[triplechin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor and Sword

As many know....I have enjoyed Madden a lot since Madden 25. I did not enjoy Madden the moment I purchased a PS3 (2009) and started playing those versions. Pure culture shock. Franchise mode stripped, gameplay average to below average. Just bad. People clamor about Madden 12's franchise mode.....I find the game vastly overrated. Gameplay stunk. Franchise mode was a sterile text based mode. Lifeless. Madden 13 was an abomination in terms of gameplay and the introduction of the bug ridden XP driven CFM mode. But they cleaned things up starting with Madden 25 IMO. Gameplay finally felt like we were getting much better. After Madden 16 I was really encouraged. Gameplay was leaps and bounds better than it had ever been. But there were still camps pounding the sand about CFM. Well that was the direction they went in and it to this day has not stopped. I adapted. The gameplay was getting far better and I was having a lot of fun. What is alarming for me.....and I have stated it many times and this will be my last time posting in this particular thread is the lack of AI improvement (both on and off the field) and lack of new features being built into CFM. I have accepted what CFM is and learned to play with it and enjoy it. But that's me. I love playing console football and this game is a lot of fun. It is clear the direction of sports gaming is going in the way of card based modes and story based modes. Thank goodness The Show and NBA 2K have fantastic offline franchise offerings. I can't speak to that of FIFA and the Last version of NHL I have is 16 (more than good enough for me). It has a decent MyGmMode. Not great....but very playable. These are mainstream video games and they will cater to the mainstream buying public. Simply looking at Head Coach 09.......it flopped and was never made again. This is the game we have. You're either going to enjoy it.....or not buy it. But if really think some major change to franchise mode in console sports gaming is coming you will never be happy. It's not like NFL 2K5's franchise mode was all that. It was not....in fact it stunk. Madden 2005-2007.....ok it had some features that I (and many here) adored and there is no excuse why we can't get back a lot of those "little" things that made it so cool back. I really miss that franchise mode. It was good. But this development team has certainly made Madden a much better "football" game than it ever was before. No doubt. But the lack of any serious under the hood work on core AI is highly concerning and a signal that we are dinosaurs (solitare off-line franchise guys). I remember a post I made way back in the beginning of this thread about being in line to get 2K18. It was a huge line and easily 30 people deep. All younger than me. Much younger. All talking about MyTeam. NOTHING ELSE. All talking about breaking open packs blah blah blah. And I was like "well...this is the new reality". thank god though they "get it" as far as offline franchise. My-League is incredible.....AI WARTS AND ALL. That forum (2K) is a cess pool of entitled complainers. I am blown away at the amount of negativity surrounding that game as for me.....it is the best sports game I have ever played. I am scared to death they will over patch gameplay though because all you see is rage on twitter and reddit and games get tuned 6-7 times.....when out of the box it is fantastic. This past cycle for MLB The Show 17....I never saw so much venom. it was embarrassing. The reason I joined and became a part of this community was to share ways in how to enjoy and get the most out of sports games and also give developers constructive and respectful feedback in things that can be improved, tuned or fixed. It's turned into a massive **** show. I can't see how developers can wade through the mountain of garbage posts, insults and demands and find a calming reasonable voice anymore. So I just stick to slider threads and roster threads where 90% of us love having fun, give advice on playing the game and getting the most out of it. This thread has tons of great points. But I think we all can agree......we are being pushed aside. Thank god though we still have some great sports games we can always keep playing (The Show 17, NCAA 14, NBA 2K18, Madden 16, 17 or 18 take your pick I will stick with 18 and have no plans in getting any further Madden games unless they really overhaul AI). Sports games today play better than ever IMO. Franchise modes while not text sim deep, IMO provide more than enough meat to have fun and be creative and allow you to play multiple seasons. But you have to be willing to look past AI imperfections and bugs. They are not fixed and I do not see any plans on developers going deep to fix them, when they are reeling in $$$ on card based modes. Simple as that. So enjoy your sports games if you can. I know I am.

2K did really mess up with the VC pushing though. As a ProAM player, they really made it difficult to get into and I can't get my squad of 5 on more than once every couple weeks because people aren't feeling 2K like before. But we still play some other modes because it is good enough and we see what others are offering.

I get a lot of play out of FIFA Pro Clubs personally, so still enjoying some sports games, although offline play on FIFA is a joke, so I don't mess with it.

For Madden, it is our only option. That's why people voice frustration so much and so often. EA is preventing me from playing another NFL game and that is why it is frustrating, whether it is fair or not. I wish we could have a niche game come up and put real effort into a franchise mode, then at least we could compare and either say "Oh ok, this game is trash, Madden isn't so bad after all," or "Wow, this is so much better than Madden, no surprise." I tried head coach and maybe I was too young at the time but didn't like it because I couldn't play. With CFM, they tore down a lot of years of effort from the old franchise mode, and replaced it but didn't put the work into it to catch it up. Like if they redid gameplay but didn't implement penalties or special teams or something yet. That's just personally how I feel with Madden now.

I'm pleased that I didn't purchase and have plenty of games to play, but still want to properly manage a team in my favorite sport, so still look through these things and try to help it get better.