Madden NFL 12

[Rodster]

So who's working on Madden 12? Is it a carry over from Ian or is it a completely new team at Tiburon?

[MizzouRah]

Loving it.. I hope they really focused on the franchise stuff this year.. especially the draft.

[GTHobbes]

Jeremy Strauser is apparently gone from Tiburon now also. No big loss as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.pastapadre.com/2011/05/10/ea ... departures

[Danimal]

Franchise stuff comes out on Monday but IGN has a little peak at some info. All of it sounds good but as always proof is in the puddin.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/116/1168180p1.html

[MizzouRah]

Thanks Danimal, sounds great!

[Danimal]

http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/franchise-mode

Sold Me.

[Lancer]

I don't do franchise, just would like a season mode, but I did like this :

Change Teams

This is another one of those features that has been a community request for years.

Right before the offseason starts, you can change the team you’re controlling to any other team.

You can even choose to control all 32 teams at that point if you want to.

At least I don't have to be stuck w/ the same team now if I want to play multiple seasons.

More good :

Edit Players

This is one we talked to you about on Twitter and the forums.

After some discussion, we agreed that Franchise mode is yours to control and that we needed to give you the ability to edit the ratings of any player in Franchise mode, whether they are veterans or the rookies you just imported from NCAA Football.

If you want some QB you imported to be an 85 overall because you won the Heisman with him, you’re welcome to edit him to be that high. It’s all up to you.

Weather Tuning

Last year we had lots of issues with weather. It would never snow in Green Bay in January, etc.

I put AJ on this task to make sure that you’ll see more weather changes in climates where inclement weather is common.

[GTHobbes]

I just skimmed through the franchise stuff -- anybody see confirmation that in-game saves made it this year?

[Danimal]

No in game saves.

[Brando70]

http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/franchise-mode

Sold Me.

No kidding. The proof as they say is in the pudding but I love the commitment to do this stuff and make franchise much more dynamic and realistic. It seems like a good way of meshing Head Coach with Madden.

[Danimal]

http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/franchise-mode

Sold Me.

No kidding. The proof as they say is in the pudding but I love the commitment to do this stuff and make franchise much more dynamic and realistic. It seems like a good way of meshing Head Coach with Madden.

If it can get me through a few seasons without losing my interest I'm good. I'm ok with the game play in Madden but it's been a boring single player experience. What I liked the best about the additions is the dynamic player performance if it works right it will add a whole new element. I can see Jay Cutlers ratings going all over the place

[TCrouch]

I just hope it's tied to something dynamic and not an arbitrary value.

For example, I'd like it if a rookie receiver comes in and has a great preseason, his mentality should be skyrocketing. If he catches a couple TD's in the first few weeks, he should be exploding. But the moment he has a couple drops in a game, THEN his mentality should start to change. Guys that have had a few seasons under their belt shouldn't get so bent over short term gains or losses, simulating a stronger veteran mental make-up. I highly doubt they'd put something like that in, though, so I'm expecting it to just be some screen that says "<insert name here> had a bad week, he's now a -12 OVR" or something generic.

Even that's better than the normal 'wait 4 weeks to see if there's a slight bump in ratings', but I'm not jumping for joy with hope and optimism.

[Brando70]

I was admittedly taken aback by this comment:

I play every sports game on the market and I’ve always been frustrated by the fact that when I play a career or season mode, every game I play feels exactly the same. The players always play exactly like their ratings and there’s no such thing as having a good or bad day. It’s the one thing that has always ruined the immersion factor for me.

Um, I don't think he's played every game on the market. There's this game called The Show where that already happens, and a little game called NBA 2k11 where players get hot or cold during a game, and probably some others where that already happens.

You can always depend on the Madden team to act like they just invented something that has already been in place in other games.

Given that streaks will only be allowed to go on for 3 games, Terry is probably closer to how this will actually work, but it does sound like actual performance will factor into it, too.

My take is similar to Dan's: Potential problems aside, this makes the Madden franchise mode sound like it would be fun for at least a few years, instead of getting completely stale after one single-player season. That's pretty huge, because I think every console football game I've ever played outside of Head Coach 09 has had franchise modes that were dull at best (Xbox-era Madden) or buggy train wrecks (the 2k series). None of them were remotely close to being as interesting as Front Office Football in terms of team management. But Madden 12 sounds like it has the potential to be pretty entertaining.

