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OS Roundtable: If You Could Add One Feature To Madden...

If you could add one feature/do one thing for the Madden NFL series, what would it be?

Bob Kollars: Online Co-Op seasons. If EA would implement the ability to have three or four guys on the same team, and run through an entire season on the same team playing different positions, it would take this title to the next level, for me at least. As much as I liked this years title, if EA would add this feature, it would add some much needed longevity to next year's game. Online leagues have been a nice addition, but they largely still have somewhat of a disconnected feeling to them.

By adding online co-op seasons it would allow a group of friends to enjoy the experience truly together and further the "gaming together" idea. Take a look at the popularity of FIFA Pro Clubs/OTP, and the ability to play a season together, and work your way up through divisions. This mode in FIFA is wildly popular, and I believe it would be even more so in Madden.

Matthew Coe: If you've played NBA 2K14 on next gen consoles then you know where I'm going here. The MyCareer mode is the highlight of the game in my opinion, and in an era of increasingly multi-player features being added, I would welcome a single-player story driven career mode in Madden. The current implementation within Connected Franchise Mode just isn't very engaging. I'd call it something like Madden: Path to the NFL.

Imagine working out at the NFL Draft Combine and then hearing (ala NBA2K14's Real Voice) Adam Schefter, Chris Mortenson, Todd McShay, and Mel Kiper Jr. break down your strengths and weaknesses and then project your draft position. Then the tension of the draft and where you might go. Dealing with the introductory press conference, rookie OTAs, training camp, pre-season, and trying to make a difference on an NFL team. An NFL career mode that is done in the same vein as MyCareer would be a huge selling point. Real Head Coach voices, NFL personalities all weighing in on social media, team mate disagreements, dissension, earning your coordinator's trust, I mean think of all the intriguing possibilities that are there.

Steve Noah: I'd like to see more jostling between the receivers and defensive backs. We need to see more animations when fighting for position, more hand fighting and animations to show players battling for the ball. I'd even go a step further with it and implement defensive players tugging at receiver jerseys (of course we'd love to see more penalties, but that's another subject) or getting their feet tangled up. We need incomplete passes because of good defensive play, not because a receiver or defender drops the ball. If a receiver is going over the middle and gets obliterated, we should definitely see a few more drops in those situations. Bring in different animations for tall receivers vs. short defensive backs and vice versa. Make player size matter more. Simply put, we need more ways to improve the defensive side of the ball, as the game feels too offensive friendly.

Jayson Young: Rather than piling on more unnecessary back-of-the-box features like this year's Precision Modifier, my wish is that Madden NFL 15 simply fixes the many broken features that are already included in the game.

Even after three title updates, auto substitutions still do not work in Madden NFL 25's franchise mode. Formation-specific substitutions continue to reset after every game instead of being permanently saved. Injuries rarely occur away from the ball, making offensive linemen invulnerable. Additionally, if a team only has two quarterbacks on its depth chart, both QBs become immune to injury. Many sliders, such as quarterback accuracy, interceptions and pass coverage/pass reaction, seem to have little impact on gameplay. The holding slider appears to only affect passing plays and kick returns, as holds are seldom called on designed running plays. Faulty tie-breaking logic still places the wrong teams in the playoffs.

With franchise sales figures continuing to decline, Madden's long-term health on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One would be best served by taking a year or two to tackle the series' longstanding issues before EA Tiburon attempts to fit any more Jenga blocks onto the trembling tower of code that is Madden NFL 25.

Caley Roark: While it might be completely superficial for some, I'd welcome a complete overhaul of Madden's presentation. The context that authentic and meaningful highlights and pre/post-game packages add help create a true "universe" that I can fully invest in.

While NFL 2K5 did it best for football, Madden could take cues from the NBA 2K series and recent NCAA Football games. Specifically, I'd love to see narrated half-time and post-game recaps, complete with score updates from around the league.

I'm sure EA could put either ESPN or NFL Network branding to use, to create a weekly highlight show that we'd want to watch (for me, the twitter feeds aren't getting it done).

If none of that is feasible, at least they could put in reaction shots that aren't canned (and repeated) animations but rather part of the natural flow of the action on the field.

Zachary Arthur: This one is very easy for me. I would absolutely love for Madden to put in a Create-A-Play feature. We all feel like we have what it takes to be that next great coach, and Madden has always had such an opportunity to put in Create-A-Play and let its players see how good they really are when it comes to strategy.

I have a world of ideas in my head when it comes to plays, and I would love the opportunity to see them on the virtual gridiron.

Chris Sanner: All of the above features are great, but the biggest thing this series (and all sports games) needs is a full slate of sliders which not only work, but let you actually define your on-field experience. I'd like to think being able to adjust and tweak different parts of the game would be very possible, allowing you to set diffculty levels for each individual piece of the game -- to allow for the best fan to fan experience as possible.

 

What about you? If you could add one feature/do one thing for the Madden NFL series, what would it be?


