Why?

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by Broncos86

There's some truth in this. Honestly, for years, I've created my own stories in Madden. For me, part of that is stagnation. What I mean is that throughout any given season in recent Madden, your team dynamics are largely the same. With Madden 12, I really hoped DPP would help change that, but I never really saw enough to make much of a difference. The other aspect is that throughout a Madden season, I feel isolated from the rest of the league. Stories, stats, and other parts of the league seem hidden in menus for me. I don't know if someone broke a record, or is chasing one, etc. I have to go find that stuff, and it's cumbersome. I suggested to Josh Looman, on Twitter, that this stuff needs to be up front and visible as it is in NCAA.

To piggyback on this, I wanted to use a post from the NCAA forum that really put a finger on what I want in Madden, formatted for the NFL Franchise mode of course.

Quote: Originally Posted by t2jBird

Hoping for something like a "Living" Dynasty. Where everything in your dynasty is happening real time. Games are being played on Saturday when you are playing, and "live" updates are being broadcast throughout the game. As well as in the recruiting side of things; it'd be nice to hear some recruiting news about your school or one you are playing if they just signed a 4*/5* recruit the day before, or have one visiting the game. A "Heisman Watch" update would be nice too, in game.

A "Living" Franchise just sums it up perfectly, imo. Right now, playing Madden is like eating just to put something in your empty stomach, instead of actually enjoying a meal.

[PGaither84]

KBLover, what are your substitutions set at? I play with 54 fatigue and people are going red and white on me before I finish a long drive. I can't imagine 100 fatigue. Seriously... I can imagine everyone glowing yellow after three plays, and red if I moved past mid field.

[GhostFacedOLB]

Its definitely not easy to enjoy Madden. At least if you want it to be like the NFL, which I assume most people here do. There is a very very thin line between a hard fought 18-14 game and a 40-7 blowout in Madden. Theres a lot of subtle things that will end up being the difference between the two.

I dont think it would've been possible to get realistic stats, scores, and games in previous editions of Madden, for me anyways. But the potential is definitely there. The problem is that "sweet spot" is going to be different for everybody. Not only for the obvious reason that everyone has different skills and playstyle. But also everybody has their own version of what they think the NFL should be like in video game form, its not a science or anything. Getting close to realistic stats is one thing, having realism portrayed on the field and accepting what you see is another entirely. You may have to sacrafice a bit here and to gain a bit there, if you feel me.

I have a nice franchise going right now with the Dolphins. I had some awesome comeback victories with Matt Moore at quarterback early on, and my defense had been playin lights out. I was 4-0 at this point I think and getting handled by the Chargers in the first half, 14-3. I made a go of it and took the lead in the 3rd quarter, then they took the lead back late in the fourth quarter, 27-26 with 23 seconds left. I had all my timeouts and managed to complete two passes, kick the game winning 48 yard field goal and stay undefeated. Im not even a Dolphins fan but the way we won really made me fall in love with the team I picked.

The next week, I played Jets on Monday night. Call me crazy, but just knowing it was a Monday night game, and my teams unbeaten but thats a real tenuous position, made me nervous as hell. They were beating me 27-7 at the start of the fourth quarter, I dont know how the hell I did it but my mentality was, ok Im obviously getting worked over, lets at least give the video crowd something to cheer about. Just that slight adjustment of my attitude made a difference. Came back to win 28-27. When I scored my last touchdown there was 23 seconds left. Marshall abused Revis who had two picks in the game earlier, made him look ridiculous on the game winning score, had me cracking up.

Well anyways Im not laughing anymore, I started 9-0, now Ive dropped 4 straight, thanks to a slumping Matt Moore and injured Cameron wake, and finishing up with a monster of a schedule. I still got a real decent shot of making the playoffs of course, but with my offense averaging around 10 points a game over this losing streak I just dont see us winning a game again, ever. The latter part of my schedule Ive seen far too many 30-10 losses. Of course, this is just the Dolphins coming back to reality and while I may never see them have a run like they did early on under my control, it was a hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.

[PaleVermilion]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

To piggyback on this, I wanted to use a post from the NCAA forum that really put a finger on what I want in Madden, formatted for the NFL Franchise mode of course. A "Living" Franchise just sums it up perfectly, imo. Right now, playing Madden is like eating just to put something in your empty stomach, instead of actually enjoying a meal.

This is why I loved 2k5. At halftime, they showed scores and highlights of other games happening at that exact moment, and even showed stats from those games. How I miss those days

[Broncos86]

My problem is/was finding a difficulty/slider range where the CPU wasn't juiced on one side of the ball, but retained intelligence on the other. The problem I have with Madden is that it ties the sliders to the intelligence of the CPU. I should be able to set the AI to All-Madden levels and yet gimp the CPU sliders. This isn't the case, and that's very frustrating.

[guaps]

I think this is my first post in the Madden forum since I tried the (for me disappointing) Madden 12 demo. And unlike you, PGaither84, I stopped asking the question of why I can't enjoy Madden back then and decided that I'm not wasting my time on that game again until it reaches an acceptable level of realism.

My favorite game mode and my benchmark test of any sports game is practice mode. Why? Because practice mode is all about gameplay! If you feel like popping a sports game in your console just to play around in practice mode, you know you've got your hand on a great game. I sometimes do that with FIFA 12 and play around in practice mode for 20-30 minutes just for the fun of it. I haven't been able to say that about Madden for a long, long time.

They won't be able to lure me back until they are ready to commit to and deliver realistic gameplay, but I'm not really optimistic about Madden's future - at least on this generation of consoles.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by PGaither84

KBLover, what are your substitutions set at? I play with 54 fatigue and people are going red and white on me before I finish a long drive. I can't imagine 100 fatigue. Seriously... I can imagine everyone glowing yellow after three plays, and red if I moved past mid field.

I ignore the colors. It takes getting used to, but it really seems to make ratings mean more, since the fatigue penalties are going to make losers really suck, but the good ones stay up enough to compete. Plus, conditioning (stamina) seems to matter more. Cody on 100 fatigue is a ***** to deal with, him and his 49 stamina. With 50, I don't feel his stamina. He might come out more, but I don't feel any loss of his effectiveness. At 100, I feel the drop in effectiveness. I also feel more compelled to sometimes take drives to just eat clock to give the D a rest - and if I can't, I start getting nervous because my tired guys are going back on the field.

Here's my sub settings for 100 fatigue:

Injury & Fatigue
Injury		5
Fatigue		100
Subs
QB Out		1
QB In		2
RB Out		85
RB In		87
WR Out		1
WR In		2
FB/TE Out		15
FB/TE In		25
OL Out		1
OL In		2
DT Out		30
DT In		40
DE Out		30
DE In		40
LB Out		1
LB In		2
CB Out		1
CB In		2
S Out		1
S In		2

The HB one is probably the most "work in progress". On the road, sometimes I lose my rookie HB in the 4th, especially if I worked him hard in the first three quarters. Of course, that makes me have more depth and change up the backs, etc.

I see DL rotating even without package subs. My #1 HB usually is around 17-21 carries. #2 around 9-13 (depends on how run heavy I can/need to be).

Oh and INJ/TGH means a lot more for me. Same with the Injury Prone trait. One point, I had 7 players hurt - but the high TGH players stick it out.

[Herky]

I'm finally enjoying the game but I no longer user control all 32 teams. I know I lose the realism factor but it was just too much work to manage everything to make up for EA's lack of effort in franchise.

I'm just micro managing my Minnesota Vikings with Playmaker's sliders and QB chart, and am using the draft classes that cursive did.