Anyway… :)

this game had all what madden didn’t have, gang-tackling physics, a real halftime show, etc. and what madden had to offer? solo tackles on every play, the game running 150 mph (thats what made 2k5 seem so slow, try ankle-weights), mike vick chucks the football 50 yards to a TD…but after he rolls to his right and does a 360 of his right foot? Madden really, had no competition.

so after being exploited and instead of stepping up their game, they decided to go out like punks and made sure that no NFL game can be made. So madden can deliver the same patched up madden 2002 and by the way, instead of improving the actual gameplay, lets just throw in the Hit-stick and QB vision. these dumb people don’t know a real football game when they see on. This is the only NFL game that football fans everywhere have to cough up $60 for Mediocrity.

I’ve been told that it’s not what you sale, its how you sell it. although 2k football makes way better football games than madden, People will still buy madden just because. Madden could care less about improving and making the game complete. just as long as the money it rolls in, regardless of how half-assed it is. Marketing and advertising was their best weapon. I know their slogan is “…its in the game.” hey, thats all what people need to hear before blowing their gas money away.

but i’ve also been told that you can’t beat the real thing. and it will be a madder of time before Madden will bite the dust, especially after losing the NFL license and 2k football. hey being greedy always will end you up in destruction. and to be honest, EA sports will reap what they sow, trust me. and the madden curse is real.

That reason would be that they BOUGHT out their competition by paying an assload of money for exclusive rights. Its not as if 2K faded out because it was an inferior product. EA used their deep pockets to force them out.

1. Yes, you are forced to buy Madden if you want to play an NFL sim game. People aren’t going to just drop a hobby.

2. No one is praising APF as if it’s the second coming. They are just glad that a good game is coming back. I think this is an over-reaction.

3. Based on history, VC will probably give more that just slight improvements. They’ve been lauded for doing much more than that traditionally.

No, that’s your interpretation of praise given to some other title not made by EA. If you read EVERY comment about 2k, you’d realize there were just as many imperfections as Madden. You just seemed to focus on the comments that pointed out 2k’s good points in comparison to Madden. You sound like you’re bitter that 2K gets any praise.

John said: “Honestly, nobody is forcing you to choose what you play. You play what you want and the vast majority of the population would rather play Madden… It’s as simple as that.”

John said: First, yes, you ARE forced to play Madden. Because for the last 2 years, if you wanted to play a sim NFL football title, OR an sim college football title, OR a sim Arena football title, you HAD to play a title from EA. There was no way around it. And it’s not a fact of “just don’t buy it”. If you liked to swim and God forced you to pay for the water, guess what you’re going to have to do… And it wasn’t as if Madden was the only choice just because it was better either. They chickened out and bought their way to that position instead of earning it completely. They didn’t take out 2K with quality. They did it with money. The sad fact of the matter is that when people actually gave the 2K game a real chance, they LIKED it. That scared the crap out of EA. EA panicked and you have what you have today. And if you think that was a good thing to do for everyone and NOT JUST EA, then you HAVE to work for EA. I’m sorry. There’s no way you can spin that deal into something positive for the consumer or the fan.

And if you don’t think EA worries about the football team at VC, here’s a quick read for you: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14871

John said: “When NFL 2k was out, everyone bought into having two competing football brand on the market, but in the end Madden still reined out on top for a reason.”

Yeah! That reason was that people knew and trusted the title, AND it was still a good game. So why would they change? Why would they take $50 and risk buying a turd? For that matter, why take $50 and buy another game when they already had all they needed. Don’t even try to make it sound like Madden was that much better. Yeah, it can be argued that Madden was better. But not by a factor of 10 to 1? Not on your life. Coke isn’t THAT much better than Pepsi.

John said: “Every new Madden is a slight improvement upon the previous year, and the current trend that EA has been doing as of late is to have one Madden come out with new features that were not in the previous version and the next year’s Madden would use the same features, slight tweaks in gameplay and addition/subtraction of features. NBA 2k doesn’t throw out their entire game mechanics every year they produce a new NBA 2k. They follow the same trend if you follow it close enough. They will give you a new concept and based upon feedback will adjust and add/remove certain features for the next year’s version.”

