Madden NFL 12 Gameplay Q&A (ESPN The Gamer)

Another thing we added this year is the ability to adjust the shading of your defensive backs on receivers. Now you can play press on an individual receiver on a play as opposed to playing press on everybody. You can also have a defender shade inside or outside of the receiver depending on whether you press shade left or shade right. Or you can just back one guy off and give him extra space. We give you a lot of options, and while some of these might sound like small features, with our goal to be true to the game and true to the NFL, we want to make sure we're giving our "Madden" fans ultra-fine control over our defense this year. It has been a while since some of these features have been in our game and we're glad to finally have them back.

The biggest difference gamers will notice right away, however, is the increased violence of every hit. With the old Pro-Tak tackling system, the game turned into gang tackles where groups of players ended up huddled together pushing a pile one way or another. But now that the new tackling system has more to do with momentum and point of impact, instead of watching a pile moving in boring fashion, now one defender might grab the ball carrier while the second defender charges in and cleans the pile out.

Instead of having tackles where guys are stood up and other defenders are adding on just for the sake of the gang tackle, now we have a much stronger, much more powerful impact that knocks the ball carrier down almost immediately.

A lot of what we have right now are consecutive impact tackles. While we don't have eight or nine guys in a big scrum like Pro-Tak, what we have now is much faster. You'll have one guy who is actively in a tackle animation with the ball carrier, then another guy will come in and clean up the hit. A third guy can still come in and knock that pile to the side or knock it back, but it really just depends on how many guys come in contact with the tackle from the point of collision to the point they hit the ground. There's no more stand up where you have eight or nine guys chopping away.

To accomplish this, gamers will hit a new tackle button (works like "NCAA Football 12"). In the old days, this was simply the dive button, but now if you hold the button down, defenders will bow-up and attack the ball carrier.

Now I feel like I can take a better angle if I'm taking an outside rush, and I don't feel like I'm just going to get sucked into a block. This enables me to take more realistic angles and gives me a better shot at getting to the quarterback.

We added a new pump fake mechanic where you can actually pump fake towards a specific receiver. We think this is something the hardcore will utilize as it really ups the value of our double moves. Now you actually have a reason to call some of these double move routes like the post corner because when you pump fake towards a specific receiver, the defensive back is more likely to bite.

Another thing we added this year is the ability to adjust the shading of your defensive backs on receivers. Now you can play press on an individual receiver on a play as opposed to playing press on everybody. You can also have a defender shade inside or outside of the receiver depending on whether you press shade left or shade right. Or you can just back one guy off and give him extra space.

Another thing we added this year is the ability to adjust the shading of your defensive backs on receivers. Now you can play press on an individual receiver on a play as opposed to playing press on everybody. You can also have a defender shade inside or outside of the receiver depending on whether you press shade left or shade right. Or you can just back one guy off and give him extra space