Madden NFL 12 Message Board older than one year ago

#madden If the assembled video game reviewers were a lazier bunch, they'd simply release a short blurb with each new Madden game calling it the best official NFL console game of the year. More »

There is a quality in 2K Sports/Visual Concepts' NBA 2K franchise that often seems at odds with the modern crop of sports games we find ourselves afflicted with on a yearly basis. That quality? Passion. It's just something you don't often see in a yearly series, one so seemingly dedicated to existing purely out of a need to fill a licensing hole.

That lack of passion in yearly sports games is something that I remarked as being especially prevalent in my review of Madden NFL 12, though that doesn't mean it doesn't exist elsewhere. You've perhaps seen flashes of it in EA's other franchises, like the NHL and FIFA games, and in Sony's MLB: The Show series. But year in and year out, NBA 2K always seems to stand out as the sports game most thoroughly built for the sports gamer. It's not just a didactically built series of menus and accurate rosters pushing a listless agenda forward for, again, the mere sake of existing on store shelves. It feels like a game made by people who legitimately love basketball, and love making basketball games.

Maybe there won't be an NBA season, but with NBA 2K12 just around the corner, you're probably going to be just fine.

NBA 2K11 was perhaps the pinnacle of that development passion; arguably one of the most realistically rendered and deeply satisfying basketball experiences ever put on a disc. Seemingly, 2K Sports and VC know this, because NBA 2K12 doesn't screw with a good thing. What you liked about last year's game--the controls, the feel, the atmosphere, and the presentation--is all here fully intact. What 2K has done is add a number of upgrades and new bells and whistles to the package, some of which I was able to take a look at late last week. And while NBA 2K12 doesn't seem quite as poised to revolutionize basketball gaming quite the way its predecessor did, what the developers plan to offer up certainly looks to be enough to justify another trip to the court.

One of the things that has always marveled me about the NBA 2K series, especially in recent installments, is how well it manages to go about not making me feel like a damnable idiot. I am a basketball fan, but not to the point where I understand the minute differences in strategies, plays, and methodologies employed by various coaches. I recognize that there is a strategy to it, I am just incapable of deciphering it, hence why my basketball career never extended beyond the 7th grade. In NBA 2K12, I was able to pick up a controller and play reasonably well against a PR representative whose sole job it was that day to play NBA 2K12 against online writers. I could pass, score, steal, and block as needed, though given the many months that had passed since my last play-through of NBA 2K11, I obviously fell victim to some of his more devious strategies. Still, that a basketball simulation as beloved for its realism as NBA 2K is anything other than an impenetrable, fear-inducing behemoth is a wonderful thing.

The game on the court feels remarkably tight. Controls are extremely responsive, and now play-calling--if you're into that sort of thing--has been made easier with a new control system designed to allow you to call plays much quicker on-the-fly. There are also subtle changes to the post-up game, which honestly I could barely decipher, but the thing I took away the most from NBA 2K12 is that it plays a hell of a lot like NBA 2K11, and I don't mean that as an insult.

If you love John Stockton's tiny shorts as much as I do, then this is probably a pretty exciting screenshot to you.

The gameplay was pretty phenomenal last year so rather than borking up what was already a good thing, Visual Concepts switched the focus on the court to improving the presentation. That, in and of itself, already seems rather challenging, given the high quality of animation, camera work, and commentary already included in last year's title, but by Jove, they seem to have done it. Watching the movements of the players, the camera, just everything on the court, it's nothing short of remarkable. Visual Concepts even went to the trouble of adding a bit of dynamic interaction with the edges of the court, making it so players can hop over tables and cameramen into the first row. Sorry, still no dynamic player/crowd brawls, but maybe someday, right?

Even better is the commentary from the trio of Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg and Steve Kerr. After spending a solid week with Madden's repetitive, jarring commentary tracks, it made me appreciate all the more how well this trio's dialogue flows together. Never over the course of several games did I hear any generic lines repeat, nor did I hear any odd hiccups in the flow of the conversation that weren't intentional. Indeed, VC has actually programmed it now where the commentators will instantly react to a big play on the court, regardless as to whether a line of color commentary has already begun. After nailing a particularly nasty dunk, all three let out a particularly excitable "OOOHHHHH!" followed by a comment on that specific play, right in the middle of one of Kerr's diatribes about my team's performance last season. He then actually resumed that story once they'd finished praising the dunk. Commentary is so easily dismissed and derided in most games, I must say that it's really refreshing to actually want to pay attention to it while playing a game.