The key word is “SLIGHT” improvement and that’s been the problem in many people’s eyes. That was fine when the title was solid. But when they went “next-gen”, they broke the gameplay and yanked out a lot of features. Must be the next-gen systems because APF had to strip features too. But from all accounts, they improved their gameplay. Now that EA ise spoon-feeding those features back into the game, you’re going to paint it as progress? I see it as repair. I will continue to get the XBox/PS2 and/or PSP version over the current gen versions because those versions were that much better. Forget 2K versus Madden! How about Madden old gen versus Madden current gen? You don’t think something is wrong with that? For that matter, don’t you think the features you get in Head Coach SHOULD have been in Madden? I would bet they would have been if VC was still able to use the NFL properties… It seems to me that we differ in that I buy and like BOTH games… Traditionally. My problems with Madden today have nothing to do with 2K. It has only to do with Madden now versus what Madden should be today. Simple put, it should be better than the old gen version in EVERY way. Not just graphics.

John said: “All-Pro Football will follow this same trend. They will tweak their game based upon reviews and will give you the same game but with a few adjustment, but nothing completely new, which is apparently what everyone is expecting Madden to give you every year.”

Outside of moving to new console, VC has never done that with their games. Go to any unaffiliated sports video gaming forum and try to make that one fly… Unless of course you only go to the Madden boards. Of course, they’ve always attempted to address issues brought up in reviews. But they seem to comb every forum – they say as much in their interviews at least. And they seemed to look at all of their competitors. Then they try new things or twists on old things such as First person/VIP/Crib/Weekly prep. Are you kidding?

When NFL 2k was out, everyone bought into having two competing football brand on the market, but in the end Madden still reined out on top for a reason.

Every new Madden is a slight improvement upon the previous year, and the current trend that EA has been doing as of late is to have one Madden come out with new features that were not in the previous version and the next year’s Madden would use the same features, slight tweaks in gameplay and addition/subtraction of features. NBA 2k doesn’t throw out their entire game mechanics every year they produce a new NBA 2k. They follow the same trend if you follow it close enough. They will give you a new concept and based upon feedback will adjust and add/remove certain features for the next year’s version.

All-Pro Football will follow this same trend. They will tweak their game based upon reviews and will give you the same game but with a few adjustment, but nothing completely new, which is apparently what everyone is expecting Madden to give you every year.

Apple Ipod anyone?

Because they have no choice and have not had a choice since 2K5. Even then, Madden has been the de facto football game for years. Every other competitor up until the 2K guys has been hit and miss. Either they came, and faded away. Or they came and didn’t make as many improvements and strides as the 2K series. NFL2K5 is hands down the best football game in my opinion. APF2k8 IMPROVED that gameplay. Considering the conditions, I’m surprised they were able to put out a title. But they did.

“You tell me why even the NFL players play the most current Madden football. Even kids in elementary school will play the new Madden. Physics engine? You got to be kidding me.”

Because like all fans of a title, they are loyal to the game they grew up on AND they play the game that most of their friends continue to play. Kids in elementary school will play what their friend is playing and more than likely, EA, through best of the business marketing, makes sure that your kid will have Madden and EA Sports ringing in his head and his mom’s head as well. You have to be kidding me if you think kids buy a game because of quality. My kids ask me to buy games that are terrible, but theirs something on the box that they are familiar with and, therefore, trust. John Madden is a face EVERY kid that would want a football game knows. It’s that simple. Why do you think EA pays him a grip for doing NOTHING! Nothing at all.

And as far as controls go, APF controls are too loose for you, but for many people, Madden’s controls are too sluggish. That’s been the VC style. Give the player the control. If you’re spazzin’ out, the game will show it. Calm down. Sounds like you are trying to play Madden when the game is clearly and rightfully NOT Madden.

