Madden NFL 13

[Dan]

That Operation Sports is a depressing place though.

"OH MY GOD I CAN'T PLAY AS ALL 32 TEAMS I LIKE TO CONTROL EVERYTHING WTF EA."

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah you have to take the good with the bad. Some of those guys are HARDCORE into Madden. Like in previous years they'd take control of every team so they could edit the coach styles and everything to match real life and make sure both running backs got the right amount of carries. They test sliders for days on end until they can get the right amount of plays per game at whichever quarter length they need. There was one dude who went into practice mode and basically raced his receivers over 40 yards to make sure the game's speed sliders produced realistic results (I guess no one had the heart to tell him that 40 times aren't recorded in full gear).

But some of their slider work is absolutely brilliant, and there's EA community reps over there who get to hear about stuff they perhaps wouldn't otherwise. I know there was a bunch of uniform fixes that came through either last year or the year before that wouldn't have happened had it not been for OS.

I hope the upcoming patch fixes the Bears uniforms

[alldaws1]

Does everybody get the game cover on the dashboard where it tells you what game your friends are playing? I just get a blank space whenever someone's playing Madden on my console but I saw on Dragsy's that the cover shows up.

[Adam]

As I'm scrambling around trying to keep up with the football (association football) transfer deadline day, so far all I've done is sit listening to the menu music...which is awesome

[thatshortguy]

As I'm scrambling around trying to keep up with the football (association football) transfer deadline day, so far all I've done is sit listening to the menu music...which is awesome

...meant to bring this up, because I am so very glad they did away with licensed music this year.

This year's Madden is dangerous on a lot of levels. I spent seven hours on managing the Falcons' roster over the first season, and I'd happily do it again and again. Haven't enjoyed a Madden this much in damn near a decade.

Now if only EA can figure out what's behind this freezing business.

[JasonM]

I started my coach version of CCM with the Cardies (All-Pro, 15 minutes, 15 second playclock) and after skipping through pre-season and cutting a bunch of players (Signed Plaxico as my only notable signing) I jumped into the Regular Season.

First game against the Seahawks I dominated from top to bottom with a phenomenal 37-10 win locking down their defense and wearing out the defense with Beanie's lethal ground game (had a 63 yard TD on his second run!) And I had something like 225 yards rushing with him alone, sadly just missed out on the record list. The draw play was lethal all on it's own managing to fool the defense a lot.

Skelton also threw 3 TD's and a pick and the recipients where naturally Fitz with 2 TD catches and Floyd with 1 beautiful catch in full stretch.

My second game was against the pats, and that game was a complete trainwreck of a contest ending in 40-13 for the Patriots. Brady and Co. had my defense in shambles for the majority of the game and my offense was the drizzling shits for the majority of 3 quarters only recording 10 points through the first 3. Skelton threw like 1 TD and 5 interceptions as I was forcing passes left and right and the running game was flaccid and I couldn't get Beanie established, so I ended up being very predictable and the Pats whipped me for it.

Hopefully my third game will be better than against the pats, still liking it a lot.

[Trey]

Any way to change CCM file names? I'm having trouble remembering which is which.

[Cactus Drags]

In connected careers, on the strategy tab, there's a section for schemes. This gives you the option to change your preferences at a given position, i.e. strong arm versus west coast quarterback. I have two questions:

1. Is it possible to change the importance star value for each position? For example, being a Bears fan, I've grown up not giving a shit about the quarterback position, whilst a decent tail back holds value akin to the ark of the covenant. I'd like my philosophy to reflect this.

2. Does changing the role preferences affect your scheme at all? At the top it still said power run offense, even after I fucked around with it and changed everything that I thought would reflect a west coast scheme.

It just doesn't seem to be of any use at all at the moment, either its broken and requires patching (highly likely given Tiburon's record), or I'm not using it properly.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

nOOb question, can't find a quick answer on google. In a match, is there a way to see a full playbook for my team. I know I can press square to call an audible and select a PA pass, Deep Pass, run etc - but not exactly which play I want.... Is there a way of bringing up a bigger, better, all singing, all dancing play menu?

And thanks for the passing tips last week guys. I've had a dodgy internet connection so I haven't had much chance to say cheers.

[jase12881]

nOOb question, can't find a quick answer on google. In a match, is there a way to see a full playbook for my team. I know I can press square to call an audible and select a PA pass, Deep Pass, run etc - but not exactly which play I want.... Is there a way of bringing up a bigger, better, all singing, all dancing play menu?

And thanks for the passing tips last week guys. I've had a dodgy internet connection so I haven't had much chance to say cheers.

Yeah, when you're in the game flow thing, there's a button and I believe it's x that brings up the full playcalling screen. You may have to hit a button (I think B) to go back a few screens to the formation screen though as it starts on the Ask Madden play by default.

[jase12881]

nOOb question, can't find a quick answer on google. In a match, is there a way to see a full playbook for my team. I know I can press square to call an audible and select a PA pass, Deep Pass, run etc - but not exactly which play I want.... Is there a way of bringing up a bigger, better, all singing, all dancing play menu?

And thanks for the passing tips last week guys. I've had a dodgy internet connection so I haven't had much chance to say cheers.

Yeah, when you're in the game flow thing, there's a button and I believe it's x that brings up the full playcalling screen. You may have to hit a button (I think B) to go back a few screens to the formation screen though as it starts on the Ask Madden play by default.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Ah, righty-O. Thanks.

[thatshortguy]

Ah, righty-O. Thanks.

For PS3 users' reference, it's the square button whenever the GameFlow menu pops up between plays.

[alldaws1]

You can turn Gameflow off in the options by selecting the Conventional play calling, then it should come up with your full playbook every time.

[Maxx]

I don't think there has ever been a video game commentator who is more of a complete prick than Phil Simms.

[Cactus Drags]

Part of the problem is the commentary's obviously not programmed to recognise things like screen passes "chickenshit QB looks for the completion to pad his stats" or spiking the ball "now that's just a bad read by the qb". But yeah, according to Sims no one ever does anything on their own merit, it's all because somebody fucked up. It's a shame, because they did a great job making it sound somewhat organic, leaving his miscues and corrections in.

[Mr Evil Guy]

i think this game kind of sucks balls offline. can't customize rosters before CC(i wanted to put peyton on san fran or tebow on jaguars for cool scenarios), no fantasy draft, other little things piss me off too. maybe I'll get used to it but initially I'm disappointed

[Adam]

Is there no option to switch players between teams? I thought that would be part of 'Customise Rosters' in the My Madden section but admittedly I haven't actually checked it out.

[Mr Evil Guy]

you can but it doesn't translate to CC, only play now mode which i never play anyway. i messaged EA and they said their developers are looking into it so for my sake hopefully they fix it.

[mystikz]

wait so the game is terrible because you can't put Tebow on the Jaguars? Really?

It's a game based on realism, and they want it realistic. The fantasy draft never interested me much to be honest. A lot are bitching about it though.

Customizing rosters would be nice for people that feel like updating the rosters themselves, but the whole connected careers is still a work in progress I suppose.