Madden NFL 18 Retail Impressions

[NYJin2011tm]

lol the Lions(cpu) beating the Jets(me) 48-24 with 30 secs left in the game Lions throw deep bomb for TD.

[fripperiffic]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

A fix for the sack issue: JoshC1977's Madden 18 Sliders (for CFM only)

Yeah, that was a really interesting post, but I am not about to leave the sliders completely alone either. The QB's are still far too accurate, and the defense has been mostly miserable. Injuries are out of control as well. I like the idea of default, because that is supposed to be what the studio has programmed to be optimal, but a lot of times, it is really out of whack. Like my receivers dropping half of the perfect passes in a game. I know that happens sometimes, but I have seen sometimes upwards of 8-10 drops on perfectly on target passes a game so far. And the fact we have to try and modify all of the QB tendencies is lunacy. For the money they bring in, I really don't believe EA is matching it with competent development and precision. Its the obvious downside to them having a monopoly on the NFL. I know that is a dead horse that has been beaten to dust, but it never becomes less infuriating. I feel like this years game is close to being really really fun, but it seems like year after year, they dont patch some of the biggest issues with the game.........

[l8knight1]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

I kinda suck so far. It is not unusual to take time to get my Madden legs back but damn, 1-2 in my CFM playing on all pro lol. In the past I get bored with the game because I can go to the SB every year on AM with my Ravens. I actually hope its not just rust and I can stay at AP, because I do think it gives me funner gameplay. Anyway, yet another issue on defense, how dreadful defenders react to scrambling QBs. They literally wait until the QB passes the LOS before reacting to him. I've gotten multiple 20+ yard scrambles with Flacco because they don't recognize that Joe is taking off. Same thing on the other side, my dudes don't react either. If AI QBs scrambled intelligently it would be nigh impossible to stop them.

I am scrambling a lot against CPU and online guys as I'm having trouble passing. Lots of drops after hits when someone finally gets open on All Pro (Sim offline). I guess I just suck. Seems to me that receivers are picky about the type of ball you throw too, lob/touch/bullet, and that you need to use the catch controls more too.

[Melicant]

My very first experiences with the game so far have not been good.

In the intro game with Falcons vs Patriots I was playing as the patriots. McCourty was named Super Bowl MVP with 4 tackles... meanwhile Dion Lewis had 230 all purpose yards and 2 TDs, and Eric Rowe had 2 INT's.

First Franchise game I see the legacy issue of the opposing HB getting way too many carries. I supersimmed/played moments and the CPU had many long drives where the starting HB had 10+ carries during the drive without being subbed. He ended with 36 carries....

[DeuceDouglas]

Played the Lions last night and won 23-20 in a really fun game. I was down by 10 points twice and battled back to win on a last second FG. One thing I really liked was that Stafford was 17-34 passing and he was really errant. It's good to know that's at least possible on All-Madden. I've got their QB Accuracy at 17 so knowing that I could actually stand to bump that up is really nice. All-Madden feels so much better than M17.

Defense is still pretty awful though so I'm looking forward to the first patch big time. Little worried about how the pass rush increase is going to affect AI QB's as I've only had one game out of over 30 where I didn't have multiple sacks.

Using the pass rush adjustment keeps giving me a bug where the "perfect" timing indicator when you're rushing is popping up when I switch players and at times like when my returner catches the ball or QB hands to the running back. Kind of annoying and weird.

[teeteegardner]

I have noticed also that the WRs are dropping catches when they get hit after being open a lot. Also notice the pass rush or lack there of...pressure on the QB should be pretty constant unless your dropping everyone in coverage. offline sim. still feels a lot like M17.. the sliders just never transition well into that mode which has plagued it for the last 3 years and the D zones ofcourse are basically not working.

[DeuceDouglas]

Just hopped into CFM to take a quick look at things.

Did the same thing I did last year as soon as I loaded up and that's tested the trade logic. It was said in the blog trade tuning was improved.





Safe to say not much has changed there. Took me all of five minutes to acquire Aaron Rodgers and the likely overall #1 pick in next year's draft and for basically scraps. The worst part in the Jets trade is that the fifth-rounder I offered was actually the turning point from rejected to accepted on that trade. Packers ended up doing the same thing they did in 17 and signing a FA QB the next week. Last year it was Fitzpatrick, this year Kaepernick. Teams still seem to value their "needs" in trades WAY too much.

Simmed to mid-season and it looks like none of the AI teams know how to utilize IR. Week 9 and there was only one guy in the entire league on IR:





Wanted to test auto-subs so loaded up into a game and a few bits of commentary I heard were nice. Talking about the number of punts I had the week prior and referring to the ticker was a nice update. Also had them talk about Ware's running stats up to that point and that it looks like he was on pace for a 1000 yard season. Good stuff.

And auto subs do work but only for the user. This is likely another issue with the whole needing 32 profiles for each team set up they have for CFM. But it definitely works for the user. I set it at 100-95 for the RB and he came out after back to back carries each time. But the CPU gave Elliot five straight carries at one point and he continued to stay in so that's disappointing that it isn't universal. Still no special teams sliders for the CPU either.

Going to go into it a little more in depth later and look at some draft logic as well as sim stats but on the first look it seems like the same old terrible franchise experience.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by l8knight1

I am scrambling a lot against CPU and online guys as I'm having trouble passing. Lots of drops after hits when someone finally gets open on All Pro (Sim offline). I guess I just suck. Seems to me that receivers are picky about the type of ball you throw too, lob/touch/bullet, and that you need to use the catch controls more too.

My experience with passing is common to many Madden gamers, but completely unlike what I've been in the past.

My stat lines have looked something like 26-34 322 yards, 2 TD 2 int.

Through 3 games Flacco has 8 interceptions. Eight ****ing interceptions lol

To put it in context, in my past franchises my goal has always been to stay below 10. Normally I hover around 8-12 interceptions for the year. I consider it a failure if I average one a game. And I have 8 through 3 ****ing games! lol

I wanna say 6 of them came in the 4th quarter of games, when the AI presumably switched to aggressive play ball in air, so I need to adjust to that. But for the most part they are on me, making wrong reads, being slow on reads, etc. There have been a couple where I cursed the stupid AI WR though.