You are right, it’s very cool to hate the leader and cheer the underdog. There are probably a lot of people like that. But don’t let that interfere with the fact that that the 2K series, has garnered more and more praise for it on field gameplay than Madden for each iteration. VC does not have the deep pocket to compete with EA on the marketing or the budgeting level. They can not make more commercials, buy more shelf space, or put 200 people to work on the 2K series. Even with that, they can put out a game that can make a REAL pocket or, up until this year, have more realistic gang tackling that the 1000 lb gorilla. Look at the great strides EA has done with Madden this year in gameplay and tell me how the fact that 2K has done most of that stuff since 2K4 had not pressured them into it. That’s saying something. If you can’t respect the accomplishments that game makes in spite of everything it’s up against, then you truly ARE an employee of Electronic Arts. For that matter, if you can’t acknowledge that having 2K out there pushing EA is a GOOD thing, then something is truly wrong with you. No offense, but I just want a good game. And competition makes both games good. APF will strive to add back in value features like franchise. That I’m sure of. They’ve shown that they will listen to the community. I can’t say the same for EA, but things are looking up.

Be very aware. If people don’t support All Pro, and it suffers in sales, Take 2 could cancel it and then you will be stuck without a choice once again. Support the underdog if you can.

The only reason you complain that Madden isn’t “Innovating” is because YOU expect every Madden to be “Game-Breaking”. Are all the NBA 2k “Innovating” or are they just an improvement over the previous year’s version? NBA Live sucks ass, I stop playing that when I found NBA 2k to be superior to the Live series.

People like to hate the popular brand because they feel like they deserve more for their money. Hey, nobody is FORCING you to go out and buy Madden. Nobody is FORCING you to play Madden.

If Madden dropped their price to $30.00 USD, I swear you people would then complain that for $30.00, you should get a double disc that includes training camp footage. In fact, the way to solve you being so cheap is to go buy Madden from like 3 years ago, I hear they go for like $4.99 at the local gamestore.

Don’t like the new Madden? Then don’t buy it, don’t play it and get on with your life purchasing other games that will keep you happy. Ain’t nobody forcing you to go out and buy Madden. Guess you all fall to peer pressure and feel you HAVE to buy Madden.

GG, you fail.

I DO think you are Madden and you must be trying to save face. Madden has been a gaming atrocity the past 2 seasons on the newer consoles. I think you can’t control your APF characters because the physics engine is much more realistic than maddens. Players cannot go from a full on sprint and make 90 degree turns with ease.. Try it yourself. Exit your cave and try to run as fast as you can and turn 90 degrees without shredding your knee or rupturing your achilles. Let me know how that works out for u…. Enjoy your 60 dollar roster update on August 14th!

Great point, the commentary is lacking, and it would be nice for fans of Madden to be able to turn on the old guy for a few “booms” during the game.

Mad-

First off, thanks for the post. I will agree that All-Pro has a lot of room for growth, however the team at Visual Concepts took the time to pay attention to so many details in the game that I believe it is their slogan that should read “if it’s in the game…”

In terms of your FF comparison, I had the chance to play Madden 08 at this years E3. I am not bashing Madden in terms of the gameplay as the control was much better than last years version, but there are still inexcusable details that EA has continued to overlook for way too long now. Do I hold them to a higher standard because they are EA? You bet I do.

In regards to your gameplay and controls issue with APF in comparison to Madden … are you kidding? EA themselves came out and admitted they had a lot of complaints with the gameplay and controls in 07.

Gameplay is one of the areas that All-Pro definitely shines in my book.

Now, you say you have played All-Pro and you could not control the players on the field, maybe that is because in APF 2K8 you are actually controlling the players. You also state that you think the controls in Madden 07 were better, to that I say … are you sure your last name isn’t Madden?

Mad-

To the people that say “Madden is xxx”, do you play RPG’s like Final Fantasy because of the name? If you stripped Final Fantasy of the title and notable character names, would you still buy it because of the great gameplay? Don’t come here and tell me that All-Pro Football ‘is better then Madden’ when you haven’t even played the new Madden yet.

Go play Madden 07 and then go play All-Pro Football and you can tell the difference in trying to control the players. All-Pro Football, trying to control the player as fluidly as in Madden is like trying to control a drive a car without a steering wheel. I have played All-Pro Football and compared to Madden ‘07, it’s not that good due to very, very loose player mechanics. Fix that and I would’ve enjoyed the game alot more.