It's that time of the year again, so join us as we count down from eleven to one the top changes we want to see for Madden 11. For once, "online franchise" won't have to be on this list... oh how far we've come.
11 - Re-think Challenges - This is going to be a hotly debated topic, but challenges need to be gone from football games for good. Alright... maybe that's hitting it a little too hard, but developers and gamers alike need to at least start re-thinking the implementation of challenges. The purpose of challenges in the NFL and other football leagues is to make sure the refs get the call right, because as hard as they may try, they're certainly not machines. In Madden, however, our refs basically are machines, so why are we forcing error into the way the game is refereed?
The game knows what the proper call is at all times, so why should it ever get it wrong? Just for the jollies? Sure, there will be moments without challenges where you will badly notice how poor the call was and wish you had a red flag, but if the game is made in such a way that the correct calls are always made, then by their own engine it wouldn't of been overruled even with a challenge if that's what their decision was. Unless there is going to be some kind of A.I. implemented into refs themselves, where refs are actually active characters on the field that have their own vision and awareness numbers, then it makes no sense to arbitrarily make the wrong calls and waste everyone's time. At least make challenges a toggle option, please, or save challenges entirely until we have a full referee A.I. to make it realistic. We're buying Madden NFL, not Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Botched Call. Yeah, it's in the game... but peeing your pants is in the game, and we're not interested in seeing that either.
10 - Improved Casting - To be quite frank here, Madden NFL has had some of the worst sports casting for a few years now. It's not so much a problem with the names they select, as it is the style of the execution; too many vague global observations and obviously canned enthusiasm. Madden would do wise here to take a page from UFC 2009 Undisputed, which sets a new standard for sports game casting. Commentary in UFC 2009 sounds exciting and interested, while Madden 10 sounds like casters who were hired to read from a script for fifteen minutes.
Football is a very broad sport, with thousands of players and dozens of teams, so it's not quite the fair comparison to expect the quality of casting seen in more focused games. But honestly, would it be so hard to make comments shorter and string them together for unique combinations, instead of making us hear the same old long and drawn out critique? And why hasn't Madden made use of that ESPN license yet so we can listen to Mike and Mike live in the morning while playing Madden, or at least select from ESPN podcasts from that day? It puts the podcast on the Madden. You hear us Ian Cummings? It puts the podcast... on the Madden.
9 - No More Passing Beyond the Line - Here we have another fine example of EA thinking a little too much. In the NFL, players are penalized when they pass the ball beyond the line of scrimmage, so it only makes sense to allow players in Madden to pass beyond the line of scrimmage and get penalized, right? Actually, no, it doesn't make sense at all. The problem with passing beyond the line of scrimmage in Madden is that your passing controls are currently tied to your running controls.
If a player passes the line of scrimmage their running controls are supposed to take over, but with Madden 10 giving you the ability to pass beyond the line of scrimmage, sometimes those running controls become passing controls. How many times have you tried to slide after crossing the line, only to throw a pick-six to the X receiver? Or spin and get penalized for throwing a wobbler to the B receiver? It simply makes no sense. Either untie the rushing controls from the passing controls, or don't let players pass the ball once they cross the line of scrimmage. Yes, passing beyond the line is a part of the mistakes people should be able to make in football, but Peyton Manning has never accidentally thrown a pass 50 yards down the field while trying to slide to his rear.
8 - Online Tournaments - It seems as if every year players are asking for features that used to exist and then snatched away in a new edition of Madden. Online Tournaments used to be one of the best things about Madden; no, not just official sponsored tournaments which still exist to an extent, but tournaments you could create or join on the fly to amass tournament wins and challenge yourself. Now as it stands, tournament mode has become a forgotten legend right alongside the original Rushing Attack drill.
7 - Spectator Mode - Madden NFL is a bit like Animal Crossing (go with me here). In Animal Crossing: City Folk, a great deal of the fun comes from going to house-to-house and town-to-town just to see the types of styles you can find or tips you can pick up, and Madden is no different. The ability to see how other players play, what tricks they employ or even just watch a healthy match between two good players is a luxury that has long-since been forgotten in the Madden universe. Spectator modes make it easier for online businesses to stream live matches and for users to engage themselves in the sports gaming community; it's great for the tournament scene, great for the casual fan that wants to get better, and great for advertisers being fed through Madden's in-game ad system. There's little reason anymore to keep us in the dark. All we want is to be able to watch people play your product, or let our friends watch us!
