Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

[roadman]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

I appreciate the honesty in, not only this partial review, but in a lot of the other reviews that are filtering out for Madden 12. My only question is, where were these reviews last year? Madden 11 had just as many flaws as have been pointed out so far in Madden 12, yet Madden 11 received far higher scores.

Still, I'm glad to see the cookie-cutter reviews disappearing and the journalists doing their duty of holding EA to the flames and calling them out, so to speak, for minimal year-to-year improvements.

I'm headed to the store today to cancel my pre-order. I may pick Madden 12 up at a later date, but for now, I'm fine with hopping on my PS2 and playing Madden 09.

I don't have the game yet, but when I do on Tuesday at midnight, I think I will have a much more enjoyable experience with 12 vs 11. First time I never completed a season in Madden was Madden 11.

Just didn't hold my interest.

[HammerOfGod]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

Weak that no defensive player lock view is in the game. Audibles (now confirmed) are terrible in the demo in comparison to the ease of NCAA 12. Either way I'm dropping the money like I always do and taken fools to the house.

It's comments like this that we'll continue to get very poor effort out of EA in making this game better. As long as people continue to drop money on this crap, EA is just going to put out the exact same thing every year. I've never passed on NCAA until this year, and I've passed on Madden every year since '06 except for giving '10 about two weeks.

The games just aren't good.

[khaliib]

Very, very skeptical.

For the last 3 years I've read Pre-pre release impressions and they've "All" included statements "It's not a bad game" and/or "it's an improvement from last year" while noting the same negatives that are year-in, year-out.

It just seems that as usual, everything sounds good on paper (sort of to speak) but the reality is that very little change will be seen.

For some reason, with these two football releases, the whole football gaming atmosphere feels "Blah" compared to years ago.
I just have this "don't expect too much" attitude with EA's football games nowdays.

I know some will argue it's still too early, but to read that some of the same issues still exist that the gaming communities have beaten them over-the-head to correct and issues advertised with pride as being gone still there, I just throw my hands up.

Man, all this time and not "ONE" impression through the years that says "WOW! What a game. This is football at it's best".

It's always "it's an improvement".

I remember the days of Super Techmo Bowl in college where hundreds of students would skip classes just to play some football.

It was Heated and Hardcore with a football game that doesn't boast half the capabilities of the current football releases, yet it was exciting and you couln't wait to play.

Guys lost girlfriends over spending too much time playing this dumb football game "everyday".

With all the super-duper gaming systems and T'v's, you would think we would have our minds blown away, but that "something" for 2012 football just doesn't seem to be there as in the days of old.

[radney]

At the end of the day Madden is a video game, not a recreation of actually playing the game. If you want the experiences the writer has nitpicked about, the only way you will ever get it is by actually playing the game of football, not a video counterpart.

Perhaps because I grew up playing video games when Atari football with its 3 men on the field all moving together was the only video game choice, I am more tolerant of games being just a game? At any rate I find this type of article counter productive. THe writer may think he pointed out an equal number of positive and negative issues but the article read to me like one big gripe fest.

I will be buying Madden and I will understand and look past the unrealistic events that will occur at times, after all I'm playing a video game.....

I agree with all this. A video game can only be real but so much. I will say just from the demo, I like Madden '12 way better than '10 and '11 combined.

[DJ]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

I don't have the game yet, but when I do on Tuesday at midnight, I think I will have a much more enjoyable experience with 12 vs 11. First time I never completed a season in Madden was Madden 11.

Just didn't hold my interest.

I hope you do enjoy the game. Within 10 minutes, I regretted buying Madden 11 last year and no amount of patches and slider-tweaking ever made that game enjoyable. I don't want to go through that feeling again this year, so I'd rather wait.

[Perfect Zero]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

At the end of the day Madden is a video game, not a recreation of actually playing the game. If you want the experiences the writer has nitpicked about, the only way you will ever get it is by actually playing the game of football, not a video counterpart.

Perhaps because I grew up playing video games when Atari football with its 3 men on the field all moving together was the only video game choice, I am more tolerant of games being just a game? At any rate I find this type of article counter productive. THe writer may think he pointed out an equal number of positive and negative issues but the article read to me like one big gripe fest.

I will be buying Madden and I will understand and look past the unrealistic events that will occur at times, after all I'm playing a video game.....

