Madden NFL 19 Impressions (Pre-Release / EA Access / Origin Access)

[OhMrHanky]

Wow. I have to say, holy crap! This game plays great! And, I rarely say that about a madden game.

Xbox one X Enhanced. Super smooth animations. Absolutely crisp detail on graphics. I mean like the little things - player names on jerseys. Feels like you’re wearing glasses making everything crisper or something. It’s great.

I started a falcons CFM and played my first game vs the Eagles. This is a great first game matchup against the super bowl champs to see just how good/tough all-pro is.

I also played the beta, so I was really curious to see the difference. And, there is def a difference. In the positive direction.

1. The running game is fantastic. And, here, again, this is WAY different than the beta. U couldn’t run for jack in the beta. But, the real game, final build, whatever, the blocking is solid. The blockshed are not ridiculous. And, by fantastic, I don’t mean ‘easy’ or ‘hard’. I mean, it’s just right, imo. This is only one game, but I rushed 22 for 86 with Freeman. Phi have a good D, so I don’t expect 100. But, I also can’t stand getting like 2 yards per carry as I often did in M18. So, I saw some holes. I hit em. I sprinted when appropriate. And, yeah, the sprint is solid. I really like what they’ve done with this. U actually feel like you’re sprinting. And, animation wise, I know many hate the animations or whatnot, but I have to say, in terms of transitioning from running to sprinting, it’s done really this year, imo. Again, when sprinting, u look and feel like you’re sprinting. So, that’s awesome.
The cpu ran decently on me from time to time as well, so this was decent as well.

2. Passing. Holy crap. Passing is NOT easy, but it’s also totally solid. I’ll make the adjustment. The coverage is good and u have to be on your toes. I struggled early, but hit Julio on a playaction Post pattern where he just beat 2 defenders with a gorgeous catch animation. People might see it and think, ahh, he shouldn’t catch that. But, honestly, it’s Julio. That’s why I threw the ball when I did, and honestly, it just looked like a Julio Post play where he put jumps everyone. So, that was great to see.

3. Special teams. Lol. First play of the game, my teammate AI hit stuck Sproles for a Fumble!!! I recovered. My first play from scrimmage was freeman running through a beautiful hole for a 15 yard TD. And, seriously, beautiful hole formed. So, I’m stoked right now on the running game.

Ultimately, I won 30-23. I play 15 min qtrs with 18 Acc Clock. So, that’s a perfect score. Ryan threw for around 200, and only 57%, as I said, I struggled to pass. Wentz had 250, and 67%, but threw 2 picks. But, again, I’m happy with those numbers. Nice to see more incompletes, whether from my D breaking up passes or from inaccurate passes.

Altogether, out of the box, wow, best playing madden to date. I’m totally happy with it right now. I hope we don’t get excessive patching. Lol. Also, I only had 1 sack. So, the cpu qb looks on point. Wentz never ran for yardage, but he stepped out of the pocket appropriately.

And, just in general, just feels like football. Some guys are going to complain that many tackles are too hard, but this is football. I think madden has had some soft tackling in the past. But M19 gets this right. And, again, the tackles are looking much more organic/realistic. They really don’t feel like same old canned animations (even though they may be). They’ve done a solid job of having the appropriate players tackle at the right time and lay off others. The after tackle animations are much more fluid/dynamic this year as well. So, just overall gives the game a much more organic feel.

Strafing feels great as well. I don’t want to go crazy hyping RPM, but this game does feel nice. The LB strafing feels like he’s cemented to the ground (I mean this in a good way. He’s not sliding around, he ‘feels’ more like he’s moving in a controlled fashion), and when u hit that sprint, he takes off like he should. Just overall, again, have to say the sprinting is done very well in this game. Better than ever, for sure.

I am going to be playing a lot of this game. Lol. I’m probably going to blow out the 10 hour trial in a day or two cause it’s playing phenomenal.

Here’s that Julio TD. I meant to get the original play just to see what it looked like from a player perspective, but time passed to the point of only getting the replay.

https://twitter.com/ohmrhanky/status...826360321?s=21


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[joshtree14]

Playing on the X and it seems if you don’t have a good offensive line the defense will block shed a lot quicker and you’ll average about 1-2 yards a carry


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[jfsolo]

Played a full game with 15 minute quarters Colts(me) vs Bears(CPU) Default All-Pro:

The most glaring thing in the game was the inaccuracy of Trubisky- he threw around 8 or 9 inaccurate passes out of like 40 attempts. What was great was that none of of them were of the 8-10 yards away from the receiver variety that we've seen so much in the last few years. They were all just a yard or two away, but uncatchable by any player.

We'll see what happens when I play against better QBs, but another problem that Trubisky had was throwing too late to his open receivers allowing my defenders to recover and jar the ball loose when it should have been an easy catch.

There were some nice catches though for both teams where a defender had good coverage, but the QB snuck the ball in there just a few inches past his hands. In this game I don't remember seeing one instance of a warp to the ball.

I feel like WRs are still a little passive on some of the 50/50 balls. If they don't have great position they give up instead of fighting harder to make a play.


IMO the issue with running is that offensive lineman don't finish blocks well enough when they get their hands strongly on the defender. Blocking needs more super wins in the run game like defenders get. There were a few solid runs for both teams, but a few too many TFL as is always the case on default Madden. I'll play a lot more games first, but it should be fixable with a few tweaks if necessary.

Seeing the Bears use 3 running backs on offense not because of injury or fatigue was nice.

There were some glitches where the camera got hung up when it was seemingly trying to show outside the stadium, but it didn't affect the game at all.

I'm not a fan of all of the shotgun blast tackle sounds, but it will probably fade into the back of my awareness as I keep playing the game.

