Madden NFL 15: Online Impressions

Feature Article

Submitted on: 08/30/2014 by

As the world of video games hectically migrates towards online gaming as its main focus, the sports genre is no different. Playing head-to-head was once the acceptable norm, but oh how the landscape has changed over the last 5 years. Now sports gamers want and expect the full game experience online, and in many cases, even more.

With EA’s latest iteration of its NFL franchise, Madden 15, dropping this week, fans of the series are hoping that the polarizing developer has delivered just that - a full online experience.

Head-to-Head

For some, this mode is still the bread and butter of the online experience in Madden. They would rather not be bothered with connected franchises, draft classes, downloading sliders. Simply give them an opponent, a controller, and a decent internet connection. Good news for fans of this mode, it’s still there and solid as ever. The options are pretty vanilla, but that is exactly what one would expect. You can choose to play a random opponent, or pick a friend from, well, your friends list. Even though the options are bland, that doesn’t mean they are limited. Online fans will find the ability to choose the difficulty, quarter length, specific camera, and obviously their team and stadium of choice.

One can knock some of the choices EA Sports has made over the years in regards to this title, but the one constant has always been a solid ability to connect online, and run smoothly. This year is no different; as once you are connected, the game runs as smooth as it does offline. One of the biggest problems or gripes with H2H play has always been gameplay manipulation, or “cheesing” as some would define it. This year EA has decided to implement a slower process in hot routing in hopes of thwarting those who attempt to derail the fun by taking advantage of the games shortcomings. It is definitely a step in the right direction, but let’s be honest, those who want to “cheese” will always find a way to do it, and developers can only do so much to combat it.

Online Connected Franchise

For me (and many others) this is where the game starts to shine. Obviously in our review, Chris has talked about some of the issues that still plague the mode, but those aside, this mode it what gives the Madden 15 online a certain longevity. Most know what this game mode entails, and if I am being completely transparent, not a lot has changed in this mode. Once again the option to play online as an owner, coach, or player returns, and you can choose to play this mode solo, or with some of your best next-gen friends.

As a player you pick the team to play for, earn experience points to upgrade your player, but you only have control over that player. If you want to have the option to control both the offense and defense, make personnel decisions, or move you franchise to an entirely different locale, than coach or owner mode is the choice for you. As commissioner, you have the standard set of options to choose from, including maximum users in franchise, types of trades allowed, type of player progression, slider settings, and much more. If you played this mode last year than you will feel right at home, and while there have been some upgrades in the mode, including the new game-prep and coach upgrades, not a lot has changed. You can’t beat the option of gathering some friends and battling through the experience of an NFL season(s). I experienced no connectivity issues at all, and the set-up of the league is extremely seamless.

There have been serious issues with this mode, including user vs. user CFM games not counting. However, as of this writing it seems like those issues may be smoothed over somewhat. There are sporadic connectivity issues and desyncs, which could be for any number of reasons and they don't seem to be widespread enough at this point to say its a server or software issue.

Madden Ultimate Team

According to EA, this is the fastest growing mode in the game, and EA has made some changes that should make things a bit easier for fans of MUT. In Madden 15, they have upgraded the “best lineup” option to now include reserves, They have also decided to bring back “chemistry” for MUT, and include multiple options of both offense and defense to help the user put together the best team available.

Obviously Madden Ultimate Team does not require one to play online against other human opponents, but most fans of this mode choose to do so. Ultimate team puts you into a 10-game season, and includes an eight team playoff. The better you do, the better the rewards. Even if you’re not a fan of this mode, you have to admit that there is something exciting and addicting when it comes to opening that pack of cards.

If you are a fan of online play, than EA has put together a strong lineup of modes for you to enjoy. Other than then issues that Sony has been having with the PSN and ongoing maintenance, we experienced little to no hiccups when playing any of these modes online.

Final Thoughts

Despite some hiccups at launch, less than a week later and it seems like many of the issues are already being ironed out. It's unfortunate another sports game had problems at launch, but thankfully the issues didn't last too long. If you are looking to take Madden online, you will most likely (but not fully guaranteed) have a good experience.

Madden NFL 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 21 fightingirish595 @ 08/31/14 04:06 PM

my impressions of online are its pretty much still a cheese fest, not as easy to cheese as previous years but its still there. i wish they would actually take out the previous play thing, i never look at it but it sucks knowing the game just tells my opponet what im doing, instead of him figuring out what i like to do. i agree that a fair play option needs to be added. also corner routes are still money. i do like the fact that unranked games can be played on slow, its makes the games feel a little more real

# 22 gator3guy @ 08/31/14 05:16 PM

I've seen 1 punt in 6 games.

