Madden NFL 20 Beta Gameplay Overview

[Steve_OS]

With the Madden 20 beta now wrapped up, it's time to look at some of what...

Written By: Phil Varckette

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[OhMrHanky]

Yup. I think I agree with everything mentioned here. I’ve never been ‘blown away’ by any madden title. But, those are the words I’ve been using describing my time with the beta. I think the sheer crispness of this game, already, in the beta just blows me away. Especially, from madden. And, that’s another word that just describes this game’s gameplay, ‘crisp.’ These past several games have always had something glitchy going on right out of the gate. This game truly feels polished at this point. The player movement and responsiveness to user input is truly like nothing I’ve ever seen in a madden game. It’s that good this year.

The x-factor stuff seems well implemented, albeit from a small sample size. But, I went up against J.J. Watt once, and he got in the zone. I’m not sure whether I slid my protection to his side or whether the scenario dictated him getting double teamed, but I watched a replay of him absolutely muscling 2 Olinemen at the same time. Lol. He was pushing both of them back and just the ferocity in his animations was fantastic. Now, because he was double teamed, he did NOT get my qb. I had time in the pocket, and got a pass off. That may have taken him out of the zone, actually. But, simply seeing not only the double team of him, specifically, but watching him battle both men and almost win was fantastic.

I was really unsure of how the x-factor stuff would play out, but for me, I feel it really does differentiate superstar players. And, as a person who doesn’t like extra on screen clutter, I thought the flaming x would be a distraction. It’s not. It really isn’t. It’s just small enough to not interfere with what I’m looking at, but it’s big enough to alert me that someone is in the zone and I should pay attention to it. I love it.

This game really put a lot of small things together as well, imo. Here’s my list of small things that felt ‘fixed’ or ‘better’ than previous maddens:

1. Smooth animations. Smooth transition animations.

2. On field player chatter
This is SOOOOOOOO much better than any other madden. It hasn’t been mentioned much, but I am telling u, it is so much better. U really hear them jabbering out there. And, specifically on important downs. 3rd downs, for sure.

3. Crowd noise - this still didn’t sound amazing to me, and, again, with a small sample size, hard to tell, but I felt like they were responding appropriately to plays and just sounded a little louder as they should.

4. Replay angles and zoom. This is finally done correctly, imo. They show 2-3 replays and the zoom and angles just seemed much more appropriate than any other madden. And, it’s not they just seemed ‘appropriate,’ they seemed ‘correct’.

5. Stiff arm finally works. Lol. I have been a fan of the stiff arm since nfl Gameday 97 allowed u to just punch fools in the face. Lol. Now, while I’ve always wanted a more realistic stiff arm to that old school arcade type feel, I feel like madden has NEVER done the stiff arm justice. I remember playing with Stephen Jackson back in the day. He had such a great stiff arm irl, but I never saw it in madden. I saw a few worthy stiff arms in the beta, so I’m happy about that.


All in all, the overall polish they put on this game is remarkable, especially when compared to prior madden releases. They just seemed to have tied so many things together at this one point in madden history, lol, in terms of gameplay. Now, CFM is a whole other thing, it’s still not as deep as it should be. I started playing nhl 19 recently and started a franchise, and, legit, was like, ‘wth is all this stuff in here?!’ Lol. They have all kinds of scouting tiers and team management things going on. Honestly, I’m not a hockey guru, so it’s a little overwhelming, but I could see myself figuring it out in a season or 2 and really enjoying that depth. With ea teams borrowing from each other, maybe they’ll put some of that into madden in the near future.

But, for now, for me, they have nailed the gameplay, and I’ll be playing multiple seasons with this bad boy when it comes out.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by OhMrHanky

