Madden 12 Catch-All

IMAGE(http://cdnl.complex.com/assets/CHANNEL_IMAGES/VIDEO_GAMES/2011/05/news5/madden12box.jpg)

This is thread will be about the game itself. I have doubts that I am going to want to play in a league, but I was really impressed by the demo. I was surprised by how much better the game felt than even Madden 10, which I the only Madden game I enjoyed since Madden 94. Whiile I felt like Madden 11 was a step back, this feels like a new beginning.

Mostly, it feels like Madden is now taking cues from NCAA rather than the other way around. I'm pretty excited to give my chiefs a test drive when the game comes out. I'm not sure that I am on-board for picking it up on release day, but I would have a hard time resisting a good sale. And I'm also vulnerable to hype. As the NFL season draws closer, I'm going to get that itch to throw passes to Dewayne Bowe and run the ball with Jamal Charles.

Anybody else enjoy the demo?

Demo felt like NCAA 12 with Madden jerseys. They need to slow it down a touch(probably a setting option like in NCAA) and it'll be solid. Sucks that you can only be Green Bay or the sh*tcago Bears.

I was looking into the franchise changes to see if there were any improvements and it seems like there might be. I might grab it used off of Half.com down the road.

Leroyog wrote:

Demo felt like NCAA 12 with Madden jerseys. They need to slow it down a touch(probably a setting option like in NCAA) and it'll be solid. Sucks that you can only be Green Bay or the sh*tcago Bears.

I was looking into the franchise changes to see if there were any improvements and it seems like there might be. I might grab it used off of Half.com down the road.

I agree that it could use a little slow down. I'm assuming it will have a slider for that like NCAA. It feels like a game that might need some slide tweaking (okay, for me, every sport game does!), but it also felt like it should not be hard to find a nice balance.

Madden 10 and 11 had sliders for speed threshold and acceleration. There was also speed setting for the game as a whole. I'm surprised they're not in the demo. Well, the speed setting at least.

I downloaded the demo last night but haven't fired it up. I'm more or less boycotting EA Sports right now as I'm just sick of underdeveloped games, and that whole EA pass thing is terrible, but I still hold out hope that they might put out a good game. Supposedly the changes to the franchise mode are right up my alley, but I may just stick with text sims, sadly.

Downloaded it and tried. It's okay. I agree that it feels a bit too much like NCAA for its own good. Including some prescient defensive AI and a porous offensive line. I played as the Bears on All-Pro and lost by 27 points including 3 safeties. So the defense is definitely strong.

Otherwise I had similar problems with it that I've had with NCAA with one notable exception. I'm trying out the "maximum passing" functionality of these EA games now. LT pump fakes on Madden. And lead passing, etc. seems to just work on Madden. Odd. Who knows, given that I currently have no football game I could be convinced to pick this up used down the road.

Let me know what team you want jay in the organization thread...all are welcome

Looks like Madden has psychic DB's, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwGX...

Jayhawker wrote:

Looks like Madden has psychic DB's, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwGX...

Your point? If NCAA or Madden looked anywhere in the ballpark of those plays I would love those games. Samuel is actually looking at the QB when he makes a break on the ball. Not turning his head as the ball leaves the QB's hand, doing a 180 and picking off the pass. I popped in NFL2k5 today. Still plays better than EA's poop. The presentation of the Madden Demo is pretty cool. Better than 2k in many ways. But the player movement and AI is the same old. I wish they'd spend some time on the engine at some point. Until then I need to pick up hockey or NBA2k or something else.

I'll keep these demos around, but mostly so I can reference them and remember when I don't need to give EA's football games a second chance.

DSGamer wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Looks like Madden has psychic DB's, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwGX...

Your point?

I just thought it was funny. No big deal.

This is the first Madden demo I've played in a long time that I wasn't instantly bored with. The reason being is that they finally put a little effort in to the presentation and atmosphere. They're not totally there yet, and I have my doubts the broadcast won't get stale rather quickly, but the different professional camera angles give the game a fresh new look.

Game play wise, I much prefer it over NCAA 12, and I'm probably in the minority on this one. NCAA 12 is a frustrating game to play passing wise. I doubt EA will ever effectively eliminate the psychic DBs or LBs, but it's just ridiculous in NCAA 12 imo. Madden plays a little more wide open, or at least it felt that way to me. I did change the settings to "slow" and that helped slow down the spastic play some.

All in all, I think from the demo, Madden did a good job of capturing the NFL atmosphere and environment, moreso than NCAA 12 did with the retail version.

