Madden 08 sideline catches video
by Last week it was gang tackling that was given the spotlight. This week in his producer blog, Ian Cummings displays some of the sideline catches that are new to Madden 08 this year.
Some notes from Cummings:
You can see how we actually take awareness into account on these videos – a highly rated player like Gates is consistently getting his feet in, but then you can see a player like Vincent Jackson who’s rated lower than Gates still can play the catch but possibly not get his feet in.
The last catch actually has some parameters to make it endzone specific…and we have a number of those as well…This one in particular is also tagged with a minimum spectacular catch rating requirement
you can break out of catches early, and you rarely (if ever) will have it happen to you where a good player just runs right out of bounds without getting his feet in or cutting upfield (oh yeah – the ability to cut upfield is ratings-based as well so that’s pretty cool).
This is an area that has always been lacking in Madden, so it is very encouraging to see what has been done this year. It adds more of the exciting feeling to the game all the while helping to differentiate the better receivers from the rest.
The catch in the endzone has to be the best looking catch I’ve ever seen in a football game. The fluidity of it is amazing, and it just looks incredibly natural.
June 15, 2007 at 3:08 pm
This is what I am most excited for in the game. It is so frustrating when you hit a wide open reciever on the sideline, but he continues to run as if he is going up field. I have lost so many first downs because of this, it is nice to see they are fixing this.
The endzoe catch looked great, I always look forward to new animations that make the game more realistic.
June 15, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I will agree that this is very cool and that the endzone catch is one of the best that I have seen. However, I really hope that the toe touching doesn’t happen every time you throw to a receiver that is close to the sideline.
I like the implementation, don’t get me wrong, but I just hope it doesn’t happen too much because 1. it’s rare to see in the NFL and 2. it could get frustrating when you want the player to move upfield more.
I’m sure madden is making this work well. I just hope it happens more when the player is running towards the sideline rather than when he’s just near the sideline.