Madden 18

[TCrouch]

Yeah, I'm not up for the debate. I won't post about it anymore. I know what I'm seeing, but I can't speak for others or tell them what they should see, so to each his own! Hate it, love it, doesn't affect me, so whatever works for each individual.

[Danimal]

Yeah, I'm not up for the debate. I won't post about it anymore. I know what I'm seeing, but I can't speak for others or tell them what they should see, so to each his own! Hate it, love it, doesn't affect me, so whatever works for each individual.

Not sure how this is a debate. I said I need to play the game to see how it feels but I'm not happy with some of the stuff still there. You didn't comment on the no penalties, the QB's not moving out of the pocket. Or maybe you did and you just don't care about that stuff. Like you said to each their own, doesn't mean I won't play the game but I wont pat them on the back for spending a whole cycle on a sport rpg no one asked for.

BTW I have no idea why you wont post about Madden, we can't have a discussion and disagree?

[Danimal]

To put some positive news out there I'll list the things I'm excited to try that are not being shown anywhere to my knowledge with these video.

Mut Squads - I'm not a MUT guy but the most fun I've had in Madden in year was playing 2 on 2 coop. I still remember the Baltimore vs Steeler snow game Terry and I played against 2 other DSP guys.

Love that regression is fixed, not sure how I feel about the speed cap on regression but at least they are trying something.

Can't wait to see how ID the Mike works and the defensive assignments.

Love that injuries have been toned down and they also have off the ball injuries. They say the reduced the season ending injuries a lot and increase the 2 week injuries. Be interesting to see how this turns out.

Auto Scouting and auto weekly training is for me a real bonus. I hated the training because I think it is just not implemented right so if I can auto do this great. Scouting is always a chore when trying to go through games. I didn't see any mention of assigning priorities so not sure what the auto scout will look for.

Franchise specific commentary sound like it will be a good addition.

Play Now and Complete a season also sounds great. For those that just wanted to play a single season this is your anwser.

[johnnypark]

Yeah, I'm not up for the debate. I won't post about it anymore. I know what I'm seeing, but I can't speak for others or tell them what they should see, so to each his own! Hate it, love it, doesn't affect me, so whatever works for each individual.

Not sure how this is a debate. I said I need to play the game to see how it feels but I'm not happy with some of the stuff still there. You didn't comment on the no penalties, the QB's not moving out of the pocket. Or maybe you did and you just don't care about that stuff. Like you said to each their own, doesn't mean I won't play the game but I wont pat them on the back for spending a whole cycle on a sport rpg no one asked for.

BTW I have no idea why you wont post about Madden, we can't have a discussion and disagree?

It's hard to comment on the lack of penalties when the gameplay footage is spliced together and we're not actually seeing a full game. The qb not moving out of the pocket is valid criticism but as someone who plays against others it doesn't affect me.

[Danimal]

Well one of the ones I watched was not spliced. Full game, guy didn't even scream over the video

[Brando70]

Love that injuries have been toned down and they also have off the ball injuries. They say the reduced the season ending injuries a lot and increase the 2 week injuries. Be interesting to see how this turns out.

Off-the ball injuries are really huge if you play all your franchise games like I do. If implemented correctly, then backup offensive linemen will be relevant again. That was my biggest complaint about franchise because it really gave human players an unfair advantage on the field and in drafting.

A lot of the progression adjustments and draft logic also sound good -- small tweaks but things that I think will help give franchise some legs. Last year was the first Madden in years where I played for more than one season, so I am looking forward to see if M18 moves the game forward a bit more.

[Danimal]

A lot of the progression adjustments and draft logic also sound good -- small tweaks but things that I think will help give franchise some legs. Last year was the first Madden in years where I played for more than one season, so I am looking forward to see if M18 moves the game forward a bit more.

Yes I'm in the same boat, I mainly play solo franchise. I was probably a little too harsh but like I told Terry in private I'd like to get a challenge from the game playing the AI or what is the point of playing.

I think the list of franchise features is more a list of fixes but this mode gets the least priority so you take what you can get. I really believe if they could get rid of this mode they would.

[MizzouRah]

With NHL 18 appearing to look and play the same as 17, I'm not sure I'm even going to get it until it goes on sale at some point unless you guys see AI improvement on the ice.

That being said, I preordered Madden 18 with some Dell cash and I'm really looking forward to simulation mode. Hopefully it plays well for the solo player and keeps me engrossed.

Thinking I'm going to take over the 49ers so I can do everything I can to beat the Rams each year.

[Danimal]

Not going to start a new thread but this showed up on Steam today and the play by play guy is the guy from NFL 2K football

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55475 ... ball_2017/

[Danimal]

EA Access is live, I'm at work so can'r download it

[TCrouch]

Yep, it activated instantly for me. I'll give it a go in about an hour here.

[Danimal]

There isn't a way to start an EA Access download remotely right?

