Madden 18 Franchise PSA (Shopmaster)

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by underdog13

The twitter feed is huge imo, it just makes me feel like my team doesn't exist in a bubble.

Definitely. That's one of the things I've really been disappointed in is the fact that they've buried both the Twitter and News Feed in recent years. I still prefer the older version to what we have now. It was upfront and seemed a lot more organized than what we have now.

Quote: Originally Posted by underdog13

On a slightly different topic but still relavent to the topic of immersion in franchise modes. I felt that last years highly praised announcers in Madden 17, were just **** in cfm. They had very little to say about the current season or stats. While on the other hand, in The Show 16 the always bashed presentation and announcers. Were great in a franchise, always talking about how the teams was doing and plenty of osd's for season stats.

Definitely agree there. Last year was actually the first Madden ever where I turned commentary completely off. Apparently this year the new commentary content is 'heavily slanted towards franchise mode' so it will be interesting how that turns out. Says they'll be talking about MVP race, playoff hunt, player of the week awards and more. Hopefully there's a lot more stuff about, like you said, how teams are doing, and referencing season stats rather than just awards races.

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

Definitely agree there. Last year was actually the first Madden ever where I turned commentary completely off. Apparently this year the new commentary content is 'heavily slanted towards franchise mode' so it will be interesting how that turns out. Says they'll be talking about MVP race, playoff hunt, player of the week awards and more. Hopefully there's a lot more stuff about, like you said, how teams are doing, and referencing season stats rather than just awards races.

I fully agree. I want to see how Commentary is improved in CFM. My big thing when it comes to Franchise/Career modes in all sports games, I don't want to feel like I'm playing a set of exhibition games. Most of the games don't do a great job of it.
If commentary can do a good job of at least making it feel like you are apart of an actual season, then games wont all feel the same. I want to know if they added more Franchise-specific presentation(outside of pre-game). Like more Banners, displays. If so, that would help. Improved Commentary/ Presentation, Gameplay, and tuning could go a long way making CFM more enjoyable.

[JoshC1977]

Quote: Originally Posted by illwill10

I fully agree. I want to see how Commentary is improved in CFM. My big thing when it comes to Franchise/Career modes in all sports games, I don't want to feel like I'm playing a set of exhibition games. Most of the games don't do a great job of it. If commentary can do a good job of at least making it feel like you are apart of an actual season, then games wont all feel the same. I want to know if they added more Franchise-specific presentation(outside of pre-game). Like more Banners, displays. If so, that would help. Improved Commentary/ Presentation, Gameplay, and tuning could go a long way making CFM more enjoyable.

You know....I'm not crazy about some of the in-depth ancillary stuff some people want in franchise. But THIS is something I'd support. MLB The Show has some nice little touches like showing the standings, brief snippets on players being on hot/cold streaks and so on. NCAA of course had updates from other games. M17 added little pieces on player signings and draft classes which were nice.

[deu22ces]

Quote: Originally Posted by Junior Moe

As a longtime fan of both games franchise mode I would say no with a few exceptions. The NBDL (developmental league) and NBA.com homepage (I'm big on immersion...) being the only things I can think of in 2K. In The Show I'm not aware of anything missing from last gen except maybe newspapers? The Shows franchise has stagnated but they have added things like player morale and stuff to give a little more life to things. But nothing major is missing on either front. A 2K dev has told us that the NBDL wasn't used much when we had it and that it's not likely to return the way it was from 2K10-2K12 because of how resource heavy it would be. Still, he solicited advice (such as text based) on how we would want it in a different capacity. That's what I like. We may never see it again. Who knows. But it wasn't addressed as "maybe next year" knowing full well it'll never be as it was. Its the truth. I respect that. I know it's not "the devs don't care, or are lazy". No. It's just the reality. I know Madden devs and the franchise guys aren't lazy or incompetent. It's the same company that made those amazing franchise modes that made me a fan of Madden in the first place. They made NFL Head Coach, an almost 10 year old game that is still the definitive "franchise" experience in my book. I just feel its an approach dictated from the top down. And that's cool. I adjusted to that reality and still find a way to enjoy the game for what it is. The shelf life is shortened significantly but it is what it is. Everything that can be said, has been. It's on them now.

