Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

[Steve_OS]

With a closed beta, there's only so many hands that get to touch Madden 24 before...

Written By: Chase Becotte

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[canes21]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

Yep, defense needs work. Desperately. The AI also needs further attention. It was better, but far from a place where EA can just leave it.

Defense is so far behind in Madden at this point that the game is as imbalanced as I can remember. At least the beta was. From my time with the beta, I legitimately worry that even sliders won't be able to fix the imbalance. Defense is simply in a very bad spot right now with the lack of a pass rush alongside the very weak pass coverage.

This was predictable, though. When EA decided to more or less ditch match coverages and went back to defaulting to spot drops like it was 1998 again, the writing was on the wall. With modern offenses you cannot create a balanced game with antiquated alongside a significantly nerfed pass rush. It's just a recipe for disaster from a balance perspective.

Fortunately, the PC version is likely to be moddable, so one sector of the community may be able to fix some of the major issues with the game, but I do feel for the rest of the crowd this year. While I've been a fan of the direction the series has been moving overall since moving to the current consoles, I cannot lie that the beta this year has me feeling down more than I have in years.

It is mostly all because of the defense as well. Focus on it and get it up to speed and you likely have a fun and balanced game, but based off the beta the game is even more wide open than I'd even expect the college game to be. Defense was just about non-existent because it is not given a chance to succeed.

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[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

Nice article. Love the note about the salary cap. Hope that gets fixed up for launch.

[steviegolfballs]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

I just can’t get past the penalties and fatigue issues. It’s such a basic part of the game at the pro level that it just wrecks it for me. Substitutions are just a common occurrence in the NFL and penalties are so common that not having them functional is a non-starter for me. Been burned by this game too many times but always hopeful.

[Kramer5150]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

Yep, defense needs work. Desperately. The AI also needs further attention. It was better, but far from a place where EA can just leave it.

Defense is so far behind in Madden at this point that the game is as imbalanced as I can remember. At least the beta was. From my time with the beta, I legitimately worry that even sliders won't be able to fix the imbalance. Defense is simply in a very bad spot right now with the lack of a pass rush alongside the very weak pass coverage.

This was predictable, though. When EA decided to more or less ditch match coverages and went back to defaulting to spot drops like it was 1998 again, the writing was on the wall. With modern offenses you cannot create a balanced game with antiquated alongside a significantly nerfed pass rush. It's just a recipe for disaster from a balance perspective.

Fortunately, the PC version is likely to be moddable, so one sector of the community may be able to fix some of the major issues with the game, but I do feel for the rest of the crowd this year. While I've been a fan of the direction the series has been moving overall since moving to the current consoles, I cannot lie that the beta this year has me feeling down more than I have in years.

It is mostly all because of the defense as well. Focus on it and get it up to speed and you likely have a fun and balanced game, but based off the beta the game is even more wide open than I'd even expect the college game to be. Defense was just about non-existent because it is not given a chance to succeed.

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This speaks to my exact frustrations I had with the beta, I simply cannot like this post enough...the game is severely unbalanced so much so in fact that it led to being completely unenjoyable.

In comparison to M23 it's embarrassing how unbalanced the beta was, at least in 23 on AM with adjusted sliders, I was able to play a no switch style (which is what I prefer)...in the beta I was able to get a little bit better coverage, but no where near close to what it should be(imo).

Throw in the lack of defense and the ping ponging from cpu rb's and wr's and it gets to be a very frustrating experience....but I tell ya what, the cpu defense sure didn't have problems covering my guys.

As I had previously mentioned in the beta discussion threads, no matter the defense I called, my guys seemed to be ALWAYS a step or 2 behind the cpu offense..

If this is what the college game is going to be like, it will be an easy pass for me.

Good article....I'm not sure this falls under the gameplay umbrella (but I think it would) the lack of penalties (yet again) is something that definitely needs to be addressed.

[JKSportsGamer1984]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

I just really hope they clean up the Collision Detection & Player Physics post play. There's way too much clipping going on. Players are back to walking through bodies after tackles, players rolling through the legs of other players, limbs & feet clipping through body parts, etc. It's almost as if they turn the player physics off as soon as the play is over smh. I just don't get why they can't make physics & collision detection matter at all times. They had this stuff cleaned up in 23. I don't get why it has reverted back. It totally kills immersion & ruins the experience. I'm hoping this will be fixed in the final version.

