Madden 13 Wish List

I was thinking about the different sports titles coming out from EA for 2013. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements in all of them and I generally love EA sports titles but like many other people I've been dissapointed by the Madden franchise. Is it really that bad? Yes, it is, but I'm also a big Madden fan and have been since I was a kid. The reason for the huge dissappointment is the superstar mode. Some people like controlling the whole team in franchise mode or playing as the GM. I'm a superstar mode kind of guy. Whenever I play almost any sports game the first thing I want to check out and enjoy is the career mode; I want the full experience of the professional athlete and this is where Madden goes wrong. I think they had it right back in the PS2 and XBox days when your superstar had a house, a map of his city and many different aspects you were able to customize. These days, superstar mode gets boring quick and if a career mode is boring I stop playing that game. Like I said, I'm a superstar mode kind of guy.

I'd like to go on a rant about this but I found a YouTube video that says exactly what I'm trying to say. I agree 100% with everything the guy in this video is saying. So, here's our message to the EA sports Madden team, we hope you're listening.

The main points of the video are:

1.GO BACK TO PS2/XBOX DAYS
2.POSITION BATTLE
3.GET lDEAS FROM NCAA FOOTBALL
4.GAINING SKILL POINTS
5.CAMERA ANGLE
6.DRAFT DAY
7.ENDORSEMENTS
8.INTERVIEWS

Do you agree or disagree? Leave your comments below and help get the message across to the EA Sports Madden team.

Fight Night Champion Online

So I finally signed up for the Playstation network and I've discovered the joy of online gaming for the first time. I know, I know, I'm a really late arrival but hey, better late than never. The first two games I tried online were Street Fighter IV and Fight Night Champion. Well, online gaming can tell you a thing or two about people's mentality. One of the first things that struck me about playing Fight Night online were the boxers people create. The middleweight and lightweight divisions weren't that bad but the heavyweight division was downright disgusting!

By far, the majority of boxers I fight in the heavyweight division online are the tallest boxers with a thick muscular build (usually the Tyson body type which looks ridiculously intimidating) and the biggest reach which is somewhere around 82 or 83 inches. There's hardly any variety to these user created heavyweights, especially in the lower ranks and it can be rare to fight someone that doesn't fit the biggest physical measurements. 

Does everyone have to be the biggest, baddest, most powerful and intimidating boxer?

Lucky for the more reasonable ones among us that our big bad opponents usually don't have the brain to match their muscles. When I created my heavyweight I was thinking of an average blue collar type guy. My first heavyweight was a brawler but I tried to make him well rounded by building up different punches both to the head and body. This has been frustrating for the tough guys in the online heavyweight division who choose to spend all their xp points making one punch (usually the straight to the head) as strong as possible while ignoring the rest of their boxer's attributes. These guys forget that it's a boxing game not Mortal Kombat and I've been using that to my advantage when they come into the fight thinking they'll win with an early KO.

I've come up with a scenario that often goes something like this: 

I'm the underdog who steps into a fight with a guy who's overall rating is a few points higher than mine. Less experienced fighters rarely challenge guys higher up the ladder so my opponent thinks I'm a fool for challenging them and they are over confident. They come out in the first round and immediately show me that they've spent xp points trying to make one punch as dangerous as possible. I know this because they come out swinging their one and only heavy punch and rarely throw jabs or other punches that would compliment and set up the big punch. My opponent usually has me stunned and in trouble a few times during the first half of the fight; this works to my advantage because once they've hurt me once they are over confident and think they will KO me very quickly. 

The tough guy keeps throwing power shots with the same punch while I pretend I'm more hurt than I really am. I throw jabs and power shots to the body and while these slowly wear the other guy down, they're not pretty flashy punches like a powerful hook to the head. I stay away from my opponent and try to conserve energy for the first half of the fight. My opponent thinks the fight is his because he has won every round on the judge's score cards and then BAM! I come out for the second half of the fight with most of my stamina against an opponent who is tired and slow. Once their stamina is gone their punches don't hurt as much. Counter punches and power shots are much easier to land because the opponent is slow and frustrated. It's only a matter of time before I knock them out with an even mix of brains, speed and power. When this happens some guys get so frustrated that they quit before the fight ends and they end up with a loss and a negative online record for disconnecting from the fight.

So there are a lot of dumb fighters out there but the higher climb up the ladder, the smarter the boxers become and then fighters do come along who know what they're doing and fights become a real challenge. I have to admit that I have been the victim of having too much confidence also and found myself paying the price late in the fight. I respect the players I come across who have a real knowledge of the sport. Unfortunately it feels like the majority of the gamers out there want to be the big bad tough guy that knocks you out in round 1 and don't seem to understand what Mike Tyson said in the promo trailers leading up to the release of Fight Night Champion, 

"This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is going to get hurt real bad in this sport."

That's right Mike, it's a thinking man's sport and that's how you win in boxing. 

Why can't Madden keep up?

I really enjoy playing EA sports titles and I generally think they’re good fun. Until recently I had gone a few years without a gaming console. As a kid I followed Nintendo to Super Nintendo and for a brief period N64 and then nothing. One of the biggest reasons I got a PS3 in the recent past was because of the release of Fight Night Champion. I’m a sucker for boxing games and when I saw that Fight Night Champion was coming out I came out of the dark ages and got my hands on a console.

I was really looking forward to a lot of things coming from the PS3 and I couldn’t wait to see the changes in all kinds of games. I think EA Sports has done a pretty good job for the most part and I loved Fight Night Champion when I got it. I played for a few months non stop. Perhaps the biggest disappointment in today's sports games comes from the Madden Franchise. I own an EA Sports NHL, MLB, NBA, Fight Night, Madden and FIFA title for the PS3. After not having played many games since the Super Nintendo and N64 days I’ve been wowed by the developments in all of the sports franchises with the exception of the Madden Series. They’re still fun to play and I do look forward to the titles that come out every year but I find them a lot weaker than the other sports games. While the other sports games deliver at least a generally good experience, the Madden series can't seem to score a touchdown! The announcers are great on the other titles but I find the Madden announcers a bit weak and boring.

Madden also made a mess of a good idea when they ruined their Superstar mode. When I first found out about superstar mode I loved it! I played it at a friend’s house on a PS2 version. I forget exactly which Madden it is that I played but you had a little map of the city where you could go to the gym, your agent’s office and even the barbershop to get a haircut. You also had an apartment that would get better as your superstar became better and earned more money. This was probably what I was looking forward to the most for Madden on the PS3 and then I bought Madden 09, played the superstar mode and asked myself how they could have gone wrong. There is no barbershop, there is no gym, and there is no apartment. All there is to do is go to tedious practice sessions, do mini games at the performance institute and play the NFL games which are ok but can also be pretty boring depending on which position you choose. So far I’ve been having fun creating running backs but all of the customization features that I thought were going in the right direction are gone.

Here’s some advice for EA Sports, a lot of Madden fans love superstar mode! I know playing a franchise is more popular on Madden titles but the other games with a career mode have done a pretty good job. When I play the NHL 09 career mode I feel like I get the NHL experience, when I play Fight Night’s career and story mode I feel like I get the boxer’s experience; Madden however, doesn’t seem to hold up. I think people would love to feel the NFL experience and step into the player’s shoes; it’s up to the team to get creative and give us a good superstar mode. Maybe the EA Madden team should take page out of the Fight Night and NHL book and look for some fresh ideas.