Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

[darknmild]

Offline, it wasn't a shootout for me, if you find the right sliders. The CPU QB AI is truly illogical if sliders aren't moved. Dink and dunk, and no AI in avoiding a rush.

My patience runs thin messing with sliders for several months.

Kudos to sliders guys!

I agree whole-heartedly

[MossMan84]

Why cant a game just do it like this: Throw a pass, press a button to switch to the WR, then you have choices to press a different button for a different action; say press A to switch to receiver, A to make a catch in stride, Y is jumping catch, X is diving catch, B is one handed catch, trigger button to grab or tackle defender, trigger button to swat ball (change into defender) or whatever! Buttons should all be customizable so you can have it your way but just pressing and holding one button or holding down five buttons to perform one action is just silly rabbit; tricks are for kids!

[Skyboxer]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

That's all well and good BUT only after they get the AI to be able to make those same smart decisions on their own.

[Deezo]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

I told myself I wasn't going to get excited about Madden this year...but I've said that for a long time...

[Deezo]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

That's all well and good BUT only after they get the AI to be able to make those same smart decisions on their own.

I agree. The AI needs work. I tend to just let the defense play on their own and sometimes...okay most of the time DB make horrible decisions.

[Potatoes002]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

That's all well and good BUT only after they get the AI to be able to make those same smart decisions on their own.

This. Hopefully sliders will actually work properly this year so we can adjust the new changes if they don't.

[Big FN Deal]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

Interested to see what this means to the game, but as someone who's pulled himself away from the series the past few seasons, I'm not too optimistic.

I've come around to the thinking of others that most improvements will prove futile until they address the elephant in the room: player movement. I have no doubts M15 is one of the best on field Madden experiences in years. But it still largely presents itself as the same game bc it looks/feels so familiar. The various free-to-play experiences I had showed that.

I get that player movement is a massive undertaking. That said, I count M10 as the year Madden decided it was going 'sim'; I think 5 years is long enough to improve perhaps the most important aspect of the game. Yes, that's a shallow way of looking at things, but after all this time, it's clear what will continue to hold this game back despite investments in core gameplay.

That's all well and good BUT only after they get the AI to be able to make those same smart decisions on their own.

The frustration comes when simple concepts like these seem like a foreign language when trying to relay them to people affilated with Madden. Never can I recall player movement and AI being as trivialized in a sports sim as they are in Madden. "Wanting solid AI is tantamount to wanting the game to play itself, video games are meant to be played not watched" and "realistic player movement reduces User control and fun factor", what language is this and from what planet?

I just got myself irked for a second by posting that because some versions of those have actually been stated in reference to why AI and player movement are the way they are in Madden. I'll leave it there because pondering the absurdity of those statements in relation to making a sports sim has completely derailed my train of thought.

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

"[...]video games are meant to be played not watched" and "realistic player movement reduces User control and fun factor", what language is this and from what planet?

The planet of someone who actually designs and builds video games, probably.

Game designers and developers aren't making games to fill a tiny niche, they are making games to capture as wide an audience as possible for their particular artistic vision so they can make a profit and continue to make more games. If that requires taking some liberties with what real life offers, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

And before it's mentioned, and to be more specific - just because Tiburon has a particular artistic vision for their game that sources from NFL and that they are attempting to make a game about the experience of playing NFL football does not necessarily mean that every last detail of their game will be true to the source material. They are absolutely allowed to take liberties where required for what they think will make for a better and more complete game. Would I prefer that they took the more authentic approach? Absolutely I would. I'm not going to automatically write off the game if it doesn't, however.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

The planet of someone who actually designs and builds video games, probably.

Game designers and developers aren't making games to fill a tiny niche, they are making games to capture as wide an audience as possible for their particular artistic vision so they can make a profit and continue to make more games. If that requires taking some liberties with what real life offers, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

And before it's mentioned, and to be more specific - just because Tiburon has a particular artistic vision for their game that sources from NFL and that they are attempting to make a game about the experience of playing NFL football does not necessarily mean that every last detail of their game will be true to the source material. They are absolutely allowed to take liberties where required for what they think will make for a better and more complete game. Would I prefer that they took the more authentic approach? Absolutely I would. I'm not going to automatically write off the game if it doesn't, however.

Agree but the things I'm talking about are like WR's not even trying to attack the ball in M15 while the DB does... etc..
Fundamental FB things...

Thoose things IMO aren't design choices, they are failures.

As far as how the game is controlled etc.. yeah those are choices.
Yet we still have 1 option for the most part on how we play.. ie 1 passing system.
Their design choices seem to alway be choices that help cover up flaws instead of them choosing to advance the game...

Ok off soap box

[SageInfinite]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

Agree but the things I'm talking about are like WR's not even trying to attack the ball in M15 while the DB does... etc..
Fundamental FB things...

Thoose things IMO aren't design choices, they are failures.

As far as how the game is controlled etc.. yeah those are choices.
Yet we still have 1 option for the most part on how we play.. ie 1 passing system.
Their design choices seem to alway be choices that help cover up flaws instead of them choosing to advance the game...

