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Madden NFL 13 Preview

When I first heard that the franchise and superstar modes were taken out of Madden NFL 13, I was livid. Why on Earth would you destroy the offline gamer’s dream? Not cool EA, not cool.

But after getting my hands on the game, I know exactly why they “ditched” the modes. Connected Careers is basically the three modes combined into one, creating what seems to be the most immersive football gaming experience to date. You may not understand it – I didn’t at first – but in time you will.

Connected Careers can be done as a player or as a coach. If you choose player, welcome to Superstar mode; choose coach, welcome to offline franchise. You can choose to create your own guy, choose an exisiting coach or select to be a Hall of Fame player/coach – e.g., John Madden and Jerry Rice – in their rookie season. Once you’ve chosen that option, the main screen will pop up in front of you with news from the league and fake Twitter feeds of your favorite analysts like Skip Bayless and Trey Wingo. The news, for example, does a great job of getting the player immersed in the league. It even takes into account what’s actually happening since I saw one slide talking about Drew Brees’ contract talks being stalled.

Also, there is now actual incentive to practice. By practicing, you earn experience points, which in turn grant your player or coach the option to get better. For a player you can increase attributes and for a coach you can increase your persuasive skills to have key free agents sign with your team. You can also practice in specific situations such as the 2-minute drill or even a three-touchdown deficit in the third quarter. And practice isn’t the only way to gain points: each player/coach has a set of goals per game and season that they need to accomplish. You accomplish them, you get points. If you underperform, you get fired/released. Which leads me to the next point.

If you get fired/released, you are not guaranteed a roster spot or a coaching job from another team. You can actually be unwanted by all 32 NFL teams. But if this does happen to you, you don’t have to give up. You can create a new coach and go to a new team in the same “franchise.” If you coached the Seahawks for seven years and your new guy gets hired by St. Louis, then you’ll enjoy pounding on the same Seattle team you controlled for so long. It really helps you stay connected in your very own world of the NFL.

Scouting has also improved a lot. Now you can see actual player ratings before the draft, and there are plenty of busts and gems. For example, I scouted a cornerback that was all over the news and Twitter and ranked No. 4 overall on the big board and he turned out to be garbage. His rating was 71; his speed was 75; his man and zone coverage were both in the 60s. He had bust written all over him. But without scouting him, anyone would have taken him in a heartbeat. Love it.

One of my personal favorite features added into the game is the fact that retired players and coaches can come out of retirement, including ones who are currently retired and not even in Madden NFL 12. I never saw any of this happen – it’s rare – but someone did see Kurt Warner come back. And let’s be honest, if this feature is in the game, so is Brett Favre.

When it comes down to it, Connected Careers is the heart and soul of this football game. The integration and immersion are very advanced to what we have ever seen in a sports game. If the replayability holds up the way the Madden team says, and the way I honestly feel, then we're all in for a long overdue football gaming experience.


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Member Comments
# 121 warrior7807 @ 06/10/12 11:05 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabeking
Does anyone know if the twitter and news portion of connected careers will have media members like sefter/Mort posting rumors like: potential bidding teams for specific free agents, potential trade partners for players or draft picks, speculation/rumors about which team will be drafting whomdft time, etc... Personally I would think it would add to the immersion/realism to the mode, does anyone know if it's in or not (probably not)? What would you all think of this?
I imagine there will be. what i know it does have is what you stated about potential draft picks. If you are scouting a QB, it will let everyone know via twitter feed that you are interested in taking a QB. This will be nice in online "franchise". I imagine if you were shopping someone on the trade block it would appear also. "The Miami Dolphins and Coach Philbin are shopping RB Reggie Bush..."
 
# 122 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 02:45 AM
Cancelled my pre-order after hearing about Connected Careers. Now instead of 3 unfinished game modes we have 1 broken game mode. We can no long control multiple teams, even offline, so now we are stuck with EA's shoddy AI controlling all 31 other franchises. To make matters worse, we can no long import draft classes from NCAA Football (needless to say I won't be buying NCAA 13), nor can we create or edit draft classes in our Connected Career, so we are forced to use the poorly crafted fake classes EA has created for us. Finally, we must choose between playing as a coach or a player. No longer can we play as a general manager and hire and fire coaches while we sign, cut, and trade players. I've had enough of constant theme of one step forward, two steps back that surrounds this game, and EA won't be getting a dollar out of me for it. I hope many of you join me in refusing to purchase an unfinished, inferior product.
 
# 123 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/12 02:48 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
Cancelled my pre-order after hearing about Connected Careers. Now instead of 3 unfinished game modes we have 1 broken game mode. We can no long control multiple teams, even offline, so now we are stuck with EA's shoddy AI controlling all 31 other franchises. To make matters worse, we can no long import draft classes from NCAA Football (needless to say I won't be buying NCAA 13), nor can we create or edit draft classes in our Connected Career, so we are forced to use the poorly crafted fake classes EA has created for us. Finally, we must choose between playing as a coach or a player. No longer can we play as a general manager and hire and fire coaches while we sign, cut, and trade players. I've had enough of constant theme of one step forward, two steps back that surrounds this game, and EA won't be getting a dollar out of me for it. I hope many of you join me in refusing to purchase an unfinished, inferior product.
Tell me more about how you haven't played Connected Careers mode.
 
