[Armor and Sword]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

If franchise mode circa 2005 was as good as everyone seems to think, we wouldn't have needed a Madden Manifesto or MaddenAmp/Nza's Madden editor to make it worth a damn. It had a radio show played the same Brandon Lloyd interview 12 times a season and a fantasy football game that killed your morale if you didn't start the third-stringer just because he had more preseason receptions. The starting running backs got every carry unless someone got hurt and CPU teams ran an average of 7 times a game. The draft was just a list of guys with their ratings and progression didn't actually work unless you manually progressed players in an editor. The rose colored glasses are getting old.

Yeah this. And 2K5’s presentation was off the hook but the franchise mode itself was bugged to the hilt.

I do have fun with Maddens CFM. Especially since 16-18. However it can still use some serious love with a dynamic injury system, RFA’s and more dynamic presentation making it feel alive. A Coaching carousel, a weekly highlight show with full on NFL Network or ESPN presentation ala 2K5

But more importantly and I have pounded the sand about this....CPU AI on and off the field must be the primary focus.

That is what is holding Madden back from being mentioned with MLB The Show and NBA 2K in terms of a robust offline franchise experience. Not that The Show or 2K are perfect....but they are much better....much much better.

Gameplay vs the CPU needs a major improvement.