Madden NFL 11, for example, looks and feels like it's gotten a huge shot in the arm after a couple of incredibly stagnant, unimaginative iterations. And creative director Ian Cummings is candid enough to admit as much, volunteering that the team hadn't been satisfied with the direction of the franchise over the past couple of years, particularly the audio portion. On my recently retired sports-gaming podcast, the Sports Anomaly, we jokingly referred to lead play-by-play man Tom Hammond as "Robo-Hammond" -- his stilted delivery and robotic intonation tended to suck the life out of even the most exciting games. Cummings made it clear that while he thinks Hammond's a perfectly competent announcer in real life on NBC and NFL Network, he admitted that his style just doesn't translate to a video game.
"When we got together and had our meeting about the things we wanted to improve or change this year, we made a list on our whiteboard," Cummings says. "Tom Hammond was at the top of that list."
Cummings knew Hammond's replacement needed to bring one thing more than any other: energy. And no broadcaster fit that bill better than CBS' Gus Johnson, best known for his breathless descriptions of the annual David-beats-Goliath upsets in the NCAA basketball tournament. But Johnson's also an excellent, passionate football announcer -- and nowhere was that on display better than in the opening weekend of the 2009 NFL season. With the Denver Broncos trailing the Cincinnati Bengals 7-6 with less than 30 seconds remaining, Broncos QB Kyle Orton rocketed a pass down the sideline -- a pass that was tipped in the air and miraculously fell into the hands of Broncos wideout Brandon Stokley, who raced down the sideline and into the end zone to seal a shocking victory for the Broncos. It was one of the most remarkable endings to an NFL game in the past decade -- and Johnson gave it the passion and excitement it deserved.
"We were actually having lunch at a restaurant with John Madden himself and watching the Broncos-Bengals game," Cummings says. "Then the Stokley play happened and Gus Johnson went crazy, and that kind of just sealed the deal to bring him on."
So fans can definitely expect more energy from this year's Madden. But what about the other area that sucks the life out of games: the dead time in between plays? I've been involved with an online league over the past year, and it feels like games are about half an hour longer than they need to be. Cummings agrees that this has been a big problem, and the new GameFlow feature -- which automatically suggests the best play based on the game situation -- is designed to minimize in-game waiting.
You can still select plays from the playbook if you want, but I found that far less effective than relying on GameFlow; the few times I selected defensive formations myself, for example, I got burned on deep passes. With GameFlow, the defense adjusted to a "bend-but-don't-break" model -- it was far more effective, and helped lead me to two easy victories over a computer-controlled opponent. I'm not sure how that transfers to human opponents, but Cummings said that GameFlow is designed to discourage players who regularly exploit certain plays, evening the playing field.
The FIFA franchise -- EA's other massive success -- isn't set for such drastic changes, though. Creative director Gary Patterson says that he's mostly satisfied with the direction of the series after FIFA 10 and 2010 FIFA World Cup: South Africa. Patterson says that the team surveyed hardcore players and asked what changes, if any, they wanted to see. Most of the major tweaks will focus on the passing game: You can only execute pinpoint, Spain-like ball control if you are Spain!
But this year holds a special challenge for Patterson and the team. After all, more than a billion fans just finished watching the World Cup, and they're going to want to see those results reflected in the game. Uruguay's handsome, flaxen-haired maestro Diego Forlan, who put the tiny South American nation on his back with his unexpected Golden Ball-winning performance, is the most obvious example. If the World Cup stars aren't noticeably better in FIFA 11, fans will definitely realize something's amiss.
"With someone like Forlan, he showed himself to be one of the best players in the world on free kicks," Patterson says. "We can easily account for that in the game by raising his player ratings." But Patterson also cautioned that the team can only account for improvements in that way -- with such a small post-World Cup development window, the team can't add specific animations to players who might have stood out during the summer tournament.
Patterson also says that the fussy penalty-kick mechanic introduced in 2010 FIFA World Cup: South Africa (and maligned in some circles) will remain for the foreseeable future; otherwise, he says, it's simply too easy to nail the corners and leave keepers helpless to stop shots. When I mentioned that it would be nice to receive in-game feedback on why a PK misfired, Patterson seemed agreeable to the suggestion and mentioned it as a possible solution to please both camps.
Unlike Cummings and Patterson, NBA Jam creative director Trey Smith isn't working off a template from last year. Hell, he's not even working off a template from last decade! Smith's involved in resurrecting an early '90s arcade classic on the Wii, which could either be incredibly awesome or unbearably disappointing, depending on the execution.
But NBA Jam isn't going the route of some modern-day updates with massively improved graphics and unrecognizable gameplay. Smith says that if EA was going to bring back NBA Jam, they'd need to bring it back the way fans remembered -- and that meant old-school production all the way, complete with digitized crowds, ginormous player heads, and the return of original over-the-top announcer Tim Kitzrow. But while Madden and FIFA generally appeal to the hardcore sports fan, NBA Jam attracts a more diverse audience. "You wouldn't believe the amount of people that come up to me and say, 'I can't stand sports games, but I love NBA Jam,'" Smith says. "And that's definitely something we've got to keep in mind during the development process."
NBA Jam's "boss battles," one-on-one duels with some of the NBA's greatest historical stars (like Jerry West and Magic Johnson), seem to be part of the game's attempt to appeal to a wide range of gamers. While Smith wouldn't spill the details of the West boss battle -- one can only assume it involves long-range shooting, given the talents of the dead-eye 1960s sharpshooter -- he was willing to show off the Magic Johnson showdown. The legendary Lakers point guard teleported all around the court, jamming the ball home and putting some sick moves on a helpless LeBron James... perhaps a little too helpless. While the old-school NBA Jam portions of the game played out true to form, I found the boss battle a bit frustrating. Considering Smith says that he wants to appeal to all types of players, that difficulty could be a problem.
Smith admits he's got a tough challenge trying to recapture the appeal of the original arcade classic while adding something new, but he says he relishes the opportunity. "I grew up playing NBA Jam, and I pinch myself every day that I get to work on this project," he says. "It's amazing."
