Madden NFL 15: A MBBF Best Buy!

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Teach me to buy digital! Evidently PSN has been hacked and is down.

I don't think it is a hack. It's those jerk DDOS'ers. They have been having fun with Blizzard for a week. Turned their attention toward PSN late last night/today apparently. Lizardsquad on twitter.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I don't think it is a hack. It's those jerk DDOS'ers. They have been having fun with Blizzard for a week. Turned their attention toward PSN late last night/today apparently. Lizardsquad on twitter.

Yeah I think this is it. League of Legends has been getting hit nightly this week too, and I guess WoW a few times as well.

[TroyF]

I wanted three things from madden this year:

1) I wanted them to make defense fun. I'm sick of how boring that side of the ball has been.
2) Make sliders the actually work
3) Be a fun game to play. (for me that means on the filed. Look, I loved Head Coach, you all know I love FOF, I love FM. . . but at the end of the day, sometimes I just want to control the game. Just give me a fun game of football.

By all accounts, this does 2 of the three things well. I won't be buying it until next weekend, so I'll see if there is a day one patch for the sim stats. If there is, I'll buy the thing and have fun. FWIW, I really like the mini game modes and will enjoy if they improved that a bit.

[BillJasper]

Playstation Network is back up and Madden has downloaded!

[Icy]

To troyf's list i would just add, make ratings matter so not all players are exactly the same, this plagues all EA sports games where beside the top 3 stars, it doesn't mater who do you have in your team.

[gstelmack]

NCAA has been good for that on ratings, if you don't screw around with sliders to neuter the ratings.

[MizzouRah]

I just played my first full game with the trial.. Raiders vs Rams in St. Louis.

What a FANTASTIC game! I won 23-20 in OT.

Playing on AP defaults with 15 minute quarters and 15 seconds left play clock yielded a pretty great game. Penalties will need adjustments as usual and sub in/sub out setting will need tweaked, but overall I haven't had this fun playing Madden in a VERY LONG TIME.

Shaub was 25-36 for 290 and 1 TD, Bradford was 16-32 for 201 and 1 TD
Jones-Drew was 31-115
Stacy was 30-123 and 1 TD

I played mostly DE Robert Quinn and had 4 sacks.. just a great feeling getting past the OL and hunting the QB down. I'm not big on the defense camera, but I used it a little bit.. I like the traditional view just one click back to see the field more.

The thing that was really cool and hit the final nail in my purchase was.. the game was tied 20-20 going into OT and about 5 minutes in, the game freezes and I about had a fit. So I exit the game and then go back in and was shocked to see the game had auto saved before the freeze... are you kidding me? Was this in the game last year? That made me so happy and I was able to continue where I left off and finished the game. Definitely getting it this year.

For me, I don't see many tweaks yet from default AP besides penalties, sub in and sub out (although the CPU subbed in McFadden a little bit) and the commentary is so-so, but I don't really listen all that much.

[Kodos]

Sounds like a workaround has been found for the poor stats.

Madden NFL 15 Video - Simulated Season Stats - Page 40 - Operation Sports Forums

[IlliniCub]

I bit the bullet and went ahead and pre ordered the digital PS4 edition. Hoping it's good.

[MizzouRah]

Yep.. me too on the digital version for xb1.

Going to play a better rated team on the road tonight and tweak penalties and sub in/out for RB's if it's separate.

[MizzouRah]

I just got smoked by the Chiefs 35-10

I turned all penalties up +5 and had 5 in my game.. going to bump them up another +5 next game. I did see a roughing the passer though. (so the sliders seem to be working)

Sub in/out still needs some work, but at +5 out, the backup RB's are getting a tad more carries. I did a +5 for my DE's as well.

Charles had 198 yards rushing on me though.. what a damn beast!

[IlliniCub]

A little over an hour to go until I can play on PS4...I find myself excited hopefully this isn't a huge letdown.

[EagleFan]

It's Madden, that makes it a letdown. You'll like the bells and whistles the first time you play. Then you will start to see the flaws and soon you will hate yourself for trying to play it.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

A little over an hour to go until I can play on PS4...I find myself excited hopefully this isn't a huge letdown.

I've had fun with it.. of course first impressions are usually good, especially on next gen for the wow factor alone.

We shall see how it goes once I get the full game and can start my Rams franchise.

[BillJasper]

I played as Miami my first time out and got blown out by Buffalo, 31-17 (on default All-Pro). My first pass as Tannehill was a pick six. They had a 28-3 lead at the half.

