that domain name lol
http://www.goodgamebro.com/2014/06/10/madden-nfl-15-gameplay-hands-impressions/
Madden NFL 15 Gameplay Hands-On Impressions
Jun 10, 2014
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A few weeks ago, I had the chance to head down to Tiburon Studios to check out EA SPORTS’
Madden NFL 15. My hands-on time was extensive and expansive, and I’d say I played roughly 25-30 hours of the title with my time at the studio.
While Kevin Harley focused more on the presentation and visual elements, which you can read up on
here, I tried to focus solely on gameplay improvements for this year’s title and how they enhanced the overall experience. You won’t find Connected Franchise Mode, MUT additions or information regarding the new play-calling mechanic here, but we’ll be sure to cover those in future articles.
What I played was a noticeable improvement over last year’s
Madden NFL 25 on our new consoles, and
Madden NFL 15 definitely feels like a first “next-gen”
Madden, especially in how it looks and replicates the feeling of watching the NFL on Sunday’s. Is it perfect? No. There are still a few areas in which I’d love to see major enhancements, but this is a huge step up, and for the first time in a long while I feel as if
Madden NFL finally gives us a “full” experience on the field, something it hasn’t done in quite some time.
Defense Matters
Lets be frank. Defense in
Madden NFL games has been stagnant, boring and relatively featureless for the past, oh, I don’t know…decade?! While there have been some minor touch-ups here and there, the
Madden NFL series hasn’t seen a major upgrade since
Madden ‘05, when Ray Lewis dawned the cover.
Madden NFL 25’s defense was a mess. Zones didn’t work appropriately, it didn’t feel “fun”, and the defensive line felt overpowered due to the major upgrades on the offensive side of the ball.
So what’s changed in
Madden NFL 15 on the defensive side of the ball? Well, a lot. The most apparent change comes with the defensive line improvements. First off, it feels fun again, and this is accomplished by some new mechanics built into how you control your line as a user.
The D-Line features a new mechanic called “Jump the Snap”, which, yes, has been in the series before, but it feels much more risk/reward now. Hitting “Y” or “Triangle” makes your player jump off the line, and if you mistime it, you’ll end up offsides. You can also steer tackles now, and that alone makes the experience feel a lot more organic and realistic. Now you can guide your blocker left or right, and in doing so, you can make your moves a lot more effective. Pull tackles to the outside and then power to the middle, steer them in and spin to the outside…it really does add a level of immersion, and the canned animations from last year are far and few between.
You also control power moves and finesse moves with the face buttons now, and again, they feel much more intuitive than they have in years past. What was most impressive about the line controls and mechanics, is that they made star players who play in those positions actually feel like superstar athletes, something
Madden NFL has failed to do in the past. I used the Houston Texans and got to try out J.J. Watt and Clowney, and oh man, those two combined were almost unstoppable. Just ask Kevin, who played me head-to-head against the Texans, and couldn’t do anything offensively constantly being pressured by my line. Sure this has happened in prior games, but I was actually controlling this action, and it was a blast to play.
Another player who benefited greatly from the new moves was Aldon Smith. No, you can’t yell out bomb threats or get drunk, but what you can do is use his incredible power finesse moves and get to the QB at a devastating rate, especially when combined with the “jump the line” feature. Needless to say, choosing a team with a powerful defensive line matters again, and what I played felt fun and immersive.
Coverage Improvements
Zones? Much improved. In fact, the AI was completely re-written, and AI players will now show a lot more awareness of where they are on the field and what is happening around them. I also found that zones seem a lot more effective this year when using teams that actually employ them. Seattle was incredibly tough to beat in their Cover 3, and players reacted to passes in a much more realistic manner.
Another nice touch I noticed was that star corners, such as this year’s cover boy Richard Sherman, play with incredible intensity and will make plays on the ball if you test them often. Curl routes are no longer a sure thing if a guy like Sherman is sagging off of you in coverage. CB awareness has taken a leap forward, and my “sorry-ass” paid dearly for attempting fate with the greatest corner in the game on numerous occasions.
A small addition added that made a huge difference, was something called “Cover the Sticks”. Basically, you can now press “Y” or “Triangle” and then “Y” or “Triangle” again, and your defense will now either cover the first down marker, or the goal-line, which was especially effective in long 3rd and 14 plays where you wanna play zone but protect the first down marker at the same time.
