Madden getting Connected Careers & Infinity Engine (physics)

[JeffHCross]

I agree. The names, numbers, and equipment are the only "must have" edits for me. The latter of those three I can live without (but only because I had to in Head Coach, so I'm used to it), but names and, especially, numbers are a tough pill to swallow. I think the numbers give me a ton of extra buy-in with the team, because then I feel like I'm in control of the personnel.

P.S. No problem, though I implore you to always take my "knowledge" with a grain of salt. I usually have a good idea what I'm talking about, but it's also rooted in theory, rather than in practice. I'm a tester for a living (though I'm trying to change that!)

[Rudy]

Some nice write-ups on the Career mode. It looks like the scouting still leaves you very little info on guys you don't scout and EA doesn't give a lot of scouting points. That was very annoying last year to the point I didn't even scout guys in the third year as I felt I was just wasting my time. I do like how there is a lot to do every week.

http://mymaddenpad.com/2012/06/20/de...careers-day-1/
http://mymaddenpad.com/2012/06/21/de...s-day-2-diary/

[jaymo76]

Some nice write-ups on the Career mode. It looks like the scouting still leaves you very little info on guys you don't scout and EA doesn't give a lot of scouting points. That was very annoying last year to the point I didn't even scout guys in the third year as I felt I was just wasting my time. I do like how there is a lot to do every week.

http://mymaddenpad.com/2012/06/20/de...careers-day-1/
http://mymaddenpad.com/2012/06/21/de...s-day-2-diary/

I'm not sure what is meant with regards to having to adopt the former coach's scheme??? Does that mean that if I take over a team I also have to take over their offensive and defensive scheme aka playbooks? Maybe I am interpretting it wrong but it seems like once again, more user control is being removed. Does anyone know the answer?

[Rudy]

I'm not sure. It sounds like you can pick your playbook and also set the type of players you want. See 1:50 of this video below. But it also sounds like you are stuck with the old scheme as your official team's scheme until you acquire enough players that the game changes it to what you are now actually using. I think that's backwards. I would rather you be able to set the scheme and then have players that don't fit the new scheme drop in overall rating because of it. NFL teams do transition here but Miami is now West Coast. I shouldn't have to call the team run based or whatever and hope after I acquire enough West Coast players the scheme automatically corrects itself. I hope there is more clarification on this.

[skipwondah33]

Please let Defensive Awareness work like it should. As well as "best on best" alignment and "man-lock". Also hoping Passing Trajectories are true to form and that there are more than the same 3 catching formations that happen constantly in this current version. Hope to see no more "psychic DB's" and the defender actually has to see the ball.

Fingers crossed for those things and some others

[gschwendt]

Please let Defensive Awareness work like it should. As well as "best on best" alignment and "man-lock". Also hoping Passing Trajectories are true to form and that there are more than the same 3 catching formations that happen constantly in this current version. Hope to see no more "psychic DB's" and the defender actually has to see the ball.

Fingers crossed for those things and some others

Have you played the NCAA demo? All of that is in there and getting positive reviews.

[skipwondah33]

Have you played the NCAA demo? All of that is in there and getting positive reviews.

Played it twice and noticed all of those things but didn't get overly excited. Not sure I'll get NCAA due to the past few years me being disappointed about it and losing interest....though I am getting the usual itch around here lol.

Still hope it is implemented right in Madden this year. Seems like everytime there is a "Gameplay" addition it never really works out like it should. i.e Defense Assignments, "read and react", etc.

Hoping all those things are great and working and that is the reason there is an uproar about roster editing.

[Rudy]

Day 3 - http://mymaddenpad.com/2012/06/22/de...s-day-3-diary/

[jaymo76]

Day 3 - http://mymaddenpad.com/2012/06/22/de...s-day-3-diary/

So as of week three he has the #1 ranked D. I wonder if that talk more to his ability or more of a neutered CPU offense???

[souljahbill]

So as of week three he has the #1 ranked D.

And the #32 O.


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[steelerfan]

I'm guessing those are a direct result of 5-minute quarters. Just a guess.

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[Rudy]

The community felt the last day with Madden was really good. Player movement will be a little better but don't expect to see foot planting for at least another year. I know Shopmaster had concerns over not enough XP and scouting points in CCM. Since you still don't get basic combine numbers for every prospect I think they should give you a lot more scouting points to avoid feeling frustrated. Unless you cheated last year (I don't even know how people did that but it was out there somewhere) I felt scouting was pretty well useless due to the lack of players you could scout and the info back on some of the early scouting sessions.

