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RaychelSnr's Blog
What Madden NFL 13 Needs to Do to Recapture Interest Stuck
Posted on January 25, 2012 at 01:57 PM.

Madden NFL 13 has to fix what ails the franchise, it's now or perhaps never.

I'm here to totally piggy-back off of Phil Varckette's excellent piece about 'Five Things Madden NFL 13 Must Do For Success' with a piece of my own, in a similar but not quite the same fashion.

My goal is to present to you the gauge I will use to measure success for Madden this year, I'm not getting into wish list items, these are simply things that must happen for the series to take an actual step forward:

Bring Commentary Up to the Level of Its Peers -- Last year's commentary was the worst in any major sports game in this generation minus Madden NFL 06. Simply put, commentary has to not only make a huge leap, it has to triple in quality to where NBA 2K12 and The Show are right now.

Gameplay has to find a new 'in' -- Cam Weber has been quoted as recognizing that gamers (aka my review) are calling Madden's gameplay stale. I'm not expecting the wheel to be reinvented, but I want to see some definite tweaks and changes with how we play the game towards something that's more accessible yet different than what we've had since Madden NFL '99. The game has to feel alive, varied, and anything but stale.

Continued Nice Online Options -- The communities feature, for some reason or another, didn't quite take off as EA had expected. Personally I feel it was a stronger aspect of the online offerings. Perhaps expansion of the communities idea (integrate social networks, don't create your own silly gooses) along with a little thing called 'Full Online Franchise Mode' -- perhaps get creative and integrate it all (along with MUT). I'm just saying.

More variety in presentation -- The leap in the camera angles and all that was completely negated by the absolutely horrendous commentary. However, the presentation is still behind it's peers. I want to see the presentation at a level where you see NBA 2K, MLB 2K, MLB The Show, even FIFA and NHL. So even more camera variety, even better post-play and in-between play interactions and expressions and most importantly: make it feel like NFL Football. (Hint: That means it doesn't really feel like it right now.)

Spend the Year Fixing the Issues -- How many times are gamers going to have to harp on the same gameplay issues before they are ever fixed? My standard for success with Madden this year includes fixing of all of these bugs which have been a part of the game for so long. Yes, I know they are core engine problems, but that's no excuse. EA has claimed the gameplay team is twice as big as prior years -- well there are no excuses for not starting to tweak Madden towards something better. I know we won't look too favorably upon a Madden game which comes at us with the same old problems as the last decade.


So what do you think after reading my and Phil's lists? Anything you want to add? Sound off!
Comments
# 16 schnaidt1 @ Jan 26
for me id like them to imporve the ai logic.specifically in franchise mode. trades, who starts, who to draft, who to sign, all that is really broken from a cpu standpoint. all the ai recognizes is overall rating and whoever has the highest is starting.

id also like them to re do the ratings with no player in the league having a rating much higher than 91 or 92. when u have players rated 98 or 99...why even play mut with the legends rated that high. makes no difference. spreading out the ratings like in 2k where players in the 60's can do some things but you see the difference between them and players rated in the 70's and 80's

and lastly i would love to see alot more tendencies. and not just on a yes or no scale. but on a scale of 100.

think how amazing the game would be if they had tendencies in for all sorts of stuff. like qbs example. the tendencies for throwing short, medium, deep, on the run, left side of field, middle of field, etc.

then u play mark sanchez you should see a lot of dump offs and check downs compared to playing tom brady.

this stuff isnt that hard to implement and would be huge if you added position specific tendencies for every player.
 
# 17 Xoax34 @ Jan 26
to Show, and the unsatisfaction of NBA 2k12 (although i love my 2k12), 2k sports is running low.

Ok so they got their rights taken away. They tried All-Pro. It didnt work. But here's the thing. Its 2012. We have now experienced multiple Madden Titles that make us wish for 2k back. I guess they worry about it not selling that well because they dont have the license. But im pretty sure that if they made a game, it would sell great. All they need to do is pull a Backbreaker and allow custom leagues, teams, stadiums, etc.

Now im not sure if they can just up and make a next-gen game, but a guy can always wish.
 
# 18 wat3 @ Jan 26
All I care about is core-gameplay. I dont care if socks dont match or if the grass isnt moving in the wind. I dont care about commentary as long as I can turn it off. I dont care about presentation... heck, I dont even care if it has a license. All I want is a football game that plays like the game of football. Is that to much to ask or just impossible to create?
 
# 19 Sim Easy @ Jan 27
@treq 21---- ps2 madden/NCAA titles had all types of weight and momentum (physics) and it sold the same if not more copies than it does now. I just wanted to throw that out there.
 
# 20 JordanT111596 @ Jan 29
I've always thought Madden had decent enough gameplay (still far from good) but they spend too much time year after year on presentation. EA set the bar high with NCAA Basketball 10. That game showed there could be different networks/commentators in a game. I say have Gus Johnson have a new FOX partner and add that network, Chris Collinsworth maybe bring back Al Michaels or at least Tom Hammond do NBC, you already have the NFL Network license, and partner with CBS again. And please for the love of Christ, use the ESPN licensing. This is one of the main if not the main EA Sports games yet you have the biggest network in sports lying on a college game? And you bought out your rising competition Backbreaker on mobile devices, why not give that engine a try instead of working on arcade games that most people mod in the old ones anyway (NFL Blitz)? I doubt all of this will happen because with no incentive to get better, no competition to compete against, and good money rolling in for mediocrity, why change?
 
# 21 XNowOrNever85X @ Jan 29
What they need to do is fix the little things. Like Build from inside out like the draft that NFL teams do. Start in the trenches fix the offensive line blocking/defensive line pass rushing. Fix it so online players can't cheese and jump through the line when the blocker is clearly in the spot to block him. Fix so that every linemen doesn't have a desinated blocker so it will block anyone and not a saftey 30 yards down field when they could block a LB in front of him. Make the pass rushing realistic and not have the user dominate everytime he controls a dlineman. These are just SOME of the things they need to fix but just take your time EA sports and madden don't try to do to much because thats what your doing your trying to tweak everything at once and change it so there will be more bugs in the game idc if the commentary is horse **** we've dealt with that for many years it would help but what the real madden fans want is GAMEPLAY. I say move from the trenches up spend some time on that and if you feel satisfied with that move on to the other things.
 

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