Madden 2013: Can it actually be good?

If you play Madden I’m sorry for you. No other fans have been subjected to such lazy and rushed game development than Madden fans. Every year since EA bought the exclusive rights to make NFL games, the game comes with an extensive list of issues and a severe lack of polish for 59.99. The games never necessarily had bad game play but for a game that’s been worked on for almost three decades, it’s completely unacceptable the state Madden is in. With that in mind, let’s look at the Madden series over the past couple years and what could be improved on in Madden 2013.

Game Engine­ – The real issue with Madden is that it is a PS2 game running with HD graphics. There’s only so much the developers can do with a game engine that’s over 10 years old at this point. This explains why nothing is ever really changed but just slightly tweaked from year to year. It’s also why Madden still can’t include real gang tackling because that would require them to rewrite the whole game. While EA made the invisible wall you used to run into before you got tackled less noticeable, it’s still there because the game relies on preset animations for every play.  Maybe sometime in our lives EA will scrap this old game engine and start a new because the game certainly plays like a 10 year old game in its current state. There is a 0% chance they adopt a new engine while still making the game for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Gameplay - This has remained stagnant since the jump to Xbox 360 and PS3 and outside of a few tweaks here and there, I can’t see the gameplay being remarkably different. This is a problem because the gameplay every year just seems to be further and further removed from the game you watch on TV. There are so many things I find wrong with the gameplay from Madden 2012 I put them in a nice little list.

1. Linebackers jump like Michael Jordan in coverage and magically swat down passes they don’t even see.

2. Most tackles involve the tackler being completely horizontal when tackling and gang tackles still don’t really exist.

3. Receivers either make an incredible sideline catch or don’t even bother trying to stay in bounds.

4. It rains ridiculously hard way too frequently. (Especially in Franchise)

5. The computer still cannot manage the clock at all. They automatically take a timeout with a minute to go regardless of the situation and will kick field goals with 25 seconds left on the clock.

6. The best blockers in football just will stop and do nothing on some plays.

7. Screen plays work about 1 out of 15 times doing them.

8. Play action seems to work based on luck rather than establishing the run and never works on All-Madden.

9. Cornerbacks defy physics to jump routes then drop the interception.

10. Apparently instant replays do not exist in “Authentic NFL Broadcasts.”

11. Special teams are just completely unrealistic. Fair catches are called for no reason and I’ve never seen the AI miss a field goal.

Don’t get me wrong. Playing Madden against other people is still as fun of an experience as it was a decade ago but it’s not at all a different experience. While these complaints are minor in some cases, you’d think a game running on the same game engine since 2001 would not have inexcusable things like terrible AI. I would like to see EA fix some of these issues at the very least but they probably will not.

Game Modes – There is absolutely no excuse for Madden today to have less game modes than it had in the past. It seems every time it moves to a new console they strip all the features of the game and slowly reintroduce them as "brand new," like they never existed in the first place. Madden is great to pick up and play with a friend or against a stranger online but its game modes just feel so half-assed. I will comment on the Superstar and Franchise modes as I feel those are the crux of the game.

Superstar- Superstar mode in Madden 2012 is atrocious and that’s being kind. These game modes are awesome in NBA 2k and MLB: The Show but EA apparently doesn’t care what the rest of the industry is doing. Hopefully Madden 2013 will make the mode not as completely boring and broken as it was in 2012. Literally, all you do in the current mode is play the games and improve your player. Your coaches play calling makes no sense because the AI in the game is atrocious, no matter what your player is a starter so there is no competing for a roster spot or doing anything an up and coming NFL player would have to do, and worst of all your attributes advance way too quickly and never based on how your player is actually doing.

