Madden NFL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[Mouse]

Quote: Originally Posted by Major9

Its crazy how different some opinions are. Several people saying this will be the first year of not buying Madden and then you have someone like me that this will be the first year I buy it since 2006

Everyone doesn't want the same things out of a Madden game

that's why they're so many different opinions about, EA is never going to please everyone

[Mouse]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bearsfan1

Can somebody answer my question? Do you need an active Gold Account to download this demo? It's not showing up anywhere in any of the categories I've tried. Manually searching for the game doesn't allow you to download it either. Just comes up as an error. PLEASE HELP!!

the demo says XBOX Live Gold exclusive on the XBOX live website

Only XBOX live Gold members can download it right now, not sure about the future.
I'm an XBOX live gold member but I feel its bush league

[SECElit3]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bearsfan1

Can somebody answer my question? Do you need an active Gold Account to download this demo? It's not showing up anywhere in any of the categories I've tried. Manually searching for the game doesn't allow you to download it either. Just comes up as an error. PLEASE HELP!!

I believe the download is under demos, kinect... If you have gold it is free to download. If not, the download is 240 MSP

[BTownSlinger]

I like the passing. Other than that, wasn't super impressed. The pile tackles left little to be desired. There were guys stepping on eachothers crotches, sitting on eachother like a football porn.. I had some good laughs but its just terribly unrealistic. The tackling felt/looked worse than last years. I just didn't like what I saw.

[Bearsfan1]

Quote: Originally Posted by SECElite3

I believe the download is under demos, kinect... If you have gold it is free to download. If not, the download is 240 MSP

Thank you sir. Looks like I'll just have to walk in to Best Buy and play it first when it comes out... Frankly, I think it's BS.

[Senator Palmer]

GAMEPLAY - OVERALL FEELING FROM MY FIRST IMPRESSION ON ALL-MADDEN:

Just got finished putting some time in on the demo as the Giants and a quarter as the Seahawks. Speaking strictly from a gameplay POV, I'm not really feeling the game. It's not bad at all. Just about everything is improved to a certain degree from Madden 12. The Infinity Engine is a welcomed addition, but it doesn't feel like a different enough experience to reel ME in. Overall, it's solid -- which is the sentiment I kept hearing from CD guys like Azure.

LINEBACKERS:

I'm still not liking the way the linebackers are playing the run, but they don't seem to be moving as randomly as Madden 12. Boley and Kiwanuka both filled gaps nicely and made the plays that they should, but when I played as Seattle vs. a zone scheme, the logic was lacking on the stretch plays and draw plays. I'd like to see -- especially on draw plays or when the QB pulls it down to run -- a little better reaction from the linebackers.

DEFENSIVE LINE:

The DT's aren't cartoonishly overwhelming on either side. Much improved over '12 from what I saw, and I did notice some nice push and a little engaged movement from my CPU controlled Ends on a few pass rushing plays. But there's still a lot of win/loss when it comes to the line defending stretch and power plays -- really any running play where the edge has to be set, everything is still static as far as movement. Your defender either gets off his block or he is stoned and unable to move which is what we were expecting so no need to harp on that too much.

I did like the way my interior line got under some blocks and tripped up the back a few times, especially on one draw play that I saw. I haven't played as the Niners yet, but the defensive line could be even more key this year in run defense. They seemed appropriately active against the run if that makes any sense.

In the two games as the Giants I ran a ton of 4 man rush specifically to see how my ends would perform. I'm not ready to render a vedict. I just haven't had enough time with the game, but overall I thought the pressure was lacking. It felt like exactly what was going on in the vids LBz posted a few months back. Every once in a while you'd get a nice rush, but it seemed to happen randomly. I'm not ready to say the elite Ends are useless just yet, but I'm not satisfied with what I saw there. And the "pass" pre-snap key didn't seem to have much effect on the pass rush vs. what I saw in the NCAA demo -- probably because there's no true jump the snap programmed into the game.

ZONE COVERAGE:

Felt pretty much like Madden 12. There were still defenders dropping and leaving receivers who were standing right in front of them, especially on curl routes if your defender had the deep third. I saw underneath defenders in the hook zone not matching up properly. I expected more improvement there.


PASSING:

This part of the game was very nice, just what I expected to see after playing the NCAA demo. This and the new play-action blocking should keep people engaged as they can now open up the entire playbook and complete any pass in the route tree in the right situation.

Not gameplay related: Eli doesn't have his signature throwing motion, and Alex Smith's look generic too. I know that we've seen tweets from EA that the signature throwing motions are still in the game, but I just thought I'd note that.

CLOSING:

I got the unpredictability that I was looking for with the tackles, and stumbles. There were some really nice stuff going on there; especially when the ball was tipped, but the movement is horrible. The players still move with no weight. On kickoffs, the returner is at full speed in one step. Frank Gore was cutting back on me with no deceleration. Maybe it's the speed the game was set on -- I don't know, but that's the part that bothered me the most and what's probably going to ultimately kill my enthusiasm. I just can't do Madden 12 again with backs impossible to tackle and cutting back on a whim while my defenders are stuck in the quicksand.

It does seem to be a solid overall package, and I think it'll be well received by the community. For me, I'm just really on this gameplay kick right now, and it's just not quite what I want it to be yet. So I'd say it's solid, but unspectacular.

Just my .02 ... maybe some tweaks in the retail will make me feel different.

P.S. one other thing I didn't like. When I went to the defensive line key and hit spread, it spread the line and also backed up the secondary. Maybe someone else can chime in and tell me if I was doing something wrong, but I didn't like that at all.

[roadman]

Ha, my son comes parading downstairs around 11:30 am(typical teenager), walks by and says, authentic enough for you dad? haha

Anyway, even he noticed in the last minute of game play, the Redskins were driving and RGIII throws a pass towards the sidelines and the receiver catches it, falls out of bounds and the AI calls time out.

What? Now they are down to 1 timeout.

For every positive step you notice, then you notice something like that, even a 17 yr old notices.

[SageInfinite]

Also like the fact you can watch replays without the playcall screen popping up.