Yup. I think I agree with everything mentioned here. I’ve never been ‘blown away’ by any madden title. But, those are the words I’ve been using describing my time with the beta. I think the sheer crispness of this game, already, in the beta just blows me away. Especially, from madden. And, that’s another word that just describes this game’s gameplay, ‘crisp.’ These past several games have always had something glitchy going on right out of the gate. This game truly feels polished at this point. The player movement and responsiveness to user input is truly like nothing I’ve ever seen in a madden game. It’s that good this year. The x-factor stuff seems well implemented, albeit from a small sample size. But, I went up against J.J. Watt once, and he got in the zone. I’m not sure whether I slid my protection to his side or whether the scenario dictated him getting double teamed, but I watched a replay of him absolutely muscling 2 Olinemen at the same time. Lol. He was pushing both of them back and just the ferocity in his animations was fantastic. Now, because he was double teamed, he did NOT get my qb. I had time in the pocket, and got a pass off. That may have taken him out of the zone, actually. But, simply seeing not only the double team of him, specifically, but watching him battle both men and almost win was fantastic. I was really unsure of how the x-factor stuff would play out, but for me, I feel it really does differentiate superstar players. And, as a person who doesn’t like extra on screen clutter, I thought the flaming x would be a distraction. It’s not. It really isn’t. It’s just small enough to not interfere with what I’m looking at, but it’s big enough to alert me that someone is in the zone and I should pay attention to it. I love it. This game really put a lot of small things together as well, imo. Here’s my list of small things that felt ‘fixed’ or ‘better’ than previous maddens: 1. Smooth animations. Smooth transition animations. 2. On field player chatter This is SOOOOOOOO much better than any other madden. It hasn’t been mentioned much, but I am telling u, it is so much better. U really hear them jabbering out there. And, specifically on important downs. 3rd downs, for sure. 3. Crowd noise - this still didn’t sound amazing to me, and, again, with a small sample size, hard to tell, but I felt like they were responding appropriately to plays and just sounded a little louder as they should. 4. Replay angles and zoom. This is finally done correctly, imo. They show 2-3 replays and the zoom and angles just seemed much more appropriate than any other madden. And, it’s not they just seemed ‘appropriate,’ they seemed ‘correct’. 5. Stiff arm finally works. Lol. I have been a fan of the stiff arm since nfl Gameday 97 allowed u to just punch fools in the face. Lol. Now, while I’ve always wanted a more realistic stiff arm to that old school arcade type feel, I feel like madden has NEVER done the stiff arm justice. I remember playing with Stephen Jackson back in the day. He had such a great stiff arm irl, but I never saw it in madden. I saw a few worthy stiff arms in the beta, so I’m happy about that. All in all, the overall polish they put on this game is remarkable, especially when compared to prior madden releases. They just seemed to have tied so many things together at this one point in madden history, lol, in terms of gameplay. Now, CFM is a whole other thing, it’s still not as deep as it should be. I started playing nhl 19 recently and started a franchise, and, legit, was like, ‘wth is all this stuff in here?!’ Lol. They have all kinds of scouting tiers and team management things going on. Honestly, I’m not a hockey guru, so it’s a little overwhelming, but I could see myself figuring it out in a season or 2 and really enjoying that depth. With ea teams borrowing from each other, maybe they’ll put some of that into madden in the near future. But, for now, for me, they have nailed the gameplay, and I’ll be playing multiple seasons with this bad boy when it comes out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In addition to the player chatter, another feature I don’t see people mentioning is the new PA announcer. If you turn off the commentary he is calling the game just like a real PA guy and I’m hoping that in the full version they have the crowd matching him on the first down call when he goes, I.E. “Travis Kelce on the reception, gain of 25 yards, that’s good for a Kansas City Chiefs First Down!”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OhMrHanky]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

In addition to the player chatter, another feature I don’t see people mentioning is the new PA announcer. If you turn off the commentary he is calling the game just like a real PA guy and I’m hoping that in the full version they have the crowd matching him on the first down call when he goes, I.E. “Travis Kelce on the reception, gain of 25 yards, that’s good for a Kansas City Chiefs First Down!” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right on. I think you’re right. I did notice more/better chatter from him as well. I’m an ‘on field’ audio type of guy, but I adjust each audio piece to my own liking. For years, I’ve tried cranking up crowd noise, on field sound effects, and PA announcer, and it just never seemed like any of that sounded ‘good’ or was even there at all! Lol

The PA announcer would announce some things every once in awhile in previous maddens. So, yeah, having him announcing more play by play stuff really gives the game more of a stadium feel. Can’t understand why this hasn’t been better/updated in the past, but as I said earlier, imo, they really seem to have improved all of these little things for one title. Glad they finally did.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[roadman]

Nice review, Phil, looks like you spent quite a deal of time with the beta.

[Darth Aegis]

Madden 20 gameplay felt great. Looking forward to release. I couldn't of been happier with the beta overall & a step in the right direction.

[steelheat226]

Special Edition is already paid off for me. July 30th can't come soon enough. ��

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by steelheat226

Special Edition is already paid off for me. July 30th can't come soon enough. ��

Yeah, I have the PC Ultimate Superstar Edition via Origins Premier and the Xbox One Ultimate Superstar both ordered. July 25th for me, still too long to wait..