Madden 09

[cranium]

I bet EA screws it up and doesn't move the captain's C to different players if you trade away a captain, or if Edwards is traded to another team, he keeps the C regardless.

[Chazberg]

I bet EA screws it up and doesn't move the captain's C to different players if you trade away a captain, or if Edwards is traded to another team, he keeps the C regardless.

Actually I think they'll get it right and have it be a function of the team and not the player. You can name 3 team captains in the game now; I'm guessing they'll just make the Cs show up on their jerseys.

[Chazberg]

Here's the "C" on Donnie Edwards:

Man that's good detail! Too bad I hate the friggin' C. It only looks good in hockey.

DFAD's really giving it to him.

Yeah, chalk up another future child support payment

[fishheatcats]

will we ever see the day of the 'Hovan jersey' incorporated in to the game?

in anycase this is getting me interested in one of those PS3s.

I wouldn't go near a "PS3" version of Madden with a 10 foot pole(although I would highly advise getting a PS3, the exclusive games are great). I won't go into the long, nerdy game console argument, but here's the short version. The PS3 disc they make Madden on, a Blu-Ray, has 50 gigabytes of storage space. Madden only uses about 10-12 because it is made to fit on an Xbox 360 DVD and they put out a "PS3" version as well without adding anything else. Rather then being lazy, I would like to see EA release a PS3 Madden with every classic NFL/AFL uniform, player, stadium, team, mascot and anything else they can get a photo of. There is no reason, technology wise(at least on the PS3), that they can't do it. I'm on a no sports game purchasing strike until EA and everyone else REALLY makes a game for the PS3. They may think what they make now is acceptable, but I expect them to fully use what they have at their disposal.

It is nice to see them trying to get the jerseys totally accurate, but the real teams weren't what I noticed last year. My favorite activity(and probably one of the favorites of many of the people here) is creating teams. I have Madden 08 on PS3, and they had only about half the logos the PS2 version of 07 had(lost the letters entirely), and the worst of all was that of the 5 or 6 lame uniform styles, not one had the sleeve numbers where they almost always go, on the shoulders. The Colts are the only team I can think of who has the numbers on the sleeves like that. I'm also patiently waiting for the ability to use my own custom logos/uniform designs on a console game. It should be easy for them to implement, I mean they can take my photo and make a lifelike 3D version of me in Tiger Woods, why can't they wrap a logo around a helmet? My Dolphins are so hopelessly bad that all I would want Madden for is to create my own teams.

Rant over lol.

[Jezus_Ghoti]

And obviously McFadden won't be wearing #5 (yes, I know they show them like that because a number hasn't been assigned).

I also doubt he'll wear that facemask, since he wore a different one in college.

Also, didn't the Chiefs add an AFL patch to the front of their jerseys? That appears to be missing.

[bigdub81]

All and all it is a piss poor site that the NFL forces retailers to use.

I agree! I mean how hard is it to do 32 teams considering somebody is sitting in an NFL art dept. putting this stuff out? They use the same templates avaliable to this site (one's that I have) and it's just a matter of color, logo and some stripes/piping here and there. I would jump at the chance to get paid to do this...hell I almost have all 32 teams done plus their throwbacks so it can't be that hard considering the NFL would give it's art dept. access to all of the vectors that go to the teams! Stop being so freakin' cheap comish!!!!

Also, didn't the Chiefs add an AFL patch to the front of their jerseys? That appears to be missing.

I think that the patch was supposed to be in honor of their owner who died if I'm not mistake! Something along the lines of the 'GSH' and 'AL' that the Bears and Browns use. I saw Tony Gonzales, do an interview on ESPN and they had his jersey hanging in a set-locker with the patch on it. Don't have a pic though!

And I'm all for picking the uni's like someone stated earlier. That'd be sweet if acurate!

[Erik121]

What is with this over "shiny-ness" again? It looks like that the players are wearing silk. I'm keeping back from this years Madden till I know that it lives up to at least some hype. Last year was a pretty big disappointment in my book.

[Old School Fool]

Here's the "C" on Donnie Edwards:

woo mcfadden!

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

will we ever see the day of the 'Hovan jersey' incorporated in to the game?

in anycase this is getting me interested in one of those PS3s.