For instance, I made a running back for the New York Giants in Madden 2012. He was a 65 overall but he was starting over Jacobs and Bradshaw for absolutely no reason. After practices and pre-season where he hardly touched the ball despite being the de-facto starter he was ranked a 70 but with ridiculously high speed and acceleration. He did nothing to earn getting better yet he kept getting reward points because the Giants offense was doing well. Also, despite the Giants turning into a passing team this year everyone knows there’s no way they just wouldn't run the ball, which seemed to be the case for my player. By the end of the year the Giants won 14 games and he finished with 1,100 yards on 8.2 yards a carry, yet never got more touches. The Giants won the Super Bowl and there wasn't even a wrap up of how I did that year, it was just all the sudden the next season. Here’s a game mode that doesn't reward you or make you feel like you’re doing anything but wasting time.

Come on EA, this is unacceptable. Make this mode have something. Contracts, endorsements, roster spot battles, trades, player customization, or really anything substantial would make it better. I haven’t played this mode since Madden 2006 and I remember it being far more robust then. Why even keep it in the game if it’s going to be worse than it was several years ago?

Franchise – I remember when they added an Owner mode to Madden that allowed you to run the business side of the team as well as the general manager side of things. Apparently we weren’t smart enough to handle this so what we have in Madden now is just a Franchise mode. This Franchise mode isn’t broken but it’s just lifeless. Yeah, they did add some stuff like pre-season player cuts, player roles, a free agent bidding process, and some improved player scouting but none of it really seems special. EA always adds features that existed in past iterations and touts them as brand new, and that’s what the “upgraded” Franchise mode seems like to me. The Franchise mode isn’t bad but let’s look at a few ways they could make it better.

1. There’s a 10 year limit to Franchise. I don’t typically play that long but what if you wanted a rookie to break an NFL record. Is there any reason to limit the amount of years you can play at all?

2. The NCAA draft class import feature is full of glitches. I renamed several players their real names in NCAA and they were not there in the draft class. I never remember having problems with this in the past.

3. They added player roles but there’s still no indicator on how your team is getting along. Teammate chemistry is so important in the NFL I can’t believe this hasn’t ever been added.

4. You have to scout a player to figure out their Combine statistics. Wouldn’t this just be readily available stuff for any general manager? They apparently don’t have NFL Network.

5. There are still no restricted free agents, practice squads, computer trades outside of draft day, or rational pre-season substitutions. (Hakim Nicks got hurt playing safety in the 4^th quarter in one of my pre-season games...that can't happen.)

Presentation- This is where Madden really need to improve. Despite focusing on presentation Madden 2012 was one of the most lifeless games I’ve ever played. The announcing absolutely needs to be addressed and apparently is being totally reworked this year. The stadium PA broadcaster is somehow worse as it sounds like EA used a robot that was recorded inside of a bathroom for this voice. While they added introductions for every team, they all feel similar and fail to really encapsulate the excitement before a game. (Probably due to the robot in the bathroom announcing the whole thing) Just play one game of any other sports game right now and it feels more authentic and exciting than even a playoff game in Madden.  Every presentation touch EA has in Madden right now can be skipped over without feeling like you’re interfering with the experience at all.

Madden in its current state is not a bad game. It’s just not an acceptable one for how long they’ve been working on these games. I hope in Madden 2013 I won’t feel like old Maddens had more features or better gameplay as I’ve felt the past few years. I really doubt anything will change however, because it doesn’t seem like EA actually cares about improving the game at all. I hope that all the changes they’re going to bring in this year will actually address the issues I stated above and not just be used as hype to sell the game.

The entire product at this point just seems like a cash grab and that’s probably why EA is subject to such criticism. There just isn’t enough of an improvement from year to year and it seems like they introduce features every year that will sell the game and not necessarily improve it. I didn’t purchase Madden 2011 and wish I never purchased Madden 2012. I hope Madden 2013 will change my feelings towards this series but I very much doubt it will.

103

103 -That’s the number of federal officers used in the Roger Clemens’s perjury case. Yes, that’s the real number. Our federal government has had 103 federal employees working on a case to prove whether or not Roger Clemens lied about his steroid use. If you can find a bigger waste of government’s time or a bigger waste of our tax dollars, let me know.