Madden 12 for me is a first day pick up. Can't wait to play with Sam and Rams!

sportdan30 wrote:

This is the first Madden demo I've played in a long time that I wasn't instantly bored with. The reason being is that they finally put a little effort in to the presentation and atmosphere. They're not totally there yet, and I have my doubts the broadcast won't get stale rather quickly, but the different professional camera angles give the game a fresh new look.

...

All in all, I think from the demo, Madden did a good job of capturing the NFL atmosphere and environment, moreso than NCAA 12 did with the retail version.

I absolutely agree and was shocked by the presentation. It all seemed to flow so much better. The sftuff they had before felt isolated. This felt more like NCAA.

Psychic defensive players is there way of making the game harder. It's a cheap way to do it, but I'm not sure how else to script it, so ...

I was a sucker and bought the EA Sports whatever thing, mostly so I could enjoy Madden 12 this weekend. Pretty fun so far. I did notice achievements are turned off which isn't really any big deal, just thought it was interesting. I'm noticing some money plays from last season aren't quite so "money" any longer. That's a good thing.

I have to find a way to turn that coach off who is talking into my headset. If I hear him say that establishing the run early in the game sets up the pass later on, I am killing someone!

Looking forward to playing with some other folks and having my butt handed to me. But all in all, it's another Madden for better or worse.

Bill Abner has posted some impressions:

Gameplay

Franchise

Coolbeans wrote:

I did notice achievements are turned off which isn't really any big deal, just thought it was interesting.

That's kind of strange. I saw Abner playing the game earlier this week, and I was able to look and see what achievements he had gotten. I think he had 4 or six of them at the time. Seems odd that they would turn them, off and then back on.

It's looking like it might be fun to play a little offline. But jeez, I don't need another game, let alone sports game right now. I still have NCAA 12, I've been plodding my way through MLB 2K11, and NHL 12 is dropping in two weeks. Add ot that Deus Ex taking all of my free time right now, with Batman: AC staring me down soon.

But if the game plays well, I might be drawn in to play some games with Jamal Charles. He should be pretty amazing in this year's game.

Coolbeans is playing the download preview, Bill's playing the full retail version for review, which is probably why he can get trophies.

His review on the franchise mode is what I was looking for. Sounds like they gave an upgrade to the stuff I found stale and still didn't fix the quality players on FA issue.

Jayhawker wrote:
Coolbeans wrote:

I did notice achievements are turned off which isn't really any big deal, just thought it was interesting.

That's kind of strange. I saw Abner playing the game earlier this week, and I was able to look and see what achievements he had gotten. I think he had 4 or six of them at the time. Seems odd that they would turn them, off and then back on.

It's looking like it might be fun to play a little offline. But jeez, I don't need another game, let alone sports game right now. I still have NCAA 12, I've been plodding my way through MLB 2K11, and NHL 12 is dropping in two weeks. Add ot that Deus Ex taking all of my free time right now, with Batman: AC staring me down soon.

But if the game plays well, I might be drawn in to play some games with Jamal Charles. He should be pretty amazing in this year's game.

Come on and pick it up Jayhawker! You and I were very evenly matched in NCAA so it'd be fun to play Madden. Will (Spynavy) is so far beyond me in skill that I'm lucky if I can cross mid-field. But he's a nice guy so I like to play him regardless, I just have no chance to win.

So head on down to Best Buy or such. Don't make me come over there!

Good post Jayhawker as far as what i seen from the game its ok i play the demo and i will make the purchase soon as friday to be ready to play it as soon as i can. What i am seeing is that differnt madden sites have the game already and are giving out little tips in hopes you will buy their tips package to keep you in steps with the plays of the game. That price ranges from $25.99 to $ 29.99.
I have another question that concern madden in regaurd to the comercials. Why is it that they use the same guys year after year in the walmarts ad to advertise there games? Madden and Call of Duty and in orther game that they have available for the public to buy.

Last but not least how many of you gammers with jobs support your local gamestop store? Well something has come out about them that maybe you either didnt know or you have shove up under the rug. You can goggle gamestop game tampering and read up on this issuse. Peace ALC

Again not to wear my welcome out did get a chance to see a downloaded version of the game. The game looks the same but it has the new fill to it like making a purchase of a new car. But the players mode looks like the right size for the players and what i did see of the playbooks look very intriging. Also the speed of the game was fast but overall the product for this madden gets a passing mark from me. As far as defense thats another matter the person that had the game didnt play good defense case close. Peace ALC

ALC, discussion of Gamestop's transgressions can be found here. There is also some discussion of it in the Deus Ex thread.

