Madden 20

[August4th]

unbelievable..madden leans more to the arcade-style game lol

[43M]

13 hours ago, Outpost31 said:

Get ready for 7 more years of incompetence:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/05/22/nfl-owners-to-vote-on-five-year-extension-with-ea-sports/

No shock there.

The game brings in tons of money.   Not because its good, but because they have enough dupes that will fork over $60 EVERY SINGLE YEAR for essentially the same game, on top of paying tons of money for Ultimate Team and microtransactions.   

Neither EA or the NFL care about actual quality.      Its just about the money.    

Oh well.  

[43M]

13 hours ago, August4th said:

unbelievable..madden leans more to the arcade-style game lol

Yeah, let me know when Madden becomes "simulation" or "realistic".

Some guy just won the Madden Bowl challenge with a punter at QB and not calling a SINGLE pass play....

...but yeah, so sim and realistic.

The guy running the dev team (Clint Odenburg) is a complete chode too.      He insults fans who dont like the game.     

[August4th]

I hope they improve the atmosphere/weather in madden on the PS5. All games feel the same and I hate how the field looks during snow games. the new tech coming with the PS5, no reason why that part of the game can't be drastically improved and diverse.

[naptownskinsfan]

On 5/23/2020 at 12:58 AM, FourThreeMafia said:

Yeah, let me know when Madden becomes "simulation" or "realistic".

Some guy just won the Madden Bowl challenge with a punter at QB and not calling a SINGLE pass play....

...but yeah, so sim and realistic.

The guy running the dev team (Clint Odenburg) is a complete chode too.      He insults fans who dont like the game.     

I had to LOL at that.  Not even an option or triple option game, but a punter at QB and just running the ball, taking advantage of the game being slanted towards running the ball. 

Like I said earlier, next year's game, you won't be able to run the ball at all, but won't have an issue passing for 600.  There is no middle ground or balance in this game.  

[MacReady]

1 hour ago, August4th said:

I hope they improve the atmosphere/weather in madden on the PS5. All games feel the same and I hate how the field looks during snow games. the new tech coming with the PS5, no reason why that part of the game can't be drastically improved and diverse.

[43M]

7 hours ago, August4th said:

I hope they improve the atmosphere/weather in madden on the PS5. All games feel the same and I hate how the field looks during snow games. the new tech coming with the PS5, no reason why that part of the game can't be drastically improved and diverse.

The game has felt largely the same for 15 years now.    The graphical upgrades are largely surface deep.   Things like weather, fans and sidelines are still a joke.   Dont even get me started on the robotic, canned animations that have existed since the PS2 era.  Just goes to show how much effort goes into the game.

[HoboRocket]

14 hours ago, FourThreeMafia said:

The game has felt largely the same for 15 years now.    The graphical upgrades are largely surface deep.   Things like weather, fans and sidelines are still a joke.   Dont even get me started on the robotic, canned animations that have existed since the PS2 era.  Just goes to show how much effort goes into the game.

I mean, in Madden 17, where the intro was "the Rams return to LA," they introduced the dynamic player movement. And it genuinely felt different in comparison to Madden 16 and Madden 25. But over the years, we've gotten used to the "dynamic" movements, which now feel very linear. It doesn't help that EA adjusted movements slightly back due to fan upheaval. 

Yeah, I saw the Joke game. He's positive that it won't work next year, as EA is likely to adjust to make run commitment on D a little more sound. He just abused the roster building system. Tress Way wasn't his primary QB, by the way. 68 overall Eli Manning was. He had Tress Way there because he's left-handed. Players move differently depending upon how the ball is handed off and how they're oriented. It's slight, but you can abuse it. Joke did that. Not anyone can do that type of thing, though. It takes LOTS of practice to master ball-carrier movement and the running game. Like, yeah, against the computer, pretty much any of us can dominate, even on All-Madden difficulty. Even in casual games, things can get lopsided very quickly. In competitive games, though, you realize JUST how nuanced Madden is. I've taken it for granted. Now, they've had even the most in-depth aspects of player movement for like five years with no development on that end, just three story modes and a VERY SLIGHT adjustment to Franchise to make it better, but somehow still not as good as it was 12 years ago when it comes to playing as a football sim.

