Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

[ripwalk]

To get this out of the way, I am not part of the “it’s a Madden reskin” crowd …

However, I don’t think it can be ignored that the games will share a lot of similarities, whether that’s animations, UI/playcalling, control schemes, game mechanics etc ..

And while it’s not perfect, I also think Madden gets way too much hate and it’s almost trendy just to pile on and act like it’s the worst game series of all time.

This was pretty evident when reading public comments on the recent Madden trailer, with people (unfairly IMO) saying that it’s the worst thing ever and the game is doomed to be terrible (when those who have actually played it seem to have different opinions)

It would be my opinion that someone who “hates” Madden is not going to be in a position to all of a sudden completely love CFB25 …

So I’m assuming (but maybe incorrectly) that people excited to play this game, at the very least enjoy or like Madden too ?

Or are there a lot of people here who hate or dislike Madden at its core, but think CFB25 will actually deviate enough to make you like it ?

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I don't hate Madden, but I do hate that it isn't better than it used to be. I'll be buying Madden 25, but it doesn't have to be my main course football any longer. It is good enough to be the catsup that goes with my fries tho.

[TuffJuff]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

Very excited for this game. Can’t stand Madden. Madden was probably my favorite video game series growing up on the PS2. Hate what it has become. Madden died the day they got the exclusive rights and didn’t have to try or compete anymore. EA has earned every negative comment they are getting on that Madden reveal trailer

[TripleCrown9]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I don't hate Madden, I just find the atmosphere of pro football in general to be pretty damn boring compared to college football.

Whether it's Madden or real life. Couldn't tell you the last time I watched a full NFL game.

But on Saturdays I'm glued to the TV from the time I wake up.

[ripwalk]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

Very excited for this game. Can’t stand Madden. Madden was probably my favorite video game series growing up on the PS2. Hate what it has become. Madden died the day they got the exclusive rights and didn’t have to try or compete anymore. EA has earned every negative comment they are getting on that Madden reveal trailer

If you can’t play Madden and at least enjoy it, I really just don’t see how one could be all in on CFB25.

[Pokes404]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

Reporting for duty, Sir!

I have my reasons for being more optimistic about CF25 than the typical EA football release; but to put it simply, I’ve never really cared for EA’s jerky, stiff, unrealistic, slot-machine animation selector gameplay. What kept me around the NCAA Football series longer than Madden was the fact that I found Dynasty mode to be much more fun than Madden’s Franchise (after Madden 05). I also had some fun with Teambuilder. So NCAA offered me more to do outside of actually playing games, which was always the least fun part for me. And on top of all that, I’m just generally a bigger fan of college football than I am the NFL.

I still skipped NCAAs 12 & 13 because I just couldn’t stand the gameplay anymore, but came back to the series and enjoyed NCAA 14 the most that I had in years. That game had the Infinity engine, which while having some wonky moments, I thought delivered a much better gameplay experience than previous offerings. So if CF25 can either improve on Madden’s more recent (very lackluster) gameplay, or offer a really fun dynasty mode , or preferably both; then I’ll be very happy. If it falls short in both categories, I have no problem deleting it off the hard drive and retiring from the series.

[noarmsduck]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I like the on field gameplay for Madden. I hate that they neglect franchise mode which is a joke compared to what 2k does for Association in NBA 2k.

[Hooe]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I think there are three main reasons which cause many to care more about the college football video game than Madden:

1 - Dynasty mode is just a better setup for a video game mode than Franchise. Because players exhaust their eligibility after four seasons, there is an immediate and obvious counterbalance against power creep. Too often in Madden franchise mode, the mode gets stale after the QB of the Future is drafted, the superstar skill position players have signed their extensions, and the concrete of the roster core otherwise solidifies. That player development in Madden is relatively predictable and one-size-fits-all doesn't really help here. The constant roster turnover in college keeps the career mode fresh.

2 - The possibility space of gameplay is larger in college football. Madden 24 is, objectively, the most capable video game adaptation of gridiron football that is currently available to the public. No, it is, and it's beyond debate; it's got more X's and O's faithfully replicated than any other peer which has ever existed in the football video game space can sneeze at. But when one gets on the field in Madden, the talent level at the NFL level is so concentrated and so close together, and the schemes at the NFL level are so homogenized, that 75% of the teams are playing basically the same game over and over, and a lot of the differences in any given contest are just details around the edges. It can get old kinda quick unless you're a total football sicko. Meanwhile in college, depending on what team you pick and whoever is your opponent, you could very well be playing a different sport week to week. You could play against a triple option team one week, a spread option team the next, an Air Raid team thereafter, and a pro style team immediately after that. Different teams can and do utilize different offensive tempos to change up something as fundamental to the experience as calling plays. And if you play multiple teams with the same scheme, even they could be different because the gap between the best player in the sport and the worst player is so much wider.

3 - Football fans generally develop a stronger emotional attachment to college teams than pro teams, and that probably includes the people in charge of making the decisions as to what goes into each game. For everything that it gets right on the field, the game day audio-visual experience of Madden is so so so dry. Once you get past whatever players are on each team's roster, teams in Madden don't really differentiate themselves from one another beyond laundry and stadium. Meanwhile in college, you can see and hear the differences between each team immediately, not only with wilder uniforms and a variety of stadiums but also with the different traditions, fight songs, crowd chants, school records, mascots, and so on. There's just so much more room for EA Sports to show off the passion, enthusiasm, and life of the sport in the college football game, and they obviously do; I don't know if the NFL is just a stick in the mud about approvals, or if Tiburon just cares more about college football than the NFL, but the difference in passion demonstrated by the two games is dramatic.

