Madden 19

[showtime]

13 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Idk if it's the difficulty I play on (I default to All-Madden) but dudes shed blocks on me every down.

yeah run blocking has always been bad, and this year is no exception. There's really no reason to run any running plays where there's anyone pulling (counters, tosses, HB Base, etc.) because it's just guaranteeing you're gonna go nowhere. That's what I hate about Madden's running system - you run plays that are coded/designed to be ran well, not plays that are designed to beat a defense or go against momentum. Certain run plays are just coded to be better blocked than others, and that's what you end up running - such as Inside Zone. Whereas running counter you're just asking to be tackled for a loss.

Ah, yea maybe that's it.  I've only played online so far, so I've been using the default online ranked options.

[Norm]

28 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Idk if it's the difficulty I play on (I default to All-Madden) but dudes shed blocks on me every down.

yeah run blocking has always been bad, and this year is no exception. There's really no reason to run any running plays where there's anyone pulling (counters, tosses, HB Base, etc.) because it's just guaranteeing you're gonna go nowhere. That's what I hate about Madden's running system - you run plays that are coded/designed to be ran well, not plays that are designed to beat a defense or go against momentum. Certain run plays are just coded to be better blocked than others, and that's what you end up running - such as Inside Zone. Whereas running counter you're just asking to be tackled for a loss.

Slider settings any help? Or does it just get cheesy then on the plays that already worked

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

So after some more playing, this game is really really choppy on PC. Almost to the point where it's unplayable. Even against the CPU. It's just straight up bad. They clearly are inexperienced with porting games to PC and it really shows, which is unfortunate.

[iknowcool]

Personally I haven’t had any issues with the run blocking. RBs also get through holes easier and are more patient (Bell did his traditional wait-and-go technique against me). 

 

[showtime]

 

[hornbybrown]

3 hours ago, showtime said:

 

Looks like complete garbage 

[OkeyDoke21]

Thoughts from those with early access?

[Dome]

Just watched a review on the franchise changes. A few really good steps in the right direction, but I'm really not sure if I can justify buying it at full price. I'll have to wait and see how the masses feel about it before making that call, but it looks like the draft has been overhauled and so has player progression, which IMO should both go a really long way in giving franchise a bit more depth. 

[showtime]

It's pretty cool that people can download custom draft classes.  I'm not personally going to tinker with any of that, but in an online league it is going to be nice to be able to see other people create real life top prospects and be able to use those guys.

[biggio7]

Best Buy doesn't have their good typical deal this year. I'm a little bummed with that.

[JBURGE]

11 minutes ago, showtime said:

It's pretty cool that people can download custom draft classes.  I'm not personally going to tinker with any of that, but in an online league it is going to be nice to be able to see other people create real life top prospects and be able to use those guys.

I don't think any of the leagues I am in will use them solely because you can look up who the good players are in the custom classes. 

However if they make a custom draft class with almost no late round stars then I would love that. Like a realistic draft where there is maybe 2 or 3 later gems and thats it. The last few madden's have been way too predictable, so you could just wait until rounds 4-7 to get OL. 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

1 hour ago, jyod21 said:

Thoughts from those with early access?

After using all of my 10 hours yesterday - this game just feels.....meh to me in terms of gameplay.

The run blocking is bad unless you're running a play that's coded to be ran well (IE inside zone). Read option is basically impossible to run now because DE's just run straight at the QB every time and don't have the alternate animation to play the QB. Running animations, IMO, are clunky and weird and especially do not transition well when you catch a pass or anything. The new juke animations and spin animations though are pretty nice, I'll give them credit there. However, playing with Lamar Jackson for 10 hours, I can already say that mobile QB's do not feel fast. I'm routinely chased from behind or unable to separate from DT's or slow DE's, which is frustrating for a guy with 93 Acceleration and 91 speed. Lead blocking is also terrible, especially full backs and pulling lineman. They go totally horizontal and never turn up field to block the guy right in front of you, so you just end up running into them 9/10 times.

In the passing game, nothing has really changed from last year. The same money plays from last year work this year. PA Post Shot from any Trips TE formation is going to destroy man coverage and cover 3.

Blitzing is very inconsistent and I am always frustrated when I'm labbing a blitz, line up a NT over the Center, tell him to rush straight at the Center, and the Center snaps the ball and immediately takes 3 steps towards the side I'm blitzing while my NT is held up by an invisible wall until the OG can rotate over. It's so goddamn unrealistic.

