Madden NFL 15 Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (XB1/PS4)

[A_Quiet_Pro]

Quote: Originally Posted by Motown

FINALLY a NG Madden, This game is incredible!!! GFX are insane! Gameplay is great & smooth as silk(PS4 digital) Presentation: Absolutely love the fade to black TOs & the injury TOs. Playing on slow speed, & threshhold @ 0 is perfect. This is the BEST football game I've ever played...bar none. Kudos EA Sports

Exactly what i do, slow speed, and speed threshold at 0. Perfect combo.

[A_Quiet_Pro]

Quote: Originally Posted by mttwlsn16

How long of quarters do you all use? I started at 7, but think I'm gonna bump it to 10

I always use 10. Btw in my first 3 games, the scores were 41-37, 35-31, and 45-42.

[MikeGiani]

Quote: Originally Posted by mttwlsn16

How long of quarters do you all use? I started at 7, but think I'm gonna bump it to 10

I did 8 minutes with 20 second clock, but this wasn't enough. What's the right amount of time for an accurate amount of plays??

[reyes the roof]

I'm also having a difficult time with the playcall screen. I wish there was a way to import created playbooks from the previous year because it seems like such a hassle navigating through the menu. Also, I don't know if maybe they just have every coach wear this, but it was awesome seeing Mark Trestman with a long sleeve shirt under his polo.

[B1MM3R]

Best football game Iv'e ever played. Once they fix the sim stats then it will be nearly perfect. Love how I'm not guaranteed to beat the CPU now. Love it on the xbox one. However I played it on a friends 360 and last gen is so similar to Madden 25 unfortunately.

[Junior Moe]

After 4 days with the game and being able to put it down and pick it back up, I have to say that Madden 15 is great. I have not ventured into CFM or anything yet. But I have been playing 6 minute games on pro difficulty and I have been having a blast! I love how challenging the defense is without feeling cheated. I have averaged about 3 picks a game...and they were all on me because I made the wrong read or passed too late. I love it. There are some glitches, like when the offensive player gets stuck in an "engage blocker" stance, but that's about it for me so far. I scored a touchdown in the corner of the endzone and it was wonderful to see the photographers scatter out the way. It was great. The legacy issues still exist and we all know what the deal is. But I have faith in the team who made this wonderful iteration of Madden. Kudos EA Sports!!

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by A_Quiet_Pro

Exactly what i do, slow speed, and speed threshold at 0. Perfect combo.

same here...

[CarryTheWeight]

The game feels different to me, which is something I haven't been able to say since '10. Of course, the novelty may wear off in a few weeks but my first few games definitely had a feeling that was missing in years past.

EJ Manuel can not throw the long ball. Period. Nearly all of my attempted deep throws were batted down or intercepted --- even if my receivers had separation. In fact, the Bills offense looked as incompetent as they did in their preseason game against Tampa last Saturday. As soon as the long ball was taken away, I stuck with short/mid-range passes and let the receivers do most of the work. Defensive gameplay is pretty fun, though the player lock camera tends to spaz out at times, leading me to lose sight of the ballcarrier. Ended up winning the game 37-34 on a last-second Dan Carpenter field goal.

It's not perfect. Not by a longshot. However, screenshots and videos don't really do it much justice. You kind of have to play a game yourself to see how much has changed. Great attention to detail, which is something I've never really said about the Madden series since...yes, Madden 10.

A few really small observations that don't deserve their own thread:

-The public address announcer HAS to go and is long overdue for a replacement. The disc space is there. "#12's pass falls incomplete...intended for #80" sounds awful in contrast to the other game audio.

-Similarly, penalty announcements should be more specific. PS2/Xbox/Gamecube Maddens had the official announce the penalized player's uniform number, so it's strange why it's been omitted.

-The new scanned faces look extremely impressive. Unscanned/generic players seemed to receive new face models as well, they're just not as accurate. Hopefully many more will be included in M16.

-As a presentation guy and someone who works on real-life sports broadcasts, the new presentation is the best this series ever had. It's rough in some places, but the camera angles, replays, lower thirds and "game tracking" the commentators do (similar to NCAA) is all very cool. I just wish the lower thirds stayed on screen for longer than they do, though they're probably short because most people button through them anyway.

-Commentary, for all the hate it gets, is much better than M13 and M25. Say what you will about Phil Simms --- he rambles exactly like he does on CBS. Repeated lines, at least in the two full games I played, were not as big a problem as they were. I really love the addition of more player names and "stitched" commentary.

-Simms and Nantz had at least 4 different conversations about Reggie Bush in the game I played. They even praised Andrew Luck's rushing ability when he scored a rushing touchdown (instead of the generic one or two lines of commentary they had in past years about star players).

-Presentation showcases players who are performing well but it's few and far between. They commented on Sammy Watkins being "an important part of the offense early on" while showing his receiving stats. On the other hand, EA seemed to remove cutaways to a player who just made a big play coming to the line in favor of the quarterback 100% of the time (unless I just haven't seen it).

-No huddle and chew clock options in the playcalling menu. Enough said. It's a great way to realistically run an up-tempo offense like the Eagles, Bills or the new Giants scheme. I also love the variety in presentational cutaways you receive if you run the no huddle. I once saw Doug Marrone whipping his arm around on the sidelines as his team was approaching the line. Nice touch.

-Halftime Show is very well done. much better than I was expecting and certainly better than the E3 videos. It isn't exactly Damon Bruce, but Ridley has a lot of player names and things to say. I just wish they could have extended it to post-game as well.

Those are my initial impressions with less than a day of gameplay. Will report any more interesting things that I find.