[TuffJuff]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

If you can’t play Madden and at least enjoy it, I really just don’t see how one could be all in on CFB25.

In real life I am a MUCH bigger nfl fan than a college football fan, but college football provides a much better and fun video game experience.
-The atmosphere

-The presentation

-134 teams compared to 32

-The constant changing with transfers, recruiting, and graduations

-In the nfl going 9-8 and missing the playoffs is meh. Depending on the school going 7-6 and winning a low level bowl game can be very rewarding.

-Going along with that last point if I am playing Madden and I beat the Chiefs as the Panthers it’s meh. If I pull off a big upset in NCAA it’s awesome

-I am a big realism guy. I have soooo much fun with a crappy team builder school of me and my mostly undersized friends and putting us in the MAC or something. I can’t have that same experience in Madden.

-Customization. I am going to have a dynasty where I play as the Gophers in the insanely tough and frankly stupid new Big 10… I can also do my team builder dynasty and recreate the pac 12, classic big East, and more recent big 10, big 12, etc

[Collegefbfan]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I don't hate Madden, I just find the atmosphere of pro football in general to be pretty damn boring compared to college football.

Whether it's Madden or real life. Couldn't tell you the last time I watched a full NFL game.

But on Saturdays I'm glued to the TV from the time I wake up.

This right here 100%. I have tried 3 or versions of Madden and could not find the interest. It just wasn't there.

The thing I like about the college game is not knowing which bowl game you are going to when you finish 8-4 or maybe even 9-3.

There are so many choices out there when preparing to build a powerhouse out of a nobody.

The end of the season awards.

So many more to list, but I will stop there.

[Funkycorm]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I don't hate Madden. I don't dislike Madden. I have had a lot of fun with Madden over the years.

But to me, the biggest problem with the last few maddens has been their inability to execute their vision properly.

The last fully functioning Madden in my opinion was 21 on the PS5. The 22 and 23 versions held the franchise corruption bug that was difficult to pinpoint. And 24, had it's own issues as well. I admit I like the new progression sliders they added as that helped a lot of things.

But the issues over the last few years have made me weary of Madden. I always played the NCAA games more than Madden until they stopped making them. Plus what we have seen with the new college game so far, is very solid.

The college game dev teams gets the chance to show they can execute their vision. The Madden team to me has shown they can't.

I don't hate Madden. I want it to succeed. I want to have fun with it. But the trust that I had for the Madden dev team isn't there anymore. Simple as that.

I can most certainly be excited for College Football without being excited about Madden.

[DynastyDaddy]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

It is a great question, but comes with a complicated answer. I adore the NFL and have been a fan of the game my entire life.

At the same time, I love a great single player franchise/dynasty mode.

Madden’s franchise mode is bare bones, bland, boring, etc.

I don’t hate Madden, but I hate that it isn’t good enough to love the game we used to have.

[f1sh1000]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

Madden is what I was left with after they murdered my loves, NFL 2k & Gameday.

I always bought Madden, Gameday & NFL 2K and of the 3, Madden was my least played….

I don’t hate it, I just completely understand that this game was never any good. It was a side dish not a main course. Nothing about Madden has changed other than the perception of what it is. It’s the last man standing because it paid to be, not because it earned it.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

The college game dev teams gets the chance to show they can execute their vision. The Madden team to me has shown they can't.

I can most certainly be excited for College Football without being excited about Madden.

Yes, yes.
Until/if EA proves to me they can't do any better with CFB than they have with Madden the last dozen years, I will reassess my consumer habits. I don't foresee any reason CFB won't be a fun, yearly day one purchase for me but Madden is going to take a backseat and I won't need it until November.
If for some reason CFB isn't what I expect, I would probably go into a purchase habit of something like buying Madden in even number years and CFB in odd, or vice versa.

But it has been a looong time since I was excited about Madden. Back in the day, I was always excited for the old NCAAf series, even extending all the way up to 12 13 and 14.

[TarHeelPhenom]

Re: Do any of you who are excited for this game “hate” or dislike Madden?

I can be man enough to admit that back in the early to mid 2000's, I was full fledged EA fanboy. Because i loved sports, and have always loved having options, I played other games made by other companies. But, they were all judged based off of EA's games. So, full transparency, I didn't like the 2k games as much coming out of the gate. I didn't like the movement, I preferred Maddens game movement. I didn't like their control set up, liked Madden's better. Their college game was no comp at all for NCAA. I was all in.

It wasn't until after Madden got the exclusive license, and took away my other options, did I begin to play and have a greater appreciation for 2k. Still, for me NCAA football and Madden were joined at the hip. They were a tag team and that's how I judged them. I've always loved college sports over pro for all the reasons we always mention, so the college game is my favorite gaming series of all-time.

But, I would look forward to Madden every year too with excitement, u til the NCAA series was shelved. When that happened, it did something, there was a piece missing, and that shared excitement for Madden was never the same. Don't get me wrong, I've made the best out of Madden and have gotten enjoyment out of it. But, it hasn't been the same.

Well, that excitement is back! The two brothers are back together and I'm very excited for both.