It is still early on and there is almost certainly a launch day patch in the works. However, I'd like to get everyone's Madden 16 impressions from what you have played so far. For those of you who have not played it, keep in mind that it is still early. We will likely get much better at certain things and other things that we do not like are still to be discovered. But it would be nice to get the convo going and see where we are at with Madden 16.
Aggressive Catch
I'll post this first as I think that is the thing most people are the most interested in or concerned about. Overall, I do not think that aggressive catch is over powered (OP). However, I think it may be with a few of the elite receivers. I had a guy last night that literally ran the same pass play EVERY play and threw three TDs to Calvin Johnson using aggressive catch. I tried playing the receiver. I tried playing the ball. I even tried swatting (which appears to have been removed). Nothing worked. Had I had better CBs it may have been a different story. However, you should not be able to throw the exact same route from the exact same formation to the exact same receiver being covered by the exact same DB over and over with impunity. I'm sure I will figure out how to better defend that the next time I encounter it, but it was extremely frustrating and irritating and seems capable of being exploited.
User INTs
This is another point of contention as we move back to allowing user catching and switching players while the ball is in the air. I hadn't noticed this much before the above referenced game but that guy user picked me four times. Two he usered the MLB (Ray Lewis) from the start and made great plays. The other two he quick switched and nabbed user picks. Although the mechanics are different, I think this has the potential to once again be exploited. Being able to quick switch to a defender to make a user INT that the CPU would not doesn't take a great deal of skill outside of reflexes. Especially since its just a single button press. Its a situation that needs to be monitored at least as we head towards release and the kickoff of our leagues.
WR/DB Interaction
I think anyone who spends even a little bit of time watching or playing this game can see the drastic improvement in the interaction between the WRs and DBs. Outside of the above referenced situation, I think this is well done and pretty balanced. In most games, I see far more over throws and DB pass break ups than I do aggressive catches. Although I think the mechanic for using the different catches will take some getting used to, the difference in aggressive, RAC and possession catches is very noticeable and adds a great deal to the overall feel and presentation of the game.
QB Throwing/Precision Passing
Admittedly, I am going to have to get a lot better at this. I still have not figured out when is the best time to try and drop in a touch pass in and I often forget about the ability to throw a high or low ball. However, I do feel that they work pretty well and that you now have much more control over how you throw to your receivers. I love the fact that not every pass is spot on and you will see the occasional overthrow. This is even more prevalent with inaccurate QBs and when throwing off of your back foot. Stepping into the pocket and planting your feet to throw is going to be more important than ever, which is a good thing.
Man Coverage
I have mixed reviews on this. This was one of the biggest complaints from Madden 15. Most guys refused to play man in any meaningful passing situation a year ago. While it has been improved, new issues have presented themselves.
First, LBs are awful at covering drags and quick outs to the flat. They seem to be locked in their read animation for too long and get a very slow acceleration when their receiver breaks. This leads to TEs and slot receivers getting a good 2-3 yard head start on them over and over. This seems consistent on every kind of man. Playing man in short yardage is going to be damn near impossible unless you get tremendous pressure unless a patch to tune this is in the works.
With that being said, man coverage overall has been improved but is still not great. I have seen LBs and slot defenders blanket corner routes. I have also see the return of defenders running routes in front of receivers (which I hate bc its incredibly unrealistic). However, overall the corner route is still too easy to complete vs man. Drags and crosses by outside receivers are not as money but they will still beat man a very high pct of the time (which they probably should). Maybe some of this can be tuned in sliders but its still not quite where it needs to be to present a realistic NFL-type experience.
Zone Coverage
Overall I think zone is much better than last year. Safeties break on the ball and knock the ball out of receiver's hands much better. LBs will step up and chuck receivers on slants sometimes. CBs will push receivers outside to disrupt timing. But there are still issues.
Safeties still do a terrible job of playing the deep ball. I'm not sure if the zones are programmed in to be a certain depth from the line of scrimmage or what, but far too often they let receivers get depth on them and it can make the deep ball too easy to complete. Cover 4, Man 3 deep, doesn't matter. The safeties do not seem to understand that their primary responsibility is to keep everything in front of them. Now, that may be an easy tune and we may see that improve, but it is an issue currently and one that can be exploited by speed.
Pass Interference/Defensive Holding
This was one of the big features this year: penalties were improved and pass interference would now be called. While I have seen one PI call and one defensive holding, overall I do not think they are significantly better than last year. I've been straight up mugged by defenders on two different occasions and got no call. I'm not sure how the logic works, but it seems that if its not in the immediate vicinity of the ball it won't get called. The only PI call I have seen was on a jump ball.