Connection has been pretty good so that's a plus at least.

# 23 friscob @ 08/31/14 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perezs07


	So if your running cover 2 zone I'm assuming it shows after each time you run it

Yep, your opponent will know exactly what you ran after each play is completed.

# 24 LBzrule @ 09/01/14 11:00 AM

Gorilla and it get worse. There are quite a few money run plays in this game. You are going to have to Madden it to stop these runs. Game always starts out feeling new, but then after a week online I realize the SAME TACTICS are still in play because they refuse to address the larger issues.

# 25 Gorilla Glass @ 09/01/14 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LBzrule


	Gorilla and it get worse. There are quite a few money run plays in this game. You are going to have to Madden it to stop these runs. Game always starts out feeling new, but then after a week online I realize the SAME TACTICS are still in play because they refuse to address the larger issues.

Yeah and that's unfortunate.

Probably why I have gone from playing 300+ games a year to just 15 last year.

It's either being ignored or the online issues can't be fixed.

# 26 Redskinsfan26 @ 09/01/14 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin McKoy


	Also from what i have noticed, it appears our good friend strong power has made its way back. Particularly out of twin pistols, but it is still really effective in regular balanced double tight end sets also. That is still the hardest run play to stop, i will come out in a under defense to decrease the bubbles in the formation, even spread my linebackers out, doesn't matter they still run you over with this play. Its almost making me want to hang up the cleats until next year.

Ran into two seperate users who just ran this play the entire game. You would think it would get boring for them, but I guess not. I felt helpless trying to stop it, felt like a matter of luck.

# 27 bodymore @ 09/01/14 04:13 PM

Just ran into a user who ran ace single back every play. When he didn't run it he threw it to the tight end on a corner route. He would throw it as soon as he broke to the corner. This was against the chiefs and Alex smith. I tried cover two, 3 and 4 and I also hot routed my lb in man coverage.

I also tried to shade outside, which doesn't work at all.

The only way I stopped it was manually taking my defender and covering the route. There should be some type of awareness where defenders should know if the same plays are being run over and over. I shouldn't have to control every player.

# 28 Demoncrom @ 09/02/14 07:53 PM

played it online last night and was underwhelmed. The git that I played against was focusing on bread and butter plays and waited until I picked my offense to let the pc help him choose his defense. Dude keep running power sweeps to great effect, even against a 4-6. I would not mind it much but the tackling was just off for some reason. Bigger fun still, dude would just run dime and then moved his D-End into zone coverage, yeah that was cool.

Still I kept it close and lost on a last minute hail mary with 4 of my defenders never bothering to jump and swat the ball. Amendola caught it even though he was the shortest dude covered by 4 players. Better still he muscled in for the TD. Amendola- power Slot receiver - yeah right. LOL

# 29 LBzrule @ 09/02/14 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big FN Deal


	Out of curiosity and for discussion sake, why do you think they program stuff other than football fundamentals? Is it easier to add "shortcuts", is Madden coding so tangled they can't add real fundamentals without starting from scratch, lack of talent by the engineers, something else entirely or some combination? Madden may not be so bad as long as one doesn't expect it to be anything other than Madden and that's cool but I wonder why hasn't the game moved beyond its' legacy by now. I agree that online H2H seems to expose the core of the game and there seems to be this constant that no matter what is added to improve the football in the game, it doesn't change that core. For example, no matter what anyone's football game preference, it's a fact that Madden, NFL Fever, NFL2k/APF and BackBreaker all provide a different core experience to playing a football video game, so with all the claims of trying to make Madden more like football, less like Madden I wonder why after all this time and new consoles, its' still so Madden.

I don't think they program it that way. I think the issue is the legacy code is still there. They are just adding stuff on top of it. I don't think they can rip all of the legacy code out or they will radically break the game, so they just add on top of it and do what they can with it. I think the code is old as dirt probably.

# 30 TTD71 @ 09/03/14 12:53 AM

The fact is that online H2H has devolved into about 500,000 wannabe Chip Kellys running a constant barrage of no-huddle same play offenses, 2-pt conversions for the hell of it and a bevy of onside kicks and strange defensive decisions.

Too many people still think the problem is "beating" these guys...its not, the "strategy" and gameplay style are depressingly familiar and all too easy to beat unless you are up against a very skilled user who has the timing and tricks down cold...the REAL problem is that online H2H resembles NFL football about as much as Arena Football does.

The other problem is that EA forces you to have to play it out against these guys and give them 45-60 minutes of your time to be forced into playing a game and playstyle that has no appeal to a lot of veteran players. I simply gave up on DNF% and just refuse to play these clowns unless I feel like teaching one of them a lesson...but I should not be forced to play their style with no recourse...SEPARATE SERVERS for freestyle and simulation would be ideal...and on the Sim server just record wins and losses and quits and abandon any semblance of a rating or ranking system...let the animals in the jungle scrap for the meaningless and give people who want a FOOTBALL experience a chance to avoid the rest of the foolishness...

