Madden NFL 12 General Impressions
The Madden franchise has been held back over the last few years due
to a number of factors – not least of which has been the change in focus
and direction that seemingly happened with the release of every
iteration. Madden NFL 12 though has made the wise decision to
concentrate on providing the authentic NFL experience. Whether that be
directed at those who are used to watching on TV or others who spend
game-days in the stadiums there is something of which that will
emotionally connect to every NFL fan.
While there is still a long way to go to achieve the complete vision
this represents the first time in a long while that there seems to be
entrenched confidence about where the franchise is headed and what is
really important when it comes to reaching the respective goals. Madden
NFL 12 has its share of flaws but what is does right far outweighs any
gripes which thus far have been minor in scope. This is no NCAA Football
12.
•Make sure to check out the other articles posted today including extensive looks at Franchise mode and Superstar mode, gameplay videos and screenshots, and the Xbox 360 loading time analysis. Online impressions and the full ‘Hits and Misses’ review will come next week!
Gameplay
For
those who have played NCAA Football 12 the gameplay will feel somewhat
familiar but Madden 12 comes across as bigger, more physical, and plays
much more refined – like it has been reigned in a bit. Where NCAA is
wide open Madden feels slightly more restrictive but the players have
the ability to break out of that and create some exciting moments. Fun
factor is very high and games have been exceedingly satisfying.
Player traits have a very beneficial impact on how each individual
performs on the field and that has been great to see. The tendencies
really come through and it makes playing against someone like Peyton
Manning completely different than taking on Michael Vick. The influence
of traits and tendencies is noticed most in QBs but it also affects most
of the other positions.
What about the gameplay otherwise has been the most pleasing? The CPU
running game can not only be effective but deadly. The CPU is actually
more consistent with the running game than the passing game. There were
games in my franchise where I was able to contain the running backs,
other games where they put up 100+ yards, and one instance where Arian
Foster gashed me for 283 yards on 28 carries. Backs really anticipate
holes better than they have in the past.
Run blocking is much improved and that is probably due in large part
to the heavily reduced suction in the new tackling animation system.
That pays dividends for both the CPU run game and the user run game.
Tosses, pitches, and sweeps tend to be less successful however than
going downhill. Quick backs like Chris Johnson that can get into space
are especially dangerous, but bigger backs like Peyton Hillis can barrel
over defenders. The player momentum effects and stumbling animations
are excellent. Screen passes can work really well but the CPU struggles
to execute them.
The passing game from the CPU though isn’t as reliable.
Again I saw varied results along the way – some instances where the CPU
passing really struggled, others where they produced mediocre results,
and a few times where they lit me up. What sets it apart from the
running game however is that CPU QBs occasionally make errant throws.
Sometimes they’ll float a pass into double or triple coverage or force
something that gets picked off. Peyton Manning did this in the week 15
franchise game when I intercepted him four times – doubling the number
he had on the entire season (the matchup earlier in the year he didn’t
throw a single INT).
There seems to be less in the way of leaping linebackers knocking
passes away or stealing the ball out of the air which is a relief, but
it can still sometimes be difficult to get a pass with the proper
velocity over defenders who are underneath. While I’ve had success with
finding players who have sat down in a zone often to get the ball there
in time it needs to be a strong throw and doing so leaves an underneath
defender to bat it away. Otherwise all routes seem to work to an extent
and I haven’t had to avoid any (or particular plays) so far. Flats are
well covered by the CPU – I actually have thrown several INTs to the
flats not noticing the coverage there. It can still be a useful outlet
but doesn’t seem to be exploitable.
Play action is still one of the weakest aspects of the game. Play
fakes take too long to execute – what Madden really needs is authentic
play fakes. Someone like Peyton Manning has a very snappy play fake. A
common misconception is that a run game needs to be established before
play action should work. That really isn’t the case. Establishing the
run should make the defense more likely to bite but play action should
be executed well regardless. All Manning wants to buy on a play fake is a
fraction of a second hesitation from the defense and he doesn’t get
automatically sacked whether the run game is working or not. There just
isn’t enough time in most cases to make any reads down the field when
knowing the QB is likely to get creamed. Sadly it means leaving play
action largely out of my gameplan.