Honestly, I can’t understand how this or the Barry Bonds perjury case even came to be in the first place. I can’t even fathom how anyone in government thinks steroids in baseball is a large enough issue to have a Congressional hearing about to begin with. While some baseball fans might be outraged over steroids, I doubt there are many out there who said to themselves, “My god, if only the government would step in and do something about this. Use every resource possible just make sure these guys stop hitting home runs!”

The reason Congress got involved in this mess in the first place was because this issue was apparently creating such a competitive imbalance that something needed to be done. The problem with this is what exactly can Congress do in the first place? Nothing can be done to these guys at all because they didn’t commit a crime. So while everyone wanted blood after the Mitchell Report was released, there really wasn’t any blood to be shed. The only thing they really had was the testimony of the guys who denied to taking steroids, so they ran with these high profile perjury cases.

In my opinion, this is about as low as it gets. I mean Congress called for these hearings, invited these guys to talk about something that isn’t a crime, and then charged them with perjury for potentially lying about it. Roger Clemens even volunteered to have this hearing that led to his eventual perjury trial. He voluntarily tried to clear his name and now he could potentially be the poster child for the steroid era.

I think Clemens is as big an asshole as there is in sports but he doesn’t deserve this. I don’t know whether he took steroids, HGH, or ate baby fetuses, but by all accounts he’s one of the hardest working players in the history of the game. Congress got involved in this for the competitive imbalance so we’re going to make one of the hardest working athletes of all time the face of this scandal? Look, Roger is a shitty guy on all accounts but I think it’s tough to argue steroids made his Hall of Fame career.

Is there really no self-evaluation coming from the government in this entire process? That’s my question. Couldn’t it had been realized far sooner that maybe we don’t need to have 103 federal officers working on a perjury case involving a baseball player? It seems to me like the government used federal agents across the whole country to conduct a massive investigation on whether this guy did something that wasn’t a crime. In my opinion, that’s more of a crime than anything Roger Clemens did or did not do. 

8 Ways the Videogame Industry Hates You

With Electronic Arts recently winning the Golden Poo from Consumerist.com for being the worst company in America I decided to make a list of ways video game publishers screw over their loyal costumers. I understand that Electronic Arts is not the worst company in America but just stating that there are worse companies does not exonerate Electronic Arts, Activision, Warner Brothers, Ubisoft, or any of the other gigantic game publishers from their dickish actions.

1. Downloadable Content (DLC) – Publishers are using downloadable content as a way to cash in even further on games that are already overpriced at 59.99. One would assume that 60 dollars is enough for one videogame but many games have multiple DLC’s ranging from 10-30 dollars. This would be fine if the content is worth the price but it very rarely is. In the cases of Call of Duty or Battlefield these are simply map packs which cost the company almost nothing to produce. When first person shooters were actually not populated with teenage retards and pretty much exclusively on PCs companies used to give users the ability to make their own maps for multiplayer and there were literally thousands of maps for players to use. Instead we pay 15 dollars for 4-5 new maps while EA and Activision roll around in fountains of money and children’s souls. I haven’t found a DLC worth paying for and I’ve embarrassingly paid for more than I’d like to admit.

2. Online Passes – Due to game companies loving profits and hating you the gamer, many have decided to include online passes for their games. These are usually included with a new purchase of the game and ensure that you can play multiplayer or download (and pay for) all the bullshit overpriced downloadable content.

They did this in order to combat used games sales because god forbid the consumer not give them 60 or more dollars for their game. The game industry constantly complains about how the used game market is killing the industry despite presenting no evidence that it’s any different than the used book market. There are talks about eliminating the used game market all together on the next wave of consoles and with digital distribution seemingly the only rational next step for gaming, they probably will succeed. It’s sad that these companies who rake in billions of dollars in profit are worried about the used game market that shows no noticeable impact on their sales. Every time the videogame industry remotely struggles they’re very quick to tell you it’s the used games market’s fault. They literally want you to purchase a commodity for 60 dollars 

plus whatever downloadable content and then have that commodity be totally worthless after you bought it. Let’s be totally clear, this is not just unfair, it’s evil.