# 124 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 02:52 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas
Tell me more about how you haven't played Connected Careers mode.
Try doing some research instead of acting like a smartass and making yourself look stupid. Josh Looman confirmed all of this in one of his recent Q&A interviews. If Connected Careers is such a vast improvement, tell me what exactly we are gaining from it?
 
# 125 Nev @ 06/11/12 02:55 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
Cancelled my pre-order after hearing about Connected Careers. Now instead of 3 unfinished game modes we have 1 broken game mode. We can no long control multiple teams, even offline, so now we are stuck with EA's shoddy AI controlling all 31 other franchises. To make matters worse, we can no long import draft classes from NCAA Football (needless to say I won't be buying NCAA 13), nor can we create or edit draft classes in our Connected Career, so we are forced to use the poorly crafted fake classes EA has created for us. Finally, we must choose between playing as a coach or a player. No longer can we play as a general manager and hire and fire coaches while we sign, cut, and trade players. I've had enough of constant theme of one step forward, two steps back that surrounds this game, and EA won't be getting a dollar out of me for it. I hope many of you join me in refusing to purchase an unfinished, inferior product.
Thats not true. If you choose to be a coach, you handle all game play and off field moves. Scouting, trades, drafting etc is all down to you.
 
# 126 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/12 02:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
Try doing some research instead of acting like a smartass and making yourself look stupid. Josh Looman confirmed all of this in one of his recent Q&A interviews. If Connected Careers is such a vast improvement, tell me what exactly we are gaining from it?
New scheme/team specific overalls.
New scouting.
New complete user control over progression.
New CPU Trade-Logic that includes CPU-CPU trades and CPU proposed trades
New Dynamic storylines
New weekly, seasonal, and milestone goals
New injuries that could extend into the next season
New players and coaches returning from retirement
New free agency system
New weekly practice to gain coach and player XP.
 
# 127 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 03:04 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nev
Thats not true. If you choose to be a coach, you handle all game play and off field moves. Scouting, trades, drafting etc is all down to you.
Reread what I said, I stated we could no long hire and fire coaches on top of being able to control player movement. That means you have no control over coaching changes, and again are completely at the mercy of the AI or if you decide to turn that aspect off, there will be absolutely no coaching movement at all.
 
# 128 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 03:09 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas
New scheme/team specific overalls.
New scouting.
New complete user control over progression.
New CPU Trade-Logic that includes CPU-CPU trades and CPU proposed trades
New Dynamic storylines
New weekly, seasonal, and milestone goals
New injuries that could extend into the next season
New players and coaches returning from retirement
New free agency system
New weekly practice to gain coach and player XP.
You must work for EA. None of that is "NEW". You basically listed a handful of features that have been in every franchise/superstar mode since the inception of either game mode, that have been tweaked and marketed as though they had never been seen before.
 
# 129 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/12 03:22 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
You must work for EA. None of that is "NEW". You basically listed a handful of features that have been in every franchise/superstar mode since the inception of either game mode, that have been tweaked and marketed as though they had never been seen before.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe you asked what we gained from CCM. Regardless of whether or not they're "NEW", by definition, they're all things that weren't there last year.
 
# 130 moneal2001 @ 06/11/12 03:22 AM
@Brett are any of those things in madden 12?
 
# 131 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 03:34 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by moneal2001
@Brett are any of those things in madden 12?
Are you kidding? We get a new free agency system, scouting system, player progression system, and AI trade logic every year. At what point in the endless cycle does it stop becoming an improvement? I was really high on the dynamic storylines until I heard the details surround it. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn't take the completely randomized story lines being applied to their generic rookie classes and apply them to imported draft classes. Connect Careers was supposed to be about user immersion into the game mode. How immersed can I be if Im stuck with a generic 1st overall pick instead of Matt Barkley? Not to mention the game mode completely alienates users who want to play as GMs, which applies to many of the people who were formerly playing offline franchise. My point is that there is absolutely nothing they changed warranting the removal of such basic features from the game.
 
# 132 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/12 03:43 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
Not to mention the game mode completely alienates users who want to play as GMs, which applies to many of the people who were formerly playing offline franchise.
I'm strictly an offline franchise player and I don't feel alienated at all. The only thing that's changed in regards to playing as a GM is the fact that you can't fire and hire new coaches. And changing coaches in M12 had absolutely zero affect on anything. Whether I had Bill Belichick or Barry Bonds as my head coach, there wouldn't be any difference other than what they showed during cutscenes.
 
