Re: Madden NFL 13 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)
Here are my FULL impressions for M13.
Gameplay
In M13, we are introduced to a couple of gameplay additions. Total Control Passing was one of them. While it was nice that I could control the type of pass I make, the new feature didn't really do that well, as when I was playing, there were times where I would flick the Right Stick on a deep bomb and the pass still sails to the middle of the field, or when my tight end is on a right out route, I see that he's being covered by Patrick Willis, so I try to lead him more to the sideline by flicking the LS to the right in an almost diagonal direction, the pass goes RIGHT TO Patrick Willis and he picks it off. There are also times where I try to through to a pass towards the receiver's right if he's lined up in the slot, and it's either tipped because it sails if I try to lob it, or it's picked because I try flick the LS to a certain direction. Overall, I found it dissatisfying.
The next feature is Read and React. It is nice, but to me, it was that much of a game changer given the overhaul to the passing game in general. It is a nice feature to have and should not be taken out next year, or next gen.
The all new menu for Pre-Snap/Pre-Play Adjustments, or if you want to call it the Strategy Pad, is a huge problem for me. It lags a lot if you are on defense, and there are times when you try to audible multiple times and it doesn't show up until about the 4th or 5th time you press it. For hot routes, there are certain times where you cannot hot route to a slant, I noticed. I am mixed on that. But going back to defense, there are times when you try to audible to like man, and then make it a blitz as a result of the lag or unresponsiveness. It seems like the best thing to do is not make any pre-play adjustments at all.
The biggest and most hyped up addition was the Infinity Engine. Real time tackling. New hits on the fly. Now, it felt good, sometimes. But about 60% of the time, the collisions, don't really make sense. I remember several times when a player is charging at full speed towards another player, and they both fell on their backs. Then add the twitching and falling and weird body movement post play. It seems as if with the new engine, it will be hard to strip, and there will also be a bit more suction tackling, every once in a while. I didn't really have many occasions where I tripped when running the ball. And there were numerous times when I run, and I was surprised to still see my player not tackled but instead stumbling awkwardly then falling. Overall, IE is a pretty needed addition, but it still needs a lot of work. Of course it's a demo where it won't be perfect. But playing the game itself, the IE didn't really feel like a game changer to me. It just felt like a couple of new tackle animations, some were good, others were not possible in real life.
The trenches. Where games are won and lost. Blocking. O-Line/D-line interactions and work where far from stellar, as we all expected. But my biggest concern was three things: Blocking A.I, Pocket Movement, and DE's. The blocking A.I. was usually bad in many scenarios. For example, it tends to happen when a guy that was supposed to be blocked shedded the block and he is open to tackle, for example, I remember on a counter where I was running with my HB and my FB was right there to block what I think was a OLB. But because the OLB was previously blocked and escaped, my FB didn't even attempt to block him, and instead blocked someone far away in the middle. In short, it's a classic case of the blocker not trying to block the guy in front of him, and instead going inside the scrum to block someone irrelevant. This also occurred on plays where I was standing with my QB, and the FB and HB that were supposed to block a free rusher who was RIGHT THERE didn't attempt and rotated somewhere else. Now, to address the next concern, which is pocket movement, I noticed then if I ever try to move with my QB, the O-Line, specifically the tackles for example, would sometimes simultaneously let go like as if it was scripted and I'd get sacked. O-line also seemed by on 2nd or 3rd and short situations where I'd tried to run up the middle. One could argue it was too easy in M12, but it seems too hard in M13. In real life is not that easy, but M13 replicates that in a different way. Blocking also seems significantly worse in Play Action. I always often see a free rusher zooming right to me. It's like as if they designed so that you always have to use the Abort PA feature. And last, DE's are still not effective enough. Nothing new. Overall, the blocking/line play seems worse in the demo than it did last year.
WR/DB interactions seem better. However, there are times where my Receivers can't catch a pass, and it seems that whenever a pass is tipped and it's in the air and five people are there and have a chance of getting the ball, they drop it and can't hold on to the ball. Also, CB's, OLB's, MLB's, and SS/FS's often still zoom to pick off passes. Not as much, but it still occurs on certain plays. This leads me to one of the other big issues I had with the gameplay.
Running animations, swerving, zig zagging, and player movement; All big issues, possibly the biggest issues Madden has had, and has in this demo. Too put it short, I don't need to juke - the juke move is bad by the way - but yeah, I don't need to juke anymore because of how I can turn on a dime, use my LS to swerve and shift a little bit to the right when a guy is trying to tackle me while running at light speed, or I can just let him run in a circle accidentally. That isn't good. I can move around in circles like in Madden 09 I could and get a Touchdown. It's hard to tackle a player because he can swerve. Say on a counter, your player is in front, and is kind of on the side: the RB can literally sneak through the space and run. That's all I need to say. The problem is that it got worse IMO.
