Madden 12 News Post

Madden NFL 12 Super Bowl Halftime Blog: Tuner Sets and Surprise Onside Kicks

08:00 PM - February 6, 2011 by Steve_OS

The Madden NFL 12 Super Bowl Halftime blog is online. Tuner sets and surprise onside kicks are in.

Quote:


	""Tuner Sets", introduced in the NHL series and brought into NCAA Football last year, are hugely important to the development of sports games in that they allow us to tune and tweak many existing parts of game code without the major delay that comes from a full title update requiring 1st party console manufacturer approvals. A quick addition to my hacked surprise onside kick code made this feature easily tunable post-ship, and thus much safer against any exploits that may crop up. This isn't the only thing in the tuner sets obviously...we are in the process of moving as many items into these as possible, from gameplay tuning to franchise data to even presentation aspects. We are excited to the possibilities this will open up to our fans in being able to provide live feedback and having us act on it in near real-time. The days of shipping a disc in a box and forgetting about it are long gone, and we want to be at the forefront of blazing new trails in reacting to our audience and improving the game quickly."

Read the entire blog right here, along with a short video showing off the new surprise onside kick, in action.

UPDATE: The podcast is now on iTunes, for those that couldn't listen to it, via the blog.

EDIT: Per Ian Cummings

Quote:


	"RE: surprise onside, you pick a normal kickoff, then hit the B (or Circle) button as the last press on the meter. Your opponent has no clue!"

UPDATE #2: Via Ian

Quote:


	"Since so many people have asked...surprise onside as of today is only allowed 2x per team per game. That value is also in the tuner set."

Game: Madden NFL 12Reader Score: 6.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 44 - View All

Madden NFL 12 Videos

Member Comments

# 21 LionsFanNJ @ 02/06/11 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Line


	i totally agree.....hey they added a camera guy to the sidelines (oh my gosh really....great info Ian i can't wait for a sneak peak)....you guys have no standards. its superbowl halftime and we are talking about a 3 button kick off....REALLY???

you act as if 6 months before release they're obligated to release MAJOR info immediately. Yeah no game does that.

# 22 raz77 @ 02/06/11 08:29 PM

I guess I was expecting a little more with the talk of big things being in the works since last year or earlier.

# 23 statum71 @ 02/06/11 08:29 PM

I hope "True to the Game" means they'll have some TV presentation improvements this year too.

I still cannot believe this is 2011....and no EA Sports game has a Halftime Show. Even NHL doesn't have Intermission Reports. This is a GLARING omission for games aiming for realistic presentation.

# 24 jeremym480 @ 02/06/11 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Line


	i totally agree.....hey they added a camera guy to the sidelines (oh my gosh really....great info Ian i can't wait for a sneak peak)....you guys have no standards. its superbowl halftime and we are talking about a 3 button kick off....REALLY???

Come on now... It would be silly, from a marketing standpoint, to start dropping main new features in February. If they did people would start asking "is this everything?" in April.

# 25 DNMHIII @ 02/06/11 08:30 PM

Surprise onside kicks?.........lol

All I can say is that if EA can't figure out how to implement custom playbooks, but can focus on trash like surprise onside kicks they're completely clueless as to whats really important to a good football game.

# 26 RedZoneD25 @ 02/06/11 08:30 PM

Anyone else think the game looked REALLY nice for such an early build?

# 27 goodygoody @ 02/06/11 08:35 PM

I like the bar at the top. But, i think that they should put a bar on the bottom as well for schedules and scores around the league. I would LOVE that.

-Wishful thinking-

# 28 ryan36 @ 02/06/11 08:35 PM

my concern is that Ian posed a poll...would you rather fix play action, or have surprise onside kicks....

If PA stays broken, that sucks.

# 29 Joborule @ 02/06/11 08:36 PM

Anyone having troubles with the podcast? Not working for me.

# 30 Dog @ 02/06/11 08:36 PM

Solid information.

# 31 LaW97 @ 02/06/11 08:36 PM

what exactly is tuner sets???

sounds like sliders to me,we already have sliders

# 32 loloben @ 02/06/11 08:37 PM

I like how people are using fancy words like "physics", "tackling engine", and "player models". I should've known people would have complained about something Madden doesn't need to fix

# 33 jeremym480 @ 02/06/11 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Line


	WHY???? this is why they have a hype score of 5......drop some good info and get people excited about the game. and if you don't have anything then just skip the blog all together....i know they can do better than to talk about a 3 button kick off....lets be honest now

No sports game releases the best info first. Especially, 7 months before the game is actually comes out. Let's be real now

# 34 NoTiCe_O @ 02/06/11 08:38 PM

Suprise kicks are a nice addition, I was sick of picking a normal kickoff then audibuling to an onside kick to throw the return team off, only to have the return team audible and me having to wait for everyone to line up smh

I jus hope this isn't a back of the box feature, I miss the days when I actually had to get good at a game, and learn the little things like this. Having people like "Yoo how'd you do tht!? you play this too much!" Hopefully EA doesn't advertise surprise onside kicks.

# 35 Senator Palmer @ 02/06/11 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LionsFanNJ


	The problem was the tuners were attached to the patches. Thus you COULD NOT select what tuner set you'd like to use unlike what happened with NHL's tuner sets.

Okay, I think I get what you're saying.

You could delete the patch and choose to keep the tuner, though, but you didn't have the option to choose between tuner 1,2,3, etc.

# 36 ryan36 @ 02/06/11 08:44 PM

All in all, a good blog. And yes , the "good" info doesn't come up now...there's still 6 months til release

# 37 iAM-IncReDiBLe- @ 02/06/11 08:45 PM

I'm excited......

an no I'm not being sarcastic I'm genuinely excited.

# 38 ryan36 @ 02/06/11 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Line


	negative.....juicy info is what gets people talking about the game months ahead of time......factor that madden games no longer have. i know im not excited and telling by the hype score, no one else is either.

A high hype score half a year before release isn't likely

# 39 LaW97 @ 02/06/11 08:46 PM

can someone explain what is the difference between tuner sets and the sliders we normally tweak

# 40 ryan36 @ 02/06/11 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coach_III


	Thanks for making online unplayable

a) not everyone is an online gamer, and b) play in sim leagues...problem solved.

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