While 2K isn't yet talking about NBA 2K12's Association mode, nor any of its other offline play modes, one feature has been touted heavily: the NBA's Greatest mode. This mode features 30 classic teams from 15 of the league's most memorable rivalries. While the focus of these rivalries usually tends to be on a few key players, like the Larry Birds, Magic Johnsons, and Michael Jordans of the world, this mode also includes some of the lesser known players in those great rivalries. Every single team included has its complete lineup, right down to the least-noteworthy point guard on the 1970 Atlanta Hawks. Other games have done variations of classic team modes, but often focused on licensing the biggest names while just creating generic players with correct player numbers to supplement the rosters. Here, everyone from Dikembe Mutumbo and Dominique Wilkins down to Cazzie Russell and Paul Mokeski is included.

The presentation of the games in this mode changes significantly as well. If you're playing a match-up between '64-'65 Celtics and Lakers, the in-game camera switches to a black-and-white view, with commentary appropriately filtered through the slightly less intelligible technology of the time. Moving up in decades, the visuals will shift to color, albeit with more washed-out visuals. All the appropriate rulesets of a given era are included, so if you're playing back in the '60s, there is no three-point line, for instance. The commentators will also give a mix of real-time play-by-play with historical explanation of the situation between these two teams, shifting between past and present tense that is, initially, a bit off-putting, but ultimately works because, again, the commentary is so good.

The presentational adjustments made during classic games look legitimately phenomenal.

With all of that in mind, I remind you once again that NBA 2K12 does actually exist in something of a vacuum. Much as Madden is the sole option for football gamers these days, NBA 2K is the only game in town for NBA fans. Granted, in this case, there is no exclusivity at work. EA has simply declined to release a new basketball game until it finishes rebooting its previously canceled reboot, NBA Elite. And yet, despite this utter lack of competition over the last two years, it doesn't feel like Visual Concepts has been sitting around, throwing darts at a wall in the hopes of finding something to do with its time. The changes here seem smart, well-reasoned, and exquisitely implemented.

It has been ages--ages I tell you--since I actually found myself looking forward to an NBA game that did not have the words Jam or Street affixed somewhere in the title. After NBA 2K11, and spending a little time with NBA 2K12, I can say that I'm sincerely looking forward to this one.

#madden This has been an obsession of mine ever since Cowboys Stadium appeared in Madden NFL 10—hit the Jerrytron, the arena's massive scoreboard, with a punt. Tennessee's A.J. Trapasso did in a pre-season game in 2009, causing a brief foofaraw over its size and how low it was hanging over the field. More »

IGN is ready for some f#@%ing football, are you?! Want to go head to head against your favorite editors, and hang out with fellow IGN fans in the greatest Madden NFL 12 community ever? We've got the hookup for you...

Even though he retired from the broadcast booth in 2009, NFL Hall of Famer John Madden remains immersed in football. He watches just about every play of every game all season long. And he remains active with EA Sports' Tiburon studio working on the newest iteration of the franchise that bears his na...

#impressions Simulation-quality sports video games all now ship with some kind of solo career mode, in which you create or control one player throughout his entire career. By far, this fantasy experience is most underserved by the football games. NCAA Football 12 made a substantial effort to upgrade its career this year, and although Madden NFL 12 does add some new features with "Superstar," it remains inexcusably neglected next to the rest of the product. More »

It's not just armchair quarterbacks and gamers who will be lining up to get Madden NFL 12. With the lockout now a memory and a brand new Collective Bargaining Agreement secured for a full decade, NFL players can focus on getting ready for some football -- both on the real gridiron and the virtual. ...

3 out of 5

In researching my review of Madden NFL 12, I decided to go back and re-read portions of my previous Madden reviews over the course of the last decade. As I read those reviews, a trend emerged, revealing a pattern in the developers' goals that went in a cyclical fashion. One year, the offense was the focus. In another, defense. In one year, casual players were targeted, and in another, the more hardcore set. One year saw major graphical improvements, while another worked on the audio presentation. It's a seesaw effect that, while not directly year-to-year, amounts to a sense of perpetual unrest. Certainly this is true of any game on a yearly development cycle, but with Madden, that cyclical pattern often runs counter to the notion of "yearly progression." If anything, it creates just as many years of depressing regression. With Madden NFL 12, this year is such a year.

