I hope it truly is improved. I need a reason to justify buying it when I have a 9 month old.
Can't wait till my kid is old enough to get his ass whipped at Madden. No mercy.:evil::evil:<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/huLJB0r-HXc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This may be the first year I skip buying Madden.

As a strictly offline franchise player, they've royally ****ed it up. Connected Careers means a standardized roster across play modes, and in turn they've removed the ability to edit your rosters to use in franchise, or import players from NCAA.

Once again, instead of properly adding a feature, they've crammed it in and broke existing features. What a ****ing joke.

This kind of freaked me out. I haven't been paying attention I guess and just assumed Connected Careers was replacing the superstar mode I never play and the offline franchise would be left alone.

From what I just read and heard, it looks like the Coaching mode will be basically the old franchise mode and you can play offline. Online franchises suck unless you have a group of friends that actually stay committed so I'm a strict Offline franchise player with a few online games thrown in when the mood strikes.

After watching the videos and reading some articles, I'm ok with the changes and will be buying it. I never get NCAA so I don't need to import rosters, and I've always liked using the current roster as my starting point and I don't edit stats so I'll be fine.

Sucks for those of you that the changes effected though.

I might rent Madden this year to see if this is worth it. This will be the 3rd year that I haven't bought a copy.

I ALWAYS buy NCAA. NCAA has been better than Madden for years now.

can anyone tell me if they addressed any of these issues, which from what I can remember, is the main reason why I finally quit buying madden.

1. Blocking, it's so bad. Your blocking FB never helps and always ignores the guy who is going to tackle you. Pass blocking is pathetic, in 2011, my entire line was 90+ each and still got insta sacked a lot of the time.

2. Play action, it's never been anything other than a guaranteed sack.

3. Linebackers that can jump 20 feet in the air to intercept

4. Corners that don't play the ball and make the play every single time.

5. Can't lead a WR, it's always under thrown. In fact, in 15+ years of playing madden, I've never seen an over thrown pass.

6. Robo QB

7. players morphing through each other all of the time.

8. Vacuum blocks

9. Franchise, I was always an offline franchise guy and it used to be a blast, the last 5 years it was horrible.

10. Players that produce, like rookies that you draft or free agents you pick up can have a 2000 yd season for you and improve the next season from 75-77. That's just stupid. It goes the same way when you have a star player, use D Bowe for example, if he only had 100 yards for you in a season, his rating would remain the same and not go down. Player progression has always been ignored.

11. Animations, there are like 3 or 4 animations for catching the ball, for an example.

12. Great running backs that can't break tackles ever.

13. Defensive line. You can have the best DE's in the game and they won't get sacks, ever.

14. There's never any realism, like a play that got messed up, receiver didn't run the correct route, etc.

15. Impact players don't make much of an impact

16. No injuries unless you sim. Believe it or not, I actually want to see some of my players get injured. It makes it more fun, interesting and real.


has any of that stuff been addressed? I couldn't care any less for the little stupid features they add every year when the actual game I spent $60 on sucks balls.

From what I've been reading most of what you listed has been specifically mentioned as being fixed (or at least improved) with the new engine. The one I really haven't heard much about is blocking.

I'm buying this one. If this years is all hype and no substance I will never buy another Madden again since they are going on and on about how everything has been fixed with the new infinity engine.

I'm pretty excited about it now...hopefully I'm not disappointed in the end.

So for an offline franchise player wtf is this connected careers thing? Im assuming I can just make an online franchise and be the only player right?

Connected Careers is basically everything in one spot.

You can start an offline franchise just like you could before or you can start an online franchise just like before. The only new thing about is you can have players and coaches in the same franchise. So for instance you could coach the Chiefs in the same online franchise that I play as Cam Newton.

Sounds stupid as shit.

right?

lol I don't get the hate one that, they just made it so you can customize it to how you want to play a league. The commissioner of the created league will be able to say what kind of league it is. For example, you can set it so everyone plays as a QB, or everyone plays as a CB, or everyone plays as a coach, or anyone can play as any position/coach they want.

Dumb.

I'm anxious to see how NCAA turns out after a few days of its' release. typically, NCAA blows Madden out of the water (IMO, anyway); but it should like Madden may have gotten their stuff together.
I'll need to play the NCAA demo again (assuming it's still there) - I played it when it cam out, and though 'meh'. felt exactly the same to me. Hopefully this isn't the case with Madden. I might actually consider buying Madden if it's not.

So if i understand connected careers right,

I could start a superstar and play as say, andrew luck, and play in the same league that my friend is running an online franchise as the chiefs in?

wonder when the Madden demo will be out. If I recall, NCAA was out about a month before its' release? should be any time now I suppose.