I wouldn't go near a "PS3" version of Madden with a 10 foot pole(although I would highly advise getting a PS3, the exclusive games are great). I won't go into the long, nerdy game console argument, but here's the short version. The PS3 disc they make Madden on, a Blu-Ray, has 50 gigabytes of storage space. Madden only uses about 10-12 because it is made to fit on an Xbox 360 DVD and they put out a "PS3" version as well without adding anything else. Rather then being lazy, I would like to see EA release a PS3 Madden with every classic NFL/AFL uniform, player, stadium, team, mascot and anything else they can get a photo of. There is no reason, technology wise(at least on the PS3), that they can't do it. I'm on a no sports game purchasing strike until EA and everyone else REALLY makes a game for the PS3. They may think what they make now is acceptable, but I expect them to fully use what they have at their disposal.

It is nice to see them trying to get the jerseys totally accurate, but the real teams weren't what I noticed last year. My favorite activity(and probably one of the favorites of many of the people here) is creating teams. I have Madden 08 on PS3, and they had only about half the logos the PS2 version of 07 had(lost the letters entirely), and the worst of all was that of the 5 or 6 lame uniform styles, not one had the sleeve numbers where they almost always go, on the shoulders. The Colts are the only team I can think of who has the numbers on the sleeves like that. I'm also patiently waiting for the ability to use my own custom logos/uniform designs on a console game. It should be easy for them to implement, I mean they can take my photo and make a lifelike 3D version of me in Tiger Woods, why can't they wrap a logo around a helmet? My Dolphins are so hopelessly bad that all I would want Madden for is to create my own teams.

Rant over lol.

that i don't get. why put x-box quality on a disc with virtually unlimited space? with the blu-ray they need to be maximizing the disc space. They have the space to put virtually all the logos ever used, uniforms ever used, defunct teams going back at least 50 years and totally expand the create-a-team feature. yet they only limit themselves to x-box level space when they have quadruple that.

[stephen17]

will we ever see the day of the 'Hovan jersey' incorporated in to the game?

in anycase this is getting me interested in one of those PS3s.

I wouldn't go near a "PS3" version of Madden with a 10 foot pole(although I would highly advise getting a PS3, the exclusive games are great). I won't go into the long, nerdy game console argument, but here's the short version. The PS3 disc they make Madden on, a Blu-Ray, has 50 gigabytes of storage space. Madden only uses about 10-12 because it is made to fit on an Xbox 360 DVD and they put out a "PS3" version as well without adding anything else. Rather then being lazy, I would like to see EA release a PS3 Madden with every classic NFL/AFL uniform, player, stadium, team, mascot and anything else they can get a photo of. There is no reason, technology wise(at least on the PS3), that they can't do it. I'm on a no sports game purchasing strike until EA and everyone else REALLY makes a game for the PS3. They may think what they make now is acceptable, but I expect them to fully use what they have at their disposal.

It is nice to see them trying to get the jerseys totally accurate, but the real teams weren't what I noticed last year. My favorite activity(and probably one of the favorites of many of the people here) is creating teams. I have Madden 08 on PS3, and they had only about half the logos the PS2 version of 07 had(lost the letters entirely), and the worst of all was that of the 5 or 6 lame uniform styles, not one had the sleeve numbers where they almost always go, on the shoulders. The Colts are the only team I can think of who has the numbers on the sleeves like that. I'm also patiently waiting for the ability to use my own custom logos/uniform designs on a console game. It should be easy for them to implement, I mean they can take my photo and make a lifelike 3D version of me in Tiger Woods, why can't they wrap a logo around a helmet? My Dolphins are so hopelessly bad that all I would want Madden for is to create my own teams.

Rant over lol.

The part that makes me the angriest is that you can only keep 10 created teams at a time, because back in the day I could certainly whip up a mean created league. So I'm trying to find out if you can make and save 32 teams before I venture to get the new one. (Although my hopes are high because in 07 you could create 1 team, now in 08 you can create 10, so I'm hoping they just give me the extra 22 I need)

[Gothamite]

Also, didn't the Chiefs add an AFL patch to the front of their jerseys? That appears to be missing.

I think that the patch was supposed to be in honor of their owner who died if I'm not mistake! Something along the lines of the 'GSH' and 'AL' that the Bears and Browns use. I saw Tony Gonzales, do an interview on ESPN and they had his jersey hanging in a set-locker with the patch on it. Don't have a pic though!