The new tackling animations are certainly more dynamic, if not quite as overtly satisfying.

This year is a "hardcore" year. It's also a defensive year, and a graphics year. Put those together, and you should have a game with great new defensive controls, tons of mode tweaks and balances, and stellar visuals, with some glaring issues left unaddressed in the realms of offense, interface, and audio. I can say the latter is true. Not quite as much the former.

If anything, Madden NFL 12's upgrades are less obvious. It's telling that the only videos EA Sports included to explain to the unread masses what they just paid $60 for pertain to the franchise mode. Simple menus dictate the changes to superstar mode, and the back of the box touts the merits of an all-new collision system and a new Dynamic Player Performance system. Some of these become noteworthy in playing Madden NFL 12, others less so.

The franchise mode, which has clearly seen the lion's share of attention this year, is certainly more robust, if not necessarily finely tuned. Among the host of additions to the off-season modes are player cuts, free agent bidding, and rookie scouting. The player cuts emulate the NFL off-season, with weekly cuts required to get your roster down to the proper number of players as the season begins. This also properly emulates the way a team uses these cuts to evaluate younger talent, as you'll often learn more about a rookie's abilities as they're given more play time throughout the pre-season. Scouting those rookies ahead of time also does this, though it only matters if you actually get to draft the players you scout. Oddly, information is often completely obfuscated for rookies you don't choose to scout. This includes basic combine information like 40 times, strength tests, and whatever else, so you really don't have a frigging clue if a rookie you never bothered to scout is worth a good goddamn.

Just beware the computer. Whatever tasks you assign to the CPU, it will do poorly. Granted, it will do them poorly with aplomb, almost excitedly, in its effort to screw up your best-laid plans. Do not let the computer sign rookies, for it will sign none of them. Do not let the computer scout players for you, for it will largely choose to scout positions you have no apparent need for, and spend most of its time digging up the most minute details on players that will go on to have great careers fixing air conditioners and moonlighting in the UFL. If you choose to avoid the free agent bidding system--which now has you putting in bids for free agents against all other teams at the same time, with two-minute countdown clocks emulating the hours of thought that go into a player's decision to either be paid as the star receiver on a terrible team like Miami, or win a Super Bowl as the decidedly less-paid third receiver in Philadelphia--you will be screwed.

So in that regard, Madden NFL 12 is perhaps a touch less casual-friendly than last year's title. Still, these changes are far and away the best thing EA Tiburon has done to this mode in ages. Sadly, they seem to have come at the expense of any noteworthy additions in other areas of play. The Ultimate Team mode, Madden's answer to card-battling and absurd opportunities for microtransactions (through card packs you can buy for your team, using actual money), now allows you to trade cards with other teams. Also, there are legend players to collect, ensuring that anyone who actually decides to drop a bunch of cash on this mode will effectively build an unbeatable team. Otherwise, it is conceptually unchanged.

And Superstar mode? It's still Superstar mode, in that it is still a fairly dull waste of everyone's time. So there's that.

There is so much dirt on that jersey, I can barely stand it.

This being a graphics year, you would expect to be dazzled by Madden NFL 12's visuals. You may be dazzled by the upgrades to the game's concept of deterioration--in any other industry, that sentence would sound ludicrous--with improved dirt, muck, and other junk messing up player's uniforms over the course of a game. You will likely be less wowed by the still-creepy-looking player faces, semi-broken idling animations, and periodic bouts of incorrect players popping up during highlight reels.

That's especially an issue given Madden NFL 12's greater emphasis on a "television" style of presentation. More frequent cutaways to highlight "impact players" join new camera angles designed to mimic a TV broadcast. Unfortunately, these changes are of little use. The new camera angles aren't useful at all in the context of playing Madden, and too often the announcers will call out the wrong players, or choose an impact player that is playing horribly. Yes, Jason Campbell, with his three interceptions and two fumbles, may in fact be the impact player of the game, but not in the way these announcers seemingly intend him to be.

