Furthermore, trading between CPU teams never happens. I’ve heard that the CPU only makes draft pick trades during the draft. Overall, I’m pretty disappointed with these aspects of Madden 12 Franchise mode and I hope these can be fixed in an update or at least by Madden 13.

I’m going to make an NBA 2K11 comparison because I have no Football game to compare Madden with, but I like how NBA 2k11 had a trade calculator system. You could choose which players and picks you wanted to trade from your team or another team and it would give you possible trades to choose from. I really enjoyed that system, it made finding trades a breeze. In addition, CPU teams would make trades between each other during the season and offer you trades as well. It was even more realistic because you would see more trade offers when the trade deadline was coming up. Not to mention multi-team trades.

Madden 12 Franchise is so inferior when it comes to transactions.

It will prompt you to save your current roster, do this so you can revert back to the default roster if you ever want to. After it completes you can exit the online menu. Since the Roster Updating is done through the online menu you won’t be able to download the Roster Update if you do not have an EA Sports Online Pass.

You may also try to get the roster file from a friend using a Memory Unit or a USB drive.Once you’ve downloaded the Roster Update, it will show up in your file list in the Load section. This roster should be automatically loaded every time you start up the game but if it doesn’t you can always load it manually.

The first roster update came out on Friday August 26th for Madden Season Ticket holders and includes most of the preseason transactions.

NBA 2K options displayed for reference

The option to choose the simulated quarter length in Franchise Mode has been missing from the Madden series for as long as I can remember. This option can be found in many of the 2K series games. You may be asking why this option is so important? People who play Franchise Mode in Madden enjoy the role playing element of building a team and generating realistic statistics.

A game of Madden can take more than an hour to complete while playing 15 min quarters so the user is allowed to adjust the quarter length. The problem is that the rest of the league is unaffected by this, they will still play full length games.

This affects Franchise Mode in two ways. Statistically, the user controlled players will never match those of the rest of the league when playing shorter quarters like 5 min quarters. This can be mostly seen while viewing the number of tackles. On the offensive side of the ball you may be able to match certain averages but the rest of the stats will be way off. The way stats are generated for simulated games seem to try to match real life output which skews the stats away from possible game output.

The statistical problem leads to the second problem. Since your players will never match the rest of the league your players are statistically performing as if they were the worst players in the league. Progression in Madden is based on statistical performance. It is more than likely your players will not progress and will likely receive rating decreases. The role playing element of Franchise Mode is lost here because players with high potential will never perform well statistically and never become stars in the league. Furthermore, good luck trying to win awards like Defensive Player of the Year while lacking in the tackles department.

In closing, the only way to play Franchise Mode is to play with long quarters. Even when playing long quarters the numbers are still difficult to match because the generated stats are not actual game output. I find playing with 12 min quarters works out okay so far.

After spending ample time with the Madden 12 demo for Xbox 360 I’m still a little unsure of what the real game will be like. Like past years demos the commentary and music are stripped leaving the game feeling extremely lifeless. This is a hindrance toward selling the game because the player doesn’t get a clear picture of what the game will really be like.

Fortunately, EA Sports added some nice features that added to the gameplay of this years demo. For one, they added the ability to choose the AI difficulty. All too often you’ll see demos where you aren’t given a choice of difficulty and it affects your overall view of the game because it was too easy or too difficult. Another thing they added to this years demo was the length of the game. In this years demo you play a full game of 5 min quarters. This is actual a decent length of gameplay compared to 2 or 3 min quarters we’ve come to know in past years demos.

As far as the on-field action the game runs quite well. The offense this year seems to have gained an edge because of the speed of the game and the tackling isn’t as “suctiony” as last year. This means when a defensive player gets near the ball carrier they won’t automatically be sucked into a tackling animation like before. Also I had a much harder time turning my defensive players around when the play got behind them. I know this is due to the Agility rating but it’s really bad sometimes when your player can’t make a tackle because he had to make a large circle to turn around. Using the CPU assist A button really helps in these situations, but I hate using that button.

