After about 5 hours of gameplay and numerous trips to the EA/OperationSports forums, I took back Madden 13 the same day I bought it to get my money back.

Immediate return because there's no traditional franchise mode. There's Connected Careers, where you are a coach/GM, but you can't edit players. You can't import customized rosters, you can't change players numbers/positions/equipment. You can only use your custom rosters in exhibition mode, which is a goddamn waste of my time. The menu/music/commentary is infinitely better, but the lack of being able to customize my franchise how I see fit is blasphemous.

EA is basically trying to kill the Offline portion of the game - they want you playing other people, not the AI. The new physics system is improved but still clunky as hell. The uniforms are only 60% accurate or so, a lot of lazy graphics updates. The menu is pretty, but can get laggy as fuck if you try to go through things too fast.

Overall though the complete vacancy of customizing rosters/players is a gamebreaker, and there's been no evidence intentions of patching it. Hang onto Madden 12 and treasure it - future Maddens are on their way downhill fast.

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Couldn't disagree more with you. I thought the whole editing your roster thing was something just the kids were doing now but I guess not. Not trying to take a shot at you but I think the whole Madden Franchise thing is way more in depth then it almost ever has. You can still play your franchise mode offline and it goes for 30 seasons. Usually I just hunker down in the basement on Madden release day but apparently I have obligations now that prevent me from spending 10 straight hours playing a videogame. We'll see.

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It's clear everybody plays the game differently, and obviously my opinion is a minority, but to me these felt like HUGE things the game left out. To each their own, I suppose.

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I'm with you Deskie. I love franchise mode. I do think they are trying to make everything an online thing. Bummer. Can you import college draft classes? If not deal breaker and I'll be buy madden 12 instead of 13.

I'm not sure if you can or can't, but even if you did you wouldn't be able to use them in the Career mode thing. You're forced to use the default rosters, or if you're online you'll be able to use EA's updated roster (whenever they come out with it) but otherwise nope.

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I'll have my thoughts here this week after I buy it. If they killed the franchise mode I'm done with Madden for good.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Save your money. NHL 13 coming out in a few weeks.

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Team Cutler.

They didn't kill Franchise mode. It is just now career mode and you have to play as "Coach". They basically just re-named Franchise mode.

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That's not a good sign. Means they are trying to fix what not only isn't broken, but is the main feature that popularized the game over a decade ago.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Dewskie, I think you might be mistaken on some of these things.


Its getting great reviews. Best Madden in years.

Im quite certain there is a way to use any roster in any mode.

My brother in law works for EA and specifically with Madden. Im gonna forward him these posts and see what he says. Ill post his response, if its good.

I'm not sure, as I haven't gotten into it a whole lot yet, but it seems very similar to this point.

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It sounds like Dewskie went in WANTING to hate it.


They are definitely trying to move to more online stuff. But thats an industry thing, not just Madden

I've bought every version since '96. I hope it doesn't change. As long as they don't fuck with the franchise mode they will continue to get my $60+ every August. I have no use for online play.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

This thread is 10 years too late....

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

all I care about is being able to play friends at my place if the Bears game gets boring. Is there four player available (non-online)?

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

If they want to move things farther into "online" only territory it would be great if they would stop releasing $60 minor upgrades/rehashes/roster updates every single year.

How old are the bones of the Madden engine? 10 years? I'm fairly certain the bones of it go back to the PS2/Xbox generation. Pretty much the same game, same faults, same band-aids, same stuff. A tweak here and there and slapping some putty on whatever they can in the limited dev. cycle they have because they need to release the game every year. I haven't bought a Madden game since Ray Lewis was on the cover and I don't plan on buying one until maybe the next generation when they can put some actual real work into a new engine, a real total physics system etc. The presentation is top notch, commentary is good, the game is still pretty fun, stats are great, the depth of tweaks, AI and GM/Franchise mode are top fucking notch...I just can't justify shelling out 60 bucks every year for something that amounts to the same experience.

Things I would like to see next gen that will never ever happen:
-EA loses the exclusive license to the NFL.
-Charge 59.99 for the game and have users pay 10.00 for new stuff via download/physical medium for the next 2 years. The dev. cycle expands and the game can actually get better.
-Further integrate it with NCAA football.

Fuck you EA, fuck you hard and all over.

My rant is over.

never buy the game. Rent it.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I think that's quite an assumption to say Dewskie was wanting to hate it. He bought it the day it came out. Also this isn't the first time I've heard or read "best madden in years." I've played the game when it had been dubbed that before and just shrugged my shoulders. EA and the NFL have killed the idea of what a great football game can be. I remember 2k sports last game they made and it had surpassed madden and did a lot of great new things to franchise. Wasnt a perfect game by any means. But I had been a snobby madden loyalist for years and I remember getting my hands on that 2k game, 2k 05 maybe, and realizing just how fucking lazy the madden people had become. They've barely done anything all that interesting or innovative since. I was looking forward to buying this game, but maybe it needs a test drive first. I hope Dewskie is dead wrong on this game but it wouldn't surprise me. If you compare the recent NBA 2k series with Madden, it's not even close. 2k has been innovative Nd made the game fun. Madden has just been a lazy rehash year after year. I'm hoping this one is different.

Agreed, that is all I do to... the last one I thought it was too easy to fumble ..and I heard they have all time greats on this one..sounds like it is going to be good.

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He also returned it that day. Also, of his two main complaints, one of them has been completely debunked (franchise mode is intact) and the other one (custom rosters can only be used in pre season) sounds fishy as well.

This is why I say he went in wanting to hate it.

He didnt even fuck around with it long enough to figure out that Career Mode is Franchise mode with a new name.

And even in your post you go off about how lazy they have been for years. I just think a lot of people are carrying their preconceived notions about the laziness of EA to the game instead of just judging it on its own merit for better or worse.


Also, Madden is a victim of their own innovation. Basketball games got better because they were awful to begin with. Madden was way ahead of everyone else in realism. It seems people have unrealistic expectations now. The game of football doesnt change much from year to year, I dont know why people expect huge innovations in a video game based on it.

When you charge 60 dollars every year for what amounts to the same game with a few tweaks and roster updates you should expect a good chunk of people to be a bit miffed at it.

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This is my signature...

I haven't owned a Madden game in probably 5 years, and for many of the reasons discussed in this thread. I played the Madden 13 demo two days ago and while nothing jumped out at me as being completely new or different, I still found it to be enjoyable. I will probably purchase this year's installment to learn more.

I played the demo and wasn't really impressed by it but I have the Madden sickness so every year I get the new game that comes out.

I like it alot actually. There is a ton of stuff to do with Franchise mode. You can't just jump into every game and not have it affect your season. It benefits you to do the practices that they have set aside for you where you can earn XP points which you can use to then scout players in the upcoming draft. You can also get XP points for different accomplishments during the game which then you can use for different player boosts or again to scout for the upcoming draft. The passing game is difficult and I like that. It's easier to run in this version then it is to pass. You can't just continue to throw bombs down the field like you have done in the past otherwise you will get picked off. You have to have some sort of opening to throw to your receivers which is very different then in years past.

I actually only was able to play for a few hours yesterday but I'm hoping to get more time in today and tomorrow before the weekend hits.

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I get it for free.

I actually enjoyed playing Madden on Sega and PS2. I'm out of touch with these new releases. Of course the video game industry wants everything to be digital so they can make it uncopyable and keep people from buying used copies of games on Amazon, eBay or the local store.

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To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Wow. Well aren't you fucking special, huh?

Someguy, I agree with you for the most part on the 60$ thing. For any sports game really.