Madden 13 Connected Career Mode Announced
Hey everybody, Jeff “RynoAid” Setzer here from Tradition Sports Online to break down a brand new game mode for EA SPORTS Madden NFL 13 called “Connected Careers” or “CC”. To me, Madden NFL is a competitive, social game that thrives on matchups, rivalries and measuring yourself as a virtual coach amongst your peers. When I was growing up this was done through the traditional means of gathering your buddies in one dorm room or apartment and grinding through weeks of a Madden NFL Franchise in one night, ultimately to see who was “King of the Couch”.
Now that I have a family and my friends are spread across the country, those good times have been lost… until now. Madden NFL 13 Connected Careers will bring that familiar experience to the internet as EA SPORTS is set to revolutionize how we all play the game. CC will connect you and potentially 31 other coaches across the country into one fully functioning, unimaginably deep football gaming experience.
Offline Franchise, Online Franchise and Superstar mode are all gone. EA SPORTS has replaced them all with Connected Careers, which will put you in control of how you want to play Madden NFL 13. Be a coach or a player, play online or offline, it’s all available in CC. Also, fully integrated draft, free agency andsalary cap are all a part of the experience this year. The tools have been put in our hands to fully realize the “online franchise” experience.
When starting a Connected Career you have several options. If you want to get on the field as a player, this year you will be able to import your Gameface and create yourself as a potential NFL star. You can also choose to be a current player or take control of a Hall of Famer and see if you can replicate their historic career. If you want full control of the team, you can also choose to be a current coach or create yourself in that role. And the great thing is, you can mix both modes within the same CC… that’s right, I did not stutter. You can mix and match how the guys in your CC play the game. You can all be coaches, you can have some coaches and some players, you can even lock it down to QB’s only. You’re in control.
RG3 Grades Out Well
Once you decide the framework, let the fun begin. Online Franchise meets RPG; that’s about the best way to describe it. First of all, potential is dead. No more pre-determined ratings structure. You, as a coach, will get to decide how each player progresses in their career. XP (Experience Points) now become your life blood. I don’t want to delve too deep here because Dave Searles (RedZoned25) has broken it down for you in an additional blog, but the basic concept is that players will earn XP for their performance on the field. You can then allocate that XP towards ratings boosts across the different ratings categories.
You will also earn XP as a coach that will allow you to define the direction of your team. You can spend XP on all sorts of booster packages that target a myriad of situations or characteristics of a team. For instance, say your star QB is due to be a free agent at the end of the year. You can purchase a package that will give you more favorable odds of re-signing him. You can also buy packages that enhance your progression and a certain position or talk a guy out of retirement. There are literally dozens of way you can customize the growth of your team.
And trust me, it’s YOUR team. Styles really matter in Madden NFL 13. The style of offense you run, the type of coach you proclaim to be, all impact how players fit into your scheme. Players are rated dynamically based on the team for which they play. That’s right, a 3-4 OLB will no longer be plug and play into a 4-3 scheme without taking a potential ratings hit. It also makes trading more interesting. You have no idea what that player you have on your trading block looks like to the other team. He could be a 71 OVR WR for you, but he jumps to a 75 OVR in another coach’s scheme. It is the new aspects of the game like this that give you that unique organic feel to player movement.
Scouting has also become a much deeper part of the whole experience. With CC you are allocated a certain amount of scouting points each week that will allow you to slowly unlock attributes and ratings of college seniors throughout the season. You will also be able to follow storylines for players throughout the year leading up to the draft. This is not your typical Madden NFLdraft class however. There are a ton of variables this year that can impact any of the potential rookies all the way from week 1 of their senior year through the pro combine. Poor performance, injuries, decisions to play baseball, and other variables like these will impact the players you are scouting. There are no guarantees anymore when it comes to strategizing for the draft. The draft will be online as well and yes, you can trade draft picks. This is sure to be intense when it’s time to enter the war room against 31 other guys.
EA SPORTS Madden NFL 13 will also come alive across your social media channels. The development team has contracted with multiple media and sports personalities to provide an internal Twitter feed that will focus on events and happenings in your CC. Adam Schefter, Rich Eisen and Skip Bayless are among a host of faces you will see commenting on the moves you and your buddies make as you go through CC. This feed is not just for internal use, however. It can also be setup to push the content to a real functioning Twitter account that all the coaches can follow to get real time updates pushed out to their mobile devices and computers. This just adds one more level of immersion to your CC.
To be honest, there is so much more depth to Connected Careers than I’ve ever seen in a football game, it’s still hard for me to get my arms around all the features after spending three days with it. It’s the biggest thing to ever happen for the online football gamer. As a member of a gaming community that has been anxiously anticipating updates to franchise mode, specifically online franchise mode, we can all relish in the fact that CC for Madden NFL 13 will deliver with all the depth, realism and connectivity we could ask for.
