The featured image is from the November 6, 2022, Raiders-Jaguars game. It is not directly related to this post or anything… Just thought I’d share.
I would consider myself to be pretty good at Madden at this point. I’ve been playing it fairly regularly for a couple of years and I am able to read many of the defensive cues. That being said, I am acutely aware of the fact this is a video game, meaning that situations and circumstances that occur during a match are clearly the results of 1s and 0s coded into software interpreted by the Xbox OS. Many, many times, I’ve wanted to vent about what I’ve seen in this game for newbies to Madden or for pros who may be able to empathize. I’m going brain dump every thing I’ve encountered so far–my findings as a Madden player. I want to preface this by saying that I’m in computer technology–I can still appreciate the level of effort that went into the game, even though the only mode I play is Franchise mode. The game is unpolished, and I’ve submitted such feedback directly to EA by way of their survey.
Franchise mode simulates an NFL franchise as either an owner, coach, or player. I typically choose the mode as owner because then you actually get to manage financials, although sometimes I do choose coach or player if I want less overhead and more gameplay. I will list my findings in no particular order.
After simulating for roughly 10 sim years, you will run into a shortage of either offensive or defensive coordinators, effectively ruining your franchise for at least a season because you will be unable to start a match with no coordinators on your team. I’ve read of several ways to bypass this bug. I’ve been using the workaround of firing my current OC and DC during staff week (the week following the Super Bowl) and then rehiring them. For whatever reason, this prevents the shortage of coordinators.
I’ve seen some bugs where the player freezes in place after the play ends. This appears to be fully cosmetic, proof of how the game is unpolished. I’ve seen other types of similar bugs in other games and it is not game-breaking.
I have seen and continue to see instances where my player holding possession will run out of bounds and the play clock will continue to run. I’ve also seen cuts in between “play the moments” where the play clock will stop or start for seemingly no reason. I am also aware of the little known rule where the clock runs if you run backfield out of bounds. My player is not running backwards out of bounds and the clock is still running. It’s a bug.
I’ve seen several instances where the actions that occur defy the laws of physics, especially when your player with possession of the ball gets German suplexed in midgame from pursuit. These circumstances don’t occur in real life. This leads me to another related annoyance:
There is pretty clearly an invisible wall coded at the opponent’s 1 yard line. I’ve seen countless, countless examples of where the players will beeline to your player’s position once they approach the 1 yard line. Their speed and acceleration will magically be perfectly in line to intercept your player at the 1 yard line. Their tackling prowess will improve infinitely once they arrive to protect the end zone at the 1 yard line. Their ratings will seemingly improve just enough to stop your player at the 1 yard line. Just recently, I’ve even seen where the players will hang out hovering over the 1 yard line just to stop them there, even if they could cross the line and stop my player upfield. It’s cheesy, and seems to be a method to force suspense in the match by creating a goal line stand. One of many ways to force suspense, which I will get into later.
I’ve noticed that the during both the 4th quarter and within the last 2 minutes of the 2nd quarter, the opponents skill/prowess will improve considerably. The box score seems to align with this finding. During the last 2 minutes of the 2nd quarter, their man and zone coverage will typically improve, and the defense will becomes more aggressive with the blitz. Now, I may be able to counter act the blitz activity (maybe, depending on how the game is coded), but the improvement in coverage is unavoidable. Now, during the 4th quarter, things get downright weird. Your opponent will begin to successfully win onside kicks (at a significantly greater rate than your team). Their receivers, particularly WRs, will straight up MOSS your defensive backs downfield. You could fully anticipate the deep pass, where its going and when it will get there, and actively defend the catch, sometimes with their receiver double covered, and they will STILL magically make the catch which will 100% give them AT LEAST 3 points as it will flip the field. And if you are simulating via “play the moments” mode during the 4th quarter? Forget about it. I want to give that scenario it’s own paragraph although it is heavily related to this one.
