Thread: Madden 09 may be a good game/ new gameplay clips

Most of you know of my deep hatred for EA Sports. I hate them for 2 reasons,
1. Madden sucks
2. They bought the rights to the NFL so no other company can make an official NFL game

That said, I've been reading all the hands on reviews and watching all the video clips, and I am surprised to say this game is looking to be much improved over the last few years. there has even been a few of the developers on the Operation Sports board asking us questions about what we want in a football game. I think they care.........

Check out these latest clips:
new madden videos - Operation Sports Forums

Pretty amazing that pastapadre is allowed to post those this early. The game looks pretty good. I'm encouraged by the way they appear to have changed the playcalling. I hated last year's version, I thought it was a step back from prior years...

Yeah EA is allowing thing they would not allow in past years. A couple of the game developers have been taking questions over at OS.

wow, much improved I might buy this version after all.

I'm not holding my breathe thinking they actually made a good NFL football game. Looks nice...but we've seen hope pretty can be deceiving.

Looks pretty good gang tackleing and graphics that dont look like they were recycled from the year before. I dont believe that this is from EA.

In one of the first clips someone fumbled. I really hope it's not a problem like last year....

Here's a bit of Q&A with Ian Cummings, he's in charge of the game play in Madden 09:


Q & A With Ian Cummings - GAMEPLAY and 09 only! - Operation Sports Forums

The more I read over at Operation Sports the more happy I get about Madden 09. Ian Cumming has admitted that they can't duplicate 2k5's gang tackling system, yet any way, but now that it's been brought to his attention by a poster he's addressing the problem.

Gang Tackling Challenge Response (from Ian Cummings) - Operation Sports Forums

I'm really on the fence this year.

NCAA looks better than last years (quite a bit better from the vids I've seen on pastapadre's site) - BUT - primarily because they [finally] added ONLINE DYNASTY!!! 60 seasons of ONLINE DYNASTY LOVE!!

And it looks like they did it right - in that you have human 'owned' teams and the rest are CPU players. Pretty sweet cuz you can load your 'league' up w/ all humans in one conf and go head to head all the time - or - spread everyone out among the conferences (my preference) and then battle it out for recruits, top 25, bowl games, heisman etc - plus - you get a few selected games to schedule each year, so you can add in the human opponents there if you want. It sounds like they might really have finally gotten it right.

SO - WHY ON THE FENCE?

Well - EA finally did add online LEAGUES to Madden, but come on - that's total [typical] EA bs to not include online FRANCHISES!!! I mean, come on EA - you're right there offering a 1 year league, why not finish the job and make it a 30 year franchise or something??!!?! Oh - wait, sorry - forgot, you have to sell Madden 2010 next year. I also don't think (but haven't seen it really confirmed anywhere) that the Madden online league will have CPU players filling up the empty slots. That really takes away from even the online league for me. We've already seen how the leagues drag out here (guilty) when it's all human players. With some CPU opponents it's alot easier to get games in. Plus - what's up w/ only allowing 1:1 trades EA???? How's that ever going to work??

Sooooooooooo - *if* i go w/ only one football this year, it will definitely be NCAA over Madden at this point.

It seemed he was willing to answer most of the questions straight up and was willing to admit the shortcomings of the previous games...I really hope the interception and fumbling thing is taken care of. I will wait to hear of some gameplay after it comes out to decide if i'll fall into the trap and buy it again this year.

Originally Posted by kingsfan2099

It seemed he was willing to answer most of the questions straight up and was willing to admit the shortcomings of the previous games...

Very true. Ya know, my first reaction after reading NPYYZ's post was to tell you to put down the Kool-aid

BUT - after checking out the threads you linked to, it does seem like the dude IS taking the feedback seriously and doing some things about it (albeit a tad late for this year, but hey if this continues it will be a great thing).

It was still frustrating to see just how many things 09 *can't* do - but at least refreshing to have an EA employee being candid about it and not just the same old pouring honey on a turd and trying to serve it to us as a fudgcicle!

Talk is cheap....I don't believe EA until I see it.

Agreed but its nice to see the actual people working on the games for EA actually showing that they care, and maybe the corporate EA people have a better relationship and more communication with thier developers and their games will gradually get better but its more of the neigh say until I see it type of deal until it actually happens.

Originally Posted by SHIBUMI

Very true. Ya know, my first reaction after reading NPYYZ's post was to tell you to put down the Kool-aid

Believe me I am going way out on a limb here by supporting Madden 09. If this games ends up being the same old crap game again I may go insane.

All I've done over the past 2 months is gather all the info possible on this game, and I know it won't be perfect, but I am will to make a small bet that it will be much improved over 08. Still I won't know for sure until I actually play the game.

I think what's also happening is I've been let down by 2k sports. No All Pro Football 2k9 this year. No download content for APF 2k8. MLB 2k8 is a disaster. We've had no new info at all about wheather there will even be another football game from 2k.

So with 2k once again gone silent I'm grasping on to the only football game in town, and that sadly is Madden 09, hopefully I'll not be fooled again this year.


Oh and as far as Backbreaker goes, I'm beginning to think those guys don't have a clue. The lack of info at their web site has me believeing they have bit off more then they can chew. This long after they announced they were making a football game , the release of Madden 09 right around the corner, and still no full 11 on 11 video clips of the game in motion. One would think they would want to get some positive spin going before Madden releases, but all they have given us is a lame kick return video clip with only a few players on the field.

Originally Posted by NPYYZ

Oh and as far as Backbreaker goes, I'm beginning to think those guys don't have a clue.

I'm thinking they were just playing a game of chicken w/ EA - hoping to lure EA into making a bid for them.

I don't think they have an actual football product either - just one helluva motion engine! It would be sweet if EA would buy their engine and use it in Madden.