Another solid improvement comes with a new Adaptive AI system, that helps create an environment where the CPU can start to read how you’re controlling your offense. The days of running “Strong Power” to the outside are over, as CPU opponents will pick up on repeated plays as the game moves forward. To test this, I purposely ran 4 HB screens in a row to see what would happen. The first one went for a gain of 12, the second went for a gain of 4, the third was stuffed right away for an incompletion and the fourth attempt was picked-off for a TD. I definitely need to put it through its paces a lot more, but I was highly impressed with just how tough it could be to face CPU opponents on harder difficulties. The days of destroying the CPU on All-Pro seem to be coming to an end.
There has been a lot of early feedback on the “Vision Cone” tackle cone, but rest assured it can be toggled on or off, and I believe the plan is to have it set to ‘off’ on All-Pro or higher. This was put in place to help more casual users understand the new tackle “timing” areas, but once you adjust, I found the cone wasn’t really needed. On the subject of tackling, it definitely takes some getting used to. Obviously the biggest change is the aggressive and conservative tackles, and the timing windows have been narrowed to make tackling feel more risk/reward.
The different tackle windows definitely add to the experience, and you’ll see a lot more broken tackles if you plan on continuously spamming the aggressive button. You’ll also get embarrassed if you try to be conservative in the wrong situations. It is important to note that you can still dive at opponents if you try a conservative tackle from outside of the tackle cone. Tackling definitely feels more intuitive and rewards smart play in the right situations.
Overall, defense is fun once again. No, it isn’t perfect, but better. I still want to see more CB/WR interactions and more interference calls in the secondary, but this is a vast improvement. Playing head-to-head and against the CPU, I had blowout losses (against Seattle, Denver and San Francisco), 10-7 scores and saw individuals who resembled their real-life counterparts on defense, which are all welcoming additions.
Quick Notes:
- Momentum is improved this year. I didn’t see any silly stiff-arm situations or small running backs plowing over linebackers.
- There are new fumble animations this year, and fumbles seem to happen in more accurate situations. There is even an animation for the Tillman “punch fumble”.
Pocket Passers Matter Again
Another big improvement to
Madden NFL 15 are the new systems put in place to make a QB’s accuracy rating mater. In past
Madden’s, QB’s have had laser-like accuracy, and almost every pass seemed to be perfectly thrown. This of course, failed to make QB’s with lower accuracy ratings feel like a weakness. This is why mobile QB’s have been so overpowered in the past few seasons, especially with the addition of the pistol formation – there was no deterrent stopping you from using a guy like Josh Johnson. In fact, I saw CFM’s where players would trade Peyton Manning and use a guy like Johnson instead, which would NEVER happen in real life.
The accuracy issue was actually a much bigger issue than we knew about. Remember a few years ago when we were told there were 400 catch animations in the game, but we only saw a selected few? This wasn’t because they weren’t in the game, but because QB’s never threw off-target, meaning WR’s would never be faced with different positions. After researching this, QB accuracy was completely re-written, and now ratings will play a much bigger role in just how successful a throw will be. In short, a ball can go almost anywhere now. You won’t see passes to a receiver’s numbers 100% of the time. In fact, you’ll see low passes, passes behind the target, errant throws, over-throws, bouncers and wobbly spirals. Because of this, receivers now use all of their animations and the amount of different catch animations I saw was more than impressive. Receivers will reach for balls, behind them or ahead of them. They’ll reach up for balls over their heads and they’ll always display effort, even when a ball is un-catchable.
This played a huge role in my experience with
Madden NFL 15 early on. Playing with a QB such as Peyton or Tom Brady, now has noticeable effects that benefit the user. You’ll notice that these types of accurate pocket passers will give you a significant strength, and their accuracy is visible right away. Play with those mobile QB’s who have weaker accuracy traits such as Michael Vick? Be prepared to throw errant passes and costly INT’s if you aren’t careful, and even if you are careful, there are still no guarantees.
A few other important notes on the offensive side of the ball:
- Sideline catches are tuned appropriately this year and they looked fantastic in my time with the game. I saw players toe drag, and have acute awareness of where they were on the field.
- Trajectories feel more authentic. I was able to abuse one-on-one coverage with guys like Larry Fitzgerald and Calvin Johnson. I was able to beat CB’s deep on throws, something I struggled with last year. I also noticed this on goal-line fades. I was able to put the ball into the back corner of the end-zone where only my WR could make a play, and again, with Fitz or Megatron, it became deadly for my opposition.
