Forum Discussion

Hero

1 year ago

MADDEN 26-27 IMPROVEMENT IDEAS

This is a thread I wanted to start so everyone on here can have their ideas seen and heard by EA_Shepard and other EA Staff while also having a single, organized place to share them. This in turn ma...

Seasoned Veteran

4 months ago

I'm no ones favorite Madden player, but I bring a historical perspective on Madden... In that spirit, the effects of weather has been in Madden off-&-on for years.

Here's a link to a video I made for Madden NFL 12 (when my beard and hair were still black)... Back then I was doing a series called the 2-Minute Drill: weathering Conditions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57gxUxr6wEI) where I talk about how weather effects gameplay. Every clip in the video is from online games. There are slips, falls, poor footing, balls that sail, etc...

The point is this... we often get word of features because they are marketing bullet points. Sometimes the feature we are being told about has been in the game for years.

Once upon a time, at least as far back as far back as Madden 2004 (maybe longer), ball carrier moves, like hurdle and stiff arm, were available by flicking the right stick. Those moves were NOT marketed, possibly because the plan to build the Hit-Stick mechanics had already been in place, possibly for some other reason - but what's important is that it WAS in the game and no one told US. And just because they told US, doesn't mean it's new.

There's a lot to be said for informing the end consumer about what is available, as such EA hasn't always done the best job because their goal isn't to make players better at playing their game, it's to sell more copies and more card packs to new and existing customers, respectively.

Don't worry... I'm buying at least one copy of Madden every year on release day... Never buying card packs though. LOL

Later

EA_Shepard

Community Manager

4 months ago

MaddenUniversity Weather affecting gameplay is definitely not new to the series, and there’s historical support for that. Community discussion around Madden 12 specifically talks about rain affecting cuts, footing, and route timing, and the old Madden 2004 manual materials also show ball-carrier moves like jump/hurdle and stiff arm mapped to controls back then, which lines up with what you’re remembering about features existing before they were always front-and-center in the conversation.

That’s also part of why these kinds of threads are interesting, because sometimes Fans are reacting to something that feels “new” when it’s really more like a mechanic or idea that has shown up in different forms over the years. And on the current side, EA’s Madden 26 gameplay page does explicitly list Football Weather as a gameplay feature again, so the broader point you’re making about weather continuing to matter in Madden tracks.

Take the Contra code. That wasn't supposed to be in there. It was a dev thing that got left in, but once players found it, they left it in a lot of different games, but you really only hear it for one or two games.

MaddenUniversity
Seasoned Veteran
4 months ago
Ahhh... the days of physical game copies with a manual and cheat codes... I remember when Madden had cheat codes. I think it was Madden 99 - if you enter LIGHTNING - the sidelines would electrify. That's the only one I remember.
Referring to the Madden 2004 juke/spin/hurdle at the right stick... The back of the box feature list:
Playmaker Control *
Enhanced EA Sports Online *
New Owner Mode
New Integrated Playcall Presentation *
The Most Realistic Playbooks *
New EA Sports Bio
I marked the ones I thought were awesome. I understand why Playmaker and Enhanced Online made the list, but I think "Right Stick Ballcarrier Moves" should have been near the top.
Hit Stick was at the top of the back of the box features in Madden 2005 and it's a ubiquitous feature now. "Deeper Franchise Mode" ended up being the worst word choice that year, because "Deeper" is vague and leaves the imagination of the User to set the expectation. When expectations went unrealized, people lost their marbles all over the internet. EA is still reeling from that wording decision - because the followup game was the first of exclusive license. That's when the HATERS really started.

To think... all this time, people thought they were mad at the developers when Marketing is who keeps letting them down. lol