End of Year Community Awards: Best Franchise Mode of 2014

The voting for various categories in the Pastapadre Community Awards continues with today Best Franchise Mode opening up. This is a category that has been dominated by the Madden NFL series which is looking for its fourth straight victory.

Some of its usual competition has fallen out of the running. NCAA Football, the only other series to win the award, is no longer being made and NHL dug its own grave this year. Taking their place are FIFA 15 and NBA 2K15.

NBA 2K15 bounced back after 2K14’s struggles related to servers and Virtual Currency to offer not one but two compelling Franchise experiences. MyGM improved greatly with the reduction in VC reliance and a number of other improvements while MyLeague was a brand new highly-customizable offering unfortunately without any online component but it satisfied those looking for a more pure “Association” experience.

FIFA 15’s “Career Mode” continues to be a rich offering that this year improved in areas of scouting, team management and presentation aspects.

Madden NFL 15 comes in strong once again – largely due to the rolling over of a mostly well-designed Connected Franchise mode that represents pretty much the only true and reliable Online League experience in all of sports gaming. The two highly touted additions to the mode, Game Prep and Confidence, were complete duds however.

Previously
♦Best Gameplay