3. In Game Purchases – This is kind of like downloadable content but more of a slap in the face to the gamer. In game purchases are paying for something you could normally do in the game so you can get it right away. For example, in MLB: The Show’s Road to the Show mode you make your baseball player who’s trying to become a successful baseball player better by playing games. Sony has allowed gamers who don’t feel like going through this process to purchase attribute points right off the start for a nominal fee. I feel like it defeats the purpose of the game and I feel like you should never have to pay for something you can get in the game anyway. If they felt some players might like to progress quicker in the game they should make you be able to customize the game mode, not charge you. I don't play a lot of IOS games but this seems to be frequently found in most of the games available on the App Store. It’s really just a despicable cash in for companies and shouldn't be tolerated in any means.

4. Remakes – Remakes, “HD Collections,” or “ports” have taken the game industry over. If you played a game that’s over 5 years old, and it was good, chances are it’s been remade for HD televisions and will cost you between 20-60 dollars. Most of the time it’s just the same game with updated graphics and once in a while they’ll throw in a few extras that don’t really add to the game experience much. I guess it isn’t enough to make a crap load of money off the consumer the first time around so companies need to really milk them for every dollar they have. “Buy our game for the 16^th time or you’ll miss out on the remake where we replaced all the characters, action and story with Tim Tebow, only 59.99!”

5. Perennials – If there is a new version of the game you like to play released every year, chances are you’re paying for bullshit. I’ll just use Call of Duty and Madden for examples. Both are not bad games and have pretty solid gaming engines behind them, but both have not added a single fucking thing to their games in the last 5 years. You’re essentially paying for a new coat of paint over the same product every year. Sports games in general tend to be huge offenders of this and I’ve explained by dislike of Call of Duty in my article, Call of Duty Fucking Sucks. I wonder if you can figure out what that article is about.

6. Gimmicks – So many videogames are targeted at people who don’t like to play videogames through gimmicks. Remember how the Nintendo Wii was going to change gaming by getting people off their couch? Well guess what? It didn’t change a thing! There are literally about 10 games (Being totally generous here because the real number is probably 0) for the Wii that actually make use of the motion controls or do anything that is actually innovative or fun. The Wii sold through the roof proving what morons we all are, and so did the Microsoft Kinect and Playstation Move which were just rip offs of the already failed gimmick. I have to stop with this one before I enter into a territory where I just start insulting everyone. All I have to say is did you really think playing videogames was going to get your fat ass in shape?

7. Advertising- When you pay 59.99 for a product the last thing you should have to do is see shameless ads. EA is a huge offender of this with Gatorade ads running on Madden to Burger King ads running on their Fight Night series. It isn’t enough to just sell you an overpriced videogame but they have to advertise inside the game itself? That’s just disgusting right?

8- Pre-order Incentives- Again, the videogame industry is so concerned you don’t buy games used that they offer “exclusive content” as incentives to pre-order a game. When videogames weren’t as mainstream you used to actually have to pre-order a game to have it on the day it came out. Now game retailers like Gamestop lie to you about their supply (trust me you can buy whatever game you want the day it comes out) and offer you incentives to pre-order that are almost never worth it. The content is almost never exclusive to pre-orders because companies love money so much that they’ll eventually release it anyway.

I don’t think it’s asking too much for companies to make a reasonable profit without blatantly stealing your money. I mean some of these tactics can only be described as greedy in the best of light. Let me sum things up explaining the game Mortal Kombat that was released last year.

