Madden NFL 25 News Post

Madden NFL 25: Next-Gen Gameplay Completely Revamped Under the Hood

04:22 PM - October 18, 2013 by Steve_OS

Madden NFL 25 features some big under the hood changes.

For those asking, you have your answer. Madden NFL 25 appears, from what EA claims in four separate blogs today (linked below) to have been completely rewritten under the hood for next-gen consoles. It is likely many of the improvements of next-gen sports gaming will be small and fundamental changes to the gameplay with things like contextually aware players and much improved line blocking.

True Step Locomotion
EA claims that they have completely revamped the way players move on the field with hundreds of new running animations and more realistic player physics and movement.

Player Sense (New AI)
Most of the changes seem incredibly small, but could lead to a much more appealing game of football. Players in Madden NFL 25 will make 50x the calculations each play they did over current-gen. The fruits of this? Contextually aware players who will make better decisions in traffic to avoid hang ups and will make smarter plays on the ball.

War in the Trenches
The biggest gameplay enhancement you'll find in today's announcements is the completely revamped the pass blocking system to compliment the newly rewritten run blocking schemes you've seen in current gen. The videos we've seen look much improved, with better interactions between the OL/DL, especially the OT/DE matchups.

Now players will pre-sort defenders thanks to the enhanced AI. During the play, blockers will be making up to 60 calculations a second to determine who, where, and when they should be blocking. This results in some incredibly realistic player footwork and movement and the best looking pocket in video game football ever from the limited video we've seen. You can check out the deep-dive, which goes into a lot more detail on why the new system is better.

What do you think of the gameplay enhancements EA revealed today?

Game: Madden NFL 25Reader Score: 5/10 - Vote Now
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Madden NFL 25 Videos

Member Comments

# 61 roadman @ 10/20/13 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bc21045


	When? Maybe I missed it but at no point in any of those vids did I see the QB in danger of being sacked/forced to leave the pocket/forced to make a throw with pressure in his face.

Ok, you are adding a bit more that what I was thinking on my end.

All the poster said was I want to see pressure with all 4 of the front four. Now, you are adding in the face pressure.

I was thinking upfield pressure, which I haven't seen at all with Madden. It's mostly the paddy cake animations with the front 4.

# 62 bc21045 @ 10/20/13 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	Ok, you are adding a bit more that what I was thinking on my end. All the poster said was I want to see pressure with all 4 of the front four. Now, you are adding in the face pressure. I was thinking upfield pressure, which I haven't seen at all with Madden. It's mostly the paddy cake animations with the front 4.

If all you're talking about is the DE's getting upfield I agree that looks great. I took it to mean the d-line actually beating the o-line and getting pressure on the qb which is not present in any of those videos. Maybe it's in and they chose not to show it in these particular vids, I'm just saying given their history I'm not going to believe it until it's shown or I have the game and can see it for myself. I've wasted a lot of money making the assumption that what they said was fixed was actually fixed in this series.

# 63 LBzrule @ 10/20/13 12:56 PM

See here is what we need. We need two people playing and see the pressure from that and then we need to see 1 player vs cpu and see the players team get pressure on the cpu team. Don't show me what the CPU can do against a human and against itself. It's always been able to do that.

# 64 TeeDogg @ 10/20/13 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadman


	Ok, you are adding a bit more that what I was thinking on my end. All the poster said was I want to see pressure with all 4 of the front four. Now, you are adding in the face pressure. I was thinking upfield pressure, which I haven't seen at all with Madden. It's mostly the paddy cake animations with the front 4.

I think the intent of the vid was to show edge rushing and the formation of the pocket has been worked on. every thing ive seen indicated pressure from the front four. theres no effort to show every possible scenario in these few vids.

# 65 LBzrule @ 10/20/13 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeeDogg


	I think the intent of the vid was to show edge rushing and the formation of the pocket has been worked on. every thing ive seen indicated pressure from the front four. theres no effort to show every possible scenario in these few vids.

While this might be the case, will it be that way for the user controlled team? And will it be that way in head to head games. Often time EA shows off some good stuff, but it is only for the cpu team against you. I don't want to see that, I want my guys to play that way.

# 66 TeeDogg @ 10/20/13 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LBzrule


	While this might be the case, will it be that way for the user controlled team? And will it be that way in head to head games. Often time EA shows off some good stuff, but it is only for the cpu team against you. I don't want to see that, I want my guys to play that way.

I agree on all counts.

# 67 bcruise @ 10/20/13 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slgrant


	I don't recall seeing any "REFS" on the field during game play. It might be a repeat of when the 360/ps3 came out, It took almost 3-4 madden releases before EA incorporated "refs" into the game...EA is really testing the patients of the consumers. The consumers are getting fed up.

From the other thread (no, I don't know the context or where the pic originally came from):

And yes, I know it's just one official in the pic.

# 68 Ijeswannaknow @ 10/20/13 05:24 PM

WHAT ABOUT PRESENTATION??????????

# 69 raguel @ 10/20/13 05:41 PM

Are strip sacks in Madden? I can't recall seeing any before.

