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[Fifty]

Exactly what I was about to say.

Madden 2006 comes out in August, right?

I know most of us (hardcore) Madden fans are going to buy it for Xbox then, rather than wait 3-4 months. Assuming Madden 360 comes out at launch, and is roughly the same product. We don't know anything about the features of M360, do we?

 

[DCX]

Exactly what I was about to say.

Madden 2006 comes out in August, right?

I know most of us (hardcore) Madden fans are going to buy it for Xbox then, rather than wait 3-4 months. Assuming Madden 360 comes out at launch, and is roughly the same product. We don't know anything about the features of M360, do we?

Only person within the GAF ranks that knows something would be Nathkenn but he's under NDA and job secruity issues I'm assuming that the 360 version will take advantage of the new Live features...and could have some extra features due to the beter options/power etc that 360 offers them, who knows...maybe it will be stripped down due to the rush to get it out for launch...time will tell.

EDIT: One thing for sure it will have updated rosters

DCX

 

[Dsal]

Superstar mode sounds AWESOME. I love that wacky shit. I'll have my dude hang out in the bar all the time. I'll name him Sebastian Janikowski.

Online mem card is something wayyyyy overdue. Great idea. All games should have that.

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

Sounds good. Hopefully I'll get to finish a GA league this year. Didn't happen too many times with 2Kx.

 

[DMczaf]

Superstar mode sounds AWESOME. I love that wacky shit. I'll have my dude hang out in the bar all the time. I'll name him Sebastian Janikowski.

During the media interviews after the game, they better have a "I need to feed my family!" answer!

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Well, I'm impressed. They've finally decided to address money plays, which is a huge improvement IMO. This superstar mode is intriguing. I want to see how much stuff you can actually do off the field.

 

[Rorschach]

:lol What a bunch of smug pricks you Maddenites are.

...because all the stupid points brought on by the haters were owned? Ok, then, we'll just agree with your retarded points next time.

No need to post haters, this is all you need.....

Heh...I think the haters are pissed because they didn't get what they wanted: a shitty Madden game. They honestly believed that Tiburon would just take a break and give us nothing but a roster update. Keep sweating guys because this looks like it's going to be awesome for us real football fans.

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

Heh...I think the haters are pissed because they didn't get what they wanted: a shitty Madden game.

You've played Madden '06?

New features mean shit if the game has major bugs like last year.

 

[Rorschach]

You've played Madden '06?

New features mean shit if the game has major bugs like last year.

And they're complaining about the lack of new features, so I was speaking in that regard. And the few bugs (which they are addressing this year) really didn't ruin the game last year. I would hardly call it shitty.

 

[DMczaf]

MaddenNation answering questions about Madden 06

About blocking improvements

The blocking overall is better. There is less of blockers missing the closest guy and moving on to the 2nd or 3rd level instead.

Linemen do a lot better job pulling this year. It was very noticable on counter players where the guard would get outside very quickly instead of leaving you out to dry like before.

Progressive Fatigue

It has to do with every player on the team. The difference this year is that a player will prgressively get tired during the course of a game. In years past you could run a back 35 times in a game and sit him out two plays and he was totally fresh. Now that guy is going to be tired period when you run him that much.

Sounds like online franchises are not an "official" EA thing, more along the lines of using the EA Sports Locker to share franchise saves to do a manual online franchise mode.

something about the online franchise is i dont know if it'll work with a full 32 team one. It'll take some work because you think about it this way. You download the file, play, and uplaod it, next person downloads, plays and uploads. if you actually play someone, both can upload the file, play it online and it counts in the franchise. The problem is see is you'll have conflicting games, where two guys might be in a game, and 2 others may want to play at the same time. I dont see how thats going to work. i'd like to see the full details on how this will work before getting too excited. At the very least it'll work fine with 4 teams. Its like the franchise bates and i are doing now.

It's hard to tell. We asked about this and EA made sure to explain that it was not online franchise in the same way that EA has online leagues for premium pass. This feature is going to provide some online franchise league possibilities, but my understanding was you'd have to upload the save file after every league game.. so I imagine it would be very time consuming. My guess is that a 32 person online franchise is probably not a realistic hope, but we won't know for sure until we learn more. At the very least we'll be able to do a franchise similar to the one Fred and a few others are doing right now.. where 3-5 guys can participate in the same chise.

