Madden NFL 13 Impressions - Gameplay (NO QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION)

[Bobalou2112]

Wow! I think it was definitely worth the trouble I had to go through to get Season Pass, string ethernet cable and endure the download time last night. I mean, I actually want to be jaded, but it has been difficult once I spent some time thinking about the new features, testing things and viewing in-game replays.

I can't say enough positive about the new IE. Yeah, it isn't perfect, but it goes a long way to cover up/round the edges of some of the player interactions that have marred past Maddens. The "little" things it adds to the run game (notably guys tripping) seems to impact (albeit just a bit) yards per carry averages in a realistic way.

Passing: There's been alot said about the new passing mechanism. I really appreciate that the receivers aren't available for a reception immediately. . .you need to wait. When passing, I always attend to the yards per attempt stat...y'know, if you play a game your ypa is, well, over 10, you are wrong. Playing with Cleveland, I expect the ypa to be in the 6ish range. Given that the pass rush shows incremental improvement, and given that you need to wait for your receiver to look for the ball, I find myself dumping off to shorter route receivers...bringing down that ypa to an acceptable level.

AI: Hmmm....not sure about this...and I started a thread or two about it. I'm not yet certain how the "level" setting (All-Madden/All-Pro/Pro/Rookie) relates to the "Slider" settings (QBA, PB) yet. Past Madden "level" and "Slider" values were essentially under one category. You change to all madden and your sliders went to 25. Manipulate them to be under 296 and you have "Custom" at "madden level". Now, you can set your sliders and the cpu sliders to, say, sub 296 and put the "level" on something entirely different. I'm thinking/wondering if one is now impacting player physical behavior and the other intelligence/awareness? I recall seeing a thread last week that referenced something along these lines but I can't find it. . .maybe it is just a bug? Can someone enlighten me? I do notice (or merely perceive) differences in game results. On 50 sliders and all madden level games, Aaron Rodgers just drives the field, picking up little chunks here and there (and maybe going deep once in a while). If I drop the sliders to sub-296 and play "all pro", I see more dropped passes and I can shut him down a bit. . .and their run game too; yet, I can move the ball on the ground and the defenses are more "open". If I move the level to "rookie", I still drop passes, but the defenses are even more lackadaisical. Don't know, maybe playing the same quarter over and over all night is having an impact!

[BenGerman]

Still loving the game, but the playcalling AI is in need of some serious help. Couple things:

- The CPU calls HB Draw plays on 3rd down at way to often. The Draw is called on third in two situations. 1) The team is out of first down range, so rather than risk an INT, they take the free 5-10 yards a draw would give them with a lax defense. 2) To take the defense by surprise when there is 4-6 yards to get a first.

- The CPU calls way to many Hail Mary's. Tip to EA, Hail Mary's are never run on 1st-3rd down. The only exception being at the very end of a game. Other than that, the play shouldn't even be on the CPU's mind.

[Bootzilla]

Man, it's going to be tough figuring out how to make the cpu play competitively on offense. Slider gurus or someone from EA needs to break down the slider values and how they correlate to on field behavior.

All-Madden is playable but, the dropped passes are insane. When did catching a pass thrown directly to a professional football player become such a difficult thing to do?

All-Pro is nice for hum on offense. Or at least it is for me. For the cpu it's awful. I've played the Patriots twice with Tampa Bay and New England has failed to score a touchdown. They moved the ball a couple of times but, they would inevitably run the ball in the red zone and too often run the ball on 3rd and 4 negating any chance of sustaining anything offensively.

There is no way Tom Brady should be completing 40% of his passes and throwing 3 or 4 picks and 1 pick 6 each game. It's not like I'm doing anything special on defense. Just playing down and distance/personnel match ups. Patriots aren't using Hernandez or Gronkowski. They're using Welker but, the majority of their offense revolves around Steven Ridley.

If I like my offense where it is should I stay on All-Pro and move my defense down to 25? Will that essentially have my D on All-Madden and my O on All-Pro? Or do I move to All-Madden and move my Offense up to 50? Are the sliders the only determining factor or does the skill level change behavior?

[The Visualizer]

played 5 games so far with the Early Release. Just for background I am a long-time Madden player who hated 11 and skipped 12 completely because it seemed horrible from the demo and word of mouth.

Overall I am impressed, I didn't hold the M13 demo in very high regard, but after playing around with settings in this version and getting in a few games the gameplay feels like overall the best it's ever been, and this is coming from someone who really was leaning towards not getting the game after dabbling with the demo.

SETTINGS
I am playing on Slow, All-Pro, 8 min qtrs, changed the speed threshold down to 40 to add a little more separation. I've tried "Very Slow" and it doesn't do it for me. "Default" is way too fast and "Slow" seems to be my sweet spot. I haven't even tried All-Madden because I'm still regaining my muscle memory and the CPU is still challenging me at this point. All-Pro difficulty like most that have commented in here, the CPU plays a little too safe and doesnt take many shots deep, although they have sustained drives against me, but I may just be playing kind of crappy right now. The teams def have some personality with their playcalling even if it is safe. Teams that either have good RBs or need to protect QB's lacking talent or consistency have stuck with the running game against me with varying success. Like some others have noted, they dont manage the clock well at the end of halves at all. Out of nowhere they will decide to throw when they can take a knee or should be running the ball to keep the clock moving.

