JohnDoe8865's Blog
5. Spread 'em out!
With the new spread offenses that are coming into popularity thanks in no small part to potential Madden NFL 25 cover boy Colin Kaepernick and similar quarterbacks, the offensive playbooks desperately need an overhaul. We've had very few changes in this department for years and it's even worse in the defensive playbooks. You simply can't replicate some of the more dynamic option attacks on offense and some of the exotic NFL defensive schemes right now and that needs to change.
4. The way you move...
Player movement has been a major gripe of Madden NFL players for years. A particular gripe are the mo-capped run cycles that show players stepping too high and striding too far. The change of direction animations are among the worst in sports gaming. We need true foot planting and momentum. The analog sticks should be more responsive when controlling a player allowing you to finesse the player's speed and agility. And while we're at it, can we please get WR/DB interactions back in the game? The five yard fight for the ball and the jostling for position?
3. CCM 2.0?
Connected Careers mode was more or less a critical success and while it left more than a few die-hard fans spurned it appears that it's here to stay. If that is the case, then the mode needs some pretty drastic improvement and that shouldn't be too much to ask. I think it's important that the Madden NFL team come to some sort of compromise with the fans who want 32 teams control. The sim engine was supposed to be good enough in Madden NFL 13 that 32 team control wouldn't be necessary, but we all know how that turned out. I could literally write pages on the improvements that are needed to CCM, but our own Madden forums do a pretty good job of outlining the issues, and frankly EA Sports should be aware of those problems and be working on a fix for Madden NFL 25 by now anyway.
2. Infinity Engine 2.0?
Most everyone agrees that the infinity engine was a needed innovation in Madden that was a long time coming. With a years worth of data collected and a full development cycle to refine the physics engine, Madden NFL 25 should be a much tighter, more dynamic experience without many of the quirks that exist in the Madden NFL 13. Simply put, clean it up, tighten it up, and expand it to further eliminate the reliance on animations. The infinity engine has the potential to be great and it flashed at times in Madden NFL 13, but the frustrating glitches and body morphing that happened really served to kill the immersion.
1. Get in the trenches!
One of the biggest complaints, for as long as I can remember playing Madden NFL, is that the blocking and Offensive Line/Defensive Line interaction is borderline broken. Blocking assignments in the open field are particularly troubling. Linemen seem to stick to each other, unable to disengage at the point of attack. The animations are stiff and often times out of place. There is no horizontal movement from the defensive linemen trying to shed blocks. Great defensive ends aren't nearly the threat that they should be. This is, in my opinion, the biggest offender in Madden NFL that is long overdue for significant improvement.
Final Thoughts
There are numerous other important improvements which could be touched on, including correct NFL uniforms, a challenging kicking/punting mechanic, fixing the broken penalties, and fixing the broken challenge system. All of these are important for the team at Tiburon to get right for Madden NFL 25. Only time will tell, but if the top five issues are addressed in this year's game, we could see what I believe would be the first great NFL football game on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
# 17
willithome @ Mar 20
I still can't believe that make the game more exciting isn't on this list. Improve the crowd, commentary, make it feel like you are actually playing a NFL Sunday. Score ticker, info from around the league during your game stuff like that. Make the game feel authentic. Right now it is so bland and boring cause of the lack of excitement. I think that gameplay would be better if it just felt exciting every play. Anyway just my opinion.
# 18
thegame19991999 @ Mar 20
The best way to make madden better is too have competion or we need to stop buying.
# 19
JaySwizzlez @ Mar 20
Commentary and presentation was seriously lacking in '13. Worst commentary in any game i've played in the last five years... even ten years. If a receiver drops the ball, I expect a "and Moss can't hang on to it" and not "what a terrible throw by the quarterback." Seems just like a lack of effort and time in that aspect of the game.
They need to slow down the gameplay, thus improving player movement. The gameplay just feels so far from the real thing.
CCM improvement is needed. I played it a TON this year and I think that it could be even better next year.
They need to slow down the gameplay, thus improving player movement. The gameplay just feels so far from the real thing.
CCM improvement is needed. I played it a TON this year and I think that it could be even better next year.
