Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

[RayManHCP42]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

I stopped using it about a week ago.

Should tell you what you need to know.

[Lakers 24 7]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

IMO all users should have to pick their own plays, it's nothing but a cop out IMO.

[raguel]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

The biggest problem I have with gameflow is that the defense doesn't recognize situations like the 2 minute drill, and in early downs it will stay in the base defense even if the cpu comes out in 3+ wr sets.

[RGiles36]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Defensively, I'm a little confused. Maybe someone can help:

Is it based entirely on the personell the offense trots out on the field? Say, it's 1st down, but they come out with 3 WR, will Gameflow choose one of my plays from my nickel choices or one of my plays from my general/regular (I forget what it's called)? I've been choosing my own play on 1st down on defense because I want to be in one of my base sets, regardless of offensive personell. What is Gameflow's defensive play-calling formula? Is it based entirely on personell?

For gameflow, I'm not certain. But using 'My Gameplan' under the conventional play calling option, I can't figure out how defense is called. The gameplan screen suggests that it's chosen based on offensive personnel. However, I've found this not to be the case. When teams run 3 wide on 1st or 2nd down, 'My Gameplan' defaults me to my base 3-4 plays. I'm not sure if it's broken, or maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me.

Suffice it to say that I've had to stick nickel plays in my normal just so I'm not caught off guard.

I've also noticed that sometimes if the CPU comes out in 3 wide, my dime packages come out instead of nickel???

[bgeno]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

if you can pick plays faster, that just means you're able to run more plays in a game.

Which translates to faster games. If you need 13-minute quarters to get 100 plays without Gameflow, but you can get 100 plays in 10-minute quarters with it, that's at least 12 minutes less time it takes to play a game.

[madchuck100]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Does anyone even use Gameflow Online.

[therockstar2005]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

At first, I thought that Gameflow actually worked pretty well. It got me out of my old playcalling habits, got me to actually use screen passes and other crazy stuff. It seemed pretty good.

For about five games...

But then I got frustrated with some of the calls. I particularly just got frustrated that I would not be doing well and that I really wasn't responsible for it. Even when you set up the options of what plays you want the cpu to choose from, the cpu is still calling your plays.

The way I thought gameflow would actually work is that, in given situations, you just already have these plays picked out and then you can choose from one of them yourself. That way, you'd still save some time searching through formations, but you'd actually be the one calling it. Besides, isn't that how playcalling actually works, where the coach has a selection of plays and then he chooses one?

[RaiderKtulu]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Which translates to faster games. If you need 13-minute quarters to get 100 plays without Gameflow, but you can get 100 plays in 10-minute quarters with it, that's at least 12 minutes less time it takes to play a game.

Not exactly... It does mean faster games, but not the way you're saying. If you're using the accelerated clock, the clock is going to run down to 20 seconds every time, regardless of whether you call your play at 30 on the clock or instantly at 40 with gameflow. It doesn't change the total number of plays called. What it does do, is save somewhere between 5 and 15 seconds of real time per play.. except during the final 2 minutes where it actually makes it even easier to call too many plays. So, going for simulation - around 120 plays per game... it'll generally save somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on how fast of a playcaller you normally are.

Personally I'm not in that much of a hurry when I play, and some situations require more thought than others. If I'm playing Superstar mode, sure, it's realistic to have to run what the coach calls. I'm cool with gameflow there (if it works in that mode, I haven't actually looked). If I'm playing Madden's normal God of Football mode, I'll run whatever play I want, thankyouverymuch.

[roadman]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Not exactly... It does mean faster games, but not the way you're saying. If you're using the accelerated clock, the clock is going to run down to 20 seconds every time, regardless of whether you call your play at 30 on the clock or instantly at 40 with gameflow. It doesn't change the total number of plays called. What it does do, is save somewhere between 5 and 15 seconds of real time per play.. except during the final 2 minutes where it actually makes it even easier to call too many plays. So, going for simulation - around 120 plays per game... it'll generally save somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on how fast of a playcaller you normally are.

Personally I'm not in that much of a hurry when I play, and some situations require more thought than others. If I'm playing Superstar mode, sure, it's realistic to have to run what the coach calls. I'm cool with gameflow there (if it works in that mode, I haven't actually looked). If I'm playing Madden's normal God of Football mode, I'll run whatever play I want, thankyouverymuch.

