Madden NFL 13 - Season Ticket & Retail Impressions

Donny Moore isn't doing that great a job on the roster downloads. Granted I wouldn't be any better but it's too big a job for one guy. That's why you need editing. I tweeted him two weeks ago that Miami's Lamar Miller had switched jerseys and had the wrong number in the last download. Told him Miami's converted LT was no longer a TE and now weighed over 300 pounds instead of 268. Think those got fixed? Nope. The number issue on guys and duplicate numbers that happen need to allow editing in franchise mode. Also, Miami's rookie FB Javorskie Lane has been killing it so much the Dolphins now use the I-formation as their best running formation but he's still just a 64. Pouncey at C has been outstanding in year two and needs more love. On the other end of it some of Miami's backup LBs are over-rated. Lots of ratings are off a bit as they don't move enough unless you are a star player. I miss using custom rosters and editing things.

his first name is Javorskie ? :cool:

Aggie that walked on to the roster. Played HB in college at 280 but slimmed down and moved to FB. Really a nice surprise.

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Originally Posted by Rudy

Donny Moore isn't doing that great a job on the roster downloads. Granted I wouldn't be any better but it's too big a job for one guy. That's why you need editing. I tweeted him two weeks ago that Miami's Lamar Miller had switched jerseys and had the wrong number in the last download. Told him Miami's converted LT was no longer a TE and now weighed over 300 pounds instead of 268. Think those got fixed? Nope. The number issue on guys and duplicate numbers that happen need to allow editing in franchise mode. Also, Miami's rookie FB Javorskie Lane has been killing it so much the Dolphins now use the I-formation as their best running formation but he's still just a 64. Pouncey at C has been outstanding in year two and needs more love. On the other end of it some of Miami's backup LBs are over-rated. Lots of ratings are off a bit as they don't move enough unless you are a star player. I miss using custom rosters and editing things.

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Yup, without editing Donnie Moore will be seriously overworked. There are just too many changes for one person to make.

At this point even if Madden patches in editing on October/November, I think I will pass. I have been playing FIFA 13 on season pass and it's one heck of a complete game. This make the game after release date via patch in EA's football titles has become a tiresome routine. Props though to all you guys who have stuck it out thus far!

One thing that is glaring to me now after playing a bunch is that the cpu is rarely in press coverage. They usually play pretty soft making it tough to get a WR behind a guy. You can still do it but the NFL presses quite a bit more than what you see in Madden imo.

Does anyone know how to change the importance of a player's position in the schemes? Importance is listed there but I don't know how to change it. TE2 needs to be listed under scheme. Makes no sense not to have it as more teams use the 2nd TE than the starting FB.

When scouting I should be able to look at ALL players - not just scouted and unscouted. It would be a nice little improvement to fix.

M13 is only $40 on Amazon today for those interested.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=stickskcom-20

Man, my poor Rams receivers are just getting the living hell jammed out of them since I've started playing on PS3. It's weird, because I don't think I ever got jammed like that when I was on 360. I've had to resort to running bunched sets on the left side of the LOS so that I can't be jammed just so I can get off the line of scrimmage. :D

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Originally Posted by Rudy

Aggie that walked on to the roster. Played HB in college at 280 but slimmed down and moved to FB. Really a nice surprise.

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He actually moved to FB when Mike Sherman became the coach at A&M. Now he's at the Dolphins running the same offense with the same QB and FB + Reggie Bush instead of Mike Goodson.

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Originally Posted by I OU a Beatn

Man, my poor Rams receivers are just getting the living hell jammed out of them since I've started playing on PS3. It's weird, because I don't think I ever got jammed like that when I was on 360. I've had to resort to running bunched sets on the left side of the LOS so that I can't be jammed just so I can get off the line of scrimmage. :D

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We should play a game since you got it for PS3 man.

Replacement refs for the ranked online matches....oh the fun we could have!

