Honestly, Nothing is BAD. But Here are a Few Annoyances.

[Vanilla_Gorilla]

Well....helllooooo OS! Been quite a minute since I was last on here, but it's this time bearing the fruits of a pretty darn good game.

I'm honestly impressed with EA CFB 25 and despite not having played a Madden since Madden 20, I didn't have too much trouble adjusting to the game and learning the new mechanics.

I've remarked to a few friends that if you did a little editing on some game clips, some that I have myself and some I've seen floated on the internet, you'd have a hard time distinguishing the game from reality.

But alas, it's not perfect and I wanted to post to see if anyone else found these few things a little annoying and may have been an oversight by the devs during development (I like the validation and/or being told I'm an idiot and need to get over it, but I digress):

(Note: All Gameplay Instances Occurred on Heisman)

1. QB Slides - Is it just me or do QBs slide a little too late? Also, from what I understand on the rule, the QB is considered down and the play dead upon the QB initiating his slide; however, I've noticed on more than one occasion, the defenders being able to hit the QB just after he initiates the slide (often causing a fumble). This should, technically, be a penalty, no?

2. Forward Progress - Again, another rule issue that appears to be missing. The whistle just doesn't appear to blow until the runner is down, regardless of whether he is moving forward or backward, though forward progress is correctly awarded if the runner is moved back. What does happen though, is defenders are able to, essentially, get off cheap shots with hit sticks without forward progress being called to blow the play dead, and if you're playing against the CPU, they use hitsticks.....a lot....so a lot of fumbles happen.

3. Curl Routes - Curl routes appear to be an exploit currently by the CPU. I've noticed that user defenders will play them ultra-conservatively, sitting back and waiting for the ball to reach the receiver before reacting. Moving the reaction and pass coverage slider up doesn't do too much as the AI still defends it way too passively, regardless of the coverage called. Contrarily, the CPU defenders will play the receiver tight, regardless of coverage, and will break on the ball when thrown or the receiver. Just seems to be an issue under the hood.

4. Passive Coverage - piggybacking off of #3, I think one of the reasons so many people see an issue with the AI comebacks is tied to how the User Defenders are playing their zone assignments. They just seem to be way too passive and possibly getting confused on passing assignments off.

I'll use this example: The CPU ran a streak along the right sideline and a post down the middle against Cover 3 which ended up in a 37yd TD pass. My boundary corner correctly covered his deep zone which took away the post and streak until the post hit the back of the endzone. Upon this moment, the ball had been thrown to the post receiver. My boundary corner then broke back towards the streak receiver before instantly turning back around while the ball was in the air which left the post receiver wide open enough in the endzone for an easy TD.

It seems at time, especially in the deep zones, that the AI is getting confused too often with their assignments and correctly passing them off or adjusting them to the play.

Now, don't get me wrong, that happens all the time game to game in real life, but I think the rate at which it happens in the game is a bit too high and that's why you see a fair number of high scores by the CPU in the 4th quarter.

More Deep routes = More chances for confusion = More TDs.

Let me know what ya'll think!

[Collegefbfan]

I have to agree on #3 and #4. Sliders have fixed some of this to a certain extent. However, I agree that the human defenders, for the most part, sit and wait. My WR's are often blanketed by CPU defenders. With the not-so-great WR's I currently have, my medium and long passing game is garbage anyway.

Well crap. I just reread your post and you said Heisman (varsity for this 50 year old guy here). Heisman, more power to ya man!

[Vanilla_Gorilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by Collegefbfan

I have to agree on #3 and #4. Sliders have fixed some of this to a certain extent. However, I agree that the human defenders, for the most part, sit and wait. My WR's are often blanketed by CPU defenders. With the not-so-great WR's I currently have, my medium and long passing game is garbage anyway. Well crap. I just reread your post and you said Heisman (varsity for this 50 year old guy here). Heisman, more power to ya man!

No worries, my guy. It's an oddity, and I'm guessing a current handicap on user AI defenders if it's that way across multiple difficulties.

You can also kind of see it on deep zone against streaks, the AI defender will kind of slowly get back to their zone rather than following the receiver like they should.

It just seems like on the User end, the pass coverage is far more passive compared to the CPU where they play pretty aggressive. Unsure of if there's a way to fix that with pre-snap adjustments or certain coverage calls, but I have yet to see anything that works.

[swac07]

spot on with #3 and #4 ...if they can somehow tune that it would make defense feel so much better

[Ghost Of The Year]

My issue with forward progress, I've had the cpu hit me hard enough to knock me backwards a couple yards but not hard enough to bring me down , and then immediately being tackled by another player before I can do anything about getting that couple yards back.

[Vanilla_Gorilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by swac07

spot on with #3 and #4 ...if they can somehow tune that it would make defense feel so much better

And pass coverage truly doesn't even feel bad. It feels very fluid and I've gotten multiple coverage sacks which I hardly ever saw in previous iterations of Madden and even NCAA 14.

The AI defenders do a great job of working their zone assignments and correctly passing off receivers.

I just think there needs to be a little tweaking on the back end and with certain routes receivers run to get the AI defenders to react a bit more naturally rather than overtly passive.

[Vanilla_Gorilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year

My issue with forward progress, I've had the cpu hit me hard enough to knock me backwards a couple yards but not hard enough to bring me down , and then immediately being tackled by another player before I can do anything about getting that couple yards back.

Can't say I've had that happen yet, but that technically is legally correct, right? If the player is able to regain his balance and attempt to move forward, I would think he would be considered still live on the second hit.

It's a bit of a different scenario than my first two points which seem to be cut-and-dry rule omissions.

[Collegefbfan]

I have had a couple of things happen that make me think, “Hold on now. What da hello just happened?” Had a CPU receiver catch maybe a 20 yard pass, run into two of my players, like in between them like an Oreo cookie, bounce off them, and head for the end zone. And the super famous, “Where was my CB at on that play?” Watch replay and see that he just stops and lets the WR blaze on by.

Then again, there are some plays on offense where I say, “How did my guy get the ball? The defender was right there.”