FrenchMovieTheme
Member
... that i couldn't take it home with me! ladies it was sweet! i will answer the questions you guys posted last week as i could (i couldn't answer all of the, you'll see why). a footnote, i had to leave E3 early because some fucking scumbag robbed my gf's place of business at gunpoint last night when she was working, so she was pretty traumatized and didn't really want to be left home alone for long. so i was only there for 4 or 5 hours. but anyways, here are the Q&A that i have:
1. Check to see if penalties were fixed: They were not. me and wellington tried to PI on many occassions but it wasn't happening.
2. How effective can vision passing be? Incredibly effective. I will give you a great example from one of my games w/ wasabi. he was running a 3 wide set. the slot receiver on the strong side ran an 8 yard in curl and wasabi was looking at him the whole time. meanwhile the outside receiver was running a simultaneous crossing pattern behind. I see that wasabi has his radar on the slot receiver and i jump it immediately. but little did i know it was a decoy for the man going behind him.
3. How fast does the cone change receivers that the cone focuses on? Is there a "dead" period where you can't throw accurately while the cone is changing focus?
It happens incredibly fast. As fast as you could feasibly turn your head in real life. There is no "dead" period (i could techincally throw whenever i wanted even if the cone isn't on a receiver), but if you ever throw to a button that doesn't have the vision on him, there is a 90% chance the pass will be intercepted, and a 0% chance it will be caught.
4. How well/poorly does the secondary react to the cone? Does zone coverage creep towards the cone?
From what i saw they react reasonably well. the zone coverage didn't creep in, but DB's did stay w/ receivers who were highlighted pretty well
5. Just how inaccuracte are throws outside of the cone? If I loft throws to receivers outside the cone, will they be better able to change their routes and compensate for my inaccuracy?
You are incredibly inaccurate if you are pointing the cone all the way to the right, and try to throw all the way to a receiver on the left. And by incredibly innacurate i mean there is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that you will complete the pass. Now, what if you dont have the cone exactly on a WR but in his general area? the accuracy takes a hit, but thanks to some awesome new catch animations you can still sometimes go back and grab it.
6. How easy is it to shade your corners? This APPARENTLY wasn't implemented yet, and the EA rep had no idea how to do it -_-
7. Can I automatically move up a single safety to play the run? By setting him to blitz, yes. but there was no specific control that said "SS you play the run"
8. Ninja linebackers? Nope. I was fitting passes between linebackers all day long. There were some good plays made by LB's, but it seemed a lot better. i never once saw the "superhuman speed at the end!" knockdown pass
9. How effective are blocking audibles on passing plays? VERY effective depending on the defense. I tested it out w/ wellington many times. he spread his line out wide AND stunted them to go out wide, a sure sack in madden 05. but i countered w/ audibiling my line to spread out wide. it worked like a beauty. i had plenty of time. now this changed WHEN he blitzed extra guys. but bottom line is this: if someone wants to sit back in coverage and still think he's going to get immediate pressure then he has another thing coming. and yes you can stunt your line to block to the left or right (rollout passes work finally!)
10. How much of a hit has the vikings offense taken? I took a pic of their overalls, i will post it later. They seemed just as dangerous...
11. Corner route coverage? Still sucks nuts. I tested it out a few times and the D was great. but too often the slot guy got open. it didn't help that the game was on rookie AND that the reps had no idea how to control the game
12. is vision passing directly tied to AWR? i believe it is, but i could not access the player ratings menu
13. is suction blocking a BIG problem? no, it's not a big problem. i saw it once or twice but it wasn't a huge deal
14. Can you fold back for a blindside block with offensive hitstick? I tried this a couple times on kickoffs (to take a guy out) and while it seemed to stop his momentum it didn't seem like the animation was taking place correctly (i.e. going into a tackle-like simulation)
15. Animations near the sideline tightened up? they are tightened up, still not perfect. I made a few sideline catches with lloyd that would not have been made in 05, but the logic of barlow a few times was pretty crappy that resulted in incompletes
16. has press coverage been toned down? Oh yeah. i bumped moss at the line and he kind of just did a quick little juke shurg off against ahmed plummer to get the score in the corner of the endzone. it was very nice. i didn't have as hard a time bumping all receivers, so it seems like there is a rating for it. but it has been toned down a great deal (it is still somewhat effective to throw off timing)
17. Did they fix the ball trajectory? yeah, it seems to be real nice. coupled with the toning down of "spidersenses" (as i like to call them) there are a variety of passes. i overthrew (and by "overthrew" i mean over his head, not ahead of him) a few wide open passes with alex smith after taking a couple sacks. i dont know if that factored into it (like he was rattled) but in years past most of the passes were on the money, but just dropped. there is a variety of overthrows and bad passes, not just "oh make your WR have stone hands!"
