Madden NFL 15 News Post

Madden NFL 15: Hands-On Impressions

10:30 AM - June 11, 2014 by RaychelSnr

I had a chance to play Madden NFL 15 on the PlayStation 4 yesterday for about an hour, so this is obviously a small sample size and I expect to have more impressions through the show. While waiting for my opponent to choose his play, I would peek over at the other stations to see more and thus, I’ve seen quite a bit of gameplay. There is still time for the team to tweak some of the items mentioned below, so just remember that as you read through them. These are my impressions from the build I played, I have no idea how close it is to the finished product, nor do I know if things will change for the better or worse when it hits store shelves. I’m just telling you what I’m seeing now with this build, so take it for what it’s worth

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Member Comments

# 61 roadman @ 06/18/14 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GiantBlue76


	Can you refresh my memory on this road? How did it work in NCAA? I had the game briefly but couldn't remember...

I traded NCAA in quickly last year, but this is what I was going off from Rex podcast last week.

The NCAA model for "no huddle/up tempo" has been adopted for Madden.

That's what I responded, Like NCAA.

Sorry, I can't recall any specifics after that.

# 62 JKSportsGamer1984 @ 06/19/14 03:04 AM

Two things you mentioned that have me concerned are SLIDING & uninterruptible CANNED ANIMATIONS. I really hope those two things do not make it into the final version. With all the talk of True Step, sliding needs to be a thing of the past! I'm also noticing quite a bit of player clipping/morphing after the play is over. Please clean this up EA!

# 63 JKSportsGamer1984 @ 06/19/14 03:34 AM

I hear you but I don't think DB/WR interactions would be the last major hurdle. Although Madden has definitely improved, there's no denying that, I think it's only scratching the surface. The fact is Madden has been so far behind where they should be by now that we've all been conditioned over the years. Subconsciously our standards for videogame football have been lowered. If you really think about it, most of the improvements that Madden is adding have either been done before or should've been in the game years ago. I mean they just added foot planting last year. They just added passing trajectories 2 years ago lol. Now of course I'm glad that they added these things, better late than never but my point is we're giving them praise for adding things that should be no brainers for football games. Now that they finally have a solid foundation, they need to take it to the next level by really individualizing how these players move on the field. We need Signature Ball Carrying Styles, Signature Running Animations, Signature Catching Animations, cleaner physics system, smoother transitional animations, better gang tackling, presentation that tops 2K5, more AI awareness, REAL Living Worlds with Real Sidelines, etc...& that's just off the top of my head. So while the game has improved as it should be, it still has a long way to go. The last thing I want is for EA to feel like they've arrived lol.

# 64 Jerros @ 06/19/14 04:47 PM

Something you guys should check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNLSfjYZbT8

# 65 TTD71 @ 06/25/14 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jerros


	I want to believe in this game and believe all the hype but... I just can't. EA has made a ton of promises before and they always seem to find a way to jip us. I was watching the gameplay footage and while the graphics do look vastly improved, the problem remains that its basically new models using the same animations. IMHO the ignite physics engine is garbage. They need to just re-build Madden completely from the ground up instead of constantly adding bits and pieces to the same pile of crap. The game looks even more stiff in some ways. Watch the video and pay close attention to the animations. It still moves with a weird floaty stiffness until there's a pile up and players are flopping all over the place like crash dummies. I was hoping we would really see more natural flowing animations that represented true human movement. I mean this is next gen. I hope at least the defensive additions aren't just a trend and OP'd. But again, we will see.

I certainly understand what you're saying, but isn't that what we were SUPPOSED to see with the IGNITE engine in the first place?

I've lost track of how many years in a row I have heard wait 'til NEXT year for X, Y or Z feature. The biggest disappointment to me now is the straight up fact that we are doomed to another mediocre generation of football games because of the exclusive contract...

For the old timers like myself, who go back all the way with Madden to the Sega Genesis or earlier, we have been through multiple hardware generations and shifts in Madden - and usually the first couple releases tell us all we need to know about how well or poorly EA/Tiburon will handle that generation's hardware.

Sega Genesis / Super Nintendo era (1991 - 1996) - Madden was great, best available for the time and a sustained period of real growth in the game from graphics, to options to licenses to gameplay...it was really fun to play, it got better each year and the franchise was anything but moribund...if I recall, that was also the time that Visual Concepts (soon to become 2K) was making the game for EA!

