Positive words on Madden- Bill Abner

[ab2c4]

Quote: Originally Posted by DubTrey1

So far, on the fence guys (like me) will wait for OS reviews and perhaps even better still - a patch perhaps before even giving this years Madden a try. Minimal strides by EA each year are not enough to get my $. I want D to be as fun and challenging as Offense. So far, does not appear wil lbe the case and to make matters worse - the game is seemingly geared to multiplayer and skimps over the solo gamplayers drive to play franchise etc. 09 - guess I will have to pass....again.

I was hoping I wouldn't hear that. As someone who only plays offline vs the cpu in Franchise mode I am wondering if this game isn't for me. I'm sure a lot more info will come out in the next few weeks regarding single player mode vs cpu, until then I will just wait it out for more info.

[Lisa_Bonami]

Bill, here is my one major problem right now with the game,

I've reserved my thoughts until I played alot more games in my Franchise ( well actually about 12-15 random games scattered throughout the PreSeason)

One thing on the negative side that I am seeing is the fact that QBs ( both Human and CPU) are just too accurate. At first I thought it was just because I was in some games with Peyton Manning, Brady, Romo, ect. But then I experimented by playing some of the weaker matchups and still saw awfully high completion percentages. This was also true to the fact in the 2nd half when all the teams started playing their backup QBs in Pre Season.

Then I thought it was just my sliders, so I went to BOTH extremes to observe some more results. ( I completely increased the Passing Difficulty slider (set it to All Madden slider) and completely lowered the Pass Defense difficulty slider (set to Rookie) ( there's no CPU sliders this year for Passing) and I still noticed very marginal if any differences in the ease of completions by both myself and CPU QBs

I think the main problem ( which I've stated several times along with others) is that the actual Passing engine isnt designed with enough random accuracy variability to create underthrows and overthrows. I even went into an OFFENSIVE ONLY Practice mode to try and purposely reproduce over and underthrows...it just doesnt happen. Almost all balls are tracked to be in the immediate vicinity of the reciever/defender even with FULL EXTREME PASS TOUCH placed on the ball ( holding the analog stick in a fully extended directional position )

Occassionally, and I do mean occassionally it seems like there will be that missfire. But certainly not with the frequencies you'd expect from extreme slider settings AND poorly RATED QB Accuracy Attributes.

This is the one downer I have about this otherwise enjoyable game right now at this point. Besides the limited variety in passing accuracy between all the different QBs, I'm also simply not seeing enough distinction and style in the different QBs in the league. They all seem to be carbon copies of each other with just different uniforms and slight differences here and there but nothing that you would really expect from a NEXT GEN 2009 version of Madden,

Even ALL PRO Football had tremendous amount of distinctions between the various QBs (and other players) And the fact that almost all of them have the similarly high robo QB passing accuracies seems to separate them even less apart from each other.

Im worried about this part of the game....boy do I hope this gets addressed. I wish there were seperate CPU sliders too. Im not really that excited about the new style of difficulty sliders with sub sliders that allow you to only tweak HUMAN performance

Bill you said that you addressed the QB CPU ROBO accuracy?....how did you do this?...I find lowering HUM PASSING all the way down only places a (slight) hit in your own player's accuracy in Franchise mode. And it seems like it is very negligible at best.

Im gonna experiment with just straight up default ALL PRO, MADDEN, or PRO sliders to see if they have a different effect than CUSTOM

[K_GUN]

curious....


has anyone edited any of the QB's AWR and THA ratings?

[Lisa_Bonami]

I have not...but I even put the engine to an extreme test by placing a 3rd string QB from the depth chart who was actually a KICKER ( team must have had a shortage of QBs on roster) who's passing accuracy and power were in the low 40's and I still noticed too much accuracy and effectiveness in his passes. He went like 11-13 and drove the team down the field, completing some difficult passes along the way like splitting the seams, completing in traffice, ect.

The only missed passes were ones batted away or almost intercepted. I didnt see offline passes

This is the one area I think needs some patch tweaking first

That and possibly adding CPU sliders...I just cant understand how there are none. That scares me. Especially since the default gameplay needs a little work

[Lisa_Bonami]

Bill...you there?

[Shock6822]

I know you're not using the IQ thing Bill, but what setting do you have the 4 options on? Rookie? All Pro? Break em down if you would (Pass/Rush O and D)

[Daudr]

Quote: Originally Posted by neuroticomic

i dont know, i am digging the madden 09 deal so far. Light years ahead of last year. I watched a full game of Cowboys Giants in Head coach and the crowd was abysmal. took me right out of it. giants run a kickoff 35-40 yards at home and the crowd does nothing? no stadium announcer? limited player chatter place sounds liek a morgue. combine minutea with low end graphics and horrible sound and u have a recipe for a boring afternoon at the tv. unless u like spending 44 3/4 hours planning 2 weeks of your offseason. i'll stick to madden 09

Wow, your priorities are majorly different from someone that wants to play actual football. All the side fluff like crowds, player chatter, etc is worthless if the gameplay blows. All that matters is the gameplay, with graphics in second place, and the ridiculous periphery like the "ESPN presentation" that 2kers always rant about falls into a distant last place.

All that minutia that you are against, is exactly what I'm looking for - FOOTBALL details, not TV presentation details.

[Bill_Abner]

Quote: Originally Posted by Shock6822

I know you're not using the IQ thing Bill, but what setting do you have the 4 options on? Rookie? All Pro? Break em down if you would (Pass/Rush O and D)

Going off memory: All Madden passing, All Madden rush D, Rookie Pass D, and Pro running. There are sliders inside those settings, but thats the basics. Running on default is REALLY tough.

LisaB, I am in fact here.