• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Madden NFL '15 |OT| Now This is Current Gen

slapnuts

Junior Member
That skills trainer is the best thing to happen to Madden in a long time.
I have been playing Madden for years and never bothered to learn to look for certain defensive sets, etc.

I only wish it would go one step further and let you play an entire game with a virtual coach stopping the action and showing you what is going on, etc.


Picked up the Xbox One version.

EA Access is really paying off. It was so nice to be able to play the full game early.

Now that would be fucking raw dude, great idea man, Hope some Tib devs see this suggestion of yours.

Also i agree the Skills Trainer is a very very nice addition that can and should be built upon over the future editions of Madden. Its the kind of mode where the possibilities are endless and add a great deal to the game in a sort of RPG-ish kind of way...if implemented better i suppose but still fun none-the-less and it actually means something to the game.

I really feel a new vibe coming from the Madden studio, maybe the fall of the NCAA football game has helped Madden mature quicker this time around...I mean i think about the last 7 or 8 years and now suddenly we get this madden and im some-what bewildered i guess. I was not expecting the game to feel this decent and play a decent game of pigskin. Yeah i know there are some rough spots in this new Madden....animations truly need that next gen TLC and some other gameplay AI logic needs some serious work but overall the game is a lot more fun and looks great .....presentation though, i was expecting a tad more but hey...i am cool for all the other improvements making up for it.

I want more mid-week things to do though...i want a in-depth realistic half-time show and i like i said..so much more could be added during mid-week during weekly practice with coaching and other sorts of stuff to tinker getting ready and prepared for the next upcoming game.

Another thing where i think "sports" video games need to start heading towards are more RPG-type features sorta like where NBA2k is heading...they know exactly what i am talking about and hopefully we'll see other teams follow suit because NBA2k15 is going to give us these types of RPG-ish elements that show how some way just make things fun off the field/court
 

slapnuts

Junior Member
This is the worst buyers remorse I've ever had. Its not the game but the players online that are killing the experience. Non stop hurry up offense and going for every 4th down. I don't mind losing but these tactics are ridiculous. Haven't played season mode since Madden 06 so I may give that a try and stay offline till I find a sim league.

I gave up many moons ago playing sports games online with people i do not know, the main reason is way too many cheesers or cheaters i guess i should say...mostly sore losers who are far too competitive for their own good that it makes them resort to using exploits and playing in a non-traditional way in which the sport is actually played in real life. To me they are just immature crazy competitive sore losers..gamers that are overly competitive i found like to use exploits and cheats because the cannot fathom taking a loss on their record...of course this is just my perspective of why there are so many cheaters online.
 
I'm liking the never say never GMC mode , already finished 4 out of 5 challenges, hope there are more challenges after

Can't beat the opening challenge lol. Smh Cam
 

Xater

Member
This is so frustrating. I won two nice auctions but the players just won't show up for me in the binder. I definitely lost the money....

Edit: now they have shown up. Like 2 hours later. Luckily I didn't try to buy those guys again...
 
I'm liking the never say never GMC mode , already finished 4 out of 5 challenges, hope there are more challenges after

Can't beat the opening challenge lol. Smh Cam

On the opening challenge in the intro , they tell you in the loading screen the receiver on the out pattern (X on X1, Square on PS4) is going to be wide open. Hit him during his cut, it's good for ~20 yards, then you basically have 4 plays to get into the endzone from the 15. Post routes are covered but underneath stick and spacing routes haven't been.

--

Noticing the game is having trouble booting to where you left off when using suspend/resume on X1, it's going back to the title screen (e.g., going through the loading). It's a bummer because the loading is pretty long. This worked fine on Madden '25 so hopefully it's something they patch
 
Some more thoughts after putting in a lot more time with the game.

For one, I still like it. It's the best Madden game in a long time, maybe ever, and it's probably the best football game I've played... But it's hard to say that.