- Saw more penalties being called such as – blocking downfield, late hits out of bounds and roughing the passer were all penalties I saw numerous times that I saw none of last year.
Animation/Organic Fluidity (Celebrations)
I know Kev touched on some of this visual stuff, but I feel it necessary to point some of it out once again, as it directly impacted my gameplay experience.
The game is 100% night and day when it comes to organic immersion and post-play movement. Players move with authenticity like never before, and the real-time cut-scenes add so much to the experience. I saw players helping other players up, multiple celebratory reactions and little details I’ve never seen in a
Madden title before. I will also tell you that none of last year’s animations made the cut. That’s good, because if I saw another coach squeeze a gatorade bottle into my mouth I was going to squeeze gatorade all over my test-unit Xbox One. The touchdown celebrations are also a huge leap forward, as the camera no longer cuts to canned animations. You’ll see everything happen organically and it looks damn impressive.
The animations themselves have taken huge strides as well. Players move more realistically and tackles look much better than before. Going into instant replay now is a lot of fun just to watch the different tackles and contact take place. It might not be noticeable to the casual player, but for me there was a huge step taken in making what was happening on the field look much more realistic.
Kicking Meter
A new kicking meter! So here’s a quick run-down:
- Kick meter is much like the Tiger Woods PGA Tour swing mechanic. You still pull back and then forward, but if you aim left or right, you have to actually coordinate your stick movement in that direction, meaning a kick left to right needs a diagonal left to diagonal right press. The more severe the angle, the further you push the stick off-center.
- Wind actually work correctly now. Thank baby Jesus.
- Kicking power and accuracy play a huge role in how accurate you have to be with your kick swing and how far you can kick. You’ll see far less successful 50 yard tries, and some kickers won’t even come close to hitting 55 yarders.
- The net behind the uprights is now dynamic, meaning it’ll move when the ball hits it. Small detail, but nice nonetheless.
Gauntlet/Skill Challenges
Also new to
Madden NFL 15, are some new skills challenges and a new fun game mode entitled “The Gauntlet”, which I’ll touch on in a minute.
First, there are a ton of new skill challenges, some that start a trend of which I want to see more of in all sports titles. There are now skill challenges that actually educate users on the strategic elements of football. The game will now teach you how to read zone v. man defenses, how to read specific pass reads and how to identify blitz schemes. I really have to commend the team at Tiburon for focusing on educating casual users on strategy. I fully believe that some of these challenges will help users who want to learn the sport, understand how the game’s core mechanics incorporate real-time strategy.
The Gauntlet is a new skill-based mode which is built to be an “arcade”-like experience which will test even the most dedicated
Madden fan. In short, you start with 5 lives, and the Gauntlet will throw challenge after challenge at you, basically like mini-games, which you need to successfully beat to move on. For instance, your first challenge may be to get a first down using an option run. If you fail, you lose a life. Once you lose all 5 lives, the game is over.
The cool thing is, every 5 “levels”, the Gauntlet will give you a “boss battle” of sorts. These boss battles are more difficult challenges that are meant to test you, while also having fun with the game’s mechanics. A few examples of boss battles:
- Kick a 107 yard field goal from your end-zone in hurricane-force winds (230 miles per hour)
- Go from one end-zone to the other behind 11 offensive linemen trying to avoid 15-20 on-coming tacklers
- Throw to a receiver in a specific hot zone on the field in a sea of defenders
While the mode is made for a fun and unique look at the game, I found it to be highly addictive, and found myself always trying to beat my high-score. I made it to the 28th level, and the highest I saw during my week at Tiburon was 37. I totally recommend checking out this mode when the game drops in August.
So there’s my early look at
Madden NFL 15. While there is still a lot of tuning to happen between my playtime and getting to certification, the game looked and played much better than last year’s first foray onto new consoles. There are still improvements that need to happen, but enhancements to the defensive side of the ball, some tuning and cleaning up of the offense, along with a much more organic experience between plays and fluid animations during, make this a pretty significant overhaul on the field.
Madden NFL 15 releases on August 26th, and you can expect much more coverage as we approach release, including more hands-on impressions of the game’s new playcall mechanic, the new matchup stick, CFM additions and more.
Are you excited about the new features? Are there any questions you have that weren’t answered here? Let us know in the comments below, or in our GoodGameBro community
forums!