Madden NFL 13 is disappointing

Madden NFL 13 is disappointingMadden NFL 13 is a huge disappointment. After about a decade as a loyal fan to the series, I stopped buying Madden games after Madden 09 because I got tired of paying for the same game year in and year out with nothing new but updated rosters. I had heard a lot of good things about this year’s Madden from friends and the demo was actually pretty cool. The new Infinity engine intrigued me and the graphics looked amazing. Thinking the franchise might have been revived this year (and thanks to my friend Taylor who actually got me the game), I went ahead and gave Madden 13 a try.More Clay Matthews Super Bowl 49 Jersey PhotosThe first thing that hits you in Madden 13 is just Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl 49 Jersey how poorly the menus are designed. It’s harder to find things than it needs to be because they don’t just list the various options and game modes, you have to find them on some chart. What is the point of that? Another negative you will notice right away is that the usual EA Trax soundtrack was replaced by some generic orchestral music.Much to my chagrin, I found the long beloved franchise mode is also gone, replaced with something called connected careers. Career mode is basically just a watered down version of a franchise where you pick to be either a player or a coach. Think of the "Be A Pro" mode from the NHL franchise. Since I find limiting myself to the control of one player on the field to be incredibly boring, I picked to be a coach.Choosing a coach is the closest thing you have to actually running the team but even that becomes more about the coach’s career than the team itself. Why can’t I adjust ticket and concession sales anymore? Why can’t I track attendance? Why can’t I upgrade the stadium? It makes no sense to have all of these things taken out and force me to focus on my coach’s career. I don’t want to do that! How bout a "Be a GM" mode instead?The menu design gets even worse in career mode as things like your coach’s record and fake news tweets are prominently displayed on their own tabs while actual important screens such as league standings and player stats are hidden away on a "more" screen. I can’t even find where to edit your team depth chart during the season. Not like that’s an important feature or anything.Another issue with connected careers as a coach is that actually playing the games seems to take a backseat to everything else. Prior to the season beginning, you actually have to make cuts to your roster. I like football but I don’t know who guys fourth and fifth down on the depth chart at right guard are. and had to hope they cut the right players. Honestly, I don’t see why this feature needed to be added at all.Practice is another boring part of the season. In past games, practice meant you ran a couple of drills like a tackling drill or a passing drill and then that player got a couple of distribution points. Practice in Madden NFL 13 means that you basically play an entire game against your own team to earn experience for your players. For example, one practice scenario is something along the lines of "the score is tied 10 10 in the 2nd quarter. Win the game." Why would I waste half as much time on practice as I would playing the actual game itself?To make matters worse, they took out the ability to do fantasy drafts this year. What? This was a feature that made past Madden games have replayability. After a few seasons in franchise you Clay Matthews Super Bowl XLIX Jersey are pretty much playing with a custom team anyway so it was more fun to just go back and do a fantasy draft, making your own team. Guess EA frowned upon this.As for the gameplay, it is just as bad as the rest of the game. It was supposed to be more realistic thanks to the Infinity physics engine but there comes a point when the game becomes so realistic it’s not fun anymore. Sports games need to have a slight hint of an "arcadey" feeling to them to be fun. Madden just isn’t fun to play.The controls are absolutely awful, especially before the snap, and especially on defense. We’ll talk about offense first. It takes some imagination to figure out how to do hot routes because they aren’t listed on the pre snap controls menu. Sending players in motion is also almost impossible. In past Madden games you simply had to move the analog stick which would highlight different players that you could then Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl Jersey easily send in motion. After mashing the button which the pre snap menu claims puts players in motion for several games, I still haven’t figured out how to do it.Pre snap defense is www.packersauthenticofficialshop.com/JORDY_NELSON_SUPER_BOWL_JERSEY.html even more of a disaster. There’s just too many options. Sometimes you have to use the left stick to select something. Other times you need to use the right stick. Still other times you need to use the d pad. As a result, your defense is always caught off guard.I remember the days of Madden where every change was on the same analog. If you flicked the stick upwards, the player was instructed to go into zone coverage. Flicking it backwards twice, he would go into deep zone coverage. Flicking the analog forward made him blitz. Press the bumper before flicking the stick and that would adjust his positioning itself with press coverage, stacking the line, etc. This was much more intuitive than trying to remember which stick or d pad button you need to use.Once the ball is snapped, the level of control doesn’t get much better. One of the big features this year is supposed to be total control passing where you can lead your receivers better than ever before. This feature fails because it is controlled with the same analog stick used to move the quarterback around in the pocket. Want to step up into your throw? Well holding up also throws the ball high above your receiver to make him jump for it. Want to roll a bit to the left to avoid pass rushers? That also throws the ball way to the left of your receiver.Speaking of the pass rush, it seems like every time you throw the ball, the enemy defense is crashing your pocket immediately. Prepare to be sacked a lot. On the other hand, it’s almost impossible for you, as a player, to shed a block and sack the opposing QB. The right analog packersauthenticofficialshop.com/EDDIE_LACY_SUPER_BOWL_JERSEY.html "shed block" control doesn’t really work.The game isn’t all bad. There are a few redeeming qualities. The graphics are amazing and extremely realistic. Presentation has been improved a lot and there is much more variety in the commentary provided by Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. The physics, while clunky during gameplay, does lead to some really cool animations and team tackles. Perhaps they should have made it kick it during tackles or something.The reason Madden 13 has so many problems is because EA seems to be forcing online down our throats. Everything is about online play now. Connected careers is meant to be played online so of course the offline version is dumbed down compared to what it could be. Even the achievements are mostly unlocked through online play. If you don’t play online at all, or play a career mode with a single player, you probably aren’t going to unlock a single achievement ever.In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend Madden NFL 13 for anybody other than the most hardcore of football fans who absolutely need updated rosters on their game. Even then, you are probably better off playing older versions of the game and just spending the time to update the rosters manually.