I picked this up last week and have played a few games using custom sliders. I really enjoy the gameplay this year (maybe because the past few years Ive only played NCAA). I have ony seen the cpu running out of bounds once or twice, so if it is that infrequent, than I have no problems with it.
The CPU has thrown a high completion percentage in some games (like 25 for 34) but a lot of those were short dump-offs that didn't go for much yardage. The last game I played Grossman was 8 for 18 in the first half so I am fine with the passing attach.
Running is tough in this game, but I like the challenge it presents and I feel like ive accomplished something when I break one off for 8 or 9 yards.
Bottom line is it is just a fun game to play.
The one thing this game desperately needs to bring back is in-game saves. Ive been playing 9 minute quarters to get realistic stats. I could get away with that last week (when my daughter was away with her mom) but it will be tough to sit and devote 90 minutes to playing this game. Any chance they might add it through one of their patches?
I haven't said much to now but I am frustrated as hell with this game. It is so close to being a great game but bad design choices and bugs are keeping it back and I find that very frustrating.
Fatigue is modified so the online crowd can't take advantage of the no huddle and wear down the D. So in essence fatigure for the single player is s***.
The game speeds is absurdly fast, I could live with it and enjoy it actually if the line actually blocked. Defensive players get off their blocks way too fast and come in untouched way too often. It's clear the Defensive speed is faster then the offense.
Fricking Jukes do I need to say more. I mean I'm not even talking about the guys going out of bounds for no reason. I'm talking about CPU RB's juking out of holes right in front of them.
People say the cpu can't rush and this is the reason. I see them at least 5 times a game juke away from a hole and a 4-5 yard gain to lose 5-7 yards.
Grr one frustrating game to say the least.
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Spooky wrote:The game is fun and I have not enjoyed console football in a long time.
I really like the fact that I can customize my difficulty rather than a ton of sliders!!!!!!
That said, I cannot believe the bland presentation and the borderline awful graphics in this game. 2K5 is still light years ahead in this department. I have the PS3 version and the graphics really are poor. While there are some nice in game animations, the running looks completely awkward. The white outline on all the players makes them look painted on the screen. Yuck.
Try lowering your sharpness on your TV. I usually keep my sharpness at 5 but for Madden i had to lower it to 3
I played a game last night against the Vikings with 8 minutes quarters on Pro and the computer had a very nice mix of run and pass, Adrian Peterson had around 80 yards rushing with some 5, 7 and 10 yard gains. Using the higher difficulties or the Madden IQ the cpu hasn't came anywhere near that kind of running game so I may stick with Pro for a while as the games are coming out very competitive for me. I couldn't get any long drives going all game until getting a bomb off in the 4th quarter and I ended up winning 13-10 with a touchdown in the last 30 seconds.
The field graphics and players look gorgeous to me and the game has a fun factor for me the way NHL 07 did. Also Tom Hammond's announcing sounded robotic at first but has grown on me the more I have played and doesn't sound too bad now.
My copy finally arrived by sled dog yesterday. I did the IQ test and scored in the mid-600s -- First level All-Madden on offense, highest level All-Pro on defense. I fired up a quick game of Bears (me) vs. Packers.
Madden 09 definitely made the best first impression of any next-gen Madden. I had just watched a video on OS showing 2k5 highlights yesterday, and I completely disagree with Spooky on the visuals. The players look great, the weather effects were outstanding (I played in the snow) and the stadium felt huge. The crowd and sidelines need work, but I find that less important in football games than basketball or baseball.
The game actually surprised me in a few ways. Making no changes at all, the Packers had three holding penalties and missed three FGs inside of 45 yards, including one that may have been inside 40 that clanged off the post. The Packers actually ran okay (Grant had 75 yards on 20 carries) and Aaron Rodgers was just 11 for 22 with 2 interceptions. The Bears offense was horrid as usual. I couldn't run at all, and also got sacked about 5 times. But the passing game is really good. It's nice to see WRs get separation -- I won the game on a 71-yard TD pass to Hester where he got behind his man and the DB didn't magically catch up.
Biggest annoyance was by far the sidelines logic. It is terrible. Not gamekiller material for me, but a real embarrassment for EA because it's almost immediately apparent.
