First impressions of Madden your thoughts

Ok guys now that you have played the demo for an evening. What do you think? I personally have only played one game and didn't set up a gameplan yet for gameflow. But I don't think I am going to be a fan of gameflow. I need the option to pick my plays especially if a gameplan changes midgame.
Graphic wise I thought Madden looked beautiful.
Sound wise I was expecting more. Kickoffs were so quiet you could hear a pin drop(hopefully that gets fixed in 2 weeks). Opening kickoff I want to hear the roar of the crowd!

thoughts?

Awesome changes that will make online FUN !

1. No Turbo button ! I was hoping before last year that they would take out turbo. Now that I have played with out it, I still love the idea of no turbo. This is supposed to be a sports game and while there are pros that can slow down and trick you then hit the jets, they are the exception to the rule. Most of the time players play all out if they are on the field or the coach takes them out of the game. The best part about this, will be a richer more "football" experience especially online where the cheesers come to play. I bet there will be out rage at this from the most abusive cheesers, but I LOVE IT !

2. I was worried with improved AI blocking that the run would be unstoppable. However, thanks to point number 1 (no turbo), that is not the case. The running game works like it should. On top of that, I lined up in a 1 down nickle package thinking pass, and the ai had no problem blocking my guys for a 5 yard run (with Adai that is a big run, lol).

The new acceleration programming means that your WR are not going to beat there man and leave him in the dust after 2 steps! Even slant routs! This was the most annoying thing for true Sim players last year, IMO. Because of no turbo, when I hit my screen play, I only got 8 yards or so. The only reason I got that many with the slow Jets back is cause the O-line blocked it PERFECTLY and it was the only one I ran so the CPU wasn't expecting it.

3. Like I thought, this game looks amazing! I saw one of my defenders swat the ball and it went spinning end over end like a knife thrown by a hit man in the movies! It was awesome.

4. No more 30+ yards on kickoff returns automatically. I think I am quite good at special teams in madden, not the best, but above average. You couldn't get a guy close to me before I hit the 30 yard line in M10. Because the turbo is gone, you probably are going to want to down that thing in the end zone (like in real life, aka SIM).

Stupid EA, What were they thinking !?!

1. The L1 and R1 movement of Line man and Line backers is gone. While this may help against abuse, it takes a lot longer to make an adjustment. I found the CPU hiking the ball before I got my line to shift on multiple occasions. This will be easier to use when we get used to it, but why change something, that to me, wasn't broken.

2. The new kicking meter doesn't work if you let it get to 100 and come back towards you. The first time I kicked, it was a pooch, cause I tried to hit it just after it hit the top and started coming back to the accuracy. In past Maddens, you were allowed to hit these meters on the "down swing". This may end up being a positive, however online it will probably be an issue sense nothing is truly instantaneous online. (go me, I spelled instantaneous right with out the spell check, lol)

3. I made a game plan for Colts, now I can't make one for Jets. I don't know if there is something I am not seeing. But it looks like I can only make one game plan for offense and one for Defense. I know this will not be the same in the final build, but disappointing that I am committed to the same one for 2 weeks.

great post dtigertron - I am gonna go and play the DEMO now - glad i read your post b4 i made my 1st real dedicated time to the game - I will be looking for these aspects you pointed out! - TY

WOW, WOW, WOW !!!!!

They put in the late hit out of bounds Unnecessary Roughness !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And no, it wasn't my QB, it was a WR !

Just saw a CPU catch falling out of bounds, DRAGGING HIS FEET!!!! And yes, he got the catch !

The new OT rules are in the DEMO !!!

The more I play, the more I fall in love !!! The game play is SOLID !

only had time for a quick game this morning (which i won 13-7 in OT btw lol but yes it does seem like they made some much needed improvements, as is usually the case with EA... i didnt use the gameflow thing at all and dont think i will... i mean im so familiar with the playbooks that i dont think its needed really... i mean , i always have my own gameplan, and dont need to imput my plays into a little program they created... only upside to the gameflow i think would be for less experienced players who dont have time to find a specific play sometimes without being called for a delay of game penalty lol but ill try it on my next game just to say i gave it a shot lol one thing that really stood out to me were not only the graphics but the way the guys moved... it seemed alot more realistic... the hits are intense and not only with the hitstick lol (which seemed to have less impact as well) but no more bringing down a power back with one finger lol it just feels real when you wrap up a back or a receiver, as opposed to last year when there were only like 3 or 4 tackles types... everything just seemed a little more real... and well as far as the mechanics of the game well there were a few changes to that too, which threw me off.. like the kicking meter and now you have to use the d-pad to call pre-snap audibles instead of triangle then a button, u have to bring up a specific menu with the dpad and pick from there... so i mean these are 2 things that will definitely take some getting used to, or perhaps we'll even see a "classic" button-configuration in the full game options menu, like they did with NHL... but thats not a huge deal, like i said theyve changed things like that b4, and i got used to em so... just takes time lol which is good cuz itll even out the playing field between more experienced played and newbs lol but only in the beginning lol anyways the audio (music and commentary) got better, maybe not by much but still an improvement... one thing i would like to see tho, is some type of homefield advantage... like the crowd noise is there but it doesnt affect gameplay... id like to see the abilty to cause a delay of game penalty by pumping up your home crowd... like something where it would be harder to call pre-snap audibles when the crowd gets loud lol like when u press r3 or wtv button it is to pump up the crowd, well whats the point if it doesnt really affect ur opponent in any way? idk just something i thought of while playing around with the new pre-snap controls earlier... the new A.I. is very noticible... alot of my players and opposing players werent making the same mistakes they were last year (well none that i noticed yet anyways) so all in all, i agree with everyone else here... very solid game... definitely a step forward, but that doesnt come as much of a surprise lol it is EA sports after all not SONY lol