Can I suggest that you take a little more time to write your posts in complete sentences, using proper punctuation, grammar, and capitalization? No one expects perfection. I'm a typo creating fiend, after all. But your posts are really hard to follow.

You are lucky Wordsmythe does not find his way to the Sports forums very often. He'd have a coronary.

As I mentioned in the Games You Are Plaing This Weekend thread, I handed EA $25 to play Madden early.

So far it is a mixed bag. While it looks amazing, there are a ton of things that just makes it feel like a budget title to NCAA 12.

The gameplay is a little more janky. I miss not having Gameplay Settings and guessing run or pass pre snap on defense. 30 teams that are all pretty much the same versus 120 teams that are all over the board just feels nerfed. The presentation makes NCAA 12 feel a 2K product.

But overall, it is actually a solid game. I did run for 262 yards with Jamal Charels today, over Buffalo. Thomas Jones was not nearly as explosive. But Dexter McCluster took off on a 57 yard TD run, too. Speedy backs seem overpowered.

Overall I believe a lot of impressions are that running is slightly overpowered.

This game is infinitely easier to pass than NCAA. Man coverage is very good, haven't seen the overly dramatic LB leap or psychic DB. This is on All Madden against AI. Blitzing works like it is supposed to with OL and DL playing gaps better. LBs generally hit the gaps better, but CBs still don't line up properly from time to time. The 4-6 and 1-5-5 play books have been gutted of some good plays which kind of stinks.

Ok, I really have to compliment the voice work. I don't know how long the coordinator chatter has been available but this is my first experience with it. The fact that you can run it concurrently through your headset with the normal game sound on the televison is pretty cool. It might get old eventually but it's shiny to me right now.

It just seems like the game announcers have more life and a varied vocabulary. Hearing them get excited when a QB fires off a long pass (even if it winds up incomplete) helps with the immersion. My favorite experience by far was running back a pick 6 and hearing them break into the 60s Batman theme as my DB chugs upfield.

I took the plunge for the first time in three years. I rather like the changes; the Gameflow stuff is something I dismissed at first, but I found it making me call something other than a standard set of plays I always use, which I tend to fall into. Running does feel very fluid and natural, and tackling feels much better now. There's no more of the "magnet defender knocks me down"; if the defender isn't set right, you bounce off them and keep going.

Yes, the commentary sucks. The very first play of my first game (as Bucs against Panthers), Cam Newton threw some godawful deep pass that missed the WR by a good five yards, and Collinsworth's commentary was "It's rare to see a miss like that from one of the truly good deep passers in the game". Uh, really? There were a number of those brain-fartingly inaccurate bits of insta-analysis, plus, yeah, Gus Johnson just doesn't sound . . . Gus-ish.

Oh, and the bit at halftime where they zoom past the cheerleaders? The cheerleaders are not only in the uncanny valley, they are preparing to march up the slopes and eat our faces. I actually yelped with fear; that is a freakishly horrific set of unrealistic human visages.

Bucs-related thoughts:

LeGarrette Blount is a BEAST. Just plows people over, 98 Trucking rating. Tampa's a fun offense to run. I am looking forward to some roster updates, as I'd like the game to stop talking about how valuable Barrett Ruud is when he now plays for Tennessee. Oh, and love the changes in Franchise mode; the idea of having 70 players or so in camp and having to do cut days each week of the preseason makes it a much more interactive experience. The fact that I could cut players who have always annoyed me was deeply satisfying.

GioClark wrote:

Ok, I really have to compliment the voice work. I don't know how long the coordinator chatter has been available but this is my first experience with it. The fact that you can run it concurrently through your headset with the normal game sound on the televison is pretty cool. It might get old eventually but it's shiny to me right now.

It just seems like the game announcers have more life and a varied vocabulary. Hearing them get excited when a QB fires off a long pass (even if it winds up incomplete) helps with the immersion. My favorite experience by far was running back a pick 6 and hearing them break into the 60s Batman theme as my DB chugs upfield.

Ugh. The problem I have with the comentary, even more than how disjointed it comes off, is that Gus Johnson comes off sounding way more like this guy:

IMAGE(http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID15166/images/willarnett.jpg)

than this guy:

IMAGE(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2011/writers/richard_deitsch/05/05/gusjohnson.cbs/gus-johnson.p1.jpg)

What works in real life comes off as campy schtick in the limited scope of a videogame. Collinsworth is okay, even though I can't really stand him. But his analysis parts pale in comparison to what you get from the 2K games. Even Kirk Herbstreit is more concise and relevant in NCAA 12.

It's not a dealbreaker of an issue, but I pretty much loathe the announcers in the Madden series. I thought Gus Johnson might bring some life to the game, but EA just really doesn't have an understanding of how to do that portion of the game.