On the subject of the announcers, they are awful. The team of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth is still a good one, but there are too few lines of dialogue, and too many generic statements among them to endure. You will hear Collinsworth use the same lines about punt returners three times per-game, if not more. You will hear Johnson simultaneously use excited and pacified tones through awkwardly stitched-together pieces of dialogue. For his sake, I really hope that's the designer's fault, and not a sign that he should see a doctor.

And then there is the realm of gameplay. The collision system, designed to eliminate suction between players during hit and tackle animations, and allow for greater "point-of-contact" freedom in laying out opposing players, mostly does these things correctly. Players do not magnetize to each other with such frequency as before, but the trade-off is tackling animations that often feel less impactful. While gang-tackles and other such purportedly exciting animations have been added this year, the actual sense of laying out a receiver or running back with a well-placed hit feels strangely muted. In some ways, that's a fair enough trade for the sensation that you are actually controlling the player all the way through their animation, but I can't pretend I didn't miss the feeling of absolutely obliterating some dandy receiver with a barely-legal hit.

While hitting has seen a downturn, the offensive game has seen no turn at all. GameFlow, introduced last year as a play-calling system for people who hate play-calling, has seen a minor adjustment in its presentation, with a new option to scroll through plays called up according to your pre-designed gameplan (or the one you let the computer design for you), while also adjusting to plays that represent a more aggressive or conservative stance. It's a fine concept, albeit one that obfuscates what calls you're actually making by not showing you any of the play art by default. Straight up, Ask Madden is still a more useful feature for easy-going players uninterested in the greater complexities of the game, even if John Madden doesn't really talk to you anymore--a loss that doesn't get nearly enough eulogizing, if you ask me.

One might argue that the new Dynamic Player Performance feature is a significant gameplay change. This system, which assigns star ratings to players based on qualities like consistency and confidence, puts players on hot and cold streaks based on performance within a given game. This is most specifically something you'll notice within the game's franchise mode, but it's something you can see come into play during regular games too. If you're playing a shaky rookie quarterback who suddenly makes a great play, his confidence will rise, and you may find yourself with a boost in overall performance. On the opposite side, throw a costly interception, and your QB may suddenly find himself in the company of Vince Young at the local bar, drinking your troubles away. Not literally, of course. Nobody at EA Sports has time to render a CG bar. They did have time to render a CG White House for when you win the Super Bowl, though. Barack Obama is there to congratulate you, too. So that's great.

Dynamic Player Performances are generally realistic, though their impact on the real-time game is often tough to discern.

While these Dynamic Player Performances do add a bit of realism, they don't do anything to address any concerns one might have about whether Madden NFL 12 is any fun or not. None of these changes do. What even translates to "fun" in a Madden game at this point in history is almost a useless question. If you're a casual player, that likely means going through a few seasons of franchise, playing your buddies online, perhaps joining an online league (a mode which has seen no significant changes from last year's game), or one of the new communities set up for players to find game types of their own particular liking. Those players will find a game that, by and large, feels a lot like last year's, in that it is competent, competitive, and generally plays the game of football as you would like it. For the more dedicated set, the ones who will pore over Internet forums for the next six to eight months looking for information on slider fixes, patch updates, and desperately in-depth stat adjustments for second- and third-string players, you already stopped reading this review ages ago, because it didn't tell you enough about what sliders to fiddle with or where the roster inaccuracies lie. Essentially, I'm talking to myself right now.

That Madden NFL 12 feels like a less passionate endeavor than even other yearly sports titles, less a labor of love and more a labor of necessity, is a criticism that likely won't mean much to either type of player. It's still video game football in a competitive and compelling environment, especially when played online with friends. It has more content than you will likely ever touch over the course of the next season of real football. In some ways, Madden NFL 12 is a better game than its predecessor. In others, not. It has significant flaws, and it has significant strengths.

In short, Madden NFL 12 is fine. See you next season.

#madden The first day of EA Sports' "Season Ticket" premium subscription, offering a three-day (or more) full preview of Madden NFL 12, does not reflect wide acceptance among the hardcore community it was meant to appeal to. More »

You already know how we feel about Madden NFL 12. But did the rest of the gaming press feel the same way about this year's virtual tailgaiting-enabler as our reviewer did? In short: kinda.

