Madden 13 Wishlist

[Afigueroa22]

Before making the switch from Madden 10 to Madden 12 (skipped 11) I purchased NFL Head Coach and I found a lot of the features very entertaining. I would like to see some of these features plus more present in M12.
Here is my list:

1. Improve the commentary. I'm tired of hearing the same dialogue each year.
2. Improve fight for ball between WR and DB.
3. More animations for all situations. (Pass rush moves, Tackles, Catching)
4. Add a release time stat for QBs.
5. Improve defensive AI.
6. Take away break tackle/sitff arm stat for when RBs are facing LBs or DL. (I hate seeing Darren Sproles stiff arm D.Ware.)
7. Improve catching when playing All Madden. (Those who play know if a defender is near you when you are tring to bring in the pig skin you drop it)
8. It would be cool if the cast from NFL network ( Deion, Irvin, Sapp, Warner, coach mooch, Faulk) would be implemented like in Madden 10's Extra Point.
9. I would love video highlights from CPU teams during Franchise mode should you choose to view them.
10. Trade offers from teams during the season. (Never for big name players as that would be unrealistic but kind of like B.Carpenter for A.Baron)
11. Mock Drafts that change throughout the course of the season.
12. Coaching Tree like in Head Coach.
13. More challenging Superstar mode. (Earn starting role)
14. CREATE A PLAY!( When did that even get taken out?)
15. Free agent preview. Being able to tag certain players before FA frenzy.
16. More in depth scouting.
17. Division rival games should be very difficult despite rating difference. (Cowboys-Commanders games are ALWAYS close despite season success)
18. Stop having players like Jimmy Graham with ratings better than players like Witten, Gonzales, or Gates. He may have had a better season than all three but lets wait until he has done it for 6+ years before annoiting him.

I know I have more suggestions but they elude me currently.

Please expand on my suggestions and provide some of your own.

 

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

I hear enough of Deion during the season don't need to hear him run his mouth in Madden. Everything else I agree with.

 

[Future]

Some good stuff, especially #5.

One thing I don't like is that players' abilities affect players on the other teams. For instance if a corner is really good, that doesn't mean that the QB should be less accurate.

There are two biggies that used to be in the game that I wish they'd bring back.

1. Passer cone - was the best part of the game play ever. Allowed you to read the QB's eyes and also to manipulate the defense. Lots of people complain about how Madden isn't always realistic, and this was the most realistic thing they ever put in the game. But because it was kinda difficult to master, the fans complained so Madden got rid of it. Real bummer.

2. Training Camp - It used to be great to go through drills in order to improve your players stats. One problem was that it allowed too many players to get too good, but now you really have no impact on which players develop.

 

[Afigueroa22]

2. Training Camp - It used to be great to go through drills in order to improve your players stats. One problem was that it allowed too many players to get too good, but now you really have no impact on which players develop.

Yes thank you, training camp is another one. I would also like to add...

19. Practice Squad.

 

[JonJon]

1. Hire the guys from 2K Sports to make the game and fire anyone in current position.

 

[CowboyMike]

Blow up the whole Madden team and build the game from scratch rather than recycling the same game every year. Last year was the first year we didn't buy Madden because we were astonished at the lack of quality improvements. Graphics are years behind other games.

Look at NBA 2K's graphics. Or other recent games like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, and Mass Effect 3. You're telling me the Madden team can't match those graphics? Come on.

The worst thing that ever happened to Madden was the NFL granting exclusive rights to EA for a game franchise. It removed any sort of improvement incentive by competition. They got lazy.

The Madden franchise lost something very important a few years ago... heart.

 

[JonJon]

Blow up the whole Madden team and build the game from scratch rather than recycling the same game every year. Last year was the first year we didn't buy Madden because we were astonished at the lack of quality improvements. Graphics are years behind other games.

Look at NBA 2K's graphics. Or other recent games like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, and Mass Effect 3. You're telling me the Madden team can't match those graphics? Come on.

The worst thing that ever happened to Madden was the NFL granting exclusive rights to EA for a game franchise. It removed any sort of improvement incentive by competition. They got lazy.

The Madden franchise lost something very important a few years ago... heart.

Thank you CowboyMike. I agree 100%.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I don't plan on buying 13. I don't even play the versions I have.

 

[JonJon]

The only reason I got Madden 12 was because I needed a football video gaming fix, and unfortunately, Madden is the only NFL game out. I just play it online though. It can be pretty fun if you can somehow avoid the cheesers that go for it on 4th and 30 from their own 15 and run the same plays over and over on offense.

But you really have to doctor it up in order for it to be enjoyable as an offline game. There is so much wrong with it that needs to be fixed, that the only true suggestion is to start over. The problem is, EA will not because the sales still go through the roof since they know that no other company can compete, and guys like me that want to enjoy football on the modern gaming systems have no choice but to get it, no matter how crappy it is.

 

[Future]

Blow up the whole Madden team and build the game from scratch rather than recycling the same game every year. Last year was the first year we didn't buy Madden because we were astonished at the lack of quality improvements. Graphics are years behind other games.

