I've only played two games, but here is my early impression: I was struck by how reminiscent of NCAA it is, gameplay wise. Many of the same plays work the same way. I still see DBs running the route in front of the defender. Defenders jump passes the same way and ballhawks makes it too easy to INT. the passing felt the same. Maybe I was under the wrong impression, but I thought with a new engine that the gameplay would be vastly different than the old engine. It just doesn't feel that way to me. With that being said, I like the graphics and presentation so much that I can overlook the small gameplay issues. The commentary is the best that it has been in this series and the presentation feels fresh and renewed. I just can't get over how similar it feels to to the old engine : / More to come after the weekend when I can play it some more. : )
I played 2 offline games and 1 unranked lobby match last night, won 1 of 3 of these games. I am playing on All-Pro, 10-minute halves with accelerated clock rundown to 20-seconds. I am in love, think the game is the best its been on the next-gen console. I have zero issues with the game. I mean, from the infinity engine to the much improved passing trajectories, how can you not. Personally, these were my two biggest issues with the game. Problem solved, well done EA. I look forward to jumping into Connected Careers tonight!
I am seeing much tighter pass defense personally. And smarter playcalling. As for impressions ... im floored by the depth of CCM. The one thing I still don't like is we still can't do formation subs
I played 6 lobby games last night... I did not have much success against all these hurry up 3 play jokers, but nonetheless, I was playing to work on my own game, not exactly for W or L's. Impressions Felt that Man coverage was a lot more tight this year. Felt that on crossing routes you would see less seperation and DBs actually gaining a small speed burst giving them an opportunity to pick the ball off. 3rd and short situations are ALOT harder to convert due to the new engine. You would think the opposite would be true, but when you clog the middle with players, the RB tends to run into his own blockers back and almost get "tazed" and loses all forward motion. I would have like to see maybe an animation in which the RB would put his forearm out and put it in his own blockers back and help him push forward as he looks for the hole to develop. (if that animation is in the game, I havent seen it yet) I saw some awe dropping catches with the new animations on both sides of the ball. I saw one that blew my mind as Asante Samuel jumped a slant route in the end zone and caught the play like a goal keeper would in soccer in full extension to the side. Simply beautiful to see. I felt like the stat distribution looks more life like. I get the bulk of my tackles this version with my LB then Safeties next. I think the fact that you dont get as many 1 on 1 tackles, it lets the back side LB or S the ability to get the mop up tackles that were caused by the first hit. The presentation and commentary is definitely a nice improvement. It feels like a more polished game. I usually tune all that out as it is all about gameplay for me, but it was definitely noticeable. There will be a learning curve just like every other version when first start, but early impressions would indicate this game has the ability to be less cheeser friendly.
I love the new infinity engine, the tackles are so much more realistic and improved physics. I agree with antcap, while players do often run into their team mates, I don't understand how they instantly fall flat on their back from a dead sprint. But thats just a small issue and miniscule when compared the improvements all across the board. From the passing, catching, pass rushing, AI, it all has noticeably improved. CCM is everything it's cracked up to be and more. I haven't even made it through my first PRESEASON yet, and I can already tell the replay factor is excellent for a sports game. This is honestly the first madden game in about 8 years where I can tell the EA guys have actually worked their a**es off to make improvements. Hats off to those guys, very good game.
I just have a few questions. Let me give a disclosure by saying that I haven't played Madden (game or demo) since the PS1 days. I've figured out how to get rid of the annoying gamepad and strategy pad (I think that's what they're called) but How do I get it to show play art automatically? How do I get it to start on the same formation that I just called after each play? Right now after a play it always puts me back to the top of the list of formations which is incredibly annoying. When calling plays, how do I switch between formations once I'm looking at a certain formation? IE. in NCAA, if I select SG-spread, I can use the LS left or right to look at other formations. How do I call different formations while no huddling? Is this possible, or do I only have my formation audibles and my normal audibles available? Is there a way for me to have it automatically skip the cut scene of the guys breaking the huddle or do I need to push A each....and.....every.....time? Thanx!
