10 Things We Hate About Madden, 10-6

[Boregard]

This is not meant to be a "rant" or a slam EA thread.

We refers to my friends and I, a bunch of Madden addicts ranging from about 27 to 35 years old.

The list, some of which is community driven and some is EA driven, is things that absolutely drive us nuts about the Madden series.

10) "Bullet Features"
The idea that casual gamers buy Madden because of bullet features is just ridiculous. Casual gamers don't run out at reserve Madden based on commercials they see or these "bullet features". I am a "casual gamer" outside of Madden. I don't reserve other games and when I buy other games it is because I am at Gamestop, have some $$$ burning a hole in my pocket, and something catches my eye.
The "weapons" feature was one I thought was going to be great. I envisioned players on D that the CPU was controlling for me would play more like their real life counterparts. It worked OK for recievers but on defense, you still had to switch to your big hitters to get them to really lay the wood, and even your "shutdown CBs" often required manual control to really be effective.

9) Constant Graphics Tweaking
This I blame on the forum communities and the constant complaining about "player models" and "lighting effects" and the constant whining "can we have our own faces in the game?"!!! My friends and I are "hardcore Maddenites" and while we are not opposed to advances in graphics, we can't help but think why use so much RAM on graphics when EA uses the limits on RAM as a "reason" why they can't liven up the sidelines, or add refs and the chain gang, or other things like dynamic weather!

8) Super Star Mode
This mode is an absolute slap in the face!!! Maybe you guys have forgotten. Several years ago the commuinty was asking EA to get a representation of the Hall of Fame into Madden for the franchise mode. EA failed to deliver in franchise mode and gave us SS mode instead. Nevermind that the mode is horribly tedious. They side stepped the request of the community (we still want our "franchise greats" to get to the MHOF) and gave us a complete waste of disc space in return!
EA has a habit of taking community requests and screwing them up. I think that the new leadership at EA can turn this around rather easily. Edit player position quickly comes to mind as an EA flub. The community complained about the OLB to DE flaws, so they just eliminated it for NG. A better approach would have been to "tone down" the ability to take a mid 80s OLB and turn him into a 99 DE.

7) Sideline and Diving Catches
This one really gets on my nerves. What is the point of having sideline catch animations that only happen 3 yds inside of the sideline? Where did the manual diving catches go? I understand that these have to be balanced and not overly powerful, but seriously the sideline catches need to "play" only at the sidelines and the manual diving catch needs to make a return. I have no problem with the "spectacular catch" being CPU controlled only or the manual diving catch having a really low chance for success, but these need to be addressed.

6) Mini Games
Mini games for progression is the dumbest idea out of EA, besides Ring of a Chump and #5 on this list. We didn't like the PS2 training camp drills because nearly all of them heavily favored guys with speed. The thing is progression should be handled by a combination of the players potential, pesronality, work ethic, inteligence and the ratings of the coaching staff and the str/conditioning coach.
The other thing is that the CPU doesn't use them and they heavily favor stick skills and doesn't allow for any stategy what so ever. The other thing is they are set up in a way that "pushes" you to focus on guys who already have a great skill set. The games are difficult to beat with lower rated players, meaning most guys only "develope" players who don't really need it. At the very least, we would like to see an option to turn these off for multi-user franchises.

[K_GUN]

yawn

[baumy300]

You make some good points, but I doubt this thread is going to do anything other than turn into a flame fest.

[X*Cell]

I think this list is spot on... however, I do love the step Madden 09 has taken with it's great graphics... it's the chain gang that I wouldn't care about.

I agree with you especially on Superstar mode and most definitely on Mini-games... like you said, why are the players who don't need development getting the development? Makes no sense.

[Boregard]

Thanks X*Cell!

Is this post that hard to read? Too long?

I know my group of Madden crazies are not the only people, some tiny weird microcosm, who hate these things about the Madden series!!!

[Skyboxer]

SS mode is the only reason I bought Madden last year. Probably the main reason this year also. Many people like it and I hope it stays.

[MaxMan1000]

To "Bullet features"... Considering how many millions of copies this game sells and then comparing that to only the thousands that visit Madden boards, casual fans don't keep up with the development of Madden, nor do they care. For the most part they either call the game store and find out when it will be out, then they go buy it, or they see a commercial and then they go buy it.

Bullet point features aren't going to make people who know nothing about the game prior to having it, buy it. But a lot of those features are there to accommodate the casual fan. It's a progressive sales situation. Take them away and watch the sales fall over a period of time.

To "Constant graphics tweaking"... quite frankly, I saw no worth-mentioning graphical improvements in Madden for the entire XBOX/PS2 generation. Those player models looked disgusting to say the least.

So far, we've gotten improvements each season in this generation, and I'm very happy about it. There is no reason for it to be neglected. However, I'm a guy who blames the framerate hike as enemy #1. Granted, we didn't have refs or chain gangs or cheerleaders when we were at 30 frames, but obviously at 60 that possibility is only slimmer.

Like I mentioned once in another post, I wish they could do something to give us the option to select 30 frames with high detail or 60 with lower detail like a lot of PC games have had... and I'm still convinced that the people who say they can't live without 60 would be changing their tune once they are able to see the very big difference in graphic detail between 30 (high) and 60 (lower).