Madden 25?

[Danimal]

BTW I would like to try online play in the PS4 if anyone wants to give it a go.

[TCrouch]

Sure, I will. Won't be for a few hours, but I'll give it a whirl.

[Sudz]

Any way to get a custom draft class loaded in on the Xbone?

[greggsand]

How's 'coach mode'? Could someone who never plays games (like my Dad) be able to play along?

[Diablo25]

How's 'coach mode'? Could someone who never plays games (like my Dad) be able to play along?

I haven't tried it yet. I want to try the 'Coach Glass' mode using the Smart Glass app. I'm it sure if it's in the game yet.

[Danimal]

Sure, I will. Won't be for a few hours, but I'll give it a whirl.

Sorry I was at the BGG Con for a week, but would still like to try at some point. I might try setting up my XB1 tonight

[TCrouch]

How's 'coach mode'? Could someone who never plays games (like my Dad) be able to play along?

Yes, you just call plays and watch the CPU execute. If you have the camera on broadcast and turn off the names under the players, it's an awful lot like watching Sunday broadcasts where you happen to have a voice in the outcome. They play much smarter ball now. Calling plays with Brady or Manning at QB is vastly different than calling plays with Terrelle Pryor executing them, let me tell you.

[dbdynsty25]

The madden next gen warts are starting to show. I've yet to challenge a play successfully even though after watching the replay proves the challenge is legit. Getting two feet down clearly isn't required by the AI.

[TCrouch]

I have overturned almost every one of them, so that's odd.

What I HAVE seen on last gen and this gen is that wherever the feet are positioned, that's what counts as 2 feet down. In every case I've ever seen fail, the "previous" step is the one that counted, like the ball wasn't quite "caught" when viewing the replay, but I've learned to figure out the timing of when the game considers the ball caught. When you start to see the weird animations where the ball changes directions to align with their hands, it's caught. And then, the foot that's planted on the ground counts as 1 step.

That's where you have the situations where it looks like they get 1 foot down and then cavalierly step out of bounds with the second...because going by normal vision, the first step you see is actually the one the game is calculating as the second.

But I've challenged 4 or 5 'out of bounds' catches in M25 on PS4/XB1 and won them. So it's not 100% bogus. You just have to learn to read their funky display of a catch and learn to interpret it.

It's not new to next gen, though. Happened plenty on the last few versions on the 360, too

[dbdynsty25]

I've had four sideline catches that WERE NOT catches, upheld. It cost me a game last night, which is the only reason I care so much. I mean, their Ignite engine is supposed to show more sideline awareness, yada yada...bullshit. I've seen more instances of, like you said, cavalierly just stepping out of bounds after one foot comes down than I ever remember in the 360 version. So that's really what stood out to me. It's hard to notice the ball jarring movement you speak of in real time...so basically I have zero idea of when the computer actually thinks the receiver caught the ball. I guess I'll have to look a lot closer.

[TCrouch]

You can go into replay and look in slow-mo. Then challenge.

They did away with that crap from years ago where you couldn't challenge once you replayed.

[dbdynsty25]

You can go into replay and look in slow-mo. Then challenge.

They did away with that crap from years ago where you couldn't challenge once you replayed.

Okay cool. Will do that. I looked at the two plays last night in slow mo after I challenged and it wasn't even close. I doubt the ball catch timing mattered either because the one I lost on, was a dude jumping and spreading his legs in the air and only came down with one. So there is no way that was just a timing thing. But we'll see.

[TCrouch]

That's sorta what I mean by the foot position thing. It's like their animations don't care if the feet are 6 inches off the ground--the system thinks they're in bounds, so it's a catch. It was actually exactly the same way on 360, so the Ignite doesn't factor in at all. I've just gotten used to it, I guess. I can usually spot the catches that were BS pretty quickly and win those, but I'll still get caught from time to time.

[Danimal]

This game is far from perfect but I find it a lot more challenging on next gen. I'm 3-4 in a Bears franchise. The last time I lost 4 games to the cpu in Madden was never. I still see stupid s*** and frankly I still think NCAA is a better game. The completion percentages of the cpu is ridiculous, most games like 70% and this is with the slider at 20. I still see too many times where only the WR or DB will go up for the jump ball instead of both.

However there is finally something to build on here, whether they are capable of doing it... I don't know.

[bulls23]

I'm on 360 but I just had to tell you guys. I had the CPU called for OPI in my last game

[wco81]

Saw some of the old Madden behaviors after playing some online games.

One guy had a good pitch play with an unbalanced line. You could see it coming. Once I tried the L2 and right on the right stick, to defend the run to the right. So it makes the whole defense go to the right, even the CB on the weak side, leaving the WR wide open. I can see flowing all the LBs except the weak side one and maybe one of the safeties but the CBs too?

Anyways, on those pitches there are a lot of animations of defenders being pulled into blocks, instead of getting to the outside to cut off the corner. It's not like the old Madden blocking animation where they're wedged against each other but rather, the defenders being pushed from the back by the blockers. So it's not specifically suction blocking but more like illegal blocks in the back.

You see that as well on some screen passes too, though the other thing is that the pulling OL seem to always pancake and get their blocks.