I do. Well, more to the point the Chiefs do.

[harperdc]

I wouldn't go near a "PS3" version of Madden with a 10 foot pole(although I would highly advise getting a PS3, the exclusive games are great). I won't go into the long, nerdy game console argument, but here's the short version. The PS3 disc they make Madden on, a Blu-Ray, has 50 gigabytes of storage space. Madden only uses about 10-12 because it is made to fit on an Xbox 360 DVD and they put out a "PS3" version as well without adding anything else. Rather then being lazy, I would like to see EA release a PS3 Madden with every classic NFL/AFL uniform, player, stadium, team, mascot and anything else they can get a photo of. There is no reason, technology wise(at least on the PS3), that they can't do it. I'm on a no sports game purchasing strike until EA and everyone else REALLY makes a game for the PS3. They may think what they make now is acceptable, but I expect them to fully use what they have at their disposal.

the issue is that the 360 has been, in all likelihood, the 'lead' development system. Rumor has it part of the reason the PC version of Madden got canned from this year on was because they were shifting 'lead' status to the PS3, which is a bitch to port anything from, versus the 360, which (for obvious reasons) shares a lot of Direct X underpinnings with PCs. The PC reasoning may or may not be true, but since the PS3 is now gaining steam - and over last year's optimization issues with Madden (re: it performed like dog crap compared to the 360 version) - there's going to be more time spent on it.

As to the uniforms and stadiums....it's an issue of time. If they're re-doing a lot of things, stuff like adding in classic uniforms is going to be much farther down the ladder than "re-doing throwing engine" or "alterations to Franchise Mode." Uniforms are also one of the smallest, easiest compressed parts of a game; go check the file size on Xbox Live for Madden '08s downloadable uniforms and tell me you couldn't find a bit more size on a 360 for that.

Classic uniforms for existing teams are one thing, but stadiums, players, and teams - especially if they still don't exist - are a problem combining both time and licensing rights. Remember the Madden 15th Anniversary edition a couple years ago? The bundled in older Madden game (95 I think) didn't have licensed rosters. It's a nightmare to get the real players. Of course, they could cop out and just put player names in there and make them editable (think NCAA Football), but again, if you've only got so much time to develop a game, what goes on the back burner and what gets brought to the forefront?

As much as I'd love to say "just make all this crap downloadable for another $5 and call it good" (and don't say there isn't a market for it at $5 or even $10, as Rock Band has sold something like 3 or 4 million downloadable songs for both PS3 and 360 in about six months - there's a market!), there's *another* time issue in that they try and start right away on the next year's version. Who knows if you can allocate the art people to making extra jerseys, or patching the jersey combinations if they're getting straight onto the following season's game.

I wish all that stuff would happen too, but there are real-world issues as to why they can't happen sometimes.

[fishheatcats]

I wouldn't go near a "PS3" version of Madden with a 10 foot pole(although I would highly advise getting a PS3, the exclusive games are great). I won't go into the long, nerdy game console argument, but here's the short version. The PS3 disc they make Madden on, a Blu-Ray, has 50 gigabytes of storage space. Madden only uses about 10-12 because it is made to fit on an Xbox 360 DVD and they put out a "PS3" version as well without adding anything else. Rather then being lazy, I would like to see EA release a PS3 Madden with every classic NFL/AFL uniform, player, stadium, team, mascot and anything else they can get a photo of. There is no reason, technology wise(at least on the PS3), that they can't do it. I'm on a no sports game purchasing strike until EA and everyone else REALLY makes a game for the PS3. They may think what they make now is acceptable, but I expect them to fully use what they have at their disposal.

the issue is that the 360 has been, in all likelihood, the 'lead' development system. Rumor has it part of the reason the PC version of Madden got canned from this year on was because they were shifting 'lead' status to the PS3, which is a bitch to port anything from, versus the 360, which (for obvious reasons) shares a lot of Direct X underpinnings with PCs. The PC reasoning may or may not be true, but since the PS3 is now gaining steam - and over last year's optimization issues with Madden (re: it performed like dog crap compared to the 360 version) - there's going to be more time spent on it.

As to the uniforms and stadiums....it's an issue of time. If they're re-doing a lot of things, stuff like adding in classic uniforms is going to be much farther down the ladder than "re-doing throwing engine" or "alterations to Franchise Mode." Uniforms are also one of the smallest, easiest compressed parts of a game; go check the file size on Xbox Live for Madden '08s downloadable uniforms and tell me you couldn't find a bit more size on a 360 for that.

