Madden 09 gameplay footage and online play details
April 29, 2008 by pastapadre
Well I was wrong about nothing significant coming out in an effort to avoid getting swallowed up by GTA IV on its release day. IGN has the full details on Madden 09’s online leagues via an interview with two of the Madden developers which you can read in its entirety here. It focuses on the league aspect but later in the interview shifts to discussion on the Virtual Training Center. They’ve also posted up the first gameplay footage. You can watch that video by clicking here (make sure to watch in hi-res).
Flex scheduling is cool for a multitude of reasons. First off, flex scheduling is what we refer to as an ‘open schedule’ with no set order. What this means is that if you log online and ten members of your twenty member league are online, you can play any of your opponents that you have remaining games with. The nice thing about this is that it doesn’t allow for leagues to get stale or held up waiting for others to play. If the stars align, and you have all of your opponents online, you can, in theory, knock out your entire league in one day.
Leagues are always difficult to see through to the end. You need a good group of owners and a wide array of options for the commissioner. I like the idea of offering open schedules and providing the ability to have the same team controlled by different owners. Those are the type of options that are helpful and assist in making them more likely to succeed.
It sounds as though they’ve thought them through pretty well and aren’t the glorified tournaments recently touted as leagues for titles such as NBA Live 08 and NHL 08. Those didn’t even include playoffs which essentially made them worthless. I’m going to assume that playoffs are included in Madden’s leagues, although not hearing them mention it within the interview was noticeable. Hopefully there is some sort of confirmation soon that there will be playoffs in the leagues.
I don’t understand why they didn’t have the guy that scored do the Lambeau Leep to show off the new celebration feature… just another thing overlooked by EA. Hope it’s not a insight into a game full of overlooks. I greatly hope not!
Jesse wrote:
This looks like an IGN produced video not one that EA provided them.
why is favre still in the game? he retired…..
also i noticed theres no vision cone
Still no refs on the field. EA is so pathetic.
ok for tha last two comment both of those things can be controlled making them variables and if they did do away with the vision cone…….GOOD RIDDANCE because it was nothing like playmaker (from madden 04)
What i’d really like to know is when they say draft does this mean rookies like the nfl draft or team draft or fantasy player type draft. How they worded it is kinda confusing.
Seems like the only 2 things that make the online league kinda worth it is of course no stat entry but also trades. But to me the trades will be hard to do with a open flex schedule. Some guys play faster then others so if they wanna trade they couldn’t until the other team caught up and if you allowed to have players traded whenever that could highly inflate stats. I’ve ran leagues since 2003 and to me it gets no better then leaguedaddy. Yeah you have to manually enter stats but LD has a huge fanbase and its alot more personable with message boards and such. While some things about online leagues seem cool im just not sure its enough to pull me away from LD. But we’ll see hopefully we get more in depth info in the future.
SlickEnz wrote:
It’s already been confirmed that they’re would be no refs bro…
Russ wrote:
Not surprising. They can’t even add refs to the field. That truly shows how lazy the developers are. I wish a comet would come down and slam into the EA office and take them all out.
They are a bunch of scam artists.
Yet come August you will still be in line for your copy. I honestly don’t mind no refs.
SlickEnz wrote:
ok buddy u go make a video game yeah u will sell no copies ea works hard and it sucks when ignorant kids like u say stupid stuff so just stop
PSMD410 wrote:
I haven’t bought a Madden game since 2000. Nice try though.
pat wrote:
You’re the type of little kid that funds EA. Or I should probably say your parents do, because I doubt you’re old enough to make money yourself yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wGxgJXO7gc
I just cant wait
SlickEnz wrote:
If you haven’t bought a Madden game for the past 7 years then why are you even here commenting on a madden game?
Well you can first of all notice the difference if you look at the weather(the snow) which is something that was emphasized this year. The graphics look somewhat better and alot smoother. (but why is favre still on the packers???) Looks good overall, i cant wait.
Who cares about the damn refs?
Chris wrote:
some nitty picky people but it is something small that doesnt effect the game
its on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj3kMlCa4jM
In answer to everyone’s question about Favre, I think I can answer that. EA said that they were gonna put Favre in the free agency since he hasn’t “officially retired” yet. So they probably added Favre to the Packers to help promote the cover and the game.
Quick observations:
feet leave marks, but entire bodies and the ball don’t. (doesn’t really matter)
OL hasn’t changed much, it’s still sticky blocking, note one pass play where the center snaps the ball, runs upright left, then right looking for someone to block… No pocket. (really matters)
Players still run like robots, slightly improved.. but still bad.
