Exactly how i feel man. Im not online player.. just pure sim and pure fun is what i want and next gen madden on PS4 is actually delivering this to my big surprise. The running game is soooooo much more realistic now that i just cannot believe how much better it feels running the rock now.
The graphics ...while they do have the same type of "model" characteristics of current gen...the preview videos we've seen over the past month DO NOT DO THIS NEXT GEN MADDEN ANY JUSTICE! The graphics are definitely much MUCH better looking than what we been led to believe...maybe it was the terrible online streaming compression of videos used at Youtube and other online streaming services of Today's internet to save bandwidth and what not, just because you are streaming a 720p or 1080p video does not mean maximum quality of footage, a lot of people do not realize this, Youtube is notorious for dodgy HD video streaming these days, in the past Youtube was much better with HD streaming but economics is first priority these days...why EA allowed that to degrade the impressions of the look of their next gen game baffles me..because you MUST see this game in action on a HDTV in front of you to truly understand the big visual quality difference from current gen to next gen Maddens...i am VERY HAPPY with the graphics..although more should of been done but i am content this year.
The grass, sidelines,crowds, sounds,etc all have been nicely improved and make playing Madden much more fun if you can believe that...yes those visual and sound enhacments do make a big difference..as i always stated in OSForums since 2002. I got a kick out of how much the sidelines are "aware" when you are running the rock and get tackled into the sidelines..makes the game feel more alive and fun to play.
Oh yeah...the "lighting" in next gen madden is leaps and bounds better then current gen. The colors POP MUCH MORE now as well...in current gen the colors of the jerseys,crowds,etc all looked washed out and blurry...now they are very vivid and pop out at you..the green grass also looks greener..which i love! The color pallet in next gen madden reminds of of exactly NFL2k5..as much as i hate to bring that old game up..it did so much right with visuals and next gen madden finally exceeds that game now in the visual dept..thank goodness!
Anyways...after some hours of playing Madden on PS4...i must say i am a happy camper honestly. Sure i would of liked to see more improvements in some area's of gameplay and visuals but for what we got for a launch game on new systems...i am quite pleased.
The AI seems way more intelligent now on next gen. I don't get into details on gameplay elements too much because there is simply too much diversity between gamers when it comes to this. Personally the biggest issues i had on current gen as far as gameplay was the stupid AI in a lot of instances...it seems a LOT of that has been cleaned up and the AI is much MUCH more smarter playing.
By the way..DO NOT LISTEN TO THAT IDIOT IN THE IGN REVIEW..He is a one of those Madden Tourney guys...not that i am saying all madden turney guys are biased like him but "sim" football is like kryptonite to them..Seriously..that IGN video review WAS WRONG in a lot of ways..especially when he mentioned the running game was too sim now rotflmao!! Him saying that and a lot of other things left me scratching my head after hours of gameplay here at home. I do not understand how he also said the game only looks marginally better vs current gen... NO WAY! The game is doing so much more visually.. maybe he is "Graphic Effects" illiterate or something but i see much more graphics technology being used in next gen madden vs current gen. I am a long time member at Beyond3D.com ...we are a bunch of videogame graphic geeks there lol but to say next gen madden is only slightly better looking is BS!