Madden NFL 11 Blog: Run Blocking Improvements

[Valdarez]

Quote: Originally Posted by rgiles36

Yeah, it's a hype train. They have no business trying to market their game in order to build anticipation and generate revenue . Not biting your head off sir LOL. It's just funny that anything EA does for marketing is looked at as a "hype train" and not marketing. I hate analogies b/c they're overused on this forum, but Toyota is showing commercials for their new Avalon despite the bad pub this year. Hype train too? No, it's an effective way of marketing to get individuals like myself into what they're selling.

At CD did you notice any incidental contact animations? In a couple of the videos it looks like the HB is swiping his hand, but he's doing it several steps after he brushed up / made contact with a defender.

[LeafyBug]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

They are communicating with OS differently this year, if all people are doing is reading the blogs and listening to the Q and A's, then it would seem to be more hype train similar to last year.... They put some vids up of a feature being played on rookie/pro and show how great it is, or in the case of the catch debugging tool, they just tell us how great it is while showing us 2 picks of animations from Madden 10. Then during the Q and A question they talk up the feature and tell us how great it works. Same hype train, just not as flashy as last year or as NCAA's vids have been.

Don't mean to steal your thunder here but, Madden is really an unspectacular product. It doesn't aim to overwhelm its fans with huge improvements year-to-year, so understanding it for what it is kinda makes me come to expect less from it than I do other titles. Why? Cause thats how EA has trained me. They make very little progress with this game from one year to the next.

Often, things that I love when I open the box...I end up hating a few short months later. I'll give EA this much, they really are good at making a football game that attempts to simulate pro football while being easy for the non-football minded person to play.

I can't believe I just said that...

[Bremser_Rules]

best blog ever

[boritter]

Quote: Originally Posted by sois

Wow. Finally, looks good, it's awesome to see the OL not spinning in circles thinking about who to block next!

Ha ha. I wonder how many controllers have been broken due to that stupid animation?

[sniperhare]

Still annoyed the game has suction blocking.

[o Mass Murda o]

Quote: Originally Posted by sniperhare

Still annoyed the game has suction blocking.

be honest with u this suction is prolly for our own good...kinda a necessary evil. with the engine and the player movements and limited situational awareness and interaction, could u honestly imagine this game without it? imagine playing as a dt...fake left, cut right and the OL barely being able to know to put his hands out and touch the guy (think bout the bent knee hunkered down look with his hands aimlessly up at his chest thats a madden staple) and letting him get by untouched to ur qb...not fun.

the only thing we can hope for is more control to drive these engagements and push ppl into the way of the play to close a lane or push them back into the qb. they already made it a lil easier to disengage although i feel they can prolly loosen it up a tad more and up the steerability (if thats a word lol). im a realist....haha

[jmik58]

I'm sure someone else has mentioned this but it looks like the linebackers are VERY slow to react. In the real world there are keys that linebackers react to (guards/fullbacks) that tell them if it's a run/pass.

The linebackers were just shuffling side to side in those videos waiting for the blockers to come get them.

[s38s38s]

Initially I thought that, but what the better run blocking should encourage is a more realistic run defense as well. Gone are the days (hopefully) of guys using 3-2, dime, and quarters ALL game and being able to defend the run. This new scheme will strongly encourage people to use defenses like 4-3, 4-4, 4-6, as well as the 3-4 to defend strong running teams. So no more sitting back in cover 2/3 you'll need to blitz a LB or two to fill the running lanes. This will add to SIM aspect because now a good running team can actually set up PA because running the ball should be effective this year. As many now currently sweeps/tosses get you the most bang for your buck in M10, but on Sundays its wearing teams out between the tackles that brings home the bacon ig: !
Also in the blog he mentioned that you need a good offensive line to get the most success and we all know that alot of teams don't meet the exceptional run blocking qualification except for a few like Carolina (I love to run), NY Giants and Jets, Miami, Baltimore, Minnesota, Tenessee and Jacksonville. Most other teams offenses revolve around the pass anyhow. It also mentioned DE's crashing vs weak run blocking TE's/T's. And I also think elite DT's (Nagata, Hampton, Haynesworth, etc) will split double teams at times to balance things out. But I'm just glad my offensiveline has logic. And will really put pressure on the user to react accordingly, and on time. This accompanied with no turbo will make it much more of a priority to pick LB's who are good vs the run and not just fast this coming season looks like.