about 2K fans? Not that they prefer the 2k series, that I can understand. It's how they always try to make Madden out to be total trash, unplayable and broken when anyone who's actually played it can tell you that it's a damn fine football game. They always have to start busting out the hyperbole, how Madden is "so fucking crap," and 2k, "is just flat out a million times better," when anyone remotely objective can tell they're nothing but a raving fanboy. The best part is that at least half the guys crying about how great 2k is and how terrible Madden is have never voluntarily watched a football game in their life, but that doesn't stop them from telling you just how much more realistic the 2k series it. (edit: TobalRox is a prime example here. He's even using the classic, "BUT MY FRIENDS KNOW FOOTBALL AND THEY SAY 2K IS BETTER." I love that shit.)

I never said that Madden was crap, I just said that there has always been better options available. My brother has madden because he thought it was the only football game out there, so when I go to visit him, I'll play him at madden, and we have fun. But after playing it, I didn't have "as much" fun as when I play the 2k series. And I bring up friends because I could see why my opinion wouldn't matter because I may not notice "little things" a football fan would, but I was proving that it's not just me as a non-fan, but fans of the game that still feel the 2k series is better. I was just preparing for a counterattack ahead of time. I watch football once in a while, mostly with my brother, but I full admit to not being a huge fan, so I used friends as a defense since the yknow more aboutit than me. Madden is just fine, but it's not the best, and since the genesis days, never has been the best, therefore I feel it getting the NFL license is a cheap trick. I also have never used reviews to back me up because of the fact that I am one of those people that complain about reviews. Again, this is why I bring up my friends, because those are people who's word I trust more than a random reviewer. That is all I will say on this, because enough is enough.

EDIT: This is a games forum, so my liking a football game as a non-NFL fan is just as valid as a non-NFL fan, because I am a VIDEO GAME fan. It's the same reason so many people play wrestling games. If it's fun to play, that's all that matters. So I may not go around fighting in street fighting tournaments, but I know which fighting games I like better.

[StriderKyo]

I think Yoshi has to start liking Madden now:

Gov. Jeb Bush will be greeted by the EA-Tiburon executive team, including Steven Chiang, co-founder of Tiburon and now vice president and studio general manager. Before an audience comprised of many of the world's best videogame developers, the Governor will give brief remarks and Chiang will give an overview of EA-Tiburon's history, growth and future, before the governor becomes one of the first to play the game.

They put him in the fucking game.





They have a video up on their site of Jeb vs. Dubya.




I think I might stick to basketball this year.

[cka]

jack thompson needs to go after football games because they're needlessly violent

[Jeremy]

And they have men bending over. I'm sure that alone destroys the moral fabric of America.

[Mamoscott]

You know what's really annoying about 2K fans? Not that they prefer the 2k series, that I can understand. It's how they always try to make Madden out to be total trash, unplayable and broken when anyone who's actually played it can tell you that it's a damn fine football game. They always have to start busting out the hyperbole, how Madden is "so fucking crap," and 2k, "is just flat out a million times better," when anyone remotely objective can tell they're nothing but a raving fanboy. The best part is that at least half the guys crying about how great 2k is and how terrible Madden is have never voluntarily watched a football game in their life, but that doesn't stop them from telling you just how much more realistic the 2k series it. (edit: TobalRox is a prime example here. He's even using the classic, "BUT MY FRIENDS KNOW FOOTBALL AND THEY SAY 2K IS BETTER." I love that shit.)

Just once I want to see a 2k nerd open up about how the real reason he hates Madden is because it's the favorite game of all the kids who used to beat him up in high school.

It's funny, but when professional football players are interviewed about their favorite games, they always seem to mention Madden, not the 2K series. I guess those guys just don't understand football on the level you do.

So basically, people don't like Madden, because they're nerds?

You are a moron if you actually believe these things. As Yoshi said, the success of Madden in recent years can be directly attributed to savvy marketing and mindshare. It's not a bad game by any means; it just hasn't been the best football game on the market in years. The NFL2KX/ESPN Football games have been far superior to what EA has offered with Madden this entire generation (even early Gameday/Gamebreaker titles were superior in the PS1 days). The biggest difference is that, up until last year, Visual Concepts and the ESPN Football series had always been saddled with the fuckhead Sega execs calling the shots, which directly lead to idiotic decisions like releasing ESPN Football a month after Madden in 2003.

Then last year, Sega struck a publishing agreement with Take Two, who actually employs execs and marketing people that have a clue about what they're doing. Visual Concepts designs ESPN 2K5 to take advantage of the Xbox hardware, and scales the visuals down for the PS2 port. In typical EA fashion, Tiburon designs the game for the aging PS2 and tries to port up. Take Two decides to drop the price of ESPN titles to $20 and bumps up the release date to beat Madden to shelves by a solid month. In addition to better graphics and more realistic gameplay, ESPN 2K5 has an incredible online league system, perfectly integrated Xbox Live play (and PS2 online play), and it looks ten times as good as Madden 2005. ESPN Football 2K5 sells a ton of copies and significantly gains on the Madden series in terms of mindshare and sales.

