Madden 09 gang tackling
by 
Madden 09 producer Ian Cummings has a new in-depth discussion going on over at Operation Sports which you can check out here. He started it off by displaying some highlights and lowlights of the game’s tackling engine.
Among what is mentioned is how the community has directly led to the improvement of gang tackling for this year, that there will continue to be no more than two players making up a gang tackle, and why motion capture has been shown to be more beneficial than the NaturalMotion tackles in the game. A follow-up video may be posted on Wednesday displaying what has been adjusted since this particular video was produced.
While it is great to have this level of dialogue and input it certainly would be natural to wonder about these developments. Given the confidence and apparent level of improvement that is said to have been made in such a short period of time (less than a day) why has the gang tackling been so slow to progress?
Overall the “good” tackles looked really natural while the “poor” ones were all too familiar for anyone who has played the game the last two years. Continue on to watch the video in high quality.
May 29, 2008 at 7:02 am
Is anyone else unimpressed?? I was actually into this game and video yesterday, and now I’ve done a total 180. It looks the same as Madden 08.
Still don’t have the true sense of a gang tackle. The second guy just sort of comes in and hits the player and falls off, or worse yet, just falls off the play all together.
There are multiple other things that are still wrong in the video.
I’m so disappointed.
May 29, 2008 at 3:43 pm
[quote comment="22535"][quote comment="22515"]hmmmmm… where’s that new vid he promised us? don’t wanna say that it appears to be typical EA…
but, just sayin’[/quote]
Did you look for it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ41mC15rvg/quote
yes, i looked, but i didn’t find it.
thank you.
May 30, 2008 at 8:41 am
[quote comment="22482"]But that conversation going on at OS is showing me that they have guys who can fix the issues, they just don’t have enough football minds who are capable of spotting the issues.[/quote]
Agreed. I’ve always thought that about Tiburon studios after playing the Madden and NCAA over the years. Makes me wonder if EA just hires just out of school game programmers and not TRUE sports fans where sports are a major part of their lives. They need to hire die hard football guys to help them out. They should hire some guys from sites like this to help out with areas of improvement. Then maybe they would have gang tackling down, realistic blocking, qb pockets, kick off that aren’t in the endzone every kick, realistic DB play, and online leagues 5 years ago.
May 30, 2008 at 8:43 am
Where is the ESPN presentation??
Has anyone ever asked EA/Tiburon why they don’t use the ESPN license when it comes to presenation? There are sooo many cool things they could do with it, like what 2k did, but expand it 10 fold. The ticker doesn’t count.
May 30, 2008 at 9:37 am
Looks to be a great improvement over the previous years. Finally some decent looking gang tackles, but overall pretty pinbally still.
The overall change of direction movements of the players looks very artificial, almost robotic at times.
Example: look at the defender in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ41mC15rvg)at the 0:39 mark right before he makes the tackle. Also, the recievers at the 1:03 mark,their change of direction movements to make a block are so stiff and unatural. Guard at 1:24. A lot of players are doing this during each play and makes the gameplay look too artificial. I think if EA can fix this, the game will look a lot more natural. :think natural motion: ..EA
VC has the change of direction affecting momentum down a lil better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjcZGpVcDnI&feature=related
the defender @ 0:46 misses tackle, changes direction and it affects his momentum.
May 30, 2008 at 11:05 am
Game looks great to me although they still need to work on the footplanting. Still see players sliding around especially between plays.
May 30, 2008 at 2:38 pm
“I am here to admit defeat to 2k’s gang tackling system.”
I love Madden games but I have a strong feeling he would’t admit that if there were another 2k football game coming this year.
He can admit it now because there is really nothing else to buy. Backbreaker dont count for competition until they prove themselves.
May 31, 2008 at 2:37 pm
last
August 9, 2008 at 12:52 pm
why buy the ESPN licsense and never use it in the presentation like espn nfl 2k5. Can someone please explain this to me?