[GridironGreat]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

Completely SPOT ON about elite pass rushers and overall a 4 man defensive front does absolutely nothing, coupled with some of the absolute worst pass coverage in both man and zone makes for a frustrating, close to unplayable and definitely unenjoyable experience. These two issues more than any in madden gameplay need addressed PRONTO. They are the most important to gameplay, and the only thing holding this game up from really playing the best football we’ve ever had.

[Detroit Tigers]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

It’s a working thesis of mine that this community isn’t very good at defense in Madden. This observation goes back a very long time. Things like “robo qb” and “my pass rush sucks” are always dead giveaways and there’s never any communal pushback against these scrubs due to how splintered said community is thanks to online vs offline, sim vs arcade, slideritis schizos, CPUvCPU dudes and so on.

Tell me I’m wrong that this community hasn’t been getting LIT UP by AI QBs for like eleven years now, all the while hiding behind vague notions of “sim” and “realism” when they get lit tf up. “Hurrrr mommy this qb is going buck wild on me this game sucks.” I can’t tell you how many posts of y’all’s read like that if you take a step back and look at it.

Anyway.. I hope this dev team has some balls and makes the game they want to make. There’s nothing particularly interesting coming out of its community feedback.

[lowndsy]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

This is not sounding positive, not a surprise sadly as this forum doesn't seem to get noticed quickly or at all in most cases.

[GridironGreat]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

It’s a working thesis of mine that this community isn’t very good at defense in Madden. This observation goes back a very long time. Things like “robo qb” and “my pass rush sucks” are always dead giveaways and there’s never any communal pushback against these scrubs due to how splintered said community is thanks to online vs offline, sim vs arcade, slideritis schizos, CPUvCPU dudes and so on.

Tell me I’m wrong that this community hasn’t been getting LIT UP by AI QBs for like eleven years now, all the while hiding behind vague notions of “sim” and “realism” when they get lit tf up. “Hurrrr mommy this qb is going buck wild on me this game sucks.” I can’t tell you how many posts of y’all’s read like that if you take a step back and look at it.

Anyway.. I hope this dev team has some balls and makes the game they want to make. There’s nothing particularly interesting coming out of its community feedback.

You assumption that all of is are talking about anything even related to “AI” or single player would be completely wrong. Many of us are talking h2h ganeplay, and how the defenders which you do not manually control, there are always 10 put of 11, react and respond.

[K_GUN]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

Damn…cant tell if this is just OS being OS or legit issues with the gameplay[emoji30][emoji30]


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[TarHeelPhenom]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

It’s a working thesis of mine that this community isn’t very good at defense in Madden. This observation goes back a very long time. Things like “robo qb” and “my pass rush sucks” are always dead giveaways and there’s never any communal pushback against these scrubs due to how splintered said community is thanks to online vs offline, sim vs arcade, slideritis schizos, CPUvCPU dudes and so on.

Tell me I’m wrong that this community hasn’t been getting LIT UP by AI QBs for like eleven years now, all the while hiding behind vague notions of “sim” and “realism” when they get lit tf up. “Hurrrr mommy this qb is going buck wild on me this game sucks.” I can’t tell you how many posts of y’all’s read like that if you take a step back and look at it.

Anyway.. I hope this dev team has some balls and makes the game they want to make. There’s nothing particularly interesting coming out of its community feedback.

Hey, leave us CPU v CPU dudes out of it lol. We're able to enjoy the game in a different way that allows us not to have to deal with most of the issues H2H players do. I do understand the gripes of the one's who actually hop on the sticks though.

[canes21]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

It’s a working thesis of mine that this community isn’t very good at defense in Madden. This observation goes back a very long time. Things like “robo qb” and “my pass rush sucks” are always dead giveaways and there’s never any communal pushback against these scrubs due to how splintered said community is thanks to online vs offline, sim vs arcade, slideritis schizos, CPUvCPU dudes and so on.

Tell me I’m wrong that this community hasn’t been getting LIT UP by AI QBs for like eleven years now, all the while hiding behind vague notions of “sim” and “realism” when they get lit tf up. “Hurrrr mommy this qb is going buck wild on me this game sucks.” I can’t tell you how many posts of y’all’s read like that if you take a step back and look at it.

Anyway.. I hope this dev team has some balls and makes the game they want to make. There’s nothing particularly interesting coming out of its community feedback.