Ok off soap box

Not to mention Rex and co made it a point to preach sim, sim, sim. If that's what they want to put out there, shouldn't realism trump everything? If not just say "Hey, we're making a fun NFL game, it might not be the most realistic we can make it, but we're trying to please everyone."

I just have a problem with them hammering home sim and realism when there are clearly things well within their control that go against that realism direction.

If we are such a small niche, why are they all of a sudden making it a point that they are trying to target us?

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

If we are such a small niche, why are they all of a sudden making it a point that they are trying to target us?

Word of mouth advertising is still a helluva thing in video games. As evidenced by the volatility of any discussion involving Madden NFL nowadays, Tiburon's game could use a bit of positive word-of-mouth. The people with the loudest voices in the Madden community are those at places like Operation Sports, they are the hardest of the hardcore Madden players just about.

Get those people on your side and get them talking about your game positively - or hell, even neutrally at this point would be an improvement - and you probably make a few more bucks off second-hand recommendations.

That's not me being cynical, to be clear. Just solid public relations; Tiburon is still recovering from the various missteps early on in the XBOX 360's console life cycle, and throwing bones to their most vocal players and most prominent YouTubers / Twitch streamers each year to change the tenor of the conversation around the game while still delivering the creative vision they've put down on paper to build for the year can only be a good thing.

I don't doubt that Rex Dickson and his team want to make an authentic video game. I think it's a noble goal to strive for and a valid creative vision. But it's just that, a video game. To that end the game is going to be inherently unrealistic at some level, concessions to authenticity are going to be made on that account because we're ultimately still talking about a video game. And I'm okay with that. Further, I obviously don't have the platform or power with which to change Tiburon's creative vision and I mostly enjoy what they do produce each year at this point - admittedly I do have some gripes - so I'm happy with my purchase each year.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

Same here CM.
I enjoy Madden for what it's worth.
However I just know how much more I would enjoy it if fundamental flaws were addressed.

I probably had the most fun of any Madden game with M15. I, as a FB lover, would love to see it tilt more towards realistic play and less video game. IMO there can be a balance achieved somewhere.

[Tommyklaid]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

Same here CM.
I enjoy Madden for what it's worth.
However I just know how much more I would enjoy it if fundamental flaws were addressed.

I probably had the most fun of any Madden game with M15. I, as a FB lover, would love to see it tilt more towards realistic play and less video game. IMO there can be a balance achieved somewhere.

^^^ THIS.

LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, LIKE, L I K E !!!!!!!!

[illiterateoption]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

Not just because of the previous two iterations, but for what has gone on over the past decade, its safe for everyone to assume the new "dominate the air" feature will be more of the same. Another button system, similar to the defensive line controls from Madden 15, that will make for another selling point and compartmentalized gameplay feature layered on top of a game engine (Ignite or otherwise) that we've been playing since at least Madden 13.

The question is, why pay more for more of the same if the core (game engine) isn't being replaced? For me, I don't see value in it this year. I don't see value in buying the same game engine again with half implemented features or layers on top of it. This has nothing to do with writing the game off or wanting to reach some kind of Sim-nirvana but just waiting for Madden to provide in return what consumers are paying for.

[bringbacksimfootball]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Features All-New Controls to Dominate Air Supremacy

I've come around to the thinking of others that most improvements will prove futile until they address the elephant in the room: player movement. I

If that's the elephant, then there is still a Colossus to address, except it can't be now, and that's them porting over long outdated code and tools to this generation which effectively doomed this generation from the start. I hear they're still using ANT as their core animation tool and that to me is just criminal if true. We're talking early 2000's tech here in 2015, and even during that time it wasn't great tech compared to its competitors based on the outcomes at least.

What's frustrating about Madden 15 is that the game has so much potential, but so did a lot of other Maddens, but just like other Maddens a mountain of quality gaps with minor details prevent that potential from being realized, not to mention the glaring ones like AI and animations. So many minor details are either broken, done wrong, or missing, and have been that way for so long, it's obvious that they don't care about them, and many of their public interactions back that feeling up.

At this point, if people want something new and the possibility of something with a better future, it's going to have to come from another development team, or wait for the next generation in hopes that Tiburon doesn't yet again port their broken foundation into yet another generation and just start fresh (a herculean task, yes, but one that MUST be done next generation if this game is ever going to join the rest of the sports gaming world in the 21st century).

There is no hope this generation for Madden to ever become that genre-defining game we've been waiting on for a decade. When I can pop in an old football game from 360 like APF and be able to pass with an actual rhythm, be able to complete downfield and over-the-top passes without A. My receiver just goofily dropping it after totally securing it like this:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HXbjMg9L3OM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

B. Without a psychic DB or LB knocking the pass away and speeding up to do so and

C. Without every player warping all over the place to fulfill what appears to be a predetermined outcome, something is fatally wrong with the current game that can't give me that and hasn't been able to for 2 generations.