Correct.

Will this years madden have a bounty feature in Connected Careers mode? I want to put a bounty on Peyton.

I hope with this new engine it's not as herky jerky as it was in years past. like a guy running in a full sprint and turn a 90 degree angle on a dime. regardless of player. Looks a little smoother in the small amount I've seen online

Don't worry. Tamba loves horsemeat.

That sounds really cool.

It's actually the best looking franchise mode ever, and that's coming from an offline franchise guy.

Check this websites forums for a ton of great details on all sports games:

http://www.Operationsports.com

have people heard any intitial reviews for it? I looked, but didn't see a whole lot, other than EA interviews with gaming sites stating how awesome it is.

I seriously doubt that it's going to be any better. They still don't have any competition to worry about, so honestly, why would they take the time to make the improvement? People will buy it regardless. It doesn't make any sense from the business standpoint and they've been milking their monopoly for years.

They've said this BS every year, I'm not buying it. Let's face it, we'll probably never get another good football game again in our lives.

BTW, for anyone wanting to get into an online franchise (Madden, NCAA, NBA 2K, PES), check out this site.

http://www.premiergamingleagues.com/forum/index.php

I've been there for about 4 years now. They're a great group of guys that play straight up. And the leagues are active.

Actually their sales have been down. They have a new lead developer, and this connected careers has been a multi year build. EA has to step up their game, people like you & I are tired of buying half baked roster updates.

Im at least optimistic this year.

A little off topic, but EA related.
My wife bought me NCAA 13 for my birthday, and man…..talk about a let down. Overall it feels exactly the same as last year.
I just can’t bring myself to buy Madden. And, frankly, I wasn’t even planning on getting NCAA 13, but couldn’t let the wife feel bad if I were to take it back.

The Road To Glory is abysmal. They need to add in achievements/points for doing your job (like NBA 2K12 etc). If you’re on defense on RTG, forget about getting any points anytime soon. I’d guess about 85% of the plays/running plays go away from you. I still do ‘my’ job however (fill gaps, set edge etc) but get virtually no points. The And, really?......in RTG you only have the stadium announcer? BS! NBA didn’t take this lame shortcut etc.


Rant over…..

EA is complete garbage ever since the next gen shit came out. It's just gone completely downhill year after year after year. The NCAA games have been good up until about a year ago from what I've seen, but there hasn't been a good Madden game since the one where Vick was on the cover (2004 maybe?)

they always have a new developer every few years, it went form David Ortiz to Ian Cummings who everyone thought was going to save football gaming, then this new cat, i dont knwo his name as i dont follow it all that much anymore. i have lost complete hope in Tiburon.

I just hope their sales continue to go down and down, so that the NFL allows another company in. If they dont :( well, ill get over it. lol

Anyone download the demo yet?

Yes. Played two games before heading to work. It seems like a more polished version of Madden 12, IMO. The new physics animations & player models look a little better, and the pre-game presentation is cool. I'm not a fan of the new 'throw your receiver open' passing mechanic, and hated it on NCAA 13.

The first thing I really looked for was better O-line interaction, and it seems to be there. They don't seem to miss their assignment as much, but still saw a few lineman wandering downfield clueless.

Its only a demo though, and from what I experienced, its polished enough for me to trade in NCAA and pick it up.

Cool. Connected careers is the part that intrigues me this year. It's a big deal to take away franchise, and trying to make a 3-in-1 mode.

Thanks for the feedback. I can't wait to try a few games this evening. Any noticeble difference in the physics?

I can't find it in the xbox marketplace

It did go downhill once the new generation of consoles came out. But Madden 12 was a step in the right direction. There were flaws for sure, but it wasn't bad. I'm hoping this years is better. I've heard a lot of good things about what they are TRYING to do.

I got NCAA 13 last night and played a few games of it. I thought it was pretty damn good compared to years past.

EA went downhill when online gaming became popular.

Thats a good point. All I do is play offline franchise. Whenever I played online my opponent always picked the Eagles or Steelers or some other top team. Every damn time. And they would always do cheap stuff. So it just wasnt fun.

damn I don't have enough space to try the demo :( I really need to upgrade my xbox

How long did it take to download? It's nearly 2GB. Dayum....Will play the demo when I get a new PS3...

I can't believe it had to die on me TODAY.

Who are the teams you can play as in the demo?

49ers vs giants and seahawks vs redskins

I still can't download it. I found it by searching for it but I get an error.

I'll probably download it tonight and take a look at it.

And I can't even find it on psn

I would buy a game of offline franchise only, kinda like the treatment they did for Head Coach, but doesn't suck.

I've been saying this for a couple of years now. Madden really needs to put out two different games. One like it is now....minus the offline franchise mode. And one that's just franchise mode.