For a hoot I threw in Madden 93. It was actually fun to see it and remember the stuff they had -- the different personnel packages, the way sub players came on the field. But I can't believe I ever found it fun to play against the AI.
I think the biggest thing with the AI adaption is time and experience. The more you play the more refined it will get. Those who say it doesn't work need to spend more time with it. It works the same as sliders. How many times have you tweaked a slider, played a couple of games, and tweak the same slider again before finally settling on it? I have been having great games using this feature and have noticed that my defense is going up while my offense is going down. I'm just throwing this out there is all.
I am a patient boy.
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait.
My time is water down a drain.
I tried HeliFan sliders from OS last night and it was the best game of Madden I've had so far. I also found that if you set penalties to 95 instead of 100 they seem to call more of them, I saw to PI calls last night.
Odd game, so close I hope all these possible free DLC updates come out.
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Pete wrote:Does anyone know if there is a way to make substitutions during the game without pausing the game and changing the depth chart?
Thanks.
You can make subs from the playcalling screen. Don't recall the button off-hand, it might be clickign the left thumbstick?
It's just a button...either Y or B (on the 360). Then you cycle through your players on the field and replace them individually. Now, the problem with doing that, is that they are ALWAYS in that spot...the subbed player doesn't come back out. So whatever package you substitute a player in, it will stay that way until you change it back (even from game to game).
According to some figures posted over at OS (I haven't independently verified their accuracy), first week sales for the PS3, Wii and PSP are up this year. However, total sales across all platforms are down (360 being the most surprising to show down numbers).
I wonder if Ian will even be around next year, if the downward sales trend continues? He seems like a nice guy and hopefully he has this franchise on the right track, but I sure wouldn't lose any sleep if Tiburon got kicked to the curb and they brought in a new developer.
GTHobbes wrote:I wonder if Ian will even be around next year, if the downward sales trend continues? He seems like a nice guy and hopefully he has this franchise on the right track, but I sure wouldn't lose any sleep if Tiburon got kicked to the curb and they brought in a new developer.
I doubt that will happen, they have started something here with the dev teams being active. Ian supposedly wasn't even on Madden this year he just because the face of the EA team. Whether we believe the sincerity of the devs or not, many people do.
I think EA has to give them one more year with this new "interaction" and see what happens. It would probably do them more harm if they started all this and then just axed Tiburon, thus cutting off the "voice" from behind the curtain to gamers. If they did this I think any good will they have accumulated recently would be gone 10 fold.
Of course such decisions are made by men in suits who don't even play games so you never know.
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Probably their preference would be to interact only at the EA Sports forums but those boards may not represent a broad enough number of people.
It doesn't help that there seem to be more issues this year. Once they opened themselves up, you were going to get a lot of people vying for their attention.
But even some legit issues like online games disconnecting way more frequently than they have in the past get buried with complaints about sideline details or not having the right kind of gear on players.
This is my first Madden in a while. I played the PC version around '05 or so.
The animations are great all except when you are in open field, then you look like a robot running. The tackle animations, the catching and mostly everything else is spot on and is fun to watch. The presentation is decent but not too submersive. I am going to see if I can tweak the volume on a few things. Up the crowd, knock down the announcers. Also, I have not used my son's gaming chair, maybe that will help get me more in the game.
I play as the Raiders and right now am using the IQ to play. I am around 500 or so. I may have to up it as I am 5-1 in the play now mode. Offensively, I can run the ball being patient. I really enjoy seeing the hole and trying to follow my blockers. I like how you can shift your line to block a certain way. I don't expect to get 4-6 yards per carry and accept when I am stopped for no gain or a loss. I continue to try to set up the D and get great satisfaction when I do rip off a 10 yard gain. Running is a lot of fun.
Passing. Too high of a completion percentage. You basically have a first year passer throwing guided missles around the field. Way too easy unless you throw into coverage. The only incompletions are the interceptions and the throws to the sideline were the player has no idea where the sideline is. Passing is not as much fun as running. Although, the play action works very nice after you do get a few nice runs in.
Defense is just not very fun to play. Too fast. I usually just control a lineman and try to get pressure on the QB. The CPU cannot run at this point and I play mostly pass D. The CPU does not go down field enough. I think I need to mess around with some settings for the CPU to up it's offense. Lastly, on D I get too many INT's.