Fair Play Rules would help, so too would more realistic stamina/fatigue effects and penalties for things like intentionally slamming your free roving FS into WRs to prevent routes from running correctly (actually palyed one guy whose "defense" consisted of taking the FS and attempting to play bumper cars with the TE and Slot WR the whole game and not once was called for PI)...

The game still has a fundamental problem - it allows stupidity to succeed and it has PROVEN that is unnecessary already....just look at the run game in M15 versus passing defenses (Dime / Dollar / Quarter) - if you are playing someone who believes these are the "go to" defenses to stop the run, audible to a HB dive or slam and you will average a nice 6-8 ypc and force them to either be gashed down the field or stop calling ignorant defenses like that against a 1WR, 2TE, 2RB sets...

# 31 Smoke6 @ 09/03/14 09:54 AM

Man scree this gm, people figure out flaws quickly and talk smack while they're at it which is annoying knowing they're glitching at the same time. Had an opponent throw hail marys successfully til he took a big lead then he ran drags and angle routs thrkwing to harvin and his TE going 10 for 10 in one quarter. My defender never reacted at all to the player or the ball until it was caught and on top of that the pass were thrown before the players would even look for it to come with my defender standing right there only to have the ball appesr in the wr hands whike he runs into me to cstch it.

I think this will be the first time in yrs I have given up on madden this early, online play was what I liked but now nothing but no life losers continue to ruin and plagued what I thought was a great foundation of things to come.

# 32 LBzrule @ 09/03/14 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big FN Deal


	So as someone that's actually been to Tiburon and been shown things prior to them trying to add/code them into the game, would it be fair to say that that you believe Madden will always essentially be legacy Madden at its' core, unless they were to build a new game from scratch? I ask because after all these years and tidbits of info about the development of the game, under various teams, that's the conclusion I'm drawing. I don't begrudge anything Rex, Clint, Ian or anyone else tries to do to improve and/or change the core game for all modes, just trying to face some facts. As someone that enjoys the competition of a human opponent, online is essentially the only way I play sports games, be it H2H or multi-player career modes, so any optimism I harbor about Madden playing like an entirely different game, has been squashed fairly quickly with exposure to online modes each year.

In short, YES

. Unless they just completely scrap everything and start over legacy will always rear its head in this game and I think the proof is in the game itself. You look at this game all these years and no matter what new "great thing" they add, you still get the legacy feel to the game. I played a game online last night and I was in a party with tombsong and at a point I told him, this is probably my last online game LOL. It's just too much mess man. I was actually winning the damn game 19-7 late 3rd but this guy was no huddling and I couldn't make any adjustments. I just kept getting INT's in the redzone but I knew that would not last. So he got a TD eventually to cut it to 19-14. I lined up normal kick return. I see him come out in onside kick. Guess what? I can't f'ing audible

so you know what happened.

Anyways I got an INT and scored to go up 26-14. We are in the 4th now. He scores a FG 26-17. I'm cruising. He gets a FG. So now it is 26-20. You know how this crap is going to end. I call onside kick return. He lines up in normal kick coverage. I cannot audible. He kicks the ball slightly down the middle of the field and guess what. NOBODY on my team bothered to go after the ball. HE gets it. Scrambles every play with Cutler because the contain doesn't really contain and your spy is slow even though CJ Mosley has faster speed and accel than Cutler, Cutler always beat him to the corner and turned it up the field. I lose 28-26.

It's the same mess. I felt like I was back on PS2 playing Madden online.

# 33 LBzrule @ 09/03/14 12:44 PM

^^ can't wait for Destiny on 9/9

# 34 mjm76 @ 09/03/14 11:22 PM

How long does a online game take to play? Someone mentioned in one of their posts it takes 45 to 60 minutes. Is this correct?

I have rented Madden 15, but do not own it yet. Still trying to decide to buy or not/

Thanks for any responses.

# 35 JBH3 @ 09/03/14 11:27 PM

Servers down again. What a joke. A company like this that relies on online play and can't keep their servers up and running.

# 36 zsfgnhsfjh @ 09/03/14 11:32 PM

i never been big on the lobbies i just wanted to find a quick match and be in and out. i do love how i can see opponents plays in which it forces myself and others to be creative on play calling.

# 37 bodymore @ 09/05/14 03:30 PM

Somebody else posted an example on how overpowered corner routes are.

http://youtu.be/5GeQwV13v5s

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