18. footprints in the snow? nope
19. how do DB's react to the run? do they immediately peel off? NOPE! i was happy to see this. playing wasabi he handed off (i was in man) and plummer did not leave moss for a good 3 or 4 seconds after the run play began. essentially he didn't make a play on jordan until he saw for sure he had the ball
----------------
those are the questions, now let me talk a bit about how i felt about the game:
Vision Passing -
best addition to madden of all time. it's not just some fluff option. i've heard people say "what's the POINT you can still see all the receivers!" well that's just the point: yeah you can see them, but how quickly can you compose yourself and get the ball to them? trust me it's not an easy thing to do. i like the cat and mouse game that can take place between 2 players in regards to where the ball is going. lots of strategy involved.
i've also heard complaints that say "it sucks! your opponent can see where you're looking!" that isn't a bad thing! it's a great thing because you can look them off. if i'm looking at eric johnson the whole way, and my opponent bites on that, i can quickly go to someone else. eric johnson can be a decoy. i love vision passing and apparently on all-madden there will be NO cone. i'm excited to play it that way as a change of pace
oh, one last thing i forgot to add that i enjoyed: when you hike the ball, you never know WHERE the vision cone is going to start. for instance one play you may hike it, and the QB's vision is starting at the far left. the next play, its right in the middle. so you really have to be on your game as far as getting into your reads QUICKLY no matter where your vision begins at the start of the play.
Offensive Line Hot Route Blocking -
another great addition and this will make those plays you NEVER used before very viable options. i purposely ran a lot of designed rollouts with the line blocking towards the rollout, and blocking away (just to test it out), it is a thing of beauty. FINALLY, for the first time ever rollouts are usable in madden. i also did design rollouts AWAY from the blocking and they seemed to work well also. i did one with vick and there was NO ONE on the other side because it seems the d-line was flowing w/ the o-line. running up the middle also improves because of this.
clearly we will not have to bad d-line spread in the upcoming madden season because it is so easy to contain it now. the offensive line is incredibly smart and efficient, in the run AND pass game.
Wide Receiver Play
This is arguably the biggest improvement over madden 2005, and i say that for a couple of reasons. First off, ALL receivers in madden 2005 were creampuffs. i could push around T.O. with ease if i wanted to. so, couple the very weak receivers in 2005 and the aggressive nature this year and you have a "complete 360" (as jason kidd would say
). the recievers are incredibly aggressive. here are a few examples:
1. i didn't have the vision cone on arnaz battle and i was being pressured so i couldn't get it exactly on him, but it was near him. well the ball went towards him but it was way to the left, so he went after it and did the new "jump catch" animation (which is awesome) and pulled it down.
2. i got burned by moss a few times on deep passes when he came BACK for an underthrown ball
the animations of the WR's are the biggest improvement. i've seen diving catches by the sideline (ONCE! i saw it), i've seen "breadbasket" (in the stomach) catches over the middle in stride, i've seen going high for a ball and also one handed catches.
lastly, it's clear that EA heard us when we complained about the power of the bump. truth be told the bump can STILL be effective. the beauty of the degradation of the bump is that it is now coupled with vision passing. so while the bumping isn't extraordinarily STRONG, couple it with the vision passing and it can be effective. i will give you an example. i was running a short slant with lloyd with the bump off. i had little trouble getting my passing vision locked into lloyd and completing the pass. BUT, when wellington bumped me, it threw his route off, and therefore threw off the timing of my vision placement. it is still possible to complete this pass (as i eventually did), but the entire point of the bump is to DELAY a route, and to allow the pass rush time to get there. if the QB has time, the bump cannot and will not be dominant. but, coupled with a timely blitz, the bump is a fair tool to use.
Defensive Back/Linebacker play
as with a lot of things today, it was hard to judge possible improvements because the game was on Rookie or pro mode. but, either way you could clearly see there are improvements with the coverage. the coverage was "there" for the most part, but i believe because it was on rookie/pro mode the recievers made acrobatic circus catches in traffic. but the logic and intelligence can be seen even in pro mode.
