[Pokes404]

Not to take things off topic, but speaking of incredibly useful features from the PS2 era, does anyone else remember the on the fly audible system?

Basically, in the play selection screen, if you held down R1 and pressed the corresponding icon, that play was now one of your formation audibles. I used to set 2-3 new formation audibles before calling a play. Then, once I got up to the line of scrimmage, I could read the defense and either run the play I called, or check to one of the formation audibles that I had just set up. I used it a lot in NCAA when trying to mimic the college no-huddle system. A lot of those offenses were based on the idea of lining up quickly, taking a look at how the defense was set, and then getting the final play call in from the sideline.

It was great because maybe I didn't always want a WR screen as an audible, but if it was 3rd and 1, it was great to quickly set a WR screen as a formation audible and then call a dive up the middle. Once I got to the line, if the defense was stacked to stop the run and the corner was playing off at all, I could check out to the screen and flip it out to my WR for a conversion (hopefully). I tended to play with average-good teams, but not great or overpowering ones, so I had to be creative sometimes.

To get back on topic though, Madden and NCAA had substitutions right on the PS2. I don't know if the change was made to cut down on people putting WRs at TE, their fastest player at QB, and all kinds of other crazy substitutions simply because of the amount of time it takes to do all that (especially while the playclock is winding down). Other than that, I really can't figure out any reason they would have changed it from the PS2 setup.