Madden NFL 15: Four Tips To Get You Ready For Launch

To say there are some changes on the field this year in Madden NFL 15 is an understatement, with the new defensive mechanics a large portion of the defense in the game feels completely new and will require a new method of attacking. Conversely, pass defense finally feels like it's at least competent -- so throwing the football around is going to require a bit more thought than just going for money.

Here are four tips to get you started next week:

1. Defensively, mixing it up has never been more important. Running different types of coverages and blitz packages is more important than ever. I have noticed the AI tends to anticipate repeated calls moreso than ever, so you can't fall into a pattern and have to always keep the offense on their toes. When playing a human, you have to really anticipate what your opponent is doing this year. There are defenses to stop every route, but not every defense stops every route.
2. Learn how to read defenses. With the beefed up zones, throwing the ball is going to require at least a rudimentary working knowledge on what routes works against what defense and how to tell what a defense is in. If you try to throw a deep ball into a cover four you will feel as stupid as you should, which is a good thing.
3. Establishing a running game is more vital than ever. With better zone defenses, you are going to want to force your opponent to tilt the odds in your favor with their playcalling in the passing game moreso than ever. That means establishing a running game and forcing them to compensate for it in their playcalling. On that same token, on defense you really have to shut down the run game to limit your opponents options -- if you face someone doing nothing but passing, you have the tools to shut them down this year.
4. For Offline Sim-Heads, Sliders Work -- And They're Needed. Madden isn't going to play the most realistic brand of football it can out of the box ever, and while it's much better than it ever has been, the game still needs tweaks. Right now, my findings tend to see that you need to beef up pass blocking to limit sacks, tone down QB accuracy to get a more realistic set of numbers and spread, and also find a way to perhaps make QBs more aware of the fact they can get rid of the ball faster.

If you have played Madden over the past few days, what are your recommendations for people as they get started playing the game this upcoming week?