It is way too early to try and make any definitive statements on what Madden 17 is actually going to be like. However, its fun at this time of year for everyone to guesstimate what the limited amount of info we have means. This is my take on what we know from the Madden 17 back-of-box features in the Xbox store.
Take your team all the way in Madden NFL 17 with a renewed focus on Franchise mode, putting you at the center of your team’s Championship run.
Analysis: I think we all can agree that a renewed focus on franchise mode is a great thing. I even wonder if they are going away from CFM and back to a "true" franchise mode, maybe opening up the possibility of Superstar mode returning in the new future. It remains to be seen what all this entails, but I definitely think this is a positive step in the right direction.
Hopefully we get an improved draft experience where its not so easy to scout every player and know who all of the late round sleepers are. I would kind of like to see drive goals go away since they are kind of cheesy anyway. I like season-long goals if some of them carries more XP, but they should be realistic goals and not ones you have to cheese it up to reach. Overall, I hope progression and XP is redone. I think it was a little too difficult to progress certain players this year and far too easy for others (QBs). This needs more balance. Most of this stuff will be touched in some way I'm sure.
Arm your team for gridiron glory on both sides of the ball with the most balanced gameplay to date.
Analysis: Again, another positive statement. Obviously, we have to wait and see what it means in game. I do think they are trying to move in the right direction. I think we all feel they overdo things (like aggressive catch) out-of-the-box so it may need some tweaking. However, I think we're going to see the best gameplay we have in awhile. I'm really hoping this means that CPU teams play differently, play to their strengths and don't have to go on robo-ridunculousness to be competitive.
Featuring all-new ball carrier feedback cues.
Analysis: This one kind of worries me. I hate the direction they are going adding all of these cues on screen. We're obviously trying to make our games look as close to the NFL as possible so maybe we are in the minority. If so, I hope they can add a league commissioner feature to turn some of this stuff off. It may be great for the average joe, but hardcore players don't like to feel like they're in a game of Super Mario Bros. when they're trying to live out their NFL fantasies on the big screen. I also worry this is going to make it far too easy to juke and evade defenders which would lessen the sim experience as well.
Defender fake out mechanics.
Analysis: I think this goes in line with what is above and the fear for most of us is, this will be overdone. Again, I get they have to cater to the general audience, but games like NBA 2k and MLB The Show replicate real life without getting too arcade-like. Hopefully the Madden team can find that balance and realize you don't have to make three different games. The average and cheese player will still play the realistic game. You just lose the sim player when its too gimicky.
An innovative, authentic defensive AI system.
Analysis: This maybe has me as excited as the improvements to franchise mode. It hints towards adaptive AI and defenders learning and adjusting to you doing the same thing over and over again. So, this could be a HUGE step forward for the franchise. I'm really interested to see what they did here. Hopefully defensive assignments came with this.
What we don't know.
Obviously this is all kind of ambiguous. Is there more that is going to be added to the back-of-the box when all of the features are announced? Was this just early placeholder text so to speak? That remains to be seen.
Could we possible still get a superstar mode this year? I doubt it as I think that would be a huge feature. But again, the way they release info its hard to give away any secrets this early. Does an improvement on franchise mode mean updated commentary, a SportsCenter-type highlight show, radio show like the old Tony Bruno show or anything like that? Again, I think its possible even though its not hinted in the early info released. I probably wouldn't hold my breath for it though as I think that might fall under a "presentation" package which doesn't seem to be the focus this year.
I have been saying since before Madden 16 even came out that Madden 17 was going to be the best Madden to date. Its hard to say definitively that will be the case on what little we know. But given what improvements were made last year and how involved the dev team is on Twitter, I'm going to stick with that statement. I'm a little surprised they went with CFM as I thought maybe that would come next year with a big focus on gampelay this year. However, now I think we may see some more improvements to gameplay this year, an overhaul of franchise mode and then set up Madden 18 for possibly a superstar mode, reworking presentation and hopefully commentary and even more gameplay improvements.
