Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

[GreenReign86]

Oh and I also forgot that the ite breakers in Online Franchise were decided on alphabetical order. So if you used a team like the Vikings, Titans, Ravens or even Saints, you were pretty much screwed if you finished the season in a tie with anybody. I can remember one instance in the online franchise I'm in where I finished the season at 10-6 as did the Panthers user, furthermore, I beat him 2 times durring the regular season, yet he makes the playoffs and wins the divison over me because he has a team that starts with the lett "P." What kind of BS is that EA? Inexcusable. I have never been an EA basher the farthest thing from it. However, they are starting to push me closer and closer to that virtual cliff ledge. There is only so much someone can take. As well as shallow promises before the gullibility weares off. I have purchased Madden 1st day, and in the case of lastyear even a week early every year for the past decade. Madden 11 will end that streak as it will most likely be a rent 1st for me via GameFly.

[tlc12576]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

Note to Phil Frazer,

You want to know why Online franchise was one of the least played modes in Madden 10? Well genius, for starters, it was gutted down and basically a glorified online league / tournament. It had no off season, except for the draft, no salary cap, no CPU roster management AI ect, ect, ect. Maybe if you would add those things that are so vital to a core gamers franchise experience then maybe, just maybe more people would play the damn thing. Just a thought in case it was too complex of an idea for your pea sized brain to handle.

I agree with you.At least I knew before I played online franchise about no salary cap,CPU trade logic etc.What was so crazy to me in my first online franchise was there was no trading block for USER controlled teams.WTF?LOL

That just doesnt make any sense to me to have USER to USER trades but no USER trading block.Maybe it's just me.

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: E3 announcement and career mode update

I love how a lot of you guys have so much faith in every word Tiburon tells us. Just because they're telling us that Madden 12 will be the year of Franchise doesn't mean it will be what we expect of it. It also doesn't mean that we shouldn't be disappointed about having to wait another year to see some REAL upgrades to our favorite game mode.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm highly disappointed in the news because Franchise Mode pretty much is the ONLY reason why I play Madden. I'm not an online competitive player when it comes to sports games. I like to kick back and enjoy my offline experience. Sure they're "fixing" stats etc..but the game mode as a whole is extremely boring. Nothing motivates me to want to come back after more than 2 full seasons.

I wish I could say that I'm optimistic that Madden 12 will be a great year for Franchise, but I've officially lost all faith in EA Tiburon. And for the first time ever, I honestly will not purchase the game. Will I play it? Sure, but I will not purchase it. At this point, I'm just going to observe from the sideline how the series develops. I will no longer put my hopes up. And I DEFINITELY no longer buy into the hype.

I'm looking forward to NCAA and Fifa 11 this year for my sports game fixes. Cheers.

Me too. But I'm gonna say NCAA and PES. Man Mode is just about as stale and dry as Madden's Franchise is. I've been Fifa's biggest cheerlader for a few years now and I just can't play it anymore. Why? MM is weak. Master League in PES is so far ahead. It's not really worth crying about, like K Gun said. I'm just gonna start to go after the games that make Franchising/Single Player experience a priority. NBA 2k,NCAA, NHL, PES, and hopefully Fifa (not holding my breath) can get me through this year just fine, and give me a great single player game. Not buying Madden will just save me time and money. Fifa is a wait and see, but it can be a non-purchase, too. I'm still holding out some hope for NBA Elite, might use the Madden or Fifa money on that.

My only real complaint is this. Why has NCAA team been able to get so many upgrades with the Online Dynasty improvements, locomotion and the blocking AI and Madden team seems so overwhelmed? They do exist in the same building and have the same toolkits. They even share members on certain teams. It just seems that the NCAA team got a lot more done with their time. Don't get it. So, therefore, I won't be getting Madden.....

[Exonerated]

Re: E3 announcement and career mode update

They need to release surveys like NCAA did last year. NCAA did what everyone wanted and it looks maaad!

Madden added things no one asked for and which no one cares for.

[thekodinator]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

effers.

i never thought i'd say this, but due to the recent news regarding ncaa's online dynasty and now this... ncaa might have finally surpassed madden.

[Jimixiii]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

This whole thread is hilarious. The haters been lurking waiting for something to bite on, lol. Running around talking about "the whole world plays offline franchise", this that and the third, and there's all of about 7 of yall in here, lol.

Everybody you know plays franchise? What about, everybody I know doesn't touch it at all. Open up your minds, the world doesn't revolve around what YOU like. This community is very small compared to the general madden population I'm sure.

Not buying 11 because of no additions to franchise correct? I bet ya'll lump lumps bought 10 didnt you? So I know for a fact you're lying with the "no buy for me" bullcrap, for the simple fact that if franchise is so important to you, and you played madden 10, there's absolutely no reason NOT to buy 11 because it does have SOME improvements to franchise. Read the article again if you missed it.

