I’ve created a few challenges to test your skill as a general manager. It’s time to release your inner John Schneider. Try them out, and then let me know how they go. All of them are possible, but a few offer more challenge than others. If you’re really in for a challenge, try and complete the “expert mode” version.

I’ve added some hints for each one, and I added a Seahawks themed one as well.

First a couple rules:

• obviously, offline coach connected careers only here.
• sim every game. we’re trying to test your skill as a GM, not how good you are at playing the game
• use all default settings/sliders unless specified. no turning off injuries or anything.

The #1 Offense

This one is pretty straight forward, pick a team that has a generally poor offense, and build it up to the point where it is consistently the #1 offense in the league. Trade away your best defensive players for offensive weapons if you have to, just build a goliath of an offense like the NFL has never seen.

Expert Mode: Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked offense and the #32 ranked defense

Hint: Offenses are ranked by total yards. Pass the ball, and be agressive.

Hint: Same goes with the defense. Who cares if you give up a ton a points. you need possessions. Be aggressive, it’ll pay off.

The #1 Defense

Pick a team that has a poor defense, and build it to the point where it is the #1 defense in the league every year. This is just like the #1 offense, only slightly tougher. If your offense is really bad, your defense will be on the field a lot more and it’ll hurt your ranking. You wont be able to sell off all your offensive talent to build your defense here.

Expert Mode: “The Trent Dilfer” – Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked defense, and a QB no better than a 72 ranking.

Hint: Run the ball on offense. A lot. If you shorten the game, the defense will give up less yards.

Hint: choose your defensive scheme wisely. Some are easier to dominate with than others.

The No Draft Team

Build up you team without using a single draft pick, ever. Trade away all your picks every season for whatever you can get for them, and still manage to have a top team. This will be very tough, as free agents are much more expensive than drafted players even for the same skill level. Take a bad team and turn them into a Super Bowl winner.

Expert Mode: Win a Super Bowl playing this way after the year 2022.

Hint: Trade your picks for young, cheap players that are under team control for 2+ years. You wont get many, but it helps.

Hint: Don’t let your team get too old. The bottom can drop out on you in one offseason and then you’ll find yuorself unemployed.

The No Free Agency Team

Take over a bad team and build them into a Super Bowl team using only the draft. Use No free agent signings. If you have to sign a player to fill out your roster so you can play games, sign a player who’s skill is in the 60′s. This challenge will take a lot of planning. Make sure you don’t let the wrong player walk in free agency.

Expert Mode: Don’t get the Expert Scouting perk for additional scouting points.

Hint: Trade for better picks next year (your #2 this season for a #1 next season) whenever possible. you’ll need multiple 1st round successes to make this work.

Hint: If you plan correctly, you’ll find times when a player will enter his contract year when you already have his replacement lined up. Be sure to trade that player for picks if possible.

The Expansion Team

This one takes some set up work. Before you start your career, go into “My Madden” and clean house. Trade away or cut every player who’s skill is over 75, or who makes more than 600k/year. Add as many players as possible who’s skill is in the 60s and has an expiring contract. I mean EVERY player here. You’ll probably have to cut 40-ish players, and sign just as many. It’ll take some time. If you have less than $70 mil of free cap space, you probably missed a few players.

Now start your career and pick that team. You’ll want to turn off coach firings for this one, since going 1-15 when the owner expects you to make the playoffs will lead to a short tenure as coach. Sim past the entire first season. Don’t bother re-signing anyone, since none of the players on your team will be good enough to worry about anyways.

Goal: Build the team up from nothing and win a Super Bowl (or multiple Super Bowls)

Expert Mode: Leave coach firings turned on a manage not to get fired in the first couple seasons

Hint: Don’t go crazy in free agency the first 2 seasons. You’ll run out of cap room before your team is ready to compete. Only sign young players who’ll still be around when you’ve managed to draft a core that can win.

The Seahawks As #1 Defense In A 3-4

This is essentially the the #1 defense challenge above, but much more specific. You have to convert Seattle’s 4-3 defense into a 3-4 powerhouse. It’s not as easy as it sounds. There are lots of personnel that have to moved around just to field a team.

Expert Mode: Instead of the 3-4, do the same thing with the tampa-2 scheme and playbook.

Hint: Clemons and Irvin make good stop-gap 3-4 OLBs, but you’ll want to move them for the real thing when you get a chance.

Hint: If you’re doing the Tampa-2 expert version, you’ll have to trade away much of the Legion of Boom. You’ll find they wont be particularly productive in that zone based scheme.