With the new tackling engine the hits look much better this year, breaking out of animations really makes the tackling look more realistic. However, I did notice sometimes your ball carrier would unintentionally lose a lot of yards because he kept getting pushed back while breaking tackles. I also feel like the defensive players are more inclined to make hits instead of wrapping up the ballcarrier for an actual tackle.

On All-Pro difficulty the pass rush seemed to come too fast on offense and on the defensive end it was too easy to get sacks. It also seems like the throwing animation is a bit slower so the quarterbacks take more sacks or throw bad balls. I hope the blocking is improved in the actual release. Shedding tackles seems to require using a right stick move which I don’t like. You should be able to disengage a little easier without getting into a swim animation.

Overall the demo is quite good and I’ve already played it a bunch of times. I wish the demo didn’t feel so dead though, they should have removed all the fluff like feature overviews and promotions towards trying to squeeze in some commentary and music. I’m confident to conclude Madden 12 will take more strides forward than Madden 11.

CBS Sportscaster Gus Johnson will no longer be heard on CBS college basketball and NFL casts. Gus Johnson and CBS reportedly could not agree on a new contract for the upcoming season.  The man famous for making gold out of his late game calls during March Madness will be looking for a job this upcoming season. He was also added to the commentary of the Madden NFL series last year and will remain part of Madden at least for this year.

I know Gus Johnson will have no problem finding a job but I have to say the English Broadcast of the Global Starcraft League is lacking a bit of professionalism and fire.  While I love the combination of Artosis and Tasteless, I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to have a professional sportscaster in the mix. Of course the reason it hasn’t happened yet in eSports is because the money just isn’t there.

I don’t believe it’ll be that way forever. Seeing how Korea is just enamored by Starcraft, it’s possible the United States could be next. Starcraft could be seen as the Korean national sport at the moment even though Starcraft was created in the US. The cultural difference is that Starcraft is actually cool in Korea and the professional players are seen as rock stars in their country. Korean pop artists and idols make frequent appearances at the GSL because it is seen as a national event like the Super Bowl. Could this ever happen in the US?

Gus Johnson is reportedly trying to swing a deal with ESPN and FOX to cover the PAC-10 for the upcoming college football season.

Girl's Day performing at 2011 GSL World Championship Finals

Unofficial Madden 12 Cover

The fans have voted and the tournament is complete. The unlikely winner of the Madden 12 Cover is Peyton Hillis, Running Back of the Cleveland Browns. Remarkably beating out Michael Vick in the final round. Hillis had an outstanding statistical year this past season but this still comes as a surprise. In a previous blog post I mentioned it would be unlikely for Michael Vick to return to the Madden cover and that remains true. For the sake of Peyton Hillis’ achievement lets hope Michael Vick’s past off field issues had nothing to do with this outcome. Hillis beat out many top tier players such as Ray Rice, Matt Ryan, Jamaal Charles and even Super Bowl winning Aaron Rodgers in his path to the finals.

Another skeptic view is that many star players were not voted for by fans because of the Madden curse. A true fan would rather their favorite players perform well on the field than be the poster boy for a video game.

The final roster update for Madden 11 will be out next week. Considering this was a mediocre year for Madden 11 the number of roster updates this season has increased. This is a good think going forward but don’t expect that number to continue to increase with Madden 12. The roster updates were pretty evenly spaced out  this year for a total of 20 roster updates. This doesn’t even count the number of new cards for Madden Ultimate Team.

Even though there is a possibility there is no NFL season this year EA Sports has been public about releasing Madden 12 regardless. This business plan is expected since they’ve been working on it since the release of Madden 11, but if the new title isn’t supported by new features like an updated Franchise mode the sales will undoubtedly fall flat.