Other
The way the players and coaches look is kind of bad IMO. A lot of the coaches look buff (Pete Carroll for instance) and are not wearing what they wear in real life (Jim Harbaugh has been wearing Black sweater vests from College, through every game last year in the NFL, and even when he golfs as one a 49er fan said). The Player Models are kind of clunky, and the uniforms are inaccurate, for example, the Redskins throwbacks have the Redskins logo on the shoulders. Even Panthers fans complained in another thread about the shoulder stripes. However player faces look may be irrelevant since we don't see them in the actual game, but if they are gonna show the main players in that pre game cinematic intro, they should get it right, which they didn't, as Alex Smith looked like a 50 year old, and Bills fans complained as they didn't even give Ryan Fitzpatrick his beard, and has dark blonde hair (they gave him blackish hair). Like I said, we don't see their faces in the real game, but if they are gonna show it up close, it wouldn't hurt to get it right. I like the uniform dirt effect though. And the lighting effects were pretty good for the most part, it's just that game itself looked dim.
The New Commentary team featuring Jim Nants and Phil Simms (sorry if I'm spelling it wrong) includes commentary that should be good hopefully in the retail version, as in the demo, they are often saying things that don't match what's going on (for example, I threw a pass out of bounds and they said it was a bad throw). I like how they sound but the words they say don't help.
Verdict
Madden NFL 13 offers new additions to the gameplay experience. While these additions are meant to further improve the gameplay, some such as the IE either don't make that much of a difference or aren't implemented good enough; granted it's a demo, and it's the first year, so not too much blame should be thrown at how the IE looks. The Total Control Passing needs work in my opinion. For the Running Animations/Player Movement and Blocking and O-Line/D-line interactions, they are probably the weakest parts of the game. One would say how the players or coaches look is fine or is nitpicking, but hey, the tech is there, and instead of getting it wrong, why not get it right (that's how I feel, and of course it isn't easy but it shouldn't be too hard). The commentary of course is good but needs work. The strategy pad needs work and could be major issue if not addressed IMO. All in all, if I were to give a score for the demo, I would give it a 6.5 out of 10. I feel as if it wasn't as good as I hoped. It isn't bad. It doesn't have to be perfect either; just good, which it isn't IMO.
Here are my FULL impressions for M13.
Gameplay
In M13, we are introduced to a couple of gameplay additions. Total Control Passing was one of them. While it was nice that I could control the type of pass I make, the new feature didn't really do that well, as when I was playing, there were times where I would flick the Right Stick on a deep bomb and the pass still sails to the middle of the field, or when my tight end is on a right out route, I see that he's being covered by Patrick Willis, so I try to lead him more to the sideline by flicking the LS to the right in an almost diagonal direction, the pass goes RIGHT TO Patrick Willis and he picks it off. There are also times where I try to through to a pass towards the receiver's right if he's lined up in the slot, and it's either tipped because it sails if I try to lob it, or it's picked because I try flick the LS to a certain direction. Overall, I found it dissatisfying.
The next feature is Read and React. It is nice, but to me, it was that much of a game changer given the overhaul to the passing game in general. It is a nice feature to have and should not be taken out next year, or next gen.
The all new menu for Pre-Snap/Pre-Play Adjustments, or if you want to call it the Strategy Pad, is a huge problem for me. It lags a lot if you are on defense, and there are times when you try to audible multiple times and it doesn't show up until about the 4th or 5th time you press it. For hot routes, there are certain times where you cannot hot route to a slant, I noticed. I am mixed on that. But going back to defense, there are times when you try to audible to like man, and then make it a blitz as a result of the lag or unresponsiveness. It seems like the best thing to do is not make any pre-play adjustments at all.
The biggest and most hyped up addition was the Infinity Engine. Real time tackling. New hits on the fly. Now, it felt good, sometimes. But about 60% of the time, the collisions, don't really make sense. I remember several times when a player is charging at full speed towards another player, and they both fell on their backs. Then add the twitching and falling and weird body movement post play. It seems as if with the new engine, it will be hard to strip, and there will also be a bit more suction tackling, every once in a while. I didn't really have many occasions where I tripped when running the ball. And there were numerous times when I run, and I was surprised to still see my player not tackled but instead stumbling awkwardly then falling. Overall, IE is a pretty needed addition, but it still needs a lot of work. Of course it's a demo where it won't be perfect. But playing the game itself, the IE didn't really feel like a game changer to me. It just felt like a couple of new tackle animations, some were good, others were not possible in real life.
