It would also be nice to see more variety in the injuries. It would be nice, however, to see more ambiguity when it comes to injuries, resulting in the kind of uncertain timetable for return that leads to the real-life designations of questionable, doubtful or out for players each week. Injuries, for instance, have been fine tuned this year on simulation to allow for more players to go down regularly but not necessarily miss a huge chunk of time. Then there are those areas that have seen some attention this year but they just haven’t been changed quite enough to satisfy the lofty expectations of those that were hoping for more than just a tweak. There have also been some valuable adjustments to both player progression and regression that are designed to make for a more realistic experience in seeing players develop over multiple seasons and then have them fade out of the league fairly quickly to replicate the relatively short careers of the average NFL player. To be fair, one of this year’s best CFM additions is probably the mode-specific commentary from Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis that continually references specific achievements in your franchise, such as when players have reached season or career milestones, or the duo will also provide a breakdown of the playoff picture and where your team stands within it. It’s possible, albeit a littleobsessive, that there might even be someone out there who’s had their own personal CFM wish granted with the chance to make more preseason cuts or have their starters get more realistic playing time in those preseason games. Or perhaps some will delight in the new customizable draft board that allows for placing your draft prospects in any order you like. Surely, there are those who will be pleased with the opportunity to play a game in conjunction with the real-life NFL schedule and then jump into the season from that point on with their favorite team.
When trying to place this year’s paltry CFM updates in order of importance, it becomes a little difficult to gauge which of them might actually excite fans the most. That’s not to say Madden 18 doesn’t bring anything new to the table at all, but it’s obvious just how little time and effort went into improving the mode when so many of the points on Madden 18’s Franchise blog involve “tuning” various aspects of the mode rather than the implementation of anything new. In the last few years, it’s as if the neglected CFM has gradually become like an overgrown backyard that’s desperately in need of a groundskeeper’s touch, or an overlooked room where the paint flaking off the walls is screaming out for a fresh coat.įor me, the frustration with the arrested development of CFM has reached new heights now with Madden 18, where there are few changes that will satisfy any hardcore franchise players that have been calling out for a more substantial overhaul for the last couple of years. With a UI that’s largely been unchanged since 2013 and with few ground-breaking innovations in that time, CFM has fallen by the wayside as the more lucrative Madden Ultimate Team has continued to see the majority of EA’s attention.
Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case with Madden’s Connected Franchise Mode.
There’s an unspoken agreement between a game’s developers and its fans that as long as people maintain their enthusiasm for a mode, it will then continue to update and evolve with each passing year as needed.
Sports games have a certain responsibility to perform regular upkeep on their game modes.