# 133 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 03:49 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas
I'm strictly an offline franchise player and I don't feel alienated at all. The only thing that's changed in regards to playing as a GM is the fact that you can't fire and hire new coaches. And changing coaches in M12 had absolutely zero affect on anything. Whether I had Bill Belichick or Barry Bonds as my head coach, there wouldn't be any difference other than what they showed during cutscenes.
If you played franchise exclusively offline, as I did, then at the very least you should understand the importance of being able to control multiple teams and import/edit draft classes.
 
# 134 moneal2001 @ 06/11/12 03:51 AM
the only gm act that was taken away was coach hiring. user controlled progression has never been madden or any other sports game ive played. and the new scouting blows away anything we have had before.

the draft classes were broken. there is even a thread on this forum trying to get a decent one and even the things done in it required you to load it over and over till you got a decent one. and there were no busts or gems in them either.
 
# 135 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/12 03:54 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
If you played franchise exclusively offline, as I did, then at the very least you should understand the importance of being able to control multiple teams and import/edit draft classes.
I had actually planned on controlling all 32 teams this season because of some of the wonky things the CPU would do last year. Editing is also something I always liked doing as far as equipment and sometimes names but I would never touch ratings. With that being said, I think the stuff that's been added and tweaked greatly outweighs those negatives and my excitement over the things that we are getting this year makes it easy to live with the some of the negatives.
 
# 136 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 04:05 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas
I had actually planned on controlling all 32 teams this season because of some of the wonky things the CPU would do last year. Editing is also something I always liked doing as far as equipment and sometimes names but I would never touch ratings. With that being said, I think the stuff that's been added and tweaked greatly outweighs those negatives and my excitement over the things that we are getting this year makes it easy to live with the some of the negatives.
I also planned on controlling all 32 teams, because I find drafting and signing free agents for every single team leads to much more realistic rosters than if I let the AI run wild. However, unlike you the loss of those features is enough to turn this game into a rental at best from what I initially considered a day one purchase. It has nothing to do with what they added, but rather as I mentioned before, the steps backward that always go hand in hand with any "improvement" we see. These were features that had already been in the game for quite a while, and probably the most elementary of career mode features at that.
 
# 137 SeahawkNMD @ 06/11/12 04:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrettCM06
I also planned on controlling all 32 teams, because I find drafting and signing free agents for every single team leads to much more realistic rosters than if I let the AI run wild. However, unlike you the loss of those features is enough to turn this game into a rental at best from what I initially considered a day one purchase. It has nothing to do with what they added, but rather as I mentioned before, the steps backward that always go hand in hand with any "improvement" we see. These were features that had already been in the game for quite a while, and probably the most elementary of career mode features at that.
Not trying to start an argument or anything, I've just been wondering with you guys who control every team how do you decide who gets who? Lets say Mario Williams was a free agent and you know 15 teams would break the bank for him, do you just try to guess his interests and who you think he would choose? Are you able to block out all biases? What team would you have chosen for him if you were running free agency?
 
# 138 BrettCM06 @ 06/11/12 04:31 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeahawkNMD
Not trying to start an argument or anything, I've just been wondering with you guys who control every team how do you decide who gets who? Lets say Mario Williams was a free agent and you know 15 teams would break the bank for him, do you just try to guess his interests and who you think he would choose? Are you able to block out all biases? What team would you have chosen for him if you were running free agency?
There's always some bias, but you can usually narrow it down based one which teams are contenders, which teams can afford the cap hit, which teams already have some depth at the position and maybe wouldn't be as willing to throw money at them, which teams have zero depth and would be desperate.
 
# 139 DeuceDouglas @ 06/11/12 04:34 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeahawkNMD
Not trying to start an argument or anything, I've just been wondering with you guys who control every team how do you decide who gets who? Lets say Mario Williams was a free agent and you know 15 teams would break the bank for him, do you just try to guess his interests and who you think he would choose? Are you able to block out all biases? What team would you have chosen for him if you were running free agency?
The way I had planned on doing it this year was basically letting the CPU do their own resigning and then before FA started, go through each team and address what their "Team Needs" are. And then based on who the FA were, each team would be in on players at positions they need. So if Mario Williams was a FA I would look at who needed DE's and all then put all of those teams, including mine if it was a need, into a hat and randomly draw. Is it authentic or realistic? No. But it was the best way I could come up with to pretty much take any bias out of it as well as make sure that I couldn't get whatever I wanted in FA.
 
# 140 SeahawkNMD @ 06/11/12 04:36 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by moneal2001
the only gm act that was taken away was coach hiring. user controlled progression has never been madden or any other sports game ive played. and the new scouting blows away anything we have had before.

the draft classes were broken. there is even a thread on this forum trying to get a decent one and even the things done in it required you to load it over and over till you got a decent one. and there were no busts or gems in them either.
I agree with this, I love having real draft classes but they were so broken I can go without them for a year. I mean Andrew Luck has outstanding ratings and after raising them even more it didn't guarantee him the #1 pick or even the first QB all the time. NCAA imports NEED to be in next year even if they don't really connect the actual NCAA season they were imported from. From what they've shown I think this years draft classes will have enough depth to make them worth it for this year.
 


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