Pressure from the pass rush seemed to be tuned well.

[SageInfinite]

I played the beta, and I'm now playing on my Xbox One S through EA access. Got it for PS4 as a gift and will be playing on PS4 Pro come release.

I absolutely can't deal with the lighting this year. There's this dark film or filter over every game. Even clear skies every game looks overcast(which has always been a problem, it just looked better). The game is just really dark and ugly compared to 18, which was bright and life like. I'm playing on my one S so, I'll see if I get it for my PS4 Pro but, I doubt it makes a huge difference.

The gameplay is decent though. The running game is improved from the beta. I really honestly don't see the huge deal with RPM. The game does feel more responsive, but in an arcade way, not in a realistic way. The movement is hit or miss as usual. Some of the cuts and running animations really can look good at times. I thought with animation/motion being a focus this year everything would be much improved but it's really not. There's still a ton of goofy **** and I still see alot of the animation glitchyness from the beta.

I don't the sound effects. Really reminds me of an arcade game now. Just loud unrealistic stuff. I went into practice mode just fooling around and at one point I think it glitched because I was trucking air and it was still making the contact noise, lol. Not to mention the foot steps which someone thought was a cool idea( I don't). Also noticed you can't pump up the crowd on D anymore, or atleast I don't know how.

The half-time show was scaled back for play now games, as if it couldn't get worse, they proved me wrong once again. Coach basically telling me to go play CFM if I want to see something better(Immersion killer). Just a poor decision. Not to mention they only showed one highlight. Just terrible man why? I made a stop on defense and Gaudin said "Well the defense is controlled by a human so, good job human." Talk about another immersion killer geez.

Overall the game is decent but some steps forward, alot of steps back. I really like some of the animations this year. The QB audible stuff is a welcome addition, it's just a mixed bag of stuff. Like making a majority of right handed quarterbacks lead with their right foot forward. It just looks bad when it transitions from stance to snap. A minor detail but it's just like, why? I really do like the catch tackle animations. Some of the WR/DB interactions are pretty nice. Just too much stuff not left cleaned up though. Still see blocking issues of guys going brain dead. DB's either caught flat footed staring off somewhere, or either the instant reaction of instant head turn interception. It's just all over the place.

Overall I can't see me spending as much time with 19 as I did 18. I don't even know if patches can save the game for me from a visual standpoint. If you don't care for details or immersion, I'm sure the game will be alot of fun for you.

[dill911]

Have the game on PC through Origin Access Premier. Played it for about an hour or so. Initial impressions are it is very similar to Madden 18, which isn't bad but isn't great either. Motion feels about the same but the graphics are beautiful. Haven't run into any bugs yet other than the game being unusually dark (I have a Titan Xp and ASUS ROG Swft Monitor) and their being a crackling noise volume wise, but I am hopeful that will be patched up.

Outside of that, their isn't anything that has "wowed" me yet and again that is not a bad thing, but so far my initial impressions are it is the fun game we are used to, but once the community puts it's touch on it, it will be a lot better.

Only glaring issue that I don't like is that there is still no way to setup 32 Team Control when beginning a franchise outside of the old manual way (selecting new coach, etc.) and the uniform numbers seem vertically stretched and look strange, at least to me.

[Gotmadskillzson]

I am impressed. Game runs silky smooth on the PC Ultra everything in 1440p. Averaging 115 to 133fps. Run blocking is bad though for the User and CPU. Way too many tackles for a loss. It was that way in the beta too. Just look totally awesome to be playing on the PC.

[pk500]

Early impressions after one game from a longtime but not hardcore Madden player:

+ You can really feel the difference between good and bad players, especially quarterbacks. Cam Newton ripped up the Bills' secondary in a preseason game, while his backup missed a bunch of open receivers. Shady McCoy was running strong for the Bills when he got hurt, and Chris Ivory wasn't nearly as effective as a backup. I think the skill differentiation between players feels more realistic than ever.

+ Suggested playcalling seems to be geared toward the skill and tendencies of each quarterback. When A.J. McCarron started for the Bills, the suggested passes went downfield more. When Josh Allen came in, the playcalling featured a lot of slants, quick outs and high-percentage play-action passes. A cool, realistic touch.

+/- Field goals and extra points were far too easy in Madden 18. They're tougher this year, but I still haven't quite wrapped my head around the new kicking mechanism. Time and practice should tell the tale.

- I don't feel that much of a difference with the new RPM momentum and cutting engine. Maybe I'm not using it properly or well enough or not schooled enough in the intricacies of football, but this new feature doesn't feel anywhere near as revolutionary for the franchise as depicted by EA.

- Graphics seem identical to last year other than some new overlays and perhaps lighting.

More play to come. Again, one exhibition game. But Madden 19 feels like an incremental improvement over Madden 18, not nearly the same leap I felt from Madden 17 to 18.

Madden 18 was a damn good game, so maybe my expectations were too high for Madden 19. But this feels a lot like Madden 18.5 to me.

We'll use the full 10-hour trial in our household, but this may be the first year we wait four to six weeks for a sale before purchasing Madden. I just don't feel enough on first play to justify a Day One purchase. Completely different experience than last year, when EA had my money after the first quarter of the trial of Madden 18.

[dill911]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

I am impressed. Game runs silky smooth on the PC Ultra everything in 1440p. Averaging 115 to 133fps. Run blocking is bad though for the User and CPU. Way too many tackles for a loss. It was that way in the beta too. Just look totally awesome to be playing on the PC.

Agreed. The game does look fantastic and it is awesome to have it on PC. The run blocking is pretty bad, playing on All Pro was difficult.