What madden needs revisited - labguy's Blog

labguy's Blog

What madden needs revisited

Posted on November 21, 2013 at 04:59 PM.

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After reading the Madden 25 Next-Gen review by Robert Kollars today, I was motivated to revisit my previous blog entry on what Madden needed going forward with the series. I will admit I have recently been more happy with the series than I have in quite some time. The biggest reason is that the online franchise feature is finally quite robust. With that being said, I think the power of the new consoles should allow for some large leaps in all aspects of the game going forward. I will again outline some items I feel should be looked at going forward.

Gameplay
1. Ratings - I am still holding fast to my desire for ratings to matter more. From what I have read, EA has made the O-line versus D-line ratings have more impact on the new consoles. I'd like to see all ratings have a bigger impact. Specifically WR's versus the defensive secondary and with the play of the QBs.

2. Run/Pass commit - I love the idea of the run/pass commit. I just wished it was implemented better. It looks too much like arcade football when you run commit and to be honest when I pass commit I still see LBs fall for play-action fakes. Isn't that what the creation of it is designed to prevent? Football is a chess match. I would like to see the run/pass commit and the spotlight player given more thought and have a nice balanced and true sim impact on the game.

3. Special teams - One extreme or the other with EA on this. There has to be a way to have balance here. Not much else to say on this topic.

Presentation
1. Would love multiple broadcast teams that each have their own unique intros and overlays. Maybe bring Madden back for playoff games or just the Super Bowl. How sweet would that be? Surely in this day and age this is possible.

2. Highlight show - Can't believe a weekly highlight show is not available for online and offline franchises.

3. Milestones - I do not play an offline franchise, but I know these are missing in the online games. Announcers never mention if a guy is approaching 2,000 yds rushing, if he made the Pro-Bowl the previous year, if he was a #1 pick, etc etc.

Online Franchise
1. Disconnects - Most people in the online franchise (BFSL) I play in have the fastest residential internet service available in their area and it is a league rule that all connections are hard wired. With that said, we all still experience disconnects from time to time. Nothing more frustrating than having a 3 point game get terminated late in the fourth quarter after both players have invested the time to play. I do not understand why EA can not create a solution to allow the two users to pick up where the game dropped.

2. Coaches- I LOVE that EA finally added all of the GM features to online franchise mode. I would like the next step to be have a bidding system similar to player free agency. The thing is money should not be the only factor. The talent on the team, city location, and owner's success should all factor into the process. Also it is time to bring in the coordinators and make them more relevant.

3. Playbooks - I would like to see playbook selection restricted in online franchises. You have to use the playbook that is associated with your coordinators. To be fair not everyone is on board with this so make it an option for the commissioner as he starts up the league.

4. Draft boards - Not everyone can make the draft. It is just a given that a few guys have to work or are not available on draft night. They should be able to set up a comprehensive draft board.

5. Scouting - I love the idea of scouting, but I think it could be done in a more realistic manner. The NFL has the combine and pro days at colleges where basic information (speed, strength, acceleration, etc) are determined. Why not give everyone these base ratings (grades) and then force the user to use different types of interviews (combine or visits) to dig deeper? These visits will open up more precise ratings. You can still have busts too. Your coach's (both head and coordinators)ratings can maybe impact these visits as well. If your defensive coordinator is a genius with the secondary maybe he is less likely to miss a true grade on a CB or S prospect, but on D-line he won't totally miss but might be off by 5 points per rating or something. I do not know the total end picture for this, but I think there is a ton of room to expand in the future.

6. Award voting - League members should be able to vote for awards.

7) Play-calling restriction - Another setting the commissioner should have available is play call restriction. It is hard to force guys to vary their play selection and eliminate money plays. Some leagues do not care about this, but I know a lot do. Why not give the option to limit offensive plays to a set number per game? Once you have called a certain pass 3 times it gets locked out to you. I know EA is already logging data on play selection for online games, so I can't imagine this would be too difficult to implement.

Ok that is it for now. I know a lot of the issues are repeats, but I truly believe they are key items that EA should visit in the next couple of releases. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and please comment on anything you feel I might have missed.