Personal View on Franchise (with a bit of history)

[pin2back]

Howdy all!

I never post here, but I have been coming to OS for a couple of years now. I come in to read the news and I would probably post more often except I'm in my mid twenties and it seems like every good conversation point begins and then unfortunately ends with some type of personal war between other people. Now this isn't a problem with OS, it's a problem with any message board. It's a product of human nature and differing opinions. I accept that. A lot of you guys seem like legit people that enjoy Madden and the NFL every bit as much as I do.

I'm not big into online, not just with madden, with any game. I abhor cheaters and people that play cheaply. If I could go more than two or three games with out dealing with that, then I'd probably play more often. The computer plays me straight up, my friends play me straight up, so I'll just go ahead and stick with that.

For me the bread and butter of Madden comes from the (offline) franchise mode.

I remember back when Madden 04 came out, I was blown away by the franchise. The newspaper, the presentation, the big hits and the training camp at the beginning of each season made it a blast to play. I'm not great at remembering the specifics of each year, however once the radio show came in, the email came in, and the players began complaining about their rolls on the team, it really seemed like all these tiny little pixels and polygons began to have a personality.

The little touches are what made it for me.

How great was it when the newspaper would predict that your team would lose only for you to laugh, take it a little personally, and then turn around and whup up on the CPU.

The gametime pictures, the player of the week, the tiny little blurbs that were somewhat vapid, yet at the same time just as exciting to read (fictional) week in and week out.

You can imagine my displeasure though when the "Next Gen" versions came out and I popped Madden 06 into my 360. That experience lasted one season and Madden headed right back to Gamestop. I spent the next two years playing 05 on my PS2. I still bought it every year, because I love the NFL and I didn't have a whole lot of options after that.

As for 07? A much better game, better animations, better player models and just generally more fun--still, that version made it only a season or two more than 06 did. 07 wound up back at Gamestop maybe a month later than 06 did...

Back to 05.

08 was the one that finally made me convert full-time to 360 football. The gameplay all around made that one for me, it still had it's glitches, the franchise still blew, but it was purty, and my PS2 had finally called it quits on me.

Coming here last year I was hoping and praying that 09 would finally give me my franchise fix... it did not. It looked spectacular, a butt-load of improvements (apparently), and how cool was it to see producers and designers talking to the general public. I even went so far to get the collectors edition for the first time.

F*****g robo-qb. Rewind... seriously? Backtrack, cool concept crapy name, fire the guy that came up with that little gem please. 09 met the cozy shelves at Gamestop as quickly if not quicker than 06 did. That CE allowed me to buy some other game that I don't really care about anymore.

Back to 08.

I know there was head coach, but you know what that was to me? Boring, boring, boring. I want to play the game.

What Ian and co. have done this year is amazing, me personally? I could give a rats *** about towels or facemasks or large/little numbers/letters. But I digress, I'm hooked with Pro-tak. I'll buy Madden 2010 and I'm assuming this one will replace 08. I sure hope it will. And if not? I'll wait for 11.

To this day there is nothing better than reading the paper or online article the day after a real game about how my team just whupped some *** and took a select number of names.

I'm hoping that everyone can be happy with where the presentation, the towels, the cleats, the face masks, the sock length, the eye black, butt size, leg size, arm size, and head size(too many hair follicles on Hasselbak...damnit to hell), the proper jock strap placement... I assume you all see where I'm going with this. Let's focus on recreating the NFL season, the season that we dedicate our lives and money to.

To steal a line, and it might just go ahead and turn this whole damn thing corny, please EA don't make me backtrack anymore.

Talk to you all in a year or so, enjoy the season and GO (insert team name here)!

Cheers!

Rob

[Deegeezy]

Nice read!

Welcome to OS

You're right man...Franchise does not seem as personal as it used to be.

Right now, you feel like you are the only team in the NFL and you're going on a week to week tour playing other teams. The old PS2 Maddens made it feel like you were actually in a league with 31 other teams.

[PantherBeast_OS]

Welcome. And Ian is trying his best to make franchise good again for the next Gen console. He started this year and it will grow next year aswell. Just give Ian and crew time. They will get the job done. It already shows this year that they got the job done. So just give them time. They are working on it.

[MattIntellect]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pantherbeast

Welcome. And Ian is trying his best to make franchise good again for the next Gen console. He started this year and it will grow next year aswell. Just give Ian and crew time. They will get the job done. It already shows this year that they got the job done. So just give them time. They are working on it.

