M15 Info Chk it out

MADDEN 15: GAMEPLAY NOTES

• Personnel Matters.
More than ever before, personnel matters. Gone are the days where you “knew” a curl route was going to be open before the snap simply because the opponent was in backed-off man coverage. Now, the quality of the cornerback and the receiver can play a big role in whether or not a seemingly open pass goes for a big gain, or an easy pick. Similarly, if you want to slow down the enhanced pass rush this season, a a few quality offensive linemen will go a long way.

• Quarterback is a Big Deal
I would like to welcome the quarterback position to Madden NFL 15. In my opinion, QB has been one of the least valuable positions on the field in Madden for years (save for the mobility of a few key players). I’ve always felt this to be the case because with just “OK” accuracy across the board, you could dominate like Peyton Manning with only the odd errant pass to show for it. Now, that has all changed. Rookie QBs with poor accuracy will feel like rookie QBs at times, while superstars like Aaron Rodgers will throw on the money much more often.

• Bad Teams are Worse Than Ever
Because of the aforementioned increase in disparity at the QB position, poor teams have just gone from bad to worse in Madden NFL 15. Poor accuracy will rear its ugly head at the most inopportune times for your team if you’re trying to survive with a yet-to-be-established young QB, or a sub-par veteran. This is doubly compounded if you happen to play with a team that is both lacking in quarterback, and receiver. I believe Madden probably should be this way for realism sake, however there is no doubt it is going to push many low-quality teams even further out of play online. I’ll restate that I don’t think this is a bad thing at all, however it is an almost-radical change and one you should be prepared for.

• Defense is Not All Hype
All the talk of vastly improved defense was not hype. Defense really is better this year, and it really does make a big difference. No, you can’t just call random plays and hope for the best online, but you will notice less whiffing of tackles, more plays being made in the secondary without your assistance, and a greater freedom to take safeties off of the top. That, perhaps, is the biggest change — A streak in one-on-one coverage with no safety help is not a guaranteed touchdown anymore. Now, your quarterback needs to hit his mark (which can be tough for some QBs), and the receiver needs to beat the CB deep (the faster he is, the better chance you’ll get past him). This one change shortens the field considerably, and makes it easier to take risks on defense and make plays (just make sure you’re not taking the safety off the top of those burners!).

• Pass Leading is Alive and Well Again
Pass leading took a hiatus last season in Madden 25, but it’s back again and arguably better than ever. In Madden 25, it was very common to pass lead a ball only to have it feel like your pass was attached to a pole that was swinging either left or right. Now, it feels like there is much more touch to passes, and for the first time perhaps ever I can honestly say if a WR has outside leverage and a step or two on a CB, you can hit a lob in the corner of the endzone away from the safety. Players have tried many gimmick plays in the past to make this happen, but finally, the touch on passes seems good enough that it can be a real read in your progressions this year. Of course, as mentioned previously, personnel matters. This is a technique best-used by those big-bodied jump-ball receivers, although players with good catching and the ability to drag their feet in the endzone can work in a pinch

• Play Call Menu Is Horrendous
Alright, maybe horrendous is an overstatement, but in the very least it’s wildly inefficient. While everything appears to be packaged neatly on one page, it’s merely the illusion of efficiency. Whereas previously in Madden if I wanted to select a play from a specific set in, say, Singleback, I just had to select Singleback, select the set, and then choose the play (just three moves). Now, you first have to back out of the Coach Suggestions screen that overrides the default play screen, then you have to select formation as the style of play choosing you want, then you have to scroll up and down vertically for the formation, then scroll left and right to choose the set you want from within the formation (which can be several clicks away), and then you can finally choose your play, assuming of course it’s on the first page, and if not, that’s more scrolling for you.

A simple, three click process has now become a headache. While that headache will certainly lessen as you get more and more used to the new system, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re now asking players to do multiple times more work to choose a play than previously. I appreciate all the other neat things they added to play calling, but surely you can find away to include those extra details without forcing players into a wildly inefficient and tedious play call screen.

Can I adapt to it? Sure. Will it stop me from playing? No. But neither of those questions matter. What matters, is that for all its new features, bells and whistles, the updated play call screen is a regression in efficiency, and when you’re talking about a menu that players spend a large portion of their time in, that’s a bad thing. This needs to be cleaned up a bit to make it less tedious.

Pre-Snap Field View Needs Fixing
New this year in Madden NFL 15 is a requirement to wait on the QB to call out an audible before a hot route can take effect, which slows down the changing of routes on offense and gives defenses time to adjust. In concept, I think this is all well and good, however for some reason the pre-snap overview of the field that players often use by holding down the right trigger is subject to the same sort of time delay. That means if you just wanted to look at what routes are being run on your play from a higher perspective by holding right trigger, you have to wait what feels like a full second for it to take effect. How big of a deal is a second, you ask? Well, it makes the game feel incredibly sluggish, even if it’s just an illusion, and it’s quite a big annoyance. Let’s get this fixed.

• On-Field Camera Control Conflicts With Strategy Pad
I had wondered for weeks how the strategy pad would work considering the new camera toggle options were bound to the dpad, but was unable to get an answer from anyone I asked about it. Now, having played the game, I can see why. The strategy pad cannot be enabled and used while the camera toggle option is turned on. If you turn on the on-field camera toggle, it will disable the strategy pad. If you turn it off, it will enable the strategy pad. This is not a particularly huge deal, but if you’ve made commitment to change the way you call audibles to the strategy pad in recent years, you will have to disable the new camera control or revert back to the old audible system. Personally, I think the old system is and always has been better, however I made the commitment years ago to get used to the strategy pad in case they ever dropped legacy support, and now it seems I have to re-learn the old ways all over again if I want the camera angles.

• Power Backs Rule The Turf
If you thought power backs were good in Madden 25, wait until you play Madden 15. Because everything on defense is a bit tighter, the nature of power backs allows them to thrive at a better rate than other, often more agile backs. If you have a powerful back in Madden (78+ strength) you’re going to do OK. If you have an elite powerful back like Marshawn Lynch, then you are going to plow over defenders and run through arm tackles like you’re racking up bonus points in a pinball machine. I don’t think power backs are overpowered, simply that they do a very good job on interior runs as you might expect, whereas speedier, weaker backs are going to fair better on the outside. To some extent, that has always been the case in Madden, however I feel the difference is more pronounced this year — even more so than last year, because of the enhanced defense which forces players into more defined roles.

• Fitting Players into The Right Roles Matters
Defense is very, very solid, enough so that you will quickly realize that putting your offensive playmakers in roles that they are not best suited for will rightfully get you into trouble. Have a super-speedy receiver with poor route running that you just thought you would stick on the outside and throw a few curl routes to? Yeah, good luck with that this year. You’re going to want someone capable of running some crisper routes if you want to consistently hit curl routes, or out routes without getting intercepted. In a similar vein, you don’t want to toss a deep ball to just anyone that happens to be in one-on-one coverage. You’re going to want to know who your player is, what his skills are, and who he is up against to understand whether or not that deep lob is really worth the gamble.

This is outstanding. I agree with this summary and if you want a head start at understanding this version if madden definitely read through the post.

It's amazing seeing Leon hall of the Bengals breaking on hitch and out routes even tho he's not a speedster. Play recognition and coverage ratings were more important

Knowing how to run the route concepts will be critical as well so don't be a dinosaur and fail to adapt. Good defensive personnel won't allow you to play basic offense over and over this year