So of course, EA shits a brick, trying to find ways to stop the ESPN series from gaining more momentum. Their competitor has a better football game, it came out a month earlier, and they're charging less than half of what EA is, giving gamers an incentive to try out an alternative football title for once. Last year, the price of Madden dropped from $50 to $40, then again to $30 in the span of a few months. When's the last time someone forced EA's hand like that?

In the end, EA just ended up throwing a few sacks of cash at the NFLPA for an exclusive license, basically ensuring that they won't have to worry about Visual Concepts outdoing them on a yearly basis anymore. It was a smart move on EA's part, but people who just want to play the best football game available with their favorite teams and players don't have to like it. Admittedly, I like the addition of the passing cone and the fact that the Tiburon crew is still trying to innovate to a degree, but I'm also not surprised that most of the reviews are calling Madden 2006 a disappointment. I still have it preordered and will be picking it up tomorrow though.

[TobalRox]

To those talking about MLB2006 for PS2, how's it compare to the 2k game?

[Drewbacca]

To those talking about MLB2006 for PS2, how's it compare to the 2k game?

I can't really compare it to much because I haven't played many others. Sorry. A lot of Bestbuys have it up at kiosks. Check it out. Definitely a worthy purchase.

[Saint of Killers]

The NFL2KX/ESPN Football games have been far superior to what EA has offered with Madden this entire generation
...
and it looks ten times as good as Madden 2005.

I think it's in the How to Convert Madden Fans handbook that they hand out to fanboys like you. "Don't just say that 2k is, 'a better game,' or ,'has better graphics.' Be sure to emphasize your point with ridiculous hyperbole like, 'far superior' and 'ten times better.' Remember, rationality and fanboyism don't mix."

ESPN Football 2K5 sells a ton of copies and significantly gains on the Madden series in terms of mindshare and sales.

So of course, EA shits a brick, trying to find ways to stop the ESPN series from gaining more momentum.

You know Madden 05 sold better than any previous version? Honestly I think they bought the license soley to piss off videogame forums.

I'm also not surprised that most of the reviews are calling Madden 2006 a disappointment.

Most are, are they? Gamerankings has the Xbox version at 89.6%, the PS2 at 91.1%, and the Gamecube version at 90%. What a dissapointing piece of shit.

[Mamoscott]

I think it's in the How to Convert Madden Fans handbook that they hand out to fanboys like you. "Don't just say that 2k is, 'a better game,' or ,'has better graphics.' Be sure to emphasize your point with ridiculous hyperbole like, 'far superior' and 'ten times better.' Remember, rationality and fanboyism don't mix."

How's this for hyperbole? Madden's running game is still a joke, and the best way to get yards on the ground is still to rush the ball outside, which is completely unrealistic. In the actual NFL, defenses are too quick from sideline to sideline for that type of rushing attack. That's why bullshit like the option offense only works in college, where the players are smaller and slower. In Madden though, running between the tackles is executed so terribly that you have no choice but to try and rush the ball outside. It's woefully unrealistic, and the ESPN Football series has always been light years ahead of Madden in this regard.

That's not all though. The online play in Madden was completely broken last year (hello audible glitches and AI problems!), the running game was even more worthless in online play than it was in single player mode (almost to the point where no one ever ran the ball), the support for online leagues and general online play was shit, and compared to ESPN 2K5, the game looked like ass.

Switching from Madden to ESPN is like converting a veteran Windows user to OSX. At first they're reluctant, because "it's not like Windows." But if they spend more than a few minutes with the alternative, they begin to see the differences that make it better than the most popular choice.

You know Madden 05 sold better than any previous version?

If things were going so great, why did EA feel the need break out the checkbook for the exclusive NFL license? Obviously, selling millions of copies of Madden and having an extra few hundred million dollars in the bank is better than selling millions of copies of Madden and having to spend that cash. Companies don't spend that type of money on whim, so they must have been feeling threatened by something.

Most are, are they? Gamerankings has the Xbox version at 89.6%, the PS2 at 91.1%, and the Gamecube version at 90%. What a dissapointing piece of shit.

I never called the game a piece of shit. IGN plainly states that Madden 2006 is not as fun as previous versions. 1up.com's review has a huge paragraph of complaints and issues with the gameplay that could have been copied and pasted from the review of Madden 2005. The problem with the Madden series is that they spend so much time on secondary, off-the-field features like Superstar Mode that they fail to address so many of the on-the-field problems that plagued previous year's versions. That's the main reason the running game is still crap.