Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

[Millennium]

Madden NFL 16 has officially arrived today. Make sure you play a few games and share your impressions with the community!

[prey2god]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

The game is sick! 9/10. Best Madden i've played so far. The team did a great job.

There are minor issues, but overall they made the game great again. Haven't had this much fun since 05.

[2_headedmonster]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

I like the running. So far i REALLY like the running. The running animations, moves and expressiveness seem right.

I'm currently on the opposite end on the spectrum with the aggressive catches. You know when you're under the rim on 2k, in perfect position to make a decent attempt at a block and get sucked into a canned dunk animation? That's the aggressive catch mechanism. At this early stage i feel like it's the pro-tak of catching.

It's not even that it's OP (which it is with stars) that turns me off, it's that it's not organic. Even with the canned dunks from my 2k example there's still plenty of instances where your independent block animation can be used against an independent dunk animation. I don't find that to be the same with M16.

I bring my safety over, time my attempt on the deep ball and it's seemingly neglected. Now it may factor into the success of the catch, but i can't often intervene with what has already been deemed a 2-man animation if that makes sense. My attempt is usually garnish for an aggressive catch interaction.

When the cpu brings a safety over it seems to be worse, they do very little and lag behind the play waiting on a punched ball. So my 2 man under turns into one on one with a witness.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

The Good

Ratings seem to matter way more then ever before. I can clearly tell an offensive linemen with average footwork ratings vs somebody with good footwork ratings. Linemen with average footwork ratings don't get no push at all on running plays and get driven backwards. On passing plays they tend to get destroyed by a high skilled DE.

CPU QB over throw the ball a lot when rushed, which is very nice.

Running the ball can be either extremely easy or hard, depending on the line match ups. I do notice LBs shoot the gaps on running plays a tad bit too good too often. They get through clean untouched if you don't learn to steer them into a blocker or simply cut back across the field.

Play calling must be varied. CPU is must faster in noticing your pattern and shut it down very early.

Passing, we talking passing ?

Passing really is a nail biting experience this year. What use to be guaranteed passes are not anymore. The close out speed for defensive backs can be Deon Sanders like at times. Aggressive catch really is only useful when your WR has a clear ratings advantage over the defender. If they are equal then more often then not the defender will simply knock it out of your hand. I find the possession catch to be the most useful.

One definitely have to learn to use the middle pass and high pass. Passing on a direct line will get you burnt more often then not this year with a LB under cutting your passes. On default speed threshold you get mighty good separation between fast wide receivers and slow corners. Julio Jones burned me quite a bit.

Deep balls are breathe holding experiences. Thankfully for all you no switch players out there, you can rely on the CPU WR and CPU DB to play appropriately. Which is something I do like.

Pass Interference and Defensive holding oh my

Penalties for players are driven by a discipline trait. The choices are undisciplined, disciplined and normal. It works appropriately. You change a player to undisciplined and they turn into a dirty player basically, flags often. Very nice to see pass interference and defensive holding called. It really changes the momentum of drives. Sometimes though the animation doesn't match up.

The bad

Normal speed the players tend to slide and skate around the field. Slow speed fixes this for the most part. Punt returners are brain dead as usual and don't pose a threat. Punts tend to bounce into the end zone more often then not. Commentary is just bad, sometimes they be talking about things that didn't even happen. Like throwing interceptions when you didn't. Going for it on 4th down when you didn't.

Overall

I would give Madden 16 in it's current form a 8.5. All Pro is very competitive, reminds me of All Madden from years ago. I really don't find the need to change sliders other then the penalty ones if you want to see more penalties. Game plays very good out of the box on default All Pro. You get good pressure on the QB, the completion percentage will be in the toilet.

This year is all about playing real FOOTBALL and not playing MADDEN. It also pays to know the people on the team on your team and what their ratings actually are. I have no problem with my CPU controlled defensive line getting to the QB. Depends on what team you are using. Some teams you can get to them with just the front 4, other teams you have to blitz. I find crossing blitzes and overload blitzes to be highly effective this year.

Really all you have to do is play to the strengths of the team that you are using and stop trying to play the same way with every team.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

Since this is impressions, I thought I'd share my impression on the lighting. Well, all I need to do is post this screen shot I found at the 49ers official forum:



For the first time ever, Madden as captured the lighting effect on the 49ers helmets during a night time game. The resolution is bad because it's from YouTube, but this just looks stunning to me. Especially in motion, because the bright yellow-gold blob thing moves very similarly to how it does in real life. I didn't think they could ever do it, but they captured it. Very stoked about that.

[jb12780]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

Played 55 last night 15 quarters, 15 second play Clock on All-Pro and we had a great game. He ended up throwing a TD pass to Austin Seferian-Jenkins with 37 seconds left against my giants. We both threw a combined 5 picks.

Game looks amazing and plays great as well. With a few slider tweaks this game is going to be amazing.

