A Madden Football question

The Game Room
1

A question that occurred to me for some reason while watching the playoffs today.

I don’t play video games but my understanding is that Madden Football is a pretty accurate simulation of NFL football where you play the role of the coach.

How does the refereeing work in the game? Is it pretty much just part of the background or is it an active part of the game? Does the game simulate the refs occasionally making questionable calls so you have to make the decision of whether or not to challenge the call?

2

I haven’t played the most recent couple of years of Madden, but, IME, yes, the “officials” do sometimes make questionable calls. You do get challenges, just as in the NFL, and you do sometimes get calls reversed.

IME, also, if you’re on defense, and your active player is rushing the passer, if you hit the QB too late, you do draw roughing-the-passer penalties.

3

I don’t own Madden, but I didn’t think it had a mode where you can “be the coach” and just call plays, and have the software run the play by itself without you having to control at least one of the players. There is a game where you do, in fact, “just call the plays”; NFL Head Coach, but apparently they only made it for two seasons (2008 and 2009).

4

Yes. In general, all player challenges will fail while all computer challenges will succeed. (Madden '04 for PC.)

5

Not true in the versions I’ve played (Xbox, 05 through 09). I’ve made successful challenges as a player, against the computer.

6

I know they at least added “Management Mode” to their FIFA games (since at least FIFA '11), so I wouldn’t be surprised if the more recent Madden games had it.

7

This is at least what I have noticed!

8

I get the feeling that Superhal may have been invoking Dread Arenjee’s Law of Gaming Probabilities: any roll you need to succeed will fail 90% of the time, regardless of the actual odds. Any roll you need to fail will succeed 90% of the time, regardless of the actual odds. (I.E. engaging in a bit of hyperbole). Though I can seriously believe the devs bias against the player a little bit for rolls like that.

9

I don’t have the latest Madden, but I know in past versions, after you select a play, if you snap the ball but don’t touch any other controls, the game will run the play by itself. It probably won’t turn out well, but it will do it. Works better on defense than offense.

10

I have had successfull challenges in Franchise mode in Maddens 08-12.

Madden 12, at least, has a ‘supersim’ mode that lets the computer do all the work and just shows you the results of the plays, kinda of like following a game on NFL.com, (I guess this is for people who want ot sit back and be the GM) but nothing where you call the play and the comp does the work.

11

On a related note, does Madden Football (or other similar games) deal with the issue of players doing something stupid? Do you have to deal with players who get penalties for excessive celebrations or unnecessary roughness after the play was over? Can you have a player get kicked out of the game for shoving a ref? Can you have a player get suspended in the middle of the season because he got arrested during the week?

12

No, it doesn’t go that deep. I doubt the NFLPA would allow that sort of thing.

13

Agreed; I’ve never seen such a situation come up in Madden. (I also note that injured players always walk off the field under their own power, even when the game has assigned them a serious leg injury.)

14

What I have accomplished in Madden '04 for PC:

  1. Games where I scored over 500 vs. the computer.
  2. Pro bowls where over 20 of the possible starters were from my team.
  3. Every player I had entered the HOF.
  4. Dynasty modes where I made so much money the game wrapped and went into negative dollars for game income.
  5. Every coach I had retired after 3 years (which is the max if the coach wins every SB.)
  6. Coaches that came back after retirement also retired after less than 3 years from a former stint with me.
  7. Over 500 yards, receiving or rushing in a game, 1k yards passing.
  8. On average in a season, my backups had 50 throwing TD’s, 10 rushing td’s, 10 receiving td’s, 20 sacks, 20 kicking field goals, etc. and my starters had double that.

I can’t find the screenshots now, but I also asked on the EA madden forums if it was worth me to upgrade to '08 if they didn’t fix the 256 bug. If you don’t know what the 256 bug is, there’s really no way you can tell me you know more about madden than I do.

Here’s a riddle: how can you get a coach that plays 3-4 in non-managed (computer played) games?

15

Er… sorry? Your post sounded like deliberate hyperbole to me, I wasn’t challenging your knowledge of Madden or anything. “The computer always succeeds at important rolls” is a common gaming joke, hence my confusion.