While some may wince, I did find some really good sliders over at OS by mkharsh. It really improves the feel of the game. I think it may jump up to being a truly great game.

I also found that 13 minute quarters is needed for a realistic number of plays, and that is kind of brutal. You get the same 120 plays or so from 8 minute quarters in NCAA 12. But Madden has some wonky play clock issues. It start really low on your first play from scrimmage after getting the ball back, resulting in a ton of delay of game penalties or wasted time outs. I've learned to be a little more deliberate in finding a play, but it sucks. And really, it just never feels as natural as it does in the NCAA series, which handles it pretty much perfectly.

In fact, it just highlights another area in which NCAA is so much better than Madden. You can set your team to either get to the line quickly, normal, or slowly depending on how you want to manage the clock. This affects the play clock in a realistic manner. It also affects your players' fatigue, becasue if you are pushing them to the line quicker, they fatigue faster. It's such a great gameplay mechanic that Madden lacks.

I really miss the fantastic way that NCAA handles no-huddle, which allows you are more diverse array of plays to choose from, which is much more realistic. There is no reason Madden should not have adopted this.

I miss the gameplay settings, too. You can't set it to hold blocks longer, but risk more holding penalties and things like that. Some of the options in NCAA are a little gamey, but it provides some fun strategic options that carry risk vs. reward. Madden could use some of this.

On the plus side, the game really is solid on the field. With some slider help, it feels like a really great Madden game. Without it, you can feel like a beast. The run game feels really, really good. But it does feel like speed is rewarded quit a bit too much.

Lastly, it seems like from talk at OS that the Community feature may be something we can use here. Basically, we all log in to be a part of this community, and it streamlines finding games from just our group of players. You can be a part of up to five communities. GWJ's would obviously be fairly small. But it also provides opportunities for three on three team play in which communities face off against each other. I'm assuming there is some stat tracking of at least wins and loses involved in communities.

Of course, this is based on the free release version I played. I have not gone out and picked up the game. I'm up in the air, as I still think NCAA 12 provides a more in-depth and strategic solo game than Madden. Maybe Communities will show up in NCAA 13 next year. It's starting to feel more and more like NCAA is the lead game and Madden is the junior edition.

But damn is the NFL game something I want to play. I love how KC has put together their roster, and I really want to play around with it. So I suppose I will pick Madden up when I find it on sale.

Danimal, have you heard them actually say Cam Newton? I'm wondering if they just didn't record much, or any, voiceover work for this year's Madden considering the fractured development of the game and the offseason uncertainty around football.

garion333 wrote:

Danimal, have you heard them actually say Cam Newton? I'm wondering if they just didn't record much, or any, voiceover work for this year's Madden considering the fractured development of the game and the offseason uncertainty around football.

They have some weird issues in using names. There are guys that they have absolutely mentioned by name, but still call by their number often. They also screw up some basic stuff, like calling the guy back to return a kick as the guy set to kick-off. It really is a mess.

As for Cam, I wonder if that audio is cued to a specific rating on a player. Although it would be odd if Cam's deep ball ability is really that good.

But seriously, NFL 2K5 was a long time ago. It is insane that we still see such bare bones and poorly utilized commentary. When you see what NBA 2K11 can do in a basketball game, where there is very little down time, it is astonishing what EA puts out for a football game that should be 100X easier to pull off.

I used to think the key was getting actors that you could pay less, but force to work more. That's what NFL 2K5 had. But Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellog are really good in the NBA game. If 2K could get football back Kevin Harlan would be awesome to be the voice of that game. He was by far my favorite Chiefs announcer when he was doing radio. He could double dip like Gary Thorne does in the NHL series for Ea and 2K's MLB series. Thorne seems to have a really nice ability to do video game work.

Collinsworth barely changed from 2010 to 2011 (if at all). I think they focused on Gus since he was new. Makes sense.

What excuse do they have this year?

garion333 wrote:

Danimal, have you heard them actually say Cam Newton? I'm wondering if they just didn't record much, or any, voiceover work for this year's Madden considering the fractured development of the game and the offseason uncertainty around football.

I don't think they did, come to think of it, just the "one of the best deep passers" lines. I looked up his ratings, and he has a really high throwing power, so I guess it comes from that? Dunno. There was plenty of name-dropping in the commentary of younger players, but not sure if I heard any rookies.

In Madden 11, I took the Lions to the Super Bowl against the chargers...

"You look at these two quarterbacks and you see the confidence. They've been here before....etc"

NO THEY HAVENT!!!!!