The instances of where it should have been called but wasn't were when a receiver was going into his break (on a post or deep in) and the defender was in his way and basically held him. Not a holding like he put his hands on him and was physically restricting his movement, but a holding in that the game's collision detection did not seem to detect he ran into the receiver and impaired his ability to run his route. I'm not sure how easy that is to program and it may not be able to be done how we like it. However, promising PI calls and defensive holding and then allowing defenders to completely take a receiver out of his route is kind of confusing. I would probably have preferred no penalties vs thinking that stuff would be fixed and seeing that it has not been.
With that being said, I have noticed more traditional penalties like holding and false starts by default which is nice and not over done. But there are a few bugs with them too which I believe the dev team is aware of and working to fix.
Offensive Line Interaction/Blocking
This is certainly improved over last year. Your line (and FB for that matter) do a better job of getting out in front of blocks and creating holes. As long as you do not hold speed burst too early I think the blocking works mostly how it should. It is still not perfect and I'm sure some will find things to pick apart, but this is one area that I'm pretty content with. They made marked improvement over last year and that's all we can really hope for in this context I think.
Defensive Line Mini-Game/ Playing The Run
Again, this is an area that I think was improved a great deal. It is much more difficult to shed your block and get easy sacks like we saw early on last year. However, I think it is easier to shed your blocks and make a play against the run. Now, its not cheesy vision cone warping like we saw last year, its more of getting of your block and into a gap to make the play. It doesn't always work and sometimes you miss the tackle or get run over, but it does feel much better and more refined than a year ago.
Scouting in Connected Franchise
This kind of took us by surprise when we first got in there and started using it, but I encourage everyone to give it a try and try to understand what I think they were trying to accomplish with it. Now, instead of being able to scout an ability for a player (including the incredibly cheesy tactic of only relying on the intangible trait), you now can only unlock a player's Top 3 skill attributes (ie man and zone defense, arm strength, short and mid accuracy or pursuit, tackling and hit power, etc). It varies by player. However, you know that any skill that you do not unlock will be at best equivalent to the third skill unlocked.
For instance, let's say that you unlock arm strength (A), short accuracy (B) and mid accuracy (C+) for a QB, You know that every other attribute he has will be C+ or worse. It provides some fog of war so to speak for the ratings. That QBs awareness and deep accuracy may both be C or C+ or they may be F. You have no idea until you draft him. I didn't like the lack of control over what I unlocked initially, but I think it actually does a good job of eliminating instances where guys should find a short cut for finding talent. It also adds in the prospect of drafting a bust in the first couple of rounds which is great. I'm not sure you will have many instances of surprise stars in the late rounds with this system (bc you know all ratings are below the third unlocked skill) but those are pretty rare anyway. Personally, I'd rather have the possibility of drafting a bust early than picking a stud late as I find it more realistic. In that context, I think they succeeded in what they were trying to do.
NFL Combine
I'll put this in its own category even though it probably belongs in the one above. The combine happens and all combine stats (40, bench reps, etc) are available three weeks after the Super Bowl. This is when you will find out a player's speed (based on 40), strength, agility, etc. I don't know yet if these are all hard and fast numbers and if we will be able to know a player has exactly 96 SPD or whatever based on the combine numbers or not though. Hopefully there is some variability in it and a 4.4 guy could be anywhere from 89-92 SPD or something like that. Even if not, the best you will know is exactly how fast or how strong a guy is. His skill ratings will play the biggest role and those will be somewhat of a mystery based on how the scouting works.
Free Agent Stats
EA added a really nice player card to each player in the game now. These are now available in free agency so you can see what the ratings are of a player you are bidding on unlike last year. Its a small feature but one that was desperately needed as it made no sense to bid on free agents who you had no idea what their different skills were and how they fit what you were trying to do.
Game Prep/Practice
Game prep was changed up a bit this year and is no longer just about going in and allocating points to a certain player and getting back large chunks of XP to improve them. You can still do that method, but you will earn about half the XP you would if you went in and did the drills with each player to earn XP. Some people will not like this as it adds a good 15 20 minutes to your game prep time. However, I think it is more realistic and makes guys work for their improvement vs just clicking a button. It will also allow guys to practice their skills and improve which is always good in competitive leagues like ours.
In addition to that, you can now go into practice mode with your CFM team via game prep. This is basically the same as doing a regular practice mode in Madden 16 but this one is in your CFM and with all of the players on your CFM team. I have not tested it and I do not think you can earn XP by using it. But it will be an invaluable tool for practicing playbooks and getting used to using rookies and newly signed free agents.