Jan 27, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; A detail of the Super Bowl XLIVII helmet on display inside the NFL Shop at the Convention Center prior to Super Bowl XLVII to be played between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers on February 3, 2013 and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Super Bowl week is here and predictions are starting to come out from just about everywhere. I’ll have my prediction in a couple days, but in the mean time, here’s something else to chew on. EA Sports has released their official Madden 13 prediction in form of the awesome video below.

Before you scoff at the idea of a video game as prediction tool, you should know that Madden has successfully predicted 7 of the last 9 Super Bowls correctly.

The EA SPORTS Madden NFL Super Bowl Prediction continues to be one of the most accurate prognosticators of the NFL’s biggest game. The prediction has accurately called seven of the last nine Super Bowls, and was two points away from predicting the exact final score of the 2009 matchup between the Steelers and Cardinals. – Operation Sports

Seeing Ray Lewis come unblocked for a sack definitely made me smile.

What do you think?

Clearly there are better tools to predict the outcome of a game, but this one is available and well known. Lets all try and remember that this has nothing to do with reality, and not overreact. It’s just for fun.

First, lets set the stage a little bit. The Seahawks have an 87 overall rating, and the Redskins have an 82 rating, so the Seahawks are the favorite in this game even though they are playing on the road.

The game profiled below was watched on “spectator mode.” That way, it’s just like the simed games, and my skills (or lack there of) wont effect the results. The goal was to simulate the game and see how the software thought the game would unfold, not to play game. I’ll save that for another day.

Seahawks lost the toss. Redskins deferred to 2nd half, so the Seahawks got the ball first. Leon Washington runs it out from 6 yards deep and gets stopped at the 18. I feel like I’ve seen this before.

1st play, Russell Wilson scrambles for a 8 yard gain. Probably going a theme. Seahawks have a tough time getting Lynch going after that and the drive stalls.

Pete Carroll’s digital version looks like 80 years old, and like he’s recently has a stroke. The guys at EA must hate him.

RG3′s first play is also a scramble, for 2 yards. 2nd play is a pick by Marcus Trufant. Seattle’s defense getting it done early.

After 2 Seahawks drives, Wilson is 4 for 4, but only have 16 yards. 2 passes completed each to Robinson and Lynch. only 1 first down so far, but they get a FG after the pick

3-0 Seahawks.

2nd Redskins drive, more RG3 running the ball. 12 yards up the middle on the first play. 5 more on the 2nd play. They’ve run 4 plays, 3 RG3 runs and a pick. Then he finally completes a pass. Seahawks playing zone. Next play is another pick. This one by Jeremy Lane.

Seahawks 3rd drive Begins with a Lynch 3 yard carry. He’s now 5 carries for 3 yards. Clearly the other 4 carries weren’t worth mentioning. Seahawks have to punt 2 plays later. That ended the 1st Quarter.

I don’t think the Seahawk’s playbook in this game has the read-option. Washington’s playbook does though. They ran it twice in the 1st quarter for 1 yard. The Reskins subbed out Morris for Royster at RB at this point and his speed is helping them move the ball a little better. They still had to punt, but they got a couple first downs this time.

After that the teams trade punts for a while. I got bored and started writing the introduction to this article and stopped paying attention and waited for something interesting to happen. That finally happened when the Seahawks took over with 3:33 left in the 1st half. The Seahawks stopped trying to run the ball (which clearly wasn’t working) and let Wilson pass on every play. The result was an 80 yard drive in 1:50 and a 26 yard TD to Doug Baldwin.

Washington responded with a quick FG drive before the half. Making it 10-3 Seattle at halftime.

A quick 3 and out (3 incompletions by Griffin) gave Seattle great field position for what would be a disastrous drive, at least on the injury front. Russell Okung injured his ankle on the first play and had to leave. Russell Wilson was injured 2 plays later. It was a minor lower back injury, but Pete Carroll apparently decided he hold him out for next week.

Matt Flynn came in and 2 plays later the Seahawks were in for another TD. 31 yard run from Lynch set up a 17 yard TD pass to Miller. 17-3 Seahawks.

Another DC punt, followed by another Matt Flynn TD pass. This time it was to Rice for 8 yards, capping off a 82 yard drive. 24-3 Seahawks with the third quarter almost over.

At this point the Redskins finally woke up. A long drive with no running plays results in FG and Seattle lead is cut to 24-6. This is followed by a Matt Flynn interception and another DC field goal, making it 24-9 Seattle.

At this point, I think Matt Flynn decided he didn’t want his interception to be what people remembered about his performance, and connected on a 56 yard TD pass up the seem to Zach Miller. That made it 31-9 and essentially iced the game for the Seahawks.

Bruce Irvin sacked Griffin on 4th and 1 on the next drive which gave Seattle another FG with 1 minute left.