We actually don't know how EA's online leagues have changed. This online franchise that is being talked about really isn't a league feature at all.. but rather a means of someone doing an online chise in a round about way if they like. I expect EA will improve their existing online leagues and that you'll hear about that sometime in the future.

Zone coverage

No, I don't think so. That particular feature is referring to when someone is motioned. The way it is in Madden now, if you're in a zone and your opponent comes out in 3 wide and motions his WR, nobody will follow that WR so it's simple to tell what kind of coverage you're in. The only difference now is that someone will follow that guy and the other players zone assignments will change in order to make sure the vacated part of the field is covered. Hope that makes sense.

 

[DMczaf]

Superstar Mode questions

if i remember correctly you may not win the starting job. and if you force your guy in even though he didnt earn it you are on the shit list of the fans. You'll get hate mail and stuff if you dont perform well because its obvious you arent supposed to be starting. But you can win them over if you perform well. You'll also get your rep ruined if you take shitty roles in moves lol

Does a Race for the Heisman player carry over to Madden's Superstar mode?

yup thats the whole point of it. It allows you to bring your character from NCAA's Race for the Heisman mode. You can even bring your character from NFL Street

Hahaha, that's freaking awesome. I can live the complete college football and pro football experience! Go EA!

If your not pleased with your contract, will you have the oppurtunity to hold out and demand a trade??

i belive so

My understanding about retiring was that you can play up to 20 seasons and decide on your own when you want to retire. But, if you decide to keep playing once your skills have diminished it might tarnish your career somewhat

 

[DJ_Tet]

Wow.

I'm officially excited.

 

[Rorschach]

The blocking overall is better. There is less of blockers missing the closest guy and moving on to the 2nd or 3rd level instead.

That's what I needed. PS: Spectator mode, plz. THX!!

 

[Fifty]

PS: Spectator mode, plz. THX!!

They've already said it won't be in the game for at least a few years I believe.

 

[Slo]

The blocking overall is better. There is less of blockers missing the closest guy and moving on to the 2nd or 3rd level instead.

Awesome, this was horrible in Madden 2005.

 

[Guileless]

So your NFL superstar avatar can be offered to be the Madden cover athlete. :lol

 

[DCX]

This sucks because most people won't wait for the 360 version, and i want in a GAF league

DCX

 

[Slo]

This sucks because most people won't wait for the 360 version, and i want in a GAF league

DCX

Here's what you do. Gather up Madden 2001, 2002,2003, 2004, and 2005. Trade them to EB. Now you're only $45 away from Madden 2006 for the Xbox!

 

[DCX]

Here's what you do. Gather up Madden 2001, 2002,2003, 2004, and 2005. Trade them to EB. Now you're only $45 away from Madden 2006 for the Xbox!

?!?! Ok, how will that solve my desire to play in online leagues with gaffers? I refuse to own two coppies of the same game for 2 seperate systems.

DCX

 

[Slo]

I'm a big picture guy, you worry about the details.

 

[DCX]

I'm a big picture guy, you worry about the details.

Ain't that the truth...

DCX

 

[Wellington]

Two things:

1)

Here's what you do. Gather up Madden 2001, 2002,2003, 2004, and 2005. Trade them to EB. Now you're only $45 away from Madden 2006 for the Xbox!

:lol :lol :lol

2) Better blocking? I mean I am all for that, don't get me wrong, but I get the impression that the guys that could actually run the ball well in 2005 will be nigh unstoppable. Hell, what if I want to run with Jamal Lewis, or someone else who is near impossible to stop? It's an instant 4000 yard season. We'll see at E3.

 

[Slo]

1) I assume by Jamal Lewis, you really meant Michael Bennett.

2) I know what you mean, but I don't think blockers passing up blocks happened all that frequently. It wasn't the determining factor in stopping an opponent's running game, it was just the most frustrating for the offense when it did. It absolutely drove me crazy to get dropped in the backfield for a 3 yard loss and see Bryant McKinnie pancake a saftey 2 seconds after the whistle. :lol In general, when my rushing plays failed in 2005, it was because a) my line got no push and the hole never opened, b) defenders beat their blocks and closed the hole before I could get through, or c) because a LB came free on the blitz. That's the way the run *should* be stopped.

 

[Ramirez]

I just hope the Vikings defense doesn't play like the Ravens this year -_-

 

[Slo]

I'm guessing 85 offense, 92 defense.