The interceptions seem pretty frequent, especially the underneath ones. Not leaping LBs but a trailing LB or a DB, being more than a couple of yards underneath, able to get to the ball. Sometimes, pushing up on the left stick leads him better. But for the life of me, I can't throw a corner route over the underneath coverage, even when my WRs are like 5 yards ahead. I try pushing up and left on the left stick as I pass but not only won't the pass lead the WR, often the pass falls well short, by like 5-10 yards.

Best way to get that to work is to try to roll out to that side, rather than throw from the pocket. That's what people also try to do on the 9-route to the outside.

[bulls23]

Wow, had another OPI call on AI this week, wonder what is going on? My OPI setting is 84, while DPI is 82. Any you cats seeing PI called?

[TCrouch]

Yep, I've seen a dozen PI calls or so.

[Leebo33]

I had my first ever Madden 25 "illegal touching" call the other night.

[dbdynsty25]

I had my first ever Madden 25 "illegal touching" call the other night.

Sandusky got an NFL gig?

[TCrouch]

Nice. And yeah, I saw one of those, too. I was livid when the catch was made, because I clearly saw the receiver get bumped out of bounds.

Then I saw the flag and went "ok, that's cool. And new".

On a related note, Steve from OS and myself are playing in a QB-only CCM. I'm playing for Houston and he's the Vikings, and I did what I thought was impossible in a game of Madden last night.

I threw TEN INTERCEPTIONS.

How the hell that's even possible is beyond me. I'll say it involved bottles of Redd's Apple Ale and some Fireball whiskey, but still--ten picks is insane. I'm changing my Gamertag to Ten Pick Terry.

I did it on the road against the Ravens, and lost 51-7. How the coaching staff would leave me in after the 4th or the 5th is another question. I called Gameflow the entire game, and even when I switched to "Run", it was still calling Curls. How is that a run? I've never in my life felt the Madden screw before, as I've always been able to compensate and rebound a bit. But holy crap...you score 7 points and throw 10 picks? And have 7 or 8 sacks, many of which were the nano-variety. Suggs just annihilated my line, racking up 4 by himself.

I have started this season 0-3 and my reward is now facing the Seattle Seahawks, staring at an 0-4 opening to my rookie year. Steve, meanwhile, is playing about the same as I am (but ten picks is a dubious record to hold), but sits at 4-0.

What a f*cking embarrassment I am. I will remember that game for years. Every throw was picked, and in the odd occassion where I DID complete one, I had a holding call. I now have 23 penalties in 3 games, mostly of the holding and clipping variety. Some false starts in there.

Freaking Texans.

[wco81]

What is the Connected Franchise? You get to be player, coach or owner?

I looked through "search for league" and none of them had a team I wanted so I created my own but I just seem to be playing a season mode against the CPU.

Can you play these online franchises against human opponents or is it about player/team/franchise progression so you're doing boring (to me) things like training, setting hotdog prices and the like, in between playing against the CPU? And other humans would be doing the same, playing games against the CPU if they're in your "league?"

There was a sports game that let you play your franchise mode games against actual human opponents some of the time, and CPU when human opponents weren't available?


First game I played in this mode, it thankfully let me sim to the end (tho the option was something like "sim to my next turn" but it completed the whole game after I had controlled just the first series) but then the next game, I had to pretty much play all the way through.

[TCrouch]

CCM is where you can be anything. If you join a CCM as an owner, you set the hot dog prices. If you join one as a coach, you can implement your own strategy/playbook and build the team to your liking. If you join as a player, you only play your player (you can still call plays, but I choose to play that mode in Gameflow, personally). When you're not on the field, it fast-sims the game.

Only problem is accelerated clock has never been accounted for in that mode, so you have to do some messing around to finding a balance that gives you the proper number of plays. I've found either 6 or 7 minutes with non-accelerated clock as a player get me around 110 to 130 plays a game. That works for me.

When you play in a CCM, you play a human if it's a human team, or the CPU if it's not. When you're done for the week, you set yourself to "ready". When everybody's ready, the week advances itself. Otherwise, the commissioner can force advance it.

So Steve and I had to play each other in week 1 of the preseason (we didn't know that going in). We are quarterbacks only, so when Steve was playing, I was just watching my defense in broadcast cam. When I played, he watched with no control over the outcome. Then when we were both benched in the 2nd quarter, we both watched our CPU teams duke it out.

Bottom line, it's whatever you want. Owner mode, coach mode, player mode--play full games (we had a full 15 minutes coach CCM going too, but those games take an hour, whereas the player mode ones take 20-30 minutes), fast sim portions, do whatever. Play humans when the schedule dictates, play CPU if not. The draft is joined by all, full offseason, etc.

This has been the norm for the past few seasons, really. If you go to the 'DSP Online Leagues' forum instead of this board, you'll see we've had a Madden CCM running for each version for the past few years--until this year, for some reason.

[wco81]

Thanks for the rundown.

[Danimal]

I have my cpu QB ACC at 0, yes at f***in zero.

Sam Bradford last night started 20 for 20, ended up 28-34 and every one of those was a drop. Not one off target throw.

I'm still enjoying the game but it's amazing to me that some of this stuff still doesn't work. I have yet to see any PI calls either.