*shrug*
PSMD410 wrote:
Uh, yeah. It’s the only NFL game. If there was a choice, people wouldn’t “still be in line” for their copy.
That said, I’m allowing myself to get excited. It looks like there won’t be an APF 2K9, so we might as well enjoy it.
But refs SHOULD be in the game. If they’re not, EA shouldn’t be allowed to use the “If it’s in the game…” motto. Refs are so basic, they should have never been taken out in the first place. Doing so was lazy. (How did I get side-tracked into another ref rant?)
The online leagues should be fun.
Anyone notice the terrible tackling angle on the TD?
The movie looks just like 08. The tackling is the same and they still look like freakin’ retards when they run. What is wrong with EA? I usually buy madden but this year looks just like last years so i no buy! Suck that EA
somehow i get the feeling that with all this glitz and glamer that lures the bahh every year..i get the feeling somethings messed up or botched..either uniforms, or something thats gone undone or overlooked..idn just get that feelin.
The tackling animations are the same
Not a good sign.
Reading the Online Franchise interview, I came away pretty un-impressed. I thought this would be a Madden version of Online Dynasty, now it seems as if it is just a league. Being forced to have 32 players is a death note in itself.
Looks like my time will be spent on NCAA and offline franchise.
Manny wrote:
It has said to only be a LEAGUE since it was announced….
Disappointing info -
The “draft” is just a rank n’ spin of the wheel. If you ever have done a similar fantasy football draft you know what I’m talking about
The no CPU teams in the league is disappointing
Trades seem restrictive
Finally - and this is not a game feature - the way EA & IGN go on about flex scheduling it’s as if they invented it themselves
Overall, as far as league play is concerned, while I’m glad that Madden will have them, EA didn’t exactly raise the bar for online play with this feature list
Manny wrote:
I don’t believe they said you have to have 32 players.
“we have support for up to 32 users”
What they were answering to was the suggestion that there would be CPU controlled teams which essentially would’ve made it a season or franchise mode.
It sounds as though you’ll be able to have a league of any size since you have the flex scheduling.
Looks pretty damn good. Very smooth. Don’t worry fellas, that’s not da finished product. lol!
I really like the stuff on the training center. Who knows, it may be the answer to having to mess with sliders all the time. It will also be a good way to get some friends involved in madden who havent for a long time because of how complicated the game has gotten.
Also, just from reading the article, I think it sounds like the online leagues will not have playoffs. Just the fact that they repeated so many times that the Online league is totally different than Franchise mode. Just my guess.
League play without playoffs would be pointless
I can’t imagine EA would do that ..
Ok Ok
I CAN imagine it, but still don’t think they would open themselves up to the overwhelming grief they’d get for it
Man this online league thing is half-a$$ed just like I expected. No CPU teams is just ridiculous. What if you only have 5 friends you want to play in a league with? They should have made an online franchise mode…not a league mode. That way you can have real drafts, retirement, players progression, free agents, etc. At least the NCAA developers got it right.
JB wrote:
amazing how everyone complains that they don’t have online leagues, they add them this year and look like they are thinking them through well, and people still complain that its not good enough. since when have there been cpu controlled teams in any online leagues? just funny to me what people will latch onto just so they can complain. no its not a franchise mode but they never said they were shooting for that. leagues make more sense for madden and dynasty for ncaa they just fit better.
Well Christopher if they would create an online franchise mode they would please all consumers. People who wanted to play in a league could just play one season and turn off injuries and free agency. Others like myself (and many others) want to be able to play MULTIPLE seasons with drafts, progression, free agency, trades, retirement, etc.
“leagues make more sense for madden and dynasty for ncaa they just fit better”
That is not a true statement at all. They are virtually the same. People want to build a good football team and compete against friends and peers. Whether that building is by recruiting or by drafting and free agency it is the same thing.
The NCAA developers got it right. The Madden developers once again did not think outside the box.
I just hope by that early build that they correct a lot of the same things I saw from 08 that made it lackluster and a little bit above 07 at most.The new graphics as far as the snow covering the field was a nice touch, but as the other post above me stated the tackling animations haven’t changed much from last years game and I don’t see the dynamic running style from NCAA 09 utilized here at all.
Sounds good. THe snow looks really good this year .
Did anyone notice that Favre didn’t hold the ball up high on the 2 passing plays?
i noticed it.
