Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

[NFCBeast55]

Quote: Originally Posted by GreenReign86

Sufice it to say, that the 2k fan boys were probably right. [insert vometing animation here]

It's sad. But, it's usually the people that no one believes is right that are spot on. I tried to hold out hope...but it looks like the Madden team doesn't care about Franchise mode or anything outside of Online or Play Now.

Why even have a franchise mode then? Just release Madden with a Play Now and online exhibition game mode and see how that works. Oh wait...it wouldn't.

This game never ceases to amaze me.

[GreenReign86]

Give me a Madden who's franchise mode is even deeper then that of MLB The Show, with Atari graphics and annamations and I would be more then happy. Ok, well maybe not Atari, but you get my point

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

You know, at first, I was giving EA props for being upfront and honest about it, but now that I think about it, I think they were just trying to beat everyone else to the punch. E3 starts on Monday and I guarantee by Monday night we all would have known about this anyway. So in essence, they're being upfront because they have to. At first, I thought this was like a criminal making a confession of a crime. He was being honest and forthright. But now that I think about it, it's more like a criminal with mounds of evidence against him confessing his guilt right before his court date. That's the way I see it. Disclaimer: Please don't take the analogy literally. I'm not calling EA criminals or anything. I'm just using that as an example. One thing that blows my mind is how soon you all forget. It seems like just the other day, there were about a hundred threads saying that EA could not be trusted and that they lied to us about Madden 10. Yet they say they're working on making franchise mode great for 12 and you all take them at face value for that. Hell, last year, they said the same thing for this year. I can't find the exact quote, but it said in Madden 10 franchise they were focusing on getting the sim engine and stat tracking correct and that Madden 11(this year) is when we would really start to see the franchise mode blown out. Well, it's Madden 11 and they're saying almost the exact same thing this year that they said last year. Something isn't right about this whole thing. For instance, they say it takes well over a year to redo franchise mode, yet madden 11 comes out in 2 months and they want suggestions? In 2 months they will have a year to work on franchise. Umm, if it takes well over a year to redo franchise, shouldn't they already have an idea of what they're going to do? Like I said, Something isn't right here.

Well, we can't have it both ways. You can't condemn someone for not being honest/upfront, and then when they are, claim they have ulterior motives. That's just not fair.

I was pretty harsh on their hype last year, knowing based on the state of '09, what they were promising, what they had delivered in the past, that the odds of them hitting their mark was nigh impossible. They put out a game, but I think it's consensus for those that followed the blogs, press releases, gameplay vids/explanations that they didn't deliver on all that was promised in M10, even though it was a step forward for the franchise. I far prefer the low key, straight forward (it's in the game, not 'might' be in the game) approach this year, and I can both appreciate and respect a press release letting fans know well ahead of time that certain things they may be looking forward to aren't going to make the release. I have a pretty good idea of what M11 will be, and I fully expect everything that they've showed us to be in the game.

Last year, I expected M10 to far less than the hype, this year, I expected M11 to be better than they hype (if Locomotion delivers), even though I'm far less interested in the features they are adding such as GameFlow/GamePlan, 3vs3 online, etc. Locomotion is going to be huge, and 'if' they get it right, and will setup Madden's core GamePlay well moving forward.

If they truly do a reset, then I love the idea, because Franchise, and especially career mode have been stale in ALL video games for nearly half a decade. I hope they broaden their horizons, and think outside the box on these modes. There's a lot of opportunity to be had there, especially if they think of the user acting within a role (Owner, Coach(es), Players).

[jeetaa6]

A) B$*@ing and Moaning Reply:
OK, this seals it for me this year. No purchase. All I play is offline Franchise and frankly, it's been like watching paint dry the past few years. Yet another year of seeing the CPU teams put guys on the Trading Block and LEAVING THEM THERE ALL YEAR LONG WITH ABSOLUTELY ZERO CPU INITIATED TRADES!!! Yay!!!