[JBH3]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

I spent most of my 10 hour trial playing MUT until last night where I started an offline franchise with Oakland. The game played very well on default All-Pro, but I did increase penalty sliders. I am pleased to see that 4 defensive interference calls occurred in my one franchise game. This is a first in probably 20 years+ of Madden.

Despite losing the game 33-6 for wk1 Bengals @ Raiders, I was happy with the gameplay. It was fun, challenging, and I was in it up until 2 crucial INTs in the red zone.

Complaints:
1. Somehow Andy Dalton made into the kick returner depth chart and was injured in a kick return; out 1 week with an elbow injury. How does this happen. No football game's AI should allow this logic to occur.

2. I must've sacked the Bengals QBs 4x but none of them counted in my defensive stats. Big issue IMO.

[roadman]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

I played 3 quarters last night on all-pro and it was difficult to say the least.

The Good

Running Game-

This was a thing of beauty to watch. Following your blocks was a sight to behold, much better than last year. Adrian Peterson run all over me by half.

Passing Game- Very nice animations between WR/DB's. You need to follow your reads quickly or the DB will close quickly and break up the pass. It's nice to see CPU QB's throws off the mark and over thrown. Nicely done here, EA.

Penalties- Only 2 holding calls for 3 quarters. I'll take everyone's word for it here.

Presentation- I don't mind the stat bubbles and I do like the camera following the team out to the huddle from the sidelines. Lighting is very good this year.

The Bad-

Commentary- Need much more improving in this area, although there was new commentary added to the new xp try's.

Presentation- Need to feel more immersed and maybe it's the commentary. I will say the crowd sounded good.

QB Signatures- Still not there where it needs to be.

Special Teams- Same as it ever was.

More to come later.

For now, I'm giving the game a 7.5 overall, but that goes up if they fix the CFM issues to 8 or 8.5 in a reasonable amount of time.

[HockeyPhuck]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

pretty awesome. i am no pro but i played all madden last year.on madden16 i am having hell a fun on all pro. penalties, passing, running, QB's its great this year.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: Official Madden 16 Impressions Thread

There are some small elements that need work, and the issues in CFM from the regression bug to autosubs need fixing, but damn if this isn't an impressive effort.

First time in years I've bought two releases in a row and the second year felt fresh and more engaging.

I'm really feeling the gameplay so far. Definitely needs some slider tweaks to make it play how I want it, but it's the best out of the box foundation I've come across in a Madden game. Almost cried when I saw the cpu miss some throws.

Lighting is amazing as well. I've spent way too much time cruising around replay and marvelling at stuff, and not even playing the game.

[Brooke2011]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

Best madden to date. Sliders work this year. I had 10 penalties in a 20 minute game . Alot of offensive holding and defensive holding and pass interference. Aggressive catch is not overpowering ,especially with mediocre recievers. Pass rush is fixed with sliders.
Great game good job EA

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

On the field, this is the most organic, polished, and frankly fun Madden NFL game - possibly most organic, polished, and fun football video game, period - to-date. There's a way for the user to get involved in every facet of the game, you really have to to succeed at the highest level, and the game actively encourages you to get involved in everything that happens, rewarding your correct plays and penalizing your mistakes.

On "organic": for example, I had a play last night where I sacked Phillip Rivers with Jeremy Mincey, but I hit him as he was throwing, so the ball popped straight up into the air. It caromed into the waiting arms of Demarcus Lawrence, who returned it fifty yards the other way before getting chased down by Melvin Gordon. This is a play I've never seen in a Madden game, and it happened so believably here too. It was a wow moment for sure.

As soon as some of the little warts in CFM get cleaned up, I'm going to be investing a ton of time into this game. For now, however, I will stick with Play Now and Draft Champions, maybe a little bit of Ultimate Team.

[testorz]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

I'n glad they did away with a lot of the sets that needed collectibles. That was insane!

[Dantecamp21]

Loving the game. Finally enjoying the animations, they nailed the running motion for the first time since the PS2 days. Tackling feels great (FINALLY!).

Like others have already stated, the game does have a much needed "organic" feel to it, something it has been missing since like forever.

The new catch prompts are a bit overwhelming at first and I don't like the augmented reality UI. But the new cameras are pure joy and I know I'm absolutely alone on this one but I'm kinda enjoying the play-by-play commentary. The chatting between Simms and Nantz has been more natural than in year's past and the fact that they talk about what happened on the last drive once the ball possession switches from one team to the other is very refreshing.

Waiting for the clean up before starting my CFM as well.

[NYGiants4Natic]

Re: Madden NFL 16 Community Impressions

Loving the game but I knew I would

Love the new DB WR interaction and tackling is fantastic for the most part

The lighting with the haze in the sky gives the game a more realistic muted look.

Graphics as a whole not changed much but what did change is the detail in players bodies as players look much close to their real life counterparts

no more jaggies but i play on zoom camera both ways.


What I hate is the night game having dusk skies WTF

I also hate that when a qb comes out for the first time the same animation happens for each team with wr patting his head

I also hate the bubble overlays as they take away from presentation in my opinion.

Noticed the frames drop when camera pans..