Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madden

[bucky60]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

Then don't buy the game and don't pay attention to it if it doesn't meet your standards? I don't see what's so hard about that.

Sure, don't buy the game. But don't pay attention to it? It's the only NFL Licensed video football game. It's the only one we have to pay attention too. I didn't realize this forum was only for those that are satisfied with Madden. I'm shocked that such a closed minded response would come from a mod.

[bucky60]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Different strokes I guess, but I'd actually prefer these drills to progress specific skills to whom exactly I want in CFM as opposed to just playing 11v11 full game against a generic practice squad (who often prove to be better than my starters).

Mainly because i think its nice to not have to play a game in between playing games in the regular season.

You're right, different strokes. I prefer realism (more realistic control) over things that are arcade and unrealistic. I prefer to have to hire a mix of coaches with a mix of attributes, draft the right players, and setup a practice schedule (both individual and team drills) and have players progress the way football players progress in real life. I don't like my teams progression based on me deciding who runs through drills to force progression on just certain players and force how much progression. A more realistic progression makes me feel immersed in the game (like I do in The Show and NBA2K) the other just constantly makes me feel like I'm sticking a quarter into a machine.

I'm very glad for you if you end up with what you want. I understand why you would want it and I would be upset if it were taken away from you. But I also want an option for something much more realistic.

[bucky60]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

We're talking about video games, they all ultimately fall under the same umbrella.

No they don't. Turn based space games are not at all like sports sims.

A sports game doesn't have to be realistic to be fun.

It does if you are looking for a true sports sim.

As to rope this back around to being remotely on-topic, there's no problem with Madden's gauntlet having "boss battles", even though they aren't going to begin to approach realism.
It's adding a gameplay scenario to a game purely for the enjoyment of the challenge using a set of already really solid gameplay mechanics. Why is there anything wrong with that? Does it really matter that the gauntlet isn't "sim"?

Agree, there is nothing wrong with it as long as you are not forced to use those drills for CFM progression.

[reyes the roof]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

I've hammered on this on here.

More than anything else, sports games' biggest failing to this point has been accessibility and teaching its users how to play. This is evident in the fact that no gaming-oriented people around me will even attempt to play Madden, NBA 2K, The Show, or even WWE with me, because I'm a veteran of sports games and a hardcore sports fan in general. I know how to play these games, while they are helplessly behind with few to no in-game mechanisms available with which to catch up.

This is a necessary step for expanding the pool of potential customers for the Madden series, particularly as the NFL's popularity continues to grow. One they probably won't see any credit for on this message board, but - assuming the mode is well-executed - one they deserve credit for nevertheless.

I downloaded demos for the EA NHL game and the NBA 2K game a few years ago because I heard they were great games, but I don't follow the sports at all. I know the general rules of the games, but there is just way too much detail in these games for me to be able to play them without them having a detailed manual that explains every feature and mode in the game

[yardz23]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Holy cow did you actually play an entire practice game instead of one of the other 9 choices that you had to choose from to get XP?

Of course not! I'd play the shortest one possible because it was so boring.

It wasn't any different than the core game and I thought it was pretty boring.

[yardz23]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

You're right, different strokes. I prefer realism (more realistic control) over things that are arcade and unrealistic. I prefer to have to hire a mix of coaches with a mix of attributes, draft the right players, and setup a practice schedule (both individual and team drills) and have players progress the way football players progress in real life. I don't like my teams progression based on me deciding who runs through drills to force progression on just certain players and force how much progression. A more realistic progression makes me feel immersed in the game (like I do in The Show and NBA2K) the other just constantly makes me feel like I'm sticking a quarter into a machine.

I'm very glad for you if you end up with what you want. I understand why you would want it and I would be upset if it were taken away from you. But I also want an option for something much more realistic.

We don't know the extent to how this plays into cfm. For all we know it could be implemented just like how the drills are in NBA 2k.

I want all those the coaching options you mentioned above as well. I'm just saying honing your skills in specific areas through concentrated drills is a more fun way to do "practice mode" in between games

[juduking]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Remember when we had paper guides that came in the cases?

Those were the days, weren't they? Getting a Novel on how the game worked with my brand new game, man I really like that as something I could read when not playing a game I really enjoyed.

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

We don't know the extent to how this plays into cfm. For all we know it could be implemented just like how the drills are in NBA 2k.

