6 Things That Will Make Practice Mode Better In Madden 12 - ShopMaster's Blog

Arena Blog Dynasty Scores Sign Up ☰

ShopMaster's Blog

6 Things That Will Make Practice Mode Better In Madden 12

Posted on February 22, 2011 at 02:55 PM.

(1)

Hello Madden Fans, It�s that time of year where if you are still playing Madden, then you must really like it. But let�s not kid ourselves, there are several aspects of Madden that even at this time of year still makes you mad when you see it. Through these next set of articles we are going to discuss certain aspects of the game and what it would take to make it better than Madden 11. Right now the Madden Development team is hard at work right now working on Madden 12 and I want to give them little things that I think could be implemented easily to make it better than it�s previous version.

This first of many articles is going to focus on Practice Mode. Now I know it�s not franchise mode, but I think there are 6 things that the Madden team could implement right now to make Practice Mode great. First let�s talk a little bit about what practice mode is. Practice Mode allows you to �Lab� and practice certain aspects of your game without the frustration or the pressure of a real game. There are 3 different types of Practice Modes, Normal (Offense vs. Defense), Offense Only (Just the offense on the field), and Kick Offs (where you can practice both Kickoffs and Returns). I use practice mode to try out new playbooks, practice new blitzes that I�ve made, or just to get my thumbs warmed up before that crucial Franchise game. No matter what you use practice mode for, it�s quick and easy; but I feel there are a number of things that could be added to make your Practice Mode much more efficient and useful. Let�s take a look.

6. Adjust Weather Conditions.

The ability to adjust weather conditions is huge and it will allow you to practice in conditions that you may face in a game. In one of my franchises I was the Jacksonville Jaguars and almost every one of my home games were played in the rain. I had guys slipping all over the place. My QB had a hard time even throwing the ball in the rain. I had to play about 5 games in the rain that season and it was a struggle everytime, thank goodness my opponent struggled also. It just would have been great to adjust the weather condition. Practicing in the snow, rain, and gusting winds doesn�t sound like a good time but believe me when I say it would be nice. I know the Madden Dev team can do that, it�s simple enough right?

5. Online Practice Mode

Ok, so what I mean by Online Practice Mode is well � just that. I want the ability for me and my friend to go into practice mode together and practice some plays together. As part of being an EA SPORTS Game Changer there was a time where I was helping people out with their game by practicing with them. The bad part about practicing in a game is that there are downs, play clocks, and time that interfere with a good practice session.

What if I want him to run the same play over and over again against different coverages, well eventually he would get to the endzone or turn it over on downs. Sometimes when you practice with your friend or �Lab� partner you don�t want to worry about those things. Having the ability to practice online with your friends would be so cool. I know you guys agree with me, don�t give me that look. The other cool thing about practicing with your friends online is that you�ll still be able to switch sides, move the ball into the redzone, and just fine tune certain aspects of your game with a live opponent all practice session long.

4. Save Hot Routes for Offense and Defense/Control Both Sides

Now bear with me on this idea because I have a hard time explaining it but when I do, you�ll get the idea. OK, here is the scenario that I told my friend when I mentioned this idea to him. Let�s say you just finished a game online and the person you played was coming out in a 1-5-5 and he made several hot routes and you couldn�t figure out where the open man was in the defense he ran. Well unfortunately the way practice mode is now, that if you wanted to create that same defense you would have to play practice mode with two controllers and with the second controller pick the play and make the hot routes for the defense everytime after the play. This is not only a pain but not very efficient. So what if you could control the defense with the same controller and then save the hot routes you made so after the play the defense went back to the way it was when you snapped the ball on offense.

So my thinking is when you go into practice mode and you are on offense you pick the play for the offense and then you pick the play for the defense just like you do now. Here is the new addition, before you snap the ball it would be great if you could press the R3 button and it switch you to the defense side of the ball. From there you can make your changes, hot routes and even press or fake blitz. You press R3 to go back to the offense and where you have left the defense is where it will reset when the play is over. So lets say you go on the defensive side of the ball and do press coverage and come back to offense and run the play. When that defense gets set again it will press the coverage, therefore you don�t have to keep adjusting the defense before every play. This could also work with any hot routes you do on defense. I don�t know what that would take as far as development time would go, but the guys who make Madden Tips for the masses will be forever in your debt � lol.

3. Show The Stats For Each Play You Run/Success Rate

Out of all my suggestions, this one is probably one that I feel should have already been in the game. I remember practice mode for Madden a long time ago that used to tell you how many yards each play on offense you ran went for. I know it may sound trivial but it�s just one of those things that would make practice mode better. Here is how I would like it to be used. When I complete a pass or a run play it should note a couple of things. How many yards it went for and what play the defense was in if I picked �Random Play� for the defense. Something like the diagram below.

2. Set Situations

One of the things that I feel would make Practice Mode the best even if none of the things mentioned above make it would be the ability to set situations, like time, down, and distance. This would allow people to practice their two minute offense. Practice holding the defense from scoring in the two minute drive would be available with this new feature. Maybe you want to practice 4th down conversions or try to stop the high powered Saints from scoring in the RedZone . With this feature you can create your own Madden Moments.

1. Set the QB Hike Time

The #1 complaint out of all the people that I�ve talked to about Practice Mode is the time it takes the QB hike the ball. This has been a problem for the longest time, which is why people hardly ever only play with one controller in Practice Mode. There should be an option to set it to 5, 7, 10 seconds. Or what would be even better is if you are playing defense you can press the L3 button down and that will snap the ball.

So there you have it Madden fans my 6 new features that will make practice mode better.

To the Madden Development team and Ian Cummings, I know you are knee deep in Making Madden 12 great but if you can find the time and resources to add some if not all of these options for practice mode I would be very appreciative. Practice mode is where serious Madden Players go to study their craft and right now it�s lacking.

Stay tuned later this week for my other articles about features, changes, and additions that would make Madden 12 better before it even comes out.

Comments

# 1 Michael19jr @ Mar 18

Where is progressive ball placing? Thats the only thing ive ever wanted in practice mode is to be able to go the whole distance of the field without having to change the spot in the settings