QBs
tend to have a lot of success scrambling but this is just the case when
darting out of the pocket rather than running outside the tackles. From
what I’ve noticed linebackers especially seem slow to react to this
(almost as though they hesitate) and QBs often have a lot of daylight
because of it. It doesn’t seem as though they are necessarily too
athletic or too fast – rather the defense doesn’t recognize they have
left the pocket until they are already a few yards beyond the line of
scrimmage.
One area of the game that has brought about some disappointment is
the lack of much of a battle for the ball in the air. Receivers that get
to a spot early may square up and leap to make a catch but that is
about it about it and the defender may not even be able to make a play
on the ball. It can be frustrating to press the ‘jump’ button and just
have a receiver or defender that seemingly can’t raise their arms up and
barely get off the ground. Spectacular catches are also so rare that
all I’ve encountered have been a few one handed catches – nothing of the
diving variety or anything particularly thrilling.
Pressure from the defensive tackles has created more sacks than pass
rushing defensive ends. Looking at my franchise stats it is evidenced by
Jason Jones leading the league in sacks with 18. I believe in one game a
top DT sacked me five times and don’t remember a game with a DE getting
more than two. Ends tend to get the QB if they run outside of the
pocket but the tackles collapse the pocket. Simulations favor the ends
as they should in sacks.
Special teams remains largely neglected as kick return and punt
return blocking is horrid. Check out the stats from my franchise season
where despite having a Pro Bowl returner I had (by far) the worst return
average in the league. There may be the possibility of breaking a kick
return for a TD but I don’t know if it could be done on a punt return.
The new addition of the surprise onside kick is welcome and implemented
well. Out of five attempts I’ve only recovered it once. Just like the
real NFL now moving up kickoffs to the 35 means a large number of
touchbacks.
Having played on All-Pro difficulty the results have been varied and
it has been challenging (in a fair way unlike All-Madden tends to be).
Opinions on difficulty and sliders will of course vary from individual
to individual.
Other Notes Related to Gameplay
•Game speed feels just about right unlike the demo which was too fast.
•No huddle really isn’t handled all that well. The NCAA system should
come over where more than just audibles are available to call at the
line. There are also times where the CPU runs no huddle and snaps before
all the defensive players have even made it back to line up.
•Weather effects are noticeable. QB dropbacks are affected, WRs slip
when making cuts, RBs slip coming out of the backfield, kick power and
accuracy takes a hit.
•There is still some sense that there is more in the way of “hitting” than “tackling” but much better than the demo.
•CPU doesn’t “quick snap”. The pacing feels almost perfect in this
regard. Someone like Peyton Manning will take longer at the line too.
•Punt returners don’t always raise their hand when a fair catch is called.
•Most sideline catches end up being incomplete. Maybe that is related to the “makes sideline catches” trait.
•In my full franchise season there was only one blocked XP and one blocked FG. A relief compared to frequency seen in the demo.
•I’m pretty happy with the improved “Strategy Pad” now. I think I prefer it to the old system/one used in NCAA.
•I love being able to slip under tackles by using the dive button. Can save my players from taking some big hits.
Presentation and Atmosphere
The
most immediate thing anyone will notice when first playing Madden NFL
12 comes with all the improvements to the presentation. Authentic team
entrances, blimp shots of the stadium, the TV style camera placement for
scenes and more all make a huge impact.
What I found most interesting is that I have not had the urge to skip
through those elements of presentation like I have in past sports
titles. Quite the opposite actually. I feel as though I’m learning about
traditions that I had no idea existed. Usually full team entrances are
not shown on TV so what each team does is interesting to watch. It’s
also neat seeing the stadium from the exterior and the surrounding
environment.