[Rudy]

Community day write-up (haven't even read it yet myself): http://firstandmole.wordpress.com/20...nt-experience/

[jaymo76]

Thanks for sharing Rudy. The first thing I noticed was another 20 something gamechanger who really loves online gaming. It seems inevitable that games from here on out will have a major online focus. I was also a little surprised that the OMISSIONS issues were NOT at all mentioned. He said he would do a blog later so perhaps it will be mentioned there.

[Rudy]

Thanks for sharing Rudy. The first thing I noticed was another 20 something gamechanger who really loves online gaming. It seems inevitable that games from here on out will have a major online focus. I was also a little surprised that the OMISSIONS issues were NOT at all mentioned. He said he would do a blog later so perhaps it will be mentioned there.

That last write-up didn't really have anything interesting other than the time they spent on the game.

No question the emphasis on offline gaming has dropped every year. I think most devs are young and don't understand the demands of family life. Guys like me simply don't make the time to be a regular in online leagues and I'm usually sleeping by the time most of the young online crowd wants to play. It's also why we haven't seen in-game saves. The Show has had in-games saves from 09-12 (4 straight years now!) and even the small team at MLB 2K has had in game saves for at least three years. No excuse for EA to not have it by now. They put it in last year's edition of Madden's 3DS for crying out loud.

I know some older guys love ODs and play late at night but I'm not one of them. I play the majority of my games in the morning before the rest of the family wakes up. When they do wake up and I'm playing the Show I just save and finish later than night or the next morning. It's fantastic. With EA football I have to ensure I'm going to get a full hour that is uninterupted.

[jaymo76]

That last write-up didn't really have anything interesting other than the time they spent on the game.

No question the emphasis on offline gaming has dropped every year. I think most devs are young and don't understand the demands of family life. Guys like me simply don't make the time to be a regular in online leagues and I'm usually sleeping by the time most of the young online crowd wants to play. It's also why we haven't seen in-game saves. The Show has had in-games saves from 09-12 (4 straight years now!) and even the small team at MLB 2K has had in game saves for at least three years. No excuse for EA to not have it by now. They put it in last year's edition of Madden's 3DS for crying out loud.

I know some older guys love ODs and play late at night but I'm not one of them. I play the majority of my games in the morning before the rest of the family wakes up. When they do wake up and I'm playing the Show I just save and finish later than night or the next morning. It's fantastic. With EA football I have to ensure I'm going to get a full hour that is uninterupted.

So true about the family situation. It is so hard to get games in the older I get. Family committments always take precidence. You would think that there would be more appreciation for the adult gamers of the world who have families. Playing Madden for one game is at least one hour. If you add scouting and all that jazz you're up to 1.5 hours. That's a big time committment for guys with families/young children.

[SmoothPancakes]

Don't forget those of us who just plain don't give a damn about the online shit. They're giving us the middle finger too with focusing so much on online but telling the offline franchise gamers to go piss off.

[jaymo76]

Don't forget those of us who just plain don't give a damn about the online shit. They're giving us the middle finger too with focusing so much on online but telling the offline franchise gamers to go piss off.

Agreed. I really wonder if anything removed will ever make it back. That Looman twitter comment kind of implied that forget everything franchise was because CCM is a new mode and it does things differently... get over it. Maybe he didn't mean it that way, but that's how it sounded to me. I hope I am wrong though because CCM, if it had all the franchise mode features back would be pretty awesome IMO.

[steelerfan]

So what, exactly, did the online Franchise guy get that the offline guy doesn't have? I must be missing something, because listening to you guys - it sounds like online guys have something you don't. I'm not being a smartass, it's a serious question.

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[Rudy]

So what, exactly, did the online Franchise guy get that the offline guy doesn't have? I must be missing something, because listening to you guys - it sounds like online guys have something you don't. I'm not being a smartass, it's a serious question.

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The online guy isn't really getting anything extra but they are finally getting all the features of what offline has. Online this year does get the twitter story feeds and stuff. It's just that the focus is all online. Trying to "connect" everyone and get everyone to play online for some unknown reason. I think EA wants to push online stuff like MUT for microtransaction profits as well. Maybe in game ads to online users generates more money but there is no further profit for the offline gamer. The focus on AI seems to be for the online matches and eliminating cheese rather than focusing on cpu AI so offline gamers have a more competent opponent. While they push to improve the online features and play, offline features like in game saves, editing, playing with every team and cpu AI get put on the back burner or removed.

AI issues like clock management, cpu throwing too many picks, cpu running an option offense in NCAA, RBs AI to utilize the specific skills they have (power vs. speed), getting the balls in the hands of the playmaking WRs - these are all issues that only impact offline gamers and EA has been extremely slow to improve this stuff the last few years.