There is an adjustment factor here. But I really like the field level gameplay. I'm better able to judge the depth of the receivers and the interceptions I threw (3, one was an end-of-game Hail Mary) were because I misread what was going on. They didn't feel cheap like a linebacker skying twelve feet in the air to snag one.

CPU QB accuracy needs to be adjusted (if the first game is any indication) as E.J. Manuel hit 11-12 passes and a pair of touchdowns.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

CPU QB accuracy needs to be adjusted (if the first game is any indication) as E.J. Manuel hit 11-12 passes and a pair of touchdowns.

Just like in real life!

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Just like in real life!

Any game is going to have flaws. Those flaws seem especially huge when you go over something as fine-toothed comb as we go over sports games. Hell, I learned the term "House Rules" on this very board regarding Front Office Football.

Fact of the matter is that I've had a ton of fun playing Madden over the years. Some iterations have been better than others, but they've all been fun. This game I'm playing now is fun. That's all I ask for. YMMV.

[Butter]

Except for that 1 incompletion.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Except for that 1 incompletion.

I was just poking a bit of fun at it. There's a decent chance that I will break down and buy a PS4 and the game sometime this fall.

[Butter]

I was poking more fun at it. There's a decent chance EJ Manuel may be the first qualifying QB to complete 100% of his passes this season.

[Groundhog]

Started an offline franchise with the Vikings last night, and played the first 3 pre-season games, 15 minute quarters with 15 second play clock on All-Pro.

QB accuracy for the AI needs to drop. Although the Vikings D isn't stellar, Cardinals QB Stanton looked like an Eli Manning clone and shredded me for 450+ yards through the air. Basically, if we didn't sack him - which we did 6 times - it was a completion. We lost to Raiders too (RoboMcGloin was also very effective), but won a very good 22-21 victory over the Chiefs that came down to us getting a 4th down stop just outside of FG territory in the dying seconds.

I haven't played a lot of Madden the last few years, so I'm pretty lousy on offense atm, passing in particular. I really like the mini progression drills during the season for XP, in particular the QB defense recognition drill. I actually found them very informative and useful, as I had zero ability to read a D pre-snap (hell, post-snap) before. I ran the Cover 3 recognition drill prior to the 3rd preseason game, and then exploited a Cover 3 for a TD the very next game and was very chuffed.

Presentation is improved but a little dumb - 2nd Q Bridgewater enters the game for the first time, and the commentators talk about how many hits he (actually Cassell) took in the 1st Q. Halftime show is OK, highlights of TDs and important plays. Graphics look great on the field, but in this generation is it still OK to have low res/low poly sideline actors?

On offense I actually kinda like the community playcall screen and use it probably 50% of the time, except for when I want to run with specific formations. On defense I never use it.

Oh, and no penalty in 3 games.

Haven't played long enough to notice any of the player development issues, but as long as the action of the field plays OK I'm not sure it will hugely bother me.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Started an offline franchise with the Vikings last night, and played the first 3 pre-season games, 15 minute quarters with 15 second play clock on All-Pro.

Just started a franchise with the Vikings.

First game against the Raiders, I beat them 13-0. My only TD was an Pick Six in the 4th quarter. I held them to 68 yards of offense (All-Pro, 7 minute qtrs, no runoff). But it was in a driving rainstorm and my offense wasn't exactly humming. I sacked the Raiders QB's a combined 8 times.

I'll tinker as I go with the sliders. After the Raider game, I turned down all of my defensive settings five points a piece.

[BillJasper]

As a side note: I've been browsing the Operation Sports message boards while I was waiting for the release. Those are the most joyless forums I've ever seen. They really don't seem to want any discussion on anything.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

As a side note: I've been browsing the Operation Sports message boards while I was waiting for the release. Those are the most joyless forums I've ever seen. They really don't seem to want any discussion on anything.

Couldn't disagree more with this comment. I remember the OS forums when we had competition in football gaming. The 2K forums were great, mainly because the game was a hit with gamers and people felt like the game did a great job modeling the sport. People don't want to admit it, but EA has killed the enthusiasm of the average gamer for football with its recent offerings.

[BillJasper]

One thing I have to say that I am disliking about Madden '15: the play calling screens. They are just aggravating.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

As a side note: I've been browsing the Operation Sports message boards while I was waiting for the release. Those are the most joyless forums I've ever seen. They really don't seem to want any discussion on anything.

Those forums are only good for information.. contrary to what MBBF says, most of the users there like to bitch about how Peyton really has 12 eyelashes instead of 10 or how the Raiders bench is actually silver instead of yellow.