It may sound like I don't like the game but I do. I think with a little tweaking, it will be a solid game. The newness also helps.
When I was doing IQ, I would at least get 2 int's a game from my defense. In my last game with IQ on, I had 6 int's and 2 run back for tds. The cpu offense is just inept with IQ on. Do what we all did and go to custom. I just had a great game last night where I came back to beat the bears. Bears had a last chance, but I came up with a sack on Grossman where he fumbled it and i recovered to seal the game.
I finally did get to play in a rain game that last game and it was awesome how the uniforms at the end of the game were filthy. Still have not played a game in the snow yet.
Inuyasha wrote:When I was doing IQ, I would at least get 2 int's a game from my defense. In my last game with IQ on, I had 6 int's and 2 run back for tds. The cpu offense is just inept with IQ on. Do what we all did and go to custom. I just had a great game last night where I came back to beat the bears. Bears had a last chance, but I came up with a sack on Grossman where he fumbled it and i recovered to seal the game.
I finally did get to play in a rain game that last game and it was awesome how the uniforms at the end of the game were filthy. Still have not played a game in the snow yet.
Did you just start at All-Pro default and go from there?
Inuyasha wrote:When I was doing IQ, I would at least get 2 int's a game from my defense. In my last game with IQ on, I had 6 int's and 2 run back for tds. The cpu offense is just inept with IQ on. Do what we all did and go to custom. I just had a great game last night where I came back to beat the bears. Bears had a last chance, but I came up with a sack on Grossman where he fumbled it and i recovered to seal the game.
I finally did get to play in a rain game that last game and it was awesome how the uniforms at the end of the game were filthy. Still have not played a game in the snow yet.
Did you just start at All-Pro default and go from there?
I started at all pro per TC...He was spot on...I just moved em all a couple spots to the right and Im getting very good games.
Inuyasha wrote:When I was doing IQ, I would at least get 2 int's a game from my defense. In my last game with IQ on, I had 6 int's and 2 run back for tds. The cpu offense is just inept with IQ on. Do what we all did and go to custom. I just had a great game last night where I came back to beat the bears. Bears had a last chance, but I came up with a sack on Grossman where he fumbled it and i recovered to seal the game.
I finally did get to play in a rain game that last game and it was awesome how the uniforms at the end of the game were filthy. Still have not played a game in the snow yet.
Did you just start at All-Pro default and go from there?
I started at All Madden, then moved left/right from there. Also, remember, when you get on a slider, press A, it brings up more indepth sliders you can tweak. 3 sub sliders for each major slider. And I'm not talking White Castle here.
I've only played about 2 1/2 games, but I'm having the opposite experience with IQ. The CPU has run pretty well against me. I tested at the upper All-Pro/lowest All-Madden, with an IQ of around 650. I played a game of 7 minute quarters as Jacksonville vs. Cleveland. Jamal Lewis ran for 150 yards against me, including a 55 yard TD run. Even without that, the CPU still averaged about 4 ypc. Derek Anderson was 17-24 for 160 yards, one TD and one int. I couldn't run very well and struggled a bit passing, losing 23-15, which was only that close because I put together a meaningless final drive.
The thing I notice more than anything from 09 is that it feels like EA really made an effort. It's got problems for sure, as no developer could fix what ailed Madden 08 in one cycle. But I am finding it pretty fun where the last couple of Maddens felt boring from the get go.
I'm going to stick with IQ for a bit while I wait for updated rosters, and see if I still get the results I've been seeing. Please note that this may just be my suckiness at playing D.
In using Helifans slider I lost to the Eagles last night and it was the best game I played.
The eagles rushed for a combine 154 yards and they even scored on a 64 yard throw, which was about 40 yards in the air. I managed to rush for 150+ myself and lost the game 20-13 because I ad to settle for field goals in the red zone, something the real Bears do a lot.
I still prefer the play style of HC over this, but since going to custom slider I am having a lot more fun and the cpu is making yards.
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So, how does one obtain the latest rosters for offline play? I wanna start a franchise with the latest rosters & I remember EA usually has some bizarre method for getting rosters off the Xbox Live (360)...
