Difficulty Levels.

[Gagnon39]

Well, I'll be playing every down, every game. Not into simming anything in franchise. The more I watch videos and read, the more inclined I am to just jump straight into All-Madden. Basically, because the Bears suck and I'd rather go 2-14 than 14-2 in my first season with them.

[edgevoice]

In my opinion, the difference between all pro and all madden are pretty much as you described. The reason for a separate slider forum right here on OS is due to players attempting to find that 'sweet spot' between these two difficulty levels.

I have never been able to enjoy a somewhat realistic experience without using sliders. Basically, I start on all pro and, while leaving cpu settings alone, evenly defeat down my user sliders until I get the gameplay I want.

[Kentaurus]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gagnon39

Well, I'll be playing every down, every game. Not into simming anything in franchise. The more I watch videos and read, the more inclined I am to just jump straight into All-Madden. Basically, because the Bears suck and I'd rather go 2-14 than 14-2 in my first season with them.

Without creating you're own house rules (specifically on how often you can use certain plays) you should go 16-0 as you start to figure out what the CPU can't deal with. There probably will be some learning curve to start with, but eventually you will find the plays both offensively and defensively the CPU really struggles with as well as the ones they will burn you on.

The difficulty level just increases how easily the game will beat you on plays it can handle.

[dubplate]

I’ve been running with Flazko’s sliders the last two years and may go with Armor this year because I’m loving his Show sliders this year.

They both do a great job making games feel realistic as long as you don’t cheese the CPU.

I won as the Eagles last year having a stellar season with Wentz but some games were tense and a struggle thanks to their slider work.

[Bondsfan]

Early impressions here, but I'm more optimistic this year about the difficulty. I've been very frustrated with Madden for oh I don't know, maybe 15 years because All Pro always was way too easy and All Madden was way too hard. I absolutely detest sliders. The problem was, on All Madden, for me, running was impossible but passing was challenging but still ok. Playing defense was completely impossible. So it wasn't an option. On all pro, I felt like running and defense were well balanced, but you could pass all day to the point where there was zero challenge.

In the past two years, I used "play the moment" to level the playing field a bit to at least make sure I didn't win 14 or more games every single year, and that did help considerably in terms of getting more realistic win/loss records. If the game still got too easy, I eventually went to playing all home games on all pro with PTM, and all road games and playoffs on All Madden with PTM. But all of this was a workaround for the difficulty issues not a fix. And every year for the past decade or two, I was still left with this frustration that All Pro was too easy, All Madden too hard, and never understanding why they couldn't make a difficulty in between, or even have separate offensive/defensive difficulty settings (or better yet separate offensive run, offensive pass, defensive run, defensive pass) difficulty settings.

All that being said, I am much more encouraged this year by All Pro. It's only been 3 games, so take that for what it is worth. But this year, I really feel like All Pro is the best its been balanced in all the time I've been playing Madden for the sole reason that the CPU defense plays much better pass defense. You will get picked off if you take risks and they cover some easily cheesible routes from the past MUCH better. I actually lost the first two games I played on All Pro, and I can't remember having a challenge on All Pro like I have so far. Small sample size, but its encouraging. Unlike All Madden though, its a challenge that doesn't seem cheap. I'm thoroughly impressed so far, and I really really hope this is the year where All Pro holds up over the long run.