Madden NFL 13: Wishlist — what I want — WHAT WE ALL WANT (Part 1)

The Madden series has been critiqued and bashed with reckless abandon, “glorified roster update” comes to mind. It seems EA and Tiburon over the past few years have been including more and more — the gaming community, to offer their feedback on how they could make the Madden  series in general, but Madden 13 specifically better.

I will speak on some things that I feel will make Madden fans very,very happy. On the podcast (Controlled Substance) we have  a segment called “Letta 4 the Betta” and  it’s our letter — in digital form to our favorite developers to give them suggestions on how to make their games — well — better. Consider this my letter — in written form to EA and Tiburon. The “real” Madden fans and football fans in general should appreciate this piece. Feel free to comment and give feedback CCU wants to hear from you.

I will go into extreme details on what I believe will make the game better and why it will make the  game better and hopefully we’ll get what we want. Let’s have some fun shall we?

Dear EA/Tiburon,

Madden 12 is a very, very, very good game but it will never be complete in my opinion without some key fixes/add-ons.

Two downloadable rosters: What we want

Now this will change the game forever if you guys can provide this, you will make many happy. What I mean is this, provide gamers with the option to download either the rosters and ratings update or just a roster stand alone update.

Why this is good:

Gamers like me that do their own roster rating updates (which take a long time might I add) would benefit greatly, because we want the roster update but if we choose to download, it will reset all our rating updates.  If we could just get the roster update though, by-itself, who got traded, number changes, who got signed, equipment changes etc. while keeping all our personal rating changes that we personally implemented, that would be greatly appreciated.

Online: What we want

To piggy-back off the two downloadable rosters idea, allow gamers to take these rosters online and use them! Hold on, I know your worried about it being fair and unified right? Solution: Allow a player inviting another player to survey said rosters and approve if they don’t mind playing with these rosters. There can be an accept/decline button. If  they accept, a private match would initiate with user rosters instead of the pre-loaded ones. Allow this to flow over to all game modes online such as Online Franchise.

Why this is good:

Let me say, I don’t play online — at all. My friends always ask me to play and I decline, for reasons like stated above.  Not that I don’t want to, I just don’t feel like the ratings match the real-world counterparts and because of that  I don’t feel I’m actually this team or can utilize specific players real-world skills. The 49ers are my team,  Vernon Davis for  instance was never the true speed he is in real-life that he is in Madden and because of that, instead of being a terror to linebackers, safeties, and corners alike he’s reduced to a stereotypical TE. BTW Delanie Walker’s a “freak” too — athletically.

With the new system in place, we can use our own interpretation of the rosters, albeit based on real-world comparisons and finally join the rest of the online community.

If you guys can pull this off I’ll be online everyday!

PS2 customization: What we want

BRING THIS BACK!!! I’ve been in the forums asking for this for years! It’s a shame that the PS2 customization destroys this-gen’s customization. Everything from equipment, to how you set up your team playbook and personnel wise are leaps and bounds over anything seen this generation. This generation took a step back in that department.

What do I mean? Okay, so let’s start with equipment. It was top notch in the PS2 era, I mean attention to detail was immaculate. You guys allowed gamers to change virtually everything in the game, it was like you handed over to us the developing tools. Things like height, weight, what arm he throws with, mouth piece, neck protectors, hair —  the kind of hair, the color of the hair!   Tattoos!  Were all there. You even allowed us to customize the uniforms (what the player wears) for home and away! So if a player wears black wristbands when they’re home and white wristbands when they’re away, you could do that! Incredible! You could even put color on their cleats, I remember the year when Steve Smith of the Panthers and Ochocinco — then Johnson of the Bengals used to wear sky blue and orange cleats respectively I used to go and reflect that in the equipment.

Why this is good:

Because players constantly change and you want the game to reflect that real-time. Let’s take hair for example players sometimes cut their hair, grow their hair, color their hair (Facial as well). I remember, I believe it was Madden ’08 Maurice Jones-Drew had dreads but he cut his hair (in real life) I believe prior to that sesason and I had to look at Jones-Drew the whole year with dreads (annoying). No problem, you would think  Madden ’09 would reflect his new look right? Nope, was not the case — same thing! I don’t know if EA forgot or it was an oversight but now I had to go two years looking at an unrealistic Jones-Drew, and there  are many examples that are similiar. If we could go in ourselves and do it — problem solved.

I remember one of my favorite things I did was, remember that QB for the NY Giants? He had a heck of an arm and was athletic but was also fat, yeah Jared Lorenzen aka “Pillsbury Throwboy”,aka “QBese”, aka “Hefty Lefty”,  aka “QB (got) back”. Well EA initially had him looking like a regular ol’ skinny quarterback. I went in there and with the customized tools added his “true” weight. I made him look like himself, I was so proud of it I was hoping Eli got hurt just to play with him, or see the reaction of someone elses face seeing a QB that fat — but that athlectic, can’t do that anymore (sighs). Bringing this back will ensure we don’t have to wait a whole year for a fix.

