Franchise Mode Questions

[silkysmooth]

Short version - How much has franchise mode changed or improved over Madden 2009?

Long Version - I own Madden 2009 for the 360 and have played franchise mode a lot. It's had ups and downs and mostly leaves me wondering how it has changed in the newer versions. I realize things like restricted free agents are still not in the game from what I've read here. I'm just curious if the CPU makes more of an effort to build a winning team. On 09, as I'm sure some of you will recall, the CPU tends to salary cap dump superstar players in their prime. I'd see Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Julius Peppers, etc in the free agent pool and they would just sit there because no one would be able to sign them. It always bothered me how easy it was to be frugal with cap space and sign one of them to trade for draft picks.

Another thing I hated about 09 was that imported classes would routinely have guys rated 90+ overall. Generated guys were largely unbalanced or a complete crapshoot. Tim Tebow comes into Madden 09 from NCAA 90+ overall just about every time which is fairly unrealistic. Have draft classes been somewhat balanced? How has the pre-generated draft classes had an effect on things?

Any other major changes to franchise? I'm not really talking about presentation or gameplay. Have they made it any harder? Or is building a winning team still only a few years away regardless of what team you start with. I'm concerned about difficulty really. I've always felt Madden games make it far too easy to stock pile young talent.

[JaymeeAwesome]

Quote: Originally Posted by silkysmooth

Short version - How much has franchise mode changed or improved over Madden 2009? Long Version - I own Madden 2009 for the 360 and have played franchise mode a lot. It's had ups and downs and mostly leaves me wondering how it has changed in the newer versions. I realize things like restricted free agents are still not in the game from what I've read here. I'm just curious if the CPU makes more of an effort to build a winning team. On 09, as I'm sure some of you will recall, the CPU tends to salary cap dump superstar players in their prime. I'd see Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Julius Peppers, etc in the free agent pool and they would just sit there because no one would be able to sign them. It always bothered me how easy it was to be frugal with cap space and sign one of them to trade for draft picks. Another thing I hated about 09 was that imported classes would routinely have guys rated 90+ overall. Generated guys were largely unbalanced or a complete crapshoot. Tim Tebow comes into Madden 09 from NCAA 90+ overall just about every time which is fairly unrealistic. Have draft classes been somewhat balanced? How has the pre-generated draft classes had an effect on things? Any other major changes to franchise? I'm not really talking about presentation or gameplay. Have they made it any harder? Or is building a winning team still only a few years away regardless of what team you start with. I'm concerned about difficulty really. I've always felt Madden games make it far too easy to stock pile young talent.

Still the same but should be a huge overhaul next year. It's still exciting for me though.

[falconfansince81]

i was big into offline franchise until 08, then is started on a steady decline into a sea of ********ness.

3 years later in m11 its as dull and shallow as ever, i tried so hard to get into it using custom sliders and create a player with fantasy draft but after 4 games i just stopped...again.

there is no challenge anymore, and the scouting is laughable at best. i do enjoy the very thin online franchise sim leagues i'm in, if it weren't for those i'd still be wrapped up in ncaa 11's offline dynasty (very well done).

if you get typically get dominated by human opponents, you may like playin the cpu...or if you want a challenging draft system, i wouldn't recommend this years edition either. ncaa11 however did have a very deep recruiting system i found very addicting and almost enjoyed that more than actually playing games, which i'm not the depth chart type...rather be on the field...so that says a lot.

[JaymeeAwesome]

What people don't realize is that if you purchase the scouting tools it makes the draft a hundred times more fun. Because you dot have to look at that scout screen that hand feeds you the potential of the draftees.