madden 20 – NoobTubeTV

Madden 20 – Review and Sliders

The Browns are going to be awesome – DEAL WITH IT!

I pulled the trigger and got one month of EA Access for PS4 the other day. It was a nice way to rent Madden 20 and get a feel for what changed in Franchise Mode this year. The verdict is rather mixed. I was pleasantly surprised by the feel of the gameplay as a whole. There were some obnoxious animations that did happen in my first game or two that made me roll my eyes and even got a bit of a laugh as well. The real eye roll happened after I got a message from Jarvis Landry following a big win (more on that to follow). The worst part I experienced was seeing that the Pro Bowl game existed as a playable feature. Seriously – NOBODY CARES!!!! Why is it that we have more concern about the Pro Bowl than we do about players being named All Pro? If you look into the actual accolades that truly matter in the NFL it is whether someone is considered to be the top performer at their position – not if they are voted onto an all star team that no one cares about.

Starting the season with my beloved Browns was a great feeling. Finally, if I take my team to the Super Bowl in the first season of Franchise Mode, I won’t have the ‘realism nazis’ telling me I need to adjust sliders or play the game with my toes. The change to overall ratings was one of the first aspects I noticed. The available free agents don’t make you drop half of your roster to pick up new guys like in past iterations of Madden where you might find a few guys in the upper 70s or low 80s that you can build into monsters. This year, it really is a matter of picking through a garbage heap if you need to find a replacement – Quarterback is the most noticeable in this endeavor. Having a great backup QB is going to be a nice commodity if you find a gem in the draft. However, you should fully expect to lose a future star if you aren’t willing to pay him.

One thing that hasn’t changed in Madden is the terrible trade logic. I was able to move Duke Johnson to the Eagles for a 1st Round Pick. I was also able to move on from other players and acquire mid to late round picks with ease. This is definitely another year where we will have to implement house rules just to keep ourselves honest.

One addition that is supposedly going to be updated regularly in Franchise Mode (most likely in Cloud Based Franchises if I had to bet on it) is the dialogue options from your players that make demands like more targets or more attention as a whole in an upcoming game. One instance had Jarvis Landry ask me to target him in our game against Baltimore. We beat the Ravens by 20+ points and I targeted him on over 10 passing attempts. He caught four and went for 84 yards – he dropped two on crossing routes and missed an endzone grab in the corner. The others were batted down or overthrown. Here is a rundown of how that went after the game was over.

So it goes, Franchise has added some cool ideas. I hope they get fixed and polished up a bit, but in the long run, I think there are good things ahead.

Moving on to gameplay – here are the initial settings I will be using after play-testing sliders and penalties as well as stat checking some stupidly high scoring games.

The biggest changes from years past is going to most likely be the move of Facemask penalties, I saw over six in more than 3 games. It was happening way too much. Also, Robo QB is back and worse than ever in some ways. I recommend moving the slider down until you get the proper feel for the CPU completion % – currently, I have the slider at 39, but it might have to go to 35.

All of the sliders and settings are set to All Pro for now simply because All Madden still seems to cheat the user rather than provide a real challenge – a big difference, in my opinion.

Originally, I had planned on not buying Madden until I could get it on sale, but in the world of supply and demand – you all demand the Madden coverage, and I am happy to supply it to the best of my ability.

Also, I do not plan on playing MUT for any serious amount of time other than to get easy trophies out of it or to play solo grinds when I want a change from Franchise Mode. It is a pay to win game mode and I choose not to pay. Good luck to those of you that choose to continue with the dark side.

GO BROWNS!

It’s Been A Hot Minute

We are firmly in the doldrums of game releases as well as the lame duck sessions of our current generation of consoles. The simplest way to talk about the gap between updates to NoobTubeTV is to say that I have found myself rather busy with a new job that has had a steep learning curve. In some ways, the lessons of past jobs and even some games have given me some decent scaffolding upon which I currently stand to rock this new job the best I can. I wouldn’t say it is the Dark Souls of jobs. It’s more like the Metal Gear Solid 4 of jobs. There’s a lot of loading and cut-scenes to deal with before you can get on with your day and finish the game. That said, it is providing me with a career and a nice compensation to keep on trucking. It also helps that the people have been quite rad so far as well!

To that I say (once again) – Kept you waiting, huh?

So, what is there to cover at this point in the world of gaming and how can some of the Noobs out there be helped along? Here is a smattering of what I have on tap for NoobTubeTV in the coming weeks and months.

Whether we like it or not – Madden 20 is coming out at the beginning of August. They have announced some of the ‘improvements’ to Franchise Mode and to say they are underwhelming is old-hat and cliché at this point. They seem to think that we want to have more of the My Player feel from 2K or Road to the Show from MLB the Show. While I am sure a few gamers out there enjoyed playing the story mode over the last two years, it really didn’t do much for me as someone that wants to have a franchise mode experience where I run a team instead of some half-assed RPG.