Ian isn't working on franchise mode. Ian isn't the entire Madden team.

[joejccva71]

From what I've read and heard, franchise mode seems ontop of things and Josh fixed alot of the AI logic issues that have been there for years.

However, there's just one problem and yes it's a big problem:

You can't trade future draft picks.

Now for some people they will say "are you kidding? thats not a big deal". However if you played NFL Head Coach 09 furiously like alot of the hardcore players have, then you realize just how important it is in a franchise to be able to do trade future draft picks.

It's ESSENTIAL in franchise mode. If you didn't play Head Coach 09, then you don't realize this. It's huge.

This is something that NEEDS to be added in before the game releases or in a patch that comes quickly.

[MrNFL_FanIQ]

Quote: Originally Posted by joejccva71

From what I've read and heard, franchise mode seems ontop of things and Josh fixed alot of the AI logic issues that have been there for years. However, there's just one problem and yes it's a big problem: You can't trade future draft picks. Now for some people they will say "are you kidding? thats not a big deal". However if you played NFL Head Coach 09 furiously like alot of the hardcore players have, then you realize just how important it is in a franchise to be able to do trade future draft picks. It's ESSENTIAL in franchise mode. If you didn't play Head Coach 09, then you don't realize this. It's huge. This is something that NEEDS to be added in before the game releases or in a patch that comes quickly.

This is so true. Very good post by the OP as well, very similar to my experiences, except I didn't return 09 because I kept my money.

[CKW11]

Man that was a great post. I totally agree with you, i LOVED Madden 04, and i too am a huge offline franchise guy. Lol i loved what you said about reading that the papers predicted you to lose then you prove them wrong by crushing your opponent, it was so fun doing that. And i was quite dissappointed when i upgraded to next gen last year and saw there was no training camp at the beginning of the year, i loved that feature. But luckily for us, this year's Madden and its offline franchise looks pretty darn good, especially with the whole extra point show (of course it could use some work but for its first year being implemented it looks pretty good), and other improvements. Oh and by the way, welcome to OS!

[MattIntellect]

Quote: Originally Posted by pin2back

Howdy all! Back to 05. 08 was the one that finally made me convert full-time to 360 football. The gameplay all around made that one for me, it still had it's glitches, the franchise still blew, but it was purty, and my PS2 had finally called it quits on me. Coming here last year I was hoping and praying that 09 would finally give me my franchise fix... it did not. It looked spectacular, a butt-load of improvements (apparently), and how cool was it to see producers and designers talking to the general public. I even went so far to get the collectors edition for the first time. F*****g robo-qb. Rewind... seriously? Backtrack, cool concept crapy name, fire the guy that came up with that little gem please. 09 met the cozy shelves at Gamestop as quickly if not quicker than 06 did. That CE allowed me to buy some other game that I don't really care about anymore. Back to 08. I know there was head coach, but you know what that was to me? Boring, boring, boring. I want to play the game. What Ian and co. have done this year is amazing, me personally? I could give a rats *** about towels or facemasks or large/little numbers/letters. But I digress, I'm hooked with Pro-tak. I'll buy Madden 2010 and I'm assuming this one will replace 08. I sure hope it will. And if not? I'll wait for 11. To this day there is nothing better than reading the paper or online article the day after a real game about how my team just whupped some *** and took a select number of names. I'm hoping that everyone can be happy with where the presentation, the towels, the cleats, the face masks, the sock length, the eye black, butt size, leg size, arm size, and head size(too many hair follicles on Hasselbak...damnit to hell), the proper jock strap placement... I assume you all see where I'm going with this. Let's focus on recreating the NFL season, the season that we dedicate our lives and money to. To steal a line, and it might just go ahead and turn this whole damn thing corny, please EA don't make me backtrack anymore. Talk to you all in a year or so, enjoy the season and GO (insert team name here)! Cheers! Rob

I can't believe that you decided to fully convert to next-gen Maddens after playing Madden 08, but Madden 09 went back to Gamestop because of the Backtrack feature and Rewind. How could you say that? Madden 08 was terrible, Madden 09 was way ahead of that game and that includes Madden 09's franchise mode as well. There were too many issues with Madden 08, that made the game almost unplayable. Also Madden 08 had the lowest graphical quality compared to Madden 06, Madden 07, and especially Madden 09.