I understand that it is just a video game, but at this stage of development it should play a better game. The "Atari" comments make me cringe every time. This isn't 1985 any more, it's 2011, and we should expect better advancements in gaming. I feel that OS did a good job pointing out both sides of the argument, and realize that in today's gaming world, you have to advance realism.

I also love the comment "If you want the experiences the writer has nitpicked about, the only way you will ever get it is by actually playing the game of football, not a video counterpart." Unfortunately, I'll never grow a rocket arm, become two inches taller and grow a blue jersey with the name "Manning" on the back of it. Most people want to experience the game with the Colts or Cowboys or whomever. Going out in the back yard and playing toss up isn't going to make me Peyton Manning. Playing video games helps in this experience.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

I appreciate the honesty in, not only this partial review, but in a lot of the other reviews that are filtering out for Madden 12. My only question is, where were these reviews last year? Madden 11 had just as many flaws as have been pointed out so far in Madden 12, yet Madden 11 received far higher scores.

Still, I'm glad to see the cookie-cutter reviews disappearing and the journalists doing their duty of holding EA to the flames and calling them out, so to speak, for minimal year-to-year improvements.

I'm headed to the store today to cancel my pre-order. I may pick Madden 12 up at a later date, but for now, I'm fine with hopping on my PS2 and playing Madden 09.

Wow. Surprised. I thought the demo was real good. Much better than 10 and 11. With all the franchise enhancements and DPP To me this is a slam dunk for my NFL fix. I was happy with Madden 11 on the field...not 100% wow or blown away, but using playmakers sliders and cpu gameplanning I had a good 2 full seasons with Madden and a fantasy season I enjoyed.

If you think it is more of the same I can understand and I would wait till a price drop in December. But I think for offline franchise buffs this game is going to be a lot of fun and offer some great elements we have been pining for since the leap to next gen.

[SGMRock]

Chris the things you said about suction blocking and the DBs clipping through WR or skating around them are the exact same things I said about NCAA 12.

Many times you are at say a right angle to a blocker blitzing the QB and if you graze a lineman you will get sucked sideways into a block. No way this would happen on Sunday, a 240lb LB running at 3/4 speed toward a QB is not going to be stopped that easy, the OL will have to grabe him with an arm on the way by and hold him to save his QB. This is where a full physic engine would be a huge help I guess. I mean OL are strong but they will not stop and turn a LB in his tracks sideways and hold him in a blocking animation you would normally only see if their were going head to head to start with.

The warping around of the DB's is the worse thing. It's like body position doesn't mean anything. Like a 5'11" 180lb DB can just go right around a receiver like Calvin Johnson that is 6'5" and 235 take position and INT or bat down the ball. I would have less problems with mind reading DBs and better zone coverage if this wasn't happening, if the receiver could actually box out the DB like in real life.

Also I agree with what you said, it would be nice if WR's were smart enough to find the wholes in zones and sit on them like real pro WR's do to give a passing lane for the QB.

Last but not least the leaping LB's, I go back and replay these a lot when they happen in both NCAA and Madden. It seems in the replays they are not really going up that high, its just that the ball is so low. Instead of trying to fix leaping LBs they should fix the ball trajectory.

[bmj2k7]

Finally someone who cares aboue DEFENSE! Ive played flag tag, midget, middle school, junior varsity, varsity and even had some offers from some school to play football for them (mostly private, but not all) at the college level, after i graduated a couple years ago. What happens if i want to run a tiger blitz (send all LBs) 2 deep man (2 deep safeties) lockdown coverage (man to man CBs) and have my DTs in coverage and DEs in the flats so you still have 4 man blitzing (which for that split second you have the advantage bc they dont know who's rushing) and atleast 3 guys in coverage (The DL) Its Impossible to do all that and really just having a overload blitz where you send everyone to the same side is hard to do on madden. They need a new defensive play calling system so we can do what we really want to, not what were forced to do. So us defensive guys can wreak havoc on the opposing QB.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

I understand that it is just a video game, but at this stage of development it should play a better game. The "Atari" comments make me cringe every time. This isn't 1985 any more, it's 2011, and we should expect better advancements in gaming. I feel that OS did a good job pointing out both sides of the argument, and realize that in today's gaming world, you have to advance realism.

I also love the comment "If you want the experiences the writer has nitpicked about, the only way you will ever get it is by actually playing the game of football, not a video counterpart." Unfortunately, I'll never grow a rocket arm, become two inches taller and grow a blue jersey with the name "Manning" on the back of it. Most people want to experience the game with the Colts or Cowboys or whomever. Going out in the back yard and playing toss up isn't going to make me Peyton Manning. Playing video games helps in this experience.