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Well, those are my initial impressions. What do you guys think? What are your impressions from playing the game for those that have? For those that have just watched some streams, what is your takeaway? What about those of you who have neither played nor watched much? What do you guys think just from reading the impressions of others?
Aggressive Catch
I'll post this first as I think that is the thing most people are the most interested in or concerned about. Overall, I do not think that aggressive catch is over powered (OP). However, I think it may be with a few of the elite receivers. I had a guy last night that literally ran the same pass play EVERY play and threw three TDs to Calvin Johnson using aggressive catch. I tried playing the receiver. I tried playing the ball. I even tried swatting (which appears to have been removed). Nothing worked. Had I had better CBs it may have been a different story. However, you should not be able to throw the exact same route from the exact same formation to the exact same receiver being covered by the exact same DB over and over with impunity. I'm sure I will figure out how to better defend that the next time I encounter it, but it was extremely frustrating and irritating and seems capable of being exploited.
User INTs
This is another point of contention as we move back to allowing user catching and switching players while the ball is in the air. I hadn't noticed this much before the above referenced game but that guy user picked me four times. Two he usered the MLB (Ray Lewis) from the start and made great plays. The other two he quick switched and nabbed user picks. Although the mechanics are different, I think this has the potential to once again be exploited. Being able to quick switch to a defender to make a user INT that the CPU would not doesn't take a great deal of skill outside of reflexes. Especially since its just a single button press. Its a situation that needs to be monitored at least as we head towards release and the kickoff of our leagues.
WR/DB Interaction
I think anyone who spends even a little bit of time watching or playing this game can see the drastic improvement in the interaction between the WRs and DBs. Outside of the above referenced situation, I think this is well done and pretty balanced. In most games, I see far more over throws and DB pass break ups than I do aggressive catches. Although I think the mechanic for using the different catches will take some getting used to, the difference in aggressive, RAC and possession catches is very noticeable and adds a great deal to the overall feel and presentation of the game.
QB Throwing/Precision Passing
Admittedly, I am going to have to get a lot better at this. I still have not figured out when is the best time to try and drop in a touch pass in and I often forget about the ability to throw a high or low ball. However, I do feel that they work pretty well and that you now have much more control over how you throw to your receivers. I love the fact that not every pass is spot on and you will see the occasional overthrow. This is even more prevalent with inaccurate QBs and when throwing off of your back foot. Stepping into the pocket and planting your feet to throw is going to be more important than ever, which is a good thing.
Man Coverage
I have mixed reviews on this. This was one of the biggest complaints from Madden 15. Most guys refused to play man in any meaningful passing situation a year ago. While it has been improved, new issues have presented themselves.
First, LBs are awful at covering drags and quick outs to the flat. They seem to be locked in their read animation for too long and get a very slow acceleration when their receiver breaks. This leads to TEs and slot receivers getting a good 2-3 yard head start on them over and over. This seems consistent on every kind of man. Playing man in short yardage is going to be damn near impossible unless you get tremendous pressure unless a patch to tune this is in the works.
With that being said, man coverage overall has been improved but is still not great. I have seen LBs and slot defenders blanket corner routes. I have also see the return of defenders running routes in front of receivers (which I hate bc its incredibly unrealistic). However, overall the corner route is still too easy to complete vs man. Drags and crosses by outside receivers are not as money but they will still beat man a very high pct of the time (which they probably should). Maybe some of this can be tuned in sliders but its still not quite where it needs to be to present a realistic NFL-type experience.
Zone Coverage
Overall I think zone is much better than last year. Safeties break on the ball and knock the ball out of receiver's hands much better. LBs will step up and chuck receivers on slants sometimes. CBs will push receivers outside to disrupt timing. But there are still issues.
Safeties still do a terrible job of playing the deep ball. I'm not sure if the zones are programmed in to be a certain depth from the line of scrimmage or what, but far too often they let receivers get depth on them and it can make the deep ball too easy to complete. Cover 4, Man 3 deep, doesn't matter. The safeties do not seem to understand that their primary responsibility is to keep everything in front of them. Now, that may be an easy tune and we may see that improve, but it is an issue currently and one that can be exploited by speed.
Pass Interference/Defensive Holding
This was one of the big features this year: penalties were improved and pass interference would now be called. While I have seen one PI call and one defensive holding, overall I do not think they are significantly better than last year. I've been straight up mugged by defenders on two different occasions and got no call. I'm not sure how the logic works, but it seems that if its not in the immediate vicinity of the ball it won't get called. The only PI call I have seen was on a jump ball.