Jared Lorenzen

Now the personnel: What we want

I love Gameflow (I think everybody should use it)  and now mixed in is customized playbooks — love it! However what’s missing is this, in real games when teams are game planning they’re not only game planning the plays but also game planning who will run said plays. Currently I can’t pinpoint which player does what. Allowing such a feature will take Game Planning to another level.

Why this is good:

For instance, I want to run a double reverse but my #1 and #2 receivers are “possession receivers” I want to run this particular play with my 5th string WR who has 97 speed, currently  I’m not allow to do this. I want the player to already be preset to run this play instead of having to go into the playbook find the play and then insert said player. With Gameflow you can’t accomplish this, and yeah, like I said,  I could go into my playbook and do it but it still not the same. Coaches, for the most part don’t take a uh…uh…uh you run this play approach.

In the NFL, before a team goes into a game they know who they’re running the play with. With the PS2 you guys had a system called “Global Substitutions” (problem solved) where you can decide who runs what, on what play — special teams included, you might want to look into bringing this back. But really we should be able to do this from the menus as well.

Also this would resolve a glaring issue when it comes to substitutions in general. Currently If I bench one of my starters — say a Patrick Willis, he would then be playing Special Teams, the Global Substitution system will ensure that PW never plays in that aspect of the game, unless I want him to. Better yet if I could do this prior to even playing a game that would save time for me setting up my team in-game and potentially frustrating an opponent (which may be the reason you guys removed  it in the first place).

Fix the zoom: What we want

The zoom camera is my absolute favorite mode to play with,  I like to be in the action as close as possible, please  don’t remove it again :), however it needs some tweaking.

Why this is good:

It’s near perfect but when it gets to the sidelines that’s when it falls short. The angles are off and the camera doesn’t follow the action. You fix that, you have a bona fide camera mode.

Handling Interceptions and Fumbles: What we want

You absolutely, positively have  to remove slow-motion interceptions and fumbles for this Madden and all future Madden’s, never to be seen or heard from again, ASAP!

Why this is good:

We as gamers want simulation football and in simulation football that style of gameplay is unacceptable! Having slow-motion effects not only allows an opponent to recover and see the field to potentially make a play, it makes  the game arcadey and cheesy.

Unlocking All positions, All attributes for all players: What we want

All players should  be able to play all positions regardless of what we think we know about them or what position they initially play.I can’t count how many times players have played multiple positions in real-life but couldn’t be duplicated in Madden. I wanted to use my DT as a FB but couldn’t I want to use my receiver as a quarterback and vice versa but couldn’t.

Why this is good:

Because as we know in today’s NFL players are very diverse and to limit them based on a stereotype is not simulation. For instance Chad Ochocinco, as we found out is a heck of a kicker he can kickoff and has good leg power, as well as he can kick extra points, but he’s a receiver he shouldn’t be allowed right? Wrong, what if I want to use Chad as my emergency backup kicker? Now provided EA does have some form of this.TE’s can play WR, CB’s can play WR and vice versa but they need to take this further and unlock every position. If I want to make my Left Tackle play safety I should be able to do that (albeit consequences — getting burned). Heck, Troy Polamalu played the Running Back position on kneel down plays. Look at Aaron Hernadez who played running back this past year.

Worried about exploits? That’s where rating attributes come in, my receiver will have limitations at QB (unless of course he is that talented). I actually don’t mind exploits, heck the NFL is built on exploits! Michael Vick is a full-blown living, breathing exploit with that arm and that speed. The wild-cat is an exploit but it’s our job — much like in real-life to figure out how to exploit the exploits, lmbooooo.

Which leads me to, bring back all attributes for all players. I  saw where EA was going with it, probably directly from community feedback, making a case that  logically it doesn’t make sense if your a Lineman, for things like catching and kicking  to be a part of their attribute makeup, because it’s not required for the position. However what  if we want to make a Lineman  an eligible receiver? Which we’ve seen numerous times. Suppose he was a former TE like Joe Staley (49er) was — now he has no attributes to represent how he performs on the field. He could actually have the best hands on the team but will never play like it.

I had  a conversation on  Facebook about this and we came up with this resolve, since people want the ratings relevant to the position, why don’t  you list those first and then everything else after or/and allow us to customize what attributes we want to go first,second, third etc. So now the ratings that matter most are more stream-lined than ever, while preserving every attribute a football player can have.

I think if all these things can be implemented this year, you will have one very happy community EA/Tiburon.

Sincerely Yours,

SchollA

P.S. Stay tuned for Part 2 and remember CCU wants to hear from you.

Update* For Part 2 Click here .