The final score was Seattle 34 – Washington 9.

Lynch ended the game with 77 yards on 22 carries. Yards up the middle were tough to come by. The Washington running attack was led by Royster’s 22 yard. Morris as 21 yards on 12 carries.

Griffin had 51 pass attempts and 259 yards, but completed only 56% and had the 2 picks. Wilson was 12 of 15 and a TD before his injury. Flynn was 18 of 25 and 3 TDs.

After that game, I switched to using “supersim” and simulated 19 more games so that I’d have 20 total. Here are all of the scores:

* Game ended in overtime.

I would have liked to do this 50 or 100 times or more for the sake of having a larger sample size, but 20 was all I could handle for my sanity.

The Seahawks won 15 out of 20 games (75%). Few of the games were close. All but 2 were decided by more than a FG, though another game did go into overtime.

If there’s a common thread in all of these games, it’s that the Seahawks were able to put up a lot of points. In only 1 out of 20 games (5%) were the Seahawks held under 30 points. Conversely, they broke 50 twice (10%) and were close 3 other times.

It didn’t seem to if the Seahawks jumped out to an early lead and ran the ball a lot, or fell behind early and had to throw it to get back into the game. The one common denominator here is that a lot of Seattle possessions ended in touchdowns.

So to spice things up, I’ve created a few challenges to test your skill as a general manager. It’s time to release your inner John Schneider. Try them out, and then let me know how they go. All of them are possible, but a few offer more challenge than others. If you’re really in for a challenge, try and complete the “expert mode” version.

First a couple rules:

• obviously, offline coach connected careers only here.
• sim every game. we’re trying to test your skill as a GM, not how good you are at playing the game
• use all default settings/sliders unless specified. no turning off injuries or anything.

The #1 Offense

This one is pretty straight forward, pick a team that has a generally poor offense, and build it up to the point where it is consistently the #1 offense in the league. Trade away your best defensive players for offensive weapons if you have to, just build a goliath of an offense like the NFL never seen.

Expert Mode: Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked offense and the #32 ranked defense

The #1 Defense

Pick a team that has a poor defense, and build it to the point where it is the #1 defense in the league every year. This is just like the #1 offense, only slightly tougher. If your offense is really bad, your defense will be on the field a lot more and it’ll hurt your ranking. You wont be able to sell off all your offensive talent to build your defense here.

Expert Mode: “The Tent Dilfer” – Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked defense, and a QB no better than a 72 ranking.

The No Draft Team

Build up you team without using a single draft pick, ever. Trade away all your picks every season for whatever you can get for them, and still manage to have a top team. This will be very tough, as free agents are much more expensive than drafted players even for the same skill level. Take a bad team and turn them into a Super Bowl winner.

Expert Mode: Win a Super Bowl playing this way after the year 2022.

The No Free Agency Team

Take over a bad team and build them into a Super Bowl team using only the draft. Use No free agent signings. If you have to sign a player to fill out your roster so you can play games, sign a player who’s skill is in the 60′s. This challenge will take a lot of planning. Make sure you don’t let the wrong player walk in free agency.

Expert Mode: Don’t get the Expert Scouting perk for additional scouting points.

The Expansion Team

This one takes some set up work. Before you start your career, go into “My Madden” and clean house. Trade away or cut every player who’s skill is over 75, or who makes more than 600k/year. Add as many players as possible who’s skill is in the 60s and has an expiring contract. I mean EVERY player here. You’ll probably have to cut 40-ish players, and sign just as many. It’ll take some time.If you have less than $70 mil of free cap space, you probably missed a few players.

Now start your career and pick that team. You’ll want to turn off coach firings for this one, since going 1-15 when the owner expects you to make the playoffs will lead to a short tenure as coach. Sim past the entire first season. Don’t bother re-signing anyone, since none of the players on your team will be good enough to worry about anyways.

Goal: Build the team up from nothing and win a Super Bowl (or multiple Super Bowls)

Expert Mode: Leave coach firings turned on a manage not to get fired in the first couple seasons

If you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1 of my review: Graphics and Gameplay, part 2: Offline Modes, and part 3: Online Modes.

Gridiron Challenge

This mode seems oddly out of place in this year’s game. It’s an old mode managed to not get cut along side everything else. In this mode, you replace historic moments from last season and try and replicate them, like the Lion’s big comeback about Dallas last season, or the Tebow overtime drive vs the Steelers.

Most of these scenarios could have been turned into practice mode scenarios in the connected careers mode, but I’m glad they managed to stick around as their own game mode. They’re fun, and often quite challenging.

