When playing APF2K8, I am constantly annoyed at the Run Blocking in the game, primarily by the FB / TE on sweeps / stretches / Powers and so forth. Many times the guys run up the field without so much as a glance at the guys they should block. I really, really thought it sucked.
Then, I played Madden '09, and I realized that the blocking in APF2K8, though flawed, is uber Godly.
Let me break down the differences and you guys can reply.
APF2K8 Blocking
- Proper pulls by OLine man for given plays so they are in position to block
- Good DLine call will counter the best run play blocking setups
- Take away the Gap (A, B)
- Take away the Edge Play (Stretch / Toss)
- Take away an Oline Pull (Power / Sweep)
- Blockers will follow the path of the runner (may not be 'Sim', but adds a great feel to the game and allows a runner to 'setup' blocks)
- Blockers will still occasionally, for unknown reasons, completely miss their assignments in an extremely unrealistic manner (they just run up the field, even though the defender was in their line of sight)
- Most blocks are stationary, unless using a Star player, or a Bulldozer player. These guys will put the defensive players on the ground, or move them back 3 to 5 steps.
Madden 09
- Proper Pulls by OLine, but due to speed issues with DLineman, there are many plays that simply cannot be used
- Unclear on Madden's approach to run stopping and thus it's affect on blocking (haven't played it enough, can someone else expound on this point)
- Defensive players shed blocks much more often, and more realistically. Unfortunately, the speed of the shed block is such that the block is all but useless most of the time.
- Like APF2K8, Madden's defensive players will occasionally run up field and completely ignore a defensive player. I ran a sweep once, and had 3 offensive players ready to make a block and a defensive player ran right by all 3 of them (through the middle of them!) and they never even reacted. It was disgusting.
- Blocks are almost always stationary.
Madden has one thing going for it, and that's better block shedding. The problem is that it has a lot more going against it. The timing of blocks is not long enough, the blocks are usually stationary. When they are made, they are just a split second (again, timing). When they aren't made, it's bad, far worse than what you see in APF2K8. APF2K8 you might have one, or 2 players miss a block, but never 3 like in Madden. Finally, Madden has no way for the gamer to setup the blocks themselves other than playing a blocker, which was a band aid fix for their bad blocking.
Can someone expound on the DLine / OLine blocking interaction for run plays in Madden?
Thoughts?