Jesse wrote:
Dude STFU already with the negativity. If you have been following this game then you would know that the lambeau leap is in the game. Perhaps in the video the individual playing just didnt do it.
blackngoldfan wrote:
Did you notice that brett favres beard didn’t have gray hairs in it and that the grass at lambeau field didnt look like real grass and that there weren’t enough cheese heads in the stands…………….sheeeshh
EA sucks giant &*%$@# wrote:
Thanks for sharing your crack, expert observations. I guess you can’t wait for that exemplary piece of crap APF 2k9……….Oh yeah, that’s been cancelled. Well there’s always NFL 2k5……………ROTFLMAO.
Timothy Daley wrote:
Yeah, there is.
And if EA occasionally played it, they would truly understand how high the bar was set four years ago. Until EA matches or surpasses that game in presentation, details, and gameplay, people will always be talking about NFL 2K5.
Details wrote:
Not me I thought every 2k football game was trash. But thats just my opinion.
i think some people are SERIOUSLY living in the past…while the PRESENTATION in NFL 2K5 was outstanding…the gameplay clearly was not up to par with madden…the players were long and squared up…the running was stiff…and the play selections were generic and stale…while EA could take lessons on how to implement the bells and whistles in the game (namely how replays were analyzed and the SportCenter highlights in Franchise Mode)…but besides that the game was obviously inferior to Madden…if the game didn’t sell for $19.99 then it would have never developed a cult following…imo most 2k fanboys simply don’t have the dough to pony up for the new madden ever year…instead they would rather live in the past and cling on to their $19.99 coaster…while the game was a good game in 2004, it clearly has been surpassed by the next gen console games…and clearly the game had hit its wall in terms of development which was evident by the weak rendition 2k football that was released last year….
as far as online leagues are concerned…people want to complain that NCAA is so much better online than Madden because they didn’t go far enough…well in NCAA you only get 12 teams anyway…if people are smart then they will all pick the same conference so that you can play eachother….but their are still going to be some BS games against the CPU…and more than likely the bowl games (namely the National Championship will be against the computer…because obviously two teams from the same conference aren’t going to be playing each other in the championship…and bowl games are usually slated for specific teams and conferences)…yes they make up with that by allowing you to recruit against eachother…but in the end an NCAA dynasty is so much simpler to run because players will only be around for 4 years at most…meaning their will be less stats to have to save…and their are no trades…
madden while not perfect is clearly starting off the right way…in fact it’s no different from NBA2k’s online leagues where all teams are user controlled…playing league games against the CPU would be tedious and downright boring…people can do that offline…and then there becomes the issue of people quitting games in order to get wins, etc…the people who want to complain about it not being a virtual copy of a franchise mode are asking for a bit much…think about this…for a full franchise mode to be effective you would need 32 people who were willing to stay together for an excessive amount of time…not just to play multiple seasons together…but also to get together for live drafts and offseason things such as signing free agents, coaching staffs, etc. while that may well sound exciting…its simply not realistic…and especially not with this being EA’s first go at online leagues…
SlickEnz wrote:
yeah rite son ibought my own 360 my own ps3 and my own maddens so stop being a lil Bi*#h son if u got nun goog to say then dont say it
Same tackling animations as before.
Same running animations as before.
Same coverage as before.
Same gang tackles as before.
Same poor blocking as before.
Same out-pattern for a TD as before.
Same terrible sidelines as before.
Same constant crowd murmur and generic cheering as before.
Players still run in-step with each other.
Every player has the same running animation. It is just faster or slower depending on the player’s speed.
Players still all “stop” post-play at the same time and look uninterested in what is actually still going on in the game.
New snow texture on the field. Too bad the lines aren’t dynamic.
Snow looks better I guess. Too bad it is about a 2 second loop of the same animation.
Footprints disappear after the previous play.
Football and players should make marks on the field.
Still no TV presentation in this video.
Why does the scoreboard stay up during plays, but go away after? Shouldn’t be on when running the play.
Same game as last year with a bit of spit-shine on it.
Still not getting my $60.
pat wrote:
Monkey pound keyboard. Monkey make letters appear on screen. Monkey hit enter key. Monkey post to web site. Everyone laugh cause Monkey funny. Wait…everyone laughing cause Monkey can’t spell and apparently never learned grammer.
Monkey go home and cry to mommy to give him more allowance so he can get new Madden and beat people online.