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Member Comments
# 41 KennyJ1976 @ 02/10/14 10:50 PM
Just give me a playoff mode so I can re-create the real world playoffs. I know football playoffs are shorter than the rest of the sports, but I still believe that ALL SPORTS GAMES should have a playoff mode.
 
# 42 statum71 @ 02/10/14 11:01 PM
Agree with Caley Roark.
 
# 43 mwd333 @ 02/10/14 11:17 PM
Yeah, truthfully this such a sensitive subject for me, I personally usually restrain myself from posting to these threads because I know and everybody on gods green earth knows that nothing will be done its just the truth. Anyways as for madden I have been playing this game since 94 the days when John madden himself actually graced the covers. Yes the game has made some graphical improvements (NOT ENOUGH) and yes the game has made a couple gameplay improvements such as bump and run coverage and at which speed you decide to throw the ball by holding the pass Button or how about even the return game. Yes ea now there is a day in which we can actually return the ball for a touchdown but it still boggles my mind why its still close to impossible to block a fg or a punt. Lets discuss a couple issues that in my mind might just actually make me consider purchasing your game again.

1. PLAYING ON THE ROAD ACTUALLY MATTERS. Yes in football crowd noise can affect (playcalling, audibles, o-line, head coach decisions) multiple things can go wrong when playing on the road the offense might not be on the same page which leads to indecision maybe a bad throw or a wrong route ran by a receiver or a offensive lineman could be called for a penalty. I personally like the fact that you don't know which team is going to show up when you play on the road that's not always the case for every team in the NFL but many times it is.

2. ANOTHER MAJOR FACTOR IN FOOTBALL MOMENTUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, yes momentum will not always win a game but you can be sure it shows its face and has a domino effect on how your players react in game situations. I have always believed madden should always have a momentum bar or meter that can slowly increase by small multiple plays or increase in bigger amounts by larger impactful plays in certain situations during a game. It does not take a genius to figure out "hey guys I think the 4th quarter is the most important time of the game, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh duhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Kick returns, punt returns, blocks also, sacks, pressures, big runs, big passing plays, penalties anything can create momentum or for that matter take it away.

3. WEATHERRRRRRRRR, how about weather taking its toll on the players, on the field its self, how about when your calling a play it shows a percentage of how effective the play will be because of the weather. Depending on the weather situation it could be major snow storm, or just high winds, maybe just a monsoon of rain, could be a combination of 1 or 2. Ea how about making the weather look realistic at that, maybe the field could be more slippery making it harder for the receivers to cut on their routes. For that matter it would make it more difficult for everybody on the field to run at full speed, all I'm saying is weather changes games, changes gameplans, creates less big plays. If I played a game of madden right now in snow on 5 minute quarters on all madden I would still score 35- 40 points.

4. PENALTIESSSSSSSSS, please add more penalties other than holding and false start. To be honest for madden to be the only football game out and its suppose to replicate the NFL. I think ITS UTTERLY RIDICULOUS that no other penalties are called opi or dpi ( offensive and defensive pass interference are never called), illegal formation, defensive holding, illegal contact, neutral zone infraction, defenseless receivers, ohh so many penalties are never ever ever called in madden. PUT THEM IN THE GAME AND THEY ALL SHOULD COINCIDE WITH MY OTHER IDEAS. Why? You ask because that's the reality of football weather, crowd noise, playing on the road, momentum.

In the end I could go on forever, I know ea will do nothing but like I said I never post on these and years of frustration I just wanted to vent. I personally have not purchased this game in 2 years, all my friends do and oddly enough they tell me its so much better every year. I go to their house and am like " dude really its the same game as last year".
 
# 44 thegame19991999 @ 02/10/14 11:19 PM
practice squad make practice mean something. gamebreaks a ticker. all the networks that show nfl.
but the one thing they really need is good competition.
 
# 45 kehlis @ 02/11/14 12:01 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson
In game saves are already in the game.
They are? Where?


I know the ps4 has that feature but I haven't seen it in Madden yet.
 
# 46 LowerWolf @ 02/11/14 12:12 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by kehlis
They are? Where?


I know the ps4 has that feature but I haven't seen it in Madden yet.
If you exit out of a game straight to the dashboard (press the PS button) it will automatically save your game and give you the option to continue it the next time you boot the game up.
 
# 47 kehlis @ 02/11/14 12:15 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LowerWolf
If you exit out of a game straight to the dashboard (press the PS button) it will automatically save your game and give you the option to continue it the next time you boot the game up.
I only have one ps4 game so I haven't been able to test it but my understanding was that it only saved if I didn't play another game in between, is that incorrect?

Either way. Madden does not have a save game feature and it absolutely should.

There is no reason I can't save a franchise game and not go back to it. What if I want to play a franchise game but have an OL franchise game to play a certain time. No reason I shouldn't be able to save my offline game to play my online game at the agreed time and then finish my offline game later.
 