The graphics are sharp and look especially good in replays. The 3D
grass adds a lot and the field looks much better than NCAA 12′s during
gameplay action. The lighting doesn’t feel as dynamic as NCAA 12 but the
crowd looks far better. Jerseys get dirtied up and helmets get scuffed
but there is no field degradation.
Replays for challenges are in a very sad state. More often than not
what is being challenged isn’t even shown in the replays. Instead the
replays tend to show the very end of the action rather than the relevant
event that had taken place. In the case of challenging a fumble it’s
unlikely you’ll actually see the fumble in the replays. Instead it’ll be
the defensive player picking up the ball or getting tackled after doing
so.
Like in the demo the biggest issue with the post-play scenes comes
with the two minute warning. A play that ends with the two minute
warning cuts immediately away. In that case and some others very often
the scene just shows something like the field and nothing interesting.
As with NCAA 12 there is too much of players bumping into each other
post-play as they walk back to the huddle. This looks less ridiculous in
Madden 12 though due to the different cameras that don’t tend to linger
on it.
The lack of a halftime show and post-game recap with highlights is
glaring. If I had to choose one presentation element to add though it
would be live cut-ins from around the league in franchise mode. Way back
when that was my favorite thing that would happen during the course of a
Madden game.
Crowd noise is pretty good and certainly much better than NCAA 12.
There are still times where the crowd is quieter than would be expected –
sometimes that is on critical 3rd or 4th downs. It would also be nice
to bring in some sort of home
field advantage. Maybe integrate that into ‘Dynamic Player Performance’
and have some players affected by suiting up in hostile environments.
Some misc notes and minor errors related to presentation:
•The crowd is too sparsely populated when raining
or snowing. Recognizing that it could affect attendance maybe it
shouldn’t for certain teams with stronger home field advantages, rivalry
games, ect.
•There is a minor visual bug where a pulling guard’s assignment shows as
going all the way down the field to the corner of the end zone. The
guard appears to pull properly however and does not just run off.
•The Colts team entrance announces Reggie Wayne running out but in his place is actually Delone Carter.
•Sometimes a scene of a team in a huddle will be shown when they
shouldn’t be on the field in the particular situation (like after the
half before a kickoff).
•The “performer of the game” is often questionable and the one replay shown after the game is too often a field goal.
•Can we please get rid of the jumbotron flashing “Win” or “Lose” after a game? It’s a remnant of worse Madden times.
•The “seizure” animation on the ground after being tackled is here but less so than NCAA.
•Touches like the “shaky” camera after a TD and cuts to the crowd are excellent.
•I wasn’t able to determine 100% if this was the case but it seemed to
me that crowd chants occurred more when the playbook was opened up
compared to using GameFlow. Like some of the chants don’t trigger until
the full playbook is opened.
•Would love to see “Skycam” shots in primetime broadcasts in the future!
Commentary
There
is a decent flow to the commentary this year though there isn’t a whole
lot new to it. Unfortunately what stands out the most is how different
the recorded lines from Madden 11 sound compared to those from Madden
12. It is obvious especially with Gus Johnson when one line goes into
the next and they were recorded at different times. The most stark
example comes during the coin toss. A better flow between lines is there
compared to his introduction in Madden 11 but it comes across very
stitched together when the lines sound so drastically different. Gus
also on occasion fades out and becomes hard to hear in longer dialogue
sequences.
The commentary often runs behind the action that is taking place. In
one case I was already to a kickoff and Gus was still calling the
touchdown that had taken place prior. That isn’t a frequent thing but
happens to an extent throughout each game. Once Gus and Cris
Collinsworth begin a call they complete it no matter how long it is and
if it still relates to what is on screen. They also tend to ramble on
with explanations of things that don’t apply to what had happened – all
too often with the same story.
There is no special commentary for the pre-season, playoffs, or even Super Bowl
unfortunately. The Super Bowl also considers there to be a “home team”.
At the coin toss Gus and Cris began talking about the importance of
home field advantage of all things. In a regular season game within
Franchise that goes to overtime Cris also explains the “new” OT rules.
First of all they aren’t “new” this year but more importantly they only
apply to playoff games!
