Madden NFL 12 Season in Review

[Gorsi]

one word - commentary

[knighthawksfan]

Madden 12 was garbage

[barkleycb34]

^Agreed !! I know they dumb this game down so everyone can play it but they need to make drastic changes to "Defense". Pass rush is nonexistent and blitzing is easily exploited. I'm tired of 40-50 shootouts every game. Oh yeah, how about calling a penalty every now and then.

[amodernist]

i agree with a lot of what has been said by other users that this review only touches the surface... especially if you are more than a casual gamer. presentation and gameplay are somewhat better, but could be much improved, after all those years. but what i'd like to focus on are a couple of other things, regarding the much publicized franchise mode: i was happy to hear that they brought in the guy from head coach 09 to fix the franchise mode, to make it deeper and more immersive. although HD09 was far from perfect, you had all sorts of elements to juggle with that made managing a franchise more of a challenge in the long run. although the reviewer thinks M12 is a step in the right direction, but i think it brought a lot of setbacks. first of all, the new UDFA system is *totally broken*. seems like a detail, but it carries a lot of consequences. every single off season, CPU teams would sign a whole bunch of scrub UDFA (50 OVR D Pot) wearing ridiculous eyesore gear and, consequently, cut high draft picks and even very serviceable players. the FA pool would then be filled with talent, which meant i had to control every team, and spend upwards to 1 hour every offseason to cut every UDFA to fix the rosters prior to offseason (thereby canceling the need for an offseason). cutting a lot of players is a pain, as the menus are poorly designed, i had to cut every single player (why can't i select multiple players at a time?) since i control every team, that means i can't trade with the CPU (without choosing what is fair or not), missing on the so-called "improved trade logic". i'm OK with having some "house rules", but it's annoying when you feel like YOU have to make the game work, when the GAME you paid for should work to begin with. most importantly,, salary cap is broken. that's a big deal if you play multiple seasons. contract "negotiation" is a joke, and every single team in the NFL would have huge cap space, meaning they never really had to make tough decisions as to who they had to cut. overall, as a sim gamer with a lot of interest in front office stuff, i just felt like franchise mode, which was so hyped, was predictable and kind of stale. no draft presentation to speak of is terrible, as it is such a huge part of the NFL season.

anyway, my point is this: EA has to make a decision and really ask themselves what/who they want to focus on. as it is, i feel like they kind of want to do a bit of everything, and end up doing not very much of anything, only to the benefit of people who play the game a few times a year. this is disappointing for people who want to play a lot more. other sports games have managed to make front office stuff matter, so i don't buy that you can't have both good gameplay/presentation and good front office. if you can't do it, then EA ought to consider producing another head coach-type installment for sim-heads. or, let other companies develop NFL games that are more focused on the sim aspects of football. my two cents.

[chrisd70]

I agree that the commentary was awful. I think a big part of the limited commentary that they have to pay big names like Collinsworth and Gus Johnson to read lines.

What if they took a couple of actors like 2k used to do and have them read a lot more lines so it wouldn't get so stale? Sure, the game is named after an announcer so this may be heresy, but let's face it--the commentary has not been good in a long long time.

Another observation about the franchise mode is that it lacks any feeling of continuity. Take NBA 2k's franchise mode, for example. The announcers reference upcoming and previous games. There are "ads" for upcoming games. It takes the immersion to a whole new level. Madden's franchise feels like you're playing a series of Exhibition games that have no relation to one another. Take away injuries and the draft scouting process and that's basically what it is. Madden's franchise mode needs more glue.

[Evan_OS]

I definitely see this year's Madden as a considerable improvement from M11'.

Franchise saw a considerable upgrade that was really needed. They brought in player roles, consistency rating, confidence rating, and a couple of other things that helped you get an idea of how a player was without actually watching him play. A new interface that I personally liked with the background being the next game's site. Free agency bidding was a little arcadish, but changed the pace made it feel interesting.

Gameplay wise, I'm nor complaining or complementing. Some things I like, somethings I don't like. The run blocking has once again improved from M11, to where it looks like you can actually, effectively run the ball. Pretty much from 06'-10' running the ball was really unheard of and hard to do unless you were in goaline (for me anyway).

Presentation gets an A- from me. I think they got most of it right. Camera angles we're great and the intro for each game was nice. I would like it when players are introduced that they should state what they do for star players, even if they are not star caliber. For example, if my above average starter comes into the game I want you to announce all his info as if he was Tom Brady, not "your starting quarterback", next..

All in all, I would say this was a good year for Madden football. Could of been better in areas, but let's face it, it could be a whole LOT worse.

[tbook24]

i liked the game as usual people work hard to find ways to exploit the game. however i think they need to bring back fair play, the vision passing cone, and make sure the playbooks are integrated correctly. thats all i demand

[cuttingteeth]

Had this year not plagued us with the insanely bad version of imported and UDFA rookies, and had they finally incorporated Teambuilder...maybe...just maybe it would have been more prominently tolerable.

I have to suggest that all of the Ultimate Team, Superstar Mode and other BS just get dropped for the sake of (I guess that what it takes) to have "room" to make sure Franchise Mode is without any bugs, glitches, etc.

I am actually someone who didn't buy Madden the past two years. I bought it this year for the presumed and early play applause from fans...only to find that you can really only enjoy one season of the game in Franchise Mode because of some horribly overlooked details. My job is actually Quality Control for a major airline. I can't accept that game companies do not have such an important and competent position also working for them.