Madden NFL 25 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions (360, PS3)

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by Only1LT

Saw some things that I would consider a good start on the presentation front. There were some good, timely, and authentic celebrations after scores or big plays. Kudos for that. Unfortunately, they still come in the form of cutscenes. They just can't let them go I guess. What they don't realize is that although the cutscenes may frame what they want to be emphasized for added dramatic effect (I guess) makes more problems than solutions. Without that organic feeling of watching the play and its aftermath truly unfold, you rob the viewer (player) of its emotional impact. You can't just go from a big hit, to black, then quickly to some celebration that is from a totally weird angle, all in the blink, then to another, then back, and not have it disorient. That's the first issue. The second issue is that you set yourself up to defy the space time continuum. An example. Played with the Ravens. Scored on a long run with Rice. It cuts too a close up of Rice flexing his biceps. Ok, cool. Would be better if it were from a more traditional broadcast angle and it followed the play a little better in the transition to it, but no harm no foul. The problem comes when they start jumping from cutscene to cutscene. So there's Rice, flexing after the score. Now we jump to the sidelines and see the Ravens bench celebrating and... oh wait, there's Ray Diddle on the sidelines celebrating with his teammates...? Heh, heh... I'm sure there's an explanation, he probably just ran to the sideline really fast or the cutscenes allow some time lapse or som... dammit, it just jumped back to a shot of the endzone and there's Ray again celebrating with the linemen, man. I don't expect Tiburon to get the message ever, but I'll give them the holy grail anyway. Make the celebration be a continuous event that happens after a play, whether you keep the same camera angle or not. If you change the camera angle, make them broadcast ones and follow the events in real time from any camera change to the next. If you want to show the sideline, show them only because you followed the player celebrating from the score or big play, from the field, to the sideline.

I liked this entire post and just wanted to highlight this part because it is exactly what I wanted to post but I just didn't feel like typing it out. On the game play front there are indications that M25 on the new consoles could potentially turn a corner on realism and immersion but it's again the fringes that Tiburon seems to be allowing dev teams to do whatever they want. Tiburon claims they read these boards so I just want to touch on two areas of the demo, presentation and player differential.

Only1LT has already expounded on presentation, so I just want to add that whatever team is and has been responsible for cutscenes this entire gen has done a poor job of them so I don't understand why they just don't move on to real time presentation. One of the fundamental things that make this game instantly seem arcade versus sim are these time warps, instead of animating in, actual real time transitions. I don't understand how anybody can look at this for going on 9 years, yet never see it as a core issue to address.

On to player differential, EA football games have to be the most cookie cutter sports games I can remember, in relation to this area. The "strategy" of the game, aside from the SPD ratings, has very little to nothing to do with personnel. This of course spills over into animations and ratings shortcomings, all of which imo completely undermine or cancel out any of the other gains made in game play.

Add to those things the fact that I for one have no idea what Looman is doing in regard to the representing player management in CFM and we are again stuck with the same ole incomplete next-gen Madden.

[DaveDQ]

Has anyone commented or noticed how the buttons in the 360 demo (a,b,x,y) match the new look of the new Xbox One's controller buttons?

That would tell me we will be seeing very similar overlays on the next-gen side of things. Jsut a thought.

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

The Lambeau leap is still in the game with either cpu or user. Three Packer TD's vs the Hawks and 2 had the Lambeau leap.

Maybe it's yet another PS3 bug lol.

[kblu54]

I was impressed with the demo. I played 2 games (on Xbox) with each set.

In the first game, I took the 49ers and beat the Ravens 38-20 on all-pro. 49er run game was dominant for me: gore 15 att-127 yds 2 TDs, kaepernick 3 att-67 yds including a 53-yd TD off read option on the game's 3rd play. Obviously this could be tuned with sliders, which I did not try yet. Also had 2 return TDs: tarell brown took an INT to the house when he stepped in front of a curl route, and lamichael james took a KR 99 yds to the house. I swerved perfectly between two groupings of blockers and raced untouched. I like the presentation, the physics look solid and the stats seemed reasonable. I did see 2 assisted tackles in the stats but they were both for the user team.

2nd game I took the packers against the seahawks and bumped it to all-madden. Lost 24-23 mainly because I tried for a 2-pt conversion after a late TD and failed (jermichael finley drop... Yikes). The run game was dominant for seattle: marshawn had 153 yds and 2 TDs on only 10 carries. He broke a lot of tackles. Again, I feel like the tackling and run ability sliders could tone things nicely. With Rodgers I went 19-27 for 249 and 2 TDs, including a 70-yd TD off a curl route to Jordy with 20 seconds left. Browner tried to jump the route and there was no safety over the top. I sacked Russell Wilson 4 times with the Packers D, but he still managed 40 scrambling yds beyond that.

Overall I liked it. I'm considering a buy especially with the changes to franchise. The only weird glitch I saw was in the 49er game after Tarell's TD. In his celebration, he spiked the ball but the ball didn't bounce normally. It bounced very stiffly and then landed square on the ground with no after-bounce. Thought that was weird. Otherwise had no glitchy moments or freezes.

[Only1LT]

What happened to the improvements in AI with respect to Zone coverage that was supposed to be in 11 (or was it 12)? I don't see defenders passing off receivers in zones or see them drifting from zones that have no receivers anywhere in the area. All I see are defenders standing completely (light as a feather) stiff as a board in the exact areas that plays draw them up in, staring blankly in the backfield and hunched over like rejects from a Living Dead movie.

[Only1LT]

Quote: Originally Posted by kblu54

The only weird glitch I saw was in the 49er game after Tarell's TD. In his celebration, he spiked the ball but the ball didn't bounce normally. It bounced very stiffly and then landed square on the ground with no after-bounce. Thought that was weird. Otherwise had no glitchy moments or freezes.

Saw the same celebration and thought the same thing. Looked very Matrix-esque. There is no spoon...

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

The Lambeau leap is still in the game with either cpu or user. Three Packer TD's vs the Hawks and 2 had the Lambeau leap.

Also, Bang the Drum is back after a Packer TD at Lambeau

[frankstallone83]

I think the new audible system is bad for defense. Offense is fine b/c I've pretty much only used quick audibles since they were implemented but there needs to be more choices for defensive audibles especially if someone is going no huddle.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something there's no way to audible to a cover 4, prevent, 3 deep man, favorite blitz, etc....

Of course if they would just copy and paste the audible/no huddle formula from NCAA that would solve all the problems but I guess that makes too much sense.