Look at NBA 2K's graphics. Or other recent games like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, and Mass Effect 3. You're telling me the Madden team can't match those graphics? Come on.

The worst thing that ever happened to Madden was the NFL granting exclusive rights to EA for a game franchise. It removed any sort of improvement incentive by competition. They got lazy.

The Madden franchise lost something very important a few years ago... heart.

I agree that the exclusive rights hurt the game...but I don't think comparing graphics is fair. Madden constantly has 22 individual moving pieces, no other game even comes close to that. Plus you need to see so much more at a time than you do in any of those other games that there isn't going to be that intricate detail because, quite frankly, you wouldn't be able to notice it in-game anyways.

But you really have to doctor it up in order for it to be enjoyable as an offline game. There is so much wrong with it that needs to be fixed, that the only true suggestion is to start over. The problem is, EA will not because the sales still go through the roof since they know that no other company can compete, and guys like me that want to enjoy football on the modern gaming systems have no choice but to get it, no matter how crappy it is.

What are the problems you're referring to? I think franchise mode is a ton of fun. Sometimes it gets a little old playing against the same teams every time, but with all the player movement and development its generally changing quite a bit. I think franchise mode is more fun because it's a lot more consistent than playing online.

 

[Kevinicus]

14. CREATE A PLAY!( When did that even get taken out?)

This +100.

Only they need to do a better job than what they had before. It needs to be a lot more involved and flexible so that you can adjust the blocking scheme, timing, and create trick plays.

Emmitt Smith football on SNES (which was a terrible game) had a pretty nice play creator if I recall right and it allowed you to control all sorts of details.

 

[CowboyMike]

I agree that the exclusive rights hurt the game...but I don't think comparing graphics is fair. Madden constantly has 22 individual moving pieces, no other game even comes close to that. Plus you need to see so much more at a time than you do in any of those other games that there isn't going to be that intricate detail because, quite frankly, you wouldn't be able to notice it in-game anyways.

I respectfully disagree with you. If you play Call of Duty, any battlefield in single player has consistently 20-30 individuals in the field of play, all with Real Time Physics determining their actions rather than the canned animations we've all gotten used to in Madden. NBA 2K12 does only have 10 players on the court, plus the refs, but they also take the time to animate every single member of the arena's crowd. Look at footage from NBA 2k12, the entire crowd is individually moving with detailed rendering during gameplay. Madden still gives us cardboard cutouts changing color to give the illusion of movement during game play, with cut scenes of moving crowd members. Plus the players' uniforms in NBA 2K12 are free and flowing with movement. Shorts look like shorts. Jerseys get wrinkled and shift. They're not the static pasted on unis of Madden. And I don't even like basketball.

Sorry, but many many games surpass Madden in terms of game engine and graphics quality. I mean, the ball still comes out of the quarterback's hand like it has thrusters underneath. It lifts out of his hand, then begins moving forward. I couldn't believe the poor quality in the ball handling physics in this last game. If you can make a soldier load and reload multiple weapons in CoD in great detail, you can make throwing, catching, and carrying the ball look realistic in a player's hands.

Look at this footage. It is from the upcoming Mass Effect 3, out this Tuesday. It is all in game footage. No cinematic cut scenes.

[youtube]AXOLSPh-0Fs[/youtube]

How about Battlefield 3 gameplay? Again, all gameplay footage.

[youtube]uA378g_gD1I[/youtube]

You really think Madden surpasses those games in graphics quality, complexity, and realism? Sorry, but it's not that hard to render 22 guys on the field, plus the refs, and not much else by today's standards. Especially when they're all repeating and repeating the same cycle of canned animations that have been used the past five years. Madden has been rendering 22 players for over two decades now. They should be kicking everyone's *** in graphics. They're not.

You say that "you need to see so much more at a time than you do in any of those other games that there isn't going to be that intricate detail because, quite frankly, you wouldn't be able to notice it in-game anyways." Well, in BF3, I saw helicopters flying overhead as I rounded corners. I saw smoke coming from distant buildings. I saw the expressions on my squad members' faces. I saw innocent bystanders scrambling for safety. In Mass Effect, I see chunks of Earth flying across the screen at me. I see buildings crumbling in the distance. I see wind blowing dust all around me. In Call of Duty, I see the blades of grass move individually when I lay flat trying to take cover. You're telling me that's less complicated than Madden giving us 22 moving parts on the field? No. Madden can't even give us decent and realistic sideline animations. I'd love to be racing down the sideline and see one of my coaches running down yelling at me as I do it. I'd love to run out of bounds and have a teammate catch me. Or knock over a Gatorade table. I want to play on a real grass field in the rain and see mud splash up in real time as I get tackled. It is all easily possible with today's capabilities. It doesn't happen from the Madden team.

All Madden has done recently is retouch player textures every year. And that's it.

They won't see a dime from me until they actually put some significant improvement into their quality and catch up to the standards of every other game out there.

 

[Doomsday]

For me the biggest thing is being able to create your own plays, especially on defense. You have to make a lot of tweaks to the defensive assignments to cover certain routes, it get monotonous.