Here are some odd observations though:
  • While there certainly are QB's who throw incompletions (eg, ball hits ground, not dropped or deflected), this has the curious effect of having QB's like Tom Brady be almost worse than QB's like Andy Dalton, because Dalton's "bad pass" will sail over the head or fall at his feet... Brady's "bad pass" will be bad, but it will be in the hands of a defensive back a few steps away. This isn't confirmed but I'm throwing more ints with Brady than I am with crappier QB's like Dalton or Carson Palmer.
  • Wind in connected franchise is odd. 4 games, 4 strong winds (10+ MPH sustained). I don't mind, it adds to the game and makes them more interesting... But so far, the 2014 NFL Season has been played in a wind tunnel.
  • SuperSim is still broken, unfortunately. Going on 8 years now.
  • Speaking of Sim, I want to kill Phil Simms, the color announcer. The commentary is stitched well and if you haven't played Madden in 2 years it won't sound too bad, but if you've played either of the last 2 Maddens, then you've heard basically all of this before. Phil Simms commentary sounds good except what he says is horrible, and they should rewrite it. Last night I had a thrilling game where I took a late lead against Miami, going up something like 38 - 35 on a deep pass to Julian Edelman, and expectedly, Phil Simms takes any of the excitement out of the score by going on a monologue about how "kids these days want to be wide receivers and who can blame them because they score touchdowns, dance, and you can't hit them anymore." It's the kind of line that you'd probably never hear during an actual broadcast. Another classic stupid line is when Jim Nantz ends the game with his monologue about Phil simms wanting to be the center of attention just like these players were on a Monday night game ... Just makes you scratch your head why they'd even bother with that.
  • In CF mode it's nice to see "The road ahead" in the 3rd or 4th quarter they show where the team is traveling next and their record. THis is great and the game needs more of it to make Connected Franchise seem connected. Too often when you go into a game, it's divorced from what's going on in the rest of the league... I'd like to see them tie in here and make it seem a bit more connected, take a page out of NCAA's playbook.
  • Menu system especially during CF mode needs work. I hate not having stats in front of me... and I hate having the focus be on player XP and shit like that. When I play a franchise mode, I want it to feel like I'm in my own football universe, with stats and achievements... not imaginary XP numbers and things like that. I don't mind having XP be a system that drives player improvement, but I want to see statistics and ingame performance be the focus... not 2,300 XP remaining next to a player's name.
  • The twitter thing is still fine, same with the news stories, but they need to freshen them up and add more. Already seen a few repeat weeks and they're so canned. "It's a coin toss between The Patriots and Chiefs this week, can't tell who will win!" says Mark Sclereth for the 4th time... Meanwhile, the Patriots are 4 - 0 and the Chiefs are 0 - 4. A coin toss? You can tell they just have these canned lines primed and dump in whatever teams are playing. THey need to add value here and do some rudimentary conditionals: If it's 4 - 0 vs. 0 - 4, say something like "[Losing team] wants to get their season back on track, but it will be hard to do that against [Winning team] this week."
  • Scouting system for the draft still sucks and is unrealistic and has not been changed. This should have been improved, it's been lousy for 2 years. NCAA does it much, much better. You have a sense of every player's ability to a small degree and then you use scouting time to gradually unveil more talents. By the time recruiting roles around, you have a solid sense of the performance of everybody you can be bringing in. In Madden, you can scout 20 guys or so throughout the year, get a very rough sense of their ability, a strong sense of maybe 3 or 4 in a season, and then have absolutely zero idea about every other player in the draft. C'mon, how realistic is this? Is Bill Belichick unable to watch a college football game? He really has zero idea about the ability of the top 30 players in the draft... unless you spend points to reveal their talents? Even if they leave this silly system in, getting their real talents should be a hell of a lot easier or more precise. It's insane to not have any clue about the rough talent of 98% of the players in the draft.
  • Changes to practice mode in CF are good. They're much better than the old "practice scenarios" which were an annoying waste of time, BUT... you should still be able to do a general practice with your team. I really hate that this isn't in the game. I want to be able to test a rookie QB's arm strength NOT in a game.
  • I really like the new playcalling system and I'm willing to live with the drawbacks, but one I really can't live with is the lack of positional quick subs... Especially with 2 back systems like most teams have in the NFL now. Patriots use Ridley as the running back usually and then Vereen for passing plays or for concept runs, and it's really a drag not being able to sub on the fly. This is smething that *should* be in this play call selection screen, there's no reason it isn't, because it's in the other formation based sub...

That's it for now. Don't get me wrong, I really like Madden '15, but there's some stuff that you jsut scratch your head about.
 
Does anybody know how AWR affects a user QB this year?

Because I discovered a QB who was projected to go undrafted....78/80/80 for throw accuracies, 98 THP, decent speed. but A 35 awareness hahaha
 

Cutwolf

Member
I'm typically a good Madden player. Not great, but generally a 70% win rate online.

But man am I bad this year. I think I'm barely .500 through 18 games.

I can't stop the run, no matter who I use. Always 4 yards a clip. At the same time, I can't run to save my life.

I can't pass, but I at least recognize why that's happening. I can't figure out why I can't run. Tips?
 

anddo0

Member
Some more thoughts after putting in a lot more time with the game.

For one, I still like it. It's the best Madden game in a long time, maybe ever, and it's probably the best football game I've played... But it's hard to say that.

.

Nice read.

Would you say it's worth it for someone who only plays franchise mode?

I already know we can't edit draft classes, and the scouting seems very limited.
 