Classic uniforms for existing teams are one thing, but stadiums, players, and teams - especially if they still don't exist - are a problem combining both time and licensing rights. Remember the Madden 15th Anniversary edition a couple years ago? The bundled in older Madden game (95 I think) didn't have licensed rosters. It's a nightmare to get the real players. Of course, they could cop out and just put player names in there and make them editable (think NCAA Football), but again, if you've only got so much time to develop a game, what goes on the back burner and what gets brought to the forefront?

As much as I'd love to say "just make all this crap downloadable for another $5 and call it good" (and don't say there isn't a market for it at $5 or even $10, as Rock Band has sold something like 3 or 4 million downloadable songs for both PS3 and 360 in about six months - there's a market!), there's *another* time issue in that they try and start right away on the next year's version. Who knows if you can allocate the art people to making extra jerseys, or patching the jersey combinations if they're getting straight onto the following season's game.

I wish all that stuff would happen too, but there are real-world issues as to why they can't happen sometimes.

My other beef with sports games, is that rarely is more than 15-20% of anything in a new version of a given sports game actually new. The graphics are mostly the same on the same console era, so make it worth the 60 bucks they charge now. Instead of re-inventing the wheel every year by changing the gameplay and features(Madden 02 is where I believe they achieved perfection), keep what they have and add new throwbacks and stadiums etc. As for the old players, I had Madden 96 on Genesis, and while it didn't have all of the old players, it did have quite a few on the classic teams. I think they could strike a deal with the alumni association and get that done(EA does have exclusive NFL rights, I think they can pull that off). And I SERIOUSLY hope EA, and every other company, is shifting lead development to the PS3 like you say. My guess is that they now know the 360 will never(at least in it's current form) have a comparable format storage wise, and they're realizing what can be done on the PS3. I hope it shifts to PS3 because I love sports games but I HATE and refuse to purchase Microsoft products, and basically PS3 sports games are 360 games in a different case as long as they are the same.

[_RH_]

I could be wrong, but I think the Chiefs were one team who chose not to have anyone wear the captain's patch.

[Blue Falcon]

The part that makes me the angriest is that you can only keep 10 created teams at a time, because back in the day I could certainly whip up a mean created league. So I'm trying to find out if you can make and save 32 teams before I venture to get the new one. (Although my hopes are high because in 07 you could create 1 team, now in 08 you can create 10, so I'm hoping they just give me the extra 22 I need)

Sigh...that's why I miss Front Page Sports Football Pro, which was made by Sierra for the PC. You could change every single team's city, name, uniforms, coach, stadium name, playbooks, and players. You could even create a league with LESS than 32 teams...there was an 8-team option (if you wanted to run a CFL league), 12- and 18-team (for the USFL), and 28.

It wasn't a thumb-masher game like Madden...I simply picked the plays and let the action unfold. I wish someone else would make a game like this, with ALL of those customizable options.

[Gothamite]

I could be wrong, but I think the Chiefs were one team who chose not to have anyone wear the captain's patch.

They might have been like the Packers, only wearing them in the playoffs. We'll never know....

[ShinyHubCaps]

In regard to space between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 uses a Dual-layer DVD with 8.5 GB of space (not 10-12); as mentioned, the PS3 uses a Blu-ray Video Disc with 50GB of space. However, the Xbox 360 has sold a LOT more units than the PS3, so that's why EA lead-develops for that console. Considering the similar specs on the Wii (which has sold more than PS3 as well), it makes sense to perfect the game on the console that a lot more people will be using.

It's a shame, though. They've been cutting out features that were in Madden NFL 06 for the PS2, likely so they can re-package them years later and seem innovative.

[TheGodfather]

Ah, excellent news. The Giants will finally not be wearing their away jerseys from 4 years ago anymore.

[Chazberg]

Ah, excellent news. The Giants will finally not be wearing their away jerseys from 4 years ago anymore.

They had the correct ones last year....

[BroadwayBlueshirt]

Ah, excellent news. The Giants will finally not be wearing their away jerseys from 4 years ago anymore.

They had the correct ones last year....

I thought they had a weird mashup of the two, with the correct striping and an inexplicable blue outline on the numbers.