Jonathon wrote:
…that still had superior gameplay than Madden along with refs and active sidelines which are somehow too challenging for EA to incorporate. And I’m even talking about post-patch Madden since it was shipped unplayable with the turnover problem.
ERIC you have hit it right on point.. they will not be getting 60$ from me on this game, the only time i see my wallet coming out to pay for an EA game this year is college football… your review was the same thing i was going to say and more.. great review man
PSMD410 wrote:
The only way you could say something like that, and be a true football fan, is if you truly did not give the games a chance. Like Details said, 2k5 set the bar 4 years ago that still hasn’t been matched in presentation, fluidity of gameplay, realism, and depth of franchise mode. I mean really… I still remember being blown away getting up at halftime of my 1st game to go to the bathroom and stopping in my tracks as Chris Berman and 2K’s “SportsCenter” came up and showed me highlights of my game. I was even more incredulous as Berman’s comments were spot-on with the replays. Even 200 games later I would still let the halftime show run and most weeks would watch the weekly wrap-ups. It was that good.
Even without the NFL license they upped the ante in 2k8 with more natural momentum physics, intelligent blocking and defense AI and stellar online play. Everyone online had pretty much even teams. If you were being beat on the ground, you could retool your team for the next game by picking up better DT or a run-stuffing LB, but you’d have to sacrifice somewhere to make that pick-up. It opened up a whole other world of online football strategy.
So yes… to hear you call it garbage, you either didn’t give it a chance or you were looking for NFL logos instead of insightful football gameplay.
Jonathon wrote:
The gameplay was not on par with Maddens? No offense, but remove your Madden fanboy blinders lol. I can think of a few things off the top of my head that makes 2K’s gameplay better than EA’s:
-Pocket for the QB
-O-line/D-line interaction
-WR/CB interaction
-Animations in general (you can’t argue that)
-LB’s don’t soar to new heights for INTs lol
-Among several other things
The fact that 2K5 was 20 bucks was a bonus but that’s not the reason people loved it. It’s obsurd that you think people who enjoyed 2K simply don’t have the money to buy Madden every year lol. People just tend to be wise with their money.
And to think that the next gen Maddens have surpassed NFL2K5 when they do not even have the features 2K had 4 years ago? Get real.
Jonathon… please read my previous post. It was way more than the presentation. And yes.. the $20 game was great… but they had already won me over with 2k3 so I would have paid full price for 2k5… if I had to. Hell… I got over 400 hours out of 2k5.. I would have paid $120 for that much entertainment…(but don’t tell them that).
You say there was something wrong with the player models? That has always been my problem with Madden. I finally bought a cheap used copy of ‘07 and my kicker, Jeff Wilkins looks like he could kick Ray Lewis’ ass. (I’m actually encouraged that the Brett Favre pictures of Madden ‘09 look like a normal QB… finally).
Again I would say that you didn’t give them enough of a chance.
dont buy it and go away we get it you hate ea
LMAO life losers are funny
waaaaa 60 bucks you losers cant afford to waste 60 bucks maybe you should go back to school to get better jobs to make more money and stop playing video games. Or better yet you awesome designers go make a better game other wise STFU DOUChe bags
I know I’m a loser. That’s WHY I play games… to escape from this sorry life for a while (and I can’t afford the gas to go anywhere anyway). But I have solace in the fact that I am articulate (look it up) and literate (may as well look that one up, too).
I don’t “hate” EA… but I do hate what they are doing. They are gobbling up companies and competition like Cartman’s Trapper Keeper. And that kind of behavior is not good for consumers on any level. The real bad guy in all of this is the NFL. They are the ones courting the exclusive deals (EA, DirectTV, Sirius). EA just had the clout and cash to pony up.
As far as this game goes… this is the first Madden in years that looks like it may actually make some strides. I haven’t bought into the hype at all this last decade. Things like refs on the field and field goal nets don’t mean much to me, but the core gameplay and a deep franchise mode do.
Online leagues are interesting (I played ina few back on 2k5)… but I don’t like the flex schedule so much. The main problem is trades and injuries. Say one guy has Tomlinson on his team and he plays 10 games… then trades him to a team who has only played 6 games so far. LT will end up playing 20 games that season! It can really screw up the stats.
Darkheath wrote:
good point about flexing…I never even thought of that scenerio. It needs to be week to week.
Everybody sound dumb in this thread do u really think they was going to show all the features this early. They was just showing the work they did with the player models and weather. They not going to show something new around the same time GTA has all buzz and NCAA is next on deck. It still has favre in the video so stop reading to much into this video