Game Face

This is one of those gimmicky features that usually annoy me in games. It serves no purpose, but it’s clear that EA spent a lot of money on it, so it marketed like it revolutionary. In reality, it’s not particularly necessary, but it is kind of cool.

It takes a bit of work to get the pictures you need that are taken just right, and to get them uploaded to the very slow gameface website and for the site’s telemetry to generate your face. Once you’re done there, it downloads into Madden very quickly, and then you can use your own face on your created player.

Its certainly not an essential feature, but it’s pretty cool and worth trying out if you buy the game.

Game Sounds

I have to add this. I just dont’ get how EA doesn’t take the time to update the on field sounds. They sounds rather generic, and I’m fairly sure they are the same ones that EA has been using since the late 1990s. They aren’t bad, but for a franchise that seems to work so hard on the presentation and those types of details, the on-field sounds could be much better.

Announcers

I never thought I’d write these words and actually mean them: ” the announcers in this sports game are actually pretty good.” I know, right? pretty unblievable, but its true.

The duo of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms do a great job of saying what needs to be said, but not talking endlessly about nothing. This is a very pleasant and unexpected deviation from the trend set by every other sports game ever made.

Presentation

The presentations values within this game simply aren’t what we’ve come to expect from the Madden franchise. The Ray Lewis intro is inspiring, but after watching it once it’s just another annoying thing you have to skip every time to want to play the game.

The game is shiny, but it’s reached a point where it’s too shiny. The menus are all graphics, which is nice to look at, but they’re so slow now. And what’s with the light blue everywhere? I get that Calvin Johnson is the cover athlete, but does everything have to be Lion’s blue? it really makes it tough to read.

Grades 

All grades are out of 10

Graphics: 9

Gameplay: 9.5

Offline careers: 7.5

Offline careers: 8.5

Sounds/Announcers: 8.5

Presentation: 7

Overall: 8.5

Conclusion

This game isn’t perfect; far from it actually. But EA deserves credit for taking a giant leap into the future with this edition of Madden. Instead of trotting out the same old thing that they’ve been giving us for almost 20 years, they gave us something completely new and fresh.

EA chose evolution over  refinement, and made a game and genuinely feels like something completely new. Fans of the franchise will have to adapt since their beloved game modes now look and feel very different, but I don’t believe that is a bad thing. EA deserves some very huge credit for delivering a fun an extremely innovative game instead of playing it safe with the same old tired stuff.

If you’re unsure if you’ll like the new connected careers, then I suggest renting the game first to help you decide if it’s worth the money.

For me, it was money very well spent.

If you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1 of my review: Graphics and Gameplay, and part 2: Offline Modes.

Single Game

The matchmaking system seems to work quite well. I never had anyone with a substantially different raking than my own end up in a game with me. That said, the ranking system seems odd. Winning a highly rated team over a low rated team seems to have almost the same effect on your ranking that doing the opposite. So if you want a high ranking, there’s no reason to play using the league’s bad teams.

Matchmaking was swift and easy, both when using the auto connect mode and using the lobbies. It seemed to take almost no time to get into a game and get to the ball kicked off and playing.

Once inside the game though, I run into some troubles. I ended up disconnected from my opponent about as often as I was able to finish a game. Some times I was credited with a “win” in that situation and something it was a loss. I’m not even sure what was used to determine who won in those situations. I’d like to think that EA would make it so that the person who disconnects always lost to prohibit people from disconnected to avoid a loss, but it didn’t appear to work that way.

One added feature that I found to be surprisingly fun was the “team play” mode, where up to 6 players from around the world could play on the same team vs the AI. Having a smart teammate that could break of a route during a blitz, or chip a DE on the way out into pattern made the game feel much more realistic.

I should add that inside the game, connection issues aside, there was no lag or any such internet related problems. The gamed smoothly and looked and felt exactly like I was playing offline against the AI.

Connected Careers

This is where Madden 13 really shines. I was very surprised at how well this mode worked online. The fact that it worked so seamlessly was one really pleasant surprise.

This mode is also why the typical franchise mode and superstar mode were scrapped. it’s possible to have a single league where some people are progressing through their career as a player, and others are in coach mode.

I was really fun playing as a “late round” mockup of Robert Turbin, and running into a player coached team that, knowing I would want to run up my own stats, had everyone up on the line of scrimmage trying to stop the run. I was having my QB throw a lot in order to insure the win, while still trying to get my yards as the RB when I could to make sure my player would improve.

In another game, I ran into someone who had created a “high round” MLB. The game quickly became a 1 on 1 matchup of his LB and my RB. I called running plays as often as I could just because of how entertaining it was to take on a single player like that over and over. In the end, I think he won more than I did in that matchup, but it was extremely fun.