The instances of where it should have been called but wasn't were when a receiver was going into his break (on a post or deep in) and the defender was in his way and basically held him. Not a holding like he put his hands on him and was physically restricting his movement, but a holding in that the game's collision detection did not seem to detect he ran into the receiver and impaired his ability to run his route. I'm not sure how easy that is to program and it may not be able to be done how we like it. However, promising PI calls and defensive holding and then allowing defenders to completely take a receiver out of his route is kind of confusing. I would probably have preferred no penalties vs thinking that stuff would be fixed and seeing that it has not been.
With that being said, I have noticed more traditional penalties like holding and false starts by default which is nice and not over done. But there are a few bugs with them too which I believe the dev team is aware of and working to fix.
Offensive Line Interaction/Blocking
This is certainly improved over last year. Your line (and FB for that matter) do a better job of getting out in front of blocks and creating holes. As long as you do not hold speed burst too early I think the blocking works mostly how it should. It is still not perfect and I'm sure some will find things to pick apart, but this is one area that I'm pretty content with. They made marked improvement over last year and that's all we can really hope for in this context I think.
Defensive Line Mini-Game/ Playing The Run
Again, this is an area that I think was improved a great deal. It is much more difficult to shed your block and get easy sacks like we saw early on last year. However, I think it is easier to shed your blocks and make a play against the run. Now, its not cheesy vision cone warping like we saw last year, its more of getting of your block and into a gap to make the play. It doesn't always work and sometimes you miss the tackle or get run over, but it does feel much better and more refined than a year ago.
Scouting in Connected Franchise
This kind of took us by surprise when we first got in there and started using it, but I encourage everyone to give it a try and try to understand what I think they were trying to accomplish with it. Now, instead of being able to scout an ability for a player (including the incredibly cheesy tactic of only relying on the intangible trait), you now can only unlock a player's Top 3 skill attributes (ie man and zone defense, arm strength, short and mid accuracy or pursuit, tackling and hit power, etc). It varies by player. However, you know that any skill that you do not unlock will be at best equivalent to the third skill unlocked.
For instance, let's say that you unlock arm strength (A), short accuracy (B) and mid accuracy (C+) for a QB, You know that every other attribute he has will be C+ or worse. It provides some fog of war so to speak for the ratings. That QBs awareness and deep accuracy may both be C or C+ or they may be F. You have no idea until you draft him. I didn't like the lack of control over what I unlocked initially, but I think it actually does a good job of eliminating instances where guys should find a short cut for finding talent. It also adds in the prospect of drafting a bust in the first couple of rounds which is great. I'm not sure you will have many instances of surprise stars in the late rounds with this system (bc you know all ratings are below the third unlocked skill) but those are pretty rare anyway. Personally, I'd rather have the possibility of drafting a bust early than picking a stud late as I find it more realistic. In that context, I think they succeeded in what they were trying to do.
NFL Combine
I'll put this in its own category even though it probably belongs in the one above. The combine happens and all combine stats (40, bench reps, etc) are available three weeks after the Super Bowl. This is when you will find out a player's speed (based on 40), strength, agility, etc. I don't know yet if these are all hard and fast numbers and if we will be able to know a player has exactly 96 SPD or whatever based on the combine numbers or not though. Hopefully there is some variability in it and a 4.4 guy could be anywhere from 89-92 SPD or something like that. Even if not, the best you will know is exactly how fast or how strong a guy is. His skill ratings will play the biggest role and those will be somewhat of a mystery based on how the scouting works.
Free Agent Stats
EA added a really nice player card to each player in the game now. These are now available in free agency so you can see what the ratings are of a player you are bidding on unlike last year. Its a small feature but one that was desperately needed as it made no sense to bid on free agents who you had no idea what their different skills were and how they fit what you were trying to do.
Game Prep/Practice
Game prep was changed up a bit this year and is no longer just about going in and allocating points to a certain player and getting back large chunks of XP to improve them. You can still do that method, but you will earn about half the XP you would if you went in and did the drills with each player to earn XP. Some people will not like this as it adds a good 15 20 minutes to your game prep time. However, I think it is more realistic and makes guys work for their improvement vs just clicking a button. It will also allow guys to practice their skills and improve which is always good in competitive leagues like ours.
In addition to that, you can now go into practice mode with your CFM team via game prep. This is basically the same as doing a regular practice mode in Madden 16 but this one is in your CFM and with all of the players on your CFM team. I have not tested it and I do not think you can earn XP by using it. But it will be an invaluable tool for practicing playbooks and getting used to using rookies and newly signed free agents.
----------
Well, those are my initial impressions. What do you guys think? What are your impressions from playing the game for those that have? For those that have just watched some streams, what is your takeaway? What about those of you who have neither played nor watched much? What do you guys think just from reading the impressions of others?
