A Moment of Silence for Breakouts
Building a Madden team, whether it’s rebuilding the Saints or another challenge, is probably the most fun I have playing video games.
The initial gutting of the roster, the struggle through the early seasons, the incremental growth by way of surprise development or speed upgrades (because speed will always be a direct indicator of player value in Madden), getting to watch your team suddenly handle a squad that would have put up 40 on you just a season or two ago, all the way up to the ultimate glory of a pixelated Lombardi trophy, that is why have bought this half baked product every year, at launch, without blinking.
What I can’t understand for the life of me, is why EA is stuck in a loop of one step forward, two back.
There is nothing like getting a breakout when you have a team full of bronze & silvers. Between first getting the message, and then the conversion message after? The closest thing to euphoria Madden could ever produce.
Tell me why I get a breakout message now for my running back, and when I convert it, I see nothing at all after the game. I wouldn’t know he earned it unless I went and seeked out his player card myself.
Some people reading this might think I’m out of my mind for being upset that Madden didn’t give me a nice pat on the back like it used to, and maybe they’re right!
It’s just so disheartening to see the route MUT has taken with the grandiose card animations and franchise loses something as simple as a breakout conversion message. The sense of accomplishment and that upgrade feeling earned actually means something, in the exact same way someone would lose their box when they get that limited edition card animation. Those are little details that matter.
I could keep going on how much they’ve fumbled the player development aspect of the game, between making breakouts much harder to convert now or having genuinely cool ideas (perfect chemistry from M20 comes to mind - nice idea that needed tuning but instead just got deleted) but that’s a discussion for another day.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading.
