Madden 12 King Of Current Generation For Offline Franchise

[edgevoice]

When Josh Looman was brought on board to become senior designer for Madden 12, I was excited. Looman's previously work on NFL Head Coach 09 and several past generation versions of Madden, including 05, were generally well-received. The end result was a game that was stable, fully-featured and with reasonably intelligent CPU AI. Customization was left in the hands of the end-user which was represented by custom playbooks, fully functional gameplay sliders, and the ability to fully edit rosters. In other words, the game could be tailored to an individual's liking. However, Madden 13 put an end to much of what made 12 such a great game with the introduction of "Connected Careers Mode". While the reasoning behind making such a change seemed solid, the end result was a game filled with bugs and removed features. Madden 25 has seen even more egregious errors, including disappearing players. Attempting to lump both offline and online players in the same boat has not proven to be successful and, in my opinion, truly marked the end of the road for those wishing to play this game "sim-style" offline.

In Madden 12, everything worked. While custom playbooks took some patience, they were a welcome addition and finally usable in franchise mode. The CPU AI was vastly improved and reacted to what the user was attempting to do with regards to playcalling. While I didn't use the gameflow feature, the gameplan experience was welcome. Having plays grouped for situations and having them come up at the appropriate times was a great addition if used properly.

Each team had it's own dynamic gameplan which made each game you played against the CPU feel quite different. The Giants would pound the ball and attempt to beat you with playaction while the Dolphins relied heavily on running the ball from the wildcat formation. The addition of dynamic player performance allowed for the top players, especially those on a hot streak, to really stand out above the rest. Throw at Revis in tight coverage and it's likely 6 points the other way.

Complete player editing was possible. As a Cowboys' fan, you could draft a quarterback and name him Troy Aikman if you wished. You could also change names and numbers of players on opposing teams. Ratings could be altered as well. In other words, the user had complete control of roster editing.

Sliders were fully functional and allowed the user to fine tune the game. By tuning the user side sliders only down to a total of 295 points, gameplay was as realistic as possible for a sports video game, without seeing warp-like animations from the CPU.

While Madden 12 was not a perfect experience, free agent bidding was poorly designed, it was a very playable and enjoyable game. So much so that I am still playing it. For that, I am truly thankful to the folks over at EA.

The reason "Connected Careers" was born was so that both offline and online players would equally benefit from any feature additions and improvements. In theory, a great idea. However, the reality is that this game plays offline far different from online. Horrible playcalling from the CPU resulted with regards to offline franchise mode. Also, the removal of some of the slider groups made the game even harder to tune. The secondary, especially with regard to zone defense, is highly ineffective. Players appear rooted in the middle of their zone responsibility and have little awareness to receivers coming in to their area.

A number of problems with the saving of gameplay settings have also been reported. The simple ability to have situational substitutions save is also missing. Who wants to have to constantly set their substitution packages every single game? Simple common sense was sorely lacking here.

Player name editing has been removed. Why? Well, the good folks at EA decided that you and I have no imagination whatsoever and introduced fake twitter feed comments and background stories to enhance the role-playing experience of the game. With regards to presentation, wouldn't it have been more important to simply make sure that the correct team was shown celebrating a Super Bowl victory?

I believe that the direction that EA has decided to go has alienated the offline franchise mode player. While Josh Looman's hard work on Madden 12 makes it still an enjoyable game even now, EA's vision for the future of this series is clear. It's all about online, fluff, and an arcade play style. Being that Josh Looman is the current lead designer of "Connected Careers" mode, it's a direction I didn't see coming. As a result, EA hasn't seen my money coming for the past two editions of Madden.

Some claim that EA Tiburon is simply lazy. With no competition, it has been claimed that the initiative to create a solid game just hasn't been there. I would somewhat agree, however I do think it's more about simply being misguided as to how important the actual gameplay experience is for hardcore NFL football fans. Prettier graphics promised in future generations of this game, background storylines, and a new feature added here and there will not make up for the fact that these appear to be invoked at the expense of the core, fundamental basics that have been the foundation of this game, going back to the last generation.

Was Madden 12 king of this generation? Well, we will all have our opinions on that. One thing we're all likely to be in agreement on is that this series has been a major disappointment throughout the entire current generation as a whole.

