Madden 08 Hands On

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:29 am

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.

AJColossal · Post by **AJColossal** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:40 am

As others have said, there's a lot to like here. First Madden in a while that just feels "right" in terms of gameplay. I'll throw in a few random thoughts:

*Tackling, player movement and motion, animations- everything just feels natural and smooth to me. Probably has a lot to do with the upgrade to 60 fps.

*As others have said, kickoff and punt returns feel more balanced. You feel like a good returrner can do some damage. Rarely got that feeling in other Maddens.

*CPU passing AI- Probably the biggest improvement in the game to me. I'm not seeing the AI routinely pass 10 for 30. Carson Palmer played very true to self, completing 60% of his passes, making really good reads. In old Maddens, you'd have to make your D brain dead with sliders to get the AI to complete passes over 50%

*Easier to sack the QB, because he's willing to take a sack. Before, the AI would magically toss the ball off nearly everytime before the pass rush got there.

* I like the passing game overall. You force the ball, it'll probably get picked, which is how it should be. I have seen instances where a linebacker will almost impossibly pick off a bullet 10 yards away from the QB, but for the most part when I throw a pick, I knew it was my fault.

*AI thrown interceptions-I'm interested to read what others have said about this. It's interesting how some have seen too many and some say it's OK.

In my experiences, playing 6 min. quarters, (All-Pro default) Matt Leinhart threw 4 against me (Eagles). Then I played against the Bengals and Palmer threw 2 in his first two series. I switched the slider to 0, and played a full game, where he only ended up wih 2 for the whole game. My gut reaction is to just keep the slider at 0.

-Overall, very good first impressions. Can't wait to see more.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:50 am

JRod, you really lobbed the ball and the CB just jumped the pass?

Who was the CB?

Was he a weapon?

brendanrfoley · Post by **brendanrfoley** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:50 am

Damn it. Y'all are making it hard to hold off on a 360 purchase.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:03 pm

It definitly has that "one more game" feeling so far. Am I the only one who is having trouble on "Pro"?

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:41 pm

wco81 wrote:JRod, you really lobbed the ball and the CB just jumped the pass?

Who was the CB?

Was he a weapon?

I think it was NO it was the first game of the real season. So whoever is the 2nd CB for them. Even if he was a weapon, not even Champ Bailey can do that.

Stuff like that pisses me off. Some ints are ok. For the CPU their biggest problem is throwing away from weapons. If I Champ Bailey and the CPU already threw a pick to Bailey, we keep going back to that side of the field?

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:48 pm

So stop playing the game.

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:55 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:So stop playing the game.

LOL...

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:59 pm

Dave wrote:
Danimal wrote:I also wanted to note I am not seeing any fumble issues everyone is reporting. I also made some slight slider tweaks and just had a game with 0 INT's.
Which ones did you adjust?

I'd like to know that too.

Also, usa today piles-on the ps3 version:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200708 ... yC98kjtBAF

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:01 pm

If that was in English, maybe I could understand the problem. Right now, I've got a lobbed pass being picked off by a defender. I think the defender was in front of the receiver, then managed to shift and get in between the receiver and the ball for the pick. Is that right?

bkrich83 · Post by **bkrich83** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:08 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:So stop playing the game.

LOL.

That DB kid is great.

(Been waiting for a while to use that. )

Metman24 · Post by **Metman24** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:09 pm

I got the game yesterday, and I enjoyed what little I saw of it. But I don't get why there's no practice mode in Franchise. It's jsut dumb to have a practice mode for your Quick Play, or Created Teams in Exibition, but not in a Franchise where your roster is going to change throughout the duration of the mode.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:10 pm

Is there a way to check for roster updates? I tried poking around the menus and looking online and couldn't find it. EA is usually pretty good about having an update near launch.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:19 pm

greggsand wrote:
Dave wrote:
Danimal wrote:I also wanted to note I am not seeing any fumble issues everyone is reporting. I also made some slight slider tweaks and just had a game with 0 INT's.
Which ones did you adjust?
I'd like to know that too.

Also, usa today piles-on the ps3 version:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200708 ... yC98kjtBAF

Deservedly so. In a perfect world, EA would go back and fix the PS3 version so it runs at 60fps. No one can convince me that the gameplay is even running at 30fps. NCAA 08 on the PS3 ran much smoother than Madden.

Wco, have you had a chance to play the PS3 version yet? I'm curious what your thoughts are.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:40 pm

Brando70 wrote:Is there a way to check for roster updates? I tried poking around the menus and looking online and couldn't find it. EA is usually pretty good about having an update near launch.

If you go online for a game it'll prompt you to have the latest update. You don't need to play the game though.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:57 pm

I'm just shocked it took until Tuesday night to be told we'll figure out the game sucks once we're enlightened.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:57 pm

bkrich83 wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote:So stop playing the game.
LOL.

That DB kid is great.

(Been waiting for a while to use that. )

Haha...yeah, it's been a long time. But certainly fitting.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:36 pm

I'm just shocked it took until Tuesday night to be told we'll figure out the game sucks once we're enlightened.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:24 pm

10spro wrote:
Brando70 wrote:Is there a way to check for roster updates? I tried poking around the menus and looking online and couldn't find it. EA is usually pretty good about having an update near launch.
If you go online for a game it'll prompt you to have the latest update. You don't need to play the game though.

i did that yesterday (360) and wasn't prompted to update - so I'm guessing there's no roster update at this point?

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:30 pm

I've kinda sorta found a money passing play that I keep falling back to in a jam. It's a little... unfortunate. Against the CPU anyway.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:33 pm

Slumberland wrote:I've kinda sorta found a money passing play that I keep falling back to in a jam. It's a little... unfortunate. Against the CPU anyway.

Is it one of the out patterns?...or one of the rb outlets?

Everytime I thought I had one with NCAA there would always come a time, when in a different coverage, that the AI would pick it or knock it down.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:36 pm

Should I mention it? I don't know what the etiquette is on stuff like that.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:45 pm

Slumberland wrote:Should I mention it? I don't know what the etiquette is on stuff like that.

I would say no. Don't mention it in this thread. If you want to in a new thread where you warn others in the title that's fine. That way if people enter the thread they do so at their own risk.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:49 pm

That's what I figured. Maybe in a couple days, if it holds up deeper into my franchise against different defenses.

tjung0831 · Post by **tjung0831** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:53 pm

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.

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.