The game was a remake of the games released in the 90’s and was also rereleased in the early 2000’s. It debuted at 60 dollars and had special pre-order content on it that you could only get if you pre-ordered the game. It also had downloadable content already available at the online store on the day of its release. The worst part about this downloadable content was that it was already included on the disc you just bought. So it obviously didn’t cost the company a cent more to include this content as it was made before the games release but the consumer was still expected to pay 5-10 to "unlock" it from the disc. On top of that they expected gamers to pay 5 dollars for the extra characters they’d be releasing in the upcoming months. 

If this isn't a sickening and unacceptable way to treat your customers then what is? Just because video games are “unimportant” doesn’t mean that Warner Bros. in this case can just blatantly milk money out of you. Games are art and I totally don't mind paying for them to be developed because they're awesome. It's just tough to buy these games knowing you're supporting companies that don't give a shit about the art and just look at you as a walking dollar sign.

Metta World Elbow and Our Lack of Empathy

What really drives me crazy about the sports media is when they forget that what we’re watching is competition that is fueled by sometimes crazed adrenaline. For instance, let’s take a look at Metta World Peace’s elbow to the back of James Harden’s head. In no way should what MWP did be tolerated and I absolutely agree it was deserving of a flagrant 2. We have the flagrant 2 rules for exactly this kind of situation and while we’re all disgusted with what MWP did, I am baffled at our misunderstanding of why it happened.

               

If we expect athletes to play with passion and to be ultra-physical we can’t also expect them to be machines. Things like this happen when you’re passionate and playing a physical sport. Anyone who’s played sports can think of times where things got a little out of hand just because of emotion and adrenaline. So while the media is approaching this elbow from MWP as an indiscriminate attack, it was really more of a reaction that MWP had in an adrenaline fueled situation. We’ve all been in an emotional situation where we did something we wouldn’t normally do, so it’s crazy to me how unwilling we are to empathize every time a situation like this comes up.

That’s why I hope the NBA does not overreact in this situation. Yes, we know MWP has a checkered past but we also know that he’s guilty of being emotional, not maniacal. Yes, he elbowed James Harden flagrantly but you’re crazy if you think that MWP wanted Harden KO’d. It was a physical game and it seemed more like a, “get the eff off of me” elbow as opposed to the “I’m going to cause you brain damage,” type of elbow. MWP expressed regret immediately after the incident and has apologized to Oklahoma City and Harden.

So I plead NBA fans and media to empathize a little for once and stop being holier than though for just a second. This is asking too much though because we already have “journalists” like JA Adande coming out and saying that MWP suspension should be based on how badly James Harden is hurt. I see that he’s trying to make this about Harden, and not MWP, but that would just be a silly way to hand out suspensions. Even at Bleacher Report we have a despicable article criticizing MWP because he didn’t spell Harden’s name correctly in his Twitter apology. (What a pointless thing to say right?) Even the “experts” on ESPN’s 5on5 article all called this a malicious or vicious shot while calling for long term suspensions.

It’s just so much easier to point blame than understand what really happened in a situation I guess. Are we even going to address the fact that Harden very much put his body into a crazed MWP in the first place? That the players seem to think it was an overreaction and not a malicious shot. Is this really any worse than Kevin Love stepping on Luis Scola’s face, which granted him only a 3 game suspension early in the season?

I don’t know, it’s just sickening to me how quickly we run to this, “Oh he’s a thug, ban him for life,” mentality. I understand that MWP has been suspended several times and that he isn’t exactly well received by NBA executives, but let’s not punish him excessively because of the severity of Harden’s injury or just because he’s MWP. He knows he made a mistake and he’s owned up for his mistake already.

The NBA also has to be very careful with the precedent they set in this situation. If they decide to suspend MWP for longer than 1-5 games they will set a precedent for the next time something like this happens. I just hope we see a suspension based on what really happened and not because of this holier than though media outcry calling for outrageous 30 games-lifelong bans for him. This was not a malicious assault so let’s not make the punishment be for one.