# 21
schnaidt1 @ Mar 21
ratings ratings ratings!!! SPREAD THEM OUT!!! and give only a handful of players a 90 rating or above.
bring back potential system but make it fluctuate based on stats vs peers.
remove a bunch of useless ratings and add tendencies tendencies tendencies!! and add them on a scaled of 1-100. tendencies are more crucial to how the game plays than ratings...anyone who has played nba 2k knows that.
fix penalties. add more of them. add more slider options as well.
add more weather affects an equipment options.
make snow pile up an not always look the same the entire game.
allow us to have open roof games in retractable roof stadiums in ccm if the weather is nice.
have more stat banners during the game about season stats or previous match up stats. or 3rd down passing stats. etc.....they need to grasp the immersion factor but they wont do it.
bring back potential system but make it fluctuate based on stats vs peers.
remove a bunch of useless ratings and add tendencies tendencies tendencies!! and add them on a scaled of 1-100. tendencies are more crucial to how the game plays than ratings...anyone who has played nba 2k knows that.
fix penalties. add more of them. add more slider options as well.
add more weather affects an equipment options.
make snow pile up an not always look the same the entire game.
allow us to have open roof games in retractable roof stadiums in ccm if the weather is nice.
have more stat banners during the game about season stats or previous match up stats. or 3rd down passing stats. etc.....they need to grasp the immersion factor but they wont do it.
# 22
rudyjuly2 @ Mar 21
The foot planting and momentum is huge. But I can't believe you didn't address cpu AI. For me that's the #1 issue in the game. For offline gamers Madden took a big step back last year and it needs a monster improvement. Late game AI was awful last year. Cpu QBs are still dumb as rocks on anything under All-Madden throwing way too many picks and really struggling in the passing game. Situational AI is awful too. The cpu secondary constantly gave big cushions for easy curl routes last year. 3rd and 4? Just run a curl or hot route to one since the cpu CB will sit in soft coverage a lot and make no adjustments. If they press then hot route deep and if he beats the deep coverage you have a huge play. The cpu made no adjustments to this! I'm normally a bad passer but had to house rule myself and stop using hot routes altogether. The difficulty was so watered down last year that All-Madden default was easier than All-American default from a few years ago and the sliders were so weak in some areas that some gamers couldn't fix it and had to give up on Madden. The cpu play calling early on in CCM was run, run, pass most of the time too. That needs fixing. Way too many steps back in cpu AI last year when it was still piss poor to begin with.
# 23
Doogie09 @ Mar 21
Thankfully rented M13 and that was it. Went back to M12 gladly. Same plan in place for this year...I'll buy if gameplay is decent, stats are realistic, and the XP stuff is refined. Otherwise...M12 for another season....
# 24
bleevable @ Mar 22
To further your pont on CCM JD8865, the CCM needs to allow the user to use there Created Playbook in this Game Mode. You are allowed to create a coach so why not allow us to use our own Playbook?! After playing this game for all the 25 installments (and working for the company), everybody will use about 10 of the top current team playbooks in the game. But, when an user creates there own playbook, the style of play is limitless throughout its cycle. So please, please EA put this optin in CCM!!!!
# 25
David Brown @ Mar 23
I would like to see a better coaching mode liked the one in NCCA Football. The college football game coaching mode is much more fun to play. Madden coaching mode is junk. Also they need to add some more of the great coaches to compare yourself with.
JohnDoe8865
59
9,612 Forum Posts
40 Blog Entries
611 News/Blog Comments
53 Reader Score Votes
187 Friends
20 Chalkboard Messages
52 Screenshots
9 Videos
271,695 Arena Visits
JohnDoe8865's Blog Categories
JohnDoe8865's Xbox 360 Gamercard
JohnDoe8865's PSN Gamercard
' +
More
JohnDoe8865's Friends
Recent Visitors
The last 10 visitor(s) to this Arena were:
JohnDoe8865's Arena has had 271,695 visits
JohnDoe8865's Arena has had 271,695 visits
Working...
And no, I wouldn't consider a great sim engine to be a good trade. I wanna be able to play whatever game I wanna play in my own season.......period!!
I don't wanna play a (Dallas Cowboys) season.....I wanna play an NFL season.