 

[Yeagermeister]

The only reason I got Madden 12 was because I needed a football video gaming fix, and unfortunately, Madden is the only NFL game out. I just play it online though. It can be pretty fun if you can somehow avoid the cheesers that go for it on 4th and 30 from their own 15 and run the same plays over and over on offense.

But you really have to doctor it up in order for it to be enjoyable as an offline game. There is so much wrong with it that needs to be fixed, that the only true suggestion is to start over. The problem is, EA will not because the sales still go through the roof since they know that no other company can compete, and guys like me that want to enjoy football on the modern gaming systems have no choice but to get it, no matter how crappy it is.

I don't play online so that doesn't matter to me.

 

[Future]

CowboyMike: The only thing I really agree with in that post is the crowd and how the ball leaves the QB's hand...both things that I personally don't care bout as they have no impact on gameplay. NFL jerseys nowadays look like they are pasted on, they don't move just discolor and rip - both of which you see in Madden 12.

I think the biggest thing you're looking for is a more active environment (catching you on the sideline, coaches chasing you) which Madden doesn't have. Outside of the field of play, everything is static. To me that's not a big deal, but games like CoD have things like individual blades of grass moving because that's part of the intrigue of the game...the realism. Whereas Madden's draw is the football realism. Not that Madden has done that perfectly, but there are so many differences that I think its virtually impossible to compare the two.

With the vids you posted, neither one ever shows more than 6 or 7 active characters, and virtually all of the mass effect 3 scene is cinematic. Not to mention that every time you see a helicopter overhead, or a building crash, that stuff is scripted as well unless you blast it with a rocket. But there are lots of cinematic elements within first and third person shooters during gameplay, something that Madden - and actually I think most sports games, don't have.

I think that's the biggest difference between us...I could care less about the cinema of games. I don't want it. I want to play and I want to be in control of everything. In sports games, other than AI during plays, you are in control of everything in terms of gameplay whereas the environment has a huge impact on what you do in other games...It's just a diff. in taste imo.

 

[Muhast]

my biggest pet peeve is the running backs break way too many tackles it's not realistic

 

[CowboyMike]

CowboyMike: The only thing I really agree with in that post is the crowd and how the ball leaves the QB's hand...both things that I personally don't care bout as they have no impact on gameplay. NFL jerseys nowadays look like they are pasted on, they don't move just discolor and rip - both of which you see in Madden 12.

I think the biggest thing you're looking for is a more active environment (catching you on the sideline, coaches chasing you) which Madden doesn't have. Outside of the field of play, everything is static. To me that's not a big deal, but games like CoD have things like individual blades of grass moving because that's part of the intrigue of the game...the realism. Whereas Madden's draw is the football realism. Not that Madden has done that perfectly, but there are so many differences that I think its virtually impossible to compare the two.

With the vids you posted, neither one ever shows more than 6 or 7 active characters, and virtually all of the mass effect 3 scene is cinematic. Not to mention that every time you see a helicopter overhead, or a building crash, that stuff is scripted as well unless you blast it with a rocket. But there are lots of cinematic elements within first and third person shooters during gameplay, something that Madden - and actually I think most sports games, don't have.

I think that's the biggest difference between us...I could care less about the cinema of games. I don't want it. I want to play and I want to be in control of everything. In sports games, other than AI during plays, you are in control of everything in terms of gameplay whereas the environment has a huge impact on what you do in other games...It's just a diff. in taste imo.

Fair enough. We just have a different outlook and expectations. I can appreciate that.

I do believe there are things that need to be done on the field, as well. DBs still magically transport themselves from five yards away to the receiver when the ball is in the air. That's always bugged me.

 

[MonsterD]

Juuuust started Madden 12 franchise, I finished 10 last night. I have to say graphics and gameplay improved slightly from 10. I think the franchise improvements were good, but really there is a lot more they can do, it was a bit late for it too.

 

[Hoofbite]

Blow up the whole Madden team and build the game from scratch rather than recycling the same game every year. Last year was the first year we didn't buy Madden because we were astonished at the lack of quality improvements. Graphics are years behind other games.

Look at NBA 2K's graphics. Or other recent games like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, and Mass Effect 3. You're telling me the Madden team can't match those graphics? Come on.

The worst thing that ever happened to Madden was the NFL granting exclusive rights to EA for a game franchise. It removed any sort of improvement incentive by competition. They got lazy.

The Madden franchise lost something very important a few years ago... heart.

The best part about BF3 is that EA got into the FPS game relatively late with that title and it still has made more strides than Madden.

 

[Romo2Bryant4Six]

Increasing any AI is a bad idea...I've played Madden for years, been in a few tournaments...the AI (defensive especially) is what allows people to run the same play over and over again.

If your looking for realistic gameplay, there are leagues you can join online who ban rocket catching/nano blitzing/ going for it on 4th downs in a unrealistic manner, and running the same play. they are referred to as sim-leagues.

For madden 13...I'd like to see retro players/teams...have always wanted to play as Barry Sanders

A quicker release from the qbs would be great too