NCAA to Madden switchover?

[wiser66]

Ok, so here's my situation. I've played NCAA since 2004 because I love college football. I feel like the video game peaked in '05 and it's been on a steady decline ever since. I have bought the last couple years simply because I wanted a football game to play and since I love college football it seemed to make sense. After playing the '12 NCAA demo I have finally drawn the line: no more NCAA purchases until they upgrade the actual gameplay. No more of this useless "college pagaentry" upgrading while keeping the same, lousy gameplay system. Now to my point.

I am only a moderate NFL follower so would it be worth me switching over to Madden this year? Is the gameplay more realistic, with strategy actually being rewarded? Is there anybody else in the same boat with me?

[bigbob]

I believe NCAA made a huge upgrade this year with their gameplay with what was broken, but I would also not recommend making the switch. As you said with NCAA, Madden has been on a steady decline since Madden 05 and there was just as much broken with Madden 11 as there was NCAA 11.

I recommend waiting on the demo to be honest because they say they fixed a lot with Madden, but we won't know until then.

[JMUfootball]

Madden '11 is hardly any different than NCAA '11, and in my opinion it's worse.

You're basically dealing with the same gameplay on the field, but Madden on top of that crams all sorts of obnoxious marketing down your throat, and presents the whole game in a way that is supposed to "PUMP YOU UP!!!" but really is just ridiculously over the top annoying.

Furthermore, Madden '11 is even more unpolished than NCAA '11 in terms of menus, game modes, and ingame presentation. Franchise mode is so shallow that the scripted responses you get when negotiating a contract (all 2 of them) remind you of playing a text-based game in MS-DOS.

However, Madden '12 claims to be a lot deeper and is much more polished from an ingame perspective. The Madden team also seems to be moving in a more "strategic" direction, as you described, starting to realize that it has to drastically improve the depth of its Franchise mode. Add that to dynamic player performance, and I think Madden '12 will be a lot better (more strategic) than NCAA '12. Time will tell. But don't get the idea that Madden is some great beacon of football over NCAA, because it's not.

[BestServedCold]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigbob

I believe NCAA made a huge upgrade this year with their gameplay with what was broken, but I would also not recommend making the switch. As you said with NCAA, Madden has been on a steady decline since Madden 05 and there was just as much broken with Madden 11 as there was NCAA 11. I recommend waiting on the demo to be honest because they say they fixed a lot with Madden, but we won't know until then.

Did you play the demo?

I don't think it's that big of an upgrade.

[kehlis]

Fair question, but until Madden is released how can this question be answered?