[MizzouRah]

I'm still playing NCAA 2011 and each game feels different to me.

They are trying to improve the game and I hope the gameplay is as fun as NCAA has been for me.

[Danimal]

http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/dynam ... e-features

Dynamic Player Performance

[Brando70]

http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/dynam ... e-features

Dynamic Player Performance

Have to admit, I like the rating categories and I think the explanations are pretty interesting. I'm always wary of any first-time feature in Madden, but theoretically it sounds cool because it would go a long way toward alleviating the tendency of all AI players to play the same way.

[Danimal]

http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/dynam ... e-features

Dynamic Player Performance

Have to admit, I like the rating categories and I think the explanations are pretty interesting. I'm always wary of any first-time feature in Madden, but theoretically it sounds cool because it would go a long way toward alleviating the tendency of all AI players to play the same way.

I agree the proof is in the pudding but one thing to keep in mind Madden 12 is essentially a 2 year dev cycle. Again this is just my though based on inside knowledge I have but last year they held back a ton of stuff because it wasn't ready and released a very minor upgrade of a game. Also I'm of the opinion that the change in philosophy to have a core game play team that works on both madden and NCAA and then individual teams for features is something that will pay huge dividends in the futue. It's going to take a few years but you'll see results on par with FIFA in terms of engine changes.

Who knows if this will result in a good game. However with everything i have read and seen this is the first time I'm actually excited about madden in a long time. Of course end of July when the online announcements are made I'll be a little sad because online franchise will be officially dead at least that is what I believe will happen.

[AJColossal]

Like what I'm hearing from the OS previews. Sounds like the new tackling animations add a lot as well as the new art design.

So, I'm excited. Again. What did Einstein say about insanity again?

[GTHobbes]

I like some of what I'm seeing -- the post play camera cuts on touchdowns are particularly nice. But the drop back 30 yards and chuck it stuff is still depressing to see:

http://www.twitvid.com/2SDGQ

Lots of gameplay videos are coming out...nice to get a feel for what to expect from E3 this year.

[AJColossal]

Did they remove the automatic QB dropback animation? Thought I read that somewhere.

[Danimal]

Did they remove the automatic QB dropback animation? Thought I read that somewhere.

Yes they removed it this year. I also thought the put something in place in 10 to get rid of the insane drop backs, I thought you lost the receiver icons. I'm hearing mixed reports on this aspect though. Tons of guys who always say the sky is falling are obviously calling out many of the E3 videos for the drop backs. While people who cover this stuff all say the game is a nice improvement and are saying the drop back thing is being ove blown. Considering no one knows who is playing, what level they are on and what not I'm willing to not worry about this too much.

Honestly I don't do it, no one I would play would do it so I guess if it indeed is still an issue then the online players are going to have to worry and frankly since 99% of them are doing this to begin with...well my point is not a big deal for me.

I'm more concerned with collisions and momentum on tackles and every person to a T has said they are better. It's certainly nice NOT to see a guy fall forward when he gets hit by 2 guys and should go backwards. I also hear that NCAA has less improvements but plays a little tighter then Madden which makes sense since it's further along an tuned.

All i know is the game looks way better graphically, has much better camera cuts and has an apparent franchise mode worth playing. That's enough for me because I didn't hate M11 game play.

[GTHobbes]

[GTHobbes]

Tons of guys who always say the sky is falling are obviously calling out many of the E3 videos for the drop backs. While people who cover this stuff all say the game is a nice improvement and are saying the drop back thing is being ove blown. Considering no one knows who is playing, what level they are on and what not I'm willing to not worry about this too much.

Honestly I don't do it, no one I would play would do it so I guess if it indeed is still an issue then the online players are going to have to worry and frankly since 99% of them are doing this to begin with...well my point is not a big deal for me.

Really? Could've fooled this "sky is always falling" guy, based upon your twitter comments today:

"OS_Danimal Dan
@bumble14_os I really wish one of you guys would ask a madden staffer about the QB drop backs were seeing in vids. It's alarming.
1 hour ago"

[Danimal]

This video is pretty good except for one really bad thing. I don't think I have ever seen that happen before. I'm sure you'll pick it out real easy.

[Rodster]

I do like the cutaway camera as well as sideline camera. The only thing I saw was a grab around his shoes which he broke free for a TD.