Last week I looked at the 10 biggest features that are being added for Madden 2009, today I’m going to delve into the top 3 features that won’t be in the game.

#3 In Game Saves

There are few things as annoying in the world of gaming as playing a fantastic games, seeing your players put up great numbers and then suddenly having something come up and needing to leave. In the situation you could pause the game and leave it to return to play later, formerly that was my favorite option. Now because I own a 360 and fear the ring of death I want my system on as little as possible so in most cases I just turn off the 360 and play the whole game later.

Last year we got a slight assist on this last year when Super Sim was added to the game so we could sim to the next play, change of possession, quarter, or end of the game. This feature wasn’t just something that helped people that were getting blown out or hated playing defense, it also helped people who are strapped for time when playing a game.

When running out of time instead of turning off the game I tried simming games so that I won’t have to go back and play them again, but playing with the Raiders it’s not an infrequent experience to see the simulation squander a lead that I had built up. This is a frustrating experience and leads to the need for saved games in Madden.

As gamers grow older they see more and more responsibilities being added to their lives such as work, wives, and children. We are seeing more and more of these gamers who have aged, but not grown out of the habit or addiction of gaming. With that number of aging gamers growing, games need to find ways to help make the games more pick up and play friendly.

In game saves are one way to do that because it would allow gamers the ability to get a quick quarter in here and there, which would add up to full games and advancing their franchise. It’s something that should be thought about, especially in an anniversary year, it has been those gamers that have helped Madden get to 20 years strong. Now with more distractions or responsibilities in their lives it’d be nice if EA could help us out with giving back the ability to save during a game.

#2 Online Franchise

Last season in the NFL we saw Eli Manning win the super bowl while Payton stood by watching, this year it’s EA showing us the little brother leading the way. NCAA Football has put Online Dynasty into their game while Madden has decided that the introduction of online leagues will suffice for this season.

The hype for online dynasty in NCAA Football is huge, and it’s one of the major selling points for the new game so it’s obviously disappointing to not get it in Madden, the “premiere” EA franchise. Considering that many gamers will have already had their go at starting up their online dynasty with friends just a month earlier it’s obviously not going to sit well to not have the feature in Madden and it’s something that needs to make it into the game.

I know that for saying this I’ll probably be stoned to death, but honestly I don’t mind that it’s not in the game. It’s hard to hate not having it when you didn’t think it would be there to begin with. So far with EA online play has seemed to been an after thought and come in baby steps so what we’re getting from EA this year is about what I would have expected, a baby step into online leagues. To be honest I’m floored that EA jumped in as big as they did with the online dynasty in NCAA Football.

Sure I’d like to see Madden have Online Franchise mode, and since it’s not in this year it has to be at the top of EA’s list to implement for Madden 2010. So Online Franchise is a missing feature, but taking on something like online franchise does seem like something that they would have to spend a lot of development hours on, and with all the other things they wanted to get in the game they probably just didn’t have near the time for it. Looking at ‘09, for this year I want to see them get Online Leagues right, put them in, get them tested, and have them working without errors or lag. If they get this done, then they’ll be set for an Online Franchise in 2010 and there should be no excuses why it’s not there. 

#1 Accelerated Clock

This is the most underrated feature in football games. It has been something EA gave us for Xbox and PS2 and now many people don’t seem to mind that it’s not there, which I can’t begin to comprehend. Having an accelerated clock in the game can bring an entirely new dimension of reality to the game.

Accelerated clock allows you to play a ball control style of play, which for the most part isn’t seen much in Madden. Sure you could watch the clock run down every play you have the ball, but that’s so much time and effort wasted that it would make it impossible to enjoy the games. For teams that have great defenses and not much offense it’s key for you to keep an opposing team’s offense off the field. If you’re the Bears playing against the Colts you want Manning off the field for as long as possible. By adding an accelerated clock it allows this to happen in a realistic way. You can run the ball in an attempt to keep the clock moving and save your defense from being shredded by an untouchable offense. It helps to give teams fewer possessions, and give great defenses a much better chance to win games just as we see in the NFL.

I know, I know, how can this be #1 when there are so many other features that aren’t in the game. Well here is why. First off this is a feature that hasn’t just been newly developed for and now we’re feeling like it’s left out. There has been a call for things features like online franchise, but had NCAA not come with Online Dynasty this year I doubt most people would be clamoring nearly as much for online franchise. I get it, either way Online Franchise mode is something big we’d like to see in the game. But frankly Accelerated Clock has been in line first, so Online Franchise take a number.

The second reason that it’s a feature more missing from the game is the fact that they’ve had it in other versions of the game. We’ve seen it back on the Xbox/PS2 games, and it was implemented extremely well. If they put it in before it doesn’t seem as if the development time to get it into a next gen game would be nearly as long, so it shouldn’t take too many developer hours to get it in the game.

Third there are more offline gamers than there are online gamers, that means that adding in online franchise is great for the guys that are playing online, but for those people who don’t play online, online franchise is about as good as adding a women’s league to the game, it’s there, but it’s not going to get any use.

I’ve seen glimmers of hope for getting it in this year as people have said it won’t be in the game, and then probably it won’t be in the game, or we’ll see if we can get it in. If there is any chance for this year then please squeeze it in, however if not then don’t continue to ignore it like the redheaded step child, treat it like the great feature that it is, and get it in the game for 2010.