The Blog for the Sports Gamer Three guys who love Sports Gaming rant and rave about various stuff.

Glen’s Madden 13 demo thoughts

After playing a few games on the demo, I can already tell that one feature for next year will be "Tuning physics engine."

There are so many comical interactions on the field that occur due to the physics engine being way too sensitive.  You will see players tripping and falling in bizarre ways nearly every play.

It's a balancing act because there were a few tackles that I saw that looked (when you saw them in the replays, which you can't control in the demo) like something that could happen in real life.  The problem is that you see so many others where it looks like someone is tackling the ball carriers aura, and never actually touches the player but somehow brings them down.

The playcalling AI is just as bad as I've seen it in years past.  Especially when it comes to the less than 2 minute time frame.  Running plays selected right after big pass plays, followed by passing plays that let the clock run down to almost nothing.

The announcing team of Simms and Nance is a refreshing alternative to having to listen to Gus Johnson for the last few years.  I can barely recall any of the notable things that they said, which is a good thing, I guess.

At this point, I'm just hard pressed to say that there is anything remarkable about it.  The physics engine is way overdue, but not well implemented (and probably won't be for a few years.)  By the time you do feel like the game will have the engine right, we'll be onto the next generation of consoles.

What bothers me more and more about sports games on consoles is that so much of this could have been adjusted if they would have PC versions with tuning files.  Given a few weeks, some of the hardcore fans of the game could tweak and adjust the engine and make it amazing, but since we're stuck with console gaming... we have to wait years for adjustments to be made, and that just sucks.

One last thing that I forgot to mention is that the lighting is awful at times. The light that shines down on the players makes it nearly impossible to tell one team apart from the other, as they are both in some sort of shadow effect.

I highly suggest that you give it a try as there are some good things, but I think the bad greatly outweigh the good.