I have a custom playbook that's heavy on wacky personnel groupings. It uses a TON of 22, and is near-unstoppable. A lot of the running plays are from Jacksonville's playbook, but I also stole some from San Francisco, Oakland, Baltimore, and the Rams. It places a heavy emphasis on TEs and FBs that can both block and get vertical, as well as relying on dynamic ball-carrying ability at HB and WR. After looking at Joke's book, it's a lot like a watered-down version of his. We CAN throw it 40 times a game and win, but we're ideally suited to a balanced attack. I love off-tackle plays where the OL is lopsided to the right. I also love getting my HB and FB involved in the passing game with lots of scissors, Texas, corners, floods, and wheels. Wheels are more of an out-of-position thing, but Jaylen Samuels at FB running a Texas or flood downfield is a straight-up mismatch with the types of personnel likely to be on the field when you're running 22.

I also have a lot of shotgun doubles stacks in my Hobo Playbook, because some of those plays are flat-out fun, even if a lot of them almost never work. QB draw, HB draw, four verticals, and HB screen out of that formation are a pretty good bread-and-butter as audibles. They pretty much have to pull people away from the middle, so you can pound them with the draw plays when they do. If they're covering the middle, your WR with a free release will almost ways be open on four verts, and the HB screen places the blockers already in front of your back if your OL isn't very good at pulling. I've used it in tournaments and done very well with that formation.

 

But yeah, anyways, I really just want Madden to add some more long-term Franchise options, like maybe CREATING A TEAM, EXPANSION, DESIGNING YOUR OWN CRAP LIKE WE'VE BEEN ASKING FOR FOR LIKE FOREVER and maybe some better weather patterns, as well as the typically expected adjustment with nerfing and buffing plays. 

I AM happy with the PROGRESS made in Madden 20. Face of the Franchise may fall flat on its face later, but it's still very similar to MyCareer in NBA2k20, and it's a step in the right direction. It was genuinely fun the first time I did it. The improvements to the UI was a necessary tweak IMO. I like the way that you can edit draft classes the past few times. 

 

I'm Hobo, and thank you for listening to my TED talk.

[naptownskinsfan]

@HoboRocket great post, and thanks for the in-depth dive.  I too didn't realize it was nuanced like that, and I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Madden person.  

Sadly, dating back to seven years ago when MUT came out, that has been their focus and they seem to have left franchise mode behind.  My hope is that it's not like MLB The Show and online franchise is abandoned completely but it really seems to be in maintananence mode right now.  

[43M]

Thanks for the info @HoboRocket.  Not nearly as familiar with the nuances of Madden as you are.

I could go on and on about things that need to be fixed in Madden...but as you noted, I would settle for improvements to franchise.

One addition franchise needs before anything else is for coaches to actually matter.  Hiring and firing coaches should feel like hugely impactful decisions that affect every aspect of the team.   Now, it just feels like its just kinda "there".    The entire scouting system needs redone, too.

[naptownskinsfan]

1 minute ago, FourThreeMafia said:

Thanks for the info @HoboRocket.  Not nearly as familiar with the nuances of Madden as you are.

I could go on and on about things that need to be fixed in Madden...but as you noted, I would settle for improvements to franchise.

One addition franchise needs before anything else is for coaches to actually matter.  Hiring and firing coaches should feel like hugely impactful decisions that affect every aspect of the team.   Now, it just feels like its just kinda "there".    The entire scouting system needs redone, too.

All great points.  Years ago, we also had coordinators in the game.  It sucks that they got removed.  

[Calvert28]

On 5/24/2020 at 1:14 PM, Outpost31 said:

Ok I LOL'd at this. 

[43M]

2 hours ago, naptownskinsfan said:

All great points.  Years ago, we also had coordinators in the game.  It sucks that they got removed.  

They dumbed down franchise mode big time.   I understand to a point why its not as in depth as hardcore fans would want, but its just another excuse for EA to cut corners.  

And I have zero faith in Clint Oldenburg to do anything.  He is just a clueless yes man who doesnt like criticism.

We will never have a great football game again.  Time to face facts, gents.

[August4th]

I wonder what our franchise mode wishlist would look like if madden kept adding to it from the PS2 days lol in a alternative universe maddens 2020 franchise mode is god level compared to what we got

[MacReady]

I remember the Vick year as the ultimate year where it only went downhill from there as far as franchise mode.  Maybe give or take a year.  Coordinators, Hall of Fame, players personality mattered, so many things that I found myself playing thirty years into the future.  Now I might play three years before I lose interest.