Its these kind of unique matchups that make connected careers really work. I never felt that I was at a disadvantage or advantage to the people who were playing as a coach when I was a player, and vise versa. I just found myself wondering what was next, and really looking forward to the next week.

Unfortunately, that was where the problem is. These seems to be no set timetable before the next week began. It was up to the league commissioner to advance to the next week, and if they went offline there was no telling when that would be. There were other times when it also seemed that it could be almost no time at all between weeks. I went outside and played with my kids for a while, and came back in and 3 weeks had been simmed in my absence.

After the first few weeks of a season, getting people online for games was a real mess. In order to play a game, both people must be online at the same time, and I’m sure you can guess how difficult that was pull off.

As fun as it sounds, getting 32 people together to make a league really slowed down the fun. I found it to be much better with leagues of 5-10 players. This was especially if I knew the people in the league and thus could set up times for games as opposed to public leagues. So keep that in mind.

Ultimate Team 

This is easily the weirdest mode I’ve even seen, at least in terms of one where we’re supposed to take it seriously. The basic premise is that you collect football cards, and you use the players from the cards you have in order to make a team. You can then play as your makeshift team against other people’s teams.

Want better players? Get better cards, and to do that you have to get packs of cards.

You can get packs of cards in two ways. The easiest is to play the other modes of Madden 13 and reach certain milestones. I found that I ended up with a number of card pack just from playing enough to write this review.

The other way to get cards, and the reason why this game mode won’t work for the majority of us, is to pay real money and buy them. If you’ve got $6-$20 dollars to spend, you can get a number of “legends” that will insure that your team is better than everyone else’s.

I just don’t see how playing as a team of USFL fodder against a team with Steve Young and Jerry Rice is supposed to be fun. I get that this is a way for EA to increase revenue for this game, and that eventually the people who spend real money on player cards will have team ratings high enough that I wont have to play them, but the unbalanced nature of this mode right now really turned me off.

I’ll wrap up this review in the next installment, and finally issue grades for each of the features, and for the game overall. That should be ready and posted no later than tomorrow morning.

If you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1 of my review: Graphics and Gameplay.

Below you’ll find reviews for both the major offline modes, followed by trio of things that really annoyed me when I was playing the game. I needed to fit them in here at some point, and this seemed like the logical place.

Connected Careers – Player

The old Superstar mode is replaced with the player portion of the connection careers mode. In it you’ll find the usual progression of picking a current player, or your own custom player, and playing through their career one week at a time.

Some wont agree, but I really like the changes to how players are created. Instead of lame mini-games being used to set the players starting ratings, those are set automatically based on the “back story” you choose. This allows for this part of the game to feel like 2 separate modes.

Pick to play as a “high draft” pick, and you’ll start with great ratings and will be expected to start and produce right away. Fail to put up big stats, and you’ll see your rating begin to drop. Let down your team enough, and they’ll ship you out of town. The pressure is on not just to win, but to look good while doing it.

Start as a “low draft” pick or undrafted player, and you’ll start out with low ratings and low expectations. (low draft players have rating in the 70s and are backups. Undrafted players have ratings in the 60s and are fringe roster players) In these 2 settings you’ll find yourself having to work hard at practice trying to improve your ratings just to get on the field on gamedays.

Luckily, practice isn’t simply boring drills and the franchise’s tired old mini-games. Instead, it is primarily offense vs defense scenarios that play out just like a game: Down by 3 in the forth quarter, drive the team to the win. Up by 2 with 4 minutes left, try and run out the clock. That sort of thing. They can be really fun, and are rarely tedious.

Succeeding in the practice scenarios, or contributing to the team on Sundays, grants you experience points (xp). The xp is spent on upgrading your player’s ratings and helping turn them into a better player. The nice thing is that you can pretty much allocate the points wherever you want them (within reason). So you can build your player into whatever type of player you want over time.

Overall the mode works rather well. It isn’t groundbreaking, but it is fun, and the tweaks that were made keep things fresh. Additionally, the mode seems to stay fresh and fun much longer than in past years, when after a season or 2 everything became monotonous. I found that simply trying different practice  scenarios kept things interesting for me.

Connected Careers – Coach

The old Franchise mode is gone, and replaced with the coach branch of the connected careers mode. It progresses much like the player branch on a week to week basis with practices and games. You are also responsible with negotiating with players with expiring contracts, or who are vastly underpaid.

You are also changed with choosing players to scout for the draft, and setting up game plans, should you choose to. These things, along with player negotiations, can be skipped, but I’m sure you can see how that might be detrimental to your team in the long run.

