Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

[NC State-31 UNC-27]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Thanks for the impressions everyone.

One question.....CPU quick snap? Is it like NCAA? I assume no because of the need for Peyton to take all day, just making sure we can take advantage of pre snap control on D.

[Rawdeal28]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

I love how some of you 2k5 fanboys have put this game on a pedestal, its not the perfect football experience that you all make it out to be. The best thing about that game was the fact that it was only $20. It had iffy animation, a lot of pass plays ended in jump balls. You had to charge jukes and spin moves. The presentation was sick, but that game is old news. If you want to play an old, budget football title, be my guest, but quit whining about Madden and comparing it to some out dated, non-conformists football dream. If 2k5 is so great, why aren't you playing it instead of posting on here about how "bad" Madden is? I have been let down the last few years by Madden, but with the scale of these stadiums and the animation in this title, I couldn't help but get a little giddy. Oh yeah, Madden 05 was leaps and bounds more fun to play than 2k5. I had both, but I couldn't get a single football fan I know to play it.

First person football? What a joke. The secondary coverage in that game is a joke, as well as the player models. They all had arms down to their ankles and were lankier than Wilt the Stilt. I won't get into how lame the quarterback play was, the a.i. didn't realize that Vick was a mobile QB. And the much touted Cribs feature? I'm not into doll houses, so the only person who got any use out of that was my little sister, she said it was an awesome football feature, and truly showed how sim 2k5 was.

Madden looks to be back on track, so if you don't want to play, don't, but please quit shoving this 2k did this and 2k did that garbage down my throat. You 2k5 fans should have a convention.

lol love that post!

[Champ24]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

The one thing i do like about this game is the grass. Its top notch. The game looks really good before the hike. Once you hike it, i do not like their animations at all. They just dont look fluid to me. Game play seems to be a little bit better, but the game plays hell of fast you dont have time to react to anything. lol They throw real bullets. Well that is unless you lob it then you will have the defense all over the ball, so thats a no no unless your going 1 on 1 deep or on a fade. Another thing that irks me with Madden games is the damn pocket. There was no pocket. My guys get so bunched up it looks dumb. It didnt happen on every play, but alot.

Another thing, why cant you play defense? i am a defensive guy. I want to see how the defense plays. I know offense appeals to the casual fan, but at least let me play some in a demo.

OMG!!!! Your sig is the most hillarious sig I have seen in my life. LOL. I counted at least 11 360 turns in the vid. That is officially stupid. Gosh, I try to give EA the benefit of the doubt in all that they do but this is ridiculous. Where in the ?$*! is the defensive pursuit.

Sorry for going off tangent. Thanks for the Madden impressions.

[Nza]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

My brother was playing the demo and came across a bug/quirk. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if you pause the game after you score a TD, you can avoid the "Game Over" screen. What happens is you pause, and then resume, and the game goes to the extra point and then the kickoff. Unfortunately though as soon as the Pats are tackled on the kickoff the demo ends again, and the pause trick doesn't seem to work to avoid that.

This was with the 360 demo. Sometimes we had to pause, resume, pause, resume a couple of times for it to work. Also, sometimes the game won't pause after a score, I think it only works when the scorer doesn't start an immediate celebration, which is probably more likely if you catch the ball in the end zone and don't take it in on a big play.

[Vince]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Madden, when he's talking reminds me of Zordon from Power Rangers.

[NC State-31 UNC-27]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Thanks for the impressions everyone.

One question.....CPU quick snap? Is it like NCAA? I assume no because of the need for Peyton to take all day, just making sure we can take advantage of pre snap control on D.

Oops, I just realized you can't tell from the demo since you can only play offense.

But does anyone know?

[PaperLantern]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Madden, when he's talking reminds me of Zordon from Power Rangers.

Haha I forgot all about that dude. And looking back, that couldn't have been more corny.

[J.R. Locke]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

I might buy Madden this year!! I am really impressed with the demo. I haven't ever bought next gen and this will be the first year. Accelerated clock and custom playbooks being the biggest reason I am moving on up from Madden PC.

Loved the animations, very smooth game. OL/DL interaction is so much better than NCAA. Running the ball is fun, can't wait to run some old school offenses!

[loganone]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

I might buy Madden this year!! I am really impressed with the demo. I haven't ever bought next gen and this will be the first year. Accelerated clock and custom playbooks being the biggest reason I am moving on up from Madden PC.

Loved the animations, very smooth game. OL/DL interaction is so much better than NCAA. Running the ball is fun, can't wait to run some old school offenses!

Accelerated clock doesn't exist and if you want custom playbooks you have to buy Head Coach seperately.

Welcome to next-gen football!

[kardashian]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

So is the demo on Pro or All-Pro?

[Rawdeal28]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

*thoughts*

- don't like the Tron training. And what dictates broken tackles/making a tackle?