# 70 Captain Obvious @ 10/20/13 08:41 PM

its good to see people are still pessimistic about what we seen. imo i think all they are showing us is the pocket which looks very realistic, but i dont think they wanted to show the qb getting gotten to, not yet at least. just the mechanics and the overhaul of an actual pocket, finally in madden. i think there is another animation in regards to spencers speed rush against the right tackle, i think there is one where he does make it to the qb without getting pushed down.

in the seahawks/titans, the LE turns the corner and is almost there when russel releases the ball. as soon as russel finishes his drop back the ends are already parallel with him, hes surrounded. the defense isnt always going to get there. again theyre just showing the mechanics of it.

its good to be skeptical, but have some faith too, its heading in the right direction.

# 71 bukktown @ 10/20/13 10:52 PM

When I see the DEs get upfield I can't help but think of how poorly the balancing system is going to be for draws and QB scrambles. All that I saw in those videos were 2 gigantic lanes to run the QB through.

# 72 CleveCluby @ 10/21/13 02:27 AM

WOW, I am amazed, The Few, The Strong, The Brave, The believers. God bless you all and I honestly hope for all our sakes you get your wish. But for me, I am tired of listening to BS from EA, Hype, Lies, and more hype. Year after year. They are more like our current politicians, meaningless promises after promise. Just like the crap they put out with M25 and then don't even have the decency to patch it, or even acknowledge it. I can understand why so many want to believe because we all want a great FB game, and like campaign speeches, they will tell you what ever you want to hear and then when it's time to deliver, They will pass the blame on everyone else, or simply ignore you. I hope for those that think they are gonna get a great product from EA wont be left with disappointment once again. I think you are going to wake up Christmas morning all excited for that brand new bike you were promised and find yourself a pair of used shoes instead, with another note saying Wait till next year. I sure Hope Santa proves me wrong.. But even if I am correct, I still think some of you would believe and defend EA's lack of concern for it's customers as they pocket you're money. Just my own personal opinion, Nothing against any of you. Again, I would love to be completely wrong. But EA has robbed me for the last time.

# 73 AlterEgoDuane @ 10/21/13 11:35 PM

After watching the videos numerous times, the two biggest issues I have are:
1) The angles the defensive linemen take and how the Olinemen simply "slide" right in front of them no matter what kind of angle the defensive linemen had on them. For example, if the center comes off the ball and takes a step to the right, and a DT is crashing to his left, the DT should have much more leverage than any of these videos are showing when the Center goes back to his left engage him. Instead, the Center simply slides back with little foot movement and engages the DT perfectly. It's ridiculous. All these new animations and they can't get any to show the battle of leverage decently?

2) Defense's animations in general. I know they're saying they've put in a ton of new animations for the defense, but it sounds like their shtick every year. I'm not seeing it. The defense looks almost exactly the same outside some of the new pass rush moves.

Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely pleased we're getting updated Oline/Dline interaction. It's much needed. But if that's the improvement from current gen to next gen, that's still a massive disappointment. These videos have also proved once again that their E3 videos are simply unattainable by this team and they need to stop bull****ting us. I know, they didn't say that's in-game footage, but we all know they implied that we'd be getting something like it.[/quote]

Are they focusing on the "right things"? Sure. But, they are not focusing on them in the right way. This "Ignite" engine is pure trash. Why are they still using canned animations? This is supposed to be "next-gen." Maybe my standards are too high, but if backbreaker can come up with a Real-time physics engine, albeit flawed, and All-Pro Football 2K8 can come up with better, more realistic player models and animations, these videos are terrible, and, to be honest, completely unacceptable for a next-gen system.

The fact that people are resigned to saying that this video "looks great" and they are excited about these videos shows exactly how far this series has fallen. This game looks so unrealistic. It looks just like a direct port of the current gen with twitchy, canned animations and things that don't happen in real-life happening in the game because of a lack of a true physics engine.

EA can claim they have a "true" physics engine. But, that is a physics engine built within an awful, flawed animation system, so, therefore, it cannot be a true physics engine. A true physics engine does not need motion capture for canned animations. This is why we still have scripted outcomes. Until the animations are unscripted and created using figures made through 3D rendering, instead of motion capture, we will never get unscripted outcomes.

Stop claiming this is "sim" football when little to no part of the game is realistic at all besides the jerseys and player names.

And don't get me started on the size of the football and the velocity with which it leaves the QB's hands.

EA and their fanboys are in complete denial. The fact that people still buy this poop is mind blowing.

# 74 AlterEgoDuane @ 10/21/13 11:51 PM

Sure, it's a cliche, but EA should take heed: "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken s**t." This applies to Madden and all of EA's football games in that they continue to use a flawed, horrible animation system that should have died out with the PS2 and then try and improve on that outdated, unimaginative technology and try to make chicken salad out of it by just increasing the animation threshold of the people in the trenches. That's not next-gen, that's manipulating an already pathetic and flawed engine.

Stop falling for the garbage. If this is the best we can get, then fine, I don't need to play a football game. I've had it with being lied to, misled and not listened to. So, EA doesn't get my money. I literally canceled my pre-order for madden in favor of watchdogs for ps4. EA doesn't deserve a cent of anything I've earned until they make a product worthy of my purchase. This crap they keep hyping up with new "trench warfare"? It certainly isn't worth $60.

It's a shame, really, because an exclusive license should be a huge opportunity. But, instead, they've ruined NFL video games.

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