First off, no this is not a joke!
Secondly, this is a lengthy read meant to be constructive and aimed at what I would call Madden veterans and, if you are one, I think you will like where my head is at.

Over the last week or so the first teasers, little tidbits, and initial features have been released by EA. Some of them have caused a considerable amount of debate and discussion. Surfing through the threads like a hungry shark, I have been trying to get as much of a picture of what's coming on August 10th as you can at this point. I have seen the concerns about Gameflow, heard the rumblings about franchise mode information being withheld, and even debated with some of you about the merits, or lack thereof with the "sprint" button.

As I read through as many different threads as I could it became apparent to me that something that had nothing to do with any of the information being released was mentioned over and over again. Even though difficulty level was not part of any EA presented stuff, it came up a ton.

The common theme was clear, All-pro is too easy and All-Madden cheats rather than truly presenting a higher level of difficulty. I started to think to myself, "if I were at EA, how would I address this issue"?

Then I had a moment of inspiring clarity - have the CPU on All-Madden cheat more, but in new and different ways! What if, instead of making the CPU team play above their ratings and my players play like idiots on a high school squad, the game on All-Madden combined a few cheating techniques to make the game more challenging without feeling unrealistic.

What do I mean? Well, a big complaint about Madden is money plays. We all have them, a couple of plays that we turn to when we really need a first down or we are in the redzone and need a TD to ice the game. Well what if the CPU had a 1 in 7 chance (roughly 15%) to "know" your exact playcall? Think of it as if the CPU's coaches did their due diligence and scouted your tendencies. And yes, if you are wondering, Gameflow and game planning kind of led me here. Let's say your "money" play on 3rd and 4 is Quick Slants. The CPU "guesses" correctly, plays BnR while shading your WRs to the inside (shameless begging plug for its return) thus taking away your "money" play. Now you might still win the execution part somehow but your success likelihood just took a nose dive! No attribute bonuses for the CPU or attribute negatives for your players required. A side effect would be forcing you to be less predictable in your tendencies. Now the CPU "knowing" your play does not require much thought by the console, and I would think with the stat tracking available for online that EA could easily get the consoles to track your tendencies in formations and "take away" your favorite plays. If that proves too difficult, they could have the CPU's chance of "guessing/scouting" your play calls correctly increase each time you call the same play. It is the game cheating you in a fashion, but in a much more sim fashion!


One other way I think All-Madden could be made more difficult is with an idea derived from some calls for an NCAA like in-game progression. I do not favor the idea of in-game progression on my team, for user controlled teams. I know which players I am having a hot streak with and when I hit that groove, that player doesn't need any "help" in his ratings. I do think that it would be cool, if a player on my CPU opponent could "get hot". The CPU players would never "regress" during a game, but they could hit a hot streak and, within that one game get a boost (not "physical" ratings like JMP,SPD,ACC,AGI- but in position specific ratings CTH, SPC, CIT, RR, MAN/ZON, AWR/PRC, BKS or DL moves for example). I think it would be acceptable to have a CPU player come into a game on a "hot streak". It could be random or it could be that player in simulation over the last few games has been on fire, so to speak.

Another complaint, that I see and is a pet peeve of mine about Madden, is that "great" players do not play great if they are controlled by the CPU. To me, this goes both ways. The CPU players that are 90+ OVR players should be much more noticeable in game. And the whole point of signing a 90+ rated FA to my team is that he should make plays without me controlling him. As far as the great players on the CPU team I am playing, they should be a regular pain in my ... let's not be vulgar, but you know what I mean. If I am playing against the Cardinals, I should have to "work" really hard to contain Fitzgerald. I should have to double him, shade the safeties to his side, mix up the coverages from regular to off to BnR. And that should open opportunities up for other players to "get hot". Fitzgerald should be a pain in the neck. Now how good my CB playing opposite him is should effect how much extra attention I have to pay him, but you should not be able to shut him down completely without "scheming" for him. Opposing pass rushers that are highly rated should have a similar "disruptive" effect on the game from my, the user's, point of view. They should always use the full arsenal of pass rush "moves" and should "jump" the snap from time to time, maybe even regularly if I do not vary it.

The CPU should recognize "mismatches" and exploit them. If the CPU comes out with 3 WR and I stay in a base 3-4 the slot WR should become the primary target, as most often my LBs are not going to stay with a WR for long.

Now, I wonder if some of the attributes in the game mean anything. Like PRC, PUR, press, and so on. Press I am pretty sure meant absolutely nothing in M10 because you could throw a 60 OVR rated CB on any WR, play BnR and he would disrupt the route. That needs to be fixed yesterday. All the ratings need to be tuned so that they impact the game as it plays. Even on All-Pro, if a kicker or punter gets put on the OL they should get destroyed every time - they really should run away crying at the snap and refuse to go back in the game!!!

The reason I bring up the ratings is because I feel that they can be a powerful tool for EA to use to make the game harder on All-Madden without the old "cheats" like making my QB throw horrible passes despite his decent ratings and the WR running wide open, my feet are set, and there is no pressure. A LB with really high PRC (play recognition) should be very hard to fool with counters, PA passes, screens, draws and so on. I want All-Madden to be challenging, hard as heck even, but not the way it has been for a while now where it just feels like your players got negative 15% to all ratings and all the CPU players were minimum 85 OVR and scaled up and warping through my team to make plays.

I still win on All-Madden as it is now, probably even too much but it has lost its power to satisfy. I hear the complaint all the time - All-Madden cheats you, robo QB, and so on. I have had my moments where I felt the same way. I think having the CPU cheat on All-Madden in the ways I listed above would give the setting a much more organic feel and yet would be the challenge hardcore Madden Vets are looking for.

Boregard