Has Madden ever been a "good" game?

[Dolphan]

Just asking out of curiosity. I'd love to know your opinions.

IMO, Madden has been fun to play, but I don't ever remember it having "good" gameplay. I've been playing since Madden 2001 and have seen the different forms of B.S: super-LBs, Michael Vick, suction-blocking, overpowered Hit Sticks, over-rated players (looking at you, Quintin Jammer on M08), rubberband A.I, spectacular catch cheese, etc.

Almost every year since 2001 has had some sort of gimmick that breaks the game, at least that's what it feels like to me. In my experience, APF 2K8 has the gameplay, 2k5 has the experience/gameplay and Madden's sort've been this Michael Bay version of football.

But that's all my opinion. Would love to know your thoughts.

[TheRareButter]

Just asking out of curiosity. I'd love to know your opinions.

IMO, Madden has been fun to play, but I don't ever remember it having "good" gameplay. I've been playing since Madden 2001 and have seen the different forms of B.S: super-LBs, Michael Vick, suction-blocking, overpowered Hit Sticks, over-rated players (looking at you, Quintin Jammer on M08), rubberband A.I, spectacular catch cheese, etc.

Almost every year since 2001 has had some sort of gimmick that breaks the game, at least that's what it feels like to me. In my experience, APF 2K8 has the gameplay, 2k5 has the experience/gameplay and Madden's sort've been this Michael Bay version of football.

But that's all my opinion. Would love to know your thoughts.

I don't think Madden has ever been a "good" game, but EA has made good versions of the bland/basic game they provide. I like Madden 09 PS3, Madden 25 wasn't terrible either.

I think of it like this; It's 2023. RDR2 has been completed for a few years now and Resident Evil games are top notch, while I'm not a gamer I consider those titles to be the peak of modern days technology. They understandably take many years to make as they build the game from 0%-100%.

EA has the same basic method as those games divided by an annual release for many years at a time until they change game engines. They have one main game and they "mod" or edit it each year and then re-release it as new title. They spend many year working on the same game just as RDR2 devs did yet Madden has never even been in the same galaxy of RDR2 in terms of anything, not even graphics.

IMO, it's the annual release that prevents us from ever having a fully functional, completely modernized and physics based game. It's no secret that EA removes features from one game to the next. In 07 they removed the crowd textures and coaches position priority type that allows the CPU teams to draft a speed QB if they desired, from M22-M23 they removed the ability to view fatigue levels at the LOS. Some games are unrealistically dark (07) while others are brighter to seem like it's a fresh coat of paint.

Since EA has the football gaming game gridlocked and they're their only competition, they not only have no incentive to produce the best game, but they have reason to specifically not produce the best game so they can easily one up it the following year.

They spend 4+ years making one game yet it's completely broken more often than not even by today's standards, it only features football gameplay. I think it should be almost open world with facilities so you can meet your players/coaching staff/owner/GM and develop a human like relationship with them plus the major things like walking around in Lucas Oil stadium, having multiple meetings with combine prospects and actually watch the combine. Draft day should consist of war room conversations, debates between staff, and calling the choice in then watching the player be selected on stage.

It's clear as day to me that EA has been playing us as fools for years, neglected their aging player base who want deeper gameplay and only marketed on the kids they can easily exploit who know no better than Madden. We need to convince the NFL owners and Roger Goodell not to resign EA's exclusivity rights and spread awareness of how many people have abandoned Madden in favor of older versions to highlight the loss of profit tied to EA.

[Theov]

I consider M08 a deep and good game. For its time.
The franchise mode is not broken enough to be very entertaining.
The AI is pretty dumb, but I wouldnt expect more from a game this old.
After that, its been steadily down hill.
I have never played anything newr than 2010 and that was a pretty good but broken game.

If EA had just expanded on 08, Madden would be the best selling game every year.
From early 2000s I still remember the names of the players. Even the bad ones. Becaue I played Madden and Street all the time. I knew who was playing on Sundays.

Nowadays I have no idea.

Madden is terrible nowadays, I know from just looking at how horrible it looks. Who spends on dime on that garbage is a certified idiot.

[ram29jackson]

Generally speaking, the players in PS2 Madden ,all move kind of video_gamey too fast.

The new maddens lol, they all move too slow.

I was lucky to find some guys chart though, that had speed Madden Numbers ratio to what the real life 40 time is.

Don't know how believable, but I've used it for like Biletnikoff or whomever

[ram29jackson]

I consider M08 a deep and good game. For its time.
The franchise mode is not broken enough to be very entertaining.
The AI is pretty dumb, but I wouldnt expect more from a game this old.
After that, its been steadily down hill.
I have never played anything newr than 2010 and that was a pretty good but broken game.

If EA had just expanded on 08, Madden would be the best selling game every year.
From early 2000s I still remember the names of the players. Even the bad ones. Becaue I played Madden and Street all the time. I knew who was playing on Sundays.

Nowadays I have no idea.

Madden is terrible nowadays, I know from just looking at how horrible it looks. Who spends on dime on that garbage is a certified idiot.

Careful. Because here,that's supposed to be a compliment

[Coachwf]

05, 07, 08 were all good games. Recently discovered 11 on the 360 and loving it. For years I had been sticking with 2K5 and the NCAA games, but 11 was really solid.