 

[Ramirez]

Death to you!

 

[DMczaf]

About the "35 new offensive formations"

We don't know a whole lot about the specifics of the new formations. The NFL deal did play a big role though in helping get them more accurate footall into the game. There is some film the NFL takes of each play of every game at certain angles that was previously unaccessible. EA showed us a clip from the Colts/Packers game this year and how they put a play into the game that was used by the Colts to score. The play looked exactly the same in Madden as it did in the NFL game.. it was very impressive. More playbook specifics are likely to come out at E3 I imagine.

I'm loving this NFL deal more and more

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

god bless the exclusive NFL deal!

 

[DMczaf]

Some more STUFF

On Adaptive AI:

(1) Do you know about how many times we can run the same play before it becomes basically ineffective?

Its very short. When we got the presentation they said you couldnt run the play like more than 2 times in 5 plays or something. ANd that it takes like a good amount of plays for the cpu not to pick up on it between play calls.

(2) Is their situational adaptation, like, does the CPU track separately what we do on 1st and 10 vs. 3rd and 3?

Hmm, thats a good question but i dont think so. I think its just tracking the play calling repetitiveness

On Penalties:

(1) Were the default numbers of false start, offsides, and pass interference calls increased this year?

Didn't see any false starts or offsides, but PI seemed the same as last year. I hope that changes though. I know i sent them in my feedback that they needed to add more.

(2) Do you know if they changed the slider system so that we can adjust the sliders to get realistic penalties? (Maxing out false start, for instance, was basically indistinguishable from the default setting of zero penalties.)

NOt sure, didn't touch sliders

(3) Did they add defensive holding or illegal hands to the face to prevent overuse of bump and run coverage? If so, did you get any impression as to whether or not these penalties would be called often enough to make people think twice before using press coverage?

dont think this was added but the animations and fighting off bump and run of WR is awesome. It's much more realistic, especially with WR you wouldnt bump and run to death like Owens

On blitzes:

It seemed to me that linebacker blitzes didn't work very well last year unless you cheezed intentionally (nanos or whatever). Did they try to make straight up blitzes more effective at getting to the QB?

yeah you can get pressure, and if the QB scrambles back too far he's going to get sacked or hit because of the new AI EA implemented.

On passing:

(1) Are deep routes any easier to complete this year? Did they manage to make them easier without going to the insanity of Madden 2003/2004?

Its a little easier because of the agressive catching. The WR don't just stand there like idiots, they will actually fight for the ball and position

(2) Did they change the blocking on the play action pass so that it's actually effective?

yes, and remember you can change your blocking schemes

 

[Ramirez]

Damn,sounds awesome.

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Aside from the news about the penalties, I'm getting pretty excited about this game now. EA's beginning to do the exact opposite of what I thought they'd do. Madden 05 will be soon be put put towards a Madden 06 pre-order.

 

[DMczaf]

Awww, sounds like online clubs will be cut from Madden 06.

Here's what Nathan from EA Online said to Madden Nation

I have been in email communication this weekend with Tiburon and there needs to be some adjustments to the feature list for Madden 06. As you know, there are that cuts that happen every year in a game’s development process. Couple this with the fact that we showed off the game earlier that ever before. This has resulted in the press talking about features that will not be in the final product.

We are continuing to tune and polish our innovative new passing feature, Vision and Precision. NFL Superstar is coming together better than anyone expected. This new feature is going to be the biggest and deepest addition to Madden NFL since the introduction of Franchise mode.

Unfortunately we have made some changes to the online features that we discussed back in March. The Clubs feature has been cut from this year’s version of the game. As we got closer to finalizing the game, the decision to focus on fixing bugs and tightening online play became the focus over adding this feature.

The additional time will also allow us to optimize our new ‘EA Locker’ feature. Like a memory card in the sky, EA Locker will allow users to share files online, using EA’s servers, so they can play their offline franchise games with an online friend. We think the hardcore fans will love this new feature and are working to make it as strong as possible.

And more info on the passing improvements

They aren't toning down the DBs so much as they are making the WRs better with the new aggressive catch animations that accompany Vision & Precision passing. Madden Producer Phil Frazier was pretty adamant about not wanting to tone down the defense, but instead fixing this problem by including precision passing and more aggressive WRs who won't just sit back as the DB swats or picks off the pass.