Madden NFL 17 Releases on August 23, Cover Athlete & Gameplay Trailer on May 12

[Mike Lowe]

Won't read a word of the hype until these are fixed:

Injuries away from the ball.
Fix auto subs for accelerated clock.

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

I'm interested to see what they do as well. With there being no real clear cut candidate I think it would be a great year to put AI at the forefront. I highly doubt it will happen but it's a huge area that is lacking and would help all around. The thing that keeps me skeptical about the line being changed is that they just went there in M15 so it's really quick to already be redoing or rebuilding on it. But I think it would be good to see some sort of upgrades in terms of multi-lineman animations and such similar to how they did WR/DB interaction last year which would be a big change to overall gameplay. The one wildcard is that I feel like it is going to have to be something based around user control. So I could see them trying to implement a new passing system maybe but they have to be real careful with that given how the last time went. Outside of that it's hard to say. They could really use this year to clean up multiple areas and improve animations and more across the board without having to go all in on one thing.

You make a great point about the primary gameplay improvement that they focus the marketing on being something pertaining to User control. They may not go all in on thing, but there will definitely be some User based mechanic that received a larger percentage of the resources than everything thing else did.

Quote: Originally Posted by SageInfinite

Definitely wanna see what the gameplay focus was this year. It's the first year I actually have no idea what they could try to work on. Not that the game doesn't need major work on the field, but this is the first year that there's no elephant in room as far as gameplay. Well besides the usually request for realistic animations and ai on offense and defense.

Like you, nothing immediately comes to mind as to what that number one game focus was.

[wallofhate]

I'm looking forward to this. I liked 16 a lot especially with some fine tuning of the sliders and patches. I'm hoping they add a lot of lil things cosmetically and presentation wise. Add better animations and clean up the falling over each other and I'd be ecstatic

[Rocky]

Quote: Originally Posted by SageInfinite

Definitely wanna see what the gameplay focus was this year. It's the first year I actually have no idea what they could try to work on. Not that the game doesn't need major work on the field, but this is the first year that there's no elephant in room as far as gameplay. Well besides the usually request for realistic animations and ai on offense and defense.

I gotta disagree there. The line play is pretty atrocious even compared to the old 2K games. Plus I could've sworn the developers said it was a priority this year.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky

I gotta disagree there. The line play is pretty atrocious even compared to the old 2K games. Plus I could've sworn the developers said it was a priority this year.

I wouldn't say atrocious, either. I would say it's ok with need for more tweaks and improvement.

Just played a game last night where the line was opening up running lanes and was picking up blitzes with no standing around.

If they are working on improving it, great.

[SolidSquid]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I wouldn't say atrocious, either. I would say it's ok with need for more tweaks and improvement. Just played a game last night where the line was opening up running lanes and was picking up blitzes with no standing around. If they are working on improving it, great.

I would definitely say atrocious at times. I've seen first hand and through videos online that at times guys just refuse to block to certain players. Guards lets DTs go untouched at times almost immediately for a sack and Tackles do the same thing. As far as defensive line, ends still take weird angles at times.

Something really needs to be done with line play though as it's currently too rigid, too much win or lose. I'd like to see a DT bull rush a guard into the qbs lap and stick out an arm and grab hold of a shoulder pad or something. APF had a "reach" mechanic for things like this and I think it's something that is overlooked

[Gridiron]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I wouldn't say atrocious, either. I would say it's ok with need for more tweaks and improvement. Just played a game last night where the line was opening up running lanes and was picking up blitzes with no standing around. If they are working on improving it, great.

Sometimes it works well and you get your hopes up. But there are plenty of times where the line has the IQ and blocking consistency of cotton candy.

At this point, it's beyond tweaks. They said (remember their promo vids) that they focused on this for 25 which turned out to be a port of last gen Madden. That clearly didn't work out as well as advertised because the same blocking problems carried over. They've been tweaking for 11 seasons over the span of 2 generations. It's just time to rebuild. Won't happen now of course, but that needs to be the plan for next gen. If it isn't, I'm done entirely. I won't play with these same problems for another generation.

As gamers who buy this game and literally pay their bills, we deserve more respect than this. We deserve a game running on modern technology like every other game is getting, not tech being carried over from the early PS2 era.

[Sheba2011]

Cover is either going to be Peyton or Cam, and a small chance of Gronk. If it's anyone else I would be shocked.