[raggBAGG]

Madden 12 was fun, don't get me wrong, but its franchise mode was extremely boring. Free agent bidding was terrible because you had to give old highly rated players enormous contracts if you wanted to make a splash, and scouting was a dud as well.

That's not to mention the fact that the AI still made a lot of questionable moves in terms of improving their team. I played about 7 years through franchise (because I skipped last years M13) and teams looked pretty ridiculous. The only reason I stayed with the game was because the gameplay was decent enough to keep me interested.

There really aren't that many aspects of M12s franchise mode that were much better than this years other than bugs which will be worked out. Does anyone else not remember all of the bugs M12s franchise had on launch?

I'm not trying to rant, but I've seen way too many people hailing Madden 12s franchise mode when although it was a good building block, it never had any sort if substance. But I guess if you REALLY enjoy seeing last years top 8 passer ratings, then more power to you.

[hyacinth1]

12 was good for a madden game. I thought they were heading in the right direction with 12 but they blew everything up for 13.

10 was also a solid game but 12 they did things more right than wrong.

[edgevoice]

Quote: Originally Posted by raggBAGG

Madden 12 was fun, don't get me wrong, but its franchise mode was extremely boring. Free agent bidding was terrible because you had to give old highly rated players enormous contracts if you wanted to make a splash, and scouting was a dud as well. That's not to mention the fact that the AI still made a lot of questionable moves in terms of improving their team. I played about 7 years through franchise (because I skipped last years M13) and teams looked pretty ridiculous. The only reason I stayed with the game was because the gameplay was decent enough to keep me interested. There really aren't that many aspects of M12s franchise mode that were much better than this years other than bugs which will be worked out. Does anyone else not remember all of the bugs M12s franchise had on launch? I'm not trying to rant, but I've seen way too many people hailing Madden 12s franchise mode when although it was a good building block, it never had any sort if substance. But I guess if you REALLY enjoy seeing last years top 8 passer ratings, then more power to you.

I wouldn't necessarily say I would hail Madden 12. I simply think it's an extremely playable edition of the series. As for seeing last years' top QB's, roster editing will take care of that no problem......

[lions2k9]

Yeah we all have our opinions.. I'm in total disagreement with the OP. I felt M12 franchise was boring, and overall the game wasn't that great. M25 is much better for a franchise type mode.

[gr18]

I have to strongly agree with the OP on this.

I'm not sure where the bug-filled comment comes from because I think what sets it apart is that it was by far the least bug-filled version to come out in many years.The rain game glitch was the biggest one and that got patched in reasonable time.

It just depends on what you want in a Madden game,both '12 and '25 have different pros and cons that I've discussed in different threads but if you want to keep a franchise more realistic and make use of the editor available and such '12 is your better option.

[edgevoice]

Quote: Originally Posted by hyacinth1

12 was good for a madden game. I thought they were heading in the right direction with 12 but they blew everything up for 13. 10 was also a solid game but 12 they did things more right than wrong.

I agree, 10 was playable. Took awhile to get used to the action cam. Made me kinda dizzy at first.

I think you hit the nail on the head completely with your "heading in the right direction" comment pertaining to M12. I thought 12 was a great stable base to build from. Improvements needed to be added and layered on to this format. IMHO, blowing it up for CCM put an end to a promising begininng...

[illiterateoption]

I own MA-12 and MA-13 for my NFL fix. I go back and forth on this...

My biggest issue with MA-13 is the the fact there's such a big difference between the Play Now and CCM in so many aspects. Why do we need two different roster files? Why if I create a slider set for Play Now do I need to re-enter that for CCM? etc.

I prefer the CCM over MA-12 Franchise mode, but enjoy the accessibility of MA-12. I know I can create a roster or start a franchise and everything just works.

Gameplay wise - each game has its good things and bad things. Madden 12 doesn't feature enough animations, specifically catch animations, but it just seems like a "tighter" gameplay experience. Make sense? I think thats really what we want. A game with as few bugs, glitches, and features that work as advertised. I remember buying games last gen without a bit of concern over "I hope this game works well enough before they patch it." I can't stand all of this patch management stuff - from 2K and EA.

For an offline guy like myself - I think there's a very good argument for Madden 12 being the king of this gens Madden titles.