People today don't enjoy games, they enjoy nitpicking every little thing they can and spend most of their time trying to find issues with X sports game.

I remember playing real sports football on the Atari and having a blast.. good thing there was no internet then.

Although I haven't purchased Madden in many years, I don't spend my free time bitching about it.

This year's game is a pleasant surprise IMHO and while I'm sure there are issues, I'm having fun playing.

Speaking of actually playing the game, let's come up with some slider settings.

I use 15 minutes/14 seconds left and have turned up penalties +5, sub out needs to be increased at least for RB and DL.

[Groundhog]

Yeah I used to read the OS boards for Madden and NBA 2K, but my enjoyment of both games has increased the less of those messages I read.

[BillJasper]

I just played preseason game 2. I decreased all the player defensive slider two to four points and lost the game 28-21 to Arizona. I moved player QB accuracy down to 45.

Arizona had 268 total yards with 95 rushing and 173 passing, and 14 first downs. Palmer was 5-7, 67 yards and 1 TD in a quarter of play.

I had 312 total yards with 2 rushing (I kept Peterson out) and 310 passing, and 12 first downs. Bridgewater was 4-4, 83 yards and 1 TD in a quarter of play.

Each team had one sack.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I remember playing real sports football on the Atari and having a blast.. good thing there was no internet then.

I was playing it as well!

[EagleFan]

Have they fixed what should be basic, the Sim ahead when your player isn't in the game?

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

I had 312 total yards with 2 rushing (I kept Peterson out) and 310 passing, and 12 first downs. Bridgewater was 4-4, 83 yards and 1 TD in a quarter of play.

Each team had one sack.

His name escapes me, but I had a lot of success running and throwing to that speedy HB rookie, 3rd on the depth chart. Peterson's backup I could barely pick up positive yardage with.

[SirFozzie]

Any PS3 owners want to do a connected franchise?

[Icy]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Have they fixed what should be basic, the Sim ahead when your player isn't in the game?

Seems not:

Originally Posted by Xagoth

The sim engine is completely broken is the problem...has been for a long time.

I honestly thought this might be the year they fix it...but nope.

I made a FS to play as an individual on my Bears.

Very first preseason game against the Eagles, they won 48-45. I was an undrafted rookie, so I only played on special teams, which is fine.

But here are the problems:

1. 262 total plays using 15 min quarters with 15 second time left on play clock. Again, this is completely simmed. I played very little.

2. 10+ play drives were taking less than 2 minutes.

3. End of the game, the Eagles are up 48-45, there is 1:30 left on the clock and they get the ball. Bears have no timeouts. Anyone with even an elementary knowledge of football knows what happens here....Eagles kneel and end the game right?

Well...they kneeled...three times...and took a massive 15-20 seconds off the clock TOTAL and then punted back to us with over a minute remaining. We didn't score, so it didn't affect the outcome of the game...but it VERY easily could have.

Now, problems 1 and 2 aren't a big deal. Can lower the quarter length to get the proper play totals more realistic. And drive times really don't matter too much I suppose.

But number 3 is an absolute game breaker if you play as an individual.

A team has the lead with less than two minutes left, they get the ball, kneel three times and then punt it back to the other team with over a minute remaining?!

I have ZERO faith this will be patched since a few of us complained about it last year and nothing was done.

I could have swore I read the sim engine was overhauled...I guess not.

Playing as a player and ToP - Operation Sports Forums

It also bothers me a lot as you need to adjust the Q length to the minutes you think you will get in the game to get more or less realistic stats.

[BillJasper]

I still wish they would hide the player ratings or at least give people the option to do it. Makes getting good players a little too easy.

[BillJasper]

Played a great season opener against the Rams.

Their defensive line is a beast and held Peterson to 18 carries for 43 yards. They were on him all game like flies on shit! I tried a few HB screens to him that totaled 4 catches for 14 yards.

I started Bridgewater and he went 21/36 for 300 yards with 2 TD and 3 INT. Greg Jennings was my top receiver with 4 catches for 105 yards and 1 TD.

The Rams ate me up with Jared Cook. He caught 11 of Bradford's 22 completions for 165 yards.

Total Offense:

Vikings (322) - 281 pass/41 rush, 14 1st downs
Rams (304) - 251 pass/53 rush, 16 1st downs

Overall, with very minor tweaks, this game plays really sweet. Unfortunately, penalties continue to be non-existent. I wonder if this is an NFL thing? I can't believe that these programmers could get this so completely wrong for so long. I've noticed that there is no longer guys getting up and claiming someone grabbed their facemask like in the last few versions.

