Madden 15: The Online Experience

[Pappy Knuckles]

When it comes to football games, I generally prefer to play them against human opponents. I can appreciate going against the computer as well, but that rarely gives me the same type of satisfaction I get from outperforming a real person. Up to this point, though, there were only a handful of titles that I found compelling enough to invest a significant amount of time into. Those were ESPN NFL 2K4, ESPN NFL 2K5, APF 2K8 and Madden 10. I had honestly given up hope in EA, but I've been more than pleased with my experience in Madden 15.

I've played over 40 ranked games so far, which is already four times as many as I completed during my entire time with Madden 25. This is definitely the most enjoyable Madden that I've played. I feel like the money plays have been eliminated and that you can be successful against anyone with a sound game plan and execution. I'm especially liking the tightened defense and how much fun it is to run and pass the ball this year. The holes and passing lanes are often small, so you have to be on point. I really dig the direction this series is headed in now and I'm looking forward to the future of Madden for the first time in pretty much ever.

How are you online players enjoying it this year?

[kackle85]

MUCH better. I did run into a problem last night in a ranked quick match. The guy was playing as the Raiders and came out in Shotgun trips left single back to the right of the QB. He kept running a draw and immediately running to the sideline with either McFadden or Jones Drew. There was NOTHING i could do to stop it. Both backs had over 100 yards by halftime. EA claims that nothing was touched other than human Pass rush success in the latest tuner but i'm skeptical. It seems much harder to stop outside runs now.

[Biizz713]

money plays eliminated? hah. I pretty sure every money play from Madden 25 is still in the game. people put out e-books with their 1 play defenses and money routes and before long the entire community is doing it.

personally i'm finding the online play more and more boring every time I play. everyone basically plays the same way. playing offense pretty much puts me to sleep because people just drop 8-9 into zone coverage every down and user a D-lineman. for some reason you can still get mad pressure just rushing 3 or 4. the WRs don't know how to improvise and can't uncover, they'll sit down when they are covered and run into zones when they should sit down.

I'm 59-19 in MUT with no money spent, but I think i've had all the fun that i'm going to have with M15. I can't tolerate ranked games, my skill points from M25 carried over and everyone I play in ranked is a super mega ultimate cheeser with the custom playbooks and what not.

[TTD71]

Online play is the same as always.

Its totally, 100% dependent on the opponent...get a game with someone who plays the same (or similar) philosophy...ie., if you want a sim-style game and get another sim-style player or if you want a free-style game and get another free-style opponent...get the right match-up and the game can be amazingly fun. Sim-style still requires more discipline and maturity in most cases; but the fact is the game CAN be a lot of fun online, or offline against human opposition, its just that is only likely to happen between 30-60% of the time.

Otherwise, match-ups between conflicting styles of play are just the same as always...a pain in the *** and a lot less fun in general. Sure, there is some level of satisfaction in beating a guy who acts like an infant the whole game...but they have been around for years already and in all honesty, its just boring by now. I just want a good game and can do without the nonsense, unfortunately, outside of friend's list and online leagues, the proportion of good opponents to bad is about 60-40 on good nights and sometimes dips under 50-50.

The gameplay is still rife with issues and exploits (there are already some now - like the outside jet runs and the inside runs out of shotgun that mysteriously work 10X better against a stacked box than they should - and there will be more coming...I know from messing around in practice mode that there are things coming that will make people pull their hair out when they make it into the jungle), but that is not the worst of it by any means...

The same p*ss poor etiquette and sportsmanship still exists. (Try plugging in a mic and if you have small children, you better make sure to send the chat to the headset and not the speakers...)
The same moronic aversion to punting or playing defense still exists.
The same frequency of people who refuse a friendly quit offer with a 0-0 score, only to quit when their asshattery turns to a 14-0 deficit still exists.
The same idiotic play calling that sees people thinking nothing of running the same 2 plays over and over, regardless of whether or not they work.
The same sub-population of fools who think the onside kick is the only way to kick off and 4th downs are just another passing play.
The same level of knee-jerk jackass racists still exists. (I am white, yet every 5th or 6th game I am called racially bigoted words ad nauseum, same as last year and the year before that and so on...)

Its important to note that this is really not a MADDEN-centric thing - the same fools and morons are out there ruining other online games as well...many quit before match ends, or scream into headsets instead of working as a team in military games...its just that Madden makes it easier for the jackasses to be jackasses and harder for the other people to avoid them by making match-ups of ranked games anonymous and restricting the ability of players to send ranked match challenges to others. I know they think it helps to prevent cheaters, but honestly no one cares about the rankings or leaders boards except for the people already looking for ways to cheat in the first place. Stop letting the inmates run the asylum and things online for Madden can get a lot better out of the box...otherwise, different year, same online gameplay and overall experience.

[Find_the_Door]

Quote: Originally Posted by kackle85

MUCH better. I did run into a problem last night in a ranked quick match. The guy was playing as the Raiders and came out in Shotgun trips left single back to the right of the QB. He kept running a draw and immediately running to the sideline with either McFadden or Jones Drew. There was NOTHING i could do to stop it. Both backs had over 100 yards by halftime. EA claims that nothing was touched other than human Pass rush success in the latest tuner but i'm skeptical. It seems much harder to stop outside runs now.

I know they play you're talking about, every high level cheese ball runs it.

To stop it:

4-3 Under
Cover 3 sky
Base align
Left trigger +R1 (QB Contain)

Completely kills this play!


4-3 Under if running to the left - flip it if he flips his run, you should see your backer come to the outside hip of the tackle. You want that backer aligned like this on the side he's running to. This shuts down all power o / outside runs. This is a realistic defense to employ against them too.