The new scenario system is the same as the old system of trying to accomplish statistical goals for coming games, etc. Once again, EA misses the point entirely when it comes to franchise mode. It isn’t all about stats! Franchise Mode needs to have EMOTION to drive the plot of our team’s story! Why is it so important to them that we have a broken owner mode where a player has Personality that only matters when it comes to selling jerseys in a part of the game that literally doesn’t matter at all? Why don’t they see that what should really be happening in this mode is an attachment between the fan bases and the players, coaching staff and ownership of every team in the league? Owners should have approval ratings right along with coaches. They should be judged on wins, losses and personnel decisions such as free agency and draft picks – not to mention trades (Giants fans might have something to say about that… also, thanks for OBJ! J).

I will be posting more about Madden 20 in the coming months, but suffice to say I am not looking forward to it in the least. There are some games that have my attention and I have to wait a lot longer for those to make their way onto my console.

Death Stranding and Modern Warfare are my most anticipated games of 2019. Those will each get their own articles very soon.

What have I been playing lately?

I am still playing a lot of Blackout on Black Ops 4, but it is nowhere nearly as competitive in my mind as it was prior to the new job. It’s actually quite refreshing to play a game and lose without getting upset or bent out of shape over it. They finally implemented some of the changes I wanted to see, but it took so long that I don’t really care. Not to mention, the announcement of Modern Warfare basically made me cry digital tears of joy – it is my favorite COD franchise.

I have also been playing far more Diamond Dynasty than I ever have in MLB the Show. I must say there are some aspects that I violated my rules in order to have a good time. I spent more than I care to admit on stubs in order to buy packs. The results? I ended up getting a team full of diamond players that actually allow me to have competitive games. The downside to this is knowing that Diamond Dynasty is a pay to win or a grind to win mode that forgives no one that plays other games. My team is currently close to .500 (36-37 or so) and it feels like every time I feel like my team should dominate I come across another gamer that is 300 levels above me with a team full of 99 OVR players. I am done spending any more actual money on this game, but I must say it was entirely necessary in order to get a team that could compete at all – which is criminal, in my opinion.

Taking advantage of the Days of Play sale was another choice I made. I ended up coming away with NBA 2K19, NHL 19 and Batman Arkham Knight for about $20 total. I absolutely love NHL 19’s presentation and feel. NBA 2K19 has yet to be fully played as I only buy NBA games when they are cheap or free. Basketball has been dead to me for quite some time. Batman just finished installing the other day and I am very excited to jump into it when I feel like I can give my attention to it in full.

As I finish this article I am filled with a sneaking nostalgia and it feels wonderful to post about the hobby I love. I know this has been a long read with yet another Madden rant, but to be as straight-forward as I can be, I am super excited about the future of NoobTubeTV. There are some things on the horizon and some ideas being floated. Thanks to those of you that keep stopping by and asking me where I have been. I look forward to posting some new updates for you very soon.

Madden Needs A Coaching Carousel

The biggest aspect that seems to be missing from Madden that was one of the most enjoyable aspects in NCAA Football for years is a coaching carousel. Throughout the year without fail all sorts of coaches meet their doom. Whether it is on Black Monday after the final week of the regular season, or just after the halfway point of the season as we saw with Hue Jackson this week (THANK YOU, FOOTBALL GOD!).

carousel

Madden NFL needs to add two aspects to their Franchise Mode if they hope to continue building it up. They need to bring in offensive and defensive coordinators as well as position coaches (some of these can even be fictionalized). Once you bring this aspect into the game it can more easily flow into opening up a coaching carousel like that in the NCAA Football games of yore.

Imagine opening your career as an offensive or defensive coordinator and building your resume after a year or two. Maybe you can take the Bills or 49ers defense from the depths of terribad and build them into a beast with your amazing skills. The unfortunate aspect is that your team is doing poorly and the head coach gets fired in week 12. Suddenly, the ownership wants to bring you up a notch to coach the team and make the big decision on both sides of the ball and determine the depth chart in full. As you make a splash to finish the season with a few wins you might not want to stick with the team you’ve been struggling with. The end of the season comes and the Jaguars have finished a lackluster campaign and you are now their number one target. What do they have to offer you outside of a great defense and some weapons on offense (that aren’t named Bortles… *shudders*). That would be pretty awesome. What would make it better?

I think the next step in making it an experience to build multiple seasons and truly view it as a career mode would be making the role of General Manager something you have to earn. Instead of being the owner, GM, and coach from the get-go, you should be given different offers from different teams as you play through your career. One of those options should be GM/Coach offers (much like what Belichick does and some other coaches have done in some cases). You would pay so much more attention to the draft if you weren’t put in charge of the scouting as just a head coach that had to take the players you got… or deal with players being traded.

Until that day comes, we will have to continue to create and maintain house rules to make our career mode more interesting.

Do you have other ideas for franchise mode? Hit up the comment button to share!