cornerback interactions will be spotlighted in gameplay changes coming to Madden 23, and designers hope Face of the Franchise will showcase them, too. “The story that we’re trying to tell is if you remember Matt Flynn or Michael Turner, guys who didn’t have a great opportunity to play under their rookie contract, but when they played, they played really well,” Oldenburg said.
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To be sure, a lot of fans are conditioned to see a fifth-year player as either a star or a bust, not someone who has a lot of room for growth (the whole point of this career mode, of course) but still gets the pick of his teams in free agency. “So, sure, the cinematic content that you and I see in our journeys is going to be the same, but when you see it, and when I see it, are going to be at different times,” he explained. What we’re going to do is get you into the weekly loop of preparing for your game, playing your game, getting your feedback and rewards from the game.”Īny cinematic content will follow the performance, and by modular, Oldenburg means those scenes will respond to developments in the player’s career, rather than dictate them. “We went through a more modular approach this year you’re gonna see a lot less longer, drawn-out scenarios that are lacking some context into what you’ve been doing in your career. “What’s most important this year is the gameplay and the core progression,” Oldenburg said. That’s a somewhat mortifying admission, considering the stories I sat through from Maddens 20 through 22. In the three years since Face of the Franchise picked up from two chapters of a true narrative mode - Madden NFL 18’s and 19’s Longshot - the developers had given highest priority to the story, Oldenburg said. “This is the first year of reprioritizing what’s important in that mode,” Oldenburg said. By my reckoning, it’ll be the first single-player career mode in any sports title where a created player begins as something other than a rookie. No more college, no more draft, no more dithering through half a dozen games locked to Madden’s easiest difficulty just to end up picked by the abysmal New York Jets or Jacksonville Jaguars.įace of the Franchise’s players will begin after the end of their rookie contract, as a free agent able to sign with any team they choose. Whether that’s two problems or the same one by different names, EA Tiburon will try to fix it by starting Madden NFL 23’s Face of the Franchise mode, The League, in the fifth season of the created player’s career. “It was like, ‘I want to go play in the NFL get me there.’ And, this is a big headline, ‘The narrative feels aimless and pointless and lacking context,’ something like that. “There was a lot of feedback about the prologue, or Road to the Draft, whatever you want to call it,” gameplay producer Clint Oldenburg recalled during an interview at EA Tiburon’s new Orlando, Florida studio. The blunt way to put it is that for the past three years, they were forced to play through a slow-paced preamble dotted with story clichés, laughable dialogue, and barely earned progression.
So, two years later, Longshot delivers another happy ending.The polite way to describe Face of the Franchise’s biggest problem is that Madden NFL players simply wanted to get to the NFL faster in the game’s single-player mode.
It also didn’t have Jack Ford, but Colt Cruise’s character arc was an appealing substitute, at least.Īnyway, Jack Ford found a solid second act as a coordinator with the Oklahoma Sooners - or whomever you choose for your quarterback at the beginning of Face of the Franchise. Last year’s followup chapter, Homecoming, lacked a lot of that personality as it moved into safer territory with its story and challenges. The fact the mode never plays a down in the NFL was a drawback for some, who were expecting a narrative more tied to the league, with more open-ended gameplay to boot. Unfortunately, not every Madden fan felt as strongly about the first Longshot’s virtues. It was like being reunited with someone who’d shared something difficult and profound. So, hearing Blackwell’s voice on the bus in Face of the Franchise, I had the same reaction as I did when Clementine meets up with Kenny in the ski lodge in The Walking Dead: Season Two.