Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

[tige19]

On the EA forums people are really going nuts about the CFM autosave freezes... 12 pages worth of complaints and EA have said they're working on it! Absolutely disgraceful by EA

[johnnyg713]

Can't commend the team enough for how well this game plays offline and how each team really plays like their real life counterpart. Recently played against the bills and man does that defense put on a ton of pressure on the qb. Offensively I was burned deep by percy harvin several times. Once for a 64 yard td over the free safety. Once i got coverage down I got absolutely gashed by taylor's running ability and ended up having to put a spy on him.

Despite their low rating, the bills were an extremely tough team to play against. Which is a breath of fresh air in a sports video game. Teams play to their strengths and like many have said in this thread; individual player ratings really stand out.

When it comes to X's and o's madden is in with the elite titles.

Where madden falls short for me is in the animation department. Its not so much the quality or quantity of the animations; as i feel they did a great job with the so many different wr/db outcomes. My issue is the speed at which all animations transition into/play out. A player going from a 1. running animation to a 2. catch animation to a 3. tackle animation plays out at 3 different speeds. While it is a very complicated system, i know transitions can be smoother (ala fifa) and in my opinion much slower. There are certain animations that just happen way too quickly such as false start or offsides animations. Almost in a blink of an eye. What animations they really nailed are the play action plays. I wish all animations played out at this speed.

What get me excited is the excellent foundation that the gameplay mechanics are built on. Tackling and Wr/DB both made their debuts this year and I expect them to make bigger strides next year. Line play has the logic, however the animations could be much improved in my opinion.

What I wish to ask is that animations continue to be ratings dependent. I love the fact that qbs have accuracy ratings for low, medium, and long passes. This level of detail in ratings is what makes plays feel more authentic. I hope they dive deeper into this way of thinking for players. One type of rating/ability i would love to see for DE's is a "set the edge" rating. Stuff like this is what I now look for when I continue to learn the X's and O's madden has taught me.

As I continue to play the game. I am impressed with what the team has finally accomplished however left a little underwhelmed knowing the game isn't where the team wants it to be just yet.

[spankdatazz22]

I really have to disagree that the game plays like real NFL football. I've tried a couple of the more popular community sliders sets and I'm about to just go back to All-Pro default. I liked the game initially even with it's faults, but the near-complete lack of appropriate OL/DL play has really been turning me me off more and more and causing the games other issues to stand out that much more. You almost have to ignore that key aspect of football isn't there because it's rendered so poorly with the flag football-like blocking and interaction. So far I've been chalking it up as me needing to learn the game more, having been away from videogame football for so long. But to me the OL/DL play needs some serious work before it resembles what we see on Sundays, and without it, I have a hard time feeling like it resembles a real NFL game.

The game does give a lot of options in terms of the various line shifts and protections you can use, or options you have on defense. But it seems difficult to scheme in the way that occurs in real life, with using an unbalanced line, calling line stunts, masking coverages, etc. Or maybe it's that those options are only for certain plays. Either way some of those frustrations make the too-frequently occurring one handed catches or overly-wonky animations stand out that much more. I think the ratings system does a good job of displaying a range of skill/ability, but there doesn't seem to be a system in place or the ratings aren't extensive enough to render real-life player tendencies to make players feel unique.

I think it's definitely a much improved game from the past for sure. And it can be fun at times. But I don't see how it resembles NFL football at this point, for me. My desire to play has definitely waned after that first week. But it's good enough to where I'm going to keep trying, to see if it's my lack of knowledge about the game, or the game itself

[kse79x]

I want to like Madden this year due to the look and feel of it, but I can not get passed a couple things. One, the most important, their refusal to clean up old code and fix bugs that existed last year and probably prior to that. That is inexcusable. And it is a bad sign to the community. New bugs are also present so should we expect those to go unfixed as well?

CFM also, despite what they said, did not get enough improvements. They did make some needed changes but for a game where a lot of old code was used, it disappointing they could or would not add or change more of what most wanted.

I will be in the minority I suppose, but I will not be purchasing this game next year unless I know theyve addressed bugs first and foremost. If they same crap is in next years, again, they wont get money from me. I wish more would take the same stance to send a message.

[JOS1181]

I have found / seen weird happenings on a player franchise ( QB ).. I will move up and down the field no problem making throws but once I get inside the 20 really weird things always happen. Either my players just flat out drop wide open passes for no reason at all or my QB will throw the ball 10 - 20 yards away from the intended player.

On out rights I have wide open guys be overthrown and have the ball go way way out of bounds. Or on INs / Slants they will be open but my QB will throw 10 yards in front of them directly to a LB or Safety. Never happens in other situations. Like clockwork. I cant even play this mode as a QB and have fun because of it.

Normal franchise seems okay but it there are other problems there anyway.

[PhilBuc]

Madden 16 gameplay is great and I am enjoying the game. However, the sloppiness of the presentation and all of the errors are un-immersive. There seems to be no passion behind the Madden series as there is in NBA 2K and even other EA Sports titles like NHL and FIFA.
Last year, all of the cameramen on the sidelines were identical and even wearing shorts in the snow - how in the world did that ever make it into the retail code, how lazy and sloppy are the developers? ... Sure that was somewhat fixed this year, but there are tons of new sloppy errors like that in this year's Madden. It's a never ending cycle. I am 100% serious when I say I could have pointed out a dozen + sloppy art issues in 3 or 4 games played. How does stuff like this get by the entire development cycle??

I have the answer... the answer is, Madden is the only NFL game in town thanks to a stupid agreement from the NFL and EA Sports. EA Sports knows that gamers, even myself, will buy their game because it is the ONLY NFL game in town. The sad thing is, THAT is THEE ONLY reason why most people buy it. If and when there is completion again, that is when EA Sports will hire some passionate developers to develop the Madden series. Until then, we are subject to this.

[Smoke6]

Online play in CFM is the same as playing in a lobby game...

Mesb, mesh from different formation, toss, PA with deep drags

Defense, zone, same zone play, dline 3man rush is unstoppable cant get inside or to the edge, DBs and safeties read run and react to it way to fast. More zone then 2 man under with manual safety pressure and safety can run and make play on ball after engaging with a dlinemen for a sec or two.

Ish just gets old man, i quit all 5 of my leagues last night as 3 of my opponents did this crap and its difficult to stop unless you cheeseball yohr way to doing that and im not built like that at all

[The_Usual_Suspects]

Quote: Originally Posted by Smoke6

Online play in CFM is the same as playing in a lobby game... Mesb, mesh from different formation, toss, PA with deep drags Defense, zone, same zone play, dline 3man rush is unstoppable cant get inside or to the edge, DBs and safeties read run and react to it way to fast. More zone then 2 man under with manual safety pressure and safety can run and make play on ball after engaging with a dlinemen for a sec or two. Ish just gets old man, i quit all 5 of my leagues last night as 3 of my opponents did this crap and its difficult to stop unless you cheeseball yohr way to doing that and im not built like that at all

Zone is semi easy to defeat this year. What zones are they running? Last year I predominantly used variants of cover 3. But this year it's a different story. Cover 3 isnt very reliable.