Heck, after reading that blog again I see no mention of even Presentation improvements other than the Super Bowl. So let's see...2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and they're still working on the core elements like AI, animations, and gameplay. That's the state of Madden??!! OK.

B) Productive Reply-What I want to see in Franchise (offline for me):

1. Much more CPU initiated player moves, especially Trades. CPU to CPU Trades and CPU to User Trade offers. Don't leave the same players on the Trading Block from day 1 of the pre-season through year end with NO trades. Heck, give us a slider for "Trade Frequency". I'd choose OFTEN but I know many would choose RARE. OPTIONS for us is all.
2. Ability to put players on IR. CPU teams put players on IR, too.
3. Weekly wrap up show with highlights, stats (and TIME TO READ THE STATS), players of the week, key team moves across the league, key injury updates, Draft Preview Show (I'm doing all I can here to not mention NFL2K5-oops, there it went), Draft Summary Show, miscellaneous NFL news.
4. Players punished for sporadic off field conduct.
5. AUTO REPLAY SLIDER-I JUST PLAYED 4 MADDEN GAMES BETWEEN YESTERDAY AND TODAY AND DID NOT GET ONE REPLAY (and yes, Auto Replay option was set to On/or Yes). What the heck??? I want to be able to set MY slider so a replay basically starts after every play. Just give me the option to hit the X button to stop it if I wish. The lack of Replays in Franchise really kills the in game presentation for me.
6. Put player milestones (either season milestones or career milestones) up on the jumbotron right when they occur in game. That would be pretty cool.
7. Not just for Franchise, but bring those flying helmets back. Would love to see one fly off on a big hit every once in awhile.
8. Holdouts
9. Ability to change the conference alignments for Franchise eg. put Dallas in the NFC South.
10. Edit all players on any team, including their abilities. Why not??
11. We really need something like what 2K5 did in marrying top notch Presentation with Franchise. The ESPN team (Berman and crew) covered all the games, the draft (both pre and post), trades, FA pickups, injuries, yearly awards, weekly awards. I really liked how the CPU teams would come up with Trades involving big name players. No, the rationale wasn't always perfect but it's MUCH better than zero trades year after year. Don't be ashamed to take what 2K had and make it better. We've been saying for years now how awesome a job they did. USE IT!!!

OK, that's a good chunk for now. Getting way late.
Sucks that Franchise received little attention this year but good to hear it's being rebuilt for 2012 I suppose.

[kmart2180]

BitterSweet!!!

The word pretty much sums up this news IMO. I love the fact that they are gonna re-write the code for franchise and (hopefully) blow us away with something Amazing.

Terribly pissed that nothing has been done for us franchisers this year. I mean seriously isn't there a team (josh Looman) specifically hired for fixing franchise? Did he get the year off this year? They state that online franchise wasn't a big hit...........could it be cause it was half @$$ed to begin with? Why would people wanna play it?

Why do they add a new feature/mode every year just to give up on it the next year?

Don't get me wrong I have and probably always will buy Madden cause I love the NFL and its worth $60 bucks to me. And I appreciate all that they have done this year especially gameplay wise seeing that is the most important part of the game IMO. But this new does hurt

And the " give us info on how to make franchise better" is kinda a slap in the face. If there is not Over 1000 threads with over 1,000,000 post on Ideas for Franchise on this site alone.

EA the info has has been out there for atleast 5-6 yrs now. Its as simple as hitting the search button.

[da ThRONe]

I'm 100% ok with this. But like many have said this better result in excellent gameplay. If game play blows me away they get a free pass til M12 to get franchise right.

We can point out the obvious that the old direction of Madden has ruin this game up until now. Or we can appreciate that we have new direction committed to getting it right from here on out. I personally rather the latter.

[GreenReign86]

What ticks me off the most is that they added an online game mode that less people will play then online franchise, while ignoring online and offline franchise. They need to get their priorities in order.

[da ThRONe]

I would love for the pre-season to mean something again. I want position battles ,OTA's ,mini camps and cut days. And can we please get practice squads.