My Idea for Live Franchise Mode

I would actually like to see a “Live” Franchise mode where you follow the NFL week to week. In theory you would play a single game every week with the exact line-up that suited up during that particular week. In order to do this EA Sports would just need to record every weeks rosters, transactions, stats and final game outcomes and pull them into the game when necessary. The player would still be able to modify their depth chart but should be not be able to make any transactions.

Of course if you started your Franchise mid-way through the season or at the end of the season you could catch up to the current week by playing all the games or just starting at a particular week. After the completion of the season you can continue your Franchise in the default mode with random events and full control of your roster.

This only makes sense up until the playoffs of course, where your team could change the outcome of who makes it into the playoffs and who wins the super bowl. The outcomes that played out exactly the way they should, would remain the same while the ones in conflict are randomly resolved.

The best part in my opinion would be the realistic stats and the realistic outcomes. I want to see players like Arian Foster beating out the rest of the league even if his player rating doesn’t justify it, because it actually happened. I want to see teams like Kansas City make waves in the AFC West and Seattle beat New Orleans in the playoffs. As realistic stats and outcomes as possible until it comes to my own team where I have the power to alter the history books.

I haven’t fleshed out all of the details but it would be pretty cool not only for NFL games but any sports game. Maybe this mode only appeals to people like me who have restarted their Franchise mode a few times after major roster updates…

The final Madden 11 patch of the season is here. Upon starting up your game on Xbox 360 or PS3 you’ll automatically be prompted to download the patch. The majority of the fixes are tuning on the defensive AI. Many people said that this year’s edition of the game made it too easy offensively both online and offline, so perhaps EA is still trying to focus on this issue.

Patch Details:

• Fixed an exploit to disallow defenders from all blitzing when the quarterback tried to pump fake when facing the wrong direction. This was discovered in NCAA Football 11 and fixed in both titles.
• Fixed an exploit where unscrupulous players could get their fullback or tight end to move across the line of scrimmage and cause an encroachment penalty against an unsuspecting defensive player.
• Fixed an exploit where online gamers could use specific timing in pulling the network plug and cause a soft lock for both users, thus not having to face a loss. We’ve isolated and fixed the problem, so now if someone pulls their plug, they rightfully get a loss.
• Improved reaction times for defenders in coverage to better react to receivers
• Improved logic to get defenders in better position to make plays on the ball while in the air
• Improved defensive play recognition to get defenders reacting to the play faster
• Tuned up defensive pursuit to get defenders to take smarter angles to the ball carrier
• Tuned up defensive gap aggressiveness to get defenders into the hole faster
• Fixed an issue where the play art on defense would sometimes not show up correctly when showing blitz. We have corrected this problem in thirteen formations so now all proper play art will be displayed when showing blitz to the offense.

After last nights 6 touchdown (4 passing, 2 rushing) Monday Night Football game its hard to not exclude Michael Vick from the MVP discussion. Not only did he rack up big numbers through the air and on the ground but he also limited his mistakes with no interceptions or fumbles. Vick was last seen on a Madden cover in 2004, and after his run in with the law nobody could predict his return to greatness.

In my opinion I think Michael Vick’s checkered past will keep him from ever becoming a cover athlete again. I feel the same way about Ben Roethlisberger. However, if Michael Vick somehow achieves an MVP award for his performance this year maybe everything will be forgotten. Not only would he be a marketable figure for EA Sports again but for Nike, Gatorade, and everyone else. If you remember not too long ago Vick was the most marketable player in the NFL.

UPDATE: Patch #4 is now live (10/28/2010)

EA Sports has detailed the features and fixes for the upcoming Patch #4. Release date is still unannounced. EA Sports claim they have fixed the Disconnect issues when playing any games online versus and human opponent. Madden Ultimate team will also be receiving a Tournaments feature that will require your team to have a certain Chemistry and Skill Level to enter. This will be a new way to earn coins and cards while playing against evenly matched opponents.

Full Details