[TCrouch]

Don't know. Mine was downloaded when I pre-purchased, so all I did was "Trial Available" and it launched immediately.

[Danimal]

Post some clips, we both know you're not working today

[sportdan30]

Not going to start a new thread but this showed up on Steam today and the play by play guy is the guy from NFL 2K football

http://store.steampowered.com/app/55475 ... ball_2017/

I've been following the progress of this game on Youtube since last year and they've made significant progress. That said, they have a LONG way to go for it to be a respectable playing game. It was a nice get for them to have Dan Stevens do the play by play, but it's a fairly big downgrade compared to his commentary on NFL 2K.

[Danimal]

I've been following the progress of this game on Youtube since last year and they've made significant progress. That said, they have a LONG way to go for it to be a respectable playing game. It was a nice get for them to have Dan Stevens do the play by play, but it's a fairly big downgrade compared to his commentary on NFL 2K.

I saw the videos and I'm not expecting Madden graphics or controls but it is $20, has a coach mode, fully customization and what appears to be a better franchise than Madden so I'll give it a shot.

[Danimal]

I was able to start the install from the web by going here https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/stor...8/BS36XT3Z5ZKL

[10spro]

I was able to start the install from the web by going here https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/stor...8/BS36XT3Z5ZKL

Can you try again? It says page not available...

[Danimal]

Wow it is gone but it didn't work for me anyway. I had to come home and start install manually

[sportdan30]

I played a couple games last night so I didn't get a lot of time with it. To me, it feels like Madden 17.5 with enhanced lighting. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I wasn't overly enthusiastic about what I experienced.

- The running back CPU does indeed still juke when in the open field and doesn't seem to take the best route. Looks bad and surprised that hasn't been fixed.

- 95 percent of the time, the CPU QB stays in the pocket way too long when pressured and takes an easy sack. To me this is the biggest issue with the game right now.

- Same decent commentary and often times the color commentary continues on with his thoughts when the next play has already been run. It's still better than any commentary they've had previously. And some of the player specific lines are really cool.

- I've never been a fan of Madden's presentation. It's not terrible, but the splicing and quick cut scenes could be more seamless. Also, seeing 20 guys run out in the beginning looks weird when in reality, it should be 50 something players running out. That's more of an irritant for me.

- I can seemingly still complete the slant play 95 percent of the time where the WR runs just past the line of scrimmage over the middle. Maybe it's not called a slant play?

- Line play looks to be improved. I guess the Chiefs don't have that strong of a line because I was being constantly pressured.

- Running feels very good and being able to get skinny through the line is nice.

- Still seeing quite a few instances of clipping after the play with players limbs going through other players.

- The hit sounds still don't seem to have that oomph! You can hardly hear the tackling which bothers me, but maybe I'm alone in thinking that.

- Player animations are better, but I think it'd be nice to maybe hear more audio of their emotion after a sack, a touchdown, making a big stop, etc.. Just looks a little funny when they are just mouthing things.

- WR and CB interaction looks better than it ever has. I think that started with last year's game.

- I love the new Play Now feature. I played using the Chiefs and it immediately took me in to the second preseason game against Bengals. I had the opportunity to continue with the season right after the game.

I didn't have a chance to try the new story mode, but from what I understand it's pretty nice.

All in all, I'll definitely use up my 10 hours of play and then decide if it's worth a purchase. With Everybody's Golf, PES 2018, and NBA 2K18 soon to be released, I'm not sure I'll have time to play all these titles.

[TCrouch]

- 95 percent of the time, the CPU QB stays in the pocket way too long when pressured and takes an easy sack. To me this is the biggest issue with the game right now.

- I can seemingly still complete the slant play 95 percent of the time where the WR runs just past the line of scrimmage over the middle. Maybe it's not called a slant play?

I only played 1 full game with Oakland, but I saw the QB get flushed from the pocket probably 10 times, so I wonder if it has to do with ratings and what the QB determines to be the greatest threat. Apparently, Khalil Mack is a pretty big one:

http://xboxclips.com/Rockjaw+McGraw/af0 ... 567d6af24e

And by the slant, if you mean the horizontal route, that should be a drag. They SHOULD be easy to complete 95% of the time, but what the defense should not do is allow you to turn up field and gain big yards after catch. And if you can wait until they cross the entire field and throw it outside the opposite numbers to gain the edge on the defense, that's a problem. I haven't seen that yet, because the pocket breaks down way too quickly in my whole 1 game of experience.

[Danimal]

By time I went to bed the only thing I could play was the play now Falcons vs Pats. Played twice, 2 very different games. I feel like they altered the camera angle a little on the one level back from zoom.

CPU RB are hard to tackle they juke the s*** out of me. I didn't see any bad jukes but I still feel like there are way more juke moves in Madden then you see on Sunday.