Every year is going to be an improvement over the last year in pretty much all categories somehow someway. So if you dealt with 10s franchise mode, you'll most definitely deal with 11s because its GOING to be better.

Oh and by the way I'm a heavy sim style franchise player myself, just a little more real than most of ya'll, lol. See you in the madden impressions thread after release.

no need to really get frustrated at people that legitimately frustrated with the choices of EA. online players want say their he majority, franchise players feel their the majority, is it really worth debating especially if their are polls stating otherwise...?

[rangerrick012]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

This whole thread is hilarious. The haters been lurking waiting for something to bite on, lol. Running around talking about "the whole world plays offline franchise", this that and the third, and there's all of about 7 of yall in here, lol.

Everybody you know plays franchise? What about, everybody I know doesn't touch it at all. Open up your minds, the world doesn't revolve around what YOU like. This community is very small compared to the general madden population I'm sure.

Not buying 11 because of no additions to franchise correct? I bet ya'll lump lumps bought 10 didnt you? So I know for a fact you're lying with the "no buy for me" bullcrap, for the simple fact that if franchise is so important to you, and you played madden 10, there's absolutely no reason NOT to buy 11 because it does have SOME improvements to franchise. Read the article again if you missed it.

Every year is going to be an improvement over the last year in pretty much all categories somehow someway. So if you dealt with 10s franchise mode, you'll most definitely deal with 11s because its GOING to be better.

Oh and by the way I'm a heavy sim style franchise player myself, just a little more real than most of ya'll, lol. See you in the madden impressions thread after release.

Madden 10 was the first Madden I got for next gen. I expected it to be everything from the old gen and then some. I played for a solid month, I admit it was good at first, but then franchise mode got old, online cheesers got old, AI cheating got old, etc. I let it sit for about 3 months because I thought the urge would come back (it didn't), then up and sold it.

Here's the thing. I don't NEED Madden. If Madden has what I want as a primarily Franchise gamer, I'd love to have it. But Madden 10 fell short of those expectations, and w/ Madden 11 admittedly not adding much to a gameplay area I play the most, there's no reason for me to spend my money on it when there's games like NBA 2k, Fifa, NBA Elite, etc actually making the effort to make serious improvements on a year to year basis. So no, it's not all lip service. For some of us this is a serious letdown, and just another case of the 'Wait til next year' mentality that has made EA/Tibs a parody of itself. You can fall for the hype train if you want, but this is one year where I will not.

[GreenReign86]

What hype train? Last year at this time Madden had a hype score of like 9.5, this year it's 5.5, that should say something in it self. Mainly thatpeople are no longer falling victim to shallow promises of a better tomorrow, my self included. Literally a week ago I was a loyal suporter of Madden, and about 1000 feet from any cliff ledge. Now I am about a 1/2 inch from said cliff edge. The support after reading this latest blog has also dwindled to about %0.000001 of where it was last week at a sted fast %100.

[big_larry]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

Still no training camp! ill pass on buying Madden this year, and Ill probably wont buy another Madden until they get rid of canned animations or they put training camp back in Franchise. Im tired of saying ill give them one more chance, next years game will be the one, the fact of the matter is that Madden will basically be the same game until they ditch the old garbage engine, and they wont get another cent of my money until they do!

[SincerelYourz]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

deeper????

[GreenReign86]

Sufice it to say, that the 2k fan boys were probably right. [insert vometing animation here]

[NFCBeast55]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

Sufice it to say, that the 2k fan boys were probably right. [insert vometing animation here]

It's sad. But, it's usually the people that no one believes is right that are spot on. I tried to hold out hope...but it looks like the Madden team doesn't care about Franchise mode or anything outside of Online or Play Now.

Why even have a franchise mode then? Just release Madden with a Play Now and online exhibition game mode and see how that works. Oh wait...it wouldn't.

This game never ceases to amaze me.

[GreenReign86]

Give me a Madden who's franchise mode is even deeper then that of MLB The Show, with Atari graphics and annamations and I would be more then happy. Ok, well maybe not Atari, but you get my point

[Valdarez]

Re: E3 announcement and career mode update

You know, at first, I was giving EA props for being upfront and honest about it, but now that I think about it, I think they were just trying to beat everyone else to the punch. E3 starts on Monday and I guarantee by Monday night we all would have known about this anyway. So in essence, they're being upfront because they have to. At first, I thought this was like a criminal making a confession of a crime. He was being honest and forthright. But now that I think about it, it's more like a criminal with mounds of evidence against him confessing his guilt right before his court date. That's the way I see it. Disclaimer: Please don't take the analogy literally. I'm not calling EA criminals or anything. I'm just using that as an example.