People said the CPU play calling was overhauled but I haven't seen it. I've played several quick games against the CPU on All-Pro and All-Madden and the playcalling is just as bland and predictable as it was last year. Furthermore, the CPU still calls it's defensive plays based on what you call in the huddle. So if you're on the goalline and call a run, even if it's from a 4 WR set, the CPU comes out in goalline ready to stop the run. It makes things super dumb, but also easy to counter since you just get used to calling something random in the huddle then audible out from there. CPU offensive play calling is still as bad as always, using curl/flats and generic running plays all game long with almost nothing creative being ran.

Overall in terms of gameplay the game just feels like Madden 18, which felt like Madden 17. The key difference being in how players move and the RB/OL animations (which honestly aren't that noticeable). Haven't had the chance to get into MUT yet and I don't play Franchise, so I'll let others go that direction. For me, unless MUT offers something that can really keep my attention for most of the year, this'll be a game that I play in the first month and then never touch again. 

[MKnight82]

So I was able to play the game for several hours last night.  I simmed through 2 full seasons in franchise mode, only played one game.  Here are some random observations:

- The game has a lot of new animations going on in the background that make the menus move even slower than they did last year.  

- There seems to be more levels of progression now, I believe I saw only one player with "superstar", but there are a lot more players with "star" and "quick" development.  "Normal" progression seems to have replaced "slow" as I didn't see a single player with "slow" development.  

- The depth charts have been overhauled to allow you to manually decide who plays in your nickle base front 7 if you run a 3-4 defense.  This was a fantastic addition IMO.  Also, there are now depth chart options for slot WR and slot CB.  I was running the Redskins, so even though I had Josh Norman running as my #1 CB, when I brought out a nickle or dime set I had him move into the slot via the depth chart.  

- The draft classes seemed much better than last year.  In both seasons I used computer generated draft classes, and I didn't have problems with a bunch of slow WRs and CBs like last year's madden.  Also, the Dlineman aren't pigeon holed into being a 4-3 or 3-4 base player.  It just lists a DT as a 6'5" 310 run stuffer, and you can do whatever you want with him.  There's no penalty now for playing him in a different scheme.  

- Also in the draft there are now WRs and CBs that are listed as excelling in the slot.  

- The two draft classes I saw were a lot better than last year's.  There were quality players available to draft in every round.  

- Progression has been overhauled, you now select a style in which you want to level your player instead of choosing the individual stats to level.  There are positives and negatives to this.  The positive, if you choose something like Man Coverage, your boost to actual man coverage stat is like +4 from just leveling once.  Certain stats like coverage were very difficult to level in Madden 18.  Another positive, my veterans seemed to be leveling a lot easier than they did in Madden 18, which made leveling anyone over the age of 26 very difficult.  The main downside is you have a lot less control of leveling the individual stats.  

- Run blocking is still a disaster.  I struggled to run the ball anywhere but up the middle when I played.  Also, last year you could easily run from out of the shotgun, almost to the point where it was overpowered.  I couldn't run the ball at all from out of the shotgun this time.  

- I found the CPU's downfield coverage a lot better than last year's.  I couldn't just burn by them for easy TDs like last year.  

edit - oh also, Madden 18 was brutal on you if you simmed all the games.  I had a Bears franchise last year that had first round picks at almost every position and I couldn't sim a winning record.  Last night I dumped Alex Smith and simmed 16 games with the Redskins with freaking Kevin Hogan as the starting QB.  I went 7-9.  My second season with a first round QB as the starter I went 12-4.  

- Its too early to tell how progression is affected from simming vs playing all of the games.  I will note that my players were progressing, usually one or two levels per season from simming all games.  I don't know how quickly they develop from playing all games, my guess is its likely higher than that though.

Edited August 2, 2018 by MKnight82

[showtime]

I mean, this is Madden.  This game is honestly no different than NBA 2K, FIFA, etc.  It's a sports game.  The game isn't going to drastically change all that much on a year-to-year basis and that's a good thing.  I like the movement changes a lot.  To me, that changes the game a ton since you're constantly moving with the player you're controlling. 

[showtime]

I don't get what some people are saying.  Running the ball is not hard at all.  Can only run up the middle.... what?  Outside runs are really good.  What some people are saying is just straight up wrong.  Some people just play against the CPU all the time or don't really know how to play the game.  Like... they don't know how to make defenders miss, how to pick the right hole to run through, how to use the spin/juke system in the game, etc.