With the football season nearing its finale and the college Bowl and NFL playoff pictures coming into focus, I thought I'd take a minute to reflect on EA's NCAA Football 13 and Madden NFL 13 and offer up my suggestions for next year's football games.

Table of Contents

• Gameplay suggestions
  • Universal physics, "Wasted Movement", and "Breaking Down"
  • Player awareness, and universal ball-seeking
  • Fix issues with putting players in motion
  • Double team pass blocking
  • Bring back the blocking play-art
  • Angled blocking
  • Make screens, draws, and play action passes work
  • Complete overhaul of special teams
• Other features
  • Adaptive AI
  • More game-preparation features
  • Wider variety of optional plays for custom playbooks
• Balance the game for full-length, 15-minute quarters
  • Game-managing AI teams
  • AI QBs that need to take some time to read the defense!
• Bring back the in-game save!

I was really impressed with the demo for Madden NFL 13. So impressed that I went ahead and bought the game new. I am now suffering from severe buyer's remorse. The demo looked and felt really good. The AI seemed surprisingly competitive (even at the default, Veteran, difficulty). Heck, even the commentary was good!

Then I bought the actual game and had access to Instant Replays and all the teams, and I realized that this year’s Madden was just the same game as last years', but with a few extra coats of paint and polish.

Table of Contents

• Real-time physics doesn’t solve underlying problems
  • Every player now matters
  • Having physics is meaningless if the AI is allowed to break the rules
  • Physics is not universally applied, anyway
• New AI-systems are hit-or-miss
  • Passing game sees some improvement, but only incrementally
  • Running game is broken
  • Special teams still broken, too. Go figure
  • Catch-up logic makes the game feel too "arcade"
• Updated career mode is rough around the edges, but may soon set a standard for sports games
  • Practice doesn’t make perfect
  • Hello scouting, good bye draft classes
• A new style
  • Nantz and Simms are a huge improvement over Collinsworth and anybody
• A whole console generation, wasted

Just saw this article in the online version of the Wall Street Journal. According to the article, Electronic Arts (EA) has settled a class action anti-trust lawsuit that alleged their exclusive contracts with the National Football League (NFL), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and Arena Football League (AFL) constituted monopolistic behavior. If the settlement is upheld by the court, EA will owe a small sum of money to consumers who purchased any of their Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football video games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Wii, PlayStation 3, or Xbox 360.

I doubt that many gamers will be able to actually claim the money owed to them, since I'm sure EA will demand receipts that show a new purchase of the games (and honestly, how many people actually keep receipts for every game that they buy?). I'm also not sure how the settlement will treat consumers who purchased applicable games used, or consumers who resold the games (i.e on eBay or to GameStop).

The most disappointing thing though, is that although EA is agreeing not so sign exclusive deals with the NCAA or AFL, there is no mention of the status or future of its current deal with the NFL. If EA is not forced to relinquish its exclusive deal with the NFL, then this settlement is a very hollow victory for football gaming fans.

I still have a lot of questions, but the prospect of a return to open competition on football video games should be very exciting for football fans! Even if it doesn't apply to the NFL. I hope that companies like 2K, Natural Motion, Sony, and Microsoft will release competitors to EA's NCAA Football over the next few years. I'm disappointed that NFL 2K, NFL Fever, or Backbreaker NFL don't seem to be any more likely, but I hope companies will step up to the plate with new titles like NCAA Football 2K, NCAA Football Fever, and Collegiate Backbreaker.

Just came across this article on Kotaku about the new "Infinity Engine" that is supposed to introduce real-time physics simulation into Madden NFL 13.

Let me give you a minute to piece back together your blown mind.

That's right, Madden NFL is finally throwing out it's more-than-a-decade-old animation engine (developed for first-gen PlayStation 2 versions of the game) in favor of real-time physics simulation.

EA Sports has been releasing a series of "Madden 13 playbook" videos since May, but I haven't really been paying too much attention to them until now. The early playbooks were focused on presentation and relatively minor gameplay tweaks (the kind that we're used to seeing every year). Today's playbook (number 4), however, has me very excited!

I've been pretty harsh on Madden the past few years, but this video has me more excited about the game than I've been since Madden 10 (which turned out to be a flop).

Once again, this review is exceptionally late. The football season is almost over, and Madden has already sold its bazillion copies for this year. So anything I say here is kind of moot when it comes to helping people decide whether or not to buy this year’s game. But maybe – just maybe – my critiques will help the developers provide us with a better game in the 7 or so months that they have left to make Madden 13.

After being thoroughly disappointed with last year’s Madden game, and not being won over by either the new demo or the gameplay in NCAA 12, I didn’t rush out to buy Madden 12 on day one. I waited till September and bought the game used. This also contributed significantly to the tardiness of this review.

Overall, Madden still just seems uninspired, even when compared to EA’s NCAA Football game. All the same gameplay enhancements go into both games each year now, but NCAA has at least taken some efforts to better represent its sport. Setting up “linked” plays is simplistic but was a start towards a better representation of football strategy. Integration of the No-Huddle offense into the game is a bit clumsy, but is a major component of modern college football, and is thusly represented in that game. Requiring the QB to “read” the defense on option plays doesn’t work as well as last year, but it’s actually an important part of the option strategy. The collegiate look and atmosphere really looks and sounds like Saturday afternoons, and the ESPN integration is actually pretty slick at times.

• All the inspiration is going into the NCAA game
• So why's it so bad?
  • PRO-TAK is gone, and consecutive hits are in
  • No wasted motion wastes the game's potential
  • Pass blockers need to learn to double-team
  • Psychic defensive backs and passive receivers ruin the passing game
  • Will special teams ever be fixed?
  • Depth and simulation are sacrificed for the casual player
• Franchise gets some fan-requested attention
  • Recruiting fails to live up to its NCAA counterpart
  • “GamePlanning” feature doesn’t actually involve any game planning!
• Lazy presentation
• I honestly wish that EA would just drop Online play completely
• Nitpicking
• Conclusion