Finally decided to buy madden again after a 4-5 year hiatus, and while its okay, I think I realized what my main problem is with madden in general. I have a major problem with the physics, animation, and general running gameplay. I feel like I am constantly just going from being stuck in one animation to another. Most of the break tackle animations take so long that they are pointless almost, and making moves essentially just boils down to press a button and hope that the "good" animation happens. I want more control of my player in the run game, I just feel like I am constantly battling animations. Also, the presentation is still incredibly lackluster. I have a lot of fun playing against other people, but I find myself quitting most games against the cpu at halftime. Really regretting the purchase :(
 

theWB27

Member
Are interceptions just something you have to live with this year? Playing with the Jags and the DB/Safeties have some incredible closing ability. Playing on pro, and through 5 games I already have 13 interceptions.
 
Nice read.

Would you say it's worth it for someone who only plays franchise mode?

I already know we can't edit draft classes, and the scouting seems very limited.

Yes, it's still a good career mode, and the ability to switch from a player to a coach to an owner and back through again is still great. I usually do a few seasons as head coach, then go take over an incoming rookie who is going to start at some program, then go back to being a coach... Maybe toy with an owner for a season to try to move a team

The scouting is still poorly done, I wish it were more like NCAA's scouting, but it's been this way for a couple years now.

By and large, the career/franchise mode is still a solid mode. Sometimes it's too focused on the "Gamey-ness" of it, and less on recreating an NFL season... But it's still good.

Are interceptions just something you have to live with this year? Playing with the Jags and the DB/Safeties have some incredible closing ability. Playing on pro, and through 5 games I already have 13 interceptions.

I'm seeing too many INTs as well, just like in past years games, although fewer than M25 default. I'm going to tune my ints down with sliders.
 
I do think the scouting system is shit too. It's basically like last years....except everything has been scaled down, points wise.

Seems like there's the same amount of useless players though, not totally sure. I managed to take 2 top WRs in the first 4 rounds (One was 8th pick, other was like a 3rd rounder) and they'd both be studs in any draft.
 

Wounded

Member
One of my favourite things to do is to add create myself and add me to a team, and then coach them to be a great player (while still controlling the entire team) is it possible to do that in this one? I don't really like the mode where you're JUST your own player, but I still want to bring up a rookie.
 

Spacebar

Member
I have had a few auctions end over and hour again and still haven't gotten the coins yet. Does it normally take a while for them to be added?
 

JJP12

Member
I feel like I am heading down a long dark road playing Madden Ultimate team.... but man it is way too addicting! I choose a ground and pound style and so far I'm 6-2 in my first season. I've only run into 1 stacked team so far and I'm hoping the teams I face in the playoffs won't be too good.
 

sdornan

Member
I feel like I am heading down a long dark road playing Madden Ultimate team.... but man it is way too addicting! I choose a ground and pound style and so far I'm 6-2 in my first season. I've only run into 1 stacked team so far and I'm hoping the teams I face in the playoffs won't be too good.
Not sure how it was last year, but the way that seasons and the playoffs are handled is really smart. It lets you play at your own pace.
 

theWB27

Member
Yes, it's still a good career mode, and the ability to switch from a player to a coach to an owner and back through again is still great. I usually do a few seasons as head coach, then go take over an incoming rookie who is going to start at some program, then go back to being a coach... Maybe toy with an owner for a season to try to move a team

The scouting is still poorly done, I wish it were more like NCAA's scouting, but it's been this way for a couple years now.

By and large, the career/franchise mode is still a solid mode. Sometimes it's too focused on the "Gamey-ness" of it, and less on recreating an NFL season... But it's still good.



I'm seeing too many INTs as well, just like in past years games, although fewer than M25 default. I'm going to tune my ints down with sliders.

I'll try that too
 

JJP12

Member
Not sure how it was last year, but the way that seasons and the playoffs are handled is really smart. It lets you play at your own pace.

Yeah I really love that and I really like how fast the games are as well.

MUT is an obsession son.

I have a 90 Julio jones that is a beast from finishing the falcons elite set.

Man I'm so jealous! My best pull was an 82 overall Ed Reed. I need to start focusing on a set to complete
 
I gave up many moons ago playing sports games online with people i do not know, the main reason is way too many cheesers or cheaters i guess i should say...mostly sore losers who are far too competitive for their own good that it makes them resort to using exploits and playing in a non-traditional way in which the sport is actually played in real life. To me they are just immature crazy competitive sore losers..gamers that are overly competitive i found like to use exploits and cheats because the cannot fathom taking a loss on their record...of course this is just my perspective of why there are so many cheaters online.
lmao.. anybody that loses says this. Sometimes you guys just gotta accept you arent as good as you think you are.
 