• GameTrailers (8.5/10): "Despite the bugs and quirks, Madden NFL 12 still manages to play a convincing game of pigskin. Your tolerance for the gaffes will be directly proportional to how much you have on the line in each game. It doesn't always function realistically, but we like the idea behind dynamic player performance."
• IGN (8.0/10): "If you're worried that EA has fumbled among the rough and tumble of sports politics, relax. Madden NFL 12 is a solid, tighter football game, even though it's a largely similar one."
• Game Informer (7.5/10): "Like a desperate team that has stocked up on high-profile free agents thinking it's on the cusp of a championship, Madden NFL 12 looks good in practice, but where it counts it's a jumbled mess of frustration, unmet expectations, and sloppy play ... Past Maddens either delivered new features or fixed old problems, but this year you get neither. In too many instances Madden 12 takes you down promising paths that only lead to dead ends.

For more discussion, you can listen to a podcast roundtable of Madden NFL 12 reviewers featuring Mike Suszek (Joystiq), Kat Bailey (GamePro), and Rich Grisham (GamesRadar).

#madden The preview weekend download for Madden NFL 12 is now underway for PlayStation 3 subscribers to the Season Ticket. Because of the way this is handled (through the PlayStation Store, instead of an application) some may be confused about how to start the download. Here is the answer: More »

A portion of an NWR review...

Madden NFL 12 on Wii is not for every Madden player - it’s for an unfortunately small group of Madden players. It still has all the core features of the other versions (Franchise, Fantasy Draft, etc.), but the overall gameplay is a little more light-hearted and forgiving. This game is an incremental step from last year’s solid game, and all of the additions, outside of the neutered art style, are great. As it stands, this is the best version of Madden on Wii to date. Go out and pick it up if you’re interested in playing a great football game on Wii.

Full review here

On Friday, August 26 (that's today!) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT Electronic Arts is hosting a live streamed launch party for Madden NFL 12. And what better way to celebrate the newest addition in the football franchise than with a head to head match between IGN and EA...

Reviewing, let alone investing in an annual sports game series is difficult. In my experience, Madden fans are typically the reluctant type; they hope for vast improvements every year and expect a new game that will blow them away. Madden NFL 12 is not that game. It's not the kind of game that answers every problem players have with football games. But this year, EA Sports tackled some core issues that elevates this game as one of the best in the series.

#madden The idea behind EA Sports' premium "Season Ticket" was to give people 72 hours with their favorite sports video game before it hit retail shelves. Turns out they will get a few more, with Xbox 360 and west coast users benefitting the most. More »

Player lockout threats and league disputes have marred football's off-season this year. But one thing that never changes is the appearance of Madden at just this time of the year. With so much instability in pro-football, EA has been quiet about this year's iteration of one of the biggest game fran...

#madden John Madden has a low tolerance for cheesy play in the video game bearing his name. "I don't like to see stuff that isn't real, or isn't practical," he says, "like going for it long on fourth down." He would, however, blitz you every single down, if you gave him back one of his old linebackers. More »

On Friday, August 26 (that's tomorrow!) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT Electronic Arts is hosting a live streamed launch party for Madden NFL 12. And what better way to celebrate the newest addition in the football franchise than with a head to head match between IGN and EA...

#madden The NFL's official fantasy football service, offered through NFL.com, will be integrated into Madden NFL 12, updating gamers with scores and results from their leagues, standings, schedules and more. More »

#madden Madden Ultimate Team, the card-collecting/player-management/online multiplayer mishmash that's become an obsession for many, will not be active during the three-day exclusive full preview of Madden NFL 12 offered by EA Sports' "Season Ticket" premium subscription, according to EA Sports. More »

#madden The 100. A rarity that symbolizes perfection and nearly automatic success in sports video games, the difference between it and a 99 rating in a single attribute is in fact cosmetic. But the difference between a 100 and a 92—or an 88—is rather substantial. Fans of Madden NFL 12 have the chance to make a profound difference in how some of the game's players will perform when the title releases in two weeks. More »

#stickjockey The score was out of reach. The fans had given up. The result would have no effect on the season. Nothing suggested Greg Jennings and the Green Bay Packers were about to execute the most famous come-from-ahead touchdown miracle in NFL history. More »