PENALTIES
One thing I am most excited about is that after tweaking penalties, they are actually getting called at a good rate which was a dealbreaker for me the past couple years. I've tweaked most penalties up to 75 and am getting 1 or 2 false starts a game and a bunch of holdings which is great. Haven't seen an offsides yet, but I haven't been fake snapping much to cause any any so that may be the explanation. I had to bring the roughing the QB one back down to it's default level as it was getting called way too much at 60 and above. DE's and DT's can't stop the IE momentum and were wandering/stumbling into my QB 5 or 6 times a game. Most were legitimate penalties but I don't think the engine is capable of stopping guys most times. I want to try it at 55 and see what happens next. If I can't find a sweet spot I might leave it at 60 just to add for more unpredictability to the game, as pretty much nothing gets called on any penalties set to 50.

PASSING
Passing game feels lovely. You can def lead receivers and throw touch passes with trajectory like never before. But the leading doesn't feel cheap like the WR and QB are telepathically on the same page where he sharply breaks off his route, instead it feels and looks well implemented. Also loving how DBs and LB's dont magically react to passes when their backs are turned. You can make some throws anticipating before breaks in routes that you never could before because the DB A.I. would "know" the pass was coming without looking. Also, which has been pointed out, you can tell the difference between having a great QB and others. So far I played with Eli, Big Ben, Kolb, Dalton, and Tannehill and the 3 suspect QB's in that list that I controlled def winged some inaccurate passes to guys that were open from time to time and short armed some deep throws that got picked, while I could do whatever I wanted with the Eli and Ben.

RUNNING / TACKLING
Running and tackling I initially didn't really like the feel of, but after a bunch of games they are growing on me. Tackling is still a bit sloppy, as sometimes it looks like a have a guy lined up for a solid tackle and it doesn't register anything when I make contact. The main problem with running I have is that you guy does down pretty easily when running into his own guys even at low speeds. I'll be off the Sprint button (I turned auto-sprint off) and be pushing on my lineman setting up blockers waiting for a hole to open and my guys drops like he got hit with a 12 gauge. This has happened way too many times for me. Love that your own team are "live" and that some physics is in play but this hurts the inside running game a good bit for me. There are some wonky things that happen caused IE which I can deal with this year, surprisingly most of the worst stuff seems to happen in the cutscenes after the play.

MISC
Oh yeah, one other thing. I think it's essential to jack the on-field sounds under audio options up as at the default level I couldn't really hear the collisions, they sounded real quiet which killed the atmosphere. At 100 you can hear the pads and helmets clashing on hits. I was surprised at how big a difference it is moving it up only 10 points from it's original setting at 90.

Really digging it so far, no doubt now that I'm picking up a copy on Tuesday.

[TDavis45]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dewiel

Thanks for the feedback. Can you try playing a game and not play as a defensive lineman. Control the LB and let me know if you notice the same issue.

I work till 12 tonight but as soon as I get off work Ill test it out and let you know

[fatleg3]

Quote: Originally Posted by sportdan30

Alright, just played an exciting game versus the Broncos in Denver. No lighting issues as I played a night game. With that said, there is one major issue I noticed that I hadn't noticed in my previous games I played this evening. There's some kind of glitch or bug with the visual prior to snap. Perhaps it's only PS3 related. It doesn't happen every play thank goodness. On pass plays with the camera zoomed out, the game will briefly go in to "standard def" mode. Everything will look poor visually, but once the ball is snapped, it clears up right away. It also happened multiple times on extra point attempts. Maybe it happens during night games, or in Denver, etc. I hadn't noticed it before. This is more humorous than annoying because it rarely happens nor does it affect gameplay. On replays, they sometimes focus in on the ball spiraling. On this one replay tonight, the ball spiraled through the air, and just before the player caught it, the ball reversed and spiraled in the opposite direction. To make matters worse, they showed the replay again from a different angle. Lastly, I messed with the penalty sliders because I was seeing far too few holding, offsides, pass interference, etc. Well, I bumped the "roughing the passer" slider from 50 to 65, and because of the infinity engine, this slider was effected big time. Three times I was called for roughing the passer and all three times, it was called because Manning was in the viscinity of one of my players, but tripped over a lineman or whatever. I never actually got a good hit on him late. Thus, that penalty needs to be carefully tweaked. Some of the A.I. play calling, especially late will leave you scratching your head. Overall, great game but polished it is not. The positives definitely far outweigh the negatives, but there are some things that need to be cleaned up in my opinion before it can be heralded the best football video game.

I am noticing it to. I seen it a couple of time during the demo too. I meant to make a post about but I kept forgetting to. I dont think its a standard def. issue because I play on a standard def. What im seeing is that sometimes when I come to the line, everything will go blurry. Not to the point of where I cant see anything, but blurry enough to where it is noticeable then as soon as the ball is snapped, it will go back to normal.

[ghettogeeksta]

Pretty good game.

All-Pro is too easy for me and All-Madden is cheaply done, just lowering all the user skills to 25 is just lazy.

Lacks celebrations after sacks and tackles for losses.

Computer still makes dumb decisions at the end of the game.

Standing defensive ends like DeMarcus Ware are a none factor, the cant get off blocks!

The line play is easily the most glaring deficiency in this game.


IE is really nice, way better than the demo!
Crowd noise is good
Commentary is decent
Game-play overall is pretty good accept the for line play.

I give it a 8/10

[goh]

The entire lack of PI,even with the slider set at 100 is starting to get ridiculous.