If you’re a Titans fan you’ll have to get used to Gus calling the
them the “New York Titans” at every coin toss. There is also too much
made of where a player went to college. Do we really need to hear about
Tom Brady being from Michigan or Chris Johnson from East Carolina at the
start of every game? Some players are also called by their jersey
number rather than their name.
Custom Playbooks
Creating a custom playbook, both for offense and defense, involves first
choosing a current book (for a particular team or general style). From
there formations and plays can be added or removed. It is all similar to
the general setup for custom playbooks in NCAA 12 and can feel a bit
overwhelming akin to a major project.
The difference from NCAA 12 – and it’s a big one – comes in being
able to rate the plays and apply them to situations. This is for use
with GameFlow. Rating a play high in a certain situation will make it
more likely to show up in GameFlow when in that situation.
It was hard to determine if this was working completely as it should
when in games but at the very least it seemed to be. In one book I
worked on I moved every play action down to zero stars and was not
presented with PA to choose from in the GameFlow suggestions.
Testing resulted in none of the issues encountered with custom
playbooks in NCAA 12. No performance hit (framerate) was noticed when
using the custom playbook either.
GameFlow/GamePlan
Because of the custom playbooks being integrated into GamePlans it’s
hard to imagine now playing without GameFlow as the pace is improved
immensely.
Default GameFlow however has some issues.
The same plays seem to rotate through too often, on defense zones are
offered far more often than man coverages, and the concept of “aggressive”
vs “conservative” on defense is not properly represented. Cover 6 zone
often falls under “aggressive” and a heavy blitz may be under
“conservative”. On offense being able to flip through and select “pass”
or “run” and see the name of a play before choosing is a great change
and makes using the feature much more viable.
Dynamic Player Performance
Having gone into this in the Franchise mode impressions it just isn’t
completely evident how it is driving results. If it wasn’t known to be a
feature I wouldn’t have noted anything different about on-field
performance as it relates to ratings or hot and cold streaks. This may
not be a bad thing actually but it just makes it near impossible to
quantify.
Madden Moments Live
They’re back though only five are initially offered. The biggest change
comes with them using last year’s rosters as opposed to the latest
rosters. Presumably though they wouldn’t be able to do that with retired
players just active ones. They are locked at five minute quarters and
Pro difficulty and given the time constraints quite difficult to
achieve. There is also no ‘restart’ option – a frustration considering
early on in an attempt it may be obvious that it will be a failure.
New ‘Moments’ are expected to be released
throughout the season. As of now it doesn’t look like they’ll be
charging for them given there is a sponsorship involved but that remains
uncertain.
Fantasy Football
As posted about earlier this week
there is NFL.com fantasy football integration in the online section of
Madden 12. It is basically just a way to look at results and standings
and no changes to the teams can be made through it. Logging in with the
NFL.com FF credentials brings 3000 free coins ($1 value).
Miscellaneous Notes
•The team select screen locks up for a few seconds when moving the
controller to one team or the other as well as when pulling up the
advanced menu for things like playbooks, difficulty, and uniforms. This
is annoying to say the least.
•I’m shocked considering all the graphical enhancements that a
screenshot feature (very popular in the NCAA Football series) has not
been implemented in Madden.
•Had two instances of the console freezing up. One came in the
transition from the 3rd to 4th quarter in a Franchise game. The other
happened in Superstar during the SuperSim in the 1st quarter.
As just one individual there is no way to assess Madden NFL 12 and
state definitively whether there are any severe bugs that will soon be
discovered (I haven’t stumbled on them where many were obvious in NCAA)
or ultimately how the masses will receive this year’s release.
What I feel confident in saying however is that Madden NFL 12
represents the series regaining its footing while showing glimpses of
greatness. It’s not quite there yet but it has never had more promise
than now. The new features are all valuable and targeted to the more
hardcore fans and it pays off. Madden NFL 12 has likely done enough for
the franchise to establish itself as a leader in the sports gaming
market yet again – and the future finally looks bright because that.
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