Madden NFL 09 Preview

[BSanders]

"Superstar Mode is about the same, other than a few camera tweaks"

I wish they would of made it more like NCAA but now I know my answer about being a starter no matter what you are rated... Thanks.

[drterb]

Quote: Originally Posted by arseniotall

How bout this... RELEASE THE GAME WHEN IT IS THOROUGHLY TESTED AND FINISHED. Ncaa was not ...CLEARLY. Who in the hell says the game has to come out on the same day every year. JUST release the game when it is DONE. Whether it be the first week of august or the last week in January. So if they took the time one year to fix things like you see in NCAA, this SHOULD shorten the develop time next cycle. But even if it didn't DONT RELEASE THE GAME UNTIL IT IS FINISHED.

Unfortunately, this is strictly a business decision. Madden, NCAA, MLB2k, The Show, Live, etc. are all annual sports titles. Until EA, 2k, and SCEA decide to move away from this business model, sports titles will continue to have a one year development cycle. From a software development standpoint, the correct action is to delay the game until it is polished (see GTA IV). From a business standpoint, it's "get the game on the market before the season starts". Sales to the casual gamer would suffer if you tried to release Madden or NCAA Football in January. At this point, the casual fan is probably playing Live or NBA 2k and waiting for the next installment of MLB 2k and The Show.

Even if they delayed the game one year (using your example above we'll say January), they would be on a 6-7 month development cycle for 2010. You are correct in saying that many of the problems would be taken care of due to the extended development. However, when they head back to the drawing board to add new features/better AI/better gameplay/etc, they only have 6-7 months to create/test/debug/fix the new code. Hence, the game will be right back where it started with glitches/bugs/etc (unless you only want a roster update).

Quote: Originally Posted by 94niners

They just need to higher more people. If they double their staff, Madden would be superb quality every year. Hell, even if they merely added a few special testers/supervisors (i.e. people paid to evaluate alt. uniforms, playbooks, etc) they'd improve the game greatly. but... that won't happen till Jesus comes back...

Not necessarily. Adding more people to a software project often delays it even further and creates more bugs. I wouldn't say there's a "magic number" for how many software developers you should have, but adding more people will hinder communication and make development/debugging/testing more difficult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

Demo looks/plays good. I hate the format of demo, however. I would rather play a half with 2 minute quarters. I would have liked to play some D. I guess we'll see in 12 days.

[butcherblack]

Top Madden Players

[raiders3434]

any word on in-game stat overlays like they had in 2007. They took out in 2008. Just wondering if they put it back in

[EAreaper26]

Quote: Originally Posted by -DaVe-

I'm just happy that these cheesers won't be able to exploit the game like they used to anymore

Can we find another word besides "cheesers"

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by EAreaper26

Can we find another word besides "cheesers"

Suggestions? Should it still be "food oriented" or something more direct. Personally, I find all the options for "cheese" appealing. When you beat a "cheeser" you can say "HA! Melted that cheese, son!" or "Looks like your cheese is moldy, B*tch!"

...okay, I'm done

I guess that was pretty "cheesy"

Now I'm really done...sorry

[mondu 228]

can you change rookies numbers in franchise mode? or does the game do it auto. For example if a non user controlled team drafted Taylor Mays he would be 2. Can I edit his number so it is in the 20-40 for his position in the NFL, or are you stuck with it like last years game?