Madden NFL 15 Developer Livestream, Watch it Here

[JoedicyMichael]

Overall Progress Report Card = C+ / B-

Overall, i'm loving the effort into this game so far. I was apart of the group who has left for a while, and for the sake of football, purchased Madden 25 on the Xbox One.. Madden 25 didnt do me to well, but Madden 15, as far as I can see, has got my attention. Here are some of my "Eye-Test" Grades.


Authentic Presentation = B
I personally feel the presentation sets the whole tone of the game from the jump-start. (& this is coming from a Cinematographer) & as far as we can see so far, Madden NFL has taken into account what the community has been wanting for a while, and thats at least a reasonable presentation for the game. The Real Time celebrations are fantastic and look like something that would happen on Sunday. The replays are sorta cool & the halftime show is fair at best. But this is compared to Madden 25 where it did not exist. My only gripe against the Halftime show is the Stat section. Of the ones i've seen, there is no analysis on it, just a show of stats that some of us may already be aware of in-game. NCAA 14 did a pretty good job of live stats & halftime analysis. I wonder if this could move to the Madden series.?

Game Flow = C+
The game flow looks great from what we can see. I really love the new play-call system as it gives you information on certain plays, the strike against this is that a community favorite play will over-shadow less used plays and seemingly shy players away from plays that are less popular. This is a give/take system here.

Also, I still wonder about the penalties in Madden. Certainly you can adjust your sliders to whatever, but I honestly feel like not enough flags are thrown in the game. If possible, I would like to see a dynamic penalty system where flags may occur in their natural state, but also based on a players make-up. If a player is always aggressive, he might cause more penalties. If he is completely out-matched, maybe there is a chance he might commit a penalty out of frustration. If he is a known trouble maker & or undisciplined , theres a chance he gets a conduct flag. Or maybe if the player has caused a lot of flags during the season, the frequency of flags may slightly go up causing you to bench the player for a while to get his head straight. (But thats just a thought. Maybe not the best idea, but its a rough draft from me.)

Offense = B-
As it stands now, Ive heard so much about Defense, that playing on Offense sounds like a task. But for the most part, I like the task of learning curves and learning the game. You will have to be fundamentally sound to play on an advanced level it seems. (As is with anything advanced). The only problem I have with this is that the players who don't wanna take the time and learn the techniques/mechanics may have a hard time at first. (Especially those who don't wanna sit thru the skills trainer & gauntlet).

But for the most part, I love the way the offense is structured & counter-structured. For example, the new Hot Route system is a breath of fresh air! No longer are the days where 50 adjustments could be made in one go. Now you actually have to go thru real time animations/cadence to get the play in! Good Madden.

Also, is it me, or did I notice a few False Start penalties in the new "Fidget System" ?? Lineman were clearly moving when the ball was snapped sometimes.

Defense = B+ / A-
Defense is the name of the game in this years Madden it seems. Quite honestly, altogether it may seem complex, but i'm sure those of us who really like to play Defense will love this new system. The War In The Trenches system is much needed. Player Sense 2.0 looks promising by the looks of it as well. My only thing is that there are too many da*n buttons to press in a short span on time. (DL / OL Minigame & Tackle Spotlight system). I love the concept, but I have a feeling im going to be turning the visuals off. Also, I understand there was a delay in Defensive Hot Route altogether, but I think the same animation system should be applied to certain aspects of the defense as well. (Not a Delay system, but more animations & movement) For example, if you wanna change your whole defensive play or you need to move your D-Line (Sometimes the Linebackers come and direct them in which way to shift). Or maybe a Coverage assignment shift in where most cases the Safeties relay the play the corners.

All progress report grades based on what I have "Seen". I have not played the game. Im not always right & i'm always open to discuss any part of this & most of these are my opinions too lol

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by SimBaller12

I see they brought the ability for tacklers to magically be sucked into the ball carrier from three yards away again! During the game play the charger's OLB slid into Montee at the beginning of the game, & again when RG threw a pass to whitehead the very next drive. There's no way in real life that LB could have dove that far if Danny caught that pass in stride going full speed. SMH, dammit man!

I can understand how people might be seeing this, but to be honest, I haven't really seen a bad one yet. The reason I say this is that there has not been a game that has some sort of motion shifting when players interact. That is going to happen and it will be noticeable at times. We can live with that because at the end of the day, it's just a computer program. The problem I've had in the past with the suction tackling was that the players were never in a physical position that it would be possible for them to make the plays they were making. When that starts happening you want to throw the controller through the TV. As long as tackles are realistic in that they look relatively seemless and smooth and the players were legitimately in position to make the play, it's generally acceptable.