6 - Quit Game Solution - The "Quit Game" problem has been an issue that has plagued Madden for a few years now. EA Sports doesn't want people to discover glitches to disconnect people from games and receive wins at an accelerated rate, so the way they balance this issue now is by forcing players to beat the CPU to receive their win if their opponent disconnects for any reason. Usually, however, all this does is result in online games being boring collections of computer battles and clock draining techniques to pass the time faster. What we need, is some kind of solution that works to both deter cheaters and also not punish players who don't want to quit... so why don't we come up with one?
Why don't we make it so you can't quit freely and take your win unless your account rating is sufficiently high? For Xbox Live, this might mean you must have a rating of at least four or five stars on your account. If players are glitching other players for quick wins, then their account rating would drop swiftly and the system would monitor itself. Additional parameters can also be set, such as allowing you to quit freely with a win if you are up at least three touchdowns at the time. While not a perfect method, this certainly would be a massive improvement over the current system.
5 - Avoid Sack - Part of being a skilled player is being able to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away and know when to run. Alright, so Kenny Rogers isn't exactly Aristotle, but the man has a good point that translates well to football. Players like Peyton Manning are craftsmen at the art of avoiding hits, and will often drop to the down quickly when all hope is lost in the pocket. Allowing players to drop down in an attempt to avoid the punishment (and potential fumbles) created by sacks would go a long way to improving Madden's slogan of "If it's in the game, it's in the game." Perhaps even make the drop-down ability limited to players of certain skills, to help encourage picking teams with less mobile, but high quality quarterbacks. Or maybe even a global system, where each player has an "avoid hit" rating in the pocket, and your chances of successfully dropping down when you attempt the maneuver increase based upon that rating; meaning players like David Garrard of the Jaguars would be less likely to avoid the sack when the correct button is pressed, while players like Peyton Manning would be more likely.
4 - Online Practice Mode - Practicing, or "labbing" is one of the most important prerequisites to becoming a quality player in Madden, but usually this means sitting alone in your room with two controllers, or at best fighting the play clock in an unranked game with a friend. With an online practice mode, players will be able to join up with a friend to test out different strategies and schemes, and even set up situations from within the practice such as "2 minute drive from own 30." Being able to work with friends on new tricks of the trade is an important part of strengthening the Madden community, and EA Sports would be wise to recognize the ease of implementation for this feature.
3 - Custom Packages - Every team is different in Madden, and because of that some players prefer certain substitutions in certain situations. Allowing for a select amount of formation packages in Madden would allow players to save time subbing the usual suspects in and out, and more time actually playing the game. Like to move your slot receiver to the outside when you're always in a certain formation? Prefer to have a heavy set by default when you come out in goal line? Want your best pass-catching RB in when you're playing four wide? Let players pick and choose how they want their default packages to look, just like any coach in football can do.
2 - Co-Op Online - While not the most pressing issue at the moment, the ability to allow players to play together in a true online co-op mode would add a truly fun experience to Madden NFL that goes beyond just a novelty. In many other games, co-op features are simply content fillers that provide no real value to the product. With Madden, however, being able to play online with your friends against others can provide for some really interesting games and conversations as players strategize their next move and plan their way up the leader board. A true co-op online feature would be an excellent addition to Madden that would synergize wonderfully with features like online practice mode.
1 - Scouting 2.0 - As was briefly discussed in a previous article, there needs to be a complete overhaul of how franchise mode treats the scouting process. The draft is the most important, and most beloved part of franchise mode by many players, but currently scouting potential prospects is underwhelming at best. With an overhauled scouting system based around actually watching "game film" (instant replays) of players, the user can decide himself what is good or bad based upon the performance on the tape, and as a result truly mimic the evaluation process that many die-hard draft fans crave for.
Hire scouting agencies to provide you with more film and send them out to record prospects and make your evaluations based on how the player actually jumps out at you on tape. Such a feature would revolutionize franchise mode in Madden, and if need be, it would almost be worth splitting Madden into two discs: Franchise and Online.
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