------------
more to come later ladies, including defense and some other interesting things of note. i want to finish by saying the EA reps that we were talking to there had no idea how to use the new controls systems. so i couldn't try out "shading" a receiver or a lot of other stuff. i couldn't check ratings, change time limits, ANYTHING, it was all blocked out for e3. i have some pics i took that i will also post later. post any questions you have i'll see if i can answer them
1. Check to see if penalties were fixed: They were not. me and wellington tried to PI on many occassions but it wasn't happening.
2. How effective can vision passing be? Incredibly effective. I will give you a great example from one of my games w/ wasabi. he was running a 3 wide set. the slot receiver on the strong side ran an 8 yard in curl and wasabi was looking at him the whole time. meanwhile the outside receiver was running a simultaneous crossing pattern behind. I see that wasabi has his radar on the slot receiver and i jump it immediately. but little did i know it was a decoy for the man going behind him.
3. How fast does the cone change receivers that the cone focuses on? Is there a "dead" period where you can't throw accurately while the cone is changing focus?
It happens incredibly fast. As fast as you could feasibly turn your head in real life. There is no "dead" period (i could techincally throw whenever i wanted even if the cone isn't on a receiver), but if you ever throw to a button that doesn't have the vision on him, there is a 90% chance the pass will be intercepted, and a 0% chance it will be caught.
4. How well/poorly does the secondary react to the cone? Does zone coverage creep towards the cone?
From what i saw they react reasonably well. the zone coverage didn't creep in, but DB's did stay w/ receivers who were highlighted pretty well
5. Just how inaccuracte are throws outside of the cone? If I loft throws to receivers outside the cone, will they be better able to change their routes and compensate for my inaccuracy?
You are incredibly inaccurate if you are pointing the cone all the way to the right, and try to throw all the way to a receiver on the left. And by incredibly innacurate i mean there is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE that you will complete the pass. Now, what if you dont have the cone exactly on a WR but in his general area? the accuracy takes a hit, but thanks to some awesome new catch animations you can still sometimes go back and grab it.
6. How easy is it to shade your corners? This APPARENTLY wasn't implemented yet, and the EA rep had no idea how to do it -_-
7. Can I automatically move up a single safety to play the run? By setting him to blitz, yes. but there was no specific control that said "SS you play the run"
8. Ninja linebackers? Nope. I was fitting passes between linebackers all day long. There were some good plays made by LB's, but it seemed a lot better. i never once saw the "superhuman speed at the end!" knockdown pass
9. How effective are blocking audibles on passing plays? VERY effective depending on the defense. I tested it out w/ wellington many times. he spread his line out wide AND stunted them to go out wide, a sure sack in madden 05. but i countered w/ audibiling my line to spread out wide. it worked like a beauty. i had plenty of time. now this changed WHEN he blitzed extra guys. but bottom line is this: if someone wants to sit back in coverage and still think he's going to get immediate pressure then he has another thing coming. and yes you can stunt your line to block to the left or right (rollout passes work finally!)
10. How much of a hit has the vikings offense taken? I took a pic of their overalls, i will post it later. They seemed just as dangerous...
11. Corner route coverage? Still sucks nuts. I tested it out a few times and the D was great. but too often the slot guy got open. it didn't help that the game was on rookie AND that the reps had no idea how to control the game
12. is vision passing directly tied to AWR? i believe it is, but i could not access the player ratings menu
13. is suction blocking a BIG problem? no, it's not a big problem. i saw it once or twice but it wasn't a huge deal
14. Can you fold back for a blindside block with offensive hitstick? I tried this a couple times on kickoffs (to take a guy out) and while it seemed to stop his momentum it didn't seem like the animation was taking place correctly (i.e. going into a tackle-like simulation)
15. Animations near the sideline tightened up? they are tightened up, still not perfect. I made a few sideline catches with lloyd that would not have been made in 05, but the logic of barlow a few times was pretty crappy that resulted in incompletes
16. has press coverage been toned down? Oh yeah. i bumped moss at the line and he kind of just did a quick little juke shurg off against ahmed plummer to get the score in the corner of the endzone. it was very nice. i didn't have as hard a time bumping all receivers, so it seems like there is a rating for it. but it has been toned down a great deal (it is still somewhat effective to throw off timing)
17. Did they fix the ball trajectory? yeah, it seems to be real nice. coupled with the toning down of "spidersenses" (as i like to call them) there are a variety of passes. i overthrew (and by "overthrew" i mean over his head, not ahead of him) a few wide open passes with alex smith after taking a couple sacks. i dont know if that factored into it (like he was rattled) but in years past most of the passes were on the money, but just dropped. there is a variety of overthrows and bad passes, not just "oh make your WR have stone hands!"