[GiantBlue76]

I still have some concerns about QB accuracy. I rewatched the stream and it cannot be denied that madden is improving. The game looks like it will be enjoyable despite still missing a significant chunk of elements that are fundamental. That being said, I have yet to see really any inaccurate passes. It looks pretty much the same as 25 in this regard. What really bothered me was the pass from Rivers where his arm got hit and he still delivered a perfect spiral. They need to really get the arm angle stuff right. There is nothing more frustrating when a QB is able to get passes of that he had no business doing. Same goes for when they make the ball squirt out as you are getting hit. That doesn't happen too often in real life, yet in a single game of madden where a QB throws 30 passes you may see it 10 times. What makes it frustrating is that the QB clearly is in no position where he could possibly go through a forward pass throwing motion. These are the types of things that madden needs to get rid of - the physics defying, magical occurrences that cause extreme frustration. I can deal with fumbling, throwing wobbly, inaccurate passes all day when it happens realistically. I can't stand smashing my opponent's QB at the same time his arm goes back and have him deliver a perfect ball on a 3rd and 8. This seems like something that can really be tuned, and shouldn't require a total rewrite to make better for M15. I'd like to see if something could be done regarding this for THIS year's game. If not, it certainly needs to be part of what gets addressed for player movement in m16.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

I still have some concerns about QB accuracy. I rewatched the stream and it cannot be denied that madden is improving. The game looks like it will be enjoyable despite still missing a significant chunk of elements that are fundamental. That being said, I have yet to see really any inaccurate passes. It looks pretty much the same as 25 in this regard. What really bothered me was the pass from Rivers where his arm got hit and he still delivered a perfect spiral. They need to really get the arm angle stuff right. There is nothing more frustrating when a QB is able to get passes of that he had no business doing. Same goes for when they make the ball squirt out as you are getting hit. That doesn't happen too often in real life, yet in a single game of madden where a QB throws 30 passes you may see it 10 times. What makes it frustrating is that the QB clearly is in no position where he could possibly go through a forward pass throwing motion. These are the types of things that madden needs to get rid of - the physics defying, magical occurrences that cause extreme frustration. I can deal with fumbling, throwing wobbly, inaccurate passes all day when it happens realistically. I can't stand smashing my opponent's QB at the same time his arm goes back and have him deliver a perfect ball on a 3rd and 8. This seems like something that can really be tuned, and shouldn't require a total rewrite to make better for M15. I'd like to see if something could be done regarding this for THIS year's game. If not, it certainly needs to be part of what gets addressed for player movement in m16.

Spot on, I find it unsettling that even though they keep touting pass inaccuracies as this game changing element, that haven't focused on displaying it. For instance it seems odd in hindsight that they didn't sub in 2nd/3rd string Qbs at some point during that live stream, to showoff the pass inaccuracies.

[4thQtrStre5S]

I fear the inaccuracies is essentially adjusting ratings; so in All-Pro, with Hum and CPU at 50. the actual effect will be as if you had the slider set at 25 or so...

[GiantBlue76]

In every video I've seen I've yet to see a catch animation that I haven't already seen 100 times along with the same exact type of throwing accuracies. Every pass either is caught, or dropped with maybe 1/25 passes sailing wide or high. Would really like to see some of these errant throws and some of those 430 catch animations to actually show up. Instead of 430, I've probably seen 4.

[JetLife6]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

In every video I've seen I've yet to see a catch animation that I haven't already seen 100 times along with the same exact type of throwing accuracies. Every pass either is caught, or dropped with maybe 1/25 passes sailing wide or high. Would really like to see some of these errant throws and some of those 430 catch animations to actually show up. Instead of 430, I've probably seen 4.

exactly. Even the one errant throw they showed us in the one vid.. where they had a close up of the wr extending his arm... I swear after the ball passed him he still continued the animation of bringing the ball into his chest. It was basically the one hand catch animation without the ball.

Im happy with this devs team honesty.. but i wonder where they get these numbers from for animations.

quote from espn madden 13 article (2012):
"the “Madden” producers have added more than 430 new catch animations into the game. Everything from one-handed snags a la Brandon Lloyd to back-shoulder grabs by Greg Jennings along the sideline are now featured in the game"

[johnnyg713]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

Spot on, I find it unsettling that even though they keep touting pass inaccuracies as this game changing element, that haven't focused on displaying it. For instance it seems odd in hindsight that they didn't sub in 2nd/3rd string Qbs at some point during that live stream, to showoff the pass inaccuracies.

I remember seeing a few.. Cam newton threw an inaccurate pass on a wide open out route.