Madden 12

[DJ Ice]

Peyton fucking won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome!

Edited April 27, 2011 by DJ Ice

[Meacon Keaton]

That's great. What were the final percentages?

Nevermind. I found it.

Hillis 66%

Vick 34%

[Dan]

Wow.

[Mofoticon]

Awesome! Great to see a Brown get some recognition.

[Cactus Drags]

Fuck and yes!

I was really sceptical of this at the beginning, what with ESPN revealing the Tebow result to try and boost him and Aaron Rodgers having a cakewalk bracket. Nice to see we're not all just going to do what we're told all the time.

[Guest JukeboxHero]

Damn, it wasn't even close!

This is very awesome. I legit lost my shit when they announced it. Definitely picking up the game this year (was planning to anyways, except not if Vick won). Cleveland should get a parade for this.

[METALMAN]

Michael Vick what a dick.

[Meacon Keaton]

That's right, folks, PM metalman and he'll send you pictures of Vick's (apparently) impressive penis.

[METALMAN]

[A-Dub]

IGN has a "5 new things in Madden" feature up. Some sound cool, especially better coverage and improved gameflow. Am I the only one who doesn't care about updated presentation though? Its cool for about five games and then I just want to skip it and get to the actual game.

[Cactus Drags]

I do care about presentation, but I care about gameplay and a decent franchise mode first.

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, I'm done buying Madden until they do something with the franchise mode. It was more in-depth back on the PS2 than it is now.

[Damian WayLNKe]

I'm not sure if I even touched franchise mode in Madden 11 this year (just stuck with Ultimate Team). On the PS2, I used to basically sim all the games and just love to be the GM of the team. Now, it takes forever to load and they don't even have restricted free agency, etc.

[Meacon Keaton]

My big issue is the draft. The draft is one of my favorite things in sports. Hell, I still play the latest Head Coach because of how in-depth and fun the draft and all the events leading up to it were. The draft in Madden's franchise is the most boring, generic thing there is. Not to mention, the players almost are always terrible.

[Maxx]

I was getting tired of Madden, but a season in the EWBFL reinvigorated my interest...and probably killed other members interest in playing in the league again this year.

[EddieG]

360 or ps3? I'd probably be interested.

[SeanDMan]

That sound you heard was the existing interest completely deflating.

[DYSI]

From IGN.com:

"Any given Sunday" isn't just the title of a bad football movie; it's an old adage that you never know what you're going to get when players step out on the field. Anything can happen. Your star QB could sling it five yards past every receiver. Your shaky rookie cornerback might come up clutch with a game-changing interception. Over the course of weeks and seasons, players are defined by their tendencies and begin assuming roles in their teams.

Madden NFL 12 developer Tiburon recognizes this and has made it part of the core upgrade to Franchise mode. It's true, Madden has disappointed with its Franchise mode the past few years, but that looks to be changing this year. The amount of improvements is staggering, but the most significant are the additions of dynamic player performance and player roles.

Madden NFL 12 Gameplay Trailer

Dynamic Player Performance

Players rarely maintain the same level of performance throughout a season. There are good days and bad. In Madden NFL 12's Franchise mode, consistency and confidence are major factors in how a player's performance varies throughout a season.

Michael Vick can be thrilling to watch one week and agonizing to watch the next. His inconsistency can swing his Madden rating by some 20 points, which sounds crazy, but isn't too far-fetched. Peyton Manning, by contrast, remains the most consistent QB in the NFL. When Peyton steps onto the field, you can be fairly certain of the quality of his performance.

Rookies tend to be less consistent, capable of jaw-dropping plays followed by boneheaded ones week in and week out. And as players learn and mature (if they mature), they gain consistency. It matters this year if a player is a rookie – not just because they may have a lower overall rating, but because that rating can fluctuate greatly. Letting a rookie sit and learn is actually a viable strategy in Franchise mode.