So you don't think Madden 12 is an advancement? It is clearly (IMO going out on a limb based on the demo) going to to the best in the series to date.

Madden 93 was the pinnacle in 1993. Madden 2005 was the pinnacle in the series back in 2004.

Here we are seven years later and I feel we have the best Madden for this gen and maybe ever (I don't know yet as I have not gotten my copy but played the demo and loved it). It took much longer this time in this console generation no doubt. But it is here.

Games today are far more advanced than games from 2005. Sports games have taken a huge leap IMO visually, feel wise, controls as well as AI this gen.

It's not even close. I can't play PS2/XBOX spots games anymore.....just can't do it! Platform, adventure and shooters and RPGs...oh heck yeah I still pop in some old favs all the time, but sports games are average compared to todays offerings. They really is no comparison anymore IMO. I think Sports games in general as well as FPS have made amazing leaps in quality, AI and modes this gen. Yeah bugs are being found...then patched and tuned that is a reality of todays games and cycles. The patch has become a Developers crutch much like instant replay has for NFL officials. So it is a blessing and a curse in that regard. I agree games should ship great out of the box. And most don't seem to anymore. Even the great ones like The Show and 2K11 had a big patch each to correct bugs and glitches.


Come on man. It is getting so lame how critical sports gamers have become!!!

When you played Madden back in 1993.....were you not doing cartwheels?

I was. After growing up with Atari Real Sports and Intellivision then even Tecmo Super Bowl this was a huge leap....HUGE!!!

Now I agree Madden has underwhelmed for some time. But 2010 to now they have really stepped up a lot more. It may not be what you want. But for hardcore Madden fans (which I am) the game is getting better and better.

To each his/her own.


But I think most Gen X guys like me agree.....sports games today are amazing and we are getting so much enjoyment out of them as compared to 5,10,15 and 20 years ago.

[coach422001]

the comment about the dynamic player performance going too far each way is one of the things that frustrates me most about programming for sports video games. Programmers want to add something to the game and either they go way overboard to show the swings in performance, or you get alot of the same thing from year to year making it seem stale (like some of the old Fifa manager situations). I think Front Page Sports football was the last one that I played that I felt got it right; you'd see the burst for a number of plays or for a quarter then it would start coming down again. It is sounding like your players become supermen or me trying to run past Ray Lewis for a whole game, which just doesn't seem realistic. Maybe there will be a way to tone the results down a bit from what the reviewer mentions.

[PVarck31]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

Most of us grew up in a generation where home gaming systems were completely new to us. It was amazing being able to play videogames whenever we felt like it. I think the early consoles moved so fast forward in terms of quality. We were in the middle of the tech revolution. Things moved so fast, we went from the NES, to SNES, and Genesis very quickly from Atari and Intelevison. Games were getting better at an extremely fast rate. Then the PS1 released and revolutionized games. Throw in the Dreamcast, and PS2 and Xbox. It was a whirlwind.

We have been in this gen for almost 7 years. The longest time before new systems have been released. You would expect to see sports games like Madden to have taken a huge leap. I am not saying Madden 12 is bad. I haven't even played it. (except the demo) But with tech the way it is today, it just seems like madden hasn't been able to keep up with it. I have no idea why but I don't see that changing this gen.

[atomant94]

Re: Madden NFL 12 Reviewer Impressions: Gameplay

the comment about the dynamic player performance going too far each way is one of the things that frustrates me most about programming for sports video games. Programmers want to add something to the game and either they go way overboard to show the swings in performance, or you get alot of the same thing from year to year making it seem stale (like some of the old Fifa manager situations). I think Front Page Sports football was the last one that I played that I felt got it right; you'd see the burst for a number of plays or for a quarter then it would start coming down again. It is sounding like your players become supermen or me trying to run past Ray Lewis for a whole game, which just doesn't seem realistic. Maybe there will be a way to tone the results down a bit from what the reviewer mentions.

Which version of Front Page Sports football u talking about?

[JRod]

One of the best reads you'll find on Madden, ever. Everything was covered. Well done!

[thegreatusurper512]

The game doesn't have the new cba in the game (rooke pay scale #1). Therefore all of the franchise adjustments are moot imo. It will be as unrealistic as buying a football game that puts 12 men on the field.