- Graphics are amazing. I think the NCAA player models are better proportioned, but the graphics in Madden are noticeably better.

- Unfortunately the animations don't show off the graphics well. Lots of awkward movement, near-complete lack of physics (people knocked down from love taps, getting juggled into the air like a fighting game, tackles/broken tackles occur at weird angles, etc.). Seems like only the ball carrier has consistent anims to depict direction changes; everyone else just stops and goes in whichever direction they need to go. WRs look like their jogging their pass routes. Lack of head tracking. Post play player movement is awkward; some players do weird hunchback celebrations that mostly look out of place while everyone else jogs back to the huddle. Player interaction is pretty much non-existent

- Lots of pre-play control options; almost overwhelming. But they seem to give you lots of flexibility

- QB anims aren't as irritating as I thought they'd be but not sure why. They still look weird/awkward, have bad footwork and are entirely too accurate, but for some reason hasn't stood out to me as much as it does in the videos. Does in replays lol - can't believe some of the bad stuff still in this game since '06.

- Player movement is too precise.

Overall it's one of those things where I feel they're fortunate they have the exclusive licenses - I don't feel the game stands on it's own in the way the last gen games could. Not that they should be the measuring bar of course. It's definitely better than '08, but the sad thing is it still doesn't seem like NFL football - just no soul while playing the game, no identity. For every cool action I probably see 4-5 head scratching ones. Hard to know whether I'm throwing the Plax or Toomer, didn't matter who the Pats had in the secondary because they all seemed the same. Kinda funny that they nailed the player faces, but when on the field they're all cookie-cutter

u didnt like the demo.......im so shocked

[MaxMan1000]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

I don't like to nitpick but some things I noticed...it's only the demo so things may change in the final version obviously.

- Dark Lighting
- Cartoon(ish) Player Models

These 2 are most likely because I have been playing NCAA a lot...in videos it looks great. I'm hoping it's just from NCAA to Madden type of thing which I believe it is.

- Dropped Passes

Really my only complaint. They're great for statistics...but...the ball hits them right in the hands and is very catchable. It would be nice to see these cought and have more over/under throws as incomplete passes instead of balls that hit them in the hands. (Granted it will happen sometimes but these are the only type of incomplete passes for the most part).

Other than that I can't wait. I just can't decide whether to buy or rent first. After the NCAA fiasco I'm a little scared because the demo doesn't say much but once the game arrives then that's a different story.

Responding to what you have in bold...

The overall darkness confuses me. I don't understand why the colors are so dreary. It just doesn't do it for me at all. It's like there is a dark haze hanging over the picture. There is just no sizzle to the picture at all. For all the hype about graphics this year, this particular setting we got in the demo is terribly unimpressive.

As for the player models, I'll have to say that NCAA did a better job. Not sure what happened here.

The dropped passes are a little ridiculous. In the NFL or even in big time College football, if a guy is wide open on a short to medium, he's going to make that catch 9 and a half times out of 10. Yet here, players are dropping balls left and right... but the defense seems to have hands of glue, lol.

[countryboy]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Accelerated clock doesn't exist and if you want custom playbooks you have to buy Head Coach seperately.

Welcome to next-gen football!

thats not necessarily the case.

Acclerated clock has been implemented into Madden this year and is working. Only problem, because MS only allows patches to be 4mb or smaller, they can't put acclerated clock into the game via a patch, so they are looking at alternative ways, like adding in to the game like they do a roster update.

And you don't have to buy Head Coach separately, you can buy the Collector's Edition of Madden and get both.

[Jordanfan23]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

The demo definitely left something to be desired. Not letting us play defense makes me a little nervous as well.

-Graphics are definitely the best I have seen on a Madden game. Game does seem a little dark, but the players look crisp and clean, as well as the field.

-Didn't play it much, but when I did, I didn't see many dropped passes. If there is a problem in this area, hopefully a slider adjustment will fix it instead of the pain in the arse universal ratings bump.

-I love that the QB has to make quick decisions a la the real NFL, instead of being able to drop back 10 yds. and then roll out 15 yds. with no pressure from the defense.

-Highlight thumbstick seems a little late reacting at times but doesn't seem to do it every time it's used.

-Like the added pass catching animations. Some are still off according to where the ball is thrown not matching the proper animation but overall, nothing too horribly noticable.

Can't really comment on more than that, and truthfully, this game could be a piece of garbage and I would buy it anyhow due to the Browns finally being good on a Madden game for the first time ever. I am sure with some slider adjustments and good rosters, and some problems being addressed via the patch(es), this will be a great game of football!

[ch46647]

Re: Madden 09 Demo Released, Impressions Here

Maybe it appears a little darker becuase it is in Arizona's stadium with the roof closed making it a dome setting?