Madden NFL 11 Patch 1.03 Available, Post Impressions Here (PS3, 360)

[roll2tide]

Quote: Originally Posted by Todem

Some more thoughts on this patch. There are still the same issues with the CB's in pass coverage when they are making up ground to get under or in front of a WR to defend a pass. They still just flat out stop short under AI control. You must gain control of the DB once you see the ball in the air on deep routes and corner routes or it is almost always an aoutomatic reception and big gain for the AI or human. The Kick meter online is insane. What was a lag problem is now a bug with this patch because it is literally impossible to miss a kick. On Kick returns the the strafe (or in and out) return exploit is even more prevalent in human games. Playing against the CPU I will not let myself exploit that because what is the fun in that? Offline - Again the game to me at east is great. A ton of fun. With sliders and gameplanning I am having a ton of fun. i had 2 great games last night in my chise. Games that went right down to the wire and CPU ended up with both wins! They are calling an even better game now with the game plans. Online - This game is almost unplayable in sim leagues. A Major letdown and I am still deciding if I want to invest the time into a sim league. The game is just way too loose, defense is still almost non existent. You can hit slants, flats and crosses at will. You would have to hold back to make the game realistic and that is a pain in the *** and causes a lot of frustration and arguments. Plus you will always get guys who will call the same 4-5 plays because they want to win at all costs. The Online experience IMO is a joke.

This. Between the lack of defense and the ease of the passing game the game was bad online before. Now these things are the same or worse and kick meter is now set to Wii. I used to not care about the exclusive license but now I am really starting to see how it has allowed apathy and ineptness to become the norm at EA. How some of these things make it through beta is beyond me and the fact that they only make it worse via patches is just baffling.

Seriously....if any dev ever reads this.....I would LOVE to know who in the hades saw this kick meter and thought, "man, this is gonna be great!" Please reassign them to the janitorial department.

[The Gravy Train]

Quote: Originally Posted by Todem

Some more thoughts on this patch. There are still the same issues with the CB's in pass coverage when they are making up ground to get under or in front of a WR to defend a pass. They still just flat out stop short under AI control. You must gain control of the DB once you see the ball in the air on deep routes and corner routes or it is almost always an aoutomatic reception and big gain for the AI or human. I typically don't have much trouble stopping the pass. But I do agree that you have to control the defensive back manually in order to defend deep passes against good receivers. The trick really is to begin a strafe with the LT and jump for the ball to either pick it or bat the ball down. The Kick meter online is insane. What was a lag problem is now a bug with this patch because it is literally impossible to miss a kick. Agreed. Pre patch I wanted the kick meter patched just a little only because I found myself missing a few too many PATs. I wish the system worked where the meter began to speed up based on how far the field goal is, and how high the kicker's Kick Power and Kick Accuracy are rated. On Kick returns the the strafe (or in and out) return exploit is even more prevalent in human games. Playing against the CPU I will not let myself exploit that because what is the fun in that? I agree again. The return game wasn't really that hard before the patch. You could get to about the 20 yard line most of the time, and I saw plenty of TD's. Now its almost guaranteed that you are going to get to the 30 yard line. It really just takes away that extra first down in a drive. Offline - Again the game to me at east is great. A ton of fun. With sliders and gameplanning I am having a ton of fun. i had 2 great games last night in my chise. Games that went right down to the wire and CPU ended up with both wins! They are calling an even better game now with the game plans. Can't really comment on this yet, seeing as that I have yet to play the game offline after the release of the patch. Online - This game is almost unplayable in sim leagues. A Major letdown and I am still deciding if I want to invest the time into a sim league. The game is just way too loose, defense is still almost non existent. You can hit slants, flats and crosses at will. You would have to hold back to make the game realistic and that is a pain in the *** and causes a lot of frustration and arguments. Plus you will always get guys who will call the same 4-5 plays because they want to win at all costs. This is where we differ a little. I play in an sim Online Franchise and it was fun to play in pre-patch as well as post-patch. I seem to cover slants pretty well with man coverage, especially if you have guys to press. You could also bring a defensive end into a zone if you think a slant is coming. And if you play in a league where guys run the same 5 plays just to win, is it really a sim league? The Online experience IMO is a joke.

read the bold, people.

[bxgoods]

Ian said the kick meter thing was a mistake and was only in for testing purposes, he said it would be fixed on the next server update.

[Todem]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Gravy Train

read the bold, people.

Very hard to find solid sim players to fill a league. Really hard.

[sputney23]

Still no change for the 3-4 and 4-3 schemes?

[guaps]

My first impression from practice mode were generally positive, but my second impression from exhibition mode aren't too great as I tried to play the game on All-Pro difficulty, Slow speed, Conventional play calling.

After 2:17 minutes I'm up 21-0. I returned the opening kickoff for a 91 yard TD. Kicked it back and intercepted the pass on 2nd down for a return TD. Kicked off again and forced a three and out with one sack. Had a huge punt return (27 yards, which got cut short by a clipping penalty). Ran the ball up the middle for 16 yards and threw a 33 yard TD on the following play. After two 'drives' the CPU had -5 total yards on offense, so I decided to stop playing as I still find the game unplayable without custom sliders.

[roadman]

The game after I played after the patch was a real good defensive battle.

I played on nearly ALL Pro, except I kicked up Pass Reaction Time to 60 on both ends and dropped fumbles to 25.

The score was 10-7 Packers over the Bears.

Loved every minute of it.

[z4ckdabeast]

Just played an online game with the new patch. I only noticed two different things:

• Kick meter is slow as molasses
• Kickoffs rarely go into the end zone now