PS1-era? (1997 - 2000) Gameday ran circles around Madden for years...in fact, this was right after the only time EA CANCELED a Madden release - Madden '96 for PS1 was never released because it was so bad or because of the conflict that led to the permanent split of VC and EA afterwards (the only people who REALLY know the truth about that affair aren't revisiting it or telling the story, so we'll likely never know all of it)...at that time Madden was dangerously close to where NBA Live is now - they were on their *** and sinking fast...the game had fallen off precipitously and a new generation of hardware was coming on fast.

Dreamcast? Puhlease! 2K OWNED that console and EA was never even close to 2K, 2K1 or 2K2.... don't really recall EA even trying too hard to get on the Dreamcast because they were all in for PS2.

PS2/XB and Madden NFL (2002 - 2007) was the last time Madden was really good for an extended period...there were annual innovations, there were some bold and controversial game play decisions (Playmaker, Vick, Hit Stick, 2005, Vision Cone, training camp), there was creativity and the game was still improving graphically by a good amount each year...even after the licensing went exclusive after the 2005 games. The last two exclusive PS2/XB versions, 2006 and 2007, were pretty good games and high points for the series overall...

Then XB360 and Madden NFL 2006 happened.

There was no PS3 Madden until 2008, but given how utterly atrocious 2006 and 2007 were on XB360, that was more blessing that curse. There were a ton of excuses and valid reasons for the problems....compressed time-frames, changes to the console capability up to the very end, a really hard time getting the new architecture to work, etc....that carried over from '06 to '07 as well - because they did not start working on 2007 until January, that version only got about 6 months development instead of the full year cycle, and on and on it went.

The entirety of the last 8-10 years (really since the release of 2007 for PS2) have been spent in purgatory and starts, restarts, boots and reboots, new teams and new 3 year plans and utter failure to build off of anything substantially:

Madden 2008 and 2009 were wasted trying to "fix" the most egregious errors from the transition...but they also had some really bad decisions too - "The Ring"? Really?

Madden 2010 and 2011 used the PRO-TAK system and actually weren't terrible attempts at a new foundation...but that gave way to what was supposed to be a different direction starting with 2012...but then 2013 was the first of a three year plan....until M25 was released and we have a new console generation starting again.

Now every other thread I read here is stating things like 25 was just a port and 15 will be the "first real next gen game", but M16 SHOULD be the game we have been waiting for - except I heard that before too after M10 and again after M13....only I already own M25 on 3 systems (PS3, XB360 and PS4) and aside from the graphics and a smoother overall appearance (really PS3 looks REALLY grainy and pixelated if you play PS4 for a while and switch back and forth on the same display) the gameplay is the same, the legacy issues remain and the opportunity to truly scrap the foundation and start over for a new generation (as was successfully done with the PS2-era - NFL 2001 and NFL 2002 were far better than 2000 or '99 and they laid a solid foundation for 2003 - 2007 too).

I just find it hard to believe that EA / Tiburon are capable of rescuing this situation without another missed release. They keep making changes, but the things they are changing are not the right changes - if your car is pinging and chugging, changing the driver is not going to make it run any smoother!

The worst era of Madden prior to the present was the PS1 era. When the market shifted from 8-bit to 16-bit EA handled it well and was really a top developer (it was after all where they made their name originally..."If it's in the game....");but 32-bit and beyond transitions have been horrifying.

The team at Tiburon is looking more and more utterly incapable of fixing this mess and the longer it limps along, the more likely we are to have a second consecutive lost hardware generation without a really great football game. I just do not see the kinds of fundamental changes that are needed to turn the corner. Back in 2001/2002, when Madden was at a similar low point, I was not initially blown away by the gameplay and foundation of 2001 (Eddie George) and 2002 (Daunte Culpepper) versions, but I could really see that they were drastically different than the PS1 disasters. Having played M25 and seen M15 videos and clips and breakdowns, I'm just not getting a good feeling about this generation's prospects.

It looks to me like the lesson learned at EA from 2004 - 2014 is more and more "they will buy it anyway because they have no choice" than the lesson was from 1996-2000, where they truly seemed to see "we are getting CREAMED and need to step up our game big time". Working hard at the same thing is only going to get you the same results and a game with as many documented legacy issues as M15 is truly working hard at the same thing.

# 66 Branchurian @ 06/25/14 11:29 PM

well said TTD!

# 67 TeamHawkins @ 06/27/14 05:51 PM

Sounds like the same ole Madden. "Drawn out animations"

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