Orca

Member
That skills trainer is the best thing to happen to Madden in a long time.
I have been playing Madden for years and never bothered to learn to look for certain defensive sets, etc.

I only wish it would go one step further and let you play an entire game with a virtual coach stopping the action and showing you what is going on, etc.

Picked up the Xbox One version.

EA Access is really paying off. It was so nice to be able to play the full game early.

Yeah I think I posted the same thing last year after my brother was playing and was having trouble with the run game. I asked which gap he was hitting and his face just went blank. He loves football but never played it so some of the ideas and terms are lost on him. They would do a lot to get people more hooked if they would do a Football 101 thing and explain terms and general theory on offence/defence.
 

DSmalls84

Member
Anyone else annoyed by the way receivers (dont) fight for the ball? I feel like go routes are useless because unless the receiver clearly breaks away the aggressive corners ballhawk. 15 is definitely better than 25, but this is my main complaint. Relegates me to dink and dunk offense unless the secondary is trash.
 
I don't play a ton of Madden, but I bought it this year so I could play when buddies came over.

The poor animations continue to bther me. The transitions are always jittery. Announcers are terrible.

Nits these are, but they still show a lack of polish I fail to comprehend from an annual franchise.
 

Smokey

Member
Yea I had to wait 30 mins before it showed up.

Still don't have my stuff. I go to the "Auctions & Trades" screen and it says I have 8 Active Bids. None of them are active...they are all closed

This is irritating. What's the point of buying stuff if you won't get it...The only way I've received an item immediately is if I "Buy it Now" vs Auction.
 

Skele7on

Banned
One of those punts off the ground, eh?

I can't believe how terrible the commentary is. They don't say a word the entire time you're running back a kickoff for 95 yards? In 2014?

ha god damn sorry tired as hell, have amended it.

Yeah it was pretty quiet it's weird as you'd expect at least some hype :\
 

Daft Bird

Member
Still don't have my stuff. I go to the "Auctions & Trades" screen and it says I have 8 Active Bids. None of them are active...they are all closed

This is irritating. What's the point of buying stuff if you won't get it...The only way I've received an item immediately is if I "Buy it Now" vs Auction.
I've had the same problem. I win an auction and the players don't appear until the next day. I read somewhere that it is a bug that they are fixing.
 

forms

Member
Bought the game via US PSN, which of course led to me not having any of the bonus packs and being unable to purchase coins (should I want to) on my regular EU account. Crap.

And oh, I selected the wrong favourite team. How the hell do I change that? :D
 

Lan Dong Mik

And why would I want them?
Dammit this auction house shit is annoying. Got like 4 dudes that haven't been added to my roster even though I won the bid errrrrrr! Fix this shit EA!
 

Ljwinter

Banned
Really like the game, definitely a step up but I have a few issues.

Does the acceleration not work at all? I press it and I'm chased down by LB's with no problem. Screen pass is broken, the D-line gets through to the QB easily (which they should on a screen) but the RB doesn't get out quick enough. My biggest complaint - ball spotting. I've been denied many first downs/touchdowns because of the horrible ball spotting.

Other than those things, I'm really enjoying the game.
 

IMACOMPUTA

Member
Dammit this auction house shit is annoying. Got like 4 dudes that haven't been added to my roster even though I won the bid errrrrrr! Fix this shit EA!

I had that happen and doing an "auto generate best team" (or whatever it is) made them appear.
 

tapedeck

Do I win a prize for talking about my penis on the Internet???
What's the consensus on the xbone version? Does it basically look/run the same as PS4? Im debating picking this up tonight.
 
Anyone else annoyed by the way receivers (dont) fight for the ball? I feel like go routes are useless because unless the receiver clearly breaks away the aggressive corners ballhawk. 15 is definitely better than 25, but this is my main complaint. Relegates me to dink and dunk offense unless the secondary is trash.

Yeah, unless you attempt a user catch the receivers won't fight for it. I've had some success in 1 on 1 situations with Dez Bryant and Larry Fitzgald. I'm sure Megatron has some crazy catch animation too.
 

Akim

Banned
How is MUT this year? I've never played it, but I play a lot of Fifa Ultimate Team. Is it worth it to try to jump into MUT?
 

Ocelott

Member
This is the worst buyers remorse I've ever had. Its not the game but the players online that are killing the experience. Non stop hurry up offense and going for every 4th down. I don't mind losing but these tactics are ridiculous. Haven't played season mode since Madden 06 so I may give that a try and stay offline till I find a sim league.

GAF has Sim Leagues
 

newsguy

Member
Dammit this auction house shit is annoying. Got like 4 dudes that haven't been added to my roster even though I won the bid errrrrrr! Fix this shit EA!

Glad to hear I'm not alone. Spent good money on a LOLB only to find I couldn't use him
 
Top Bottom