Bill Abner's Review

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by PGaither84

One thing he has been way off base with is the kick/punt returns. They are CRAZY easy this year. Defenders don't stay in their lanes to contain you with default sliders. Theere are a number of videos exposing the weakness in the return game. i have had MANY returns against the computer, and last night I was playing a ton of OTP and returned one kick and or punt per game with the exception of one game.

Interesting, since the demo and game, I haven't been past the 30 yd. line. You can't take it up the middle, that is for sure.

I prefer that way, though instead of knowing the TD on KO returns.

[PGaither84]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubz

I can't get past the 25 of KO returns. I know there's some kind of "trick", but I haven't figured it out yet.

A return I had as the Bears
EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight

A return against the Seahawks
EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight


A return in the Superbowl [year 2 of franchise mode]
EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight


Another TD in that Superbowl, this time off of a punt. I didn't even get the achievement for this.
EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight

[Bill_Abner]

Quote: Originally Posted by PGaither84

One thing he has been way off base with is the kick/punt returns. They are CRAZY easy this year. Defenders don't stay in their lanes to contain you with default sliders. Theere are a number of videos exposing the weakness in the return game. i have had MANY returns against the computer, and last night I was playing a ton of OTP and returned one kick and or punt per game with the exception of one game.

That sort of depends, though.

If you approach returning kicks like your brain tells you you should -- look for a lane, bust through it and make maybe one cut and go -- then you will get crushed. Routinely. I played a dozen games without getting a kick back to the 30 using Cribbs. It was frustrating. After you discover the trick to kick returning it becomes much, much easier. Definitely an area that needs improvement.

[davep]

meh, not needed.

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

First off, Roadman I appreciate the kind words but quoting the review isn't a big deal. Quoting the whole thing would be, but cut and pasting snippets of any article isn't something to get worked up over. LT, I lamented that Madden doesn't play a realistic game out of the box. It doesn't. The default All Pro game I find heavily slanted to the offensive side of the ball. The review does say in many places, however, that if you spend time adjusting the game settings that it plays significantly better. Many of the most frustrating game elements can be rectified to some extent after messing with the sliders. So I think it would be disingenuous of any review to completely slam the gameplay without offering up the other side of the coin -- that you can alter it.

I appreciate your response, and I understand what you are saying.

Again, I thought that the review was an insightful one, but I still don't think that it jibes with the score.

Madden is supposed to be a simulation. You can add all the modes that you want. All the features that you want. All the fanfare that you want. At the end of the day, the game's primary, imperative, and perhaps only goal, is to play a realistic brand of Football. If it doesn't, then it has failed. To what extent it fails, depends on how far off the target it veered.

Now I understand that there are sliders in the game. I understand that you could conceivably adjust, tweak, and tease the game to playing a more realistic representation of the sport, but is that the gamer's job? To make a better game than the developer? I don't think so, but maybe it is.

Consider this. Sliders can't be used in online play, so for anyone that wants to play a realistic brand of Football online, they would be out of luck, if it only plays a realistic game with sliders.

Consider that everyone's idea of what the sliders should be set at to get this realistic gaming nirvana, will differ from person to person. Not a big deal if you play alone exclusively, but if you play competitively against human opponents, even offline... well whose sliders do you use? House rules? Maybe.

Consider also, that I would guess that the majority of gamers that play Madden, don't adjust sliders even for offline. If the majority of Madden's fan base is as "casual" as they would have us believe, and as "casual" as many posters on this site claim, then it shouldn't be to hard to accept that these "casual" gamers, would not be adjusting sliders.

I am not attacking your review, nor am I attacking the game. I thought that the written portion was well thought out, and at the end of the day, you can give the game any score you want. That is your right. As is my right to think that if you believe that Madden not only doesn't play a realistic game of Football out of the box, but by your words, an arcadey game of Football out of the box, then I can't see how a game that fails at it's most primary directive, with all due respect, deserves a score that high.

[dubz]

Mod edit: I added a spoiler tag so people who don't want to know the "return trick" wont.

Spoiler

So you basically cut back across the whole field and it's a huge return. Ah well I just wont do that until they patch it.

[SA1NT401]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubz

Mod edit: I added a spoiler tag so people who don't want to know the "return trick" wont. Spoiler So you basically cut back across the whole field and it's a huge return. Ah well I just wont do that until they patch it.

Pretty much...Once you get the hang of it, its a TD 8/10 times.

[lav]

On the topic of player progression; It will be interesting to see how Madden progresses the imported NCAA draft classes. From what I've read (I'm only in season two of my NCAA dynasty) NCAA players don't progress fast and there's a lot of mediocre and very few elite players after a few years. If players don't progress much in Madden will this mean that after all of the elite Madden players retire the leftovers will all be in the middle range like NCAA?

Either way, I'll play both games until my fingers bleed.