The trenches. Where games are won and lost. Blocking. O-Line/D-line interactions and work where far from stellar, as we all expected. But my biggest concern was three things: Blocking A.I, Pocket Movement, and DE's. The blocking A.I. was usually bad in many scenarios. For example, it tends to happen when a guy that was supposed to be blocked shedded the block and he is open to tackle, for example, I remember on a counter where I was running with my HB and my FB was right there to block what I think was a OLB. But because the OLB was previously blocked and escaped, my FB didn't even attempt to block him, and instead blocked someone far away in the middle. In short, it's a classic case of the blocker not trying to block the guy in front of him, and instead going inside the scrum to block someone irrelevant. This also occurred on plays where I was standing with my QB, and the FB and HB that were supposed to block a free rusher who was RIGHT THERE didn't attempt and rotated somewhere else. Now, to address the next concern, which is pocket movement, I noticed then if I ever try to move with my QB, the O-Line, specifically the tackles for example, would sometimes simultaneously let go like as if it was scripted and I'd get sacked. O-line also seemed by on 2nd or 3rd and short situations where I'd tried to run up the middle. One could argue it was too easy in M12, but it seems too hard in M13. In real life is not that easy, but M13 replicates that in a different way. Blocking also seems significantly worse in Play Action. I always often see a free rusher zooming right to me. It's like as if they designed so that you always have to use the Abort PA feature. And last, DE's are still not effective enough. Nothing new. Overall, the blocking/line play seems worse in the demo than it did last year.
WR/DB interactions seem better. However, there are times where my Receivers can't catch a pass, and it seems that whenever a pass is tipped and it's in the air and five people are there and have a chance of getting the ball, they drop it and can't hold on to the ball. Also, CB's, OLB's, MLB's, and SS/FS's often still zoom to pick off passes. Not as much, but it still occurs on certain plays. This leads me to one of the other big issues I had with the gameplay.
Running animations, swerving, zig zagging, and player movement; All big issues, possibly the biggest issues Madden has had, and has in this demo. Too put it short, I don't need to juke - the juke move is bad by the way - but yeah, I don't need to juke anymore because of how I can turn on a dime, use my LS to swerve and shift a little bit to the right when a guy is trying to tackle me while running at light speed, or I can just let him run in a circle accidentally. That isn't good. I can move around in circles like in Madden 09 I could and get a Touchdown. It's hard to tackle a player because he can swerve. Say on a counter, your player is in front, and is kind of on the side: the RB can literally sneak through the space and run. That's all I need to say. The problem is that it got worse IMO.
Other
The way the players and coaches look is kind of bad IMO. A lot of the coaches look buff (Pete Carroll for instance) and are not wearing what they wear in real life (Jim Harbaugh has been wearing Black sweater vests from College, through every game last year in the NFL, and even when he golfs as one a 49er fan said). The Player Models are kind of clunky, and the uniforms are inaccurate, for example, the Redskins throwbacks have the Redskins logo on the shoulders. Even Panthers fans complained in another thread about the shoulder stripes. However player faces look may be irrelevant since we don't see them in the actual game, but if they are gonna show the main players in that pre game cinematic intro, they should get it right, which they didn't, as Alex Smith looked like a 50 year old, and Bills fans complained as they didn't even give Ryan Fitzpatrick his beard, and has dark blonde hair (they gave him blackish hair). Like I said, we don't see their faces in the real game, but if they are gonna show it up close, it wouldn't hurt to get it right. I like the uniform dirt effect though. And the lighting effects were pretty good for the most part, it's just that game itself looked dim.
The New Commentary team featuring Jim Nants and Phil Simms (sorry if I'm spelling it wrong) includes commentary that should be good hopefully in the retail version, as in the demo, they are often saying things that don't match what's going on (for example, I threw a pass out of bounds and they said it was a bad throw). I like how they sound but the words they say don't help.
Verdict
Madden NFL 13 offers new additions to the gameplay experience. While these additions are meant to further improve the gameplay, some such as the IE either don't make that much of a difference or aren't implemented good enough; granted it's a demo, and it's the first year, so not too much blame should be thrown at how the IE looks. The Total Control Passing needs work in my opinion. For the Running Animations/Player Movement and Blocking and O-Line/D-line interactions, they are probably the weakest parts of the game. One would say how the players or coaches look is fine or is nitpicking, but hey, the tech is there, and instead of getting it wrong, why not get it right (that's how I feel, and of course it isn't easy but it shouldn't be too hard). The commentary of course is good but needs work. The strategy pad needs work and could be major issue if not addressed IMO. All in all, if I were to give a score for the demo, I would give it a 6.5 out of 10. I feel as if it wasn't as good as I hoped. It isn't bad. It doesn't have to be perfect either; just good, which it isn't IMO.
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