Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

[Jistic]

Last night I played Madden for 6 hours straight. I haven't done that in over 10 years. That's about all you need to know.

Played skills trainer with my son for a little bit. We had a blast since I coach him in football anyway he loved doing the drills and wanted the Gatorade packs for MUT.

Played MUT for a bit as well. I've never played it before but my son loves it and I gotta admit it's pretty cool.

But being that I'm an old school guy after he went to bed I setup a quick exhibition. I moved the penalties up to 60 and did a few minor tweaks.

WOW! Best game of Madden I've played since '02. As others have mentioned "organic" is the best way to describe it. I saw the coolest strip animation when my backup RB came in he was still running but didn't have the ball! Next thing I know the defense is all over it. I saw the replay and was like damn I didn't even know that dude stripped it Peanut style.

Penalties are here!!!!!! OMG Praise Jesus! They have added more, and dammit they do call them. The sliders are WAY sensitive as they should be. Love love love love love this. 15 years too late but thankfully they are here.

Fatigue works, subs happen, injury slider works, ratings matter, crowd is way better, lighting is fantastic, it just seems like player motion is smoother. Tackling is better just everything seems better.

More importantly is immersion. I lose track of time like I used to. I can see spending a lot of time with this game. I liked 15, but this seems like a huge, yet quiet step forward. Two thumbs up!

[Dogslax41]

I've owned every Madden since 1988 when I got it for my first pc the Apple IIGS and this is by far the best Madden that I have played. In my opinion since 2005 it has been a constant decline downhill with some of those years being a slight downgrade and some years it was like it fell off a cliff. For the past 2 -3 years I would buy and after a week I was back to playing All Pro 2k8 and cursing EA for exclusivity and not having a legitimate up to date football game to play.

This game on the field is a fantastic representation of football. Everything is much more fluid this year and just looks organic and has that feel that anything can happen on a play. Every game I have played has had something new and one of those wow moments that make you stop and actually appreciate the attention the developers paid to the little things.

In addition to just the overall feel of the game, two huge things for me that they have fixed that have been missing, one for a couple years and the other forever is the disparity between stars and backups and penalties. Madden has never done penalties well and nails it this year. My first encroachment where I went into the neutral zone and the olineman moved and the call went against me was fantastic to watch. And stars play like stars and backups play like backups. Most noticeable at the QB position and WR/DB.

I’m not going to comment on off the field because in my opinion CFM (for me anyway) is completely broken right now with the major bugs (drive goals & rookie ratings). Optimistic they will patch it, but really it should have never left testing with those issues. This hurts because I hate playing online since I enjoy pure sim gameplay and online tends to be a win at all cost no matter the exploit or how, for lack of a better term, video gamey the player makes the game look (sprinting to the sidelines to throw, etc) and I have always been a franchise first player. That being said, the gameplay this year is so good I've found myself having a blast with Ultimate team and even more so with Draft Champions.

The one thing that I found myself wishing is that they took pieces of the opening Steelers v Cardinals sequence and put that into the gameplay. Obviously not the whole branching storyline but the emotion and player closeups that they did. Not sure if the NFLPA would allow generic voices for players (I would think so given qb cadences are generic) but if so then pay some voice actors to come in and record some generic voice lines and add that to regular games. The QBs talking up the sidelines at half or before key drives, players scoring and jawing after, coaches talking up players. All of that would blow the immersion that 2k5 had (that was so great) out of the water and give this game a soul.

[therizing02]

I've stated how much I love the improvements to game play and especially the animations. Well done, EA.

At this point, without slider adjustments, I have seen 1 maybe 2 in game injuries in more than 10 games. Last night Bradford got injured in a CFM game in the second quarter and at the start of every Eagle drive for the rest of the game Nantz felt the need to say "Bradford got injured, but now he's back..." Probably heard something of the sort at least 10 times. The needs to be looked at.

Not a big fan of the menus in CFM. This mode needs a major upgrade. I still don't feel engaged in the entire league like I do every Sunday from September through February. There is just no connection to what else is going on. I feel like I have to hunt for information about what is going on in the league.

EA really needs to look at what an NFL day looks like. We have information about the games pushed to us for 14 straight hours on Sunday. Scores, stats, injuries, everything. I feel like I know everything that's going on around the league at any given point. If I leave for an hour and come back it takes about 15 minutes to get re-engaged with what's happening. I never have to dig for information.

In Madden CFM I feel like I am on an island with my team. Yes, the news feed is somewhat helpful, but I have to navigate to get to it. I have to dig for injury information, standings, and stats because the box scores of other games don't have a scoring summary. Really? CFM feels like it's my team and a lot of information scattered within a nightmare of menus. It's hardly "connected".

Is it a surprise considering that the team that works on CFM is DISconnected from the rest of the dev team? Get everyone in the same building for starters. How about a ticker for scores? Studio updates? NCAA football had both. It also had smooth menus and scoring summaries for at least 50 games every weekend. Is that not possible with next gen technology? FIFA has live audio cut in updates of other games while you are playing a game in manager mode. Additionally, FIFA has a significantly larger database of players, teams, and audio files. How come Madden is so slow to get this done?

