I'm sorry, but Jrod is absolutely right. The passing game in Madden is borderline broken as a result of the DB AI design decisions. Go into the replays and watch how defenders respond with the ball in the air. They consistently-and I mean like on every play-break away from their coverage responsibilities and attack the ball even when they have their back to the action. Balls get intercepted or knocked loose that no defender would ever, ever be able to get to. A perfect example- I threw a pass to Heath Miller, who was sitting in a hole in the zone. Ray Lewis is five yards away and facing in the other direction, yet he is able to run backwards, spin and jar the ball loose in the one second it took for the pass to get in. It was a completely impossible play, but it happens in Madden all the time. It's how the defensive AI works. In APF, if a defender is facing the quarterback when the ball is thrown, he'll break on it; if he's not looking at the quarterback, he won't. But Madden uses cheap AI and players react to the ball regardless of their position, their facing or anything else. It's not just an aesthetic issue, either. You can't use route combinations that would work in real life because in Madden, the defenders are able to cover multiple routes at once thanks to the eyes in the back of their head.tjung0831 wrote:What pisses you off is that it says "EA Sports" on the cover. This is the finest video football game ever made...it blows 2K5 out of the water and it blows APF out of the water.JRod wrote:Here's what pisses my off about Madden that makes the whole game, the AI, and the experience questionable. What's really going on underneath the hood when you see the following.
The play I call has Nate Wayne running a fly down the left side of the field. The 4th WR is running a slant to pull the Safety off of the play. As the plays develops everything is going like planned. I lob the ball to Wayne who's in a one-on-one situation. As the ball gets near the Wayne, the DB who has his back to the play stays with his back to the play but circles backward to get in front of the WR. He jumps for the INT but jetpacks right in front of wayne to get the INT. Wayne just falls on his ass in the missed catch animation.
What the hell is that. I don't understand how Madden gets away with s*** like that. I don't understand who it's acceptable for the AI to always jump the the play or route even though I just hiked the ball. You know it's like the producers just gave up on creating a real football game and said, we are just going to put cheese to counteract the user cheese. No one will care because we have the NFL license.
On comeback routes against man coverage, if you throw the ball before the receiver makes his break, so both receiver and defender are running upfield with their backs to the ball-the defender will turn and break on it, while the receiver won't, even though the receiver is supposed to know the route and the defender isn't. I've had plays where on a jump ball the corner jumped straight up in the air, missed the ball, but then magically zoomed forward to knock it out of the hands of the defender. Again, the corner starts off by jumping straight up in the air, misses the ball, and then, at the apex of his jump, gravitates two or three yards upfield to make a play on a ball he missed. This stuff happens over and over. The end stats may come out okay, but it's very defintely a case of designing for effect rather than for cause.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like about this Madden. It's by far the best of the next-gen versions, and there are some things that it does really well. But the passing game is not one of them, and that's a pretty big deal.
You still digging it db?