Line pressure was so so, different in game 2 then 1. Ryan would roll out of the pocket but Brady didn't move. I think the big issue here is even though Ryan rolled out and had plenty of green he wouldn't cross the LOS so eventually ended up being sacked or throwing it away. At one point he had 20 yards of open space in front of him. I agree with Dan this is the biggest issue you see it again and again in every video.

Saw 1 penalty in game 1, about 6 in game 2 but 99% were blocks in the back and those were on runs where the RB was shedding tackles. I think that penalty slider will need to be bumped down, never thought I would say that.

I'll likely never use target passing too hard for my reflexes. Every time I tried to use it I would move the target liked 20 yards out of position. I like being able to reassign the priority receiver.

I really don't understand what id the mike is doing as a game mechanic but I didn't get the "Whats new in Madden" thing yet but all I seemed to do was hit A to ID the mike and then hit A again.

I saw zero injuries in 2 games, maybe because the game wasn't fully donwloaded yet but tell me the last NFL game you watched where someone didn't get dinged up.

For the first time ever I could really feel the difference in player speed. They say this every year but I finally think they got it down.

Presentation was exact same as last year to me, I didn't notice anything new.

Game looked much better on my XB1S then on my regular Xbox. Likely has to do with the TV but it was night and day.

Finally I didn't get to try and individual audibles, I never feel like I have enough time so I'll need to practice those.

[pk500]

I played Bills vs. Eagles game that's taking place this weekend in Week 2 of preseason. Initial impressions from a longtime but casual Madden player:

-- I agree with Sportdan. From my perspective, this feels like Madden 17.5. Last year's game was very solid, and this year feels like a minor evolution, not a revolution.

-- The Frostbite engine has improved the lighting quite a bit. But I didn't notice much of any other change to the graphics.

-- The human-controlled pass rush has been toned down, which is good. Fewer sacks by me.

-- The running game is better for both human and CPU-controlled teams. Saw more long runs, bigger holes, etc. Running was too stingy last year.

-- I LOVED how the Bills' and Eagles' backups automatically started the second half in this preseason game. Cool touch.

-- Not sure if I like the closer default camera angle. Like Dan noted, the default definitely has changed.

-- I think Madden may have reached the saturation point with pre-snap adjustments. Yes, football is an intricate game. But you really need to know all of the commands by rote to have any chance to make substantial adjustments before the play clock expires or the CPU snaps the ball. I understand EA is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation here. Purists and hardcore players will decry the lack of realism without these adjustments being available, but it is pretty overwhelming for more casual players who aren't pigskin savants.

-- I'm a bit concerned by dropped passes by CPU-controlled players on the human players. Granted, the Bills' receiving corps is weak, but I saw far too many drops on receptions not dislodged by big hits. This is a classic EA overreaction that we see in its sports games every year. Receivers caught far too many balls in Madden 17, so EA appears to have swung the pendulum completely in the other direction instead of finding a happy medium.

-- I had about five Bills' players get hurt in a game with six-minute quarters. Not sure if that's an aberration or another classic EA overreaction.

-- One penalty in a full game with six-minute quarters. Given EA are servants to realism with pre-snap adjustments, could they at least try to get penalties right one of these years?

The demo feels solid. But I can't say I'm stoked out of my brains to get Madden 18. I'll buy it, probably on release day. It's the only sports game that me and both of my sons play regularly. But this feels like a spit-and-polish update for $60.

[Danimal]

I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you but you, me and everyone else overreact to one or two games. I feel most people go into Madden now looking for what is wrong then what is right, myself included.

-- I'm a bit concerned by dropped passes by CPU-controlled players on the human players. Granted, the Bills' receiving corps is weak, but I saw far too many drops on receptions not dislodged by big hits. This is a classic EA overreaction that we see in its sports games every year. Receivers caught far too many balls in Madden 17, so EA appears to have swung the pendulum completely in the other direction instead of finding a happy medium.

Now see I played 2 games and saw one out right drop, the rest were good plays by the D or good hits. I saw Brady miss 4 or 5 throws. Not drops, but over throws, under throws etc.

-- I had about five Bills' players get hurt in a game with six-minute quarters. Not sure if that's an aberration or another classic EA overreaction.

[/quote][/quote]
Again I saw nobody but you're more in line with a real game. Think about an NFL game and the amount of guys who get dinged. Now if all 6 injuries were big injuries like season enders or weeks that is one thing but generally the sim crowd is so far happy with injuries.

-- One penalty in a full game with six-minute quarters. Given EA are servants to realism with pre-snap adjustments, could they at least try to get penalties right one of these years?[/quoted]

As noted above, this is varying by player which too me is a good thing although 1 penalty is low.

[Wilk5280]

In my first game, Bills @ Broncos, I saw the following penalties while playing on simulation mode:
- Defensive PI on cpu
- Illegal touching (player ran out of bounds and was first to touch the ball) on cpu
- illegal block to back on a PR against cpu
- pass by QB passed the line of scrimmage cpu
- defensive offside me and cpu
- false starts