Madden NFL 11 Blog: Game Flow & Game Planning

[spfhelmiii]

It was touched on in the blog, but I think this could be a big benefit to FRANCHISE mode for 3 reasons: (1) the challenge, (2) significance of coaching personnel and (3) gameplanning for a particular opponent.

First, on the challenge. I think one of the things I always struggle with is being too comfortable with certain plays. Inevitably I have a few plays that I know how to run really well and while I don't abuse them, they are my "go to" plays in situations where I need to score. This is fairly unrealistic - in the NFL, the plays which you are most comfortable earlier in the season are largely taken away by defensive adjustments late in the season (just ask Peyton, that Pick 6 was a staple play that N.O. had heavily scouted). The Game Flow means that I have to go with whatever play fits the situation... so its more of a challenge for me to run a play that I may not be as familiar with, and its more realistic.

Second, it may (if executed correctly) finally matter who your head coach or OC is. The whole position players bonus thing was a bit silly. IF they tie in certain playbooks and playcalling with certain OCs, hiring someone like Mike Martz is a big deal - your whole offense just changed, without you having to really do anything. That's neat for Franchise mode - I'd prefer to have to find an OC with an offense I like than just simply use whatever playbook I am most comfortable with (though obviously that's still an option).

Finally, the one aspect of Madden that has always lacked is gameplanning. Normally your offense stays the same week to week - at most, I may run the ball more against a defense who is weak in the line. The Game Planning feature means that I can take the time to actually plan out how I want to attack a defense or offense, and with Game Flow, I better do a decent job since those are the plays that are called.

Obviously, none of this matters if its integrated sloppily, which it probably will be. But if by chance they get this right, and overhaul a few other areas of Franchise, we could have that happy medium between old Madden and Head Coach that I've always craved.

[NoTiCe_O]

I think I've expessed enough around this forum how much I love the gameflow/gameplannig idea, but for the sake of this blog ..

I love the gameflow, once I get the game I'm gonna set up my gameplan to a Tee. The Bill Bellichick of ranked online is here.

[Boregard]

Hey jmik58,
just curious where do you coach?

[Koolie G]

I'm pretty excited about this feature. I have no problem with the way plays were called before, but this sounds like it will add a whole new dimension to Madden. I thought 10 was a very good game & it looks like 11 may be a significant improvement. I'm looking forward to trying this out. If I don't like it I can just go back to the old way. No harm, no foul.

[granddogg]

jmik...you coach when you gameplan every week set it up to run it.

[joejccva71]

After reading that blog, I'm completely sold on this idea now. The fact that EVERYTHING is an option will please alot of people, not to mention the fact that you can also customize the CPU gameplans too?

And people DONT like this? Seriously?! I think it's brilliant.

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bgamer90

While this topic may not be anything new and/or getting kind of annoying, this did answer some of the questions people were having. You CAN use gameplanning and not have gameflow.

Yeah, and it looks like Ask Madden is no longer there...

[thudias]

Quote: Originally Posted by rgiles36

I anticipated a stale blog b/c this stuff has been talked about all week...but it was actually pretty informative and organized. I like all of the customization options (tweaking CPU gameplans to account for real life tendencies ). I'm curious to see how these features are translated to franchise mode. IGN confirmed that gameplans are affected by hiring/firing coordinators and while I can believe that, I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth.

its also possible IGN doesnt know what they are talking about.