As with the player version of this mode, you earn xp along the way, but this time you use it to upgrade the players on your team. This is how you get that rookie to develop faster, or help your offensive line not suck quite so bad. It’s not a great feature, but it keeps things interesting and makes you feel like each practice and game matter.

This mode isn’t perfect. You can’t simply play it through in “GM mode” anymore. (skipping everything but the offseason and personnel decisions) Or rather, you can, but your team will forever underperform. You can’t cant sim past multiple weeks at once anymore, making the entire game progress very slowly at times.

There are also things missing that really need to be there, but I’ve decided to make them their own category.

Missing: Create a Team

One thing that is getting a lot of press is that the Madden team has decided to remove the “create a team” feature from this version of Madden. I understand the complaints, putting together a new team, with a new logo, colors, stadium, uniforms, etc. was fun.

The reason why this is a big problem is that you can no longer relocate your team. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it was the one way for fans to take over a hated team and not want to throw their controller at their TV. I mean, leading the Raiders back from the dead would be fun, but not if I have to actually lead the Raiders.

Normally I’d just move them to LA, change everything about them, and then lead that new team. It would allow me to play through the interesting challenge that their current roster creates, w/o having to put up with being in charge of a franchise I can’t stand.

Like I said, it’s doesn’t sound like much, but it was an important feature for me.

Missing: Edit Player

This one is especially annoying. I can understand a little in the online versions of the career mode, but I really can’t support this being missing. And no, I’m not referring to being able to supersize players or their abilities. I really don’t care about the ability to do that.

Instead, what bothers me is the inability to change someone’s position. For some reason, EA decided that I can’t play an OT at Guard, or vise versa. Because clearly Paul McQuistan didn’t do that last year, or Robert Gallery the year before, or countless over players that have moved around on the offensive line during their careers.

This was really annoying because I actually drafted a RT with the intension of moving my current RT inside to RG, and couldn’t do it. My only option was to try and trade him, and no team was willing to offer my anything comparable. So basically it went down as a waste of a first round draft pick.

This is frustrating because there was no need to remove this little feature, or to limit players from playing out of position so much. It just doesn’t make sense.

No More Menus

In the past, if you like the GM aspect of Madden, and tend to sim the majority of games, then you ended up looking at a menus. In fact, you looked at nothing but menus. It was annoying. I really thought that getting rid of those menus would be a very good thing, and mostly it is.

The one problem is that the new screens that replace those menus are laggy and just slow. Every time I move over to a new “button” to choose something, I shouldn’t have to wait 3 seconds before my controller works again. This is especially true on the front screen where there is a large much of buttons to scroll past. Moving from the left side of the screen to the right side can take 10 seconds. There’s just no reason for that.

This wont stop me from playing the game, but it will annoy me on a regular basis.

Part 3 will come out tomorrow and will include a review of the online features.

If you’re none of the above, then you’re probably a fan of the franchise and you’re wondering if you should spend the coin to update to the newest version. The answer is yes. And this is coming from someone who usually buys a new version every 3 years because the game chances so little each year that it always felt that I was just paying for a roster update. This year, its an entirely new game.

I’m breaking up this review into 2 parts. This first one will focus on graphics and gameplay, and part 2 will cover the other game modes and anything else I feel like talking about. Expect part 2 tomorrow, once I’ve had enough time to get into each mode long enough that I feel comfortable writing about it.

Graphics

EA Tiberon has invested in an all new game engine with real physics, and it shows. This is the biggest upgrade in the history of the franchise that didn’t include launching a new generation of hardware. Clearly I was impressed.

The graphics for the players were excellent. All the movement animations were solid. Some players had a slightly bow-legged unathletic running style, which seemed out of place, but it didn’t detract from the gameplay.

Where you can really tell there’s a difference is in the tackling. There’s no more canned animations. Bodies move like they should during a tackle on almost every play. It’s also possible to break a tackle and keep going, which was never possible in older versions of the game.

Occasionally, when the ball carrier takes a big hit, especially if another defender is also involved, the ball carrier will go flying and appear to have no control of their limbs. The resulting rag-doll effect is completely comical, though I sure it isn’t intended. It isn’t a pervasive problem, happening just over once per game on average.

My one big gripe was the graphics and animations of the fans. They appeared to be PS2 era for a most part.  At least the PS1 era graphics form the  “bimp” shot that were in the demo seem to be gone. I know it doesn’t really matter since the on-field look is so good, but then stop showing the cardboard cutouts replacements for fans so often.

Gameplay 

This is where the game engine changes I mentioned above really matter. If the game simply looked different, but felt like I was playing the same old game I’ve been playing for almost 2o years, then it wouldn’t really matter, at least not to me.

