Madden 12 (mostly) Franchise thoughts

I got Madden this weekend through Season Ticket. I was really excited because of all of the new additions to Franchise, but in reality I'm a bit disappointed. It's a huge step forward and I'll have a lot of fun playing, but there are some things I don't agree with.

I'm playing through a franchise as the Saints. Yesterday, I simmed through the rest of the season and all through the offseason to get a feel for the new franchise. So I admit these are first impressions and can change as I play more. Here's my thoughts...

Expanded rosters: awesome overall. I love some of the decisions that have to be made. Scouting the rookies, especially undrafted rookies, is a good concept. You get a "guess" at what that player is rated, and then uncover the ratings as you play them in the preseason. My only gripe is that the "guess" is way too extreme in many cases. A lot of 99?s and 25?s. I would expect to have a better idea of potential and have only a few true surprises (the 25?s actually being a 70 type player).

That leads to the draft. I like the premade draft classes. It allows for some balanced drafts and true busts/diamonds. Names are random this year, so you won't know who the busts and diamonds are.

But scouting is messed up. You get 5 chances during the season to scout 15 players each time. This unlocks the same ratings for each player...I don't remember which ratings, but not the "go-to" ratings like Speed, Accel. I think the idea is to stay away from the traditional measurables that come from the combine. Which leads to...

You continue to scout players at the combine. I'm blanking on the number (I think only 20, but that seems pretty low). This unlocks speed rating and a few more. Then you can have pro days, which allows you to unlock the all ratings including OVR for another group of players (I believe 15-20). For any player not scouted, you know nothing except their projected draft round. No 40 times or other data every team would have. No team walks into a draft without an opinion on every single player that's available.

Last year's scouting was better. You could scout 15 players each week, up to a few times each and unlock more as you go. I could focus on positions of need and get some highlights for other positions. And you got the basics for every player.

What is needed is the hiring of a real scouting department similar to the Basketball games. I would like to see 4 scouts, each responsible for a section of the country. Their ratings would determine how accurate they are and they might have strengths/weaknesses in certain positions. This would give you the basics of everyone. Then you could drill into a certain number of players to get a deeper look into the players...similar to the current process.

Another big addition was the bidding on free agency. It was kind of fun, but also fairly unrealistic. You don't see the potential FAs until the process starts. Then once a player is contacted, you have about 90 seconds where everyone can basically perform like an auction. And all players are going off at the same time, so it's hard to track everyone. But it's also easy to sign whoever you want because cash rules everyting. Dynamic personalities would be great. True stars shouldn't go play for crappy teams because they can get good money anywhere. Starters should only go to crappy teams if the money is absurd (think Fujita). Coaches should have an influence, as well as key positions (how many players choose a team to play with Brees or Brady?).

I know that's long and I only covered some of it...tl;dr! I'm just a little underwhelmed by some of the additions.