We are deep in the heart of summertime, which means that you are either really excited about baseball or completely over it at this point.

It also means its time to start getting serious about football season with the first NFL pre-season game tonight with the Giants and Bills squaring off in the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

The first pre-season game brings a lot of good back to the world, with all 32 teams still in contention for the playoffs and the Super Bowl — yes even you Browns and Lions fans. There is hope, no matter how small it may seem.

The Hall of Fame game also brings another annual tradition to our doorstep, the release of Madden NFL 15 is now only a few weeks away. We have several reasons to be excited about this year’s game, with better presentation and tons of work done on the gameplay. It always seems like Madden is under a deeper microscope each year, and for all intents and purposes it delivers a solid but flawed game of football each season.

I’ve said it several times over the past few years, you know what you are getting with Madden at this point. EA’s football brand has been going in a clear direction for a few years now, and the style and approach are consistent and clear. Hoping for a magical change of formula is unrealistic at this point.

What we have with Madden is a game which approaches the game of football from a standpoint that’s neither sim or arcade — it’s like it’s own vision of the sport that mimics real-life football but also throws its own twists in.

However, even within this vision of Madden there are a few things that I’m looking for out of this year — and a few things I’m especially excited about of the announced features thus far:

    1.    The improved DL play — This has been an addition which has long been needed to make defense more fun. It remains to be seen if it’s actually more fun or not, but giving people more to do than just pursue the ballcarrier almost certainly will mean a more active and alive experience.
    2.    The Tuned QB Accuracies — From early videos, I’m not sure how much QB accuracy has been tuned, but sliders and higher difficulties might be where the real changes are in this year’s game. However, we’ve been needing more differentiation between elite and average QBs for awhile — and more overthrows and misses are sorely needed in this game.
    3.    The Improved Coverages — This is another part of the passing game which has always needed immense help. Players have consistently found themselves out of position and slow to react to the ball. From what I’ve seen in gameplay videos there is some improvement, but you see the promises of improved coverage each year. What has me a little more optimistic is that there is some focus on defense and the passing game this year, which could give defenders a bit more oomph.
    4.    New Tackling Mechanic — The tackling mechanic is getting a lot of noise and hype this year out of camp EA, but I’m more interested in how it might change the game. Will the hard tackles de-balance the gameplay? Will there be a reason to choose a ‘safe’ wrap up over a big hit? Will this be cheesy? Will it not and actually make tackling on defense a fun mini-game? These are all questions and possibilities I can’t wait to explore.
    5.    The NFL Films Presentation — From what I’ve seen, this looks to be a small but definite step up for the franchise. The halftime show is cool enough, and if elements of this presentation make it into connected franchise that’ll be even better. Using the NFL Network and NFL films as the backdrop to presentation is a good call. This is an area of the game which has needed immense technical help and know how for a couple of years, the small changes of eliminating pre-rendered cut scenes and improving camera angles look to be helping quite a bit.

The Early Outlook

Madden has a lot going for it in the pre-release hype cycle. With a few weeks remaining until release, we’re still waiting on more word on Connected Franchise, online modes, and more. This year’s game has a chance to be very well received, but there are pitfalls and definite balance issues which can and will come into play if certain elements of the gameplay are not executed properly.

Needless to say, I can’t wait for August 26.