Madden 19 Hands On Impressions by Smitty

[Cowboy008]

Quote: Originally Posted by SolidSquid

Do these reviews even matter? Last year after EA play all the personalities in the community loved the game and when the game released we got something completely different.

Yeah I'm not going to take these impressions seriously because of what happened last year.

[vannwolfhawk]

Quote: Originally Posted by LBzrule

Regarding the build, it's old. The reason why the players look off is because they are weighted and some guys are more weighted than others. Man coverage is actually good and will get scaled back but Smitty disagrees with this decision. I'd go with him on that. Ratings should nerf a players' man coverage NOT some universal change to man coverage. Only played 3 games and will play more today. I missed a lot but these are the snippets that stood out to me.

YES, YES, & YES! This has me encouraged that Smitty likes the Man Coverage and thinks it is perfect. What worries me though is Clint already saying it needs to be nerfed as well as what happened last year when the suits said the same thing (it was too tough for newbies) for coverage and zones and they changed from the EA play to release. People will adjust. Thats also why we have different difficulty levels for the newbies to play rookie and a dumbed down CPU. Ratings should be the sole factor in coverage and 1000% agree not a universal change to it. Fingers crossed as it's my number 1 game killer every year along with CPU play calling a close number 2 (but that got some love and we will see how much love it really got)...

[jfsolo]

Will coverage be tuned down again, maybe, but the backlash from last year and the hyper attentiveness to that possibility by the community may serve as a strong deterrent to a similar over nerfing this year. As a solo CFM player I'm not as concerned as a H2H player may be though because of sliders of course.

The thing is, RPM isn't going to be taken out, they aren't going to remove the new momentum tackling system or rip out the improved tackle physics or get rid of the mid air collision system stuff, so it's impossible that the game isn't going to play much differently than before even if some things are tune away from what they are now.

Personally I still like to hear hands on impressions from people whose evaluative approach is similar to mine as a counter to the inevitable histrionics that will occur after the trailer and leaked footage comes out.

[edgevoice]

Smitty was exhausted when he recorded this video. The biggest things to take from his comments are that he was only allowed to play short games, was not able to go into replay mode and break specifics of game down as he would have liked. Keep this in mind when reflecting on his impressions and comments. He will be back at EA Play Sunday.

⦁ All games played on simulation.

⦁ Played 3 games; 2 head-to-head & 1 vs. CPU on very short 3 minute quarters.

⦁ RPM opens game up; game play is slower, players feel weighted and variable.

⦁ Tackles feel canned at times, but improvement in dynamic hits feel more genuine. Gang tackles improved.

⦁ Zone play improved, better pursuit angles and quicker to react to ball in air.

⦁ Man coverage felt good, but EA claims too overpowered and will be dialed back.

⦁ Claims run animations make sense and are not wonky as some have reported.

⦁ Player builds look better to him.

⦁ Passing game didn't feel drastically different.

⦁ Slider adjustment options have not been changed.

⦁ Catch animations look better and more have been added. Contested catch more realistic.

⦁ Starred players pre-snap are team captains.

⦁ Blocking felt good.

⦁ Did not dive into Franchise.

⦁ RPM takes away the ability on defense to simply fly back and forth unrealistically. Now more natural.

⦁ RPM feels much different and better than Tru-Step did.

[Darth Aegis]

I think Smitty did a good job and to dedicate 45 minutes to the community was pretty cool.

[roadman]

Thank you for the breakdown LBz and Edge, and Mils, I agree.

[4thQtrStre5S]

I liked what Smitty had to say..I appreciate the time he took to provide information to all of us who could not be at EA Play.

[vannwolfhawk]

Quote: Originally Posted by LBzrule

Playing defense is similar to offense. In other words, you can't just run around sprinting and making plays. You actually have to make moves like guys on offense. This was another good takeaway from Smitty's impressions.

I love this as well. Gone are days (from what it sounds like & what I am hearing) of guys usering MLB & Safeties and ball hawking playing the whole field and changing directions on a dime. This is another reason though that man defense needs some love. Taking away the ability of USER to defend unrealistically (which is a good thing) just overpowers the offense as if that wasn't already overpowered. There has to be a counter which in this case is better man defense or at least realistic man defense in where the ratings of a player dictate the coverage. I hope they add defensive route IQ ratings soon like they added route running for WR in short, medium, and long routes.

I am thinking about guys who user the MLB in H2H and guys who are running drags in opposite ways. Before, you could somewhat defend this as the USER with having ability to run around unrealistically. But now if going in 1 direction it's an easy read for a USER QB to just go to the opposite drag to which you see the user defender going. As is now (madden 18) on drags without sliders it's 5-6 yards of seperation on coverage. Thats not realistic. Thats been a problem for years with drag abuse from Users. I am hoping the play the sticks in a 3rd and 2 will really work to take the drag cheese away. In theory the play inside adjustment should work in a scenario like this, but it didn't work as It was supposed to (at least at 1st as I stopped playing game after a month or 2 )so maybe it was fixed in an update? Anyways, I love the realistic movement of all 22 but it worry's me that offense that was already overpowered will be even more so. I want a defensive game. Playing in online league last year every game I played both teams were in the at least 40 point and above range and driving at will. I just hopped on yesterday and played a quick game with madden on all madden with heavily adjusted sliders I had done way back. My 1st drive (had not played the game since October) I went 7-7 and scored a TD. Drags, Corners, Out Routes, Curls all wide open. It's just no fun playing a stupid CPU...