Furthermore, sports are physical contests. Let’s stop being so freaking shocked when someone crosses this fine line between what’s acceptable violence and unacceptable violence. If you can’t handle the physical violence that is associated with sports then turn off the TV. Stop holding these players who we pay to be physical monsters so accountable when their testosterone and adrenaline levels get a little out of hand. There is no condoning what Metta World Peace did but we don’t have to pretend like we don’t know how something like this could happen or portray this guy out to be some kind of evil maniac. 

MLB Umpiring: Beyond Atrocious

MLB umpiring is at a point where I literally just can’t take watching games anymore. It’s so bad, so inconsistent, and so illogical that it’s incredible to me that more people are not upset about it. In Monday night’s Yankees-Twins game alone, nine pitches were called strikes that were at least 1 foot outside of the strike zone. There is something fundamentally wrong with how we are calling balls and strikes if a strike is called over a full foot outside of the strike zone one time, and this case we’re talking nine times. While this was just one game, I’m sure if you watch the MLB with any kind of consistency you’d know that this is “just part of the game.”

That’s the problem though. This should never just be part of the game. Not today, not in 2012. I’m sick of this argument that the umpiring being bad is just something we should live with and is part of the “human element” of the game. It’s a stupid argument that just doesn’t make sense. The human element is the players competing against each other and not the freaking guy enforcing the rules. This goes for all sports too because god knows we need officiating in basketball, football, and baseball to undergo some major facelifts as well.

Baseball is easily the worst in terms of officiating because its umpires affect the outcome of the games more than any other officials in any other sport. The way things are now wouldn't one guy sitting in front of an HD TV and making the calls based on an HD replay do a better job? Why should we have to tolerate changing strike zones every night when we could just install a system to track whether the ball went over the plate at the right height? Why with the technology we have today should there EVER be a blown call on the base paths or regarding a home run? I don’t understand, what exactly is the argument is against getting the calls right as much as possible? I’m not suggesting we literally have one guy umpire the game from a television but it’s just unacceptable that the MLB doesn’t help its umpires get more calls correct.

Just look at how much impact the strike zone has on a baseball game. When you’re a pitcher you’re trying to keep the ball as close to the edges of the plate as possible so that the hitter has the worst possible chance of making solid contact with the ball. When the edges magically change every night so does the game. The entire premise of the game is based on the matchup between the pitcher and the batter, so when strike zone changes from night to night it has an enormous impact on the competitive balance of the game overall. We’re currently allowing the area you can throw a strike in to be essentially determined by subjective human judgment. It would be like allowing the officials to decide how wide to make the basket every night for a basketball game.

For umpiring the game outside of the strike zone the MLB’s lack of ambition regarding adding a replay official is abysmal. There is no reason in any sport that we should have to stop the game for 15 minutes to have a guy remove himself from the field of play to go look at a TV. This is an industry worth billions of dollars and we can’t just pay a professional umpire to sit in front of a TV? Think about it, it would instantly solve just about every problem umpires have on the field. If an umpire isn’t totally sure on a call or doesn’t have a good angle he can simply buzz up to this official who would be right 99% of the time. If a manager comes out to argue a call made on the field, buzz up to the official. What would it take, 10 seconds? If the manager continues to argue after the replay official was buzzed, eject him from the game.

I understand that baseball fans are hesitant to accept replay because they already think the game is too long, but I see no reason why these replays can’t be almost instantaneous with a replay official. It would also cut down on the time managers spend arguing calls because who, besides Ozzie Guillen, would argue with the guy sitting in front of the HD TV?

These are just ideas off the cuff but they make a hell of a lot more sense than the current system that seems to get a lot of calls wrong. Who in the world is evaluating these MLB umpires and thinks that they’re doing even an adequate job? The MLB’s failure to initiate anything beyond taking forever to review home runs is just unacceptable and is making baseball tough to watch. I want to watch the players decide the outcome of the game, not the umpires, I don’t see why this isn’t always our priority when it comes to regulating sports.