To buy or not to buy??

[PrinceOTA]

I'm a longtime Madden fan, and enjoyed last year's game primarily playing MUT for the first time. I hated the defense initally but with the chemistry boost in MUT, the game was playable.

I was initally excited about Madden 15 and the improvements made to the gameplay, but as the reviews for last gen came out, I was disappointed and haven't gotten the game yet.

I just want to know if the gameplay feels better this year? I will primarily play online ranked games against friends and randoms and my only concern is the gameplay. Is the defense better this year? Is offense still stupidly over powered? How about lag or any issues in online ranked play? Any knowledge and insight would be appreciated. I really want to get Madden and enjoy it, but if it isn't improved defensively, I'll save my money for something else. Thanks in advance.

[PrinceOTA]

Anyone with any thoughts on the gameplay is improved and if so, is it enough to warrant buying?

[lisinas]

There is already plenty of posts about this.

Defense is improved , not by a lot but still improved , zone defenses are stronger , man defense is pretty useless from what i've seen on the boards , running is harder . Other than that and few other small things like tackle cone there is not much of a change , some people say its worth the upgrade some people returned it and are sticking with m25.

[PrinceOTA]

I appreciate the response, and what is your verdict on the game? Did you hang onto it, and are you glad you did/didn't?

[RabidPanther]

I was in your exact shoes a few days ago, reading impressions, watching online play (video reviews), and just contemplating whether or not to get it. I was reading the positive, the negative, and the neutral responses. I eventually caved and bought it with hopes of the positive outweighing the negative, and I can actually say it was worth the purchase for me.

Although, I don't play online (not much or at all) so I can't comment on that, but what I can comment is on some of the game play, and based on personal experience of what I had in M25 and now M15.

NEXT PART IS ALL PERSONAL OPINION I AM NO DIFFERENT THAN ANYONE ELSE SOME PEOPLE HATE IT SOME PEOPLE LOVE IT AND JUST BECAUSE I LOVE/HATE SOMETHING DOESNT MEAN YOUR GONNA FEEL THE SAME OR OPPOSITE! You catch my drift

Gameplay;
1.)New tackle cone feature is great and different, takes time getting used to but I really enjoy it but fair warning it does have some growing pains that's makes you just wanna say Gosh this sucks!!! *Reality Check* it's different than past Maddens but it will grow on you Makes me feel like I'm actually doing the tackling. (Just the visualization)
2.) Lineman moves moved from stick to buttons. (PS3 X is your finesse move and Square is your Power move, and I would assume on XBOX A is FM and X is PM) it's a nice little mini game inside the game itself I really enjoy it though. However, I also feel like its easy to do the moves which in turn makes it easy to get to the QB I average about 6.5 sacks a game, but am adjusting sliders to help battle this. I also enjoy this because I never really liked the lineman sticks anyway!
3.) Zone coverage is awesome in this game and you can't abuse the CPU anymore at least I can't and I would deem myself a pretty good passer. I do feel that the CPU is a lot more responsive to the area around him, and I can't tell you how many times I force a throw to think "Na he isn't going to make this play I'm gonna get 20yds+ on this play.........well darn that didn't go as expected I guess I'll use my quarterback and chase after this LB before he gets 6!" Man Coverage on the other hand I'm a little skeptical I feel like there is times where during coverage he sticks pretty well but when the ball is in the area he doesn't know what to do which allows for an easy catch. There is also times like this where I manually switch to make the pick but when I switch over it's like the defender has his feet stuck in tar for those few milliseconds, and in the end doesn't matter if I would have switched or not he wasn't making the play. I was also playing as the Falcons and their corners aren't the best so I can't say how man coverage would be with someone like Sherman or Revis, but in saying that I'm still on the fence but those have been a common occurrence and I've probably played 10-11 games thus far.
4.). Rushing game the bread and butter for me. I hated last years Run defense because I could get 250+ with anybody and I mean anybody. Didn't matter the run scheme, and didn't matter the sliders I was shredding the defense. This years game though is a whole different story for me. Out of 10-11 games I've broken 100yds rushing (as a single rusher not combined) maybe 3 times I think the most I have gotten was 145ish and that was with 30 carries. I'm fighting for yards and I love it!
5.) O-line blocking for run defense and passing is pretty stellar. I'm quite impressed, it's not perfect but it's still great. For me I'll go do an instant replay and just watch one of my lineman move around and pick up blocks from blitzing or block shedding defenders.

That's some things I can remember about the game because there is so much to talk about but I picked up on some offline things.

I was in your shoes and ended up buying the game and have yet to regret it and it's about to get more exciting because I'm about to start my franchise!
My verdict is BUY IT! To me It's more than a roster update and has some tweaks that have improved gameplay though it's not a perfect game but no PS3/Xbox 360 madden game has but I think it's enough to make it worth it.

[PrinceOTA]

Thanks so much for the detailed response! I really appreciate it, and am leaning towards buying it now. Can anyone speak to online play? Thanks again.

[dorschmix]

There is already plenty of posts about this.

[PrinceOTA]

Quote: Originally Posted by dorschmix

There is already plenty of posts about this.

I didn't ask if there were already posts about this, thanks though.