Appreciate the response/insights and agree with your Madden view. Are there any team management/progression things that are true to the NBA and MLB that are not available in those games? Is The Show 'stale' now b/c everything has pretty much already been in the Franchise mode and there's not much new they can add?

I did play NBA2k '16 briefly. The very first thing I remember tho was going into the options/customization and being overwhelmed...but again in a good way. Seemed like everything was able to customized. It could be as authentically complicated or simple as you wanted. This also gives me pause to EA's excuse of "if we do this, it'll be too complicated for casuals."
If, and when, you feel that way that's your clue to make it a customized, auto enabled, or on/off feature!

Doesn't NBA even have 'fantasy' stuff like re-alignments and expanding teams? Seems like both had the freedom to innovate and expand b/c the foundation was solid already. Others in here may be able to dispute that and whether they function(ed) properly. I personally just don't feel or see that passion and commitment within Madden's Franchise.

[DeuceDouglas]

Quote: Originally Posted by illwill10

I fully agree. I want to see how Commentary is improved in CFM. My big thing when it comes to Franchise/Career modes in all sports games, I don't want to feel like I'm playing a set of exhibition games. Most of the games don't do a great job of it.

That's exactly what usually ends up killing it for me. The way I'd describe my outlook is that I'm not looking to play games, I'm looking to play seasons. And basically everything you do outside of games is stuff that I feel needs to be a done significantly better because it's all very uninteresting and boring IMO. GamePlanning is all-around too shallow as is scouting. I really don't like the way injuries within Big Decisions are handled. And then re-signing negotiations are always easy as pie so there is no sense of actually really doing anything more than deciding whether to keep a player or let them go. So basically once I do a few GamePlan drills (which I'd honestly rather never do at all) it's just Play Game>Scout>Advance...Play Game>Scout>Advance. Throw in issues with CPU-Playcalling on the field and then their trade, draft, and overall roster logic off-the-field and it makes keeping me interested for multiple seasons a lot harder.

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshC1977

You know....I'm not crazy about some of the in-depth ancillary stuff some people want in franchise. But THIS is something I'd support. MLB The Show has some nice little touches like showing the standings, brief snippets on players being on hot/cold streaks and so on. NCAA of course had updates from other games. M17 added little pieces on player signings and draft classes which were nice.

Exactly, It doesn't have to be crazy in-depth, just enough to make it feel like you are in an actual season. Updates could just be from division rival. Just little stuff like Team Stats banner and brief commentary(i.e :#2 rush offense), Stats in last 3-5 games comparison, Record/Stat announcements. Big Decisions helps, but they will have needed to tune that.

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

That's exactly what usually ends up killing it for me. The way I'd describe my outlook is that I'm not looking to play games, I'm looking to play seasons. And basically everything you do outside of games is stuff that I feel needs to be a done significantly better because it's all very uninteresting and boring IMO. GamePlanning is all-around too shallow as is scouting. I really don't like the way injuries within Big Decisions are handled. And then re-signing negotiations are always easy as pie so there is no sense of actually really doing anything more than deciding whether to keep a player or let them go. So basically once I do a few GamePlan drills (which I'd honestly rather never do at all) it's just Play Game>Scout>Advance...Play Game>Scout>Advance. Throw in issues with CPU-Playcalling on the field and then their trade, draft, and overall roster logic off-the-field and it makes keeping me interested for multiple seasons a lot harder.

Fully agree. It needs to be more than just Play, Scout, and Offseason. That is pretty much it. AI logic needs to be really worked on. If you play single-player, than I don't want to see every team pretty much having same team-building logic.
But for this year, like I said, If they can have improved franchise commentary, gameplay is solid, and tune legacy issues; than I would be contempt to play longer in CFM

[BlackBetty15]

Quote: Originally Posted by illwill10

Fully agree. It needs to be more than just Play, Scout, and Offseason. That is pretty much it. AI logic needs to be really worked on. If you play single-player, than I don't want to see every team pretty much having same team-building logic. But for this year, like I said, If they can have improved franchise commentary, gameplay is solid, and tune legacy issues; than I would be contempt to play longer in CFM

I was really digging and now miss the crap out of the coaching carousel feature from NCAA. Felt that this was loooooooooong overdue for Madden. Might be just me though