Scouting The Deficiencies In Madden NFL 12

I'm about as big an NFL fan as you're going to find. I watch as many games as I can during the season, tape preseason games and re-watch them to gain insight on position battles, play in multiple fantasy football leagues, and spend the NFL offseason pouring over scouting reports as if my opinion mattered and I could affect the decision making of my beleaguered Minnesota Vikings. Being such a football nerd, I eagerly anticipate the release of Madden each year.

After starting out with the disastrous Madden NFL 06, by and large the game has gotten better each successive edition this generation. With developer EA Tiburon's focus this year placed largely on franchise mode – the place I spend the majority of my time playing the game – I had very high hopes for Madden NFL 12. Unfortunately, a lot of the great ideas the team had fell flat in execution. After playing the game for review, I haven't been as keen to spend my free time with the game as I was with prior versions. Here are a few reasons why.

PRESENTATION
Madden art director Michael Young did a fantastic job of integrating the camera angles you see broadcasters use on Sunday into the game this year – for the most part the awkward replay angles are gone, and the close-up cams bring energy to the events. That said, there are  problems abound with the presentation – most notably the rough commentary of Gus Johnson. Color commentator Chris Collinsworth's delivery sounds natural, but Johnson sometimes sounds robotic, sometimes comes across as overzealous, and most of the time is a few seconds behind the play. Gus also apparently doesn't know what constitutes someone being a game changer. Each game he highlights the Gatorade Impact Player, but apparently the only qualifications you have to meet is to be a living, breathing quarterback. Many times he has called out a QB with an abysmal rating rather than a player who just set the NFL single-game record for sacks, the stud running back who scored the only points on the board, or a defensive back who made a key interception. Way to show awareness of the game at hand, Johnson.

The crowd reacts more realistically to big plays this year, but sometimes cheers at inappropriate times as well. Late in the fourth quarter of one game, the crowd cheered enthusiastically when its defense got a third down stop. The only problem? That "stop" was courtesy of me kneeling on third down to run out the clock and preserve the victory. The stadium operators are prone to similar mistakes. When my struggling rookie QB Christan Ponder threw a pick-six, the stadium erupted with the "Skol, Vikings" celebration song while the opposing team lined up for the extra point.

Speaking of extra points, I wasn't happy to see EA remove The Extra Point weekly summary show from the franchise mode. It didn't always work in the past, with the commentators calling out worthless stats and highlighting inconsequential games instead of those with playoff implications, but with a fresh pass they could have reinvigorated the show. The NFL Countdown show in ESPN NFL 2K5 made me care more about league happenings than any other feature in a football game, and I wish EA hadn't abandoned their version without giving it a second pass.

Here are a few other problems I noticed as I played the game longer:

- The commentators made no mention of the fact they were broadcasting a divisional round playoff game
- Gus said "Welcome to Foxboro," the home of the New England Patriots, when the Super Bowl was taking place in New Orleans.
- The pre-game commentary and player introductions are way too repetitive. EA needs to embrace diversity.

GAMEPLAY
Many of the gameplay changes to Madden NFL 12 are positive, especially in regards to the running game. As I mentioned before, I love the (almost complete) removal of suction blocking. The renewed physicality during tackles is a welcome change as well, and the defensive pursuit seems better this year. Linebackers and defensive back move in more quickly to limit the potential for breakaway runs. As a gamer who tends to build off the running game, I appreciated all of these improvements (though the lack of gang tackling is noticeable).

The passing game, however, still gives me fits. EA spent a lot of time talking about the improved zone coverages, and the passing windows do seem smaller, but this tweak takes a backseat to problems I thought the franchise had done away with in the past. Quarterbacks fail to get rid of the ball even when they have enough time to complete a throwing motion before taking a sack. The ESP secondary is back too – several times I watched safeties with their backs to the play make a break toward the intended receiver a split second before the ball was released from my quarterback's hand. The leaping linebacker problem from last year wasn't fixed, either – I can't tell you how many times I swore in disbelief when an otherworldly linebacker leaped to knock down a pass intended for a receiver 20 yards away.

I noticed a few new problems, as well. Occasionally receivers don't locate passes, and oftentimes they fail to work back to the ball. Many stand there like Randy Moss during one of his ineffectual tantrums and make no effort to fight for possession; content to simply watch the defender make a play. This doesn't just apply to scrubs with low ratings, either. I watched All-Pro Larry Fitzgerald make no attempt for a pass while the mighty midget Antoine Winfield jumped to break up the play on a highly thrown ball. The odds of that happening on Sunday? Slim to none. Maybe the lazy effort of the wide receivers is why pass interference rarely gets called.