It feels the same as ncaa 11 if u played that then u won't be surprised because its the same exact game...besides the presnap hot route system and the gameflow only adjustments I need to make is that the n line is a little more active in madden. Ncaa if the whole was there u could squirt through. In madden the dline will turn and jump on ur back but the passing is way better in madden than ncaa just looks better

OK, I know some of you probably know this, and I am going to feel a little noobish saying it. However, we may have some noobs on here. You can play as the Colts vs Colts or Jets vs Jets, you don't have to play Colts vs Jets.

I found a setting that said auto sprint (turbo). I turned it off to see if this meant we could sprint with the R2. If we are able to sprint, it isn't R2. In fact I haven't noticed a difference with it on or off. This may just be a bug in the Demo, witch means we will need to test after the game gets here.

I also find there to be no difference in the turbo off or on...I think the beauty of this game will come from the gameplanning. Just be carefull about giving a play an extra star compared to the rest because trust me u will see it more....A LOT MORE LOL...just set ur audibles

the demo was great but like dtigertron said theres bugs on the demo we need to test on aug 10th but overall in the ratings area i rated it 5 of 5 or 9 1/2 of 10 best year yet fyi i figured dat out i check 7 est not there 9 est there thanks i told dtigertron it was there he was flipping it wasnt there i told him that ppl said it would be thursday lol i cant wait till aug 10 i like the new online play its just gonna make our leagues better,thanks everybody1:)

If you exit the demo, then restart it, you can go to other teams play book to try out theirs. I feel the normal speed is a little closer to the NFL. I think it is a little fast, but I think slow is too slow. Probably have to wait and see full game settings.

they dont usually put all heart in d demo hopefully we ca n see loud crowds in the actuall game only 9 days yay!!!!!!!

I also felt normal was a little fast and slow a little slow. Maybe we can take a vote for play settings after Aug 10 and see what everyone else thinks

i played my first ot game i won jets-37-colts-31 it has d new rules

i beat nfl record on demo s. holmes 356 recieving yards youst 2 b 336 recieving yards - on all pro

yea Im afraid offense might be a little out of hand this year.

Passing is pretty easy, and I can run for a 6+ yd avg with shonn green, so when I get an elite RB with breakaway speed its gonna be deadly

Also the ints are really down this year. Even using Revis, I set up for a perfect user pick and he drops it 90% of the time. Last year DBs would almost always catch it if you timed the user pick right. Thats one of the things I liked last year, if you made a mistake and threw it into coverage you would get picked off almost every time vs a good player.


I know its been less than a week but im finding Defense way harder to play, and offense way easier. I hope this madden isnt like the old days where every game the score was like 63-56 with guys going for 500yds passing every game


btw this is playing mostly on All pro. Im hoping that the D plays a lot better on All madden

tomer dude

Yes the D is much better on all madden. I have also found that the speed is different for each skill level. Normal on All Madden is even faster then on All Pro. However if you turn "auto sprint" off, I feel that All Madden is most like NFL (with normal speed). Try it out, it is quite challenging and I think the most realistic. I suppose we need to see each players actual stats to see for sure. There was a slider at 50 % that indicated it was for the difference in speed from slower players to faster ones, we will probably need to explore that further.

I see what ur saying about offense and specially defensive int's...I have 6 to 8 yards a carry also and when I feel like passing the user catch animations now make it way eazy to pass. Maybe when it gets. To user vs user things will even out but defense just seems harder unless u kno how to user ur ends like I don't or u blitz a lot which I do but the o line picks up 70% of those anyway and kill me with slants...its all good tho with my stick ill have ok defense and I kno my offense will be fire to keep up with other ppl.