# 48 Jakeness23 @ 02/11/14 12:21 AM
Throwing on the run needs to be overhauled. If you are holding the right trigger, whatever you do with the left stick should then be negated on the throw. If I'm pulling down on the stick while holding the trigger, I'm trying to get away from danger, that doesn't mean I want to throw it low, leading my receiver back to me. It usually results in loss of yards. Honestly, it'd be better if we determined to throw it hard or soft, and the actual accuracy rating would determine where the ball was thrown location wise. Tendencies ratings would help this and it would help differentiate QBs even more to get an even more real and authentic experience.
 
# 49 Trick13 @ 02/11/14 12:50 AM
Return to legacy control layout...


Meaning put "sprint/accelerate" back on X/A button, bring back "quick jukes", left/right stiff arm functionality where holding both becomes "cover ball". RS should be evade moves only when controlling a QB - there is a pump fake button so RS causing pump fakes outside the pocket is dumb.
Major advantage to that layout was it forced you to let go of sprint button to perform special moves and therefore was/is a far more intuitive and logical control layout...


I like almost all the ideas posted in here, especially;
Custom packages - been asking for that on this gen -since it was in PS2
Custom/create a play - defense needs this feature badly
Higher level of user customization - expanded slider scale, create a draft
class
Custom schedules - automated feature that allows you to backload HvH
games to end of season
Online (and offline for that matter) multi-player co-op franchise -
including full 11 vs 11, and yes I will play as OL before you ask
and on and on and on...
 
# 50 RandyBass @ 02/11/14 01:16 AM
If I had one wish for the Madden series, I'd wish for a thousand wishes for the Madden series. Maybe then I could turn it into something that held my attention.

Zing!

For the sake of this discussion, it'd be a toss up between pass interference calls to be mixed into a realistic number of penalties being called, or new animations and player models to get rid of the hunched over look and goofy throw animations.

I mean seriously, I can't really come up with just one that would remove the sense of repulsion I get when I think about Madden.
 
# 51 David129 @ 02/11/14 02:07 AM
Online co-op period. That should be number 1 on the list.Then make the game look better & play better.
 
# 52 Moegames @ 02/11/14 03:20 AM
1-pre/post/halftime shows with game/team/player stats,etc

2-custom cam (for crying out loud)
 
# 53 swaggerp357 @ 02/11/14 06:14 AM
It was mentioned earlier but I don't think enough emphasis is put on it. MAKE THE FIELD THE RIGHT SIZE!!!! This may seem like a minor issue but its not. First off it just goes to show ea's futility as a developer that something as ridiculously simple as correct field proportions can't be done right but it has gameplay implications as well. Part of the reason offense is so over powered is because of this, seriously look at how close together the hash marks are in madden then look at a picture of football players lining up irl, you'll instantly notice the difference. Where this affects gameplay is you don't actually need 10 yrds for a first, you need ten madden yards, the distance a player actually travels on a five yard run in madden would equate to like a 3 yard run in a normal sized field. It basically makes true sim stats and sim gameplay (as if we were close to that anyway) impossible together. If madden can't fix this simple but important problem how can they fix anything?
 
# 54 tanchl @ 02/11/14 09:02 AM
Duh, PENALTIES!

Does it really matter? We might as well be calling out which SI Swimsuit we wish to "date" first.
 
# 55 cclary24 @ 02/11/14 09:13 AM
Id like to see something similar to what they had for NCAA Football and that is a website to create your own franchise. Playing in whatever state you would like to. I mean taking owner mode to the next level, from what your stadium looks like to the design of your uniform. Being able to use any logo that we desire for helmets, jerseys, pants and the whole stadium. Also the ability to create and fully edit your own roster of players. from their name down to what type of cleats they wear. It would also be nice to have a plethora of jersey and pant types to choose from and the ability to create your own jersey and not have to use the same default uniforms that EA might provide.
 
# 56 LingeringRegime @ 02/11/14 09:48 AM
2k engine.
 
# 57 roadman @ 02/11/14 09:55 AM
I agree with Chris, sliders that work!!

Sim and arcade would be nice as well.
 
# 58 SirDrexl @ 02/11/14 10:48 AM
A PC version! I don't care if it's only available through digital distribution (Origin). The move to x86 architectures in the XO and PS4 should make it more feasible.
 
# 59 SgtSwagnificent @ 02/11/14 11:08 AM
TEAMBUILDER!!! WHY, EASPORTS? WHY WON'T YOU GIVE US TEAMBUILDER IN MADDEN???? EITHER PUT IT IN OR FESS UP AS TO WHY YOU WON'T/CAN'T!!!! GIVE ME TEAMBUILDER IOR GIVE ME DEATH!!!!
 
# 60 charter04 @ 02/11/14 12:02 PM
I agree with all these things but, I want the slider stuff to be fixed and many more sliders added as Chris Sanner stated.
 


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