You're right, Condemned, Oblivion, Dead Rising, Gears of War, Madden, DOA4 and PDZ are just full of jaggies / low res textures...

*Remembers the old times when gameplay actually meant something*

The Xbox 360-version obviously look much better than the Xbox version, even though it's not one of the most impressive 360-games. But the thing is - if the gameplay makes it worth paying 50$ for the Xbox version, why not just pay another 10$ the enhanced XBL support and better graphics?
And there's alot of EA haters here, but it's still a fact - millions of people buy the NFS games everytime, and many enjoy the games. It's all about what you want. People maybe don't want an (arcade) simulator like PGR3, they just want to go out on the street and race against the police.

I wouldn't be too surprised if EA took away the backwards comp. from the Xbox-version, just to make us pay for the 360-version.

You over simplify the issue. There are dozens of excellent, quality games that flop every year while recycled, uninnovative games sell well. Why? Marketing. Big companies like EA and Activision demand retailer shelf space and put significant amounts of money into marketing their products, cross licensing, multiplatforming, etc.

I know people who buy the James Bond games because they still think that it is the same series as GoldenEye 007. They recognize that it is not quite as good, but they say, "007 was really great so they are bound to make another really good one". They do not realize Rare lost the license. Not all gamers read game sites or magazines. It is sad to see a horrible game like Agent Under Fire do better than say TimeSplitters which is a superior game in every way.And it would not surprise me if EA stripped most of the replay features out of Madden and NBA Live only to resell them later.

Doh! They already did. I think a lot of people are too quick to defend EA and carelessly call people with legit criticisms "EA haters". e.g. VC had no problem recompiling their NBA 2K6 Franchise code. It really is not that hard. The backend franchise code just takes the game stats, plugs it into the database, and then runs very low intensity processing tasks for simming. It is not framerate sensative or anything.

Tweak, recompile, DONE.

The bull line EA gave about "Not enough time" is a joke and pretty far from the truth. Porting the non-ingame features is the EASIEST part of the port. Further, EA has known for YEARS that they would have to move to a new platform, so why their code is not portable--which it should be considering they have PC/Xbox/PS2/GCN versions--is beyond believable. Further, EA was one of the first with Alpha kits AND Beta Kits.

And yet we are to believe VC did a miracle and did not lose any features yet EA could not?

It comes down to money. And as people are pointing out here is that EA is clearly dollar oriented and not quality oriented. While that is good for their business, it is bad for consumers and bad for the industry in the long run.

The NFL deal also is a sore spot. As a Madden fan I appreciated the competition in the market. Further, EA clearly was seeking a deal 6 months before the final deal was announced. EA and the NFL went as far as to demand a retraction from a newspaper saying deal was struck. Why? It was very bad press and then there was a cherade about allowing other bidders when the deal was done. The fact EA aggresively sought the NCAA and AFL licenses as well demonstrates they have an equal hand in locking EVERYONE out of the football market.

EA's poor financial results lately have been directly related to poor quality titles and recycling franchises.

My hope is Xbox Live will allow many more trailers AND demos. People will get to test out the lesser known games that are AAA+ quality earlier. This should level the playing field and force EA to compete more on the product and less on the marketing.

Scarface:
A game doesn't have to be revolutionary to be fun to play. The lack of revolutionary ideas doesn't have to make a game booring to play - just look at Rare's games.

Acert93:
And I think you make the problem even bigger than it actually is. Yes, the games don't change that much over the years, there aren't that many new stuff in them - but does that mean that they aren't fun to play?
I'm a huge PES-fan, and I know - small changes can make wonders to a game. And, you have to remember that people actually like Fifa (I don't have to say Madden there right, as it's actually even getting close to NFL in review scores), and that people love the small stuff - cool freekick animations, the typical goal celebrations. It's those small stuff.

The Need for Speed series is still one of the racing series out there, and you have to remember - there's a large fanbase, and the games still get great review scores. And you can sit there and go "BAH, Gamespot = teh biazed site", but there are still many happy buyers of the EA games.

I only *love* (and buy) one EA series - SSX - and I do understand how people can love the EA games. I love snowboarding games, others love street racing games - and when you buy an EA title, you know you aren't getting the best title out there, but nevertheless - you can be sure you won't get a crappy game (well, except Rogue Agent).

And yes, bo-hoo. Beyond Good & Evil sold bad, *cries*. Boohoo. That's UBI's fault, not EA's. And you can sit there and talk about how Psychonauts, *the* innovative adventure game, sold like crap in USA - but it's Majescos fault. It's retarded to think that you can sell a game without marketing it, even though they kind of tried marketing it at least.

OF COURSE, It's not good for the industry. But then we have Shigeru and the people there - they won't dissapear, there will always be new guys to take over. There will be people coming with new ideas. And just look at the filming industry. It's of course not the same thing - but shoot-shoot-pang-pang action movies still sell well. Even though you sit there and go "Oh, I've seen that thousands times before".

Yes, but you have to remember - they will stop developing Xbox games, and then you have no choice. Either stop playing or buy the new console. There will be the same gameplay.

And yes, in the beginning, it's mostly about graphics. And there's good looking titles too, and I KNOW Fifa 06 looks great. But it's ridiculus to say that any X360 game look like an Xbox title. The same thing with Xbox 1 games, looking like PSX titles. Even though Blood Awake looked like crap, it never could be done on N64 or PS1.