18. footprints in the snow? nope
19. how do DB's react to the run? do they immediately peel off? NOPE! i was happy to see this. playing wasabi he handed off (i was in man) and plummer did not leave moss for a good 3 or 4 seconds after the run play began. essentially he didn't make a play on jordan until he saw for sure he had the ball
----------------
those are the questions, now let me talk a bit about how i felt about the game:
Vision Passing -
best addition to madden of all time. it's not just some fluff option. i've heard people say "what's the POINT you can still see all the receivers!" well that's just the point: yeah you can see them, but how quickly can you compose yourself and get the ball to them? trust me it's not an easy thing to do. i like the cat and mouse game that can take place between 2 players in regards to where the ball is going. lots of strategy involved.
i've also heard complaints that say "it sucks! your opponent can see where you're looking!" that isn't a bad thing! it's a great thing because you can look them off. if i'm looking at eric johnson the whole way, and my opponent bites on that, i can quickly go to someone else. eric johnson can be a decoy. i love vision passing and apparently on all-madden there will be NO cone. i'm excited to play it that way as a change of pace
oh, one last thing i forgot to add that i enjoyed: when you hike the ball, you never know WHERE the vision cone is going to start. for instance one play you may hike it, and the QB's vision is starting at the far left. the next play, its right in the middle. so you really have to be on your game as far as getting into your reads QUICKLY no matter where your vision begins at the start of the play.
Offensive Line Hot Route Blocking -
another great addition and this will make those plays you NEVER used before very viable options. i purposely ran a lot of designed rollouts with the line blocking towards the rollout, and blocking away (just to test it out), it is a thing of beauty. FINALLY, for the first time ever rollouts are usable in madden. i also did design rollouts AWAY from the blocking and they seemed to work well also. i did one with vick and there was NO ONE on the other side because it seems the d-line was flowing w/ the o-line. running up the middle also improves because of this.
clearly we will not have to bad d-line spread in the upcoming madden season because it is so easy to contain it now. the offensive line is incredibly smart and efficient, in the run AND pass game.
Wide Receiver Play
This is arguably the biggest improvement over madden 2005, and i say that for a couple of reasons. First off, ALL receivers in madden 2005 were creampuffs. i could push around T.O. with ease if i wanted to. so, couple the very weak receivers in 2005 and the aggressive nature this year and you have a "complete 360" (as jason kidd would say
). the recievers are incredibly aggressive. here are a few examples:1. i didn't have the vision cone on arnaz battle and i was being pressured so i couldn't get it exactly on him, but it was near him. well the ball went towards him but it was way to the left, so he went after it and did the new "jump catch" animation (which is awesome) and pulled it down.
2. i got burned by moss a few times on deep passes when he came BACK for an underthrown ball
the animations of the WR's are the biggest improvement. i've seen diving catches by the sideline (ONCE! i saw it), i've seen "breadbasket" (in the stomach) catches over the middle in stride, i've seen going high for a ball and also one handed catches.
lastly, it's clear that EA heard us when we complained about the power of the bump. truth be told the bump can STILL be effective. the beauty of the degradation of the bump is that it is now coupled with vision passing. so while the bumping isn't extraordinarily STRONG, couple it with the vision passing and it can be effective. i will give you an example. i was running a short slant with lloyd with the bump off. i had little trouble getting my passing vision locked into lloyd and completing the pass. BUT, when wellington bumped me, it threw his route off, and therefore threw off the timing of my vision placement. it is still possible to complete this pass (as i eventually did), but the entire point of the bump is to DELAY a route, and to allow the pass rush time to get there. if the QB has time, the bump cannot and will not be dominant. but, coupled with a timely blitz, the bump is a fair tool to use.
Defensive Back/Linebacker play
as with a lot of things today, it was hard to judge possible improvements because the game was on Rookie or pro mode. but, either way you could clearly see there are improvements with the coverage. the coverage was "there" for the most part, but i believe because it was on rookie/pro mode the recievers made acrobatic circus catches in traffic. but the logic and intelligence can be seen even in pro mode.
------------
more to come later ladies, including defense and some other interesting things of note. i want to finish by saying the EA reps that we were talking to there had no idea how to use the new controls systems. so i couldn't try out "shading" a receiver or a lot of other stuff. i couldn't check ratings, change time limits, ANYTHING, it was all blocked out for e3. i have some pics i took that i will also post later. post any questions you have i'll see if i can answer them