One thing that blows my mind is how soon you all forget. It seems like just the other day, there were about a hundred threads saying that EA could not be trusted and that they lied to us about Madden 10. Yet they say they're working on making franchise mode great for 12 and you all take them at face value for that. Hell, last year, they said the same thing for this year. I can't find the exact quote, but it said in Madden 10 franchise they were focusing on getting the sim engine and stat tracking correct and that Madden 11(this year) is when we would really start to see the franchise mode blown out. Well, it's Madden 11 and they're saying almost the exact same thing this year that they said last year.

Something isn't right about this whole thing. For instance, they say it takes well over a year to redo franchise mode, yet madden 11 comes out in 2 months and they want suggestions? In 2 months they will have a year to work on franchise. Umm, if it takes well over a year to redo franchise, shouldn't they already have an idea of what they're going to do? Like I said, Something isn't right here.

Well, we can't have it both ways. You can't condemn someone for not being honest/upfront, and then when they are, claim they have ulterior motives. That's just not fair.

I was pretty harsh on their hype last year, knowing based on the state of '09, what they were promising, what they had delivered in the past, that the odds of them hitting their mark was nigh impossible. They put out a game, but I think it's consensus for those that followed the blogs, press releases, gameplay vids/explanations that they didn't deliver on all that was promised in M10, even though it was a step forward for the franchise. I far prefer the low key, straight forward (it's in the game, not 'might' be in the game) approach this year, and I can both appreciate and respect a press release letting fans know well ahead of time that certain things they may be looking forward to aren't going to make the release. I have a pretty good idea of what M11 will be, and I fully expect everything that they've showed us to be in the game.

Last year, I expected M10 to far less than the hype, this year, I expected M11 to be better than they hype (if Locomotion delivers), even though I'm far less interested in the features they are adding such as GameFlow/GamePlan, 3vs3 online, etc. Locomotion is going to be huge, and 'if' they get it right, and will setup Madden's core GamePlay well moving forward.

If they truly do a reset, then I love the idea, because Franchise, and especially career mode have been stale in ALL video games for nearly half a decade. I hope they broaden their horizons, and think outside the box on these modes. There's a lot of opportunity to be had there, especially if they think of the user acting within a role (Owner, Coach(es), Players).

[jeetaa6]

Re: Madden NFL 11 Blog: E3 Feature Announcement and Career Modes Update

A) B$*@ing and Moaning Reply:
OK, this seals it for me this year. No purchase. All I play is offline Franchise and frankly, it's been like watching paint dry the past few years. Yet another year of seeing the CPU teams put guys on the Trading Block and LEAVING THEM THERE ALL YEAR LONG WITH ABSOLUTELY ZERO CPU INITIATED TRADES!!! Yay!!!

Heck, after reading that blog again I see no mention of even Presentation improvements other than the Super Bowl. So let's see...2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and they're still working on the core elements like AI, animations, and gameplay. That's the state of Madden??!! OK.

B) Productive Reply-What I want to see in Franchise (offline for me):

1. Much more CPU initiated player moves, especially Trades. CPU to CPU Trades and CPU to User Trade offers. Don't leave the same players on the Trading Block from day 1 of the pre-season through year end with NO trades. Heck, give us a slider for "Trade Frequency". I'd choose OFTEN but I know many would choose RARE. OPTIONS for us is all.
2. Ability to put players on IR. CPU teams put players on IR, too.
3. Weekly wrap up show with highlights, stats (and TIME TO READ THE STATS), players of the week, key team moves across the league, key injury updates, Draft Preview Show (I'm doing all I can here to not mention NFL2K5-oops, there it went), Draft Summary Show, miscellaneous NFL news.
4. Players punished for sporadic off field conduct.
5. AUTO REPLAY SLIDER-I JUST PLAYED 4 MADDEN GAMES BETWEEN YESTERDAY AND TODAY AND DID NOT GET ONE REPLAY (and yes, Auto Replay option was set to On/or Yes). What the heck??? I want to be able to set MY slider so a replay basically starts after every play. Just give me the option to hit the X button to stop it if I wish. The lack of Replays in Franchise really kills the in game presentation for me.
6. Put player milestones (either season milestones or career milestones) up on the jumbotron right when they occur in game. That would be pretty cool.
7. Not just for Franchise, but bring those flying helmets back. Would love to see one fly off on a big hit every once in awhile.
8. Holdouts
9. Ability to change the conference alignments for Franchise eg. put Dallas in the NFC South.
10. Edit all players on any team, including their abilities. Why not??
11. We really need something like what 2K5 did in marrying top notch Presentation with Franchise. The ESPN team (Berman and crew) covered all the games, the draft (both pre and post), trades, FA pickups, injuries, yearly awards, weekly awards. I really liked how the CPU teams would come up with Trades involving big name players. No, the rationale wasn't always perfect but it's MUCH better than zero trades year after year. Don't be ashamed to take what 2K had and make it better. We've been saying for years now how awesome a job they did. USE IT!!!

OK, that's a good chunk for now. Getting way late.
Sucks that Franchise received little attention this year but good to hear it's being rebuilt for 2012 I suppose.