after playing about 10 games of madden 17, there are definitely a lot of improvements to be excited about (even for us CCM guys). some of the things i've seen that i liked:
- you can't just bullshit with manual control and get insane picks all the time. maybe this is because i'm playing with a junk LB, i mostly control wilhoite (who is horrible) and i just can't get to the balls in my area unless i'm really close to it. in years past (including last year!) i use the shittier of the 2 LB's in the 3-4 because i can make up his deficiencies with manual play, but so far this year i've had a bunch of balls floated right over my head for a completion where in years past it was an INT because i did the jump up 5 yards in the air animation. i have still gotten some picks, but i have to be there to get it. this prevents me from kind of covering 2 guys at once in the same area with a shitty LB... which is as it should be i suppose. maybe it's different if you're controlling kuekly or one of the other super LB's
- pass rush is strong in general, especially against a poor OL. with the niners i have to get the ball out quick. i feel like the D is on me so fast.
- screen defense is improved it seems. they still succeed but they are stopped regularly without manual intervention
- i like the running game a lot better this year. the running between tackles feels tighter and quicker
- i already mentioned this before but i have seen a few "qb gets hit while throwing" turn into fumbles, which as we know last year were incomplete ALL the fucking time. i still think they need to go further in that direction but at least getting some fumbles is a start
- i tested out the formation subs from within the ccm menu and they work as advertised! this is going to be a really underrated/great feature for the league. there are so many guys i draft for one purpose, or maybe 1 play a game, but during an actual game i'm just not thinking about getting them in the game and this can fix things like that. i also messed around with one of the niners formations i don't use much to kind of get a "pure pass rush" roster on the field. things like that should keep a good rotation of your players rather than just the 11 guys on offense and defense that you usually use
- like i said last night, the practice squad stuff is pretty cool. i can see a lot of sniping happening during the season. you can actually disable practice squad sniping but i don't see why we would. the only weird thing is i thought i counted 10 guys on my practice squad and i thought the NFL rule was only 8 but maybe that changed?
- in addition to that, the FA breakdown is much more convenient. you can search FA's by "top 100", "top 100 practice squad eligible" "Non eligible" etc.
- at the beginning of starting your franchise, you set your "season goal" as a coach. the higher your goals, the more XP you will get. if you fail to make your goals you have a higher chance to get fired (although we wont have firings obviously)
- not that anyone here necessarily cares, but i played a single player franchise game and the presentation was actually pretty slick. i haven't listened to the announcing team yet
- you still have weekly "practice", only this year you can practice a play, or series of plays, and then during the game that week if you run that play your team gets a boost? not really sure how that works but its cool i suppose
with all that said, it's still madden. dumb shit still happens so don't expect a totally new game but it is definitely improved in almost every way over last years game (which was a good game overall i felt)