At least in this game you have options. In other games, sometimes you aren't as fortunate.

As far as GamePlanning, the more I utilize it, the better I enjoy it. I pick all the plays on offense and defense. That way, they are my plays, not the CPU's. I will do that every week in franchise mode based on the opponent I will be playing. It takes a bit of time, but well worth the personalization.

[NC State-31 UNC-27]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

useless on defense

decent on offense but I'll never use it because it just isn't smart enough...doesn't take enough game (clock and score) situations into account....I shouldn't be passing on first down with 3 minutes to go in the game and a 17 point lead

[Johnny_Rep]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

A complete gimmick. Entirely defeating the object of the game. How on earth can the cpu pick better plays than I can. I'm studying my opponents tendencies, I have a sense of what he can and can't do and what he likes to do in certain situations. Gameflow does not. I can also set him up, run different plays out of the same formations in similar circumstances. It's designed for people who don't want to think about what they're doing.

Sadly, the game this year doesn't particularly punish that.

Gameplanning could potentially be useful, but only if I could watch hours of my next franchise opponents 'gamefilm'. Otherwise, it's a farce.

Incidentally, and yes I am somewhat disillusioned. I do not recall a single person, with all their thoughts, ideas (some of them excellent) and criticisms (many of them justified) on this board last year say 'What we need is a system that calls plays for you'.

Not one.

[Romeclone]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Total Gimmick. It's kind of funny if you did this year with all this stuff... I know when the pitch line for this years Madden was Faster, Quicker, Deeper or whatever we were in for some laugh's.

For the record, I really like Madden this year and am enjoying the game a lot. But this post is about gameflow. It's silly and I turned it off durring the demo. Have not even had it on once with my retail copy. Why? The whole reason I play madden is so I can play the human chess game of football. I like to sit there in between plays and think about what defense they are going to come out in, what play i might run, which player I want to get the ball to. For the CPU to do all that is just silly; defeats the whole reason I play the game.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. For some I quess it might be apealing but for me it's just silly. And for those that said ask Madden is better, I agree. There you get a few more choices and you get to hear Madden...Yes!

[sportyguyfl31]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Still using it, still loving it.

Combined with gameplanning, it works very well.

Gameplanning allows me to focus on the plays that I am going to use.

There are plays that i NEVER call, and would never consider calling, so why not filter them out, and load up on plays that I actually want to run?

Plus I have my audibles...if I have to check out of a play.

It really works pretty smoothly. If I like the play, Im able to strat pad immediately, and make a couple of adjustments (im totally comfy with strat pad now), and I can pull up either a formation audible or one of my set audibles, seamlessly.


I have no complaints.

I hope they take it deeper in the future and allow us to implement substitution packages based on down/distance...and plays based on more specific situations.

[silence1206]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

I would hate gameflow for online or head-to-head gaming. But, I exclusively play offline franchise. And I find that gameflow is good for two reasons.

1) It speeds up the game

2) It levels the playing field between myself and AI, as we now have equal standing in how plays are called.

[bgeno]

Re: Is Madden's Gameflow a Revolution or a Gimmick?

Not exactly... It does mean faster games, but not the way you're saying. If you're using the accelerated clock, the clock is going to run down to 20 seconds every time, regardless of whether you call your play at 30 on the clock or instantly at 40 with gameflow. It doesn't change the total number of plays called. What it does do, is save somewhere between 5 and 15 seconds of real time per play.. except during the final 2 minutes where it actually makes it even easier to call too many plays. So, going for simulation - around 120 plays per game... it'll generally save somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on how fast of a playcaller you normally are.

I could be wrong, but doesn't accelerated clock run off the set amount of time, not jump to a certain point? Say you set it for 20 seconds, doesn't it run off 20 seconds once you pick your play? Not jump strait to 20 seconds? For example, if you pick your play with 32 left on the play clock, it runs the clock down to 12 as opposed to jumping to the 20 second mark? If it just jumps strait to a specific time that you set, then, yes, you're right. But if it's a run-off, then my point still stands.