RGIII is dangerous running the ball, but only because he is a rare talent.

One of the Madden franchises' most glaring issues in past versions of the game has been with its offensive and defensive line interaction.

The gamer never got a realistic representation of an incredibly important part of football in the line play. We ended up seeing the same two or three animations that didn’t portray any kind of realism.

Madden 25 on next generation systems is touting a new “War in the Trenches” feature which promises to not only give overhauled offensive/defensive line play, but more importantly, it promises to change the way we play the game.

EA Sports’ website has the complete details on the feature, but for those who don’t know, War in the Trenches is Madden’s way of displaying more physical line play and creating a “pocket” for the quarterback.

The quarterback’s pocket is one of the more fundamental areas of football that Madden has neglected to address, so it’s nice to see something finally done to put a more realistic pocket within the game.

It’s a long overdue move, and one that definitely has the potential to significantly improve the game. There's a catch to this leap forwards though.

Could a realistic pocket actually frustrate people and make them more mad than happy?

The answer comes down to which side of the fence the gamer falls on.

Let's face it, you shouldn't be able to rush for 100 yards with Eli Manning ever.

Simulation Gamer

Operation Sports has an amazing sports gaming community that’s significantly based around playing games in a realistic manner.

In other words, a lot of OS'ers like games that create an accurate simulation of the sport.

Something that Madden hasn’t done too good of a job of in recent years.

Not all of us are lucky enough to play in the NFL so we can only guess on certain aspects of the game, but let’s take a shot at some quarterback play based on what we watch every Sunday.

Passing plays start with the quarterback lining up behind or under the center and eventually receiving the ball. From there, it’s a race to see if the quarterback can get the ball out of his hand, or if the defensive line can get to him first. As the quarterback makes his drop and looks for his receivers, his offensive line does their best to create enough time for him to get rid of the ball.

They do this by creating a pocket.

The offensive tackles do their best to push the defensive ends outside and make them take a longer route to the quarterback. The offensive guards then drop back and attempt to hold their position while slowly pushing their man to the outside as well. This is all done so that the quarterback can step into the pocket that his offensive line just created and to create an extra half-second of time to deliver a strike.

Now, think back to your time with Madden. Have you ever been forced to step up in the pocket because it is what was going to be best for your play?

This is just a guess, but most of you probably said no. Instead, the best way to buy time in year’s past has been to roll out of the pocket and try to create as much separation as possible from anything taking place on the line.

Playing roll out of the pocket football on 80 percent of passing plays is about as far from simulation football as it gets.

Madden’s new and improved line play will probably take a little time to get used to, but the majority of simulation gamers will most likely love it if it’s executed properly.

It will fundamentally change the way that people play the game. It’s a little early to say for sure, but it might even create some kind of balance between fast quarterbacks and slow pocket passers.

More balance is always welcome.

Simulation gamers aren’t going to be turned off by a more realistic offensive and defensive line that creates a pocket. It’s another step closer to making Madden play a better game of football that represents what we might see in the actual NFL.

The better line interaction will likely lead to a more fun game on defense.

The Rest

You always hear the word “accessibility” in the gaming world.

Companies like to make their games more user-friendly by making certain features easier to use. Hardcore gamers can’t stand this because it usually leads to less depth, but it is definitely a smart and effective way of gaining a new audience.

There was some heavy criticism about always having to roll out of the pocket in previous Madden games, but not many people can say that doing so was never fun. I’ve had some of my best Madden plays off of incredible rollouts and making things happen.

More important than being fun, though, was that it was easy.

If Madden was trying to be accessible, then they were doing a great job because successfully rolling out of the pocket wasn’t too hard to do.

Creating a new type of interaction on the line could hurt the game’s accessibility, as well as turn off people who already play Madden, but don’t really care about complete realism.

It’s important to note that the verdict is still out on how the new line play feels. There’s a chance that it could be refreshingly easy to step into the pocket and deliver darts all over the field. With that said, the mere act of changing one’s habits of continually rolling out could prove to be too much for some gamers.

It looks like people who continually escape the pocket will run into failure after failure, and there might be a group of people who won’t do anything but stay with their old habits.

They’re probably not going to care for Madden too much after that.

The line play will see serious improvements in next-gen, but will people care?

The Verdict

Only time will tell on this one.

There will definitely be a group of people who feel like a realstic pocket revolutionizes the game and can’t wait to see where Madden goes from here.

There will also be a group of people who want to go back to the old way of playing because they feel like it was more fun.

Madden is cutting it awfully close when it comes to introducing new features. The more years the game is played without something like War in the Trenches, the longer people get used to playing the game a certain way.

Many people have been playing Madden by scrambling with their quarterbacks for years now.

The appeal of a new pocket will only be strong to those who are seeking change or a more realistic game of football.

Everybody else is a wildcard.

Madden controls its own fate by being in charge of making its newer features great. It’ll be interesting to see if the public responds in a positive or negative way based on what Madden 25 on next-gen systems has done.