Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Franchise Mode

[SGMRock]

Quote: Originally Posted by boyce1602

From what I've encountered, it has to do with when you save your import in NCAA. If you save the first time it asks, the import will not work in Madden. If you save after the "Players Leaving" section, the import WILL work in Madden.

I tried both on the 360 early release from Season Ticket and neither one of them seemed to work. Right after I do the import before game one of the season I go into the Scouting and I dont see any NCAA players.

[ABR173rd]

Good honest review Chris.....I worry about the exact amount of pressure on some of you guy's to write honest and responsible reviews for EA products because of the amount of Dev. interaction this site receives. This piece seems to be well thought out and decisive.

[Manning2Harrison]

Despite the improvements, it sounds like it remains true that to be get most of of franchise mode, you need to control all 32 teams to get the most out of it and keep the CPU from doing wonky things.

As to the NCAA draft classes, from what I've been reading, they only work if they are exported at the "Players Leaving" stage.

[mavfan21]

I always do the 32 team chise and let the CPU handle 90% of the actions for the other 31 teams. I do the darfts 1st round and a few trades for all teams. I also will adjust depth charts and do a few FA signings where needed.

It's a much for enjoyable experience that way.

[SGMRock]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

I went into work saturday and spent the day trying to recreate the draft class issue Unfortunately, I'm not seeing it at all. Every import I do works fine, even on my home retail version. Is this 360 exclusive issue?

I tested this again today by doing the following.

Platform Xbox 360 Slim 250G HD, Madden Season Pass download.

Took my retail version of NCAA with title update 1, downloaded named rosters from FAIRDALE KINGS gamer tag. These are the default rosters of the game with players and coaches named but no other edits.

Simmed season 1 of Dynasty up to the Bowl Season. Saved backup copy of Dynasty. Advanced game to End of Season. You get prompted if you want to export draft class to Madden. Picked Yes. (If you pick Yes here you won't be asked again I found, tested that 3x) Saved file SIM1Before as in first year simulated season exported before players leaving point.

Backed out of Dynasty and reloaded the backup Dynasty I had saved at the end of Bowl Week. Advanced to End of Season. Picked No when prompted to export. Advanced to the players leaving section. Asked a couple players to stay, advanced from there, prompted again if I wanted to Export draft class to Madden, picked Yes. Saved file as SIM1After meaning exported after the players leaving screen.

Started up my Madden 12 franchise that I have saved right at the end of the 4th exhibition game right were it prompts you if you want to continue to regular season. I had used the latest online roster that was released on the 27th to fix the lockup with depth charts when I made this Franchise.

I advanced to the regular season. Imported the SIM1Before file. Went to Scouting. Could not see any of the named players that would have been high overall Seniors in NCAA 12. Hit B to back out of Franchise back to main menu without saving my Franchise.

Reloaded Franchise back to end of week 4 of preseason. Advanced to regular season again. Imported the SIM1After file this time. Went to Scout Players, checked QB's , found imported players there correctly this time, example Andrew Luck from Stanford, Pryor (ya he was still on the NCAA default rosters) and lots of others so it seemed to have imported correctly the second time around using the SIM1After file.

Hope this helps you recreate it.

[hoop xyience]

Look like another fantasy draft year for me...

[Feldman011teen]

You guys normally spend a lot of time detailing your reviews, which I commend and thank you for that time. I don't have the retail version yet. I have played NCAA 12 and loved it, and notice the shortcomings. I played the Madden 12 demo and think it's the best game of football. My question is, did they fix the speed issue from the demo? When you guys said to drop the speed to slow and player threshold to 35 it makes a world of difference. Did you do this for the review? Either way, I loved Madden 10 and despised Madden 11. 11 was the first time I traded a Madden in within 2 weeks. This game is a huge jump.

[btrudeau401]

IDK IF I SHOULD BUY THE GAME OR NOT. IM ALL ABOUT FRANCHISE MODE, AND ALL THE NEW FEATURES SEEM TO HAVE ISSUES...CANT DECIDE IF ITS WORTH IT OR NOT...GETTIN HEEEATED

[MrNFL_FanIQ]

I'm glad they seem to be making a good effort at having a good franchise mode once again. But based on this and what I've seen, it looks like I'll be sitting out for the 4th or 5th year.

[KalimbeNaire]

Didn't the Raiders take Sebastian Janikowski in the first round, I think he was 17th overall? Not too far off from the top 10.

I have played NFL Head Coach 09, so I already know quite a bit of what to expect from Madden's Franchise mode. I am a little disappointed that they don't have a mock draft or some kind of show to tell you where guys are being slotted. NFL Head Coach did this very well. You had a pretty good idea of who the top 10 guys were before you entered the draft.

Sounds like this was a step in the right direction, but once again they missed the mark with some detail work that could have made it better. I am really not happy that there is no training camp to help improve your players, but based on how you unlock player ratings and such, that just wouldn't really work to well in this system. I'm on the fence about whether I want the new Madden or not.