The issue for me with defense isn't stopping the AI. It's the AI not being able to stop a nosebleed because of some legacy issues that have plagued the game for years now plus the switch back to spot drops which make the passing game beyond too easy.

For over a decade now the OL has gotten unrealistic amounts of push on running plays that make running the ball too easy no matter what. My sliders every single year are always at 0 or 1 for User Run Blocking and yet I still never struggle to run the ball because of this issue. If you have decent vision and patience you're basically guaranteed to get 5+ yards per carry.

That was an issue going back to when they were still making NCAA games as well.

Now, with the change to defense last year going back to spot drops, as long as you read the defense properly presnap and don't get insta-sackd because of the logic leading to a free DL at the snap, you can throw for 80+% completion with about any QB in the game. The spot drops just kill any chance for the AI to stop a competent passing attack because the holes in every coverage are just laughably large.

I play with CPU Oass Coverage and Reaction time at 95-100 and still can't get coverage to be anything close to tight enough. If I want more realistic stats I have to turn accuracy down to single digits and drop the catch slider as well. I'll get more accurate passing stats in general, but it happens in a frustrating way that's not representative of real NFL football in anyway.

Until EA can create less super wins and more stalemate blocking animations in the run game, and until they can update the coverages to be more modern and not 1998 spot drops, defense will always be behind for the CPU. They simply don't have the ability to stop the user consistently because of how little attention EA has given defense and their AI over the years.

Every run play has a much larger hole than you'll see in real life and every pass defense has gaps in it significantly larger than what any NFL QB will ever see in their lifetime. That's why defense is in a very very bad spot.

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[Eddie1967]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

It’s a working thesis of mine that this community isn’t very good at defense in Madden. This observation goes back a very long time. Things like “robo qb” and “my pass rush sucks” are always dead giveaways and there’s never any communal pushback against these scrubs due to how splintered said community is thanks to online vs offline, sim vs arcade, slideritis schizos, CPUvCPU dudes and so on.

Tell me I’m wrong that this community hasn’t been getting LIT UP by AI QBs for like eleven years now, all the while hiding behind vague notions of “sim” and “realism” when they get lit tf up. “Hurrrr mommy this qb is going buck wild on me this game sucks.” I can’t tell you how many posts of y’all’s read like that if you take a step back and look at it.

Anyway.. I hope this dev team has some balls and makes the game they want to make. There’s nothing particularly interesting coming out of its community feedback.

Spot on and exactly my thoughts. these notes sound like OS being OS, the same folks with the same complaints. The AI is not unstoppable and you do not need to control your secondary to make them play better. If that were true this game would be a colossal failure every year and it isn't. I swear some folks just rinse and repeat the same complaints just because they don't like madden.

[JoshC1977]

Re: Madden 24 Gameplay Concerns - OS Community Notes

I hope this dev team has some balls and makes the game they want to make.

I 100% agree with this.

The real issue, IMO, with Madden continues to be its lack of identity. Some elements are reasonably realistic but then you get a bunch of fantastical elements that kill that feel of realism. It works the other way too, folks wanting a button-masher get a lot of that and then encounter a bunch of ratings-generated outcomes that don't match their input. As a consequence, Madden is a series that does nothing well, does nothing poorly and it just winds-up being a mediocre mish-mash of game design choices that makes no one audience particularly happy.

As much as I loathe the path the FIFA series has taken (as it is VERY clearly designed for H2H), at least I know exactly what it is. Frankly, I respect the fact the devs have taken an all-in approach (even if I don't personally like it - and as a consequence, I don't buy it).

That's what makes Madden frustrating year after year...you don't know what you're getting in each new iteration (and even worse, from patch to patch). One game/patch may lean more heavily one direction only to be undone in the next. It's a persistent game of "whack-a-mole".

I know some folks might respond to this and say something like, "well if the gameplay style types worked properly....." but it isn't just the on-field gameplay. Look at franchise mode itself. We're constantly battling this dichotomy between realistic elements and arcade elements in franchise mode as well as EA continues to make design choices that add more and more "ratings boosts" vs adding elements that introduce adversity (which is what franchise mode thrives off of).

If you want to make an arcade game, make an arcade game. If you want to make a sim game, make a sim game. But man...this whole 'middle ground' approach might be the most frustrating aspect of the entire series.