With the wrap-up of minicamp comes the much maligned period in sports: silence. Don’t be expecting much of anything until training camp gets underway and we can start looking at how the roster shakes up.
But there’s really nothing new to bring up in football. Let’s talk football video games. Mainly: Madden.
Recently, it was announced Madden is getting a story mode. If this story mode will be any good, even after the fact, we will never know. Like The Dark Knight Rises, we may be blinded of what is a theatrical disaster, making The Karate Kid Part III look like sports movie gold by comparison. The point is, something about Madden is changing this year beyond some gimmicky catch mechanic or a new way to press a few buttons.
For those of you new here, I simulate Madden games for an uneducated and unnecessary pick on who wins for the Sunday game. This year, I was going to simulate things on a used copy of Madden 17, and write what I call a non-review of Madden 18. Something where I explain why I refuse to continue supporting a product that clearly should be 10 bucks for downloadable content with the lack of new features or support. Madden games are notorious for recycling mechanics, graphics, and gameplay, and slapping a shiny new price tag on a 5 year old game. Even the recently released Tekken 7, which remains largely unchanged from Tekken 6 from a gameplay standpoint at the very least, has a very very bad story mode with production “value”, a better way to do online play, and tweaks to their roster/reshuffling of background stages. Despite the redundancy, there’s at least “effort” to merit my money. And now a Madden game has “effort” this year.
So you win EA, you finally put in a mode that will take my time. If this actually is what I hope it is, I at least can condone a yearly release of Madden. Something new. All I ask is that in this story mode you don’t have me taking control of teams I want to lose. Having me control the Rams in that intro last year was absolutely stupid. No way am I letting them win any game, even if it’s fictional.
Of course, they could have a really good story mode with great goal structures and Madden might actually be engaging again? Who knows. Let’s get to some links.
Roger Goodell disputes claims teams are ostracizing Colin Kaepernick (ESPN)
Plans in the Works for 49ers’ Camp Hoyer (Maiocco)
49ers Rookie Kittle Shines in Crowded Tight End Competition (Williams)
Pint-sized problem: How 49ers are making up for lack of size at receiver (Biderman)
Eric Reid excited about new role entering contract year (ESPN)
Mike Shanahan’s official role with 49ers: Father of Head Coach (Maiocco)