Finally, I really like some of the new camera angles, but stop selling me on these "major presentation upgrades". I could care less about hiring people from NFL Films if the work they are doing is hardly engaging. It's similar to hiring a famous announcing team with poor implementation. Take a look at FIFA and NBA2K for what presentation is all about.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by therizing02

I've stated how much I love the improvements to game play and especially the animations. Well done, EA. At this point, without slider adjustments, I have seen 1 maybe 2 in game injuries in more than 10 games. Last night Bradford got injured in a CFM game in the second quarter and at the start of every Eagle drive for the rest of the game Nantz felt the need to say "Bradford got injured, but now he's back..." Probably heard something of the sort at least 10 times. The needs to be looked at. Not a big fan of the menus in CFM. This mode needs a major upgrade. I still don't feel engaged in the entire league like I do every Sunday from September through February. There is just no connection to what else is going on. I feel like I have to hunt for information about what is going on in the league. EA really needs to look at what an NFL day looks like. We have information about the games pushed to us for 14 straight hours on Sunday. Scores, stats, injuries, everything. I feel like I know everything that's going on around the league at any given point. If I leave for an hour and come back it takes about 15 minutes to get re-engaged with what's happening. I never have to dig for information. In Madden CFM I feel like I am on an island with my team. Yes, the news feed is somewhat helpful, but I have to navigate to get to it. I have to dig for injury information, standings, and stats because the box scores of other games don't have a scoring summary. Really? CFM feels like it's my team and a lot of information scattered within a nightmare of menus. It's hardly "connected". Is it a surprise considering that the team that works on CFM is DISconnected from the rest of the dev team? Get everyone in the same building for starters. How about a ticker for scores? Studio updates? NCAA football had both. It also had smooth menus and scoring summaries for at least 50 games every weekend. Is that not possible with next gen technology? FIFA has live audio cut in updates of other games while you are playing a game in manager mode. Additionally, FIFA has a significantly larger database of players, teams, and audio files. How come Madden is so slow to get this done? Finally, I really like some of the new camera angles, but stop selling me on these "major presentation upgrades". I could care less about hiring people from NFL Films if the work they are doing is hardly engaging. It's similar to hiring a famous announcing team with poor implementation. Take a look at FIFA and NBA2K for what presentation is all about.

Just an FYI, CFM team not as disconnected as it once was. Josh Looman isn't in charge anymore, Kolbe, from The Show is. Josh still works out of Austin, TX, but Kolbe and some of his team are in Orlando.

I agree, CFM needs major improvements all around.

By the way, the repeating announcing will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

And welcome back, Jistic. Sliders in the near forecast? I don't think you will need many adjustments with this years offering on all-pro..

[RogueHominid]

Two more notes after more games played:

I had an amazing game vs. SEA as CHI where the dominance of their defense was felt from start to finish. On AP default, I got blown out 40-10, 12 minute quarters. I can't remember the last time that happened on AP, or on AM without it feeling cheap.

I also think that the pass rush is closer to where it needs to be than some have suggested here. I had a 1-sack game with CHI vs. SEA, a couple of 4-sack games, one dominating single-player performance--I feel like the pass rush is there for the HUM if the matchups are in the HUM team's favor.

I also think that the CPU pass rush is scaled appropriately to the talent. In my current game, Wake is making his presence felt. Bennet did the game before that, and that pressure is coming in the form of a very nice mix of sacks, hits, and hurries. I've taken a max of 3 sacks in a game, but I've had a couple games where I've been hurried and hit a good amount.

I actually hope they don't tune much in the patch. This feels pretty close to what I want right out of the box. Normally, the only game I play that I can say that for is The Show, so it's a real treat to be able to say that for Madden. I frankly can't remember a time when Madden was good straight out of the box, from a sim standard.

[JayBee74]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ankido

Running: I don't know what game you guys are playing but the running is still the same. Blockers don't block and when they do it's always the wrong person. When you watch the CPU run the ball, they cut like the real deal. When we try to do it, we're all over the place running sideways and backwards. Still not a good running game. I play on All Pro with Normal speed and sometimes Slow just to get a feel for it. I'm sorry, the blocks are not there. Take the time to watch replays and you'll notice this a lot.

Yeah, when I run the ball there's a feeling of inertness. When I try to link a special move together with the L trigger, I can't see the "oomph". As matter of fact I just fumbled three times (losing 2) when applying the L with 2 Trucks and a Stiff Arm, assuming the L Trigger is still used for that.

[SwaggerCoach]

Played for a solid 6-7 hours yesterday. Had a ton of fun - glitches, bugs, and all!

Gameplay is vastly improved. For all the reasons that have been pointed out. Playing the CPU is actually challenging again. I can't remember the last time that was the case!

Soundtrack is bangin'.

CFM had some new wrinkles and added difficulty.

Scouting is a new challenge this year - so far I haven't been able to take advantage of it in an unfair way...feel like it might be a fair challenge.

WR/CB interaction is a lot of fun. I just wish the safeties were more aggressive.

Been dabbling in MUT and noticing the game is not awarding me wins in solo challenges...I've had 3 games where I won and I did not get credit.

This year's Madden is a blast...definitely headed in the right direction. If they can sand down a few rough edges, this game will be a gem.




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[steeldee7]

Played my Madden Yesterday and last. So Let me Preface this with This is my first next gen Madden . i have a bit of a learning curve but I love it so far Played Steelers vs Ravens. I lost 20 to 14 But it was challenging Both teams were held to under 40 yards rushing. I had some good runs but some Bad decisions also as I got a feel for the game I got better. still learning the controls for next gen so I allowed some big plays. but wow this game looks and plays so real. I will be on Madden all day just wanted to take time to say Great Job EA .....And about time.