In one of my offline exhibition games I was winning by 1 in the 4th quarter with under a minute to go. The CPU had no timeouts and was on their own 35. Instead of aggressively trying to get down field to kick a game winning field goal. They ran the ball twice, accomplishing nothing while basically running out the clock. It was on All-Pro but I was quite shocked at how poorly played that was.
That's because it is the same ingine. The infinity ingine only adds physics to the current ingine. I really like how similar it is to NCAA. It does play a tighter game overall though. I'm really impressed so far.
Something else I just noticed that I have been wanting in Madden for 5+ yrs.. in preseason play after the 1st quarter it automatically subs the 2nd string. IDK if this was in previous madden's but it wasnt as of 2010
Is that for every preseason game or just the first? Starters PT typically increase for the 2nd and 3rd games. But either way that's a nice addition.
It looks like you can't change the offensive/defensive scheme per team in CCM, regardless of what playbook you use. For instance, the Jaguars are stuck in 4-3 base, even if I change each position assignment under Strategy/Scheme. It won't let me change to a 3-4. Is each team locked into their scheme on both sides of the ball, or is there a way to change this that I just can't figure out?
I's assume it's coach-dependent. So, if Rob Ryan (or some 3-4 guy) became coach/D-coordinator for the Jags, then maybe they change to a 3-4. So maybe it depends on the coach. In other words, you probably need a 3-4 coach to run the 3-4.
Ahhh, what about for a created coach. I fired my coach to see if I can change it with my own coach, and I still can't seem to change it. I would like to think that EA doesn't lock us into specific schemes for each team.
I don't have it so I wouldn't know. But, does it let you specify what type of offense and defense you want to run when creating the coach? If it does I'd say just put it as 3-4 and then pick a team and go to a game and see if you can run the 3-4. Thing is, it may be dependent on the D-Coordinator and not the HC. So hopefully we aren't locked into specific schemes. But, you'd be better off asking Emmdotfrisk or someone else cause I wouldn't know.
It doesn't. It just asks you what kind of playbook you want to use, which is not tied into the scheme. Emmdotfrisk, do you have any idea how to change the scheme of each team?
Then maybe it's just showing A) the default scheme, or B) the scheme the team is currently best suited for? Yep, I don't know about that at all lol.
I love it so far in my first few games, but had to put it on slow though as the speed was a bit too much. What I really like so far : CCM , tackling , I can actually manually catch the ball lol , the player models look awesome , TMFL is gonna be sweet ! What I dislike : the engine seems to have some collision issues much like FIFA both before and after a play , seems like odd AI front office CPU moves , Skip Bayless is an ass-hat even on Madden I think Madden is headed in a great direction , wish other EA titles would step up like this
Guys may not like Skip (or Stephen A - I'm personally a fan cause he's straight up IMO), but they've gotta look into getting Stephen A. in for M14. Get some conversation/debate between those guys. Even though I think Stephen A is more of a basketball guy, they should still consider it. And I'm really hoping that in 2-3 years, the Infinity Engine is more polished and has improved. They did say they'd be able to tune it, even specific body parts, so I'll be watching how much it improves more than the first-year version. But it's appreciated for sure over here.
A pretty big glitch I found was in a online game vs. another user. I caught a pass with Jason Witten after a 15 yd gain the guy put a hit stick on him. Jason Witten literally skipped/flew from the left hash mark over past the right hash mark and up 5 yds. The ball was placed up where he landed. Has anyone else seen this?
I scoured over the game and couldnt find any way to do this; I could change the scheme for each position, but not the team scheme. I wonder if this may be something added later? I noticed on the ea madden site, there are a few things listed as COMING SOON (League, Teams, Players), maybe its tied in to that?
Ok I have one question. Can I change my Scheme as a coach? To better fit my players. It has my D as spread and I need it to b tampa 2. Any way?