I guess we will see. I'm kind of excited to see how ti all shakes out though.
Take your team all the way in Madden NFL 17 with a renewed focus on Franchise mode, putting you at the center of your team’s Championship run.
Analysis: I think we all can agree that a renewed focus on franchise mode is a great thing. I even wonder if they are going away from CFM and back to a "true" franchise mode, maybe opening up the possibility of Superstar mode returning in the new future. It remains to be seen what all this entails, but I definitely think this is a positive step in the right direction.
Hopefully we get an improved draft experience where its not so easy to scout every player and know who all of the late round sleepers are. I would kind of like to see drive goals go away since they are kind of cheesy anyway. I like season-long goals if some of them carries more XP, but they should be realistic goals and not ones you have to cheese it up to reach. Overall, I hope progression and XP is redone. I think it was a little too difficult to progress certain players this year and far too easy for others (QBs). This needs more balance. Most of this stuff will be touched in some way I'm sure.
Arm your team for gridiron glory on both sides of the ball with the most balanced gameplay to date.
Analysis: Again, another positive statement. Obviously, we have to wait and see what it means in game. I do think they are trying to move in the right direction. I think we all feel they overdo things (like aggressive catch) out-of-the-box so it may need some tweaking. However, I think we're going to see the best gameplay we have in awhile. I'm really hoping this means that CPU teams play differently, play to their strengths and don't have to go on robo-ridunculousness to be competitive.
Featuring all-new ball carrier feedback cues.
Analysis: This one kind of worries me. I hate the direction they are going adding all of these cues on screen. We're obviously trying to make our games look as close to the NFL as possible so maybe we are in the minority. If so, I hope they can add a league commissioner feature to turn some of this stuff off. It may be great for the average joe, but hardcore players don't like to feel like they're in a game of Super Mario Bros. when they're trying to live out their NFL fantasies on the big screen. I also worry this is going to make it far too easy to juke and evade defenders which would lessen the sim experience as well.
Defender fake out mechanics.
Analysis: I think this goes in line with what is above and the fear for most of us is, this will be overdone. Again, I get they have to cater to the general audience, but games like NBA 2k and MLB The Show replicate real life without getting too arcade-like. Hopefully the Madden team can find that balance and realize you don't have to make three different games. The average and cheese player will still play the realistic game. You just lose the sim player when its too gimicky.
An innovative, authentic defensive AI system.
Analysis: This maybe has me as excited as the improvements to franchise mode. It hints towards adaptive AI and defenders learning and adjusting to you doing the same thing over and over again. So, this could be a HUGE step forward for the franchise. I'm really interested to see what they did here. Hopefully defensive assignments came with this.
What we don't know.
Obviously this is all kind of ambiguous. Is there more that is going to be added to the back-of-the box when all of the features are announced? Was this just early placeholder text so to speak? That remains to be seen.
Could we possible still get a superstar mode this year? I doubt it as I think that would be a huge feature. But again, the way they release info its hard to give away any secrets this early. Does an improvement on franchise mode mean updated commentary, a SportsCenter-type highlight show, radio show like the old Tony Bruno show or anything like that? Again, I think its possible even though its not hinted in the early info released. I probably wouldn't hold my breath for it though as I think that might fall under a "presentation" package which doesn't seem to be the focus this year.
I have been saying since before Madden 16 even came out that Madden 17 was going to be the best Madden to date. Its hard to say definitively that will be the case on what little we know. But given what improvements were made last year and how involved the dev team is on Twitter, I'm going to stick with that statement. I'm a little surprised they went with CFM as I thought maybe that would come next year with a big focus on gampelay this year. However, now I think we may see some more improvements to gameplay this year, an overhaul of franchise mode and then set up Madden 18 for possibly a superstar mode, reworking presentation and hopefully commentary and even more gameplay improvements.
I guess we will see. I'm kind of excited to see how ti all shakes out though.