I'm 6-2 with Miami right now. Probably a little too high but not when you look at the Dolphins easy schedule this first half. My kicker is 16/16 since you really can't miss on All-Pro. The directional arrow is all you need. The r-stick does nothing. The cpu playcalling leaves a lot to be desired at times too. In close games you will always have the edge.

I'm having fun with my season. I've rarely hit the deep pass in this game though. My roster isn't built much for that but I do think the cpu should press and gamble a little more in coverage. Both of my RBs are averaging a tad over 5 ypc while I have 7 passing TDs vs 12 or 13 INTs. I've never been a good passer and Tannehill isn't always very accurate. I think both myself and the cpu could benefit from softening up the coverage a little but the coverage slider doesn't work.

The LE sack problem is alive and well. I have 20 sacks as a team through 8 games which is pretty good and maybe a little high for this team. But Wake has 4 sacks and all other players outside of LE Odrick have 2 or less. Odrick has 12 sacks! Currently he's rated by PFF as the 9th worst pass rushing 4-3 DE in the NFL! Not good obviously. Also the DL play is pretty bad. The r-stick controls suck. The best way to get pressure if playing as a DE is to not use the r-stick controls at all. It's best to simply rush into the OT, make contact, then speed burst to the outside and try to hit the QB. There is no such thing as wasting time with inside moves or counter moves. This area is poorly done imo. I wish EA would map specific moves to the controller with a trigger modifier or something. Pushing down on the r-stick with anyone results in you falling on your face way too much.

IMO, there should be more Scouting XP per week in CCM, at least double. It really makes the margin for error EXTREMELY small when choosing which players to scout.

Overall, I am so-so about this game. I like the changes to gameplay, commentary is better than last, I like playing as a player. But, atmosphere/presentation could be better, lack of editing, XP distribution(dont want it easy, but more XP is needed), scripted CCM, CPU Play Calling, OL/DL interaction, CPU AI(needs overhaul) is what is holding the game back. Once 2k13 comes out, I dont see me playing this game that much more than a change of pace/something different. The lack of assisted tackle stats is annoying.

This game isnt bad, though. This game laid down a good foundation at all aspects of the game. For gameplay, CPU AI/Playcalling, OL/DL Interaction, Overhaul Running Animations/Ball Carrier logic needs improvement. For CCM, Less scripted, Editing, Better recognition of roster(not trading with good depth unless for need).

IMO, there should be more Scouting XP per week in CCM, at least double. It really makes the margin for error EXTREMELY small when choosing which players to scout.

Overall, I am so-so about this game. I like the changes to gameplay, commentary is better than last, I like playing as a player. But, atmosphere/presentation could be better, lack of editing, XP distribution(dont want it easy, but more XP is needed), scripted CCM, CPU Play Calling, OL/DL interaction, CPU AI(needs overhaul) is what is holding the game back. Once 2k13 comes out, I dont see me playing this game that much more than a change of pace/something different. The lack of assisted tackle stats is annoying.

This game isnt bad, though. This game laid down a good foundation at all aspects of the game. For gameplay, CPU AI/Playcalling, OL/DL Interaction, Overhaul Running Animations/Ball Carrier logic needs improvement. For CCM, Less scripted, Editing, Better recognition of roster(not trading with good depth unless for need).

I haven't decided if the scouting points is good enough or not. You can scout a lot of players in a very general way with 2000 points a week - at least certain categories. For WR I just scout speed, catching, route running and maybe one or two more things. That only costs about 200 points or so but it only gets you letter grades which aren't so hot. If you want the real speed that's another 500 as an example.

I'm in week 10 and I've got a lot of generic letter grades on the three most important categories by position. I'd like more and still have more time to get them. If you want overalls that costs a lot. Until I get to the draft I won't know how I really feel about this area.