The other weekly factor in dynamic player performance is confidence. This comes down to hot and cold streaks. If Antonio Cromartie remembers all his children's names and gets a pair of picks against the Giants, he's going to be riding high into the next week. So much of the game is said to be mental and so a player's mindset factors into their stats on Sunday. Streaks only last a maximum of three weeks before resetting, preventing a player from having an inflated rating the entire season.

Player Roles

Tom Brady is a playoff performer. He's good in the regular season, but something kicks in during the playoffs that boost his ability to win games. Mark Brunell has become a mentor. His role is to support the development of Jets QB Mark Sanchez. Having Brunell as mentor has Sanchez learning and improving at a faster rate. Adrian Peterson has been fumble prone in the past. It's in his head now. In big moments, he's more likely to cough up the rock. (No word yet on Peterson's role in Madden NFL 12).

Roles aren't given, they're earned. In each offseason, every player is analyzed to see if they meet specific criteria for a role. If so, they enter the next season tagged as such. These roles can have a big influence in games. After all, clutch performers can do things they just couldn't ever hope to do the first 55 minutes of a game. A switch turns on and they make good things happen. Some roles can have a positive effect on a player or team and others, like the unfortunate "fumble prone" role, can be negatives that follow a player until they find a way to shake the tag.

But roles go beyond game-day performance. The general manager for each computer-controlled team factors roles into his decision on free agents and draft picks. After all, if you have a "quarterback of the future" on the team, there's no reason to draft a QB in the first round. If a team is built on pounding the ball up the middle, they're going to try and sign a running back in free agency who fits the role.

And, of course, roles are going to change the way you build your own franchise. Roles aren't defined at the draft but on the field. So you won't know who is a showboater versus a work horse, but the difference could impact your ability to win games in the long run. And who knows, maybe over time a player will settle down, gain a veteran's mentality, and get serious about winning a championship. When trading or signing free agents, you're going to have to give extra weight to a player's role. All things being equal, I'm taking the playoff performer – heck, he's worth an extra million a year if he can help get us to the Super Bowl.

Here are some of the 20⁺ roles in Madden NFL 12:

• Team Mentor
• Team Leader
• Injury Prone
• Run Stopper
• Franchise Quarterback
• Defensive Playmaker
• Offensive Playmaker
• Playoff Performer
• Shutdown Corner
• Pass Rusher
• Trench Warrior
• Fumble Prone
• Underachiever
• Project Player
• 1st Round Pick
• Future Star
• Iron Man
• QB of the Future
• Feature Back

Tie consistency and confidence with the new player roles system and you have a Franchise mode that tests your GM and coaching abilities. Madden's Franchise mode last year was merely a bunch of seasons strung together. This year, players evolve over the course of a football dynasty. It's no longer just about the rating you see at the start of the season. Now, it's about the impact a player can have on your team and his level of consistency every given Sunday.

That's just part of the big changes coming to Madden NFL 12's Franchise mode. Check back Monday for more details on what's been added this year.

Sounds like A LOT of good improvements to the franchise mode. (Y)

Edited May 17, 2011 by Do You Smell It?

[mystikz]

Sanchez as "franchise qb" still makes me laugh some.

Injury Prone and Fumble Prone as roles are funny and not ones you'd want. I hope they don't stick AP with Fumble Prone, his fumble rate in last years Madden was ridiculous, he had a lot less fumbles last year.

[Cactus Drags]

So, their massive ground-up rebuilding and reason for 11's Franchise being identical to 10's is....stuff that was in the last-gen version. Brilliant. I want something more on a par with Football Manager. I never got to play Head Coach as it didn't come out over here. But there has to be something better they can come up with. Last year's franchise just felt like playing a bunch of games in a row.

Fair enough, they're tweaking the simming system and all, but it's all stuff that should already have been corrected. Hopefully there's enough of us for a decent online franchise this year, as that felt a bit different than the aforementioned offline one. I doubt I'll be running it this year however.