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Post by M3 Commish on Aug 21, 2014 18:11:09 GMT -8
One of the best Madden's that I can remember in a long time. The early reviews online seem to be overwhemingly more positive than negative - especially, when you think about prior versions at this point and time.
Pros
• Defense is fun again — There are multiple mini games you can now effectively partake in on each play on defense. Beating the OL is a timing mini-game of sorts which requires you to jump the snap and then make an effectively timed and directionally smart move to get to the QB. You can tell when you are facing an elite OT, because he will feel like a brick wall on many/most plays.
• Quarterbacks feel different — I don’t have enough info to safely say the pass accuracy is fixed, but playing Peyton Manning feels like you are playing a more elite level QB versus, say a Matt Cassel. Defensively, I found that it was even more of a rush to get to the QB when he was better, because you knew he was going to make decisions faster.
• Good news, the tackle cone doesn’t suck — From my initial play-sessions with Madden, it appears the tackle cone is not a major in your face type of addition many feared. The new tackling system adds a risk/reward setup to what used to be a very boring aspect of the game.
• Defenders are smarter — Zone defenders are much smarter this year, with players reacting to the ball much faster resulting in much narrower throwing lanes. This is going to make a lot of people used to soft zones very angry initially.
• The New Connected Franchise Options Are Great — Setting up a weekly gameplan or repairing your team’s busted up confidence is such a great series of decisions to have to make each week. Alex Smith had a horrible game against the Broncos and his confidence sank, so I had to spend valuable preparation points to raise his confidence back up. These are the things you don’t see in the NFL, but things coaches have to do to ensure players are at the top of their game.
• Community Playcalling is surprisingly good — The playcalling feature which I thought was nothing more than a gimmick actually seems to be pretty good at both conveying information that you would find relevant in both how users and how you use it. It makes the whole experience feel more connected.
• Thank goodness for the new cameras — Seriously, the new cameras and how they've been implemented (fast switching) is something which should be universal in sports games. It's that good -- it doesn't hurt the camera angles themselves are quite good, including the new over the shoulder defensive angle you can switch to on defense. Major kudos EA.
• The graphics, audio, and in-game broadcast presentation have arrived — It has long been a dream to have Madden look and feel like the rest of the major sports games in our genre, it always lagged behind. This year, at least to me, I feel like the presentation and graphics are both up there with anything you can find on store shelves today. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely gotten to a point where it’s clearly quite good.
Cons
• The playcalling menus really need to quit defaulting to the community playcall screen — I swear the amount of manpower and hours I’m going to spend backing up one menu layer to get to my preferred playcalling screen is going to make me sad. Bonus points for the playcalling menus not having that weird lag where I literally miss my option a lot.
• QBs may still be too accurate out of the box — I need to run more tests, but I’m pretty sure QBs may be more accurate out of the box than realism would suggest is possible. The good news is, slider combinations are going to fix this largely.
• The game’s first boot takes too long to get to action you care about — We can do without this nonsense.
• The new kick meter is hit or miss — At first, I actually missed a couple of field goals, but now I seem to be automatic again.
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Post by Coomar on Aug 21, 2014 18:43:32 GMT -8
Nice write-up! Sounds promising!
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Post by Corbone56 on Aug 21, 2014 19:50:31 GMT -8
I agree with everything man, especially the kicking. I feel like it shows what it does makes it easier not more difficult. Overall I played for two and half ours in Ultimate team. Don't know how much or who plays that game type, but I really enjoyed it. I think that the curl routes or corner routes are guarded more and that defense will take some time to get use too. Just my opinion.
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Post by Coach C0N on Aug 22, 2014 7:32:33 GMT -8
Defenders are definitely much smarter. Granted I was practicing on All-Madden but ya, they were picking off passes and swatting balls left and right. I like the fact you have the camera (zoom in/out) option before every play. I like the close up camera for hitting tight running lanes, but it's useless on wide runs & passing plays... overall it'll take some getting used to, but most of the changes they've implemented are all pluses [HASH]imo.
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Post by M3 Commish on Aug 22, 2014 9:22:34 GMT -8
I agree, Coach C0N, with everything you said. On another note, I'd like to see them in the future .. bring more camera angles to the D cameras facing the O. It's kinda sweet playing from that angle, but a bit difficult nonetheless. |
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Post by Coach C0N on Aug 22, 2014 10:23:36 GMT -8
I agree, Coach C0N, with everything you said. On another note, I'd like to see them in the future .. bring more camera angles to the D cameras facing the O. It's kinda sweet playing from that angle, but a bit difficult nonetheless. It's great for run def. I tried it out in practice and it's a lot easier to utilize the tackle cone w/ the new defensive camera angle. I like the fact that strafing is back... I'm not sure why it was screwed up on Madden 25... I haven't been this excited for a Madden game ever, hopefully online play won't be trash. |
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Post by Dunnamang82 on Sept 7, 2014 12:59:10 GMT -8
I'm loving Madden 15. My only complaint is user picks... they rarely happen. CPU defenders drop a lot of picks, which I can tolerate, but when I'm on a defender and manually jump a route and attempt to pick the ball of, I feel it should be an INT more often than not. That isn't the case. I'm dropping a TON of picks that should be user picks. Oh well... Overall, I'm loving the game and having a lot of fun in this year's league.
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Post by M3 Commish on Sept 7, 2014 17:55:58 GMT -8
I too, am loving [HASH]M15. The best part of the dropped INT's is that we're all dropping INT's. [HASH]LOL [HASH]Consistency
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