I do think part of the issue is the scouting point system is tied to your coaches XP for long term franchise. The game lets you buy a scouting pack upgrade where you get double the scouting points. I think that costs around 23,000 XP for your coach. I'm at about 16,000. It pays to do the practices and I've failed quite a bit on the one where I start down 6 points in the 4th quarter. I should stick to the easier and quick ones. I think the scouting points are set up based on the idea that you will buy that package fairly quickly. Then with double the points you will have a LOT more info at your fingertips. Same goes for XP. For about 30,000 XP (maybe less, can't remember) you can buy a double the XP package as a coach. This will give your players twice the XP although I have allowed the cpu to progress all my players. That part seems too tedious to me. I have no idea if this part is working well or not.

For me the thing I want to see most in the future football games for EA is smarter cpu AI and I really want to see a true physics engine where players move realistically. You just watch someone playing NBA 2K or The Show and it looks real. The players don't look natural at all in Madden imo. The game needs a ton of work on the animations imo. There aren't nearly enough of them.

I was looking at some ratings from pro football focus for certain positions in 2011. I like the numbers I read from that site although I'm not always convinced they are perfect. Anyways, they were highlighting the best and worst tacklers at CB for 2011. So I looked up their tackle numbers in Madden. It's very clear that Donny Moore is using opinion to rate a lot of players. Charles Woodson missed 15 tackles last year and ranked 88/101 and yet had a 66 tackle rating. The average tackle rating of a CB in Madden was 55.5. Kevin Barnes of Washington was rated the worst one to qualify and yet had a tackle rating of 65. Champ Bailey makes the bottom 20 and yet is a 66 too. The Dolphins big CB in Sean Smith is a 62 despite missing 11 tackles. He's probably got a high tackle rating due to his size but Dolphins followers know he's allergic to run support and tackling.

Conversely good tacklers are getting bad ratings. The #3 CB was Brice McCain on Houston who only missed one tackle (in a more limited 26 attempts). Yet his tackle rating was 49. DJ Moore of the Bears ranked #6 but has a 43 rating. There are other examples of bad stuff and of course players that look good. But the ratings feel too arbitrary.

This may not be a huge deal as most fans probably don't know or care about a lot of this. But some of the stuff like Drew Brees being one of the most accurate passers on 20+ attempts the last three years and then being given a poor rating for deep balls in Madden doesn't make sense. No question Donny Moore would do a better job at rating guys than 99.9% of the people out there but that job is too big for one person. They need to find a way to blend in the ratings with some of these metric sites to help out and add realism. One person cannot do that job.

A couple features I would really like to see brought over from NCAA to Madden would be the no-huddle offense and a formation sub menu. Those would be really nice. The current formation subs have to be done while you pick a play which gives you no time and the controls are bad. You can't really run a no-huddle either since the audible plays are so limiting. I like the way NCAA lets you access your whole playbook but I think it should be limited to the formations suited to the current personel group. I hate seeing someone run 4 WR and then be able to no huddle to an I-formation.

My passing skills are weak but I still think there isn't enough press coverage by the cpu. They normally play off and soft and it's hard for your WRs to get behind someone. Again, my skills are weak and my team isn't exactly built for that either but it just seems to be overly rare.

Best defense in the game:

Dime 3-2-6 Cover 2 Man. Hot route the blitzing LB to a spy. Hot route the defensive end on the far side of the field to a purple zone. Hot route the defensive end on the short side of the field to a flat zone. Control the LB you set to spy and patrol the middle. Do NOT bump.

It blows my mind how much trouble people have with this. If I see a spread formation or a for certain passing down, I go to it every time. Of course if you have someone who likes to scramble, you have to sacrifice one of your DEs and make him a spy, but it doesn't really affect much coverage wise. I can't count how many picks I've gotten with the DEs so far.

Due to my new developing relationship with FIFA 13 I pretty much stopped waiting for Madden news. With nothing yet on the next patch and no mention of editing I have tuned out. However, over at OS I was surfing around and found that Emmdotfrisk basically admitted that the sliders (online and off) are borked. This makes a lot of sense because I found back with season ticket that major slider adjustments did almost nothing during CCM. I wonder how much longer the Madden team will focus on 13 before they begin to go 100% on Madden 14?