Last year EA introduced GameFlow, which promised to streamline playcalling to keep your nose out of the playbook. It worked on offense, but the defensive calls were seemingly made without regard to the opposing team's personnel on the field. Why call a base defense when the other team comes out with a four-receiver set? This year, EA gives you more control, with multiple options. Once again, the offensive system works well, and I love the option to specify if I want a run or a pass play. The changes to the defensive side of the ball, however, once again come up short. You have the option to choose between a recommended, aggressive, and conservative play. It makes sense on the surface, but in practice all logic is thrown out of the window. I'm not sure who told EA the definition of "aggressive," but Madden himself will be the first to tell you that cover four is the antithesis of the word. Since the plays often don't match the intended philosophy, I ended up calling my own shots in every game. Maybe next year they'll get it right by giving us options for blitz, zone, and man instead of these arbitrary categories.

Here are a few other minor things I noticed:

-Flipping formations may earn you an encroachment call because the nickel back's pathfinding is poor.
-Defenders staring down the quarterback in zone are very slow to react to scrambling quarterbacks once they cross the line of scrimmage.
-If a guard doesn't locate someone to block on passing downs, they'll stand around instead of doubling the guy next to them who is wreaking havoc.
-Highly rated right defensive ends are useless unless you directly control them. In three seasons with the Vikings, the most sacks Jared Allen accrued in a season was six.
-Players still don't block well on special teams.
-I watched a few ballcarriers clip right through a referee who couldn't get out the way.
-The hot and cold streaks don't always make senses during the games. If Adrian Peterson fumbles he's immediately on a cold streak, but he doesn't go on a hot streak when he has 107 yards and two touchdowns on a mere six carries?
-Poor clock management is back. With 23 seconds left in the half and the ball on the 20 yard line, a team called a running play. This makes sense given their distance from scoring position since they can run one play and head for the locker room. But after burning a few seconds off the clock, suddenly the team reversed it's thinking and called a timeout. For what? To run another run play, that's what. I also witnessed some teams who chose to run during the two minute drill when they should be throwing to preserve the clock.

FRANCHISE MODE
I predominately play the franchise mode in sports games. This is probably a symptom of rooting for so many unsuccessful franchises – it's the only place I'll see a Minnesota team hoist the Stanley Cup or Lombardi Trophy. Ever since I first played Tecmo Bowl on the NES, I've been hooked by the concept of taking control of a struggling team and leading them to the promised land. As a kid I would burn through seasons in Tecmo Super Bowl, write down the stat leaders for each season, and then try to beat my personal performances with a different team. Given my obsession, I probably spend way more time pouring through the minutia of the contract systems, scouting mechanics, and player progression than your average gamer. Since I review and play the NBA, NHL, and NFL games every year, I think I've developed a pretty good insight into the mechanics that make or break a mode.

The crown jewel in my opinion is NBA 2K's Association mode. Almost everything I could want in a franchise experience is there – the ability to front-load and back-load player contracts, a scouting system that lets me take the guys on the court to test them myself, relatively smart trade logic, player roles that I can adjust at the beginning of each year, and player personalities that dictate how they feel about your club and whether or not they are interested in signing with you. Madden has been treading water in recent years, but this year EA renewed its focus on the mode to give it a much needed makeover. While the new elements they added sound great on paper, in practice I found that most of them come with a new set of issues.

My first problem is with the new menu system. This is admittedly a minor annoyance that I can live with, but hiding the entire menu players interact with on a minute-to-minute basis for the sake of a full-screen stadium shot doesn't make a lot of sense. I also wasn't a fan of the cascading player profiles in the team management, which are disrupting when navigating depth charts and player contract screens.

Preseason
It took EA long enough, but they finally expanded the rosters and instituted realistic player substitutions during preseason games. My favorite aspect of the renewed focus on the preseason is the inclusion of undrafted free agents – the players who slipped through the cracks on draft day but still have a shot to make your roster. Most of these guys never develop into full-time players, but every once and a while teams stumble on a diamond in the rough like hall of famer John Randle. As the preseason progresses, more of these player's ratings are revealed. if you drop a player on cut day without unlocking the player's potential, you could be throwing away a valuable player.

Great concept, right? The only problem is you don't get to choose the undrafted free agents – the game arbitrarily assigns you players. This doesn't give you the option to stock up on UDFAs in positions of weakness or to determine what type of players you want on your roster. I want to bring in a UDFA who fits my style of play, not just any Joe off the street.

The substitution system, which cycles through your depth chart as the games progress, needs some work, too. Your star players should be on the sidelines for the later quarters during preseason, but the sub system often places them in foreign positions. It's not uncommon to see your first team wide receiver lining up as a nickel back in the fourth quarter your starting running back filling in at wide receiver, further subjecting them to injury. Obviously you can go into the depth chart and fix this yourself, but why EA Tiburon didn't make it right in the first place since they were reworking the feature is beyond me.

