EA has released the overview of features for Madden 17. There are definitely some bright spots and things that are encouraging. However, there are some large questions being posed by some of the members here. What does it all mean? Let's take a look. Let us know what you think in the comments.
I like that we are making different types of backs play differently. Its refreshing to see power backs be more focused on trucking and stiff arms while shiftier backs get juke and spin focus. However, the new UI prompts scare me. It feels like we are getting inundated with on screen prompts. While I understand it for newer users and the casual fan, I hope it is a feature that can be disabled. It takes away from the presentation of the game and can make things far too easy for experienced gamers. We already saw that with aggressive catch and the defensive line. Hiding it would go along way in giving the casual gamer what they may want while catering to the hardcore user as well. We'll have to see if that is indeed an option.
I LOVE this line "Gap Play, Force Defenders and improved Zone Coverages". Gap play and force defenders have been a huge issue with this game for a long time. I'm so glad to see these areas being addressed. I think this will go a long way to containing things that tend to be exploited like toss plays and HB screens. Hopefully, blocking will be overhauled in Madden 18 and we will finally have a complete running/run defending game.
I'm encouraged by the focus on zone defense but we also heard safety play was fixed last year and it wasn't. So pardon my skepticism. I do like the inclusion of "8 new zone concepts" so that has me excited. I would expect it to be better than last year, we'll just have to see how it all works together. I am kind of reminded of NCAA 12 (I believe) when nobody could pass the ball because of the zone defense. I didn't personally mind it because you actually had to read defenses. But it was amazing how many players that considered themselves hardcore had little interest in trying to identify coverages pre-snap. I like that we are going that way though.
This scares the daylights out of me. I LOVE that there is a focus on improving special teams. Unfortunately, EA always seems to think these improvements have to be done in a gimmicky, mini-game manner. Obviously, we don't really know how its going to work until we see the game. However, I do envision a system (like defensive line) that is too easy to dominate and we see too many blocks and it gets old quick. I want to have faith in the dev team that they tuned this well. We've just seen things like this overdone for what sim guys really like, probably trying to appease the masses. I just think the cool YouTube videos wear off after a couple of weeks and then people get tired of dealing with some of this stuff in-game. We will see but color me very skeptical early on.
So what do you guys think? Are you encouraged by the features overview? Worried? Indifferent? What are you wanting to find out about next?
I like that we are making different types of backs play differently. Its refreshing to see power backs be more focused on trucking and stiff arms while shiftier backs get juke and spin focus. However, the new UI prompts scare me. It feels like we are getting inundated with on screen prompts. While I understand it for newer users and the casual fan, I hope it is a feature that can be disabled. It takes away from the presentation of the game and can make things far too easy for experienced gamers. We already saw that with aggressive catch and the defensive line. Hiding it would go along way in giving the casual gamer what they may want while catering to the hardcore user as well. We'll have to see if that is indeed an option.
I LOVE this line "Gap Play, Force Defenders and improved Zone Coverages". Gap play and force defenders have been a huge issue with this game for a long time. I'm so glad to see these areas being addressed. I think this will go a long way to containing things that tend to be exploited like toss plays and HB screens. Hopefully, blocking will be overhauled in Madden 18 and we will finally have a complete running/run defending game.
I'm encouraged by the focus on zone defense but we also heard safety play was fixed last year and it wasn't. So pardon my skepticism. I do like the inclusion of "8 new zone concepts" so that has me excited. I would expect it to be better than last year, we'll just have to see how it all works together. I am kind of reminded of NCAA 12 (I believe) when nobody could pass the ball because of the zone defense. I didn't personally mind it because you actually had to read defenses. But it was amazing how many players that considered themselves hardcore had little interest in trying to identify coverages pre-snap. I like that we are going that way though.
This scares the daylights out of me. I LOVE that there is a focus on improving special teams. Unfortunately, EA always seems to think these improvements have to be done in a gimmicky, mini-game manner. Obviously, we don't really know how its going to work until we see the game. However, I do envision a system (like defensive line) that is too easy to dominate and we see too many blocks and it gets old quick. I want to have faith in the dev team that they tuned this well. We've just seen things like this overdone for what sim guys really like, probably trying to appease the masses. I just think the cool YouTube videos wear off after a couple of weeks and then people get tired of dealing with some of this stuff in-game. We will see but color me very skeptical early on.
So what do you guys think? Are you encouraged by the features overview? Worried? Indifferent? What are you wanting to find out about next?
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