OK, so let’s say you are smoking your opponent, up by three touchdowns, and loving life when the 3rd quarter ends. Well, now the 1s and 0s coded in the software state that their team is All-Madden quality and smoking hot. If you are in “play the moments” mode, this is the time where you will see that they will throw consecutive downfield successful passes within seconds without taking a timeout and resulting in a score. You may even simulate your QB throwing an interception or two in there just so the opponent can get the ball back to score a couple more times and create a single score game. This is the game’s coded “forced suspense” moment to make the game interesting. That’s usually all that it does because I will still end up scoring in response and winning, it’s just unrealistic. If you look at the box score, you will see the opponent not scoring for two quarters straight (2nd and 3rd) and then all of a sudden score 2-4 touchdowns within MINUTES. This is simply not realistic, and it proves also that the momentum bar is somewhat useless when it comes to simulating the game. Another by product of this bizarre behavior is that the box score will show that their QB throws like 500 yards and still loses, while your QB throws maybe 200-300 yards. The reason for this is that during the 4th quarter, their team will always kick an onside kick as a result of scoring, while your team will kick the ball downfield. Their team has the God mode cheat code mind you, so they FLY DOWN THE FIELD IN 30 SECONDS EVERY POSSESSION WITHOUT TAKING A TIMEOUT TO SCORE. Let’s say you kick a touchback every time you score in the 4th. You might as well just add 80 passing yards to their QB because you know they are going to score. Meanwhile, because they kicked onside, the ball will be at or around midfield for your possession, meaning you will get maybe 40-50 yards combined passing and rushing. Their pass defense is a bit better now (4th quarter) so you may have to sprinkle some runs in there to score. Now this is my experience with “play the moments” mode. If you play offense only, defense only, or full game, the “switch” does not seem as obvious, if it even exists.
So one of my observations is actually being experimented. I’ve noticed if you play as a player in Franchise and become an absolute stud, that you are forced to retire. I’ve come to this conclusion a long time ago. I’m usually under a 3 year contract to begin, so if I play 3 years and win 3 Super Bowl rings, I’m damn near Tom Brady status already. Losing teams should be tripping over themselves to work magic on their cap space so I can flip the team with my X-factor. Meanwhile, the offseason ends and I don’t even get any lowball offers. My own team, the same team I brought 3 consecutive rings to sometimes does not even attempt to re-sign. Let me discuss my suspicions and experiment.
I’ve read online that this occurs because the 1s and 0s in the Madden code is not capable of performing the cap space wizardry needed to flip their team and build around a stud like me. Therefore, they do not even try. This is so unrealistic its insane. My suspicion is that you get offers to re-sign if your OVR is at or below a certain level. I don’t know what that level is, but based on what I’ve read and based on my gut, I think if I keep my OVR around the 75 area that I should be able to receive offers from some teams after my contract ends. This is sad for multiple reasons. 1) I’m trying to get that bag, man! The high OVR players demand the money! Not in Madden. In Madden, the high OVR players are forced to retire while young. 2) I don’t get the advantages of having a high OVR–increased speed, accuracy, awareness, etc. Also, if I decide to simulate games, I don’t get advantages of high OVR AI play. This means simulations will have lower quality play. Fortunately, my stick skills and understanding of defenses is enough that I could possibly win Super Bowls with 60 OVR (as long as I play), and that’s what my experiment is. I leveled my player up to 75 OVR and then began banking/saving skill points. I have maybe 25 skill points banked that I have not applied so that my OVR stays low enough to get offers at end of contract. My contract ends in a few games so I am wondering how things pan out once it does end. I’m also planning on attempting to play until my 40s like Tom Brady. I understand regression is coded into the game but if I bank skill points, theoretically, I could play a very long time with reasonable OVR. I’m having fun so far with this experiment, but we will see! To be honest, the main reason I want to play until at least my 40s is because I’m curious what Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis will say about me if I play until that age. I suppose I could just actually simulate being Tom Brady and start at 40 or just make a fake player at 40 but I wanted to try organically.
In my experience, the penalties against your team equate to the difficulty level the game is enforcing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if more penalties (usually holding) occur against your team during 2nd or 4th quarters, but honestly, I haven’t been paying attention to penalties enough to see, so this penalty observation may just be nonsense. It’s entirely possible the penalties equate to the player statistics, which is actually a reasonable way to go about penalties. I also think there may be a penalty slider somewhere in game settings to play with, but I play with all default sliders.
Occasionally I get graphical glitches related to fans or coaches during games. They look like rendering issues and could be related to the graphics processing on the Xbox–I’m not exactly sure. I’m able to overlook these issues.
Madden Ultimate Team (MUT) is shoved down your throat from start to finish. The moment the game launches as well as the moment you attempt to switch game modes, you are likely to be advertised to go to MUT and even sent into MUT mode if you hit the A button (Xbox). This is annoying, but I choose to endure it for the good that is Madden Franchise. I also do want to mention that many bugs that I’ve encountered for Franchise over the past 2 years have indeed been resolved, and I want to give the folks at EA credit for that.
I think that’s all I’ve got for now. I wanted to exercise my fingers and put something here particularly considering the amount of time I’ve been investing in Madden 23. I also want to mention that I was impacted by the Franchise mode server issue and was forced to delete my Franchise. I am going to see if I can get Madden 24 for 50% off as they have communicated.