So the biggest announcement is for NEXT year's game?

[Flamehead]

I have to agree with the belief that EA will not produce a hefty franchise mode for 2012. I suspect those who are placing this faith in EA (without cause) may be the same as those who were certain that E3 would bring about all this fantastic OF news.

Based on past history, one thing I do have faith in is that EA will place their project emphasis on some feature geared toward the casual noob crowd. Past examples include weapon icons, Madden IQ, etc., and now Gameflow (aka, “Ask Madden 2.0”).

It’s always something meant to pull in the casual gamer and EA’s history of past emphasis leads me to believe 2012 will be no different. Therefore, I believe any work on OF will be cursory and minimal until they demonstrate otherwise.

[cornstarch]

So, I spoke a tad too soon.

I read the Madden blogs on the Gameplan/Gameflow - and it kind of seems cool. Especially the gameplan, if they did it right, it will actually be different playing different teams. If I play the Pats, Ill gameplan against the passing game. If I play the Jets, I'll gameplan around their running game. If I play the Saints (I won't, because that is who I play with...) I will have to run a balanced gameplan.

The gameflow seems cool, I like the idea of a quicker game but the voiceover and subtitles are a little cheesy. It's basically like ask Madden except you don't choose the play at all...it comes to you. Which, if you used certain sliders and house rules last year, is good because it avoids the money plays we all like to subconsciously select.

If the locomotion and lighting are as nice as NCAA, Madden 11 seems to be a very polished Madden 2010. Yes, it blows we have to spend our money on an expansion pack - but I love my football and Madden so I'll take the better gameplay, slight graphical enhancements, and gameplan features and get mildly excited.

[MaddenMonster]

No matter what people will complain, no matter what their changes will have some fans left in the dark by changing something they love.

[GaryT531]

Seems like it's all about on the field gameplay improvements to make the actual on the field gameplay experience better for Madden 11. Sounds pretty good to me. Hopefully it's one heck of a fun football game to play because of this.

Next year shouldn't even have been mentioned by EA, but since we're on the topic I hope that next year they really follow through on all of the dynasty improvements that are supposed to be forthcoming, and add progressive lighting or at least let it progress every quarter like it did on last gen.

[Owens81SF]

Quote:

As most of you know, Franchise mode debuted in Madden NFL 99 on PlayStation, and since then, we’ve been adding on layers and layers of code each year to make it the most authentic experience possible. As console technology has evolved, it’s become increasingly more difficult to evolve the mode in-kind, since we are handcuffed by the limitations of the code from so many years in the past. To re-write Franchise mode to take full advantage of the PS3 and Xbox 360 would take well over a year to do, which is why we’ve taken the approach we have up until now.

What this paragraph tells me is that EA has been using the same coding for over a decade and have just been adding to it until they cant add anymore to it without re-writing a new code.

My question is this - shouldnt EA at the very least create new coding from the ground up for each generation of systems?

EA should have written a new code when 360 and PS3 were first released and even if they skipped a year for the now current systems, it wouldnt have mattered anyway because the majority were still playing on PS2 and Xbox. At least, thats what I think they should have done.

[Dramaking]

lol Madden team is lazy. they never make me say wow, im always just saying its looks better than last year. "they been working on gameplay for madden 11", the gameplay if it plays like ncaa 11 it should be fun for to last 2 to 3 seasons, but what about the features so that i dont feel force to play online. gameflow? i guess that had to appeal to the casual some how. They should made a half time show. this is something you rent every other week. oh and thank you EA now i have to wait until the 2011 draft just to buy a used copy and a online pass, if i rent i better get the code first lol.

[Lieutenant Dan]

I'll go ahead and throw in that a complete code rewrite, if that is what is really necessary for a NEW franchise mode to work, scares me some. I'm wondering how stable that's going to be it's first year out....

However I'm also a HUGE fan of NFL Head Coach 09, and is Josh is in charge of franchise, it's not unreasonable to expect some great strides in franchise with him at the helm.

I'll end by saying I'm going to stop worrying about M12 or M13 right.....now.