On defense is where the biggest change can be felt. Ever since the PS1 days, the dive button (square) was all you needed in order to tackle. Just dive into a player to start a tackling animation, and you were set. Now, that’s no longer the case. Going for the hit like that often results in missed tackles when the ball carrier bounces off and keeps going.

Instead, now you have to actually wrap up the ball carrier, which is a big improvement. I found myself having to choose between taking out a players legs like a CB might do, or moving in for the sure tackle while giving up an extra yard or 2. Playing defense feel much more apart of the game than it used to.

The field felt narrower than I remember. Passes to the outside seemed more difficult, while passes to the center of the field were easier to complete. Perhaps that was because Doug Baldwin was usually my slot receiver, but I doubt it. The passing windows on the sidelines were simply smaller than over the middle.

One of my complaints in the past was that linebackers were invincible against the run. Quick hitting runs, especially FB runs, were money, while outside plays like the stretch runs and sweeps were pretty much impossible on the higher difficulty levels. There was just no stopping the LB persuit, and it didn’t matter how many blockers there were out in front.

The opposite seemed to apply this year. DTs seemed to eat the FB runs and HB dive plays for lunch. The slower developing runs quickly became my bread and butter plays. I just had to remember to be patient and let my blockers do their job and not just mash the sprint button. It’s a solid change for the franchise, and it shows that the players are reading and reacting much closer to how a real player might.

Defensive players still don’t bite on misdirection plays often enough to make them worthwhile, though that doesn’t apply to play action. PA passes, especially to TEs, can be an easy way to move the ball down the field at times. Luckily, the AI adjusts and takes it away from you if you use it too often.

Speaking of the AI, it remains solid yet unspectacular. It will adjust to take away certain plays if you call them too much, but that opens up other plays if you know how to take advantage of it.  Overall, it’s still the best out there in sports games, but I still think it could be better.

Check back later (or tomorrow) for part 2.

This year is clearly different. EA Tiberon has invested in an all new game engine with real physics, and it shows. This is the biggest upgrade in the history of the franchise that didn’t include launching a new generation of hardware. Clearly I was impressed.

The graphics for the players were excellent. All the movement animations were solid. Some players had a slightly bow-legged unathletic running style, which seemed out of place, but it didn’t detract from the gameplay.

As far as graphics/animations, where you can really tell there’s a difference is in the tackling. There’s no more canned animations. Bodies move like they should during a tackle on almost every play. It’s also possible to break a tackle and keep going, which was never possible in older versions of the game.

Occasionally, when the ball carrier takes a big hit, especially if another defender is also involved, the ball carrier will go flying and appear to have no control of their limbs. The resulting rag-doll effect is completely comical, though I sure it isn’t intended. In 3 games today, I only had this problem 4 times, so it isn’t a pervasive problem.

On defense, there’s been a major change as well. Ever since the PS1 days, the square (dive) button was all you needed in order to tackle. Just dive into a player to start a tackling animation, and you were set. Now, that’s no longer the case. going for the hit like that often results in missed tackles when the ball carrier bounces off and keeps going. Instead, now you have to actually wrap up the ball carrier, which is a big improvement.

The field felt narrower than I remember. Passes to the outside seemed more difficult, while passes to the center of the field were easier to complete. Perhaps that was because Doug Baldwin was my slot receiver, who knows?

One of my complaints in the past was that linebackers were invincible. Quick hitting runs, especially FB runs, were money, while outside plays like the stretch runs were pretty much impossible. There was just no stopping the LB persuit, and it didn’t matter how many blockers were out in front. The opposite seemed to apply here. The slower developing runs quickly became my bread and butter plays. I just had to remember to be patient and let my blockers do there job and not just mash the sprint button.

It’s tough to judge the presentation quality on a Demo, since so much of that isn’t included. The announcers were fine, and not annoying, which is a pleasant change from every other sports game ever made. I’ve only played 3 games though, so perhaps my annoyance level will increase once I’ve played a few more.

My one big gripe was the graphics and animations of the fans. They appeared to be PS2 era for a most part, but even looked P1 era-ish when the camera pulled back to the “bimp” shot. I know it doesn’t really matter since the on-field look is so good, but then stop showing the cardboard cutouts replacements for fans after every play. Then again, they were Redskin fans, so maybe it’s accurate.

Overall, I give the Madden Demo high marks, and it only made me more excited for the full game to drop on August 27th.

The only real surprises here are the TEs Gronk is a great receiving threat, but as a TE he should also be grading on his blocking, which isn’t great. The Saint’s Jimmy Graham is less dynamic of a player, but is much more complete for his position. Vernon Davis is eternally overrated, but that’s nothing new. I can’t say I’m surprised that he is where he is.

