Madden NFL 18 Interview with Rex Dickson (SimFBallCritic)

[jfsolo]

As transparent as he is, Rex still can't say some things straight out. For example it's clear that he would rather have had access to the resources used for Longshot for 20 other things, but he has zero control over that. He's also still has to be a professional and say positive things about the mode.

He made a nice subtle little point about how the feedback during this year would go a long way in determining the future of story mode, i.e. it can be a more gameplay oriented mode if players demand it or maybe it gets de-emphasized and the resources get poured back into MUT or CFM.

[SageInfinite]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnnyg713

You would definitely know more than me about this stuff. We're all still in wait-and-see mode but I just continue to look back at the madden 06-10 days and know what we have today is from these new devs. Was Ian a great dev? I mean he definitely had this community really involved but those promises and blogs he would put out were just a vision and let down a lot of people. I remember momentum and wr/db interaction blogs. Stuff didn't even make it into the game because it was extremely hard to develop. Thats a whole different story all together though. But for me, I see this team actually getting things done. Is it all perfect? of course not. But I see madden finally being on par with other sports games, which is what I've always wanted.

Ian was cool, but a lot of promises were either broken or under delivered, which in my opinion has continued for Madden and continues for Madden till this day. We'll see how this year plays out. Just my opinion though. The game is definitely better, I'm not taking all their credit or anything. Definitely enjoy Madden more than I have in years, but I'm not typing "in Rex and Clint we trust" or any of that ****. It's still not up to par with the other sports games imo, besides NBA Live's terrible mess....

[Lexicon]

Pretty frustrated about the the lack of focus on Franchise Mode. I've heard it all before. Heard "next year," "building for the future," "2-3 year plan," "sharing tech to benefit from other teams," etc.

It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it but hope they're not just giving us the run-around. Creative decisions come from the top. I am, however, sort of disappointed to hear the "shared tech" speech again. Ignite was supposed to be shared tech that was supposed to help, but it yielded very little. Not to mention that NBA Live is not the game I'd be confident in associating the future of a mode with. Even at its best, Live's franchise mode has never been much besides a basic mode. Now, if it was NBA 2K they were sharing tech and dev talent with, I'd be ecstatic about that. Obviously, that would never happen.

We know by past experience that the stuff they're putting into Franchise this year is probably going to have it's flaws, as even the score ticker doesn't work correctly to this day. So what we'll have in the end is a few additions that may or may not work and the same lifeless mode as before.

I'm interested in Longshot, because
a) I love the injection of Texas Football into the story (love FNL) and the combine-to-draft story (love Two Days in April and the draft is my favorite thing in all of sports)
and b) it has some life to it. So I'm still on the fence about buying M18, because I do think the game sounds like an upgrade in most areas, I'm just once again disappointed in their direction of Franchise Mode. They can tell us what they'd like, but as a consumer, I want them to deliver.

[K_GUN]

Cool read from 3 years ago re: player tracking....not as simple/easy as one in videogame lala land might think...

https://www.profootballfocus.com/the...t-cornerbacks/

(Having Richard Sherman track the #1WR isn't sim)





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[illwill10]

Like others said, I'm content with CFM. Not like it was bad, it just isn't up-to-par with some other sports games. I enjoyed Madden past couple years. I haven't bought the game in the while. I used GameFly past couple years. But I fully plan on buying it on 1st day digital this year.

One thing I think about a lot from last two days of information, is that when will CFM/Franchise will see a big update in the coming years?

I think that way because next year, They will be still transitioning over to Frostbite, MUT will still be a big focus to improve, and Longshot will use a lot of resources to work on the next chapter of story(which I believe will only be on the rookie season IMO). So where does that leave CFM, I'm sure that it will get improvements next year as well, but I don't want to see how it seems like it is this year where we just get a few 'new' features and tuning.

[kennylc629]

Sometimes w/ EA, you're darned if you do; darned if you don't. I am happy to hear that injuries away from the play is FINALLY incorporated (I won't mention how 2k had it.)

But now I have to fear whether or not my guy will tear a hamstring by just standing still. They tend to go overboard on these things.

[Gosens6]

Quote: Originally Posted by K_GUN

Cool read from 3 years ago re: player tracking....not as simple/easy as one in videogame lala land might think... https://www.profootballfocus.com/the...t-cornerbacks/ (Having Richard Sherman track the #1WR isn't sim) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

10+ Years ago we were able to do custom DB/WR matchups. Why we still can't do that, no one will ever know.

I get they're throwing us a bit of a bone by being able to match your #1 corner with their #1 receiver at all times, but like you said, it's not always "sim" to do that.

What they implemented is at least an effort to show they're listening to our needs. I'm fully confident that Madden 19 will have the ability to customize matchups.

[extremeskins04]

Here are the things that concern me:

1. If they continue with the Long Shot story for next year's Madden 19, is that going to take precedence over Franchise mode again and use their resources for that?

2. Rex said something about how Long Shot and Frostbite development took away from other modes like Franchise and MUT, etc. But yet didn't MUT get some nice updates this year?

Ever year when the team discusses what they're going to do for next year's Madden, I picture the executives interrupting their conference meeting and saying "No, we're not doing all these Franchise mode things...they don't make us money. We're going to put our resources in MUT and Long Shot. We want the mass market."

It is what it is. It's really always been this way and it's hard to expect it to change.