The one thing we know about CFM right now is that the drills from the Skills Trainer replace the contrived practice scenarios with respect to player progression via practice. That's already been stated by the developers outright and was revealed at E3 and in the media released last week on Skills Trainer + Gauntlet.

From the GameInformer.com piece published Friday:

Skills Trainer minigames will also appear in your weekly game prep in career mode where you can assign players to drills to earn XP.

[NicVirtue]

Re: Polygon: Madden 15 wants to teach you about football

These games will never be perfect

We are not looking for perfection. We're looking for excellence. It's achievable. It has been achieved. It's time for football gaming to get there again...or for EA to just simply finally get there.

[DNMHIII]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

The one thing we know about CFM right now is that the drills from the Skills Trainer replace the contrived practice scenarios with respect to player progression via practice. That's already been stated by the developers outright and was revealed at E3 and in the media released last week on Skills Trainer + Gauntlet.

From the GameInformer.com piece published Friday:

Personally I think it'll be a nightmare if they don't have at least on skills option for across the board roster progression with a drill like keep the lead from the 25 practice mode for example. If you have to complete drills for each individual player or position it'll be so time consuming especially in a league where some guys have limited time.

[D.S.T.X.B.]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Cool idea. The gameplay won't represent anything they're trying to teach really well, though..

Title should say:

Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Maddenball, Get Better at Madden.

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Personally I think it'll be a nightmare if they don't have at least on skills option for across the board roster progression with a drill like keep the lead from the 25 practice mode for example. If you have to complete drills for each individual player or position it'll be so time consuming especially in a league where some guys have limited time.

I don't think it's going to be so much like that as much as you have to pick and choose who to improve in a given week. I.e. either A - you get one QB drill, one RB drill, one WR drill, etc. (i.e. mini-camp in Madden 2004); or B - you get X number of player drill slots to use a week (IIRC this is how the 2K basketball games handle individual player drills).

I doubt you'll see a situation where you have to run 53 player drills a week. Could be wrong, but I'm with you that that would be very time-consuming and overdoing it.

[bucky60]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

I don't think it's going to be so much like that as much as you have to pick and choose who to improve in a given week. I.e. either A - you get one QB drill, one RB drill, one WR drill, etc. (i.e. mini-camp in Madden 2004); or B - you get X number of player drill slots to use a week (IIRC this is how the 2K basketball games handle individual player drills).

I doubt you'll see a situation where you have to run 53 player drills a week. Could be wrong, but I'm with you that that would be very time-consuming and overdoing it.

Doesn't every player in the NFL try to improve? Don't coaches try and improve all players on the team every week?

I guess I'll just have to wait til their CFM blog comes out and see if they have a mechanism for realistic progression for all players and maybe this is just a way to boost certain players at each position through these drills. Seems to me like having that extra bonus progression through drills would end up killing progression balance with the other CPU teams. That's if Madden starts off with balanced progression between user and CPU teams. They haven't been the best at that either.

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

Doesn't every player in the NFL try to improve? Don't coaches try and improve all players on the team every week?

I guess I'll just have to wait til their CFM blog comes out and see if they have a mechanism for realistic progression for all players and maybe this is just a way to boost certain players at each position through these drills. Seems to me like having that extra bonus progression through drills would end up killing progression balance with the other CPU teams. That's if Madden starts off with balanced progression between user and CPU teams. They haven't been the best at that either.

The current practice implementation in Madden 25 - which as I understand from the released blogs is being replaced outright, though we'll see when the blogs come out - is already imbalanced in favor of the user in a one-player setting because the CPU never attempts practice whatsoever. Ergo the user's players get somewhere between 40,000 and 48,000 XP that CPU teams' players never see (given 2000 XP for a successful practice for each player each week from Preseason Week 1 potentially up through the Super Bowl).

If the CPU continues to ignore practice - I assume they will - limiting the number of players the user may practice in a given week actually works to correct the current game design imbalance by greatly reducing that massive XP gap.

[wordtobigbird]

Re: Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madde

If the CPU continues to ignore practice - I assume they will - limiting the number of players the user may practice in a given week actually works to correct the current game design imbalance by greatly reducing that massive XP gap.

Bingo Madden has a lot of small yet killer problems that we won't know about until someone gets their hands on the game. if they haven't fixed this, still a huge problem in CFM. If SIM stats/CPU decisions haven't been improved CFM still won't have depth. I don't expect to know about any of this until late August.