No Seahawks on this list, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Only player who might be close to getting on here is Sydney Rice, and his injuries last season suppressed his stats enough that I don’t expect him to have elite ratings in this year’s game.

1. Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions, 99 overall
2. Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots, 97 overall
3. Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals, 97 overall
4. Andre Johnson, Houston Texans, 97 overall
5. Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers, 95 overall
6. Jimmy Graham, New Orleans Saints, 95 overall
7. Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers, 95 overall
8. Wes Welker, New England Patriots, 95 overall
9. Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons, 94 overall
10. Hakeem Nicks, New York Giants, 94 overall

Dec 18, 2011; Oakland, CA, USA; Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson (81) is defended by Oakland Raiders safety Matt Giordano (27) in the fourth quarter at the O.co Coliseum. The Lions defeated the Raiders 28-27. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

A downloadable spreadsheet directly from EA with the full RB rankings can be found HERE.

Marshawn Lynch comes in as the 12th best RB in the NFL with a 90 ranking overall. He’s also the best in the NFL at “trucking” or running people over. It seems the guys who do these ratings must have seen the “beastquake” from a couple seasons ago.

Robert Turbin wasn’t shown any love at all, getting just a 67 overall ranking. My guess is that because of where he was picked in the draft. Expect his ranking to get a huge boost when they update the rosters.

Here’s a sampling of ratings for players from the top of the NFL, down to Turbin.

While the QB top 10 was pretty well done and I had only 1 minor complaint, the WR rankings seems far from perfect. First and foremost is the complete lack of Marshawn Lynch. That makes very little sense. Especially with older players like Jackson, Gore and Turner in the top 10 when their best days are clearly behind them.

I’d also argue that Chris Johnson’s absence from the top 10 is a mistake. I know that he had an off year last season, but he held out of traiing camp and was playing in an all new offense. A guy doesn’t go from 2000+ yards to not being in the top 10 in RBs in just 1 year. I mean, Jamaal Charles didn’t even play last season and he’s still listed in the top 10.

10. Micheal Turner – RB/Atlanta Falcons 91 OVR

9. Jamaal Charles – RB/Kansas City Chiefs 91 OVR

8. Steven Jackson – RB/St Louis Rams 92 OVR

7. Frank Gore – RB/San Francisco 49ers 92 OVR

6. Matt Forte – RB/Chicago Bears 93 OVR

5. Ray Rice – RB/Baltimore Ravens 95 OVR

4. LeSean McCoy – RB/Philadelphia Eagles 95 OVR

3. Arian Foster – RB/Houston Texans 96 OVR

2. Adrian Peterson – RB/Minnesota Vikings 97 OVR

1. Maurice Jones-Drew – RB/Jacksonville Jaguars 97 OVR

Jan 1, 2012; Jacksonville FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew (32) runs past Indianapolis Colts defensive end Ricardo Mathews (91) and Indianapolis Colts defensive end Tyler Brayton (96) in the first quarter of their game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Field. The Jaguars won 19-13. Mandatory Credit: Phil Sears-US PRESSWIRE

The game’s raters weren’t very nice to the Seahawks QBs. Matt Flynn checks in as the best with a 79 ratings, Jackson follows closely behind with a 77, Russell Wilson follows him with a 70, and Josh Portis is a predictably low 60.

Below is a few of the key ratings for all the QBs who were have an overall of 70 or higher. If you want the full ratings for every QB in the league, you can download the official spreadsheet directly from EA by clicking HERE.

First the ratings, then I’ll comment below:

10. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles: 89 overall

9. Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys: 90 overall

8. Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions: 91 overall

7. Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers: 92 overall

6. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos: 93 overall

5. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers: 95 overall

4. Eli Manning, New York Giants: 97 overall

3. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints: 98 overall

2. Tom Brady, New England Patriots: 98 overall

1. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers: 99 overall

I have a bit of a problem with so many being at or above 95 rating. 99 is supposed to be the ideal player at the position, the best-ever type of player. I think that Aaron Rogers is the best QB in the league right now, but the best QB ever? I just can’t get behind that.

I also find it interesting that 23 teams will have starting QB below a 90 rating. It seems that the Madden staff finally got it right. There are only a few good QBs, and many team still searching for the franchise signal caller.

As expected, there’s no Seahawk on the list. Flynn is supposed to end up being about #18 when the final list comes out. That seems about right. Expect Jackson to be around 26, and Wilson down in the mid to high 30s.

The only other major problem I have with this list is the lack of Matt Schaub from the Texans. When healthy, he’s clearly better than Rivers, Romo, and Vick. This appears to be a case of going with hype over talent.