Games ok, only played one game, but i felt like playing another when i was done. Thats NEVER happened to me in a Madden game. Still i have some complaints about the way the guys feel like they are sliding on ice still. Not as bad as it used to be, but its there.

Hmm. As soon as I clicked on the store and went to demos, there was a big box on the left for Madden. Then when I clicked newest demos it was like the second one. Still waiting for it to download.

Why when they can do both in one game? I play both online and offline franchises.

They can do it all in one game, but they just need to respect offline framchise more. And when they add something good - KEEP IT. First thing they need to do is get rid of the free agency ebay thing with all the timers on each player. That was annoying and stupid.

The tackle animations are horrible ROFL Physics fail.

Sometimes its great, sometimes it looks glitchy. They will fix the glitchy looking animations I hope. I don't know what else to call it but "glitchy". So far I like the demo, and I liked 12 so I should have a blast with this one.

I also have high hopes that the Chiefs will be pretty good in this game. It has been a long time since that happened. I'm so used to starting a Chiefs franchise and having to suffer through that first season before overhauling a good chunk of the roster in the offseason. Now all I really need is a QB and maybe a prototype TE considering Moeaki will probably be average according to their ratings. Maybe a young beast MLB.

Some of the animations are terrible and need alot of fixing, but im sure they just said F it, throw them in there anyways. What looks REALLLLLLLY BAD is after a play you got guys falling all over the place when a player tries to get up. Someone always trips on them. lol That shit just looks half assed

I played a half as RGIII and the 'Skins...didn't see much wrong with it, but then again this is my first Madden experience in 1 1/2 years.

Its an improvement over 12 and i kinda like the physics but it looks awkward at times but some animations look good

Yeah I noticed the tripping. Overall it's much better than years past, but it needs some polishing before release.

Hopefully they fix the rubbery animations. I have season pass so I'll report in next friday when I get to try the final build.

Played on Vita
 

I downloaded and played a game on the Vita last night. Giants vs. Patriots was the only option. I found the controls were responsive. You can use the touchscreen on the Vita to "draw" routes for the receivers prior to the play which was cool. Overall it looked and played really nice on the Vita.

Icarus, my man, you are describing connected careers. Its going to be sick!!

Not without roster editing IMO. You'll have to restart your franchise every time a new roster comes out. Additionally, the lack of importing draft classes takes away from the franchise aspect for me. The demo played ok on the Very Slow speed setting, and I did enjoy the new passing mechanics. However, the blocking animations still suck and the Infinity engine results in weird tackles/hits.

ALL about connected careers mode..

Insane amount of information.

http://vassets.ea.com/Assets/Resourc...eersManual.pdf

But it looks AMAZING.

Can't use draft classes from NCAA 13? If true, that really blows. Why would they take that out?

Supposedly, they removed it so the could rework it for next year. Typical EA bullshit, remove something good just for the **** of it.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yvP1oihL50c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In. Sane.

Yeah i had that happen once. Awesome. As long as its rare, and ive seen it happen once in like 8 games so thats a good sign.

lol when have they ever polished anything from the demo to the release? The "it's just a demo" argument is void because the demo is the final product.

I don't find the tripping stuff to be bad. I see it happen in real games occasionally.

Well....looks like I won't be buying or renting Madden this year. ****ing stupid.

same


they say they are gonna improve the game every year. With no competition allowed (monopolies are legal now in the US obviously), why would they take the time to improve this game? Once a game company goes full corporate, game quality drops big time but sales increase.

Is EA trying to simulate the action that goes on around the pile when defenders are trying to make a play?

Not impressed with the demo. Game just feels slow. Haven't really seen any "realistic" looking tackles. Guys just run into each other and fall down.

so just like the NFL? :p

Not really. Guys in the NFL wrap up and tackle. Guys in Madden run into each other fall over like bowling pins.

Fifa is almost flawless. Oh how I wish Madden was the same.

maybe the based the tackling animation on Deion Sanders.

Actually, the Madden 13 demo was a build from around E3. The gamechanger crew has retail copies, and their threads with videos over at Operation Sports show the game play is MUCH tuned from the demo.

Thanks for playing, though.

Some Chiefs action retail version.

*woops, thanks for fixing!

Ummm... [youtube] isn't a valid tag..... I fixed it in the quote.

Defense bailing Cassel out... what else is new?

after watching that video I see that bullshit where the guy should get a sack, the QB makes a "pass" where the ball just goes 2 feet bobbling in the air. I hated that shit so much. NOT BUYING

You know signing a licensing agreement and a monopoly are not even close to the same thing right? It's bad for football gamers yes but it's not close to a monopoly.