The Cut Day feature also fails to work properly. Sometimes teams decide to cut veterans to free up cap space instead of dropping the young talent, but when I was in the cut day screen my moves were limited to dropping UDFAs. It wouldn't allow me to cut a vet until finished cutting rookies and drilled into the player management screen. Why can't I do it all from the same spot?

I also noticed that after you cut UDFAs, they don't always appear in the free agency pool. I guess they're off bagging groceries.

Scouting
The scouting system in Madden NFL 10 and 11 was easy to exploit. If you wrote down the names of the players with the most potential, it was easy to locate when the draft starts and pick up very skilled players in the later rounds. While that system gave you too much information, the new system gives you almost nothing to work with.

During the course of the season you're allowed to 20 players for their common ratings a handful of times. Once the season concludes you go through the combine, pro days, and individual workouts with an increasingly smaller number of players. When you get to draft day, you have great amount of information about a mere handful of players, but you know next to nothing about everyone else on the market.

As an NFL fan, I can gather a wealth of information about players before the real draft thanks to public combine numbers, YouTube video, coach impressions, and pundit predictions. In Madden, you're largely left in the dark, not even knowing the basic intel about the vast majority of draft-eligible players. You won't even have the combine numbers for these guys! If the player you have targeted gets drafted before it's your turn to pick, you have two options – cross your fingers and pick a guy you know nothing about, or trade down to a safe place where you can grab the next player you feel comfortable selecting. The best player available draft philosophy is impossible to execute.

For the most part teams drafted sensibly, but I did see a few questionable decisions. I know if I were the Bears I would draft a replacement for Jay "Throw into Triple Coverage" Cutler, but objectively he's still in his 20s and has a good Madden rating so I'm not sure why Chicago would chose to draft a first-round QB when they have glaring holes elsewhere on the roster.

Free Agency
I think EA did a great job with the new bidding process for free agency. Essentially, once a player receives a bid from a team a countdown starts. Whoever bids the highest salary by the end of the timer wins the rights to sign the player. Once you win the bid, you can then determine how you want to pay the contract. You can front-load it to eat up cap space the first few years, balance the money evenly across the years of the contract, or backload it to free up some immediate cap space. The only problem is you don't have a period to examine the pool of free agents before the frenzy begins. I would much prefer to develop a list of targets and contingency plans before charging headfirst into the chaos.

The one other problem I found in regards to free agency is that teams neglect to sign respectable backup quarterbacks. It wasn't uncommon to see several former starters or capable backups on the street while players with ratings more suited to being a third-stringer take the all important role.

Here are a few other franchise mode issues I noted:

-EA TIburon still hasn't brought back the ability to create your offensive and defensive player packages outside of a game situation. I miss being able to do this from the comfort of the franchise menu system so I don't have to scramble to set it up while the play clock is running.
-The coach signing logic is still broken. Some coaches wouldn't take the proposed contract because another team had offered a contract as well. The only problem is my deals consistently offered them more compensation.
-The sim engine created some strange scenarios. In one season every NFC playoff team but one finished with an 8-8 record. I didn't even know that was statistically possible.
-You can accidentally sim past the draft if you click the Advance button in the scouting screen before the draft is about to begin.
-The new player profile images don't match how they look on the field. One wide receiver had a picture of a short-haired dude, but on the field he rocked a full head of dredlocks.
-Some teams have players with the same jersey numbers. Tennesse had starter Jake Locker and his backup both wearing #10.
-The game doesn't preserve the jersey numbers for players you choose to resign after the draft takes place. My backup linebacker Heath Farwell, who wears #59, came back wearing #1, which isn't even an eligible number for the position in the NFL.
-The player roles seem to be chosen arbitrarily. Why would Bryant McKinnie, an veteran NFL starter who has been invited to a Pro Bowl and never been a backup, get the "project player" role?
-Limiting each player to two roles slightly diminishes the value of superstars. Why limit Aaron Rodgers to two traits when he's clearly the franchise quarterback, a first round pick, an offensive playmaker, a playoff performer, and a team leader? That's five traits right there. FIFA embraces all-world players by bestowing them with multiple traits. So should EA Tiburon with Madden.
-I didn't see a lot of CPU trade activity outside of draft day, where they all channel their inner Bill Belichick and swap picks right and left. But when you initiate trades, it's still easy to pull off some modest heists. I regularly signed free agents off the street and traded them for future draft picks to stock up my options on draft day.

Admittedly, a lot of these complaints are nit-picky, but once you start spotting them it's hard to forget about them and the sheer volume of the problems took away from the fun factor. The team at EA Tiburon targeted the right areas that needed improvement, they just didn't execute well. Being a ridiculously involved football fan, that's like seeing an immaculately executed play, only to see your team get whistled for an illegal formation before the snap. Hopefully they'll clean up the most glaring of these problems next year, because when you only have one NFL game franchise to look forward to, it's tremendously disappointing when they come up short while the other sports games set new benchmarks in presentation, franchise mode, Be a Pro mode, and online.