[Groundhog]

Also played Rams with the Vikings last night. Did a lot better with my starters than I did my reserves in preseason, and won 30-17. Started Cassell at QB while I build up Bridgewater, and had my best passing night yet with 25-34 2 TDs 0 INTs. Peterson 114 yards thanks mostly to two big runs. Still suck at using WRs, with my RBs and TEs doing most the damage in the passing game.

Bradford had a great completion rate until he threw a few picks in the 2nd half, but most were short passes. The Rams rookie HB killed us on the ground in the first half (our LBs suck), but once I pulled ahead they abandoned the running game.

Actually had two penalties in the one game as well, a facemask and an illegal blocking on a kick return.

[BillJasper]

I just couldn't get Peterson going against the Rams. They were sitting in the backfield with him on most plays.

[BillJasper]

Oh, I won 21-17!

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

I just couldn't get Peterson going against the Rams. They were sitting in the backfield with him on most plays.

The first quarter I think I got about 11 yards on 6 rushes with him, before peeling off a 30 yarder. After that I found I had the most success running counters out of the I-formation, calling an audible to a quick pass if the D looks keyed on the run.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

The first quarter I think I got about 11 yards on 6 rushes with him, before peeling off a 30 yarder. After that I found I had the most success running counters out of the I-formation, calling an audible to a quick pass if the D looks keyed on the run.

After what Jared Cook did to me, I'm not looking forward to Gronkowski and the Patriots!

[MizzouRah]

Jared Cook is my "go to guy" for sure.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yikes. Not only was there a glitch, but gamer reports that the pass rusher sacked the QB on five straight plays without being touched by an offensive lineman.

Madden 15 Added A Fun Player-Flinging Glitch

EA admits to problems in Madden 15.

EA Sports Investigating Early Issues With Madden NFL 15 | pastapadre.com

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Yikes. Not only was there a glitch, but gamer reports that the pass rusher sacked the QB on five straight plays without being touched by an offensive lineman.

Madden 15 Added A Fun Player-Flinging Glitch

EA admits to problems in Madden 15.

EA Sports Investigating Early Issues With Madden NFL 15 | pastapadre.com

Bugs in a video game??? Say it aint so!

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Bugs in a video game??? Say it aint so!

Bugs in Madden every year that seem like they have never actually watched a football game nor do they give a damn about quality as long as the sheep keep throwing money at them.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

After what Jared Cook did to me, I'm not looking forward to Gronkowski and the Patriots!

I hear that Gronk is the G.O.A.T.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Yikes. Not only was there a glitch, but gamer reports that the pass rusher sacked the QB on five straight plays without being touched by an offensive lineman.

Madden 15 Added A Fun Player-Flinging Glitch

I seriously doubt it happened five times in a row. Why not show it?

EA admits to problems in Madden 15.

EA Sports Investigating Early Issues With Madden NFL 15 | pastapadre.com

Aren't they admitting to problem areas every time they release a patch to fix something?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Bugs in Madden every year that seem like they have never actually watched a football game nor do they give a damn about quality as long as the sheep keep throwing money at them.

Yeah, they do hours and hours of interviews because they don't give a shit about their product. You may not agree it's a great product, but the Madden team is always explaining certain aspects of their game.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Yeah, they do hours and hours of interviews because they don't give a shit about their product. You may not agree it's a great product, but the Madden team is always explaining certain aspects of their game.

This. They may get things "wrong" but to claim that the programmers don't give a damn is non-sense.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

This. They may get things "wrong" but to claim that the programmers don't give a damn is non-sense.

This comment simply isn't fair to EagleFan nor the programmers. We know the programmers do care and he never said otherwise in his comment. It's always been clear where the problem is with the quality control and lack of innovation in EA's games and we know where it is because of the outspoken programmers/testers.

They've clearly stated that they're overworked just to fit a game in once a year. Not only that, but they often still can't fit in new things into the game and have complained that management even forgoes fixing known problems in some cases just to get the game out the door.

Patches are nearly as bad. With most of the team working on next year's version a month before the game is released, a small staff at best is all that's left to patch the problems. It's not fair to the consumer and it's also not fair at all to blame the programmers. This is a management problem and until there are real changes at that level, things aren't going to change.

[Kodos]

I am shocked (shocked!) to see MBBF ripping a game that he himself has not played. Like every year when Madden comes out.